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.

Housewarming Party!!

Last Saturday morning, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut-off...giving half-intelligible directions of what to clean, where to chuck/hide masses of things, etc to Chris, my parents and my grandma. Why? It was H-day...Housewarming party day. And, thirty or so friends and family would soon be knocking to come in and take a gander at all of our work on our *new* home. 

And they did! We had a great time getting to show people the house and changes and catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while! Our realtor, Jackie, stopped by too and got to see all the changes since she'd last seen the house in August...a lot. I think everybody had a pretty good time too...I was told of a few meatball-induced food comas following the bash.

To be very honest, there is not a chance that Chris and I would have pulled off such a party without some major help from both our parents and Grandma Versluys. Nope, not a chance. We are very thankful for all their help! Unfortunately, I didn't get any picture evidence of their work. Actually, I didn't get any pics of during the party, guests, etc. Here are a few pics that I got before the party...

 

Dining room bookcases (finally *pretty-ified*)

 
 

First floor *guest* room 

 
 

Living room area (which is now crawling, 7 month old-approved)

 

A tidier landing/shelf (above the front door, 

we think the stairs were moved to their current spot) 

Office upstairs sporting the vintage wallpaper...which was fairly popular with guests!

 

Tada...Master bedroom. 

(We spent so many hours in the 3-4 weeks prior to the party on this that it is deserving of it's own post...soon. )

Fast forward to this beautiful, sunny Saturday morning...I am slowly sipping my coffee in my pajamas, listening to country music on Pandora and blogging from the comfort of the EXTORP. And...thoroughly enjoying it. 

We've been constantly working on the house since we moved in in August...and now we are going to take a little sanity-induced break from major projects (organization and decorating are still fair game) for a month or so. We need a little time to regroup and enjoy all the love and sweat equity we've doused the house with so far. And, maybe I can catch up on blogging some of the improvements in more depth, future ideas and life in general in this vintage home-sweet-work-in-progress.

A non-scandalous cover-up...

My mom is the ultimate seamstress...which I have known for some time. One of her most recent masterpieces was khaki, denim slipcover that hides the harvest gold, burnt orange and avocado green nightmares on this couch (though she has vowed never to make another couch slipcover)...

Problem at hand: I hate visible clutter...especially bathroom clutter. I realize that I can't rid clutter completely...however, I can hide it. Our upstairs bathroom had no storage when we moved in...just pedestal sink, clawfoot tub and toilet. We were just able to fit a bookcase (we nabbed from Schuurmann's before they moved to Texas) between the tub and the wall to give us a little storage but even with baskets the junk was pretty visible. 

My idea was to make a curtain to cover the bottom few shelves. What I was picturing involved a staple gun, fabric and a hot glue gun. Good thing mom was there to help because what we made was a million times better. Here's the before sans junk...I had to take this picture while slouching on the toilet seat (lid down) because the bathroom is a bit tiny. 

I picked a pattern that was light but not light enough that you'd see spills, etc. very easily. The two side panels are stapled on...thank you, Craftsman staple gun, my hero. We made a front panel that was gathered (mom rocked the sewing skills), sewed Velcro onto the back of it and stapled the other side of the Velcro to the shelf. 

During this sewing lesson, I learned that sewing machines are not scary and that my mom claims to be a "slop-jockey" because she hates to pin and prefers to "eyeball" it. I did not manage to take pictures of the actual sewing itself because I was too busy trying to avoid putting a sewing needle through my finger while keeping up with mom... I recall hearing a loving voice saying "you better give it some gas or we'll never get this done tonight"... okay, I'll push the pedal all the way on Speed 1.

Now you see it, now you don't...

In preparation for sanity and a few special visitors who will need a place to sleep next weekend, Chris and I spent the day working on cleaning/clearing out the *guest room* which had been aptly nicknamed the *furniture barn/tool shed* until today. Here's a little peek at some of the progress...

Now you see the shelves....

Now you don't. Thank goodness.

Now you see the dust-crusted curtains...

Now you don't. But you do see the neighbor's house...which means they can see you and you need to run to Target for some blinds. 

Now you see the blinds...

 Now you don't. Uh oh. Apparently, these blinds are meant to give the illusion of privacy...if you are inside the house. There's no mistaking the fact that you can see clearly into the room from the outside. Good thing Chris decided to check.

Now you see...the reason I convinced Chris to buy the blinds and the curtain rod just in case the blinds didn't fit (or provide privacy?)...I must be psychic...

Now you don't...see into our house, thanks to some extra curtains from the last apartment. 

P.S. Wallpaper and suspended ceiling, your days are numbered.

 

A quick note on shelving.....

I was convinced the first thing I was going to do was rip out all the *knick knack* shelves in the house. Wrong. They came in handy as very nice tool storage for a few days.