Ok, so I’ve semi-decided on a name. Thanks to my b.f.f. Jamie. What do you think? Corny? Cool? Whatever?

Ok so I really am having a difficult time coming up with idea’s on things for the house. This is probably why in the past year and a half our house is still not decorated. I can bookmark and pin like it’s mah job. But executing is impossible.

So this week’s idea was tweeted to me (but I can’t remember by who because twitter is a beast and totally not helpful with the searching ability). What’s ironic is I already had this bookmarked from when were waiting to move into the house. So I took it as a sign! If you haven’t checked out Starter Home to Dream Home, you are missing out. She doesn’t really blog anymore (Which is a shame) but I painted our living room the same color as hers because I loved it so much. If she would just come and help me with this series my home would be amazing in no time flat! Go check out her awesome home!

This is our super easy & inexpensive project for the week.  Simplicity is key around here, and this one hit the nail on the head!

I didn’t have any black frames laying around, so I did have to spend money.  Not a totally free project.  But a can of spray paint was around 4 bucks.  And a 4 dollar project is exactly up my alley!!

First I spray painted the frames (at the time I had every intention of hanging two), I am not the best spray painter in the world.  In fact I’m really not that great.  Next time I’d probably go buy black frames.  Frames are really inexpensive and at Hobby Lobby they are half off all the time!

So far so good. I should have stopped while I was ahead on this part.

As they were doing the drying thing they do I searched high and low for clip art.  I really wanted to do a sink and a tub (even though I absolutely have a deep hatred of claw foot tubs.  Regular tubs wouldn’t have the same effect).  But sink clip art is hard to come by.  After finding things that would do I printed them out and started “sketch tracing”.

I don't know why my sketch looks so light here.

'Look Ma'! I shadowed!'

The rest is just easy peasy.  Frame and hang.  And all done….

But poor planning caught me red handed.  And once I had finished both, there was only room for one!  I guess the good thing is, I don’t have a picture of a toilet in my bathroom, and I can use the frame that looked better post-spray-paint.

So here’s what it looks like all in place.

Not too shabby.

Another project down...only many more to go!

I guess if anyone wants an Original-Alena-trace-sketch….let me know. I have one of a toilet sitting here waiting to be put to good use!

These last two projects have been so easy, and SO quick.  It almost makes me feel bad for not doing it sooner!

I have a couple specific projects I want to do, and have been hitting the thrift stores weekly hoping to find what I need.  I’m currently in the hunt for a cake mold, and a large square framed picture.  As soon as I find either one of these two items we will return to the kitchen, since there’s still walls to work with!

Do you want to see where I want to take on this week?  This wall right here:

This is a horrible picture. The lighting in my living room leaves much to be desired. But you can see the space limitations here thanks to the hideous door bell box thing as well as the thermostat. I believe that painting is 24"x24". And the center isn't lighter like that, it's from the flash. Remember. Bad livingroom lighting.

Technically it’s not empty.  But I am NOT a fan of this painting, and it’s not the colors I’ve decided I want in the living room.  I have an idea that I can do.  But I don’t have anything set in stone.  As for what colors we’re wanting to bring into the living room.  I’m thinking blue and orange.  Not Auburn blue & orange (but WAR EAGLE, another win this weekend!).  But more like the orange and blue found in these pillow covers over at Life’s Candy (does anyone want to buy me these btw?!!)

Everyone should go check out Life's Candy on Etsy. Now. Do it.

So now you know the colors, and the wall that is in need of help.  What are your ideas?!!  Share with me oh wise people of the internet!  {Oh and I’ve actually set a budget for this weeks project of $30 bucks!! Big Money!}

Did you do any house projects this week?  Let me see!!

What do you think about the easy bathroom art this week??

I spent the week last week playing Nurse Mommy to Sophia. It is nearly impossible to have the sanity to do anything crafty or thrifty while taking care of a sick toddler. At least for me. So I just took the week off. The great thing about a blogger? They can do that.

The problem was the weekend came and I still hadn’t found everything I needed for what I wanted to do in my kitchen. Each week I want to do one smallish project, nothing huge and intimidating. But a little wall here, a project there. Just so week by week there’s progress.

I had two small parts of the kitchen I wanted to work on. The wall between our fridge & backdoor & above the pantry.

And like any well thought out Alena-plan…this one hit a road block. Thirfting. See I am doing all these projects on a budget. My goal is that everything has to come from a craft store or thrift store (I should add that in the future I may have to incorporate hand made shops to this because my craftiness may lack in some areas!).

I couldn’t find a key item. I needed two cake molds, and I couldn’t find any. So this weeks’ project is even smaller than I had planned because I just did one. Which is the point of this series, to work with the time and resources you have.

I did have this wall I needed to do something with.

Awkward Empty Wall.

I saw this on pinterest and knew I wanted to do something similar.  But silver wouldn’t work.  So red it was!

I didn’t want it to be bright, I wanted it to have a diner, aged feel.  I picked up these letters at Hobby Lobby for 2.50 each.  They are light weight and cardboard.  I also picked up some black paint and red paint.  .99 cents each.  This makes this one of the cheapest projects possible!

I painted the letters all black and “dry brushed” the top with red.  I love the feel and look and it gives something to the wall with out breaking the bank (or schedule!)

What do you think?

Now for Next Week:

Our bathroom is BLAH-BORING.  The walls are a warm gray/khaki color.  We installed a black cabinet and put in new brushed nickle hardware.  But we have two walls that need SOMETHING!   I’d like to keep it a black/white/gray color scheme.

Link up your ideas, from Pinterest, from Google, from a decorating message board. Show me what you would do in a small bathroom and I’ll use your idea’s to figure something out!

Also, if you did a project this week for the Decorating Monday post (even though it’s tuesday!)….link me! I want to see what you’ve done this week!!!  (And maybe if you have a name for this series you could share that too!!)

Note: My camera settings on my real camera are messed up.  Is there anything MORE that can go wrong with this series this week?!  So I used the camera on my phone.  What a week right?!

I need suggestions.  Words of wisdom on WHAT IN THE WORLD TO DO HERE.  I am so close to getting everything hung in Sophia’s room.  And as soon as we find a bookshelf we love and a toy box…we will be DONE.  Oh and a rug.  Ok so maybe we aren’t that close to being done.  But it seems like decorating her nursery when I was pregnant was much quicker than doing it now.  But such is life.

Her room has a…a nook.  Here, for you to visualize:

You see the little nook with the window.  We have plans for a toy box to go under the window.  And the curtain is in the process of being made.  But I really can’t figure out what to hang on the wall.  I toyed with the idea of a decal of dandelions blowing.  But Cody said that you wouldn’t be able to REALLY see it and thought it would be a waste.  But the walls need something.  So I’m taking suggestions.  Your favorite Etsy shop that has the perfect art.  Idea’s of decals.  Things to hang or decorate that area.  DIY projects.

I posted about how we were working on the bathroom. And I’ve been asked for pictures. Well here’s the issue we’ve run into (the reason we haven’t posted any pictres).

When we were installing the new light fixture we ran into an issue. The box that is in the wall, the one where the wires come through, you know the one you mount the light fixture to? Well it wasn’t mounted to anything inside of the wall. It’s supposed to be mounted to a couple 2×4′s. that are either the studs or connected to the studs. This one wasn’t. It was just sitting in the wall, hanging out. It’s no longer hanging out, because as we were trying to figure out why the fixture was “rocking” the dry wall cracked. A little inspection caused the box to seperate from the wall. Basically it was bonded in there with paint. And then the old fixture was a wide fixture, so there wasn’t pressure AT the box exactly. But this new light fixture puts all the pressure at and right around the box.

So now we have to get that sitch fixed before we can install the light. We still don’t have a mirror to put in (the old mirror was trash). And so that’s why there are no pictures. But as soon as the wee one wakes up from her nap I will be uploading some photo’s of the living room so we can all at least ohhhh & ahhhh over what a transformation THAT was!

And I haven’t shared any pictures. I know…whats the point of this blog if I’m not going to keep up with our progress? Well it’s been busy.

We hired a painter to tackle our living room and master bedroom. He did a great job, but we won’t be needing a painter ever again. We watched his technique, asked questions. And now we’re better painters than ever! To test out our new skills we painted the bathroom. And we did a great job! We make a good team as long as we aren’t BOTH painting. The Mister preps, and I paint. It’s a perfect system for us.

We are going to be busy painting ALL.THE.TRIM in the house this weekend (well all that we haven’t done). We still need to pick out a color for the basement and the upstairs bathroom. I have an idea of what I want to do there, I just need to find the perfect colors to pull it all off.

So things are going to remain busy here this weekend. Hopefully I can snap some pictures and finish up the updates!

First let me say paying someone to paint our living room was the smartest thing we’ve ever ever ever done before. Best money ever spent. Worth every penny. And every other smart spending saying out there.

Lets review here’s the living room’s before pictures. (It’s pretty much necessary to view these first if you haven’t seen them before, or at least to refresh your mind!)

Here is our painter Dwaine.

He was using tinted primer. So pretty much, that color is the color of the walls. Here’s another picture to show you that this is going to make a major change in the room!
I really cant describe how the mood of the room totally changed with a different color. It feels lighter. More mellow. More airy. It feels so much better.

Now I’m going to post a couple pictures of the wall, but this isn’t going to serve as a BEFORE/AFTER post because we are getting new furniture, and we need stuff ON the walls. Once that is done I’ll be posting a real post that compares the before room to the after and we can all ohhhhh & ahhhh!

You can’t really tell from these pictures (I can’t seem to win on making them the size I want them, they are either always too big or always too small) but we’ve also repainted all the trim. (You can actually still see some tape above the door in the last picture!). What a difference. It all just POPs a little bit more.

Now this view is going to be one of our next project. We are repainting the spindles a bright white. And then we’re refinishing the rail and posts. They will be a very dark stain. It should be a great contrast! BUT what in the world am I going to hang on that wall? If you looked at the “before” shots you’ll see they had pictures and a coat hanger thingie. Well I don’t really want to hang pictures like that. And we’ve tossed around the idea of putting a coat hook thing like they had. But we’re not sure. I’m sure things will look different once we’ve stained the railing. Maybe that will give us some direction.

They aren’t all HGTV makes them out to be.

Which is probably due to the fact they condense all that work into an hour, sometimes 30 minutes.

And you get to sick back and watch a whole team of people (at least 4 but up to a few dozen!) work on a room or a set of rooms. The reality is weekend projects aren’t like that in the real world (or at least in my reality of the real world!)

Trying to do work with a 7 month old means either one person works while the other plays/feeds/changes/rocks the baby. Or nothing gets done until bedtime (which thanks to the time change is an hour later).

Last night Mr. C & I started on the bathroom, we worked from 7ish-to after midnight. And really we only got the walls washed, prepped, and the ceiling painted (we’d already removed all the hardware off the walls).

Today we’re going to be painting the walls and painting the doors to the closet, bathroom and bedroom. Hopefully we can get the wee one to nap where I can at least get ONE coat of paint on the walls!!

We are about to rock your world!

The bathroom is needing some serious overhaul. The painter we have hired for the living room is also going to do the bedroom. So we don’t have to mess around with that. But the bathroom….the bathroom is all us. And I am going to take a sick satisfaction from it.

The ceiling, the walls, the hardware, the cabinets. It will all be changing!!

This is the bathroom currently (I will take more pictures right before the work starts!):

It’s not the best picture, so I’ll need to go in and take some more so that I have good before and afters.

We are repainting the walls with a beautiful cinnamon color. We are staining the cabinets a darker shade. We are repainting the ceiling. We are replacing the light fixtures and the hardware. Oh and we’re replacing the mirror.

The only thing we aren’t doing right now is replacing the floors. And the reason is funds. would it be easier to do it all at once? Of course. But we are still deciding on what floors we want, and so far our taste exceeds the funds available. So instead of settling we’re going to make it something that we like and will enjoy until we can get to the floors.

I will have more to tell of the end plan of the bathroom(s) in the before and after post. While we were hoping this project would be our weekend project, it will probably take a couple of weeks just because of some other scheduling issues. But I can’t wait for it to be done and us to show you the final product!

Our living room is a deep shade of….of…a brownish green, olive maybe? Either way it isn’t something we love. But we’ve watched enough HGTV to know to never hold wall colors against a house. So we looked past it and I started searching. We knew we needed to find new colors for every room. I searched blogs, I talked to friends, I took home paint chips from Lowes, HD & SW’s. I found a color we loved on a blog that I’ve mentioned here before (I’ve actually talked about this color before). I can’t resist showing the picture for those who are just quickly scrolling:

Just looking at the picture I am so excited for the change. It looks so relaxing, so soothing, so perfect.

When we close on our house we talked to our REA about a painter. We knew that the living room was too much of a project for us. The ceilings are vaulted, and we knew our limitations. Not only time, but the trouble. It is worth the money to us. Our REA got us in touch with the painter that he recommends for clients that are selling, it’s also the painter he uses for his own home. As a housewarming present our agent is paying for the paint, and we are paying for the labor. It’s a great deal, and this painter is very well priced. He is not only going to paint the walls for us, but he’s also going to fix the baseboards, and clean up the ceiling from previous paint jobs.

I am excited to see the transformation…it’s going to be MAJOR!

Functionally complete. We’ve got some other things that we’re doing that will add some finishing touches. But for now, the project as we currently had it planned is complete.

There used to be a washer and drier area in the kitchen. The previous owners had a great laundry area built in the basement. They had plans for the area of the kitchen but never got around to making their ideas a reality. Once we realized we wouldn’t ever use this area for its intended purpose, we knew right away that it would make an amazing pantry. (we have left everything needed to convert this area back to a washer and drier area just in case we ever NEED to move it, or we sell and the next owners want it to be on the main level).

This was our first real house project, and it sorta took a detour. The stud finder we used (and contrary to what our friends think, even though they were helping they weren’t the studs) picked up a drainage pipe as a stud. The pipe is tight against the wall, this is the only reason we think this happened.

The drilling started, and after nine holes the walls cried their tiny tears.

The project immediately came to a screeching halt while we formed a plan, (a few plans too, just in case). We had to cut out the portion of the pipe that had been drilled into (by we I mean my dear husband, and two of our friends. The wee one doesn’t know much about DIY and so her and I played in the living room during all of this).

The guys worked for MANY hours that night to get everything repaired so that the pipe was back in working order and the wall would be ready to be fixed the following day.

The next day the number of people working on the project went from three to two as one of our friends had to return back to Georgia after being a house guest for a few weeks (it was really helpful to have him here to help while moving, we really appreciate him!!
The second day of the project resulted in this:

Finally on Day Three….the sanding and priming and painting was complete on the repair. And we could get to installing the pantry!

Now that it is complete I am SO happy with how it turned out. It didn’t take a few hours like we originally planned for it to. But it turned out great and in the end that’s what matters most!