Home Homey Home

We've checked a few more little projects off the list.. woohoo!  A few weeks ago, I put an all call for help on Facebook... what color to paint our sunroom.  I asked every person who stepped foot into our home as well.  Our home is mostly greys and this green just wasn't cutting it for me.  The furniture would stay so we had to find something that would work. 

The two winning color suggestions were varying shades of yellow and blue.  We eliminated blue right away, since it wouldn't go well with the furniture.  I bought three samples of yellow that we painted up in smaller areas and guess what... I hated them all.  They just didn't work.. too blah, too bold, too bright.

And then I remembered I'm not usually a yellow paint kind of person.  So we nixed that idea.

We tried a gray/blue but it didn't look right with the furniture.

We considered everything from navy blue to white. We ended up going with Weimaraner by Benjamin Moore. The painter who we used to paint our kitchen cabinets suggested that to add an earthy feel to the room.  I wasn't 100% sold but after considering every other color under the sun, we decided to get a sample of it.  And we liked it, so we went for it.

Here's the finished product...

It definitely flows better with the rest of our house and is very soothing!  We are happy with it. I love how it changes with the light throughout the day, sometimes looking more brown and sometimes more grey.

We also finished up some work in the kitchen!  This is the second time in our marriage we have hired someone to do a project in our house for us... we are usually all about the D.I.Y.  But between cabinet doors and drawers, we have 42. And ain't nobody got time for sanding, priming, and painting all of that. So, we sucked it up and hired a painter.  Best money ever spent!  Done in a few days and way better than we could have done.

I saved some pictures of our kitchen from the listing when we bought our house and I'm so glad I did.. the kitchen is hardly recognizable.  I am loving the brighter, less GREEN and oak-ey space.

Before (check out that peek into the dining room too...)

After.. yay!

Making this house a home has been so fun... it feels more like us now that these two projects are done.  Maybe a break for awhile now?  Maybe..

Dining Room Table Re-do

We bought this table from Goodwill for $9.99 a few months ago.

This was the picture Justin sent me from Goodwill...should I buy this table for $10?  YES!

We found the chairs for $2.99 each.  Have I mentioned how much I love Goodwill?  ;)

I recovered the chairs, we painted the dining room and the china hutch, and got a new light fixture.

Things were improving!

 We liked the table but wanted it to be longer to accommodate more people.  It was originally 5 ft but we wanted it to be closer to 7 ft.  Justin started by removing the top and buying five 2x8 boards.  He kept the original legs and end boards which had a drawer on each end.

Justin cut new side rails and screwed the legs and rails together.

Final support boards were added underneath and the drawers were put back in.  The frame and supports were screwed to the tabletop and the new table is built! Then he stained the boards and added a few coats of polyurethane.

The finished product!

 The last step was to build a bench.  Goodwill only had 5 chairs and we wanted to have seating for more. We thought a bench on one side would be the perfect solution.  Yay for another completed project.

Goodwill + New Paint FTW

We have been having so much fun finding treasures on the cheap at Goodwill and sprucing them up with a little paint.  We hit the jackpot one day when got a table with five chairs, a china cabinet, a desk, a dresser, and a child-size desk for grand total of $78!

I've been painting during nap time and it has been so fun and actually therapeutic for me.  I've enjoyed accomplishing something tangible and continuing to make our new digs more homey and complete for our family.

Charlie's dresser - $9.99 at Goodwill started like this:

A little paint and some new hardware... and now we have this:

This desk was also $9.99:

It had some fancy nailhead trim along all the edges, which I removed before taking the picture.

I tried my hand at chalk paint for the first time... and let me tell you, it won't be the last.  It was so incredibly easy - no priming, no sanding, no perfectionism allowed... that is my kind of project, people!  Justin actually said, "Well, the instructions say not to be a perfectionist when painting it, so I think you better do it."

I was so excited to find this desk, as I had been wanting a table for our entryway.  It used to look like this:

Not the most inviting welcome.  Now it looks like this:

I'm still playing around with the decorations on top but I'd say it's an improvement.

My favorite piece we found that day was this china cabinet for $24.99.  I'd say the price was right!

We chalk painted it and put it together and I love it!  Such a fun new piece!

We still plan to redo the table and chairs.  More projects in our future!

On the move

I can't believe we are busy unpacking...for the third year in a row.  But, here we are!  Slowly but surely getting settled.

We said 'goodbye' and a massive 'THANK YOU' to my parents on Monday morning and headed east!  I can't believe they put up with us for two months... they were so gracious!  We're going to miss seeing them everyday.  Good thing we are only a few hours apart now.    

After a smooth closing, we finally got to drive to our new home!  

New house family selfie!

The kids wasted no time getting their bikes out and playing at the park... which happens to be right behind our house!  Score.

I hope to never see one of these trucks again for a very.very.long.time.  Have I mentioned how NOT FUN moving is??

We found this waiting for us in the refrigerator from the sellers!  

The movers were an hour and a half late, but by midnight, every last box was finally unloaded and Justin and I got to enjoy a celebratory beverage before falling into bed!

Ugh.. moving!

A friend took the kids for the day on Wednesday so I could unpack and my parents arrived on Thursday for some more reinforcement.  We have accomplished a lot and I'm starting to feel a little less scattered.

Hoping to stay put for awhile now!  Come visit, friends!

Paint & a DIY

We decided to do some work on our bedroom this weekend. Such a quick, easy, & cheap way to update but it makes such a difference.

Our house, thought built in the 80's, was completely renovated before we bought it.  They put on new siding, painted the entire house, updated the kitchen, updated the bathrooms, and put in new carpet and wood floors.  Such a blessing to not have much to do to the house after moving in!  I have started to get a little tired of the white walls though, so I have a feeling there will be even more painting in our near future.  Here are a few of the before pictures..








And here are a few after pictures...








We painted the room and then Justin made this super easy headboard for our bed.  And by easy, I mean EASY.  He sanded, stained, and then hung.  Doesn't get easier than that!  We still need to do some window treatments but for now I'm enjoying what feels like a totally new room!

DIY Style

My mom and I completed a big project while she was in town!

It took a lot of measuring...



ironing..



and sewing...


until they were done!


Here are the before and after pics.  Pretty major facelift, right?









They were a lot of work and I could not have done them without my mother's master seamstress skills, but we saved about $250 by going the DIY route.  Thank you, pinterest!  And thank you, Mom!