Twin Girl Nursery

Finally!

Remember this sneak peek way back in the day?

Yeah, well...that's how long it took me to get the room done.

Actually, let me be more specific: the room has been 99% done for MONTHS...it was my hair brained idea for crib skirts that kept me from being 100% done.

I'm not really into pink.

It's not that I hate pink so much...just that I'm not a pink kind of girl, you know?

I'm also not into teddy bears, butterflies, princess castles, unicorns, flowers, or...

Pretty much all things that a little girl's room is.

Originally, I was going to go with some funky color combos like turqouise and orange. Still fun and girly but not overtly...well...girly.

And then I realized that this was likely my only chance at having baby girls...so I should probably just embrace it.

Naturally, I added black to offset the frou-frou.

Think Parisian Glam without the Eiffel Towers or Poodles.

In the end, I love, love, love the result.

IfIdosaysomyself.


Chandelier from Craigslist spray painted black.
Pale pink walls, black stripe, bubblegum pink stripe, white. Painting courtesy of Unci Dunci.
By the way, painting black on a wall is stressful.
It just seems wrong.

I made the bedding myself and my mother-in-law took over the debacle that was my "hey, I know! let's make the crib skirts out of tulle and they can look like giant ballerina tutus!" Cute idea, but if I never see a piece of tulle again it will be too soon.
Lucy's crib used to be Henry's. She gets the black/white bedding and pale pink tutu.

Coordinating, but not matching crib sets.
My brattiness about this is why I had to actually MAKE all this myself. It's impossible to find something un-lame for twin girls.
This crib was given to us...it used to be wood colored. Nothing 6 cans of black spray paint can't fix!
Jill gets the pink/white bedding and bright pink tutu.

Used some leftover fabric and the stuffing from an old pillow to make these little bird mobiles.
(The "hardware" was a re-use of Henry's old mobile and a second mobile I bought on clearance and threw away the hideous courdoroy sailboats from.)

The changing table from Henry's room (that is from Pottery Barn Kids but I bought used). Toss on a pink cover and swap the ribbons to a matching color.
Easy.

A *fabulous* armoire given to us by a friend. I didn't have to do a thing to this.

Little "vases" from my ever gorgeous baby shower.
(They're really just tin cans covered with wrapping paper and ribbon).
I kinda hate the silk flowers but I can't think of anything else to put in there.

An old dresser I painted black and added glass pulls to match the armoire knobs. I got these on ebay for $2 each.

Little lamps that used to be in my room (that I originally got on massive clearance at Pottery Barn about 7 years ago), frames from the $1 bins at Michaels (that were already the perfect colors!), and a tiny ceramic bird that was tied to a baby shower gift from Lisa. (I really need to step up my wrapping...I just toss stuff into a bag and call it a day!)

Vinyl wall decals from FiggyandWink.


So there you have it.

Girly.

Pink.

But not too girly.

Before & After: New Flooring

cheap carpet + 2 shades darker than ivory + 2 dogs + 2 adults + 1 toddler + 2 more babies = DIS.GUS.TING.

We aren't dirty people. Yet, our carpet was constantly FILTHY. We had it cleaned 3 months ago (for $125!), and it was awful again. I was embarrassed to have people over, it grossed me out, and I always felt like my house was always dirty even if it had just been cleaned. Blech. It was all I could see when I was downstairs.

Dirty carpet.

And I knew it was only going to get worse when I had three kids...two of whom will likely be spitting up all over the place for the first few months.

So, rather than pay to have it cleaned (again), I talked Andy into installing laminate Pergo flooring. I would have loved to do real hardwood, but it's so expensive, and I really think I would have over-improved the house.

BEFORE:
The carpet looks great, right? Yeah, except that it had just been cleaned about 2 days earlier. It didn't look that way for long...(this photo is from right when he had moved in...Henry didn't even walk yet!)

DURING:
A huge, huge, huge *thank you* to Chad, Sean, and Cade for coming over and helping Andy pull up the carpet and the tile in the entryway (and their respective wives for letting us borrow them for the night)! I think they got it all done in 1.5 hours...which means it would have taken Andy 5+ hours to do it by himself!

Laying down the moisture barrier. Notice how the TV wasn't displaced too much during the project...gotta watch the Laker game!

AFTER:
New floors and a little helper. The TV has to be put back in its rightful place and Andy has to finish installing the moulding, but it's pretty much done! I love it! It's so CLEAN!

It was a big job and Andy worked really, really hard all weekend getting it in. We did the living room and dining room...now to convince Andy that it would love FANTASTIC in the kitchen too! (Do you regret marrying me yet, dear?)

;)

I *heart* Craig

I don't know who Craig is. But I am in LOVE with his list.

Craigslist, anyone?

A little story:

Once upon a time there was a girl...let's call her Jeannett. Who was just telling her husband the other day that while she liked her patio table and chair set, she really was pining for one of those new fangled patio "couch" sets. Her husband, let's call him Andy, told her she could keep dreaming, because not only could they not afford new patio furniture, but the set she had was only 2 years old and she was just going to have to deal. Jeannett sighed and thought that maybe in a few years, she could try again. So, she went on her merry way, not twice thinking about the new set. Okay, except of course when the Restoration Hardware catalog came. (Okay, really...I want to win the lottery for the sole purpose of buying every item in that catalog! It's really bad coveting. Really.)

So, one day a few weeks ago, Jeannett went to Target to buy thank you cards. $3.99 pack of cards. She wasn't going to buy a single other item. Not even bar soap. Restraint.

Until she saw a bit of a commotion up in the garden aisle. There seemed to be an excitement in the air and a little panic too. Intrigued, she walked over...to see that the nice lady in the red polo and tan slacks had JUST marked down all of the patio furniture 75% OFF!!! She told her younger sister to keep a vigil near one of the couch sets (who had to shoo 8 different people away from their treasures) and rushed to call her husband for permission. Jeannett knew that she really shouldn't spend the money...but she was convinced that this was way too good of a deal to pass up...and as a consolation for the splurge, she blurted out to Andy that she could sell their old set to help off set the cost. Permission granted.

Long story short, I ended up with a loveseat, 2 "club" chairs, a bar and 2 stool/chairs...for less than $300...the original price would have been over $1,200.

I put my "old" stuff up on Craigslist and sold them for...$300!!! So, I got brand new patio furniture for FREE!!!!!

Like I said, I *heart* this Craig guy. He is fabulous.

As a side note, we have spent more time lounging out on the new furniture in the couple of weeks we've had it, than we did on the old set in 2 years. Now for that coffee table/fire pit...hmmm, do we have anything else to sell...???


(Incidentally, I also paid for a major part of my new dining room table and chairs set the same way...all said I spent $400 on the new set and sold my old set for $350!).


Getting new stuff is fun...but getting it for free is fanFREAKINGtastic!

Before & After: Garage Door

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I took on yet another paint project (have I ever mentioned how much I HATE painting???!!!). Actually, this was one of the easier projects...but really stressful because I was convinced that I was going to mess it all up and we'd end up having to go out and buy a new $400 garage door. Painting your garage door sounds weird, but it's actually no different than painting anything else.

BEFORE: AFTER:

Step 1: pop out the window inserts and hose down the door. (Note: save yourself A LOT of heartburn and do this at least a day or two before...)

Step 2: Prime the door with primer that has been tinted with the base color.

Step 3: Freak out because the primer looks awful and be convinced that you've just completely screwed up.
Step 4: Apply the base coat. In our case, I used the same brown color that we used on the darker accents on the house.

Step 5: Mix 4 parts glaze and 1 part DARK brown (almost black) paint and apply with a wet rag...and immediately wipe off excess with another wet rag. Repeat 4 times (waiting for each layer to dry). This gives the door some dimension and makes it look more like real wood. No pictures of this part.
Step 6: Step back and admire your new garage door!

Look! It's a Patio!

(There's been lots of house posts, so I apologize if you're bored by it...it's just what's been happening around here lately!)

My dad is a general contractor, which is extremely helpful when you have a house project to do! :) He came up this weekend to pour concrete and build us a patio cover. Originally, I wanted an open beamed trellis and have wisteria or grape vines growing up on it. But, he pointed out that while that looks pretty, we would have patio furniture totally exposed to the elements and vines of any kind only brings moisture to the wood, meaning it would rot out relatively quickly. So, unless we wanted to move all of the patio stuff out every winter (to where???), we might want a cover. I decided that a cover would be a good idea even if it wasn't quite the look I was going for.

We figured that if we were going to do a patio, we might as well make it a good sized one.

Concrete and pump trucks. I made an expensive math mistake when I calculated how much we needed. Concrete guy had to go out and get another load and we got charged a $100 short load fee. Oops.

Henry leaving his mark.

Helping grandpa wheel the tools back.

Beams for the patio going up the next day.

Helping again.We put down gravel and some stepping stones along the side of the patio so that the dogs wouldn't be walking through garden to get to the side yard which is their new "potty place"...no peeing on the new grass!

The finished product.I started painting, and then decided I wasn't in the right mood. How did I manage to give myself yet ANOTHER painting project??? I thought I was almost done! Sigh...

Goofing off with grandpa.

Before & After: Henry's Room

BEFORE:

Not a very interesting shot, but it was a pretty un-interesting room.

AFTER:

Decided to go with chocolate brown on the bottom 1/3 with the blue on the top. A white chair rail will be installed eventually. For now, the white stripe you see is just where I had the painter's tape. Had I realized it would look okay, I would have been more careful, but the brown seeped under the tape and the edges are pretty bad. Oh well, live and learn.

Henry's letters had to be repainted brown. They used to be blue in his old room.

No, I didn't do the checkerboard. It wouldn't work with the way the ceiling pitches...the squares would be weird. That, and I'm lazy. Those squares were a SIGNIFICANT amount of work and the thought of re-doing it made my stomach churn. But, I really like the way the two tone came out. Not quite as unique as the pattern, but I think it works.

I. Am. Sick. Of. Painting.

But I'm so close. Only have the hallway and one wall in the guest room. I've painted our room, but decorating is coming together very slowly, so I'm not quite ready for a before/after post on it.

**By the way, I think I can officially say that as of today, my boy is WALKING. He's been taking a few steps here and there for a couple of weeks, but multiple times today he has toddled his way across an entire room without a care in the world! My life as I know it, is over.**

Laying Sod...Sucks. A lot.

We spent our Memorial Day weekend...

Roto tilling the dirt...

Spreading 4 cubic yards of top soil...er, I mean manure...


Laying edging (Ben LOVED this job! HA!)...

Laying chicken wire (to deter gophers and digging dogs)...
Laying sod...Rolling it flat...

Laying out landscaping fabric and spreading bark mulch...building a gate in the side yard to keep the dogs contained....But worth it to have this out the back door...




We are tired. Very. Tired.

**HUGE THANK YOU to Ben, Jon, Mary Kay, and Brian for helping with this daunting task!**

(Sadly, our budget is spent so all those pretty flowers I had planned for the garden beds will have to wait...oh well, at least I can actually keep my kitchen floor clean now!!! YAY!!!)