The Bedroom-Redo

I don't have time for a long blog, but I wanted to post pictures of the kids bedroom that we remodeled while their were at the grandparents for a week!

did you catch that...

yeah...a WEEK...one whole glorious week...

I will say that I started missing them around day 3 1/2...

oops...wow, I was still remember that glorious kid-free week...

anyways, what do I do with my Beau when the kids are gone for a week...

a fancy dinner...

a nice hotel...

walks on the beach...

....

NO...

I talk him into remodeling the kids bedroom...

that proves that he really truly loves me!...

next kid free week is all his...

and I promise I will play video games with him all week long...

(not that I have to because he probably will never read this blog and will never know that I promised him that!)...

sorry...for that tangent...

so anyways...here is the before and afters of the room....

Before 'closet'

random-unusable 'closet' in the kids room...

this closet at one time was about 3 feet deep and some previous homeowner took all that depth and created stairway in the hallway up to the loft/playroom...

which is great because we need a stairway to the playroom, but now this closet is useless!!!  

it's only 1 foot deep and they nailed in nails to hang stuff on...um...thanks...

I'm pretty sure the only reason this 'closet' was kept was so that they could claim this room as a bedroom for resale/tax purposes!...

well, we built an actual closet in this room, 

so this um, 'closet' was no longer necessary for the resale/tax purpose...

and the only question remaining was, 

"what to do with this randomly small unusable closet?"...

I've been dreaming and planning on turning this into a built in bookcase from day one...

YEP, day one...

not the day we moved in...

but the day we looked at the house 5 1/2 years ago!

my dream becoming a reality!

the 'closet was actually wider than the door and went back/length ways another 1 1/2 feet...

After ...built-in bookcase

I am SO VERY happy with the after...this is what I have been dreaming of for 5 years!

Before...nice huh...

the electrician made some really nice holes in the paneling 5 years ago when he was re-wiring this room and we had run out of $ to have the dry wall guys at the time fix it...

so we did what most "fixer-upers" do...

we've ignored it for 5 years...

and tried to hide it 

using pieces of paneling from other projects....

and random wooden ships...

oh, and let the spiders take over...

my hope was that their webs would start to look like fabric drapes and end up hiding the whole mess...

anyways, 

using scraps of drywall from the closet we built and then left over wood pieces and trim from other projects we covered up all the holes and textured the fake paneling that was up there to make it look like drywall...

note...bunk beds can me used as scaffolding...

note...bunk beds built for children and purchased from WalMart might not be the safest scaffolding

note...I took this picture of Beau painting using the bunk bed as scaffolding turned and set the camera down only to hear a loud crash, I had missed him falling thru our makeshift scaffolding by mere seconds!

After...

love that we turned an eyesore into something that looks like it was meant to be...all that white trim is just covering up nasty paneling with holes hacked into it!

maybe one of my favorite parts of this remodel is that it was free...

how was it free

1.  we sold stuff we no longer needed on craigslist (the kids bookshelves that they didn't need now that they have a built in book case, and 2 dressers that they no longer need now that they  have a closet)...

2.  we are so very cheap GREEN that we up-cycled and reused material from previous projects so we had less material to purchase...

oh...and the biggest expense was the wood for the bookcase shelves, and the reason that was so expensive was because I did the classic, measure once and have Home Depot guy cut all the shelves the WRONG size, 6 inches TOO short!!! so we had to buy more wood and after measuring 3 x's I had the Home Depot guy cut it the right length this time...

and just because I love you guys...

and I know how hard it is to get a good green, not too minty or too lime'y...

I will share the color...it's "Restful" by Behr @ Home Depot...

and the white is "Pot of Cream" also by Behr @ Home Depot... (this is our white, we use it on EVERYTHING white in our house, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, the trim, molding and windowsills, bookcases,...etc...and it's great to keep a gallon around for when you need to touch something up!)

and a side note, I like to pick colors based on their names, for two reasons, 

1.  I'm silly

2.  It helps me remember the color years down the road...

I still remember the name of our kitchen color & our living room that we painted 5 years ago because I also LOVED the name of the colors...can't remember the name of our bedroom color or bathroom color for the life of me because I was so sad that the names were stupid!

Lessons from the Pancake Breakfast

Redding is a small city in northern California...

and I mean the Real Northern California not Bay Area "northern"...

we call that "central California" up here in the North!...

Redding is a great place to raise kids with a great small town feel

...(maybe because it is a small town)...

Almost 5 years ago we finally decided to put down roots and buy a house in Redding and we settled in West Redding...

Redding is cut in half by I-5 with the older part of Redding on the West side and the newer part on the East side...before moving and settling in, we really didn't know much about the West Side or Downtown...but after 5 years we are so glad that we found our little house on the West Side of the tracks 

(oh, yeah, we also have the train over here on the West Side)

not long after moving we learned that Redding has lots to offer within walking distance of our new place.

One of those being the annual 

Cowboy Pancake Breakfast...

the Friday of Rodeo week Redding has an annual breakfast served from 5-10 am...

for 4 of the 5 years we've lived here the kids and I have walked down for some pancakes...

are the pancakes amazing...not really...

is the sausage wonderful...of course not...

is the coffee Starbucks...no, but it's hot!

but it's still totally worth the walk and the $4 plate of food...

here are some lessons I've learned from the Pancake breakfast

1.  Apparently the new look for cowgirl is

---well how do I say this nicely--

whore...yeah, I can't say that nicely...

wow those cowgirls were not wearing much clothing...

and no, I did not take a picture because 95% of my followers are women and we don't need to see what we already have and choose to keep covered!

2.  It's best to hold hands with good friends

3. Little boys making funny faces will always embarrass the older sister who will just stare off into space and pretend that she is all by herself! 

4.  You need lots of plates to serve 10,000 people breakfast...

5.  If you have 10,000 people to feed you need lots of men wearing hats making the food...

6.  They will NEVER eat it all even though they want their own plate!

7.  A happy face can be very deceiving...

this one emptied all the contents of his stomach as soon as he was back in his stroller

8.  Little boys that like to be naked at home don't really like being naked in a crowd of people...

poor Lincoln ended his first pancake breakfast sitting in his own vomit...

9.  The walk is short and all downhill on the way there and has in the past been more difficult on the uphill walk home, but when you've been training for a triathlon the uphill walk home is a breeze and you feel amazed that the last time you did the same walk you were huffing and puffing...

10.  I love living on the West Side of Redding...Viva Downtown!

Credenza...Just Rolls off the Tongue

Everyone needs a piece of furniture that's fun to say...

and my piece is our Credenza...

say it with me...

"Credenza"

we started "Operation-Beautiful-Living room" about 2 weeks ago...

(and we are SO close to being done)

we needed to enter the 21's century and get a flat screen...

with all the stuff...

42"..Full HD....energy star...LCD...1080p...

(all geek to me...but it made my husband so very happy)...

but the problem was that our current entertainment center was a 6 foot tall very large piece of furniture that wouldn't work for the new tv...

so we needed to find something that would...

but I have expensive taste...

everything I found was around the $1000 mark...

can't spend more on the piece of furniture than the the tv you're buying it for...

or at least that's what my husband told me...

here is a Pottery Barn one that I LOVED...

so the hunt began...

I checked Craigslist about very 20 minutes hoping something would post...

NOTHING...

and then last Friday we went to a local consignment store and I found about 6 pieces that I would have been happy with...

all over $500 and all SOLD...and I had been given a budget of $150....

and then we saw it...

it was a very ugly color...

it needed some TLC...

it was ONLY $29...

we LOVED it...how could you not for $29!!!

and check out the ugly gold vintage handles

I removed all the hardware...was going to replace them and instead just spray painted them a new classic color

sanded and painted...I chose the color Dark Granite...a grayish chocolate from Lowes

and painted some more...
we decided to leave the inside drawers and doors off and just have the outside drawers and turn the inside 3 into shelves for electronic stuff....
we had to take off the wooden tracks that the drawers roll on..
and then I purchased a piece of wood that was 3/16" think and then asked them to cut it down to fit on the inside shelves (I wanted them a little bit more sturdy...)
and then I also bought a drill attachment that cut out nifty holes in the back for all the cords to run thru

and I spray painted the old vintage gold handles a dark bronzy silver 

(there was no color name for the metallic paint, just the color of the lid...and I have to say it bought my daughter and I closer together...she picked up a very shiny silver and said, "not this one, it looks like cheap jewelery!"  which was the exact thought going thru my head when she picked it up!)

the end result...

I still need to work on the wall art for this wall so "Operation-Beautiful-Living room" isn't finished yet...but it's way better than it was...

also check out the new rug...it was 1/2 off...LOVE that!

so our "New" Credenza cost us $29 (old dresser), $15 (gallon of Dark Granite paint that I will use for 100 more projects), $5 (metallic spray paint for handles), and $11 (for the wood for the shelves, that I didn't even use 1/3 of...and have many fun projects planned for that wood)...$60 for our Beautiful Credenza!

Saying the word Credenza-Priceless!

Closet Update

Okay, so the closet is still in the making...but it looks like it could be a closet at some point in the near future...
here are the stats...

*Move Electrical Outlet-Check
...with no shocking experiences either...
unless you count Beau letting me use a saw-sall to cut a hole in the wall...

    ...or that I might not have put the hole in the exact spot I should have...
but, it's moved...

*Build and install closet wall frame-Check

...with only a few minor adjustments here and there...
special note for all home owners with a house older than they are...
...(ours is 40 years older than me!)...
at some point you must choose between building a level closet or having the closet level to ceilings and walls in your house that leans to the south!
(which is a weird lean since the hill our house sits on goes down in the north, so our house SHOULD lean to the north...)
our choice in the level department...we chose level closet....

*Drywall closet ceiling and walls-Semi Checked
we "hung" the drywall on the ceiling of the closet, and decided to call it a day/weekend...not too bad when we probably only put in maybe 5 hours solid of closet work this weekend...

We'll put in a few more hours a few nights this week...
...oh, and return the doors, we bought the wrong ones...

and then maybe next Sunday I can write a blog about our finished closet!!!

A Shocking Lesson..

for the record...the closet is not quite done...
& for the record, my mom said that as long as we work on the "weekend project" just on the weekends than it's still JUST a weekend project...

we ran into some..."issues"...
nothing not fixable...just issues that turned into good lessons...

lets just say when drawing up the plans for the closet I was VERY good about taking exact measurements...
I measured how tall it was going to be
....at the front of the closet
     ...and it's going on a wall with a vaulted ceiling
          ...so maybe I should have measured the height at the wall
...oops, lesson 1...measure all walls and heights of all walls when drawing up plans
&
I measured how wide it was going to be...along the wall...
    ...that just happened to have a small bookshelf on it at the time...
          ...a small bookshelf that was covering up an electrical outlet...
     .....an electrical outlet right...RIGHT...where the closet wall is going to be coming out of the wall...
...oops, lesson 2...look on ALL walls for electrical outlets when drawing up plans

WE...both of us...built the frame to the said closet before noticing either one of these issues...
we "fixed" lesson 1, and cut the wall frame down by 3 inches
(not so easy when the frame is already built...and upstairs...and the saw-cutting-thingy is downstairs on the front porch...but totally do-able!)

and we postponed the lesson 2 until this weekend...and are wondering how shocking our weekend project will turn out to be...yes, we (I'm using the royal we there) know we can do this...but he (the husband) thinks we shouldn't ...stay tuned...

"Weekend" Project

My husband loves me...
Like really, really loves me...
My husband understands that my "love language" is gifts...
that doesn't mean I need him to buy me diamonds to prove his love (although I wouldn't complain!), I just like gifts, no matter the size...

So guess what he "bought" me...

almost 5 years ago my husband bought me (and the rest of the family) a "fixer-upper"
...
yep, that's love...
I have always been the nerd with a slight crush on Bob Villa (This Old House)...what that man can do with an old house is...is...well, it make my knees weak!  I see an old house and I fall in love, I see the potential of those broken down houses, I think of the history, the love that was shared in the homes and I want to bring them back to their glory days...
So my husband, my computer loving, video gamer of a husband, agreed to buy us a 70 year old house (well, it was only 68 when we bought it!)...did I mention that I was 9 months pregnant and scheduled for a c-section (yeah, I'm going to be zero help!) when we bought this gem!

I'm not going to say he's not a handy guy...he knows what a hammer is, and his pretty good with a sander, and boy can he hang insulation (in Redding, in July, in a house without an air conditioner)...and I know that he's handier than he thinks he is!

So, more than 4 1/2 years later, we still have TONS to do on our "fixer-upper" or what I affectionately call our money pit!

We all know that old houses come with little to no storage space.  Ours is no exception...sort-of.
The room that our kids share has no closet..NO closet...the "closet" that was in the room at some point in the past was re-purposed as the stairs for the upstairs loft/playroom...it also has a huge wall that is hard to use, the door opens up to that wall =unusable space, it has a large awkwardly shaped door that leads to the attic, and then a small window...

...then walk out the bedroom door and WHAM, in the upstairs hallway there is the largest linen closet known to mankind!  A linen closet with NO shelves...and a closet made with particle boards not dry wall...weirdness (but, well, the whole house has many weird things like this!)...
so the plan...that I've had since day one...
*demo the hall closet and make a smaller more useful one in it's place.
*build a closet on the large wall with the awkward attic door in the bedroom...hiding the attic door inside the closet...
So last night we finished stage one of project closet..
The hallway closet is no longer with us...

some of the pretty wallpaper from inside the closet

...this house was held together with wallpaper when we bought it!

we've decided to also replace the closet with a piece of furniture, we are using a large black armoire as our entertainment center downstairs, but I want something different and my husband wants a flat screen...so we're re-purposing the entertainment center as the linen closet, taking the wood that we saved from the closet demo to build the closet in the kids room...

Okay, now I also forgot to mention that we planned and started this "weekend" project on the one weekend a year that my MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) have our HUGE annual photo fundraiser...so I've been gone all day everyday since Thursday, and am leaving here in about 30 minutes not to return until after 2!!!...so we are now praying and hoping that we can finish our project by next weekend...
Is it still a weekend project if it takes you 2 weekends?
Hopefully I'll be sharing "after" pictures next weekend!  Keep your fingers crossed!