Ch-ch-changes

Change is exciting.  At least for this Air Force brat it is.

C & I had an impromptu personal training session the other day and I'm stoked about this new total body strength training program he set us up with.  I'm now a true believer that even one session with a trainer can be beneficial.  It was with the head personal trainer dude at our facility and was on his own time, so I didn't have to pay anything.  Yay!  He was super nice about it and just really loves helping people so we're going to get him a gift certificate.  I was getting bored with doing the weight machines, so I'm excited about this new workout.

My ankle still hurts (it's been almost 2 weeks now) so I decided not to run yesterday or do any physical activity this weekend.  I hope that helps, but I seriously doubt it.  I think I'll push through until the 5k race and then go to the doctor if it still hurts.

I contacted a friend of ours to see about him putting in laminate floors for us.  I think he'll probably come out this week to take measurements and talk about what is best for us.  Can't wait!

There's 1 other definite change and another possible change that I can't yet talk about.  Bummer.  Then why bring it up, right?  I know, I know, I'm terrible.

I've been brainstorming about our house and what we can do to fix it up.  Of course I am.  I'm always doing that.  Must be the scent of spring.  I'd like to knock out our closet to open up the room a little more, then move our current dresser & armoir to the guest room, and then install an Ikea closet system along one wall like this one:

Seems doable.  Laying tile in the kitchen, laundry room, & bathroom is on our list for summer projects too.  We shall see. 

Okay, enough scooter pootin' around...on to my thesis edits!!

National Bike to Work Day!

Just a reminder to all you cyclists that this Friday (the 21st) is Bike to Work Day.  I plan on suiting up starting Monday and hope to continue riding through the summer and into the fall. 

We started getting the laundry room together.  I decided not to waste money, time, & energy on repainting...it's already a bright & airy yellow appropriate for a laundry room, so there's no point in redoing it.  I had a great idea regarding one particular corner of the room that shall remain a secret until "After" pictures are posted. 

I transplanted the sunflower seedlings I started & they're not doing so well...in fact, they might be dead.  But when I transplanted them I planted some more seeds in the bed & they're coming up, so I may have sunflowers yet. 

Many things left to do...hope you all had a great weekend!

ANOTHER re-do!

Once we decided we were going to stay in our house for a while, I declared I was going to at least make the house more bearable (for me at least--my husband doesn't care). 

First was the kitchen, then the office, then the bathroom.  What's next?  The laundry room.  I went from Craigslist where someone quoted me $600 for used oak cabinets to Lowe's who quoted me $722 with tax for new unfinished ones--and neither one of those included the countertops we'd need to purchase.  We went back to Lowe's today to get the cabinets but first decided to check out the ready-made utility type cabinets.  What'd we go home with?  The ready-made utility cabinets--Estate Storage Systems, to be precise:

Not only were they cheaper, but we also won't have to refinish them, buy hardware, or buy a counter top.  The only things I'm now prepared to buy are wall paint & contact paper to go over the tops of base cabinets.  I'm so excited!

I just have to decide on color.  I'm thinking a light green or light orange might be fun.  C said no to blue because of the other rooms.  Something like this?  (but lighter)

Or this?

Dear Husband...

Dear Husband, 

If I promise to do laundry (wash, fold, & iron), will you get me this room??:

This will aid tremendously in my desire to wash/fold clothes and will add to my overall happiness--which in turn will lead to a better life for you.  I would probably even spend most of my time in this room which will give you more time to spend playing WoW.  I really don't see any drawbacks here.  

Love,

Your wife

*picture from http://www.zimbio.com/Laundry+Room+Design*

Look what we did on our 3 day vacation!

My eyes were definitely a lot bigger than my pocket.  No new light fixture, no new sink, no new cabinet, no new toilet, & no new tub/shower.  At least not yet.  BUT, I do like how it turned out.  The wall color is definitely a lot darker & bluer than I expected, but I didn't hate it, so it stayed.  After everything was "done" (we still need to touch up some areas & paint the window sill & baseboards) I realized the striking similarity to the office.  :oP  I suppose there's a reason for that--I like the style!  Check out the pics:

Note the mirror with the lovely floral detail.

 

This is my favorite part of the bathroom--I'm not quite sure why I love these light switches so much.

I'm lazy & didn't iron the shower curtain--the steam from showers should get the wrinkles out eventually anyway.  :oP

New blinds!  $15 at Home Depot

This is probably my second favorite.  The tree is a wall decal from Target, the shelves are from target, and the bottle & glass bird is from Pier 1.

We painted the cabinet, mirror, & shelves.  I think the original sink & countertop look okay--well, they have to.  The painting of the mirror didn't work as well as I had hoped.  Thank goodness this picture is forgiving.  We're going to try to take the mirror out of the frame & repaint--if that doesn't work, we'll get a new mirror. 

Yeah, it sucks our entire weekend was spent doing this overhaul, but I really like it & think it was well worth it.  I just hope my husband thinks so too.  

P.S.  C, thank you so much for your help!  I will without a doubt buy you a head set so you can play your geeky WoW game.  :oD

Bathroom re-do

But first!...I bought skyscraper sunflower seeds today. I decided that instead of spending lots o' money this year on vegetable plants that never produce anything, I'll see if I can manage sunflowers. I'm starting them inside, so hopefully they'll have a fighting chance.

Another something cool: the house below ours finally got cleaned up. Think of the typical redneck...that's who lived in this house. It was quite sad because their next door neighbors actually have a very nice house--I'd always say to C, "I'm so glad we don't live next to them." We live above them and that was bad enough. They moved a bunch of concrete bags into the back yard and then left them--their dogs tore them up & it rained on them. Strange. I saw as many as four dogs & 2 cats there. I also saw them beat their dogs. Trash EVERYWHERE. A car that never moved, with among other things, a vacuum cleaner sitting on top. I actually had the huevos to knock on their door once when my dogs got out. Not pleasant. I imagined a house full of animal urine & feces. At any rate, there'd been no activity there for quite some time...since last summer or fall maybe. And then the other day as I was driving home I saw some men cleaning all the junk up...wearing masks. I was overjoyed. I still am. I go outside just to peer down & see how clean it is now. I have no idea how the clean up happened or if it'll go up for sale now. I do know, however, that their next door neighbor's house is now up for sale.

Now on to the real reason for this post: I'm full of brilliant ideas that cost moolah. It just came to me while I was sitting on the couch today. Let's do a black & white bathroom! And ya know what? C loved the idea! Which means I get the go-ahead! (I always get the go-ahead.)

Here's what I'm thinking for the floor:



I'd like to do black & white tile, but more subdued like this kitchen, not dance floor black & white.

With the shower curtain I can go one of two ways: either a subdued black & white like this...


Or a beautiful damask like this:


It really depends on if I do a damask accent wall:


If I'm able to find that kind of wallpaper, I'll go with a simple black and white shower curtain.

And something like this (that adds a punch of color) will go on the wall above the toilet:

I'm not quite sure about the wall color as of yet. Bright white? Muted gray? Definitely not black. Our current toilet is beige, so we'll have to buy a new white toilet. :o) Dual flush?? Definitely. Maybe. White vessel sink a must. Black cabinet.

The next two pictures are pretty close to what I envision:



I hope we get some big money back on our tax return!

The season for home improvements

I can feel Spring right around the corner.

Which is cool, but also not so cool. My brain goes into over-drive with all of the things I'd like to do around the house. With money that we don't have.

• Buy cabinet pull bars (won't do this unless I find a really good deal)

This is what I want (in brushed nickel or whatever our faucet is):

• Put up a backsplash & under cabinet lighting in the kitchen (would do this before buying cabinet pulls)

I'd love to do red, but it might be a bit much for a small kitchen & probably wouldn't be good for resale.



I may end up doing something with a red accent like this:



Who am I kidding?? I'll probably go with whatever's cheapest or not do anything if I can't find anything I like for a price I like.

• Come up with a creative way to draw people to the front door instead of the back door (our drive takes you to the back of the house instead of the front). I'm pretty sure this will involve taking out a good deal of grass and replacing with plantings. If anyone knows of any solutions, I would be thrilled to know--I've searched and searched on the internet and can't find anything specifically for this problem. The easiest thing to do would be to call the back door the front door and the front door the back door.
  
• Along those same lines (& the more permanent fix to the front-back door problem) is to convert the carport to a garage. That would conceal the door and then people would have to use the front door. Don't think that will happen any time soon. Maybe not ever.
  
• Create a patio of some sort in the back to create more entertaining space and integrate the fireplace more fully.
  

This is what I'm thinking:


I can't wait to tell C...I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

The Office Part Deux

We bought the desks, shelves, & bookcase from Ikea & the black storage boxes from Office Depot. There are two boxes I just spray painted black. The paint on the walls turned out a little lot darker than I was hoping for, but it definitely grew on me. I think it makes a nice contrast to the white desks.

I really love our new office & spend more time in here than the rest of the house now. (Callie likes it too.) :o)

Here are the after pics:

P.S. I don't know what those brown bars are in this post. When I go to edit the post they're not there. Annoying, but oh well.

The Office

Ours. Not the tv show.

We decided we needed a total overhaul & boy was it worth it!

Before (After coming soon!):

Why fix what ain't broke??

*

C & I have decided not to sell our house. I can give a thousand reasons why that is, but really, what it boils down to is that we're not financially ready. At least as far as I know. We probably could get the tax credit & maybe use some of the money from selling the house for a down payment on a new one, but neither of those are guarantees.

And really, why do it when we're perfectly fine here? Yeah, it's annoying to try to make everyone feel comfortable when we have parties, but that alone is no reason to buy a new house.

So once we decided we weren't going to pursue it, I then decided I'm on a mission to make our house work for us, not against us.

The office is a mess, so we're going furniture shopping to look for those nice big desk sets with the upper cabinents. Maybe we'll get a book case too. Oh, and we'll do some major purging of junk of course.

The bathroom could use some updating, so maybe we'll buy a new light fixture, mirror, cabinet/sink, new baseboards, & paint. I really would love to get a new toilet & tub, but that may be a little more than we can afford/want to do right now. Especially if we end up having to redo the flooring once we see what's under the current cabinet.

And of course there are other things I'd like to do, like replace the windows, install hardwood/laminate flooring, repaint the exterior. It'd definitely be awesome to convert the carport into a garage! But those are major undertakings & we're not there yet. 10 years? Hopefully we're in a new house by then. ;o)

And right now we have two couches & two chairs in the living room (so people have somewhere to sit when we have parties), which makes for some cramped living. I've decided we're no longer going to have parties during the cold months & can therefore move a couch and chair to the shed to open up some space.

But alas! We have no space in the shed! Why?? Oh, I don't know, maybe because we have 4 mattresses, a dining set, numerous stools, & tons of other crap in there. How can 2 people have so much stuff?? So yeah, I think we'll probably try to sell the mattresses. Maybe. I'm not sure I can part with them just yet. I think: but we'll need them some day! My mom says, "It's not that expensive to buy new sets." She has a point. I'll be sure to work that into our new dandy budget I made for us. ;o)

And then, we're currently using the crappy refrigerator circa 1940 (it's not, but it seems like it) while the nice one is being stored in the carport closet because it's compressor died. I did some more internet searching yesterday, & yes, when the compressor dies, you buy a new one. I was still holding out hope. Well, more appropriately, I didn't trust the maintenance guy's diagnosis that the compressor pooped out. At the same time, I have no way to check his work. Unless of course I wanted to pay someone another $80 to come out and tell me the same thing he did. To the point: if we got rid of the broken fridge, we'd have more room to store things. I'd really like a fridge with the freezer on the bottom. I LOVE those! C, not so much. >o[

I'll end this post here. It's really long & I'm sure boring to my readers. But OH SO EXCITING for me! Obviously, or I wouldn't be blogging about it.

I love change for the good. *sigh*

*Image from marriedtothesea.com

Media storage!

C & I solved our media storage problem. Well really, he did. He had the brilliant idea to remove the coat closet door & install shelving to hold our massive collection of movies (ours) & games (his). Just want to separate myself from the gaming before we begin. :o)

We bought a gallon of red paint for $15, shelving supports for $14 total, black spray paint to paint the supports for $2 total, & 7 shelves for $42 total. We went the cheapest without going the 2x4 route.

Our day off yesterday consisted of removing the door, all closet contents (board games, 1 wire shelf, 2 small book cases, a steam cleaner, gaming consoles, gaming accessories, & massive amounts of dvds), painting the back wall red, installing the seven 37" shelves, alphabetizing the movies, & last but not least, placing them on the shelves in an organized manner.

Oh. My. Gosh. It was like heaven. I love it. I'll post pictures later. And believe it or not, I barely got everything on those shelves. If I could bear to part with my VHS tapes, I think we'd be in good shape, but alas, I cannot. And I admit, my tape collection is pretty bad. Little House on the Prairie? Yeah, sorry, can't get rid of it. The entire tv series of Christy? Yeah, sorry, not gonna happen.

Is there something out there that can put tapes onto dvds? That would be heaven too.

I painted a huge wall in my house in NM red and swore I would never paint with red again. Yeah. I quickly remembered yesterday why that was.

Oh, and I also finished painting C's sidetable. :o/ I was starting to feel bad, so I was determined to finish it. He had been propping his lamp on top of the headboard and when that kept falling he just let it hang there. Poor guy. I never did find a cool wallpaper to put on the top of it, so I think I'll just mod podge a cool piece of fabric to the top.

I think I'll put a halt to the house projects until after our Christmas party. Stoked for it!! I think it'll be a good one.

Wallpaper

I've never been particularly fond of wallpaper; if you've ever had to take wallpaper down, you know what I'm talking about.

And the images that are conjured up in my mind when I think of wallpaper are of roses, lace, awful colors, you know, old people wallpaper.

Design*Sponge has completely change my mind though. I've come to realize that there are some pretty awesome wallpapers out there. And you don't have to use them on all your walls...just one as an accent works great. Or some on the top of an old side table you purchased at a yard sale to repurpose. Or some on the faces of drawers of an old dresser you have.

Which led me to my next question: where the heck do you buy wallpaper? I've never had to buy it before and therefore, have no clue! :oP

Wow.

Check out this before & after (Dominique's Hall) at Design*Sponge. Definitely not your average hall.