A LITTLE UPDATE ON THE FAMILY ROOM PROJECT AND SHOPPING WITHOUT OUR LITTLE PEOPLE...

Sunday morning after a fun evening out with family for my brother in laws birthday, Mike and I woke up with NO kids and decided to do some "window shopping." Out we went to Mentor with no car seats, strollers, just US! I was not in the mood to tackle my favorite store Kohls, the parking lot was packed so we ventured over to our new Home Goods store. I had only been there a couple times never with enough time to really look in each department. I was on the look out for curtains and pillows! I came across some cool coffee mugs and water bottles. Mike got me this really nice coffee mug for Christmas I loved it...

and for some reason I decided at work to put it in the microwave, did I mention the bottom was metal...RIP coffee mate mug :/ not to mention the kitchen smelled like it was on fire and it took forever for it to stop smoking even under running water... So I felt bad and couldn't replace the mug but I did get a new water bottle and since Sunday my water intake has tripled.

So I came across some curtains I was soso about them at first and I didn't even pick them up and then a few minutes went by and Mike pointed them out and said he liked them.. I was surprised he doesn't say much when shopping for decor unless I ask or his famous words "go ahead if you want it" (good husband)! They were priced right, had two sets, and are 95 inches in length which is perfect. I like them to lay on the floor a bit, better then too short. I really love them

even more now that they are up and even better the Sun is shinning! Next we headed over to Burlington Coat Factory they have a great discounted selection of household items and decor. I found a really soft blanket that I love for only $9.99. I have some what of a blanket pet peeve I will not let anybody use MY blankets, I can tell when 

they do

My soft blanket and new pillows

they smell 

different! I know I am strange but don't mess with Amber's blankets! The lamp now does not match I am thinking of getting a new lamp shade and painting the bottom.

I also found the perfect clock that matches my new colors down stairs and I feel it was a steal.

A steal

Perfect Gray

Okay our next stop Gabriel Brothers I can always find a good deal there. I love throw pillows, I have been told they are annoying to some due to taking up space but I feel they are a necessity. I found THREE matching ones which is rare for Gabriel Brothers. So after our pillow fight yes we looked like kids, all three made it into the cart and @ only $5.99 a piece! 

Above is the pillow in the picture with the blanket. So our last stop was at Marc's which carries a good amount of target merchandise, I did not find anything for the family room but I did find a beach hat for Miss. Addie for we will be at the beach in 80 days~ Oh and I almost forgot we got our furry friend Dexter a OHIO STATE bandanna.

I am still looking for a few pieces of older furniture I would like to refurbish for some new end tables. Craig's list here I come... Hopefully I will have the finished family room soon, I would say we had a successful shopping day though.

OUR BATHROOM FACELIFT

http://www.lakecountyymca.org

I had a VERY eventful Monday, I am at the YMCA working out and 

all I can think about is what I am going to blog about this week?? Okay this is a project we did hmm let me think... about a few months ago if not longer. The people that remodeled our house claimed to be interior designers I am not so sure about that? But remember if you read previous posts you will know I bought this house because of the amazing chandelier in my kitchen that is currently hanging over no table lol I sold our pub table to make room for our kitchen remodel that will hopefully take place soon. 

Back to the bathroom another room I wanted to brighten up, it had tan walls and horrible ceiling tile/back-splash whatever you want to call it. This is why I question if the "interior designer" knew what she was doing. She used tiny tiles and they only covered a little over half of the ceiling above our shower, why not cover the whole ceiling above the shower?? 

In the pictures you will see my again amazing handy hubby scrapping off the tile and spacing out the new tile.

I was about 6-7 months pregnant and very moody and I told Mike "this bathroom needs to change" he responds with "what do you want done?" 

Next thing I knew the tile was being torn down and the next day I was at Lowes picking out tiles (all the grouting supplies), paint, a light fixture, and mirror! I think Mike would of did anything at this point to make me happy during this pregnancy there was not a day I was not sick :( but of coarse worth it in the end :) After saying that, my baby is 5 months old so this project was about 7-8 months ago, wow have I lost track of time! 

Here is the finished tiles, pretty good job for his first time laying tile....
The fan also needed a face lift, we were going to buy a new one but finding one to fit was a pain, so I painted it and that was in the budget!

Here is the finished project, it is amazing the difference paint can do...

The light fixture is a little off center with the mirror but whoever installed the previous track lighting did a rough job the wall defiantly had some damage so we were trying to cover up holes and still had to patch some. 

We also hung a simple mirror in place of a bulky medicine cabinet for our small bathroom. My shower curtain that I LOVE came from Target I looked all over for one then my Smart friend Sarah says "Did you Look at target?" hmm why didn't I think of that! I also bought "decorative towels" the kids don't understand that and I think they TRY to dirty them up, I guess pick and choose your battles!


Here is my little Mason Jar project, I 

painted a little chalk paint window labeled Cotton Balls and Q-tips. The end..Oh wait I wanted to show you one more thing our closet, at first I thought how odd why didn't they just make it the length of the wall but It was grown on me it is very deep and has two shelves, I cant show you the inside it is a disaster but it sure does hold a-lot. 

So there's my bathroom face lift! 

Thanks for reading!

LAUNDRY ROOM AND STORAGE DILLEMA

A couple months ago we kept hearing water running the ?? was were is it coming from? We FOUND it, a pipe had burst in our laundry room wall a main water pipe at that, stupid below zero weather. A little history on the placement of our laundry room it is down stairs, our house is a tri-level, so down stairs has a coat/play room closet, a bedroom, living room, and our now flooding laundry room eek!

 










When we originally bought our newly remodeled house 
(I laugh at that those words remodeled because I still seem to find a million changes I want to do) they planned for the laundry room to be on the middle flood which would of been so convenient if they would of measured correctly we had just a normal size washer and dryer nothing fancy and it WOULDN'T FIT.. Talk about frustrating the day we moved in we had to reroute the washers plumbing, upgrade an electrical outlet, and install a dryer vent in what was going to be a nice closet downstairs. Now our laundry room was two floors away from the bedrooms talk about about alot more work then expected on moving day and when doing daily laundry. For everybody that knows me it NEEDED to be done that day or it would of thrown off my moving schedule and stressed me out just some of my OCD kicking in! It was a tight squeeze downstairs but we made it work. Imagine a 9 month pregnant belly in there it didn't go over well but I was still stuck doing laundry lol!

We then on moving day (our help had no idea what they were getting into) installed some shelves upstairs and a door to turn that space into a pantry. So now you can probably predict what the next project will be...hint hint more cupboards in our kitchen because as you read you will see we are eliminating our pantry. Okay back to flood we had to move our washer and dryer which we have front loaders now up to the space that was first intended to be the laundry room in the first place. Here is a little tip I found on Pinterest about
front loaders. http://www.homesavvyatoz.com/washer-drain-pump-filter/ My ever so handy hubby and Dad were able to add to and re size the space to fit our washer and dryer now!! The pain in the butt part was doing the plumbing again that we capped off when we moved in grr...


I am very EXCITED about having the laundry room closer, I guess the flood made it possible to get 
the middle floor laundry room I wanted! This is our back door, it is a walk way but much more room then I had and much more convenient. Now my pantry is gone :( so our next project is the more cupboards in our kitchen but we will leave that up to the professionals, I hope to have a blog about that soon. Here are a few pictures of the laundry room now. It is not exactly what I want it to look like, above the washer and dryer is the overflow from the pantry that didn't fit into my the kitchen. I need some feedback and input on what to do above the washer and dryer once I have more cupboards in the my kitchen to put all my kitchen supplies that don't fit in my very few cupboards. Please don't
judge I know its a mess! So here are some pictures from Pinterest on how to solve my mess above my washer and dryer. I would love to install some cabinets instead of the old shelves from the pantry. Give me some feed back on what you think, as you can see the laundry room goes in and up so if we install cupboards they would need to open... 
Here are some of the ideas I have found. Web pages are attached to pictures.

I like the one on the right because I hang most of our laundry. The one on the left has multiple uses. The one below I would be able to utilize the shelves I already have hmm??
I would not be able to do the counter unless I removed our drawers under the washer and dryer. OH the options..

I appreciate any input! Oh and just in case anybody was wandering the flooded old laundry has not been repaired well
the emergent leak was repaired
but the damage to the room is still ugly, we are waiting for the weather to warm up and possibly make it a bathroom..more projects fun! I will update when we finish the laundry room storage dilemma.

THE NURSERY

Here is the story of our neutral nursery. We knew from the beginning of this pregnancy we wanted a surprise, I think my family and friends doubted I could wait 40wks to know what we were having. I am a planner, type A personality, and have to have everything organized and planned. I was determined to have that MOMENT. There are very few things you share with just your spouse after you have kids. It brought me back to our wedding day when we said "I Do" and kissed that was our moment even if there were people around, it was just US in the moment. 
Thanks to one of my awesome best friends that is a photography and did our maternity pictures!

So back to the nursery it was taking the place of the play room. Again I wish I would of taken before pictures. I will describe it the walls were all light green and one big wall of chalk board paint. I really liked the green so we left that color and decided to paint gray strips on the bottom half of wall and put up chair rail... (the hubby did a great job with the paint tape measuring and making perfect stripes) sounds easy well no project is that simple so we needed to cover the chalk wall and we did not save the paint swatch from 3 years prior well Mike used some green paint in our paint can pile in the garage. Well the green we had was from our family room upstairs and did not match at all when it DRIED, yes we painted alot and didnt notice. So as you can imagine that is when the frustration kicked in. We (I saw we the hubby did most of it) had to tape out all the stripes again and buy a new green. Then we ran out of gray and had to touch up a few spots we wanted to save money and bought what we thought was a perfect match craft gray well it did not match at all, I laugh about this while I type but in the moment it was defiantly a hassle and no laughting! Here is a picture of the almost complete Nursery...

So the changing table in the pictures I bought from somebody one of  facebook's local classified page for $10 a steal! On the wall you will see 4 wall vanvasas, I am proud to say I made those with the left over gray and green pain, canvases from Pat Catan's  $2.98 for 2 and painters tape left over from stripes.

Next you will see the BEAUTIFUL hand drawn and painted tree Mike made!! I love it! When the baby gets here we decided we would add either pink or blue birds on the tree. 

Compliments to my mother she made me a chevron changing pad cover and basket liners. I reused the actual changing pad and baskets from Callie.

The last pictures will show you ITS A GIRL! We had our surprise moment when our Dr. announced "its a B...no Girl", yes that is how it went even I think our Dr. along with everybody else thought for sure we were having a boy. I will never forget the connection Mike and I had when we finally knew that our baby was here, healthy, and another girl, the wait was so worth it. It felt like only Mike and I knew even though others were in the room the look on our faces to each other when we met our baby Addie will always be a fresh memory in my head. 

Okay back to the nursery we put in Callie's pink rocker, pink birds to the tree, and Addison's name to the wall! I would like to add in about our beautiful crib which came from our local Marc's store who often gets items that Target stops carrying it is a 4 in 1 crib for $99 safe and well known brand,  yes you read that right $99!!

So overall I love the way the nursery turned out and it was under our budget!! I thought for sure the extra paint trips would put us over but we were able to save in other areas!
Thanks for reading!

GROWTH CHART

This morning I woke up on this cold SNOW DAY and was thinking what to blog about and a  project I have made for the kids came to mind. This project was inspired by a post on pinterest, thanks for idea!
http://www.dearlillie.com/product/oversized-ruler-growth-chart  
 I wanted to keep track of the kids growth but something on display all the time not just in a book when they go to the Doctors for wellness visits. I have to give my husband most of the credit for this one, all I did is show him what I wanted He is very artistic and paint just about anything he sees! The picture below was my inspiration.
http://www.dearlillie.com/product/oversized-ruler-growth-chart

                                     

The picture below is our version, it was very inexpensive (always a plus!). Mike ran up to the hardware store and picked up the 2 x 6 piece of wood, we already had the stencils and the black paint. We did have to purchase a $4 can of stain, he brushed two coats on, and when that was dry he measured out and made pencil marks before he painted the black measurement lines and numbers for the feet. To display the kids heights I decided to use a little chalkboard I already had and have them hold it with the date on it, click a picture, print it out, and then use a colorful tac from the dollar store (a box for a $1). I would call this a cheap and simple project and I loved how it turned out, I still need to add our newest addition to it and actually today I am taking pictures of the kids to add!

ME TIME

A little blog about me... Since I returned back to work in January from maternity leave I have had very little me time. Well today I decided to schedule a pedicure with a gift card the hubby got me back in November (my feet have been killing me I work long shifts on my feet and need new shoes!). I am now sitting here at a local salon with Dunkin Donuts in one hand, the only coffee I LOVE, book in the other hand and no sounds of kids! Don't get me wrong I LOVE mine dearly but some me time is very important! 

A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT MY HOUSE...

 ABOUT four years ago when we bought our house I fell in love with it! For those of you that have bought a house it may be love at first site or just we will take it and make it our home. I felt both I will tell you what I saw when I first walked into the house that made me want it actually better I will show you...

          I know buying a house because of a chandelier call me crazy!

There were of coarse other things I loved the location, schools, and being close to family-all that important stuff. But when I saw the chandelier I knew this was going to be my home! It was remodeled inside out but in the 4 years I have managed to make what some may say an unhealthy amount of changes but hey that's me don't judge! Bathroom remodeling, moving a Laundry room, painting every room, decorating, building separation walls with pillars! I wish I would of started this blog four years ago, I will be sharing all my projects that I took pictures of... slowly but eventually!

FAMILY ROOM PROJECT

Okay let's jump right in here this is my current project I am working on my basement/family room where we spend most of my time. The room is dark and cozy and my husband likes the darkness because he works nights and will fall asleep on the couch but sorry honey time to brighten things up! As you will see in the pictures below my current family room is a burnt orange color paint on the walls with dark green comfy couches. I am looking to paint the walls tan/gray and move my upstairs couches down stairs they are a light tan. I want to get new curtains and wall décor, will take any suggestions!

PAINTING something I despise, this is how I word it "Babe lets paint the down stairs" he says "you mean I will paint the down stairs" haha he knows me all so well. My MIL who is ever so kind is helping me paint she actually enjoys it!

These are the before pictures below hoping to have this project complete in a couple weeks, I will post pictures then. I sold all my decorations to buy paint, you will notice I like to make all my projects cost effective and on a budget!