Miscelaneous Gem

The Christmas of 2011 I was driving home to Utah and ran into this little store in Wyoming.  I was just taking pictures off my camera and saw it.  If only the stores here could be so versatile. A little sewing, a little drinking, and a lot of sports.

Slowly Moving Along

My life is pretty mundane, so all that is really happening is home projects as I prepare for this baby to come.  I am also attempting to be frugal, so the goal is complete the projects with what is on hand here in the house.  So far, so good.

Abdu helped me to clear out the downstairs room, which I am turning into a guest room.  It has no closet, so I think that makes it a den, but I figure it can be whatever I want it to be.  This is the room when the previous owner lived here.  If you can't tell the purple walls are sponge painted and there is lovely floral wallpaper all around. 

Shortly after moving in I had help from Natalie, Carrie, and one of their friends, Monica, in wallpaper removal.  I had other priorities though, so the room was put on hold and became a storage space.

When my mom and dad came, my dad became a miracle worker.  He spend a day and plenty of manual labor and created a masterpiece in the basement.  I had storage shelves down in the basement, but they were small and droopy.  He decided that I needed more and came up with these beauties.

Many of the items were moved down to these shelves when my parents were at my house, but there were stragglers.  I also had to remove the ceiling light in order to paint.  So, Abdu and I removed items and then began to fill the holes in the wall created by way too many wall hangings and torn paint that had been under the wallpaper.  Harley and Duke maintained their usual stances while I worked with Harley (blue collar) standing and Duke (red collar) lying down.

This week Carrie came over and motivated me to get the primer on everything in the room.  We were able to complete all the priming, Happy Valentine's Day to me!  Then Abdu and I painted the ceiling and the baseboards.  I used the same paint as I used in the kitchen.  Which I have to say is some quality paint, because I have only had to use one coat.  It covered the whole room.

Walls primed and ceiling painted.

Baseboard painted, but a look at how badly the floors need to be redone.  This is what they looked like when the carpet was pulled up....minus the splattering of pain from priming the walls.

Blue Walls

Not to bad looking, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

Before the room is guest ready, I will need to get the new light up.  The floor will need to be refinished and who knows what else will be in store for this little space.  It has been nice to check the projects off my list though.  Slowly, but surely they are being completed.

Kitchen Light

When working on home projects, even the little things become big things.  I forgot to post this picture down with the updated kitchen.  When you look at the before picture of the kitchen you can see the gold light fixture up on the ceiling.  Each project quickly dips into the budget, so as I am working I often have to find ways to save money.  I decided that since the knobs on the cupboards look similar to the light fixture, that I would just paint the light.  The top light is actually the sister light to the one in the kitchen above the back door, but it gives you a good perspective about what the light used to look like.

The Beginnings of a Baby Room

This was the room before I bought the house.  The teddy bear wall paper in a girl that I know is now in college's room tells me that perhaps she did not spend too much time with her dad.

Just another view.

I did not document the transformation of this room very well, but see the heater below.  While my parents were here, my dad took that off the wall since I now have heating to the top floor.  Here is my mom showing us all how to clean the windows prior to priming them.

This is a view of the room with me standing at the window. I could not get a picture that direction because there was too much light.  For those of you who are not oriented...the door on the right you are looking at my bed with a carseat on it.  The door on the right goes out to the hallway and the middle door is a closet that does no have a whole lot of space because the vents now go through it.  The gray was a little darker than I expected, but I could only pain with what I already had, so I can't complain.  I will make it work.  Now that it is dry I don't think it it too bad anyway.

This is the new light in the room.  If you look at the first picture you will see that there was a lovely white fan in the room before, which has now been replaced.  Updates to come as they are completed.

The Kitchen Update

 Remember this kitchen.  Well it is no more.

Here is a walk down memory lane...with some new memories.

Yucky floor.

Here is the doorway that I had to remove the frame off the door.  I ended up putting spakling all round and just painting the walls blue like the rest of the kitchen.

This is not a very clear picture, but the wall is completely primed.  Covering up the old green wall enough to paint it. 

Prepping all around the kitchen window above the sink.

This is what the painting around that window now looks like, minus the tape and plastic.

Here is the finished blue wall and freshly painted window and door frame.  Painted the same off-white color as the cabinets.  All done with help of my mom.

Here I am...not looking my best, but you can see my big belly and the wall that is painted completely blue around the door frame.  Plus, you can see the tiling behind the stove that me and both my parents did.

Well, there you have it.  Thanks Mom and Dad for your help.  Could not have completed it without you.  More projects that were completed while they were here to come.