Take a seat...

This past Friday I didn't feel like cooking and we had a wee bit of a list so we rallied and drove through crazy rush hour traffic over to IKEA for dinner (Hello, fish and chips dinner for $1.99!!!) and some shopping.

 

Did you say dinner?

On the list? Some birthday/Christmas gifts for Clara...who was told the toys were for "somebody else." That works this year. A few things for Chris' woodworking projects. And a new couch...cover.

So, my parents gave us a couch as a housewarming present when we moved in about 4 years ago. And Chris and I picked the EXTORP sofa in "Svanby Beige". I know, BEIGE. People thought we were crazy. Admit it. You did too. And this was before the wee one was even a thought. But we loved it. It worked great in the space. And the entire slipcover was washable. Which I have done a few times in the past 4 years. Like when I spilled coffee all over the arm...yup, me. Or when the tot went all Michelangelo with a green marker on a cushion.  

Even though it is washable (and I still love the color), the frequency of necessary washing has exponentially increased as the tot is bigger, is faster with messy hands, spills more and generally gets dirtier than she ever has before so it was time. To get that new cover. We'd been eyeing them for the past year and saving the pennies. And then good ol' IKEA went and discontinued the "Svanby Brown" I'd had my heart set on and they were all gone at the two IKEAs in town. Thankfully, IKEA is a store of many options. So we opted for "Svanby Gray" which is PERFECT. Wanna see?

Here's the "before"...

"Svanby Beige"

Ah, the glamorous life. Vacuuming up "crushed Goldfish and junk" according to Chris.

 

And the "new" version. 

"Svanby Gray"

And, it's where I'm currently blogging from with the hubs and tot on the other end watching Tangled.

 

Oh yeah, we got a few other things not on the original list. Like some weird Swedish pop and under-cabinet lighting that Chris had been eyeing for years. He was so excited that he installed them last night while I slept on the couch. (Note: we kind of live on this couch). Might blog about those but didn't take pics of the process due to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. But I LOVE them. I can actually see on the counters. Okay, enough unsponsored IKEA love.

 

 

My Favorite Place...In this House Part II

Anyone ready to see the actual completed front porch? Say I. I. 

In case you forgot the "chocolate" brown sill from "before", here it is again...

And (insert drumroll) is the finished paint job. 

Here's the east end "before" complete with toddler photobomb.

And here (drumroll again if you please) is the east end, all pretty and cream.

We have fourteen windows on the front porch. FOURTEEN. We have screens for the warm months and glass for the colder months. Since fall decided to show up, we swapped out the screens for the windows after the paint dried and the backs of those windows are white/cream so it blended right in. 

In addition to taking on the full weekend project, I figured why not add a sub-project? So while the paint dried, I packed up my little helper and headed to Menards for some spray paint bringing the grand total for this whole front porch project to a whopping $6-7 bucks. The white paint on the wicker rocker was chipping and Chris had decided it was time for the metal star to be red. My dad informed me that some years down the road someone is going to buy that metal star and uncover 50 different paint colors. Come on, dad. This is only the fourth or fifth. I've lost count. The wicker rocker is a fairly recent addition and is pretty special to me. It was my Grandma's rocker and yellow tulips (she was the Pella tulip queen back in the day) remind me of her so I thought yellow was a fitting color. 

So yeah, that's the freshly painted front porch. My favorite place in this house.

And since the resident toddler has been trying to hijack this post the whole time I've been writing it, I thought I'd let her write you all a message...

fhjdvcccccccm/.

Have a good one. 

My Favorite Place...In This House

The front porch. My favorite place in this house. Great place to read. Play. Drink coffee. Escape football/toddlers. You know, relax.

The more time I spent out there, the more the multiple colors of brown trim with cream walls/siding annoyed me. 

Plus, the sill's brown paint was peeling and the resident toddler was becoming more and more interested in helping that process along.

I decided that this Saturday morning would be a good to put my paint-splattered sweatpants and tee back on - after a couple year hiatus - and get back on the home-renovation horse, so to speak. 

I busted out my birthday present from the first year we lived here (actually the first month), a Dewalt palm sander. And got to work. 

 

Better right?  

Then I scrubbed the entire porch (have I mentioned that it's like 20+feet x 6+ feet?) down with TSP-PF. No pics. Because, let's face it, scrubbing is boring. It did look a lot cleaner though. A LOT.

Next came the fun part. Priming the heck out of that "chocolate" (sure...) brown sill. Gripper + paintbrush + me = happy. In case I never said this before, a good paintbrush is worth the money. EVERY. TIME. I love Purdy brushes. LOVE. THEM. They just plain do a better job. And last forever if you take good care of them. Which you will. 

After I finished the sanding/scrubbing/priming, Chris, the entertainer of resident toddler, put said toddler down for a nap and grabbed a paintbrush to start the actual painting. The trade-off of toddler/parent worked out well. You see, Chris and I complement each other. According to him, he is a missile and I have to make sure he is pointed at the right target. According to me, I am a perfectionist and if I want to be picky about the prep work I have to do it myself or keep my mouth shut. Good thing I like prep work. 

The paint's almost the same color but you can see the difference on the wall under the front window. The window with the newly painted trim from a month ago. Color? Cooper Melon by Valspar. We had a gallon of exterior satin left over from the garage trim (yeah, yeah, some day there will be a garage post). This entire project cost us...zero dollars. Well, zero new dollars. I mean, we bought all the supplies at one point. With dollars.

So far so good. I'm blogging this as the paint dries and then we can put the quarter round back on and clean up. So a complete final picture will have to wait for now. 

Let's try this again...

I've been reading all the blogs about life, family, home repair, happiness, cooking, etc lately, checking out all the fancy pictures and wondered exactly how long it's been since I last blogged myself. 

Helllllllloooooo?

Um, wow. Over a year and a half. Awesome. Maybe I should just wait and make it an even two years. Or maybe I should get over it. And try again.  

This summer was another summer of weddings - awesome weddings I might add - so we weren't really home a lot therefore no major renovations this summer in the 90 degree heat. As major as we got was laying landscaping fabric/mulch and planting 15 tomato plants and a bunch of herbs (and summer squash that ended up being a bunny buffet...). 

And, did I mention we have a 2 year old? Said 2 year old recently stole my hammer and announced that Daddy's tools belong in the garage. I explained to her that Mommy has tools too (a whole lot of them!) and she was all like "No! It's Daddy's!!" Clearly, the girl needs to learn girls have tools and boys drool...I mean just that girls have tools too. 

Just to clear up a few things...

FAQs:

Q. Do you still shower in the basement? 

A. Sure do. Chris made a great curtain enclosure so you almost forget you're in the basement. I tell myself people pay big money for huge showers. Plus, not ready to shell out the $$$ for the bath remodel yet. 

Q. Did you fix your upstairs yet? 

A. Nope. We make it work for right now. Also, people pay big money for "open" living concepts, right? See A. above regarding $$$.

Q. What's the next project?

A. On my list or the Hubs? I am currently developing an unhealthy hatred of the playroom/guest room wallpaper. It's hideous. And all of you who say "It's really not that bad" are being kind. And lying. It's pastel-y swirly ugliness and it's days are numbered. 

Well there. I did it. I blogged. And I even included a picture. Go me. Maybe we'll do this again soon. I mean, don't hold your breath. But maybe. 

  

Hello, Blog. It's me, Keri.

So apparently having a baby puts a cramp in blogging...a year-long cramp as it so happens. Well, here's my attempt at reviving the blog. Where to start? Well, we last left off with me being 38 weeks pregnant. That's no longer the case. Clara joined our family in November 2010 and has been making us smile ever since! We can't imagine life without her, nor would we ever want to. Clara's now an active, adorable (if I may say so myself) 14 month old who roams our abode like she owns the place.

Clara also put a bit of a cramp in our house renovations, imagine that. But slowly and surely we've been getting back into the swing of things. This past summer (2011), we rebuilt our garage. Yes, I said REBUILT.

Do you all remember the hottest week of July last summer? When the weatherman said to stay inside in the cool unless absolutely necessary? Yeah, that's when we (along with many helpers) were stripping the roof, laying new roof, tearing the rest of the garage to the studs, sheathing, framing in new sets of windows and two side entry doors and residing the entire two car garage. In one week. SEVEN days. But that was SO much work that it deserves it's own post another time. We also repainted the front hall/stairs and reworked the balusters and banister/railing to code.

Apparently, babies falling through wide-spaced balusters is frowned upon and having a banister that is as tall as your knees is not very helpful.

We've been doing other little improvements here and there. We finally hung our kitchen artwork...after living here for almost two and a half years. I finally caved to putting a nail hole in the wall and Chris went crazy and hung about 11 things in 20 minutes. Give him an inch...and, you know. But, the kitchen now looks like we live here. For real. I swear I put more holes in the walls of all our apartments than in this house. Which I'm realizing is just plain ridiculous. You know what else makes it look like we live here for real? Little People and Megablocks scattered around just waiting to be stepped on. I know some of you can relate. Ouch. We seem to have been rearranging furniture a lot recently due to the little munchkin, trying to find the best layout where most things are still safe from little fingers. Anyone remember that cream couch we bought after moving in? We found out just last week that the Ikea Extorp slipcovers wash very nicely after being doused with lukewarm coffee thanks to said little fingers.

Well, that's the quick version of the past year. Chris and I once again are getting the "project itch" so you never know what's coming next. Hopefully, the next post won't take a year.

38 weeks and ready...

38 weeks and still growing. 

Another week has made it's way by and the desire to be done being pregnant officially trumped the anxiety about becoming a parent. We are both quite ready to meet our little lady.

Things are still moving along around here. Pictures were hung in the nursery, closet curtains were sewn, car seat was installed and baby clothes were washed. Speaking of baby clothes...how in the world are you supposed to fold something so little and make it look nice? Oh well. We even put up the Christmas tree this afternoon...just in case she comes a bit early.

People have been asking if we are ready and have everything ready and Chris' response has been "We are probably as ready as we are going to be."

I concur.

37 weeks and counting...

Well, things are sure changing around these here parts...and now we are officially at the full-term mark. 37 weeks. Crazy. It's amazing to believe that she is almost here!

Apparently, the fiesty kickboxer is now the size of a watermelon. Really, a watermelon? Are we talking a huge, full-of-seeds watermelon or the smallish, seedless variety? According to the doctor everything looks good and she is "not too small, not too big."

In other news, the nursery is finally coming along. Pictures soon!

33 weeks and counting...

It's hard to believe it's already been 33 weeks and that Baby Girl Buma is about 7 weeks away from entry to the "real" world.

We've been working on little things around the house...like trying to pick up after ourselves, getting things organized and packing away things that used to live in the future nursery. It's all a work in progress and it's moving slowly.

After taking the childbirth class last weekend, we are now fully aware that it's really a crap-shoot trying to plan when Baby Girl will actually show up. A week or so early? A week or so late? On time? Who knows. But in reality, we have most of the basics...crib, clothing, etc. and Buy Buy Baby is on the way home from the hospital if necessary. Plus, Baby Girl isn't going to care how messy the home she comes home to is. Just that it's home.

What can a little paint do?

When we had our original home inspection before closing on our house last year, the inspector told us that we'd want to paint the solid wood garage door before winter (last winter) since the paint was chipping and we didn't want the door to rot.

Well...we didn't get to it last Fall. With weekends filling up with birth classes and baby showers, the clock was winding down to colder weather (not to mention the arrival of a baby) so Chris and Craig, his dad, tackled the job last Thursday.

Chris and I had picked up paint chips on Monday but hadn't gotten around to picking the color to match the house trim before I had to leave for work on Thursday morning. My control freak personality was having a hard time not having input on the color choice...but I let it go. And Chris picked the perfect match - Dutch Boy's Antique White. How fitting, Dutch paint for a couple of Hollanders.

The "before"...

Craig cutting in the panels...

Half done...the new color is quite a bit creamier.

Can't forget the trim...which Chris can paint easily from a 4 ft. ladder...it helps to be tall!

Looks like a brand-spanking new door! All for about $35. Nice on the budget and necessary!

Labor Day Weekend...Operation TV.

Projects have been moving slow around here...kind of like me. And they've been even slower getting on the blog. I've been a slacker. My brother even called me out on it.  

Over the Labor Day weekend, we...finally got TV. We have a TV...it just hadn't been hooked up to cable or an anntena since we moved in (over a year ago). Instead, we got by watching shows and a limited amount of sporting events online (insert frustrated husband here). We really wanted to avoid paying for cable so Chris researched the best options for anntenas based on our location/direction from Chicago and order all the parts for about $150.

So all the parts and my parents arrived just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Last Labor Day weekend, we were sanding and refinishing the living/dining room floors all weekend. This project proved to be a "bit" less work.



1. Get up on the roof...with all the parts.



2. Assemble antenna without falling off roof.

3. Run antenna cable down roof, seal around fasteners and run through basement window.

4. Run antenna cable to TV and enjoy...football. (Lions/Bears game)

We even had time to check out the Kane County Flea Market over the weekend...after we watched some TV.  

 

Baby meet IKEA...

All parents and parents-to-be can probably relate to how kid's stuff tends to take OVER. If not, I envy you. I feel like - actually, I'm well aware - we're losing the battle I'm not quite sure it's possible to win anyway and she's not even here yet. Since Chris started painting the nursery all the things that were stored in there plus all the baby stuff we have been acquiring are now consuming our bedroom and office...driving me a bit crazy. Not a far drive some days but that's another matter. 

Solution to our storage problem? One word. HEMNES. Don't speak IKEA? Let me translate. HEMNES is the traditional looking furniture line from the great Swedish store. A couple months ago, Chris and I got two white HEMNES 8 drawer dressers for our bedroom and love them...someday I might blog about them.  Continuing the theme, my parents bought us (really, the baby) a white HEMNES dresser for the nursery as an early baby gift along with baby's crib from IKEA.

After picking up the dresser and the crib yesterday morning with the help of Chris' family's van and muscles, I begged Chris to put the dresser together...after he was in class all day. Knowing he's still got a lot of painting to do in there, we decided the dresser could just move to the center of the room while  painting was being wrapped up. And it can hold most of the smaller baby things and clothes at the same time. 


If you didn't know, most of IKEA furniture comes "flat-pack" which means you can get it home easily but have to put it together at home. Just think of it like a "big-kid" lego project. Pretty fun. Chris seemed to enjoy himself...and I enjoyed watching and taking pictures.

Step 1. Open box, read instructions and sort pieces...all while smiling. 

Step 2. Start assembling dresser frame.

Step 3. Continue smiling while assembling frame, wonder when your wife is going to stop taking your picture.

Step 4. Frame mostly assembled, consult instructions.

Step 5. Assemble dresser top.

Step 6. Nail backing on dresser, avoid thumbs.

Step 7. Put drawers together, end is in sight.

Step 8. Finished. Assembled. Happy.

*Optional* Step 9. Add organizers to hold baby's little things.

The dresser is going to have a changing pad on top so we can skip the traditional changing table. Bonus for us tall folk? Upon putting it together, we discovered that it's higher than some of the other changing tables/dressers. Nice. 

We decided to wait to put the crib together until the painting is actually done so Chris will have room to move while working in the nursery. Guess I'll actually have to start sewing the quilt now...

A New Hobby...Quilting

After a few trips to the baby superstores, Chris and I couldn't decide on a crib set that we liked. They were all too pink or purple or foo-foo. So what did I do? Decided to make our baby girl her own special quilt...with absolutely no clue about how to quilt. 

After borrowing a few quilting "Bibles" from the library, I signed myself up for Quilting 101 at the local Joann Fabric store. I learned some of the basics and made this pattern for practice...

Trying to figure out the material and color scheme for our baby girl's quilt proved to be much more difficult that picking our 3 fat quarters for my practice piece in the class. After spending an hour or so in Joann's trying to figure out what we liked, Chris and I came home with about 6 different fabrics. Then we found some more fabrics on vacation in Wisconsin and scrapped some of the previous fabric choices. Then I continued to be indecisive until I went back to Joann's with my friend Mel who helped me finally make up my mind on patterns. 

The inspiration behind the color scheme is fun and funky...

Armed with my final choices, I cut out all the squares using my handy dandy new quilting tools and skills I learned at my class...

And after a week or so, I think I've decided on a random layout for the center of the quilt...

The plan -as of right now- is to put a 2 in. dark purple border and a 3 in. green border around this layout. The backing will also be the green pattern. 

Now it's time to get sewing...

De-shelfing the Nursery...

Since we first saw the paneled shelf in the room now known as the nursery...we hated it. Don't get me wrong. It was useful for awhile...to hold a multitude of junk. But it had outlived it's usefulness. On Monday, Chris and I got down to business.

First, remove trim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, remove all the wood plugs covering up 14 bolts.

Then remove 14 monster bolts.

Next, marvel at the size of said bolts.

Then take shelf off wall, pondering how to get it out of the room and down the stairs.

After finding hand saw, cut shelf in half.

Finally, cut it into 4 pieces so it can fit nicely in the trash can.