Eye on the Prize

Nate thinks I am crazy/unrealistic to do this (I stalk the local house listings, looking for our next house) but i cant help it! I know he is right, but c'mon, its my passion to see spaces become beautiful and livable again! And I know we have to wait at least one year, because otherwise we have to pay back our home buyer credit... but I still have fun dreaming, and secretly hoping somehow we can still buy one. I may be torturing myself, but i love it :)

This is my latest find. I love Zeeland, but with not much to choose from in the style I like, Holland may be the future for me.. but what potential this home has. I am giddy with the idea of kitchen & bath demo and wallpaper removal.

And just look at that bay window and fireplace, plus the high ceiling, trim, oh how i could go on...The floor plan actually shows that this has TWO kitchens? For real?!

Be still my beating heart! So if there is anyone out there who wants to buy this house with me and fix it up, let me know :) I am ready for some late night projects!

Handle Time

Once again, this week I broke out my all time favorite home improvement tool.... spray paint!
I have lost count of how many of my projects or things in my home are now rattle canned... so why not one more?
Here was what a couple of the door knobs on our main floor looked like

 A couple light coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint later, all done!

Turned out pretty good. I really wanted to get them on before I went to bed so we could close the door to our stairs tomorrow (otherwise Sophie can push the door open, even if it is just a millimeter open and ends up on our bed all day...). I may have been in a touch of a rush though, they were just a little tacky yet and i left a slight finger print on one of them. Oh well, i think you have to be standing one inch away to even notice!

Guest Room Re-do

Recently I felt the urge to update our guest bedroom. I didn't like anything going on in there and we still didn't have side tables or lamps. Just a bed and some shelves, we are so good to our guests, right? I don't have a before pic and it is still a work in progress!

 New side tables (spray painted black-super cheap from Hobby Lobby of all places!), lamps from Ikea (already owned), printed off some floral images on photo paper to mimic the design on the bedspread and framed in cheap matted pictures frames (from Target), new bedspread (Target), new curtains (also Target, but already owned the sheer ones).

 The mirror was hauled up from basement. It was left by the original owners in the half bath on our main floor but I spray painted the frame black to match the tables. The shelves have been in that spot since we moved in (originally got it on closeout from Target). I really want to paint the room a different color but I got the stink eye from the hubs so that will have to wait for now...

Corner Counter

Our last project for the laundry room is completed. We had this awkward space next to our dryer that was hard to figure out what to do with.

We decided to use some left over butcher block from our kitchen to make our own custom storage. I owe Nate a big high-five for this one as he did a great job! He cut the block down to size and created the base with the shelve. I then painted the base and found some baskets to slide in.

We were gong to add a piece of trim under the base of he butcher block to finish it off, but will see if we get around to it since it doesn't look too bad without it actually! So eager to have this extra storage and the counterspace. Ah, the things married women get excited about...

Laundry Light

I was recently inspired by pinterest and a random home improvement blog I follow (ok, kinda religiously. you can see the post here) to make pretty much the cheapest/coolest light ever. I have had the inspiration pinned on one of my pinterest boards for quite awhile. But it wasn't until the young house love post that I felt inspired to make my own clothespin chandelier! We had replaced the old light in our laundry with a traditional plain domed one, but still had two ancient lights still left hanging in our back entry (we had kind of run out of steam and since we had only one more new dome light left, we just threw the extra one down in the basement- they came in two packs so we couldn't really return it). WELL, I decided i would move the laundry room light and join it with it's long lost cousin from the basement into the back entry and make my spectacular laundry room light (drumroll please..) for less than $6 total! Yes, that's right. And it was super simple and easy. I ran out to our local dollar store to pick up my items:

Yes, that is a pink trash can. I got the trash can and several packages of clothespins for $5-something (lost the receipt already), we already had the spray paint on hand so that was free. I quick gave the trash can a few coats of white spray paint, clipped on my clothespins, and snipped away the bottom to end up with this:

I just used fishing line to attach it to the light fixture- it was the "base" of one of the old fixtures i took from the back entry. I used the scews that used to hold the glass part of the light on as hooks for my fishing line and voila! a new $5 light shade.

curtain call

i did these a few months ago when i purchased my first sewing machine, a singer pixie plus, and i love it! It is small yet gets the job done (so i have only done "straight" lines so far but for me it is great!) Even though I love the tall windows in our laundry room that look over our backyard, with the new deck you were looking right into the back of our washer & dryer. The old windows are single pane and even with the storm windows they might as well be screens so I was hoping the curtains might help a little with the electrical bills.

 

 So I picked out the most floral covered fabric Nate would allow and got to work, sewing together four rectangle boxes to hang with tension rods that (bonus!) i found in the basement that the previous owners had left behind.

 

 I may have lost my view but I honestly don't think it gets as hot in there as it has been before!

The Little Things

Sometimes, the little changes make a big difference. Nobody will likely notice, but I know so that makes it worth it :) Thanks to my recent love of spray paint, i decided to tackle a little project on the front of our hosue that took about 30 minutes total (disassemble, paint, re-assemble) and $7.
Before pic of our lovely front entry:

 And with a little spray paint later:

All together, the mailbox, numbers, and light got a mini face lift! I am pretty happy with how they turned out and pleased that they all match now. (yes, I gave myself a pat on the back)