Its done!

This chest is done. Wohoo!

It was a beast and now its not YAY.


details on the work here

Oh and its a Franklin Shockey Cedar Chest from Lexington North Carolina

Mini photo shoot

The other day Daniel and I cleaned out his new office and tried to put some pictures on the walls. We did it for our date night (we have date nights now and they are FANTASTIC!) Anyway I love to organize and throw things away so it was a good time. Well all the photos I had didn't have Jamison in them! Thats how long ago I framed photos! When the kids woke up this morning I threw them into some colorful clothes and threw them outside and we took some photos. I wanted to share them with you so enjoy!










There were obviously way more but there you go! Having Alexander in school is SOOO great! He loves it. In fact last night when we were reading and saying prayers Alexander asked if he was going to school tomorrow (Saturday) and we said "no its a day off" and he started crying and was rather distraught. So we know he loves it. I love it too. Now for the in school projects and accomplishments! Today Daniel hung a fan and hung a bamboo shade on our bedroom door (the one that goes out to the patio) I made a deal with him yesterday. If he would hang the fan (which has been sitting in our bedroom since may) I would finish the cedar chest

this coming week (meaning finish stripping, sanding, painting, staining and polyurethaning the cedar chest I bought back in may!!!!) So now I have to do it and hopefully that will make me project productive. I am feeling inspired! Oh my GOODNESS I just looked and I bought the chest on March 29th!! AHHH That means it has taken me longer that the hutch to finish!!!

Miriam

How do you become the coolest Parents Ever

Well we really don't know how to become the coolest parents ever but we did have a sleepover with all our kids downstairs with movies all night. We brought four mattresses downstairs and set up beds for everyone (including Jamison) Our goal was not to become cool parents but to get the final coat of paint on the stairs(which needed 24 hours to dry, oil based is the best but takes forever to dry) So we packed up and moved downstairs for 24 hours. The kids LOVED it. They were bouncing around and wrestling all night. It was a rough night for Jamison but we got through it.


This picture was from the sleepover. They even wanted to do it again tonight!

So we still are not done with the stairs but the most time consuming and cumbersome part (the treads) are DONE!! Wohoo time to celebrate with a good nights sleep.

This is the only before picture I can find of the stairs but I swear I had one of the actual stairs and not a closet door. As you can see they were a beige carpet color with major dirtiness and smelliness going on.

And here is where we are right now:
We are going to paint the small parts on the stairway wall white. The stair risers are going to be bead board because well thats what we want. Obviously its still osb board with tons of beige paint speckles.

You may wonder why its all taking so long to finish these stairs. Well its because stairs are hard to do as they are the path between the sleeping/bathing area and the living/eating area in our house so everything has to be done in little steps and usually on weekends so we can convince the kids to stay in one area of the other. The other reason is beceause its the last house major project so you know how final projects go.

So we replaced all the treads as you saw in a previous post. Instead of nailing them in we screwed them it and put lots of wood glue on so there would be no sqeeking and so it would all be up to code. Daniel sunk all the screws and then put wooden dowels in to fill them. I had put two coats of Valspar oilbased floor and deck paint on the treads and let them set and treat for a month prior to installing them. Then I needed to touch up where the wooden dowels were and then we put a final coat of paint on all the installed stairs and here we are. It took so long because the goal was to make sure you couldn't see the screws or dowls or anything.

So here is a picture of the stairwell tonight:

We have a few more steps and then we are done with major house renovation things. Just in time for our backyard and spring.

Now onto that lovely nights sleep.

Miriam

Up coming projects

Seeing as this baby is NEVER coming and I won't know when its coming anyway I am trying to keep a HUGE project list going or I will go insane. I currently clean the house top to bottom twice a day just in case and I make sure its extra clean right before we go anywhere which is tiring because well trying to get the kids ready at the same time can be trying. Here are some upcoming projects.This is for a seascape wall. I love seascapes and they will be the back drop to the dinning room table. As you can see I only have 2 so far but its a work in progress (as is life) I plan on using my giant frame to the left of this wall because lets face it my walls are GIANT.

This project is for a wall of mirrors for the entry way of the house. I saw a wall of mirrors in a magazine showcasing something else and I loved the wall of mirrors. As you can see I only have 3 so far but I plan on having a lot more. The criteria is oval or round in all sizes. Here is what they will all look like to keep the wall looking uniform:


The blue is actually a lot darker than this. Its the same blue as the two chairs I did and the rug in the tv room to keep a uniform color in all the down stairs rooms. I want to wait to put them on the wall until I have more. More to come later on other projects that I make up as I go.

Childs chair

I found this child's chair a few months ago and it just needed a new cover. It went from hunter green to this. I think its adorable and I loved that it is metal. The kids came to show you just how small it is. I matched it with their little bookshelf. I am a sucker for little chairs.

And then they insisted on getting some pictures without the chair and with their bears.

My dinning room chairs

I found these at savers half off for $3 each! They only had 3 but I loved the little shell carvings on them and wanted them for the dinning room table (there are currently no chairs in there!!) I still need to paint them white and Daniel gave me a good idea on some embellishments. This is where I am at so far:

I LOVE coral fabrics! The rest of the painting probably won't happen until after the baby comes. Daniel fixed my staple gun so I have been recovering chairs like a crazy woman sad thing is I am out of staples now and need to go to Lowes to get some more and I don't want to go to Lowes.

blankets

I made the soon to come baby some swaddling blankets yay! I made them big enough to last a few more months than the kind I usually get at the store. I haven't had the sewing machine out in months. It was fun.

Chairs

I finally finished these chairs

here they are:


We are still trying to figure out the front room sitting area and pieces on the wall.



I chose a blue paint its kind of a green blue. It took forever to find the material I chose a red that kind of looked polynesian to me. I added some batting and they are great.

Its the red one. The other two are tough outside fabrics that will go on my new dinning room chairs.

Easy Project

I wanted a HUGE bulletin board to put above the computer so I found one for $1 at a church Rummage sale and the cork board popped out easily

so I used this fabric that I bought awhile ago as a remnant and spray painted the frame. I like it now but I hate the gray electrical box passionately!

An eventful Saturday

It has been eventful day for me perhaps not for Daniel and the children. Yesterday at my doctor's appointment I learned that my glucose test came back abnormal and I am anemic and the baby is measuring at 35 weeks instead of the actual 32 weeks that I am. I was horrified about the diabetic thing just because with my other two pregnancy's everything was completely normal. So I had to do this horrible 3 hour test today. I went in at 7 am with no food. They took blood then made me drink the drink of sugar (luckily it was the fruit punch and not the orange this time) Then I was to wait one hour to get my blood taken. I love my lab because they let me leave during the hour "Just be back by this exact time" so today I went to garage sales and Target in between without any children. That was actually a treat for me (the shopping). I went back the second time and as soon as they took the blood I got dizzy and they made me go lay down at the lab. Then I went to Target. Then I got my blood taken and the vein kept disappearing so they had to poke a lot. After that garage sales again.

Finally they took my blood for the last time!! I was doing ok kind of dizzy and I just wanted to get some food because it was 1030 at that time. So I drove to the nearest subway and got my signature Italian BMT and I almost passed out while ordering. He kept having to repeat himself. So I sat there all by myself and ate the sandwich to make sure I didn't crash on the way home. That was an ordeal.

However the good news is we got some projects done today after all that!!

These are from Garage sales,
they are stepping stools for the bathrooms for the kids
I love wooden ones but I don't like the finish so they are changing color.
I got one for $1 and the other for $2 they are solid

These are old kitchen chairs that I don't like so they are getting some color

This is Alexander's bed that I wanted to match Eva's bed so they both turned white

We primed all the items that need to be primed before the baby comes (hopefully) with oil based primer.

what a messy space I make

You might be wondering what the kids were doing while we were priming:


Daniel got out the sprinkler that shoots out balls and they LOVED it. What a good dad keeping them entertained and in sight.

Then they were sun tanning:

No sunburns here.

Now I will spray paint and then move furniture into the kids room (FINALLY). This makes me very happy. Having projects floating around in my head makes me NUTS. I still haven't chosen a color or fabric for those two nice chairs. But in due time. The kids beds have been on my mind for 5 months now.

Anyway here are my favorite things I got at the garage sales today:

This was $1 can you guess what it is?
It is going to be painted and probably customized for the theme of Eva's Christmas gifts this year.
Its Christmas in July


Then I found these:

The top two are photographs and the last one is a water color. The photographer was there and selling them for $2 each. PERFECT original art! They are 8x10. I LOVE the hummingbird photo. He said he waited in his backyard for 30 minutes just to get this shot. He informed me that New Mexico is a BIG bird watching state.

Anyway that was our Saturday (and its only 4pm)

Miriam

BIG project complete

This project has nothing to do with the house or babies or anything like that. Here is a little peek at what it is. I will wait until they get out to post them


update: these were Maliana's wedding invites. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to do them and she liked them too :)

What would you do with these chairs?

I bought these two chairs at a garage sale a few weeks ago (I got covers with them too but I don't like the covers) It was a retirement type community and the nice older gentleman wanted $5 for both. UM SOLD. They are solid and older and I really liked them and I figured it would be an easy quick 2 hour tops project. Well its at least a month later and all i have done is sanded them down and removed the material. I bought these thinking I could use them for the kitchen table. Well they are pretty BIG chairs so I decided I wanted them in the living room as just two pretty sitting chairs. Here is the dilemma Daniel and I cannot agree on a paint color for them OR a material. They are just two simple chairs but neither of us will budge so I need help. I wanted to paint them White and use a nice patterned material on the chairs (A two colored pattern) He said NO to the white. Ok then I wanted Black. I like the classic black or white. He said NO too dark. Um what else is there? He wants a dark brown. Uh they are already dark brown!! I think I would be ok with dark brown if I could figure out a good material to put on the seats but what goes with dark brown and grey walls I don't know? So any ideas? I am all for ANY ideas because I want these to be done as soon as I get back from Utah. He teased with the idea of sanding them to the wood and staining them UM DO YOU SEE THOSE BEAUTIFUL YET COMPLICATED FRONT LEGS? yes that means NO to the sanding of those it would take me years.

They are pretty old chairs the stamps say Sheboygan Wisconsin and it also says Philadelphia so the shellac is very old dark and THICK meaning hard to sand all the way down. Anyway I need help on what to do here. Should l go with a completely different color? This should be easy but well it hasn't been.
Oh the one to the left has the original material, its falling apart. I am guessing it used to be beautiful colors but now its all brown with age, a flowery pattern, the one to theright is the fake leather yellow material I would guess 60's? It was the second layer. I love how you can see the age with the material layers.

This project was for Melanie (tables)

This table took a year to complete. No it wasn't hard or special or anything like that it was just an extra table I had from a storage unit that I didn't need. Last May Melanie came to visit and I made her help me sand it with the sander and I was going to do something with it. Well I finally needed it in this house because there is an area for a formal dining table and an area for a kitchen table in the kitchen so here it is finally finished. Daniel loves a white table so it got the white treatment. If you want to paint a table its pretty easy (compared to staining one) You just sand the top until its the flatness you want you don't even have to sand it bare like I did just enough so that the paint will stick.

Then you buy an oil based paint (more expensive and harder to clean but it will be worth it with your kids banging the table to pieces) Use a cabinet roller to apply the paint (the small foam rollers) they are a miracle. I only do two coats (waiting 24 hours or more between coats) Then I spray paint the legs with a satin finish paint ( I tried krylon from walmart and it was HORRIBLE so I went and got my usual rustoleum and it was much better) that matches then I wait at least 24 hours for the paint to cure and your done!


I love it with the blue chairs but I am actually waiting to find some chairs I love (hopefully with ladder backs) that I can redo to go with it so that the blue Ethan Allens can go with the other table.

Anyway there you go Melanie I finally finished our project :)