Creative Rayne

Sometimes I screw up...

2013-07-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

In the land of Pinterest everything seems so perfect and makes you want to make new things and paint old things... and for some people work out, but I try to stay away from that stuff. So when I came across this little gem I knew I could redo it with some good old fashioned spray paint!

I love spray paint and I have tried a lot of spray paint brands, but I find Rustoleum to be my favorite. So I stopped by the Home Depot after I picked this baby up and bought Rustoleum paint in LAGOON!

I love the color, but I wanted something more than blue, I WANTED CHEVRON!!! Then I decided I wasn't going to be able to do a straight chevron so I decided, I WANTED HERRINGBONE!!! SOOO I painted it grey...

Then I was all, grey is boring... I'll make the sides Lagoon!

So I tried to figure out the best way to make a herringbone pattern and I started with some stripes. I knew there was no way I'd make them perfectly straight, but kind of straight is good enough for me.

I was excited at this point, mainly because it was the day before my birthday and I was hoping to finish it as a present to myself. That of course did not happen! I started on the herringbone deciding I'd make the triangles get smaller and smaller as they went towards the bottom. I even put some magnets on the back of my ruler so I would stop losing it on the ground and top of the cabinet. I was being so productive and taking my time!

And then it happened, after hours and hours of work on it... I pulled off the tape.

DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!

I HATE IT!!!

It makes me sad just looking at the craziness and the ... I don't know I just don't like it. So after a day of being mad at it for being stupid, I hand sanded it so I wouldn't show my horrible herringbone through my paint. Then I did what I should have done in the first place, I painted it all LAGOON. I still love the name of the color.

This was actually my first coat and I have put another on it, but I needed to look at it and see what I could use to make it better. It's not done yet but I plan of replacing the legs since they are bent from someone pushing the heavy beast around and making a stencil to add a little something to it...

Not sure what...

When It Rains It Pours... In my house

2013-07-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

I had been working on a couple things in between the day to day stress of having all three kids at home and some money issues going on when it comes to Jonathan's job. So I have been super stressed and a little here and there over the last month, but on Monday night my work load was overloaded with a rainstorm.

I had been watching my nephew all day and was waiting for the hubs to get home so we could go get a new vacuum (and dinner) since mine had went psycho a couple days before and my carpet was getting filled with dirt... and food from roaming eaters. Soon as we left the house it started to rain, a pouring rain that you could verily see to drive. I was desperate to get out of the house though and the weather radar said it was a cloud right over our area so we pushed on and the rain ended within a couple miles of our house. It was a great night, we ate dinner and we spent a little while in the vacuum isle at Target just trying to figure out which vacuum we wanted.

When we got home there was a hole in a cement block in our basement where a wire came through the wall and a window had been busted out from the flying concrete block. We really had no idea what was happening and then when we found water in the basement we were freaking out even more. The water was coming from the top floor out of our bathroom, through the ceiling and the walls in the living room, and then puddling in the basement. We cut the water off and called the insurance company immediately. We had a lightning strike and it messed up our PS3, Roku, Directv recievers, Wiis, garage door opener, and the pool pump to our Intex Pool.

It was great since they sent ServPro over as soon as they could. They came in and pulled our carpets up and removed the padding underneath since they are basically "sponges." Then they put 2 fans and a dehumidifier in each of the affected rooms. The living room...

And the bathroom...

It was kind of annoying since they were very loud, but so worth not having mold growing in our walls.

They also cut holes in the popcorn ceilings to make sure everything dried in between the floors.

We were lucky that it only took about 48 hours to dry the whole house out, but the ServPro guy didn't think that lightning could have caused the water to leak. So my husband took a day off work to do his man stuff... or hulk stuff because he would get angry and stuff would break.

First he broke the counter top while trying to pry it off, then he ignored everything I tried to tell him to do (I know everything about this since I watch hours of DIY Network) and then he had to remove the vanity.

SOOOO after prying out 30 or so giant nails he ended up breaking the vanity... and then this happened. It's still outside I believe, there has been more people at our house in the last week then in the last couple months and there is a busted vanity in the front yard. (Alaya is always photobombing my pics)

The vanity was not very happy with what was happening to him... I believe it's a him.

I made this face a lot that day too...

So why was our water leaking after a lightning strike??? Well we turned on the water to find the leak and it was in this piece of wood :(

Then after once again ignoring me Jonathan cut through the flooring instead of going in the ceiling and he found the leak...

You see that black marking around the hole? It was near an electrical line and it scorched the line and put a nice little hole in the pipe.

So here I am, minus one counter top, one vanity, and a couple of electronics, and plus two holes in the ceiling, one hole in the garage, one busted window, and one hole in my bathroom floor... and I'm not sure what our next step is. I am just happy we have home owners insurance to help us with our next step.

Orange and White Dressers

2013-07-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have been slowly adding pieces to Mason's room over the last year, but there was one thing in his room that was driving me absolutely insane, his dresser! I had done that thing were I needed storage in his room and I needed it now, so I bought crappy new cheap furniture. I went to target and picked up the Room Essentials Dresser in White and started to put it together. I broke a piece in an hour, then couldn't get the back on, then it sagged in the middle. It was sad and doesn't store as many clothes as I hoped. The kids also try to climb the drawers and well... the plastic bottoms popped out :(

So I went to my best friend, Craigslist. I had found a couple things I liked, but then they would be gone before I had a chance to get them. It seems the Birmingham area is full of handy/crafty people because all the good stuff is gone within hours. So when I came upon two vintage dressers for 100 bucks, I was sure they were gone. So I nervously emailed and then, they were available! The lady was so nice and I picked them up the next week at her yard sale. Mason was incredibly excited about the purchase and posed with his new dressers.

I'm sure when I showed all my friends they thought I was insane and at points I thought I was going a little crazy. I had decided I wanted ORANGE! The brightest orange I could get with crisp white! SO I started by stripping the varnish... it looked like a whole lot of snot all over the place.

Then I sanded what was left smooth. The varnish was dry and a little chippy so I ended going down to mostly wood so the paint would stick right. Then with a primer and a brush I got stared. If I could go back I'd use a foam roller! I started with a roller half way through and it took so little time.

ALSO! Sand the primer drips and rough spots before adding a different color of paint! While sanding some of the orange I would sand down to white and realize it was a missed primer drip.

My helpers were out and about in the sun playing and trying to mess up my orange as much as they could. I used Valspar Paint and Primer in Autumn Blaze. When I posted this picture on Facebook, I was sure the orange shocked everyone.

I was overly excited about the project that even while I was stuck inside while the girls napped, I thought about the dressers. The view from the upstairs, looking down on my project area.

My biggest hurdle while doing the projects is Alaya. Mason and Shila keep busy with chalk and slides, but Alaya has to be contained and that doesn't work for her.

But after a couple days of paint coats and poly to protect it from my children, I was finished, and so happy! The knobs that came with it even worked great!

So what do you think? Amazing right? I think so!

And I promise to stop using my phone to take all my pictures, but these projects are a couple months old and it's all I had at the time. Instagram has ruined me!

Step Into the Light

2013-07-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

My living room is depressing and sad. My dad thinks it is perfect with it's old paneling but he doesn't spend most of his relaxing time in the dungeon.

So I finally gave in and started to paint the living room, surrounded by 3 kids and a little help from my 14 year old niece. I started with trim and made it sparkling white, well after about 3 coats.

It was crazy how much of a difference just he trim made, so I was so excited about painting the rest. Not to mention, I got lucky... like really lucky! I found 2 gallons of Valspar Gravity paint at Lowe's in the oops paint section! I snatched those suckers ups so quick!

I had no idea how long it was going to take to paint the paneling. Just to give you a description, it was fuzzy. You could feel the wood and it had a fuzzy/splintery texture. I also had to use a brush to paint all the knots and the very deep lines between the boards. I was still cooking dinner, getting kids to take naps, and referring fights.

But it was so worth it! Alaya is my personal model to show how much more livable the living room is after an airy paint job!

Let There Be End Tables!

2013-07-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

It seems that after all the items I have built, that I would be some sort of professional, but I'm not. I am a procrastinator and ~~a little~~ really lazy. I always have all these plans and things I need to do, but I rather just sit around and play with the kids or watch some Netflix. I try to get up and do things that make me feel complete, so I needed some end tables to put my glass of sweet tea so I asked for lumber for Mother's Day. My husband, Jonathan, has refused lumber as a gift for a year or two now, but he has finally given in and let me have what I want. So I started on some Truss End Tables, with a couple of changes I made along the way.

I was so proud of these two, they were simple and so pretty. It took me a couple hours to put them together.

The Rustoleum Kona stain made them even better and the poly made them shine. I was so excited that soon as they were dry I ran one, well slowly waddled because it was heavy, to the house to see what it looked like!

Then I remembered the thing called a measuring tape. I had measured how long I wanted the table to be but forgot about the height and how short my couch was. Enter the mind cursing one more time! I am always distracted and in a rush to get something done that I screw it all up! So, I put them back in my shed and let them set there for an hour while I cooled off.

I later went to the shed, ripped them apart (the glue destroyed them a bit) and then started cutting down and redoing everything! And BAM! I got it to fit perfectly. I didn't put the trusses back on because I couldn't get them to work right, but I love it like this. Alaya and Shila are known to hide under there and at some point I want to put trays under there as a shelf. Do you like my walls? I'll post on those also.

The Coffee Table

2013-07-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

When we bought our first house one of our first purchases was a sectional that did not hold up well to my jumping kids. They ripped the cushions at the seams by sliding down them onto the seats. Mason was known to walk across the back and then use the "slide" in certain spots, so the ripping happened in two different locations. Luckily the warranty covered it and we were able to pick out a new sectional. I don't know why I went with a new sectional, because I didn't like the sectional in our small living room anyways. This time I decided to get an OTTOMAN! I guess I wasn't thinking about all the jumping and bucking that happens in our house, because I would have known to not get an ottoman with my kids in the house. So our new couch was destroyed, it began to sag in a couple years due to the newly added trampoline. It was also stained and just plain icky. I hated when people sat down and seemed to just fall into the couch.

So we got a new one, one with a sofa bed so when our family comes down we have an extra place for guests.

The bed also makes up for the fact that Mimi and Pawpaw live with us when they are not in Illinois, so sleepovers happen via the living room! They bed to sleep there nightly.

With a new couch, I needed a new coffee table and I'm not known to buy anything that I can make. So like any normal diy-er wanting to build a coffee table, I went to Ana-white.com and found The Rustic X Coffee Table. I had actually been eyeing it for a while, but finally decided to take it on.

It started off easy enough, a simple frame and I was on a roll!

Then I made it to the X and I was stuck... really stuck. I got this piece to work after a lot of mess ups and I couldn't get the other piece to look straight. I had so many cuss words I wanted to say, but Shila kept me in check. So I sat there and sat there and looked at other people's beautiful X tables and then tried more pieces of wood.

Then like a miracle out of no where, The Triple Truss Coffee Table was posted during my mini melt down. It was like a calling from the diy gods, I was meant to make a simpler version of the table.

It is nice, I know. I love it so much! Of course I had to stain and poly it. So I used a Rust-oleum stain in Kona. I ended up using a q-tip to get the stain down into the pocket holes. I had to stain inside because I have the 3 kiddos and I pushed being outside a little too much.

And here it is, the finished project! Along with a sneak peak at the end tables I made later on.

Shila's Room Part 3: Shower Curtain... Curtains...

2013-05-03T12:39:00.001-07:00

So I'm not much of a planner and not very organized, in other words I am random. I had been trying to figure out Shila's curtain situation for a little while and was going to end up just going white sheers to give it a clean look, but sometimes I find better things. So in a random shopping spree my mom talked me into going to JcPenney before a doctor's appointment and I found what I had been looking for.

CAKE! Okay so cake was the start of the good trip, but I found something better since the cake was a little too sugary for my taste, but not Shila's taste.

This shower curtain contained all the colors I wanted to add to Shila's room and had a fun hand drawn look to it, and there were two of them! Even better...

Clearance prices always make me smile and I was all grins knowing I could cover 2 windows for 10 bucks! So as my mom stared at me like I was crazy, I don't get my resourceful decorating skills from my mother, I purchased both shower curtains and took them home.

The next part was incredibly simple that even a crappy sewer could do it, me being the crapper sewer that is. Since it was nicely folded by the factory I was able to find the center of the curtain easily and just used the already pressed fold to cut it into the two curtains. Then hemmed the cut edges. Then with some spare ribbon I had left over from Shila's Rapunzel birthday party, I tied up the curtains.

And might I say, I LOVE THEM!

Shila's Room Part 2: Painting a Little Girl's Room (Not Pink)

2013-03-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm in slow motion lately, I start to get things done and then I end up in a dead stop and waiting weeks to finish. I am so happy to be working on Shila's room since she has been stuck in her brother's room for almost a year and it is far from girly. If it was up to Shila her entire room would be covered in pink and princesses but I know she won't love princess forever and a load of pink might make me a little dizzy when I go in to play. So I wanted something colorful and bright, which defiantly reminds me of my lively 3 year old. So I went on a trip to Lowe's and looked through the paint samples and came across the perfect color.

It's called Dive In by Valspar and it is beautiful.
I've learned over the years the best thing to do is prep the space before you start painting. File in any holes and sand any rough spots, but our walls were hole free and professionally painted before we moved in so my big step was taping. It takes a little while and is pretty boring, but it is a must! And if you really want a clean line, by the green tape. I've tried all of them and haven't had a better edge than with my frog tape. In fact I still have to redo the dining room from where my beautiful navy blue bled through the blue tape.

So after a lot of tape and plenty of plastic on the floor I started with one wall at a time. I trim out a wall and then use a roller to paint. This helps keep from a distinctive line around the trim from your paint drying and not blending. I also do it to feel like I completed something since I have to take many breaks checking on, feeding, and giving naps to the kids. This was were I got before my kids decided they were starving.

But withing a couple hours I was done! And I must say I love it so much. It goes great with all the pink things she wants in her room.

Now time to get the bed in!

Shila's Room Part 1: Making a Camp Loft Bed

2013-02-18T13:55:00.001-08:00

It's a little sad to say that we have lived in our house for 10 months and my 3 year old daughter is still bunking in Mason's room. For the longest her room has been a toy warehouse that we don't even really look at anymore. So I finally got up the nerve to start on it. So during all the playing I have to keep in the back of my mind that even though this is Shila's room, she will one day be joined by her little sister, Alaya, so I might as well design with her in mind too. Even though I am known to change me mind on design constantly, I hope to make it were I would only need minimal changes to make me happy, I mean Shila...

Most smart people start with the paint, but I couldn't do something like that, I started with the bed! Shila had been telling me for months that she wants an up-bed like Mason so all I had to go on was she wanted have a bed where she climbed something to get into it. That is scary when I think about Shila, she is known to be clumsy.

When she was 2 years and 2 days we went on our daily walk to Mimi's house. I also took pictures on our walks through the country. Isn't she a doll, this kid is the cutest!

Well on the way back she started running and I yelled "Don't run! You'll fall!" Then she fell and busted her lip open. We spent the evening in the ER and 4 stitches later she looked like this.

It was a long and horrible night but luckily she verily has a scar and when she gets older a little lipstick will cover it.

Then last year she was feeding the dogs with her daddy, she was sitting on the four wheeler while her daddy watered the dogs when she decided to climb off. She successfully got off the four wheeler, but broke her arm in the process. So a sad couple of nights in the hospital and a couple lovely drawings from Mason.

She spent her 3rd birthday like this...

Soooo, I don't know about bunk beds. Luckily I have and obsession with Ana White and spend hours looking at her page and planning all the things I can make but don't have the time too. I came across her plans for the Camp Loft Bed with Stairs and I knew it was meant to be. Then I procrastinated for months until I got a 50 dollar gift card for Lowe's and decided that was the perfect incentive to build her bed. So with the help of my dad I loaded all the lumber and kreg jig screws I needed and got started on the build.

I started the project alone, but was soon criticized by my dad that I didn't perfectly level every thing so this is what I did by myself. It looks good to me!

Then my dad, Barney, stood by just to help hold things and include jack-A comments about what I was doing, but in my family sarcasm is how we show love. He was pretty helpful...

Don't ask me why, but once I finished the bed and everyone came to see it, I really wanted a picture with my girls. I had been out in the dirty shed for hours and had no makeup and verily even brushed my hair, but if I waited to take pictures every time I looked amazing, I wouldn't have any. So this is my glee to know I spent the day making something for two of the loves of my life and they seemed to enjoy it too.

Shila did more than Alaya!

Even Dottie loved it.

Now to finish the sanding, filling, and painting :( Alaya was my helper when it came to spraying the bed, not really she just watched me set up.

BAM! White bed! I love having a paint sprayer! It makes the process so simple, I just spray, sand, spray, sand. It takes a lot less time then with a brush or roller.

Isn't it beautiful???

Duct tape table

2013-02-08T19:17:00.001-08:00

Just let me apologize that the pictures aren't the best. There are two pictures that were taken years ago and the rest are from my phone since Shila has stolen my SD card for the millionth time.

Okay so sometimes I just get hit with genius, well what I think to be really good ideas. My husband usually stares at me like I'm an idiot when I start talking about what I can make or do, but he is a good sport and usually just says okay. The main reason is that I usually do things by myself unless I really get stuck or frustrated. So one day a couple years ago I was with Shila, she was maybe 1 and a half, and we were going through our local thrift store when she saw something she had to have.

Oh yes a Wall-E table and chairs for tea parties. It is a great set, no tears or broken pieces, but it's yellow and has Wall-E on it! So I went to Walmart one day and found a table cloth and cut it up and put it on table and presto! great table and chairs!

THENNNN WE GOT CATS! And before I knew it the cats had found the perfect place to claw it's nails into. Before we knew it they had pulled giant holes out of the table cloth and it looked like this.

It was pretty gross and it sat like this for awhile. So one day I was at Michael's and I stared at the duct tape for a couple minutes. So I bought 2 colors, white and pink, and started to work out how I was going to use them. Like most people, I am obsessed with chevron patterns. I find myself wanting to do a chevron pattern on anything but I have not put it into my house yet, so I thought this would be perfect way.

So I unscrewed all the pieces I wanted to fix and removed all of the nasty table cloth parts. With the chairs I just started by covering a top corner with one piece of tape and working out from then. The best tip is to use a good pair of scissors, mine were HORRIBLE and took longer than it should.

Isn't it beautiful! I still needed to respray the metal pieces, but I'm the only person who seems to see the yellow popping out. The table was the hard part that need some real thought and .... math :(

So I pulled out the ruler and pen and got started with a simple triangle and worked from there.

It took an hour and a half, in the middle of the night, on my bed, to get it finished but I really enjoyed the process. When I was done I was really happy with how it turned out and Shila was even more excited.

Ugggg so much better!

The Nursery

2012-09-22T08:02:00.003-07:00

My colors for the nursery are kid of bright, so the wall color was going to have to be more of a neutral and currently I am obsessed with grey. So I got some low VOC paint and a mask and got to work. My parents watched the kids and my husband mowed the yard.

Then the husband got involved and helped me install my peg board organizer above the changing area.

So I went to the Home Depot and got some organizing baskets for the pegboard and made a place for all my changing nick nacks.

It makes my life so much easier and I used the spare felt to make flowers to girly it up a bit.

And my inspiration, the chevron quilt I made for my sweety. It's not perfect but it means a lot to me.

Making A Pom Pom Mobile

2012-09-20T08:03:00.001-07:00

So I am addicted to Pinterest, like most women are, and I was obsessed with pinning ideas for Alaya's nursery. So when trying to come up with an idea for a mobile I came across The Winthrop Chronicles and their Pom Pom Tutorial and knew that this is what I wanted to do for the nursery.

And it took FOREVER! You have to cut out circles, then fold the circles, then burn yourself with hot glue. I love a hot glue gun, but I'm horrible at burning myself with glue. I will one day be able to rob a bank and leave no finger prints because I'm very close to burning all of them off.

My original idea way I was going to use yellows and pinks in the room since I had already made a quilt for her (her background in the month by month pictures.) But then I came along some turquoise storage bins at Lowe's and decided to turquoise to my color scheme.

I used a embroidery hoop to hang them from and Shila had some problems with that.

Poor curly headed girl.

So when I finally finished, it looks like this.

I hope you like it.

Painting a Crib

2012-09-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Okay so around late April or early May, I was freaking out. This was what my nursery looked like and I was due to have a baby June 22. So i decided to get to work.

My sister gave me her old changing table and crib since I had been planning to redo an old crib, but I couldn't find a yard sale crib set that I liked. This is the before.

Then I pulled out my orbital sander and attacked that thing! I just needed to get the glossy finish off of it since I was planning on painting it.

I also had some great helpers. Shila spent the time either walking Dottie or trying to talk me into letting her paint.

She usually gets what she wants, I mean look at those chub cheeks. I can't help it sometimes.

I used Valspar's Multi Purpose Primer to make sure the paint sticks. This stuff is thick! Almost like a goo instead of a paint, but that makes it stick great.

This was after one coat with a sponge roller and a brush for the cracks.

Then we took a 4-wheeler break!

And the second coat really covered all the dark spots that might have showed through when we put on the color.

So I started out by painting the pink on with a brush, it was taking forever!!

So I finally got up the nerve to try out the Christmas present my husband had bought me.

So I set up a painter's canvas and some plastic and made myself a spray station. When I first showed my husband this picture, he was so mad at me. I guess my forgetfulness made him think that I sprayed the metal shed pink. I don't know why he'd think I would do something so crazy, I guess because the deck at our old house has white paint drops all over it ;)

I'll post the finished project in my Nursery reveal!

A Busy Life

2012-09-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

So, my plans were to start a blog on all the stuff I love to do, but with a pregnancy and 2 kids, I was exhausted! I managed to do a couple things but never got around to posting them. In June I was to the point I would just lay around and complain for hours at a time, it was hot and I was tired. Then on June 18th I was induced and brought an amazing little girl into the world.

Alaya Jolee was born at 7:05 P.M. at 6 pounds 2 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long,

So my time has been spent with a verrryyyy spoiled baby.

Today she is 3 months and 1 day old, so here are our month by month pictures :)

She's a chunk!

Mason started Kindergarten!

Then after that it's been hectic the last couple weeks! We had the AC unit go out and get replaced, stomach viruses, colds, a friend that passed, and then Shila broke her arm :(

My poor baby girl.

So now I'm taking care of a baby, my little girl with her broken arm, and taking a boy back and forth from school. SOOOOOOOO hopefully I'll be posting projects soon!

All The Before Pictures

2012-04-26T05:59:00.001-07:00

Okay so I've been a little stressed out lately. In my mind my house would be perfectly me instantly, but it's still a 70's house. So I thought I'd spend some time just posting pictures of its 85% awesomeness and then of course its 15% seventies wonderland. My sister was down today and her love of some of the stuff I hated made me laugh, so I try not to offend anyone with how horrible I think some of the stuff is.

To the upstairs bathroom!

Above you can see the beautiful cabinets and wallpaper in the kid's bathroom upstairs. The cabinets are well bit but old and dirty. The wallpaper just brings out a dirty look in the tile.

Ignore the mess, I was messing with wallpaper stripper, yay! Don't you love my bamboo medicine cabinets, I didn't even notice them until after we moved it. In the end the bathroom just feels small and dark with all the dark dirty wood.

Ahhh the master bath. The sheer number of windows and very busy wallpaper can make one feel a little dizzy, but it has so many good things. A double closet with plenty of room and a double sink with a vanity area in between. Our previous house was a 1 bathroom so the luxury of my own bathroom beats all the cons.

The master bedroom is a nice size, I still haven't pulled out my measuring tape to get an exact size but you can see that we threw our king size bed in there no problem. Besides that I haven't even had a chance to hang curtains or get a bed skirt. My husband doesn't seem to mind though. The couple things I'd like to point out:

The headboard is an old door

The nightstands are made of scrap wood

I tried spray painting the lampshades (Fail)

This is my Shila's room, I know its just got toys in it. She shared a room with her brother all her life so she has nothing of her own. It's a large room that one day both my girls will share.

Here is my helper, Shila, in Mason's room, well technically their shared room since she sleeps and plays in there. I made those bunk beds at the old house. They are a little beat up now but they work great. Shila just saw the picture and said "Wow that's my cool bed!"

This small room is the nursery, you should be able to tell by the small onsie on the box, besides that I haven't done much. Now all the rooms boring-ness is starting to overwhelm me.

This is where I spend of our time, toys, TV, and computer take up this room not to mention the darkest paneling in the world. Its also fuzzy and splintery. If I had the cash I would rip it down and put up dry wall like in the rest of the house, but I don't so I won't.

This is going to be the living/dining/kitchen area for my parents. They will be splitting time between Illinois and here and its cheaper if they just live with me.

Their kitchenette, I find it so cool that I had to add a close up. It has a stove, sink, and fridge. This saved me before we got our new fridge.

The parent's bedroom and plenty of room for a queen bed and a dresser. Besides that there is nothing interesting in this room.

The downstairs bathroom, the tile is grey so I find this bathroom to be my favorite. There was no mildew stains which I'm still fighting in the kid's bathroom. Its a good size with a linen closet hidden behind the door.

The entrance to my house! Its beautiful as long as you don't look directly at the tile, you may get a little dizzy. The dresser is stuck in here until strong men move it for me. This dresser once served as my island in my old house but with a little refinishing it will be BRIGHT PINK and in Shila's room. The picture's on the wall were me just playing with old picture I had.

Plenty of storage in this room too.

Ahh the empty living room not to mention the never used elliptical since I'm 32 weeks pregnant and too tired to even finish putting up the last things in here. So the workout is not happening until my body is free of carrying a baby in it.

My once beautiful dining room table. Its been beat and bruised and painted on. Used for anything that involves standing to get something high. Currently a chair is in the living room being used as a computer chair, it is my everything set.

The kitchen is nice, the cabinets are old and dated but very sturdy and have lots of storage. They need to be painted on the inside and the pulls are not pretty. Oh can you see me house keys hanging above the wall ovens? Yeah my mom placed those there and didn't tell me. They are out of my line of sight and it took me forever to find them.

The giant fridge we just bought! I need a large fridge with our future of a family of 5 with 2 live in grandparents. Plenty of counter top space.

My beautiful window with broken pieces, floral wall paper, smeared windows, and the trash bags and boxes from the rest of the house. I know amazing how I haven't managed to tackle so many things. It seems like my days have gotten shorter.

Well that's it for now. It was late when I took the pictures so I was too scared to venture into the basement. Maybe I'll have more later.

About Me

2012-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm supposed to start a blog with an ABOUT ME. So fun to talk about myself...

Well my name is Jenny and I am a proud stay at home mom of two amazing kids

Mason: 5 years

Shila: 2 years old

Not to mention I am currently 31 weeks pregnant with my third child, Alaya Jolee, who is due June 20th, 2012. So when my husband, Jonathan, and I found out that we were prego with baby number three, we were a little freaked out because we were stuffed in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house on the river. Its around 900 sq feet and we were already busting at the seams. Still we were planning to live there until we found the perfect house for us and then in January we found it, our ~~dream house~~! Well I think a dream house would be in perfect condition, so we found it, our REALISTIC dream house! And I had excitement, stress, depression, and every other emotion during closing. My mind was constant, "Can we really afford it? What if something happens? What if it falls apart when we have it?" I'm the worrier, Jonathan is the calm one. So now we are the official owners of a giant beautiful house.

I know, pretty much perfect.

So now comes the super exciting part, I get to start decorating! So I started this blog to keep up with all the updates and crafts I do in the new house to make it more of a home. So one room at a time I plan on redoing and re-inventing things until my house is perfect... well kind of perfect.