Finders Keepers!

I have been wanting matching nightstands - with drawers!!! - since we moved in but haven't been able to find the right combination of height/style/price/color (what style & color goes with a cherry sleigh bed and a rustic pine dresser anyway???)

But, the other morning when walking Prairie I found this little chest that a neighbor was throwing away. It looked like it had been stored outside or in a garage, and the bottom beveled piece was beyond saving, but I thought it might be salvageable - and the height (tall!), style (simple!) and price (FREE!!) were spot on.

I vacuumed it inside and out, pried off the rotten bottom boards, reglued the peeling veneer (and pulled some of it off too) and then wiped it down with Formby's refinisher. This stuff is pretty miraculous and I would like to use it on my dining table but I am too chicken (it can also remove stain). After the refinisher, the wood was much cleaner, all the paint splatters were gone, and the wood was much smoother, although it had sort of a dull, cloudy look to it. There were a few dark marks on the top that I couldn't remove completely, although they were smaller than before.

I then rubbed on some high gloss tung oil. Its very easy to use (just rub on in a circular motion and buff like car wax) and I think it looks a lot nicer than polyurethane (although I haven't used the new wipe-on poly). Perfection! (or as close to perfection as you can get without spending any money)

 This color is the most accurate - its pretty similar to the pine dresser although I think this wood is maple.

 You can see the dark spots and a spot of missing veneer on the bottom, but its an improvement over what was here before.

too many books

We have a funny built in book case/display shelves next to the fire place. This area is directly at one end of the dining table and it looked sort of strange, as it only had 3 shelves for a 7 foot area - and the shelves are pretty narrow (they are made of 2" by 8"s).

I have tried a couple of different arrangements and was never happy with it. You can see what they looked like before here. I decided to get some new shelves cut and paint the whole thing white.

I am very happy with the results!

And now all of my cookbooks are next to the TV which is a better place for them since most are pretty wide. I LOVE cookbooks. My favorite gift to receive for sure! (TD's first present to me was a beautiful cookbook called Texas on the Plate & I knew he was a keeper!)

Sorry for the poor quality cell phone  pics.

better late than never (right?)

TD and I have been pretty slack about ordering any of our wedding photos. We did go from 1000+ photos to about 400 and also chose a few favorites. But that was it.

Somewhere in my mind, I figured we are going to be married forever, so what's the rush? ha!

But in an effort to get stuff out of the closets and more organized - I finally hung up the framed family wedding portraits that we had displayed at our wedding.

The blank one on the end is for a pic of my little sis from her wedding.  Doing so led me to go through wedding photos of ours to frame.

Which led me to order prints online, and while I was there I actually made and ordered photobooks for us and our parents!

I have started this several times, but never finished. I ordered these from snapfish - I am a little concerned about print quality - but they were having a 50% off sale and I already had uploaded our favorite photos so it was pretty painless. We may still order a really nice book, but having anything at all is a pretty huge leap forward!

Here are a few pages. If you click them, you can see them (a bit) bigger.

Progress!!

As a reminder, our house had almond colored, metal louvered door on all the closets in the house. We ended up removing the tracks to install the floors and I freecycled the doors because they were ugly and some were bent and rusty.

Fast forward 7 months and we still didn't have any doors.

But not anymore! The new closet doors installed easily, even with just one set of hands. I painted them once they were installed and they were ready to go. Well, not exactly - they were missing hardware.

I ordered these pulls from Overstock.com on Saturday and they arrived Monday - thank you USPS!!

Installing the pulls was not so straightforward...The doors are hollowcore with essentially cardboard backs making for difficulty drilling and installing screws. Also the pulls actually insert into the door, so you have to drill a really big (1/4 inch bit) hole. But its completed (only lost one screw inside a door & only had to redrill one hole) and it makes such a difference. 

Take a look!

And there was only one mishap...

Finished with furniture

When we moved in, we didn't have nearly enough furniture for a 3 bedroom house. But thanks to some Craigslist sleuthing, we now have dining furniture, a master bed and now, we have enough seating in the family room plus couches in the sun room. Woo hoo!

I have always wanted to have space to have two couches facing each other. I love this arrangement - Plenty of seating for several people (and easy to pull up more if needed) - and still very comfy for watching TV. I was stoked to find this couch (for $30!) - its a really quality piece (hardwood frame and firm cushions) and the upholstery is in great shape. I'd eventually like to reupholster this but there are several other things higher on the list (closet doors? remove wallpaper? kitchen remodel?). 

I almost walked away from these couches - they are late 90s and very ugly. But, I decided to go for it - the price was right ($50), they were clean and the upholstery was in good shape. They are definitely placeholders until we find something better, but it has been so nice to be able to sit and hang out in the sun room with the fan on and the windows open. And we no longer have a big room with nothing in it.

And the best part? I moved all three couches all by myself in my station wagon.

Home organization!

My parents and grandparents visited this weekend and we got LOTS done around the house. We bought a ladder and I finally (finally!) cleaned the leaves off the roof (that needed to be cleaned since I first inspected the house in September!).

My Dad and I also were able to hang up these bikes. With four bikes, its good to get some of them off the ground.

Peeking inside the closet

One of the nice things about our new house are the closets. We even have two of them in the master bedroom! Still working on paring down my stuff - but hopefully it can stay organized!

And yes, I am nuts - those are my shoes in boxes with labels.

Updates at the homestead!

Craigslist dining table plus chairs - I purchased them separately, but they go together pretty well. I recovered the chairs in tan faux leather. It looks and feels pretty real and will hopefully be easy to clean.

I also got two sisal rugs - one for under the couch and one for under the table. I think it may be too small for under the table. I may switch it out with the rug in the bedroom - although it may too big! 

And the sewing machine is out because I have been sewing some curtains...stay tuned.

Dining table!

Picked up a Craigslist table this morning. Happily I got it into the house by myself without breaking it or me! It has two large leaves so the total length is 9 ft. I also hung curtains last night - happily the curtain hardware was already installed - all I had to do was order drapery hooks. The living room is starting to look complete - need some rugs and to finish the bookcase.

 The curtains that hung in my parents living room for 25 years (and that were made by my mom!) are looking good in the front window. The length is perfect - although anything would be an improvement over the rusty miniblinds!

Our big back yard

Now has a compost bin! Still waiting final touches after our drill is  unpacked. But I have to say this is my finest ever recycled pallet bin! Turns out, the pallets that flooring comes in are much nicer than the ones you steal from behind the grocery store!

These pictures were all taken from the same spot. The second chain link fence you see is our property line. Beyond that is a bike cut through and a small common area.

Looking towards the SE corner. There is a street directly behind our house.

Still from the same spot - looking towards the house and the Florida Room. If you look closely, you can see the sofa bed where I have been sleeping for 3 weeks. 

Looking directly at the back of the house - on the left is our bedroom window and on the right is the kitchen. Need to buy a ladder so we can clean all of the leaves off the roof!!

Lighting dilemma

I knew we would want to replace the large fluorescent fixture in the kitchen eventually, but that's going to happen sooner rather than later since I caused the collapse of all the support and plastic panels when I was trying to peek at what was underneath.

Plus, our ceiling gets raised a whole foot!

Minus, we have to live with this until we have new fixtures are installed.

 For the new lighting, my idea is to have small, recessed lights installed along the perimeter. There is already one recessed light installed over the sink, so hopefully this will be doable.

And below is the inspiration - tray ceiling, recessed lighting, no upper cabinets. Our kitchen now has light colored, tile floors, but other than that, I am trying to stick to this design - I love it!

Busy bee

Lots of work over the weekend to get ready for the movers this week.

Picking up & unloading a pallet of hardwood - happily acclimating in the house.

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Don't think these light fixtures had ever been cleaned.

And the most fun: unpacking wedding gifts!

Home improvements

New kitchen floor!

New bathroom floor!

New digital, programmable thermostat! Keeping the house at an even 68 degrees to acclimate the hardwood flooring in preparation for its installation on Monday. 

Decisions, decisons...

I found a clear favorite with the porcelain tile - though I really wanted real travertine. But choices for everything else are overwhelming.

Offset?

or grid?