Sneak Peek

There have been lots of exciting things happening at our house this week and I can't wait to show you the finished results. Until then, I'll give you these sneak peek pictures of what I found at the house today when I got home.

I took these pictures of the painters right when I got home while I was out with Minnie. Then I left them alone and came upstairs to our bedroom, fully aware that they were right outside my windows. Minnie and I got settled in on the bed, her snoozing and me playing on the laptop. The painters were pretty easy to tune out, seeing as how we don't really speak the same language. I guess I had gotten really into uploading my pictures because when my balcony door opened, Minnie and I both jumped! It's not everyday someone opens your balcony door from the outside while you're sitting on your bed. Creepy! Turns out he was ready to paint the door and needed it to be cracked open. I'm just glad he didn't start painting that door ten minutes earlier when I was changing my clothes. Minnie and I decided to relocate to the kids' playroom.

The week's projects got off to a rocky start. Our new front door was supposed to be installed on Monday. We've been waiting on this door for about 3 months now so we were excited for it to finally arrive. And arrive it did. But then the installation guy noticed that the door had been hung on the frame backwards. That probably wouldn't be a big deal in some houses, but since our front door is in a corner, that would mean that when you opened the door you would be facing the wall of our house instead of the living room. So the door went back to store. It is now being rebuilt and will supposedly be installed next Monday. To say that it's been a frustrating ordeal would be putting it lightly.

The first step for the painters was to pressure-wash our house. They did a fine job with that but I noticed on Tuesday that a lot of the dirt and water had splattered onto our outdoor chair cushions. I figured I'd take the opportunity to go ahead and give them a good wash so they could be fresh and clean when the paint job was finished. It sounded like a good idea, but then I apparently filled the washing machine with too much water with the cushions and ended up flooding the laundry room and the hall carpet. Oops.  Doc may be regretting staying in town this week...

But now things are back on track! (Hopefully, anyway.) I'm going to wash the cushions this weekend with a water hose instead, the painters should be done early tomorrow, and our new door will arrive a few days later. Oh, and I've been super nervous about the color we chose but I think I love it!

I took lots of "before" pictures last week so I can't wait to show you side-by-side comparison pictures. Hopefully everything will get done and I can post them by the middle of next week!

14 Hours Later, Updated to Add: We only have one window in our entire house that doesn't have blinds or window treatments on it. One. It's a small window in our bathroom that I love because of the natural light it lets in in the mornings. Our room is upstairs so no one can ever see in the window, but if you could you would only be able to see the bathtub and the toilet. Guess which one of those I was sitting on this morning when the painter's ladder appeared outside the window...

The Missing Piece

Warning: This post contains poor-quality iPhone photos. Finding this at JoAnn Fabrics and Craft store......$2.99.

Giving it a nice coat of green paint......free (already had paint).

Sanding the edges and wiping on some brown glaze......free.

Selecting pictures to go in the frames......free.

Making three holes in wall before finally getting the right spot......free.

Finally feeling like my random wall is complete......priceless!

I love a good, cheap project!

The NB Diaries: Chapter 4

One thing about NB that I've noticed since she started here a couple of months ago is that she has not done any decorating in her office at all. She has not done one thing, other than the erasers that sit by her keyboard, to personalize the space and make it her own. There are no pictures, no favorite quotes, no candy jar, notta. Her predecessor had tons and tons of family photos, some in frames on the wall, some in frames on the shelves, etc. But NB doesn't have anything. Her office is an interior office so there are no windows. Just 3 very blank walls (the 4th wall has the door). So you can imagine, then, as I walked by her empty office a few minutes ago, how quickly I noticed the one small picture hanging on her wall. It caught my eye and caused me to do a double-take.  She must have just hung it today. Of course I had to go in and get a closer look.

And then I immediately ran back to my desk to get my camera phone.

After making sure the coast was clear, I stepped into her office to snap a photo of the picture.

Oh, what's that? You say you can't read it?

Lucky for you, I went in even farther for a better shot.

Can someone please explain this to me? Of all things she could have possibly chosen to hang in her office, why this?! It's a little too high to be eye-level when she's sitting down, and it's not even centered on the wall or above anything. It's just floating all by itself a little up and to the left of her computer screen. Why?

T-Ball vs Baseball

Top 10 Ways T-Ball is Different from Baseball(as demonstrated by my almost-five-year-old nephew)

10. There's always time to wave to mom.

9. Helmets are worn with the bill tilted up instead of down to shade the sun.

8. Sometimes the crowd in the stands is more interesting than the game.

7. Tired? Just sit down and take a break.

6. There's nothing routine about a "routine fly ball."

5. Your coach gets you in position before you bat.

4. It's perfectly fine for you and your teammate to round the bases together.

3. Playing first base means playing ON first base.

2. The female fans are a little bit younger.

1. Reeeeeally gotta go? Just head behind the dugout!

Re-Framed

Shortly after our wedding pictures came in, I decided I wanted to try to make frames myself to display them in instead of paying wads of cash to have someone do it for me. I knew I didn't want them to be too fancy, because our house isn't fancy, so it didn't seem like it would be that hard. And it wasn't.

We used 1x4 and 1x6 pine boards to make the main body of the frame and then added some decorative trim to give it a little something extra. It was all very simple. I painted them and distressed them, had some glass cut, and we had them hanging above the fireplace in our bedroom in no time.

Mark that project off the list of things to do! Whoo!

This past winter we got a little bit more colder weather than we usually do. Our fireplace downstairs is wood burning and we love it, but our living room also gets a draft from our front door. So this year we started using the gas fireplace in our bedroom a little more. It made our room nice and toasty.

So one night after we'd had the fire going for a while, we turned it off and headed to bed. Somewhere around 2:30 that morning, Doc and I both shot up in bed after hearing the loudest popping noise ever. "What was that!?!" we asked each other. I thought for sure it had gotten so cold outside that our window pains had busted. But we inspected all the windows and they looked fine.  After a few more small pops, we finally realized the frames were making the noises.

Long story short, it turns out that extreme changes in temperature cause wood to expand and contract. I knew that, but I never thought the temperatures in our house were that extreme. But, because the frames were right above the fireplace while it was hot, and then hanging against the chimney when it was cold outside, they definitely experienced some changes in temperature.

And so all the seams split.

Grrrrr. Back at square one.

This time, we got smart. We decided to make the frames out of mdf. Sure, they'd be heavier, but at least there wouldn't be any seams that could split!

Round two of this project was a little bit easier. We traced the size of the original frames, centered the glass inside it, and cut out the center hole.

Next up, add some decorative molding around the hole.

I wanted to go with the distressed look again, so I started off with a coat of dark brown paint.

And then covered them with my white paint.

Once that dried, I sanded away until I liked how distressed they were. Slapped on a coat of polyurethane and they were done!

I'm so glad I can mark this project off my list of things to do again. Learn from my mistake and do it right the first time. Trust me, it is not fun having to re-do a project.