Category: Home Improvement

Good Morning :)  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  Ours was pretty low key.  We had company on Friday night from some friends, more like family, visit us.  So great to have people visit us from back home.  On Saturday, we pretty much entertained the kids and the hubby took them to the park after working in the morning, while I stayed behind with the baby in hopes of getting some housework done.  It didn’t happen.  The little monkey didn’t want to nap unless I was holding him…big fat bummer.  I mean, I had to sit and hold the little chunk and love on him for like 2 hours.  I was so sad to get no laundry and dishes done.  Do you sense the sarcasm? ;-)

Sunday was all about the BRONCOS!!!  I’ve been a Broncos fan since high school. Coming from ND, there is no professional football team or any professional sports for that matter.  The closest team we have are the MN Vikings and I am definitely not a Vikings fan. Probably because my dad doesn’t like them, but also because back then, I was all about the colors and purple and gold aren’t mine.  Aaaaaaany who, I think I chose the Broncos for their colors (because that’s what ever teenage girl does) and probably some other odd reason.  Meh, neither here nor there.  The point is that they’re GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!  I might have ordered some gear for myself and the kids…the hubby is a cheese-head fan ;-)  Oh, and I have family in Seattle that are pretty elated about the Sea Hawks.  May the Broncos best team win ;-)

The hubby was supposed to have Monday off, but had to work all day and night – boo.  It was pretty much normal routine for us then, so no real 3-day weekend.  Oh well, it happens.

Anywho, I have yet to post any pics of our new home.  So, I figure it was time to do so. Can you believe we’ve been in it for almost 6 months?!  Neither can I.  AND I have yet to paint anything.  I think it’s time, don’t you?

The bathroom mirrors in this house are exactly like the ones in our old house when we bought it…boring.  The hubby actually framed our Master Bathroom mirror (here) in the old house and it really added to the completeness of the room.  You hear that hubby?  Time to get out the saw again ;)  I would love to use the saw and do it myself, but I can barely use a butter knife.  I cut myself all of the time.  I actually cut my finger with a steak knife last week.  I’d show you a pic, but I don’t want to flip you the bird (poor middle finger).  Trust me, it takes talent to be me.

These are pretty standard faucets and I can live with them for the time being, but I definitely have plans to switch them out.  I’d like new counter-tops too, but wouldn’t everyone.  I have a feeling those can be pretty spend-y, so I won’t hold my breath.  They actually don’t bother me much, but drive the hubby nuts.  Not sure why???

This is linoleum.  My old house didn’t even have linoleum and it was 4 years older.  I know it could be worse, but this stuff just feels awful.  I’ve lived in homes with linoleum before, but it didn’t feel weird when I walked on it.  This just feels weird.  It’s very rough.  Maybe that’s a good thing???  I won’t fall???  I don’t know, but it has to go.  It’s in both of the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room.

Oh the poor, pitiful door handles of our home.  They’ve been used, that’s for sure.  The paint on the door is chipping off.  I clean this door almost everyday and it still looks like this. Our old home had gold handles when we first moved in and they were the first thing to go. I don’t know why, but for me, a nice door handle goes a loooooong way.

Our front door is ginormous.  It’s an 8 ft door.  It’s plain white, which isn’t bad, but it gets so dirty.  And, since I plan on painting the walls very light colors , I’d like a ‘pop’ of color for the door.  In the other house, I painted it black (here) and LOVED it.  I’m thinking about the same thing for this one.

The previous owners of this house clearly did not take care of the carpets.  They had a tiny, white dog that apparently shed a lot over the 6 years they lived here.  They also had 6 people living in the house, who apparently never removed their shoes.  In spots where their furniture was located, it is very nice and thick carpet.  I really wish they would’ve taken better care of it.  We’ve steam cleaned it numerous times and it’s definitely improved, but still not up to par.  Eventually, it will get replaced.

This is the tile in the kitchen, dining room, downstairs bathroom and entry way.  I really love it and have no plans of changing it.

Look at my poor walls.  There are several marks from when we (and by we, I mean the hubby and a couple of guys…I was 7 months preggo at the time) were moving furniture up the stairs.  It doesn’t wipe off, so the only way to get rid of it is to paint.  Hopefully soon!

Here is a gash in the corner of the wall caused by the movers hauling our furniture upstairs.  I was livid at first, but I know these things happen and I got over it pretty quickly. It does bother me that it’s still there and it sticks out like a sore thumb every time I go upstairs.

The blinds came with the house, but there are no curtains or curtain rods for that matter. Although the wall colors aren’t my forte, they aren’t out of this world either, which makes it bearable to live in.

Oh my heavens….builder-grade oak cabinets.  Here we go again.  Our last house had these and I lived with them for 6 years before refinishing them to a gorgeous white.  It took me 2 whole months of sanding/priming/painting.  I worked on them after the kids went to bed and into the wee morning hours.  It was a lot of blood and sweat (no tears because frankly, I love doing this stuff), but so worth it. To say I loved my white cabinets, would be an understatement.  I have the same plans for these ones.  Good thing I’ve had practice and know what works and doesn’t work now ;)

Our old house had granite counter-tops.  This house has corian.  A major downgrade if you ask me.  We’ll see what happens to these.  I’m thinking it will be a while before we make any changes to them, so we’ve got time to think.

I can’t wait til’ the microwave craps out.  I really dislike black appliances.  They are SO HARD to keep clean.  You can always see dirt on them and it bugs the living daylight out of me.

The hubby tells me that stoves never really go bad.  Sigh.  I’d say we could start it on fire, but it already does that on its own…it’s gas.  I love having a gas stove.  The hubby has never had one before.  It’s funny to watch him watch in admiration of the dang thing.  Like a monkey to shiny objects….a moth to a flame…..a fly to sh…well, you get the idea.

The house didn’t come with a fridge, so we had to buy one.  So now we have mismatched appliances.  Kinda drives me wild.  We do love the fridge though.

Some of our light fixtures are alright, but I’m sure they will be replaced when a room is revamped.  We’ve already taken one out permanently, put the laundry room fixture in the garage and put up a chandelier in the laundry room.  Why you ask?  Because every laundry room should have a pretty little chandy.  Makes laundry fun, no?

Well, there is a lot of work to be done on our new abode, but I’m looking forward to the changes!  I hope to get pics of the Master Bedroom this week so you can see it before I throw up some paint on the walls.  Although, we have several visitors coming over the next month, so I’m not sure when I’ll find the time to paint.  Meh, I’m sure I’ll work something out. Make it a great week!

 

I forgot to post pics of this cool little ride-on toy the Little Man got for his b-day from us. This thing goes pretty fast and has warnings not to use on a hill.  I bought it several months ago at half off and almost forgot about it.  He loves it and so does Kid #1.  Now if they only had one in my size ;)

We were at Target the other day and they had this double stroller on clearance for half off (I am seriously all about the clearance deals!). We I hemmed and hawed about it and finally decided it would be a wise investment.  We get to the checkout and it was 75% off!  So glad I picked it up.  The kids both love it and push each other around the house.  I do have a double jogging stroller, which works great for running and the zoo.  It is VERY heavy though and tough to load in and out of the van. This umbrella stroller is so light-weight and easy to fold down.  Glad the Clearance Gods were on my side that day ;)

We’e been doing minor adjustments around the house and so we constantly have tools laying around (not like power tools, so don’t worry Mom and Sister).  I caught Little Man “fixing” the door.

We got some shelves hung in Little Miss’s room.  Her room has been pink and brown since the nursery days (over 4 years ago) and when we finally moved I was super pumped to ditch that and go with hues of violet.  She tells me she doesn’t want to paint and loves the pink.  Sigh…  She is not a fan of change let me tell you.  This girl likes everything old and change doesn’t not come easy for her.  Maybe her Grandma can convince her when she comes next month???  (HINT HINT Mom ;-) )

Here’s my Stud drilling holes into a stud (I’m hilarious) to hang a curtain rod.

I love this nautical wheel my mom picked up for me at a garage sale up in ND.  I had it hanging in Little Man’s nursery at the old house and definitely wanted to hang it here in the new house.  Someday I’ll get around to finishing all this decorating and actually take some pics for you all to see…someday.

Sometimes they actually get along and play nicely together when we’re getting stuff done on the weekends.  It’s a blessing.  Oh and did you notice that one of them is dressed?!  It’s hard to keep clothes on my kids…a battle not worth fighting.

This will be the office/toy room…mostly office.  It’s the only room in the house that hasn’t really been touched.  It’s been my goal every weekend to tackle it and it hasn’t happened.  Oh, and the sea-foam green color is killing me.  I did manage to get 3 boxes unpacked in here this week, so I’m not a total failure.

This is a picture of our nightly sky.  It is so beautiful and peaceful out here away from the “big city”.  I could never get a picture this great from our old house because of all the background noise (city lights/street lights/smog).  I can almost hear a wolf howling at it, can’t you?

Conversation between the hubby and me last night:

Me:  “Would you please water that plant way up there for me?”
Hubby:  “I hate that plant.  I’m going to throw it away.”
Me:  “You only have to water it when I’m pregnant.”
Hubby:  “You’re always pregnant.”
Me:  “Well, you should keep your pants on.”

We have great conversations at our house.  I think we’re both ready for the baby to come…down to the last month now :-)

This weekend will hopefully be a productive one.  It seems like there is so much to do with a new house that we can never get ahead.  Usually we’re crossing one thing off the list and adding five.  I wouldn’t change it for the world…I love our new house (minus the infestation of wildlife/bugs).  I do hope some of the maintenancy stuff dwindles down so we can focus on fun things like painting/crafting/decorating.  Who am I kidding??  I will have a newborn to take care of.  Meh, it’s the third child…I’ve got this down ;)  How will you spend your weekend?

BTW – Next week I hope to have a recipe posted for each day of the week.  Gasp!  You think I can do it?  I’ve been on a cooking/baking spree this week and some of the recipes are definitely worth sharing.  I made some chicken terriyaki that will rock your world (I heart food.).  You’re welcome :)

A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to start the process of reupholstering my dining room chairs.  I redid the kitchen/dining room over a year ago and the coverings on the chairs just didn’t ‘go’ anymore.  I actually bought the fabric to recover the chairs about 9 months ago, but just never got around to starting a project (you know how the story goes, I’m sure).  I finally decided to buckle down and just do it.  I figured there wouldn’t be much time to do it once Baby #3 arrives.

I started by removing the seat from the actual chair.  There were 6 screws on the bottom of the chair that needed to be removed and required a Phillips head screwdriver.  This is what the underside of the chair looks like once the seat was removed.

The black fabric had upholstery staples that needed to be removed.  I used a flat head screwdriver and just pried them up.  They came out rather nicely.  There were also staples in the middle of the black fabric, but I didn’t remove those because they weren’t in the way and I didn’t want to detach the black fabric completely because I probably wouldn’t be able to line it up properly and reattach it.

I then began to remove the staples from the decorative fabric.  These were a little trickier. The staples were smaller than the ones in the black fabric and many of them broke when I tried prying them up.  I did find a good method that seemed to work though.  I pried them up with a smaller flat head screw driver (positioned in one corner of the staple) and then grabbed a needle-nose pliers to pull them out.  It went rather smoothly.  If I did happen to break a staple in half, I used a regular pliers and just rocked it in one direction and it came out pretty easy too.

Always take plenty of pictures to see how they had the fabric folded.  You will thank yourself in the end :-)

This is after the fabric has been completely removed.  It also shows the shape you will need to cut the new fabric.  Of course I didn’t take a pic of me cutting the new fabric (fail).  Oh well, it’s not that hard.  Some people may choose to trace the pattern and cut it out, but with this small of a piece, I didn’t bother.  Just lay the old fabric (right side down) on top of the new fabric (right side down) and cut around it.  I did cut mine a wee bit larger (about 1/2″ on all sides) to allow for room if needed.

Here are the staples from 1 chair.  Yes, 1 chair.  I had 8 to recover.  Lovely.  It’s not a hard process, just very time consuming.  Removing the staples is what takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R!

Once you have the fabric all lined up, start to fold over the sides and get your trusty staple gun and go to town.  This process goes rather quickly.  Just be sure to smooth the fabric slightly to make sure it’s laying nicely on the front side.  You will also need to keep an eye on the foam padding.  It tends to slip around a bit and you don’t want to have it uneven.

Once you have the fabric attached, unfold the black fabric and begin to staple it down.

Tada!  Here is the final product.  Each chair took me about 2 hrs, but I also had 2 kiddos that “helped” me.

Before and After.  I must say, the new fabric really dresses up the chairs.  Those of you with kids probably have the same issue of keeping your furniture clean.  I have no shame…that’s how it goes.  We’ll see how long these ones stay clean ;-)  To help with that though, I have placed a towel on 2 of the chairs and designated them each a spot.

Speaking of my little helpers, here is one being put to work :-)

Teamwork!

I think everyone needs a flashlight to do this job ;-)