Calendar Wall

Taking an idea from pinterest, I turned this bare wall by the garage into a chalkboard calendar.

1.  Getting ready to paint the wall color; Valspar Sweet Jasmine in Satin.

2.  The wall had about 3 days to cure, and then I taped up the calendar grid.  I wasn't sure how high or how far to the right I wanted to go with it, so the grid was made to accomodate either.

3.  After putting up the grid with blue tape, I painted the wall color on again.  This is a trick to make sure there is no seepage under the tape (any seepage will be the original wall color rather than the box color).  And then another couple of days to cure.

4.  I don't have a shot of the fresh chalkboard paint (before it's "treated"), but there are specific manufacturer directions to follow (I used Rust-oleum latex chalkboard paint).  You'll also notice that I painted the wainscoting the same color as the wall.  So happy dear husband gave me permission to do that!!  Now it looks like we just have a nice chair rail there instead of dated paneling.

5.  I opted to paint on the days of the week with black craft paint and add a spot at the bottom to chalk in the current month.  This is primariliy the kids' event calendar, and their activities are color-coded to each child.  And if you look close enough and wonder what Fri "Arrow castrate" could possibly mean, he's our goat and he's fine.

The New House

Front view of the house; lovely exterior that was hidden by major overgrowth of plants and bushes.  The hydrageneas (sp) my mother-in-law wants to transplant as we will expand the front patio.

View from the front patio.  We cut off quite a few lowhanging branches and completely took out many "scrub" trees and bushes.  The animals will be housed down by the shed, and I'd like a view of them and the children.

Many of these branches hung low over the driveway.

In the goat pen looking to the lean-to.  The pony will be to your left in a separate pen until they start getting along better.  :)

Up the driveway.  I'd still like to take down that big beautiful oak right.next.to.the.house but dear husband says no.

This little shed was immediately next the garage and we had it moved across from the big shed.  It will become the chicken coop.

Father and daughter have been very very diligent in getting the fencing set up.  Hoping to get the animals moved in this weekend.

And even MORE fun stuff happening inside!

A new adventure

With a new job offer, this particular house revamp is drawing to a close.  We're thankful for the fun place to call home these last couple of years, for the plunge into hobby farming, for the remodel lessons, and for all the great memories we have made.  And now, with an accepted offer on this house (!!), we're very excited for the next adventure.  Stay tuned, I'm sure there will more!

Not just a pinner

I enjoy clicking through Pinterest, finding inspiring ideas, repinning them, but then I kinda forget about them.  The "gutter bookshelf" was one such idea I repinned and then put off.

But, I wanted to prove that I am not just a pinner, I am a doer.

So, I found some older FREE gutters on craigslist, cleaned 'em up good, primed them, and then painted them to match the girls' rooms.  The big girls have bunkbeds, so the fact that the bookshelf is close to the wall is wonderful since it's above their pillows, and it can hold just the right amount of bedtime reading material.  The little girls got a longer piece of the gutter for their shelf.  I painted it the same brown to blend in with the bottom third of their wall.  And it's right at their level and loaded with books.

So my hope is to take this more-than-a-pinner attitude and try another fun idea!

Finished - Done - Complete - Love it!

Ok, the final piece of the kitchen puzzle was a pantry unit.  I refused to pay $200+ at homenardowes, so I patiently checked craigslist for months until I found this monster for $20.  Yes, just two digits!  :)  We like the staggered look of cabinets, and this was our chance to replicate that in our kitchen as our built-ins were staying put.  Buuut rather than keep this pantry super high, I had Jake chop off the top.  That way it wouldn't appear so overwhelming in our not-very-large kitchen, and more importantly, I would have a plant perch next to the patio door.  A good coat of oil-based primer, added lattice to mimic the shaker look on the rest of the cabinets and a bit of crown moulding at the top, a thick coat of paint, spray painted hinges, a new matching handled, and voila: a new pantry for about $30.  :) 

Now to the fun stuff: the before and after pictures.  Here's the before (except the floor, which we put in new when we did the rest of the house).

And the after!  Where to start...

-the peninsula was akward and not big enough for our family anyway, so we ripped it out

-that left a home for the dishwasher which I used to have to hook up manually to the sink with each use (and I never complained because I was so happy to have ANY dishwasher other than myself!)

-the snazzy new pantry (see above) anchors that end

-all the cabinet and drawer faces were removed, sanded, primed, bordered with lattice board to create the shaker look, painted, and rehung with spray painted hinges and new knobs/handles

-some faces were taken off completely to get the "open storage" look for the microwave and on the other side of the stove (not visible in this shot) for cookbooks

-brand new countertops installed by dear husband and myself (previous post)

-new-to-us sink (ie craigslist) and faucet, though a new faucet is on my wish-list

-new light above the sink to replace the old can light, and new track lighting to replace the old flourescent beast

-brick faced backsplash ripped out as well as old drywall behind it, new hardibacker installed and the "frosting" of the whole project; our sparkling glass mosaic backsplash installed by yours truly.

If I had to estimate a total cost for this kitchen renovation, I would say between $600 and $700.

New Counters are IN!

The old counters came out without too much of a fight. The sink, however, was old cast iron and HEAVY. So so so happy to be rid of that thing; if I so much as set a glass cup down too hard in the old sink, it would shatter.

Helping dad tighten up the mitered corner. The counter top would eventually be cut in this area to hold the sink. And yes, we did cut it in place.

Voila!

It was a learning experience for us, but thankfully, we learned quick.

We measured and remeasured and measured once more before placing our order. And we ordered the counters withOUT the sink hole cut so we could do that ourselves. Since we installed a used sink (off craigslist, better than what we had but a "for now" arrangement), we had to come up with our own template. Just to be sure we didn't end up with too big a cut-out, we (ie Jake) really took our time getting the cut-out larger and larger and larger until the sink fit snug. He hooked up the water and we're good to go! Hopefully this weekend he'll have some free time to hook up the still-portable dishwasher in its handy spot next to the sink.

AND these photos show the newly installed backerboard. We'll look at that for the time being until I decide what I want for a backsplash/we save up some more money.