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.