Table: COMPLETED!

Just a quick update, with some 'after' pictures!

Well the table for the patio took NO time at all! here are some after pictures:












I'm pretty happy with how it turned out :) And after moving the table that WAS in there out, it has SO MUCH MORE space! It opened it up A LOT!

We're getting the floor tiled in there on the 24th, so really looking forward to that. I've been debating whether or not I should even spend the dollars on a pretty outdoor rug, because Potter likes to pee on any and EVERY rug he sees! We'll see...I'm thinkin probably not.

Joey & I also talked about maybe getting some outdoor blinds/shades put back there too.
Next up though is the floating bathroom shelves, so I can move the shelf everyone hates OUT - paint it- then stick it in the patio to fill with flowers,potted plants, etc!

I'm so anxious to get started on all this, I just know itll make the patio look so much better and feel so much more inviting :)

*Cheers!*

Patio Table Project

Next project :)

Basically, when I got the furniture for the guest room/future nursery--there were a couple things I didnt need! Like these two:

a luggage rack, and blanket holder.

Claire actually told me about a project Young House Love did using a luggage rack,http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/02/the-guest-room-done-for-now/and tray to make a bedside table. I thought I could do the same thing with my own twist on it!
I HATE our screened in porch right now! BUT theres not a ton I can without spending mucho dollars. We ARE getting it tiled soon (woo!) which will be SO MUCH nicer than the concrete slab, more comfy to walk on barefoot, and way easier to clean.

Currently it looks like this:



BORING...and UGLY! That furniture has a umbrella that goes with it- at the old house we had it on the back deck (oh how I miss that deck) with the grill and everything.
And lets me honest- the furniture does NOT fit that room!
SO, I'm going to move the table out and keep the chairs.

Then comes the fun part! I'm going to paint the luggage rack, and these cool 'trays' I found at Hobby Lobby. I decided to do two smaller trays rather than one big one to give it a different twist. Also got a matching little guy to hold small random junk (not pictured here)


Painting the luggage rack and trays took all of 25 minutes, very quick and very easy! So far it looks really good! These trays I got at HobLob were very inexpensive (especially after printing a coupon off their website!) and are made of a light weight wood kinda material. The paint took right to it!

Next on my list is this project (again from Young House Love-they rock) http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/04/build-it-with-ana-floating-shelves/
I want to make these floating shelves to put over the toilet in the guestbathroom- so I can remove the shelf thats in there now (that everyone hates!)
Before picture of the guest bath:

you may be wondering what the heck this has to do with the patio? Why I jumped from making a table for the patio, to shelves for the bathroom? WELL! As soon as I make these shelves for the bathroom, I'm going to remove the shelf everyone loves to hate and put it on the patio! Its already a nickel color but for good measure Im going to paint it with the same paint I used for the luggage rack table so it all matches. I'm going to stick it on the other side of the patio between two chairs, to hold potted plants, planters, and other random fun stuff!

May sound off the wall for now, but once its all put together I think itll look really good- or at least, ALOT better than it does right now!

I'm excited to see it all come together :)

When I get home from work today, I'll finish painting the second tray and then attach them to the luggage rack (Using Command Strips like YHL did in their project!)- will post some after pictures soon! Next up is the floating shelves in the bathroom, so I can move on to my next lil project for the patio. Still waiting on the tile floors- I DID pick up the tile yesterday at work, just gotta get some grout and install!

Stay tuned!

*Cheers!*

what is that smell!?!

well hello again!

an update with what I've been doing:

I got the furniture all cleaned (as I said in the previous post)- and it looks GREAT. However, I'm having a hard time getting that "old" furniture smell out. Someone told me to try charcoal..did that, didnt work. I also tried sticking some lavender in the drawers but that didnt help either-now it smells like old furniture and lavender mixed together. SO my next move is baking soda. If THAT doesn't work, then I'm going to head to the Antique Store down the road and ask them for some tips!

Next thing going in that room is a ceiling fan- my awesome FIL is going to come over and install that for us!

I'm also going to try and get a white, or ivory colored plain sheet/blanket to drape over the bed. Its driving me NUTS the bedding doesnt match,but like I said- I refuse to spend money on new bedding when eventually this will be a nursery and the bed wont be in there anyways!

I've also got some ideas for things to frame and hang on the walls- but I wont get to that just yet :)

So far thats it for the guest room. We're also pre-planning a patio in the back. I say pre-planning cause even if we do it ourselve,it's still gonna cost a pretty penny. So for now we're just planning everything out and getting a budget together.

Next up is the screened in porch- we're going to fix the screen (that our baby Delilah so gracefully busted through) and patch up the holes. Then we're installing tile :) Its just a beigy-cream colored tile, but its a nice ceramic tile and will be so much nicer than the concrete slab. That way I can swiffer it to clean and itll be super easy. Eventually we want a patio set that actually fits in there, and a nice outdoor rug. The furniture thats in there now will go outside on the patio (whenever we build it) along with the matching umbrella, grill, tiki torches, fire pit, and hammock :)

Lots of "one day" ideas lol, moneys the only thing stopping us. but it WILL happen!!

Stay tuned :)

*Cheers!!*

Busy Bee!

For as tired as I was today at work...I some how went in to over drive when I got home! I was dragging my feet at first, but I let the dogs out, changed clothes and got to work.
First I cleaned up ALL the furniture, it didn't take as long as I thought it would probably because its actually in great condition! Afterward when Joey got home, we started moving everything in!
Heres a some what final product, I say somewhat because Ive changed/added things since I took these initial pictures! I'll update more in the future with more final pictures as I add more, paint, etc.
Caution: the bedding I have on the guest bed DOES NOT match and its driving me NUTS. Also, that bed is WAY too big for that room! Once its actually a nursery (aka once I actually become pregnant lol) it'll be a lot more spacious with a crib instead of a bed!

this is a view from the door way/hallway



this is one (of two) of the glass top bedside tables. My scrapbooks finally found a home! (and I've already changed the stuff on top- 3x actually!) I do need to get something to stick in between the glass and table to help it stay put- as of right now, that glass slides RIGHT off! No bueno!


this is the future changing table! I wasnt sure whether or not I wanted to put the mirror on it or not, but decided to go ahead- mainly because I didn't want it sitting in the garage until we turn this in to a full nursery. but I think it looks okay!


left side of the dresser, with my Grandmother's magnolia (which I love) and the folded up luggage holder (which I've since moved...2x ha!)


Right side of the dresser. I'm not really sure if this stuff will stay but I've BEEN looking for somewhere to stick my jewelry box so..yeah. The bear is mine from when I was a baby/little girl :) the hankie is from our wedding,and the jewelry box is my first "big girl" jewelry box my parents gave me!


This is the chest of drawers :) I love the way this turned out, it truly did turn out exactly how I pictured it!



from left to right: the picture frame Claire & Nick gave us when they asked us to be Lilliana's God Parents (lilly bean is the cute little one on the canvas above everything!), my book ends that USED to be lamps holding books, and Joey's Last Rights Cross that was given to him at his Confirmation (which should be hanging on the wall by the bed but I don't want to hang it until I know itll be there permanently!). I'm VERY happy with how this turned out :)



So thats where we are :) I'm pretty happy with how everythings progressing and can't wait to put more work in to it!!

Afterward we got motivated to rearrange Joey's man cave! Heres some pictures of its new look-- LOTS more room (for activities as Step Brothers would say!)










The dresser the TV is sitting on was actually from Joey's room growing up, and WAS in the guestroom/nursery but we moved it in to the mancave when we brought the new furniture in. He DID have a HUGE entertainment center in there but it was just waaay too big! So now theres plenty of room ("for activities") and NOW when we have guests over its MUCH easier to pull the futon out and not have to move the entire room around!

We also added another shelf in the living room, but I'm way too tired to get in to that! I stared workin' on all this when I got home at 5:30 tonight. And its now 9:30 and we JUST had a quick tuna melt dinner! Needless to say we are both wiped out and I'm SURE we'll have no problem sleeping hard tonight!

Like I said, I've already changed stuff a FEW times. AND I have about a million more ideas with stuff I found around the house throughout all of this. But for tonight? this busy bee is DONE!

Gnight all! Cheers!!

Mrs. DIY has arrived!

I have become inspired lately to start working on lots of Do It Yourself projects! We've slowly done a few around the house since we moved in a little over a year ago, but lately its happening more and more!

Im going to try & start blogging more about it with ideas, before/after pictures, etc. I did a couple this weekend, and see LOTS more in my future! One blog Claire told me about is:http://www.younghouselove.com/ I LOVE looking through their blog, they have GREAT ideas!

This weekend I found out at the last minute my Dad and his wife were having a garage sale. I ended up spending the whole weekend over there, and brought home some nice little treasures!
When my great great Aunt Ruth from Savannah died, my grandparents inherited EVERYTHING. Its all been sitting in their basement/garage for YEARS! So as I'm helping out with the garage sale I start spotting all these awesome pieces and my mind just goes in to over drive with all kinds of ideas! I bought everything I got minus the furniture & the hope chest. My Dad was kind enough to give me the furniture, and my sweet FIL bought me the hope chest! (will explain).

Lets start with the furniture :) This set is French Provincial and in pretty good condition:







Gorgeous furniture :) VERY excited about this. As soon as I saw it I immediatley thought: baby's room. * NO, I am NOT pregnant!* I knew that would be the first thing people asked me, but I'm not!! I just told my Dad I'd really like to have the furniture and explained what for- and he gave it to me! All it needs is some Murphy's Oil Soap (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100670278/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 only like 3$ a bottle @ Home Depot!) to clean it up really well, and then some charcoal in each of the drawers to get the 'old' smell out (followed up with some lavender!).


I started cleaning it up this weekend but need to hit the store to buy some more supplies to finish. Then we'll move it in to the guest room for now :) My mind is already goin nuts with all kinds of nusery themes for boy/girl :)
Also, FIL/Joey/& MAYBE Uncle Mike will be working on making a crib to match all of this. HOW COOL! Whatever furniture we have leftover/dont use we will most likely incorporate into the crib so everything will match!

Next up: stuff FOR the nursery I found and re-did/changed! First off these:




These were lamps! But when I saw them, they caught my eye. I just thought they'd go so well with the furniture and the vintage/antique look. I wish I'd taken a before picture, but basically coming out of the tops of each head was a lamp! I clipped off the cords and then Joey & FIL helped me with the power tools. They were able to saw off and sand down the tops-so now this is what we're left with! I have a picture in my mind of these on top of the dresser,used as book ends and holding baby books in the middle :) *side note, I found a few of MY old books from when I was itty bitty so I took them home to save for our little ones :)


Next up, mirror!
(again, I didnt take a before picture, bummer. but it was just a random dirty old mirror, that had gold trim- it can hang on a wall or sit on a table)

Like I said, just saw this random old mirror and thought I could do something with it. I basically pulled all the screws out and detached the trim from the mirror. I used the same paint we used to paint all of our light fixtures (they were gold, and we painted them a hammered nickel. This isn't exactly what we used but similar,and was only $6/can at Home Depot http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202041184/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)- it was super easy and turned out very cool. For now it has a home on our coffee table- its hiding the big white spot thats on there from when we performed surgery on delilah! (we found a tick on her and FREAKED out, doused her in alcohol and it ruined my coffee table! *Delilah IS okay!) This mirror was THE perfect size to hide this:

So for now, this is where itll be. But eventually it'll probably end up in the babys room. I feel like it goes with the 'look' I'm going for; and actually the mirror itself is kind of beat up, with brown spots, looks very cool- very antique and aged :)

I also found this random painting- it caught my eye too. I'm still not sure where I'll put it, but I know I'm going to take it out of this frame, and the matte too- I feel like the matte its up against is too much, and the frame is too big. so itll be re-framed, Im just not sure what kind of frame yet since I dont know where Im going to put it. But I really like the painting itself!

and lastly...the hope chest :) As I said the basement at my grandparents was FULL, so as things got sold my Dad would pull more stuff out of the basement. Towards the end of the day Friday he pulled out this hope chest. And I fell in love with it! Its got the original label still stapled to the inside, and at the bottom of the label in my great great aunts handwriting is the date she bought it: January 13, 1937 & it was bought from Sears,Roebuck & Co.
HOW COOL!






It has a little 'shelf' inside that slides from side to side. Its in incredible condition- and my sweet FIL bought it for me and totally surprised me with it! All I did was rub it down with some Murphy's to make it shine and we moved it in to our bedroom! Traditionally these were bought for young girls to save things for wedding/marriage/first home. BUT since we're past all that, I'll be filling it with items/ideas for babys room and just overall renovations of the house :)

Needless to say, I found all kinds of treasures this wkend. In addition to all of that I got a little something for my mama (will post soon, AFTER Mothers Day), a few different dishes, childrens books/my first bear from when I was itty bitty, cook books,etc. Despite me NOT being pregnant at the moment lol, I've pretty much got it all planned out in my head for the nursery already ;) Nothing wrong with gettin a head start right!? Especially since this will be saving us quite a bit of money!

So stay tuned for more DIY stuff! Its a ton of fun and I see a lot of it in the future!

Cheers!!