junk

I consider myself a junker- meaning I love finding used treasures.  I think it comes from my parents- my Dad is able to see the potential in everything and they had 8 children so they had to make things work as they could. Dad is the garage sale pro and finds so many amazing things and many of my siblings love it just as much as I do.

I'm glad that Jake sees the potential in so many things also. Honestly, our house has furniture because we believe in the power of paint!  Our couches and my mirrored coffee table (which I got for $50) are the only pieces of furniture we have purchased new. Everything else we have found at yard sales. 

$1 for this sewing table which has now been painted to a bright emerald green. Will be used as an entry table.

It also made me happy when Jake woke up on Saturday morning and reminded me that it was typically a good garage sale weekend and we went. The best part is that we were able to find my friend Whitney at our first stop and spent the rest of the time following each other to sales.  

                                   

Here are some kitchen stools we found at a sale that we recovered that afternoon. My kitchen table and chairs are not my favorite, but at least these stools help us add more so we can invite more friends over and fit around the table together. 

  
                                   

Amazing chairs for the lawn- 6 for $15 found Saturday

 We have already got some great use out of our outdoor chairs since Jake built a little firepit for the back yard. If you ever want to roast s'mores this summer, please come join us!!                                                                                           
Do you want to know the best part?  We are taking a short trip to Colorado soon to find even more junk- at garage sales. And the bonus is that I get to go with my parents, who are pros. And Paris Street Market- which is amazing. And I'll get to be there for my nephew's baptism and see 2 brothers and 1 sister and their families.  Yes, we planned a vacation around junk and we love it.

Organization

This week is my week of organizing. Remember how I'm working on balance this year, Kristen?

Over the weekend I organized my craft room and today I organized my sewing patterns into it's very own binder.

 
Not long ago I went to Staples with some of my rewards and a bunch of the Martha Stewart office stuff was on clearance.  I wish I would have bought more, but I grabbed the items I could justify at the time- including this cute red binder.

I printed some pages on cardstock as my dividers and used these cute Smash tabs to make my dividers.

 

The goal for this week was to take a room a day and organize it, but that hasn't happened so far.
Although I did start working on a family "command" area where we can keep the things we need. Currently we have a calendar with the monthly events, as well as baskets for our "dump" area so we can at least keep things contained. (so far only Jake has one and I can't find  good baskets for this area anywhere in Logan).  The plan is that by at least designating it as your area to empty our pockets or put whatever you need that it will help other areas stay tidy. We will see...
 
Still to come- a family organization binder and a better picture without the night-time shadows. :)

 Since my kitchen cabinets end right to the left of this and I am out of cabinet space, I would really like to find a cool hutch/shelf I can put in this area and use for all of my pretty dishes. But for now, I'm going to utilize it as I can until that happens. And adjust when necessary.

CO Shopping

I posted some pictures of my CO shopping treasures on sisterview.com. 

 

It was such a wonderful vacation and was good for my soul.

Kitchen

I posted about my painted kitchen cabinet HERE.

home improvements

My husband rocks. He is so awesome. Honestly, without him I don't know if half of the projects around we have completed would be done. I used to think that I was a good finisher, just not good at starting the project. No I'm beginning to think I'm bad at both. There's a good resolution for the new year. :)

during the process. we were able to do part and then move the piano and couch back to eliminate heavy lifting.

living room before we moved in. 

After getting home from Colorado after Thanksgiving (a Monday), he immediately began ripping out the carpet in our living room for me. Why? Because I wanted to get a Christmas tree and we have been planning on putting wood floors in, so it's either put the floors in after Christmas, or before. After working Tuesday and Wednesday night, the floor was done and we got our tree on Thursday.

Then, this week he finished the windowsills in the basement.  They were pretty trashed and since we would need to replace the sheetrock, he decided to add tile in the windowsills instead so that it wouldn't get as banged up. We picked the tile out on Monday night and he finished them Tuesday.

windowsill while in process

after. sorry for the bad pictures. And... we still need blinds for the basement. :)

Like I said, my husband is amazing.

new carpet!

In case you didn't know, we got new carpet in our basement on Monday. When we moved in the carpet was nasty and ripped up in parts from the dog that the prior owners had. We ripped the carpet out and have had cement floor for the past few months now, but we got our new carpet installed on Monday and it looks great!  I don't have a picture but will post one soon.

Transformation part 4

the shed.
We definitely purchased a project with this house. The back yard is all weeds.  Since it is the lowest in the neighborhood, water tends to pool there and we also have a small pond-type thing.  Unfortunately, we  probably won't be able to redo the yard until next summer, but we did need to get rid of the shed there.
It would have been really nice if whomever built the shed actually finished it.  Unfortunately, they didn't so the wood was rotting (or close to it) and the shed was unstable.
The previous people who lived here were painters, so the shed was full of paint.  Thankfully, the dump told us we could bring all of the paint in (even though the website says one 5 gallon bucket per person per day)

We decided to tackle the shed since it was a free Saturday and we still have my father-in-law's trailer from when we moved.  James was so kind to come over and help us also, and the weather cooperated and stayed cloudy so it wasn't too hot.

These guys are so strong.  ;)
You can see the progression below.

Transformation part 3

our spare bedroom.  The house has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but since it's just us for now and I work from home, one of the rooms will be an office and the other my craft room.  That leaves the other as a guest bedroom, which works out great since we don't have too many guests here.  One day it will be a nursery (hopefully) and I thought it would be fun to do stripes on one of the walls.

Since the whole house was boring tan, we painted the entire room white and then added the stripes one at a time. You can see the process:

What do you think? We only did one of the walls because I didn't want it to be busy.  Now every time I walk by it makes me smile. To be honest, I never pictured myself painting my walls bold colors so it's funny to me that I have done so.  Buying a house and picking paint colors has been a big exercise for me.  I have pushed myself to be brave, ignore my fears that I may hate it in a few years and do what I like for now.  I don't want my fear of being too crazy keep me in something that is plain and boring that I don't love.

Transformation : Part 1 and 2

I already showed you transformation 1- our office. Since we shoved everything in there to do the next room, I don't have a final picture, but will post one soon.


I don't think I ever showed you transformation 2:  our kitchen.  It's still a work in progress and no where close to my inspiration, but I like it.
My inspiration:

  My cabinets will be pained white as soon as we are moved into all of the other rooms. :) The white cabinets will help bring in more light and provide more of a contrast with the blue.

I was really worried when I first thought about painting the ceiling blue, but after getting advice from a friend who is a great interior designer, and knowing that I have a lot of light coming into the space, I decided to go for it. 

left:( before) with the boring tan right: (after) with gray walls and blue ceiling

Stay tuned for Transformation part 3 tomorrow.

office

I am so excited at how this room is turning out!!  It is one of those rare times where it actually looks good like it did in my head.  I don't know if you have ever had something planned out perfectly in your head and then it just doesn't look good when it actually happens.

Since we have way more room then we need in this house without kids and I work from home, we are using the first bedroom off the kitchen as an office.

Here are the before pictures.

This is before we moved in, obviously horrible lighting, but you can see the color that all the ceilings were- even darker than the walls. The walls were a yellowish tan color.

Here it is before we started tearing it apart. You can see we painted the ceiling white and my sample color is on the wall. This room will no longer be called the "pee" room.  (The previous owners had a dog and it peed all over the carpet so it smelled all the way down to the pad). I don't have to keep the door closed any more and pretend it isn't there. 

My idea for this room was a board and batten type idea. I originally thought of using bead board, and also love wainscoting, but the wainscoting is a bit out of my price range right now and I wanted it to be even simpler than bead board.  I wanted a charcoal gray for the room, but did not want the room to be too dark.  As it is, the white on the bottom half gives it a great contrast and allows enough light into the room. 

We first placed the top board all around and then the base boards. 

Next came the vertical boards, which we placed 2 feet apart. I love how it turned out. 

The color on the walls is High Speed Steel.

Last night we started on the laminate flooring (I wish I had money for real hardwood)  and it is looking so good.  I am happy with how it is turning out and can't wait to see the finished room!!  

homeowner

I am officially a home owner. (although I don't know if it's official because mostly I'm in debt to eventually own the home, but you know what I mean).

It feels good. There is a lot to do, but it is good. We went to a new ward for church yesterday and are excited to meet new people.  We are lucky enough to still have a student married ward to go to.  We have tons of extra space and visitors are always welcome!

Most of my life is still in boxes, but we are making progress and have 3 rooms complete with paint, etc.  Pictures to come when it looks decent enough :)