In with the new...

The guy from Lowe's came today to install our door.

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We still have to paint it, but we haven't decided on a color yet.

We are planning to paint our house this year so we'll pick out a house color and a complementary color for the door.

I did really like the look of our old door. I really didn't give it enough credit. The look really suited the house so it was SUPER hard to pick out a new door... our decision pretty much came down to price and availability.
It was just old and drafty and had a crack in it... and seriously people, I'm not kidding about the neighbor... she watches us!
That is just too creepy!!!

Out with the old...

Say goodbye to the old front door...

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Good bye old door...
I will miss you for a few reasons, but it is time for you to move on to become scrap wood or chopped up into firewood.

I will miss your big windows because they allow so much additional light into our living room, but I will not miss the fact that your large windows allow my nosy neighbor to spy on me! :)

Ummmm... that's about all I'll miss about you! Sorry.

Tomorrow the nice man who is sub-contracted by Lowe's with come and rip you out and haul you away... leaving a nice new door in your place.

Success!!!

WAY back at post #101, I started a make over project. That was back in June... I started with the best of intentions, but life happens.

So, here we are 7 months later (almost to the day) and my guest room is finally finished.

I do have ONE more thing I want to do, but it wasn't on my original list so I'm calling the project complete based on the original desires I had for the room.

This is what the room looked like back in June...


What the room looked like back in October...

I spent a long weekend painting while Brandon and the girls were in Georgia...

I thought I was getting a nice "sunshine" yellow... instead I got Big Bird Barf Yellow!

I was frustrated and it took me over a month to work up the energy to repaint it!

This is what the room looks like today!!

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I still have plans to build a cornice for the window and cover it with the same fabric that's covering the headboard.
I bought a cheap curtain rod because I intend to hide it behind the cornice.

You can see all of my Twilight books on the shelf in this picture! :)
Yes, I have 2 copies of Twilight... one paperback, one hardback!

I liked the idea of having yellow in this room... the yellow wall paint didn't work out, but I added some daffodils. :)

You can see the moulding in each of these photos. We cut it, painted it, and hung it in less than 24 hours!

It really does give the room a finished feel. We love it.

I don't think that green plant/thing is going to stay on the dresser... I'm undecided about it.

I would like to point out the headboard... I LOVE IT! It's the same headboard that's in the picture from last June, but I padded it and covered it with upholstery fabric.

I would like to get new bedding, but I haven't found anythign I really love yet.

So, there you have it! Our new guest room!

COME FOR A VISIT! :)

Making Progress!

A few posts back I declared this as the Year of Serious Home Improvement. :)

Well, hopefully...

Anyway, we are off to a good start.

I've made a list of projects to complete this week AND next week. Fortunately they are projects that I can work on while Brandon is at work (assuming Riley cooperates!) and then he can help me with "his part" in the evenings.

Today I purchased a TV stand from Walmart...
I had seen it online and it seemed to be just what we needed. According to the website, they don't carry it in the store so we knew we would have to order it.
On a random trip down the furniture aisle today, Riley and I happened upon the TV stand we saw online!
I bought it. I brought it home. I assembled it... Brandon had to help me with some of it. :)

I'm normally quite good at following directions and assembling furniture, but I had some problems with this one.
In my defense, the directions were stupid! Only pictures. No words. NONE.

Once I figured out what I did wrong, it was a pretty simple fix... it just required an extra set of hands.

It started out like this... yes, I assembled it AROUND the toys on the floor!

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The finished product.

It now houses the Wii... that means the Wii is out of my living room!

I'm shopping around for some small baskets or plastic bins to hold the Wii accessories.

This may not seem like a serious home improvement project to some people, but it's something we've just been putting off and now I can check it off of my "to-do list"!! :)

Yesterday, Brandon cut another shelf for the bathroom closet... we've only been saying we would do that since October 2005.

On list list to work on the rest of the week:
*Moulding in the guest room
*A window treatment in the guest room

I'll take pictures when it's done.

I know. I know. My guest room was supposed to be finished by Labor Day. Then I told you it would be done before Christmas... BUT... I decided on a few other things I wanted to add to the original list so HOPEFULLY it will be done this week. :)

What else on a Monday morning?

My brain is full of random half thoughts this morning...

1. Kristy has inspired me to kick myself into gear and work on my list of "30 things to do before I'm 30"... her list is 29 Things Before 30, but I'm gonna 1 up her! :)
**Jenn also had a list a while back ago... she's the one that originally made me start thinking about working on my list.

2. Brandon and I are both going to make lists... maybe some of them will overlap... we can hold each other accountable! :)

3. It's stinkin' cold outside!

4. I am singing this Thursday night for a "Senior Adult Christmas Banquet"... jealous? :)

5. I have partially decorated my house for Christmas... I'm just not in the mood this year. :(

6. The girls have a 3 foot Christmas tree on the bedside table in their room... so far there have been 2 broken ornaments and I've picked the tree up off the floor atleast a half dozen times... that's not counting the times that Brandon has picked it up.

7. My friend, Jared, is going to be taking some headshots for me sometime in the next few weeks... I'm excited about that!

8. Remember when my guestroom was supposed to get a makeover in July and then the date moved to September... well it's December, but it is finally ALMOST DONE!!! 4 of the 5 things on my list to do in that room can be checked off, but I still need to finish the last one and add one more thing to the list... it WILL be done before Christmas!!!

9. Here's the results from the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist that I took Riley to see last week... "If you WANT to have tubes put in, we can do it. If you DON'T want tubes put in, we don't have to do it."
Uh? Um? Well? I DON'T KNOW!!! YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!!!

10. My follow up appointment with my surgeon went well. I have to go back for a mammogram in March... that mammogram will serve as my new "baseline" picture to which all future mammograms will be compared. After my mammogram I will go back for another follow up with my surgeon.

11. I am no where NEAR being finished with my Christmas shopping!

12. My friends, Brian and Trish are in the process of adoption. Trish just started a blog... go check it out. They are SUPER people and will be AMAZING parents!!!

13. They have a cookbook that they are selling and all proceeds from the sales are going straight to their adoption fees... need a nice cookbook for yourself or one to give as a Christmas gift? Check out her blog. They are only $15. They are VERY pretty... kind of a scrapbook appearance to the cover AND I even have a few recipes in there! :)
Brian is a chef... yep, that's his actual occupation... and he has a TON of recipes in the book.
I told Trish that they should auction off Brian's culinary talents. :)
I'd pay to have him come cook a nice dinner for me and my family!! Especially in the craziness of the holidays!

14. To make things ever easier... you can buy the cookbook on Ebay! Check it out!! For less than $20 (including shipping) you can help Brian and Trish and add some new recipes to your cooking repertoire! :)

15. My parents are currently in Romania on a mission's trip. If you can spare a minute or 2, say a prayer for their safety as well as the safety of their team.

Wow... I think I'm all out of randomness. Ah. Now I have space in my brain!

Remember way back to post #101?

Remember when I posted about the makeover that my guest room would be receiving??

Well, originally the results were supposed to be posted today, but BooMama had a slight change of plans. :) Results will be posted Labor Day weekend.

I'm still working on my guest room.
We had a slight delay in the plan... a good delay... Brandon's sister, Aunt Amanda, came to visit us last week and spent a few days hanging out with us.
She has been in Germany most of the summer (10 weeks) soaking up German culture, language, and anything else they would let her soak up!
She brought back some cool gifts and GREAT chocolates. Mmmmm.

SO ANYWAY... I couldn't very well paint my guest room while she was living in it. :)

We had already taken the room apart so we quickly put it back together only to remember that I had already removed and thrown away those horrible mini blinds! :) In addition to that, I had already caulked all of the holes left behind by the horrible blinds.

The girls and I raced around town in a frenzy looking for just the right width faux-wood blinds. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to find 47" width, 2" slat faux-wood blinds in white??? Well, let me tell you... DIFFICULT!!! That is unless you want to pay $60-$100 to have them custom cut. :)

We started at Lowe's since that's where all of the other white faux-wood blinds in our home came from. NOTHING (under $60 and custom cut). We searched Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, even TJ Maxx. NOTHING.
In a last ditch effort we ran by Wal-mart. I know that if you can't find it at Wal-mart you probably don't need it, so I really should have started there. :)

I just knew we wouldn't find any, but LO AND BEHOLD... They were white, they were faux-wood and they were 47"!!! The only thing I had to give on was the 1.5" slats instead of 2" slats. No biggie. :)

We ran home... I painted the inside of the window so it would dry before Amanda arrived. Just before she headed to bed that night, Brandon and I hung the new blinds. She did have to put up with the blue painter's tape that was lining all of the trim in the room.

So, on my list of items I wanted to accomplish...

1. Paint our guest room
2. Re-hang all wall decor
3. Purchase and hang faux-wood blinds
4. Change out the light switch and switch plate
5. Cover the headboard

I can mark off #3!! :)

So, lesson learned... I can stand by my belief... "If you can't find it at Wal-mart, you probably don't need it." Feel free to quote me on that. :)

Post #101 Calls for a Makeover!

Some of you may know that I have a LONG to-do list for fixing up our house.
Not all of them are super expensive projects, but they are all pretty much time consuming.

We've done a TON of projects since we moved in in October 2005, but I've still got a few more tricks up my sleeve... I've just been putting them off!
(Maybe I'll post some before and after photos of the projects we've already done... be on the lookout!)

Well, BooMama is going to motivate me!

She is encouraging us to do an HGTV style makeover...

Here's the idea...
You make a list of home repairs/changes/improvements/projects that you would like to complete.

Here's what I would like to accomplish...
1. Paint our guest room
2. Re-hang all wall decor
3. Purchase and hang faux-wood blinds
4. Change out the light switch and switch plate
5. Cover the headboard

Here's the catch...
YOU HAVE TO FINISH BY JULY 25th!!
That's 5 weeks. That sounds like a long time, but we'll be gone for a week AND I have 2 children to watch during the day!

Wish me luck! :)