a little more paint

It really is amazing how much installed baseboards can calm the nerves! It just makes the birdhouse seem more finished! For the holidays I was on a two week break from work- hooray! The to-do list is always so long when it comes to the birdhouse and I really wanted to cross more items off the list. Didn't totally happen though- that's okay!

I finished painting the walls in both upstairs bathrooms. When we painted before we had the old light fixtures still up. Since then we've installed the new ones- much smaller- and there's been a large white rectangle just calling my name for paint. I also cleaned the ceilings in both bathrooms- they were totally gross. As you can see we're still waiting to install medicine cabinets and there's a hole next to the light fixture that needs some small patch work.

My favorite father-in-law wrote to everyone in his Christmas letter that he was fired for painting a wall the wrong color. It made us laugh- not only to be included in the letter this way, but also for the fact that he was actually "fired" for painting part of the ceiling yellow. Plus, he left the painting above the door frames for someone else to do. Who did that fall on? Yep, me! After some blue painters tape and a steady hand I took care of it.

So, the painting we now have left to do is: bathroom ceilings, hallway ceiling (that's half-yellow), and baseboards! Hooray!!

On our annual Christmas skiing trip this past week David asked me, "What do you want to work on next when we get home?" I'm so glad he's still into all this demolition/repair work. This past July went by so fast and so many things were done. Now that we're into the school year and I'm back at work it feels so slow. Things get pushed to the weekends and then other stuff happens on the weekend that slows the progress too. That's okay though- it makes it that much sweeter when something does get completed!

A few days before we went out of town we went to Ikea and scouted out a few items! Perhaps a new couch that we've been salivating over (especially now that the price has dropped a few benjamins!) and some furniture for our office. I really want to get back into my scrapbooking. Living in an apartment meant all my supplies have been stored in a rolling bag- great for when you go somewhere to scrapbook, bad for when you just want to work on a page here or there. So, hopefully we'll get our office furniture bought and put together and I can unpack my items. I think the last time I scrapbooked David and I was our trip to Vegas a couple years before we were even engaged!

BTW: I got the book How to Sew... (twice actually) for Christmas. It was in my stocking from David and in my stocking at my mom's house. Perhaps I should blog about a bedroom set I've been wanting or a new car...ha!

I can do that!!

Just found this book online and had to show you! There's a lot of times I wish I would have paid attention when my great-grandma was trying to teach me something domestic (baking comes to mind...), but instead I was outside building things with my great-grandpa. Don't get me wrong- the fact that I own more tools than my husband tells you I paid attention to grandpa but, there are times when grandma's knowledge would come in handy as well! This book will definitely be on my wish list!!

Plus, you can enter to win it!

(http://erincooks.com/an-erin-cooks-contest-how-to-sew-a-button-and-other-nifty-things-your-grandmother-knew/)

• baseboards...check!

Downstairs baseboards are measured, cut, and attached to the wall! Let me say that again- they are done!! Well, technically. They are on the wall and the edges and nail holes are caulked. Now, we have to go back and paint, but they're up and look fantastic. We're debating about now adding the quarter-round.

It took us all morning Saturday to measure and cut 90% of the downstairs baseboards. We had some other things to do Saturday afternoon so we called it a day around 2:30 pm. Sunday we slept in a bit and got back to work. After about an hour everything was cut, it started to rain a bit, so we moved inside to nail the boards onto the walls. Everything just looks so much better with baseboards!

David found a Craigslist ad about baseboards a week ago, checked out the store, and we decided to use them. $.50/foot for 4 1/4" baseboards- super steal! They come in 16' pieces - that was a fun trip home! One end stuck out the back of the 4-Runner (window down) and the other stuck out the front passenger window resting on a box and the side mirror. My arms were tired from holding them together!

I was in charge of measuring while David did the actual cutting on the miter saw. We have to go back for one more piece of baseboard to finish off the closet- since we added the 45-degree finisher piece to the ends of some of the baseboards we were a little bit short. The best piece was along our long wall- 29.5'. We cut two 45-degree angles off the ends of one piece and put the board in the house. Then we had to measure and cut down a second board to the right size. After we set those two pieces inside it already looked better!

We need to finish the upstairs hallway, office, and bathrooms and then we'll be totally done with baseboards. Hooray!

Now when we walk in the door the house just feels more complete and finished. I love it! Slowly but surely- we're getting there!

It's Christmas!

This will be our second married Christmas. I can't believe it!

Last year we looked for Christmas stockings, but didn't find anything we liked. Plus, we didn't have anywhere to hang them when we lived in the apartment. Our mission a few weekends ago was to see if there were any stockings we loved. Mission accomplished! Our first stockings!

We don't have a fireplace mantle so we decided to hang them on our stair railing. Okay, I got the idea from a magazine picture I saw, but it's a fantastic idea! The stockings were missing something- our names. Charlotte, a parent at my school has her own embroidery business called Whimsy & Wishes. I contacted Charlotte to get our names embroidered on the stockings. She does an amazing job! She also did the monogram on my lunchbag that I got for my bridal shower last year! She's quick and can embroider pretty much anything! Aren't they so cute?!

Hi ho, Hi ho!

Two weekends ago we got out our Christmas decorations out and put up our Christmas tree we bought the year before for $20! We might put lights up outside the birdhouse; we'll see.

The day started with David trimming the bushes in the front. The HOA takes care of trimming but doesn't do shaping. So, the bushes have grown out of control. All the landscaper guys do is trim them down every other month; we wanted them majorly cut back. Last weekend we borrowed some hedge trimmers from my mom, and then ended up also getting some loppers (that's what Lowe's called them) and a small rake today. I started cleaning up around the birdhouse and doing some laundry. I couldn't resist- I went outside and helped David start devouring the bushes with the tools. There was so much dead undergrowth that the bushes now look like 4 small starting plants. That's okay- they'll grow back and hopefully look better too!

We also finally caulked the downstairs sinks- kitchen and bathroom. It didn't take us long to do; we've just been putting it off for some reason. Check that off our list. Yes!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I bought some pots and pans, and corningware. That was the easy part. The hard part is finding a place to put all these items. I bought the kitchenware because we had a pan here, a pot there. We decided that instead of using our last cabinet for the trash roll-out as we originally intended, we'd put in a dual basket pull-out. We bought it today and installed it in no time.

Now all our pots & pans fit on those two shelves. Hooray! I actually got David to help me organize the rest of the items in the kitchen before he settled in for some football.

Our next two big items are to tackle the baseboards- buy them, install them- and finish the downstairs bathroom open pocket door. I'm hoping we can take care of buying the baseboards this week.

my thumb is a little green!

As I look at my last post (made in late October) I realize how much has really gone on over here!

First- my great-grandma would be so proud! She had rose bushes every place they moved- as far as I can remember. They always had huge roses growing on them and it smelled so good. The two rose bushes we have in the back were really struggling to survive since they hadn't been watered for who knows how long before we bought the place. Well, I'm glad to say they are back! My mom came over a few months ago to show me how to trim them and start to turn the "garden" area into something other than dirt and weeds. So far we've gotten as far as keeping the rose bushes alive. But eventually we'll figure out what we want to do with the space. (I promise, mom!) I just can't believe how big these two are. David laughs at me every morning on our way out the door to go to work- I walk over just to stare at them. Usually I end up killing plants at some point. Hopefully that won't happen here. Every time I see another rose blooming it makes me smile and think of my great-grandma. 

 I love this up close picture!

   

 

We finally got our air return covers back- or whatever you call them. They used to be a gross greenish color that was probably original. David and I had the smart idea to try to clean them and spray paint them white. Actually, the original idea was to buy new ones, but once we looked at how shoddy they're made now and the price wanted for them we decided to stick with what we had. So, the do-it-yourself paint job did not work. After our little experiment David found a place that powder-coats them. Basically they dip the vents in an acid bath to remove all the gunk, rust, etc., then dip them in a powder-like substance that's made up of tiny fine plastic pellets, and then they bake it. (Think about the paint job on a brand new bicycle). Now they feel awesomely smooth and look brand new! It's amazing how putting those up helped us feel more productive!

Another project we finished up was laying down the small remaining pieces of wood flooring. Once that was finished we put the transition piece between the tile bathroom floor and the hallway wood floor down and David got to hang up our open pocket door! One bathroom door down, two more to go! For now the suspension rod/curtain look we've got going on will have to do upstairs!

 One of our next big projects is getting our baseboards on downstairs. It seems like if we don't have a photobooth gig one weekend then we have plans with all sorts of out of town people instead. It will get done though! I feel like the little engine that could- I keep telling David that I'll feel productive if we get at least one thing completed every weekend on our birdhouse(even something very small- like hanging our first picture on the wall).

• it's like we're famous!

Ok, not really. But it's so fun to see yourself on someone else's site! Long story short...I ordered this canvas artwork from a shop on etsy named GeeZees for our one year anniversary. It's a picture from our wedding and our wedding vows. Basically, you order the size canvas you want, then send in the picture you want to use, and up to 150 words. Stephanie, the "shop owner" then takes your words and combines them with your picture. Once you approve one of the proofs she prints it out, mounts it on solid wood, and wa-la- instant art!

Now David and I have to figure out where to put it in the birdhouse! The other cool thing (here's where the famous subject line comes in) is that we're part of an email she sent out about a charity thing she's doing on her blog and we're on her etsy site now! How cool!

The charity part of it is actually really awesome. For every print she sells the shipping is free (within the U.S.) and she will donate one handmade knitted and crocheted hat for every sale during the month of October to kids fighting cancer who have experienced hair loss. Check out her shop on etsy! Stephanie did an awesome job with ours!