We interrupt this basement redo to bring you.................

Cleaning/yardwork day!! I knew that there was a chance of rain for the next three days so I decided to take advantage of the nice September weather. You know, our days of planting grass are almost gone so I need to get busy!!

Let's start off today with a picture of one of my favorite rooms at our house. The plant room/sun room.

Now, just so you know that I am human, I'll admit that we have lived here for 1 year and 7 months and I've never cleaned these windows. The shame!!! As you can see, they desperately needed it!

The windows look so much better now! Be sure to say hi to Henrietta down there by the palm plant. She was taking advantage of her chance at stardom!

Here is the tree that's outside of the plant room. What is it? I can't remember but I was tired of looking at the ugly little branches down low so she/he got a haircut.

I think it looks much better now. On a different note, see me down there talking over the fence to the neighbor? That's a very common occurrence here. We have such a friendly neighborhood and this is a wonderful place to live!

I spent the rest of my day trimming rose bushes and raking and mowing. I also made a lame attempt at planting a little bit of grass in the back yard. It was a very successful day and I'm so glad I took the opportunity to do some of the outdoor work because it rained hard all night, which is very good for my new grass (and our water bill).

In closing, here is a view of the tree at night. I love having that light right there.

 

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The wonders of paint!

I've made major progress in the basement!! As I near the end of a project, I start to get excited about what I'm going to work on next. In this case it will be the guest room. I will always have little things to do in each room but I like to find treasures here and there and add them to my room later. Also remember that I'm doing small affordable changes right now and will do large, expensive projects as we have the money (which should be in about 20 years, haha). You can make a huge impact on a room with just a gallon of paint. Very affordable.

 

Here is the before of the East end of the "big basement" living room. Have I mentioned that we have two basements? They are known around here as the big basement and the little basement (so original). More on that later. DON'T DISTRACT ME!!

Here is the East end now!

Here is another angle. This is looking North east. The kids have lots of room to play now. I need to make the toy area cleaner looking, finish some hole patching, and do some painting. This space also doubles as a practicing space for Jeremy's band. It's great to not have to move a bunch of stuff in order to set up the drum set!

The West end, before. Ugh! God help us, right?!

After!! Yay! I had to live with the furniture on the other end of the room for a while to finally realize this layout. I was racking my brain to figure out how to arrange the furniture until one day, it just hit me! Now, those of you who really know me are probably thinking,"she can't live with all of that brown"! I know, right?! The white walls are a huge improvement but I'm just not an "all brown" kind of girl! It's going to take some time for me to figure out how to make it more colorful. For now, it's a highly improved space. Enjoy the process!!

Another angle of the sitting area.

I still have lots of touch up painting on the ceiling and I want to paint some of the heavy black duct work up there too. I'm always in awe of the transformation that comes about when you paint! Do you have the painting bug yet? Do you, Dad? Hahaa, just kidding. I know you don't like to paint!

 

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DIY......... A family affair

Good news!! My painting addiction has rubbed off on one of the kids!!! Yay! The laundry room is in the final stages now so we are on to finishing touches. Kaci asked to help with the painting so she worked in there for a couple of days.

We wanted to write a cute saying on the wall that we saw on pinterest so here she is working on it. She started by writing her words in pencil until they were just right.

Then the painting began! I thought it was so funny that she asked to wear my painting hat to do her project! The painting took her a couple of days and then she evened out her lines with a black marker. She said that Lucy scolded her for writing on the wall! Hahahaaaa!

And here it is all done! I really like things done "my way" so it was really hard for me to just let her do this and stay out of her business! I think she did a great job and she can now look at something in the house and know that she created it and did a good job! Above all, she completed it and gained a sense of accomplishment and a knowledge that hard work does produce results! Isn't she awesome?!

 

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For the love of............LOVE!

Sometimes you have to accept that some days aren't meant for DIY projects and cleaning. Ok, I did do a little cleaning this morning but nothing major. With one at the high school and two at the preschool and doctors appointments for Sally and me, I decided to just forget about the painting and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We sat in the grass, jumped on the trampoline, played at the park, attempted to chalk dye some hair (I know, I know, that's a DIY project), and learned about Pearl Harbor through Kaci's English presentation. Oh yeah! Violet and I also cut down a branch that was hanging too low over the sidewalk and annoying me when I mow!!

We have a wonderful toddler park just a few blocks from our house that the kids love! We were the only people there and it was so fun! Sally loved touching the wood chips! She didn't even try to eat one, what a good girl!

Violet and Lucy loved playing in the houses and i was no longer able to deny that they're growing up when they had to duck to get in!

Do you have an older child that likes to still spend time with you? It seems like so many teens shut their parents and siblings out. We are so blessed to have Kaci in our family! She provides countless hours of playing fun for the little girls and many laughs for us with her happiness!

When Dad comes knocking on the play house door, you had better answer! I have lots to say about this picture but nothing I write could express how happy it makes me feel to see Jeremy playing with the girls.

This day could have easily made me feel like I did nothing but these are the days that the girls will never forget!

The pink chalk hair was an epic fail, but the memories we made will be long lasting!!

What did you do today? Have you ever chalked your hair? If your kids asked you to try it, would you? Don't forget to play a little bit!

 

 

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What a difference a day makes!

Three cheers for a productive weekend! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!! Saturday was definitely my day to do some painting without a baby hanging from my leg so I took advantage of that and I "made hay while the sun was shining"!

I managed to get two coats on a couple of walls. I'm hoping that three will be the magic number and I can declare the paint job done! However, I have a long way to go for that. As I finished the second coat on the long wall, it was clear to me that my basement looks even more nautical with the white walls. I'm not sure how to overcome that so, in the end, I may not fight it. After all, this is about economically updating the house in order to have a nice space to live in until we make the jump to soundproofing and dry wall later.

The lighting down here is very strange too but I have no plans to change it until we make big changes. One wall has these two uneven lights so I'll have to get creative with that area. Here it is.

Definitely an awkward space. Working with items that you have can certainly test your creativity but it can also be very rewarding! I'm getting excited to start moving things around again so don't be surprised if that happens this week!

 

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Laundry room progress!

Good news! I just saved a ton on my car insurance! Just kidding. I've actually made lots of progress in the laundry room!! That is no small feat with a teething baby (two teeth now. Yay!)! I didn't have a very easy time picking the laundry room wall color. Even now that it's painted, I'm on the fence about it. I need to just go with it and hope the room comes together!

Do you remember where we started?

 

Ah yes, the golden oak cabinets that are on every wall in the house and................ Grandma's carpet. What a combo!

And here's where we are now!

 

Woohoo! Go me! I painted the cabinets with white gloss trim and cabinet paint, put on new brushed nickel pulls and spray painted the hinges due to the fact that I couldn't find the kind I needed. Sometimes you have to get creative when working with ancient materials. Accept and adapt! I've also painted the walls!!

What's left to do?! Switch the swing of the appliance doors, take out carpet, sand floors, paint floors, put in new light and find a countertop solution, get new curtains for the other side of the room, find accessories. Not much, right? Hopefully a trip to the flea market this Sunday will result in a more finished room.

What would you put on the walls in this room?

 

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Basement progress!

With one corner of the basement painted I had to celebrate by moving some furniture!! As always, my painting process has been slow going, and don't forget that I'm working on more than one room too. It's important for me to move furniture and hang pics as I go to break up the monotony of painting. We've actually made a lot of changes! Before I show you what we've done, let's remember where we started.

 

Ahoy!! Hahahahaaa! Every time I look at this I can't believe that we have lived with this for a year and a half! In our defense we actually just started using this room for more than Jeremy's Sunday jam sessions, so that's why it had to change.

After some wall and ceiling painting and moving the office/sewing desk/ electronics lab (geeky boy), here's where we are now.

 

Yay us!! Isn't it looking so much better?! So far, I'm very happy with the progress but Violet has been a little impatient! She can't seem to enjoy the progress, she just keeps saying, " Don't forget to do the door and this wall and this wall!" ((( sigh)))) She truly is my child.

Here's another area of the basement. This is at the bottom of the stairs.

This is a portion of Jeremy's record collection. He kind of has a record player collection too................... And guitars............ And guitar magazines ................. And old radios. Yep. He likes stuff!! I like stuff too, shhhhh, don't tell him!

 

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Little change, big feeling

Good Monday morning! Hope your weekend was fun! We spent the weekend working on the basement and, of course, we watched football!!

Life is very busy now with all of the kids in school. Maybe you don't have time to make any big changes to your house. I take advantage of little moments each day to tackle small cleaning or organizing projects. For instance, one day while the girls were eating lunch, I noticed a cupboard that was a little messy. So I took a few minutes to tidy things up. Here's the cupboard before.

Not overly messy, but just enough mess to make a quick job of it.

Here's the cupboard after I organized.

Isn't that pretty!!

What do you do with your little moments?

 

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The laundry room: you live it, so love it!

In every house I've lived in, I've loved my laundry room! Some of them were really terrible, yucky rooms so it must be the laundry that I really love. I think that a mom needs a room that she is in control of and can call hers and for me, that's the laundry room. So, you can read the love here. My laundry room could be the worst, nastiest room on earth and I would love it, because it's mine!!

 

Here it is! Hahaa I didn't realize that I was doing laundry when I took the pic! Let's just be real for a moment................. I'm always doing laundry. These machines have gotten a serious workout and when my washer broke down a couple of years ago, I cried. Then, I tore it to pieces and after three different parts, it's been great! These are like 10 years old. If your washer or dryer died and you couldn't get the same one, would you sell the other so you could have a matching set? I think I would. That's funny because my clothes don't match on most days but my washer and dryer need to match! Hehehee! Blame my Dad. He's.................... "particular" too. So, this is how my laundry room looked when we moved in.

This is the other side of the room. Behind the curtain is the furnace, water softener, and water heater..................... And my Christmas tree. You love my door too, right?!

Here's a better picture of the door. I don't like it but it makes me laugh out loud sometimes too so it obviously has its good points!

 

This is the after of all of my cabinet doors for the room. I finished them two days ago but I plan to let them dry for five days. Kansas is very hot and humid right now and I don't want to end up ruining them. Patience is always key when doing a project. The one on the end did get run over with a Dora bike yesterday but it's all good!

My plan for the room so far: paint the cabinets, new countertop for the sink, new curtain, remove the carpet, replace the light, paint the walls. I'm not sure what to do with the floor yet, or the door.

What would you do to my room? Any paint color recommendations?

 

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I'm in the cloud!

The title says it all! I've finally figured out how to use iCloud and now my pictures will look marvelous!!

So, that's the first cloud I'm in. The second is the cloud I'm on since returning from my parents house! We had such a great time visiting and also enjoyed shopping, swimming and playing!

Here is a pic of Violet and Lucy enjoying the lake.

Seriously! Doesn't the iPhone 4s take some sweet pics compared to the ipad2? Here's one of me and the girls at the lake, bad pedicures and all!

 

One last pic of Sweet V and SuperLu. I love this one!

 

No trip to Mom and Dad's would be complete without a trip to the Tanger outlet mall and the Flea Market/antique shops in Branson!! I love it!!! We shed some green at Tanger buying all kinds of clothing for each one of us. While there I saw this tea set that I thought was cute, but didn't buy.

 

This was the sight in our car at the end of that day. Hahahaaa! Shhhhh.

 

The next day we went fleatiquing (that's a Dani-ism). Here's what we bought! A cute bowl that I'm going to use for fruit.

 

A fireplace set. I only paid $16.50!

And a set of framed albums! I can't wait to find a place for them!!

 

These sweet lamps were there too but they don't fit my color scheme so they had to stay. Aren't they over the top?!

 

As you can see, we had a great weekend and came home with an awesome mid century bed frame for our guest room that mom and dad gave us!! I'll be sure to give you a play by play of the guest room when I get to it! Another day, another project.

Are you a collector and lover of mid-century items like me? Did you find any good bargains over labor day?

 

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