YAY! B&B DONE!

I am so SO super excited to show you this project!  It has been in my dreaming stage for much much too long and I am so happy to see it done and looking just as I had hoped! :)  It was actually really quick and painless too, once I found a good tutorial and figured out all the math.  Aaron showed up with an air nailer for the rails install so that definitely sped things up a bit as well!  LOVE that guy!  ...Funny how he disappeared again for the caulking and painting stage though.... ;) So proud of my little laundry room - lookin' less ugly all the time!

LOVE board and batten!

And those three beautiful children on the wall are pretty stinkin' cute too...

Laundry Sneak Peek

Well I wish that our laundry room could be presented with one grandious reveal - with the traditional before and after pic presentations.  But, I think this blog has been very truthful in the reality of my life not at all representing an episode of Divine Design or Sarah's House - and NOTHING is ever finished in one easy motivated attempt.  I have kids, we are not professionals and we have a very limited budget.  Almost everything we do it DIY.  And....I'm a bit of a 'project hopper'.  Instead - I'm thinking this is going to come with about fifteen sneak peeks and a slow slow slow progression.  But today I am happy to announce that my new laundry/mudroom walls - have been painted and some base cabinetry has gone in! K - that seems like ummm....not alot.  but here's the pics....


Before... (you know I like to go back to worst case scenario for the glory shot!...)

To walls....

And now...

And we actually built the two cabinets on either side of the washer and dryer with our own four little hands and just bought the doors so, I'm actually pretty proud of them!  Saved us a ton of moola too!  They had too be higher to prep for the counter top that will eventually span across the length of the back wall.  


Baby steps!....next project I believe is the floor....Tired of trying to scrub cracked concrete clean... :(

Yard Progress II

So once again... 

And I could not be more excited to be lookin' at this now....

I built three little cedar planter boxes and stained them to match our fence.  We're going to use the first two for a few vegetables and the last one is the long anticipated sandbox! Nothing fancy or elaborate but open space and well worth the investment and efforts to finally have a place for the kids to run and play and dig!  

Upholstered Headboard

Thanks to my dad's keen eye for savings and my hesitant decision making skills - we have a large piece of extra plywood sitting in our car port just waiting for a project...!  And I'm all about project creation.  Not necessarily project completion....but project creation....ABSOLUTELY.  So - part one of said plywood has been claimed for our guest room headboard.  To date this has been a glaring hole that bugs me every time I walk in to the room so I'm pretty pumped to fill the gap.  

I was looking for a black velvet-ey look-alike or a charcoal suiting-ish fabric to look fairly tailored with three rows of tufted covered buttons across.  But after doing one...Aaron and I thought it looked finished at that.  Which I was cool with of course, being that meant I was done. :)  It's not permanently installed yet, just propped up and ideally it will sit a couple of inches higher.  But I'm diggin' it.  What do you think?

  

Laundry Room

My dad....not unlike...

came to town last week and we were so so so blessed to have his help in taking our laundry room reno leaps and bounds forward toward completion.  Much like every single renovation to date - the work was grossly underestimated as he and Aaron ended up spending two days moving plumbing, vents, drains, electrical and water lines to accommodate my "quick drywall job".  We were so grateful to have him and his skills here - saving us thousands in labour and filling the glaringly growing black hole between our DIY experience and dreams! :)  

Previous Owner - before cold room was taken out

Progress - In process of removing tiles

Progress - Cold room removed and peel & stick tiles removed

Progress - framing in new walls, extending teenie tiny bathroom for shower

Progress - Framed walls with new plumbing in for shower, washing machine and laundry sink

The glue that held the WHOLE operation together

Progress - Fancy new drywalled space and ceiling!

Progress - Entrance to laundry room - new laundry sink and counter will be on the left side as you enter and beautiful new pot lights down the hallway :)

Can't even tell you how happy I am with all they did!  So excited to keep working on it and get the walls all mudded and painted, new floor and cabinets in, and then a fancy schmancy new countertop for across the top of the washer/dryer cabinets and a laundry sink cabinet in.  Patience....patience....patience....and perhaps another part-time job.... :)

Fireplace Re-Surround

So, the previous owners of our house, ...they built a fireplace surround for the electric insert and, well....

'nuff said.  Yes.  That's actually wallpaper.  AMAZING.


So, be it that we can't afford to replace it at this time and we like having the extra heat for the basement -  this is my quest to prettify it.

Since the wallpaper revealed a mixture of odd lumbar, drywall, and panelling - they obviously had "wallpapering" in mind - none of the sides were flat.  So, I boxed it in with some MDF for a little more interest and put solid plywood panels on the side so it was paintable.  I then primed the sides and front columns.


And my amazing husband laid ceramic tile around the insert.

The top had had been tiled and trimmed with wood baseboards.  Mmmmm.


So - we put a new top on it and just painted out the insert with black flat paint.  and now...

and this is where I'm stuck.  it looks deceiving finished from the front but the moulding is just currently tacked...cause,....turns out....I SUCK at cutting crown moulding.  thus, the sides don't line up with the front - which incidentally was cut too short - ummm,... twice - and thus is remains the view from the sides.  SO SAD.... :(

so - back to the store for yet another six foot piece of moulding - happy I picked the cheap stuff..... :)

Ana-White's Shout Out! :)

So - SUPER excited to get a little mention by the amazing Ana White on her post today! :)  Cannot say enough good things about her and her blog.  Total inspiration! Please, if you have not checked her out - do it now!  I can honestly say that were it not for her easy to follow plans and assurance that I too can build furniture (because yes, I believe that she was talking directly to me....!)  - umm....would still be relying on my husband to hang the pictures.  But as it stands - here are a few things I have built with my very own two hands....and a lot of my husband's tools that I previously loathed to pay for and have sitting around my quest for a clean house. :)

and FYI -  my sister is a huge superstar....  and she too has started building and built this entry bench (umm - FIRST projects?? AMAZING) and an beautiful headboard that I need to steal some pics of for y'all....  So good hey?  Love it!

outdoor bench

Thanks again to my good friend Ana White at Knock-Off Wood (k - i MAY be one of those 'friends' that follows you around the schoolyard and you don't REALLY know exist - but yeah - )....here's our latest building project!  We used up the left over cedar sitting in the scrap pile from our new fence. A pretty new outdoor bench seat.  Mmmm... free! :)

Love having the extra seating on our deck....now just gotta finish the pillows...


Have a great night!.....


Ralna

Toy Storage - Part II

Last night I finished part two in my quest to organize my two year old and four year old.  (that's doable right??  - oh a girl can dream....)  So I first found my inspiration and plans at a little website I visit - oh about three times a day - called Knock-Off Wood.  Completely inspiring and empowering.  And gotta say - I had no idea I could use power tools, but they're a whole lot more fun than a needle and thread.  


So - this is the new designated area for craft/coloring world.  This is in attempts to get it off my kitchen table, bedroom floors, coffee table, couch, kitchen floor, staircase (a personal favorite) and family room floor.

So - this is wood working project number three.  But I've got big plans for that Ana White and I!  She's seriously a superstar!  Next I believe will be a shelf for above the new craft desk and some storage lockers for our mudroom.  But,...well...you saw that room a few days ago...and I guess there's no rush on those. :)


Have a great day...


Ralna

A Million Miles of Fence

Umm...so, we have a seriously seriously big yard.   K - actually we don't.  But we have this air conditioned house and this super comfy couch and yeah....it's pretty great. :) 
'Cause it's summer and super hot and we also live close to this...

and this....

And well...we've also seen a lot of these...

Oh I joke....kinda....  
you know who you are. ;)


So it may have taken us three weeks from actual *technical starting date to completion date,....but look at us now...

Before

 And After

But to be fair - us being the eager rookies that we are,...did paint the first several days of the process with this.... 

before we found out they have THESE!  

YOWZA!  Who knew??


Have a great night all...


Ralna