The dreaded house list

So, this may be a boring post for the majority of people, but its helpful to me to have this created for my sanity.  Our home to do list.  We have knocked out a portion of things on it, but still have a long ways to go.  I have this feeling that it will be something we will keep adding to as time goes by, but thats a good thing as I love a new project.  I am going to create a page for this list so I don't bug readers with an updated list every so often.  Check it out and I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

FYI - everything in red is completed.

Throughout the house:
• replace all of the blinds with wider slat ones

Living Room:
• paint
• more art for the walls
• lamp for the side table next to recliner
• new rug for under the couch - thicker, better quality

Half Bathroom:
• paint
• remove vanity and replace with old dresser
• replace light fixture
• put in a vessel sink and new faucet
• build shelves above toilet

Kitchen/Dining Area:
• paint chalkboard wall
• replace light fixture above dining table
• replace the countertops
• replace kitchen sink
• tile backsplash
• new handles on cabinets
• consider repainting cabinets
• paint interior of pantry
• replace wire shelves with wood
• create art for above pantry doors
• replace pantry door knobs
• ORGANIZE PANTRY

Office:
• paint
• build desk
• create calendar wall

Master Bedroom:
• paint
• create art for above bed
• more art for the walls
• consider curtains for windows with none
• recover dog beds
• collect throw pillows for the bed
• find a cool patterned quilt for the bed

Master Bathroom:
• paint
• replace sink vanity with a double sink
• remove giant mirror, replace with 2 personalized mirrors
• would LOVE to retile the floor... probably not happening...
• new fixtures throughout - hooks and such
• tile above the shower
• new shower head

Guest Bedroom:
• paint
• new duvet
• replace cabinet with something vintage
• maybe repaint desk
• art for walls
• throw pillows for the bed
• new closet door knobs

Guest Bathroom:
• paint
• hang art
• repaint light fixture
• replace handles on vanity
• replace fixtures
• remove crappy shelves from nook and replace with floating wood
• purchase baskets for shelves
• fix the wall above the shower
• paint above the shower
• EVENTUALLY try to replace shower with shower/bath combo

Empty Bedroom (currently storage - will be a nursery):
• replace curtains
• paint
• stylize for a nursery when the time comes

Stairway:
• remove carpet from stairs
• sand down, fix and paint stairs
• sand down and repaint  stair railings
• continue collecting white frames for stairway gallery wall

Basement:
• tin sign gallery wall for stairway to basement
• continue collecting license plates for license plate wall
• remainder of basement is my hubbies zone, no more plans

Front Yard/Front of House:
• clean out insane amount of crap from gardens, reline borders with rocks
• remove pointless garden from front yard
• repaint the front door
• replace handle on door
• patch patio paint
• plant Japanese Maple in front garden

Backyard/Back Deck/Carport:
• remove large garden from backyard
• re-stain deck
• replace some of the warped boards on deck
• create stone patio under deck
• create fire pit in yard - likely where garden was
• fence in back yard
• after curing time has passed, paint fence
• paint posts on carport white
• remove gravel from pathway to backyard, replace with stone to match patio

Operation Pantry Organization - Phase 2

This weekend was super busy.  Friday we went to go see one of our favorite comedians, Bert Kriescher.  He was awesome.  My husband and I rarely venture into Baltimore, too far to go and not big party people, but that was 100% worth the trip.

Saturday we went to a friends kids birthday party.  He is just adorable.  Check out my photo site if you are interested to see those photos!  ( Just click the photo site box on the right side of the page to see! )

Sunday we had a lunch with my husbands sister, her family, and his mom then when we got home, I finally got started on emptying out the pantry and got the first coat of paint on the walls.  I love the color in there, a light/medium grey, and it will look fantastic with the dark wood stained shelf covers.

Our dining table will be our pantry until we are finished with it.  Pretty sure my husband is not the biggest fan of that plan, but its our only option.  He actually really surprised me and is all about organizing it and making it pretty.  Loves the idea of the jars... shocking.

Anyways, here is a picture of the pantry with the first coat of paint, pretty sure I only need to patch a few spots and no need to repaint the entire thing which is ideal... haha

You can see the braces for the wire shelving still on the walls.  They will stay as the wire shelves will be going back in to create bracing for the wood shelves.

And now for an updated to do list:

• empty and sort all of the items
• remove fire extinguisher from the wall and put inside pantry
• patch wall
• paint interior
• get boards for shelving toppers as well as face boards to cover front of wire shelves
• purchase glass jars from world market
• create & print labels for all jars
• continue collecting baskets
• jar/can steps to see everything inside - make from 2x4's - paint red
• DIY art for above pantry doors
• find new/cute handles for pantry doors

This week I am going to be working on the art for above the doors.  Have a pretty cool plan in my head, just hope I can create it!

That should do it for today, hope everyone has a great Monday!

Operation Pantry Organization - Phase 1

Yesterday I stated that I am taking the task of redesigning our pantry.  I wanted to use this post as a planning post with some photoshopped ideas and so on.  Below is a shot of the pantry in its state yesterday, I have started reorganization and got rid of a bunch of crap in there so its not nearly as bad... but still not where I want it.

And now this is where I want it to go...

So much prettier, granted there will be 1 less shelf as plans have changed, but you get the gist.  I was going to build new shelves for the pantry out of wood.  After discussing that with my mom she stated it would be difficult to do as the span across would be pretty wide and I would get some bowing boards and would have to figure out a better bracing idea.  SO... I am going to get boards to put on top of the shelves, leave the wire mesh and put face boards on it to hide the front side of the wire shelving.  Makes my life easier...

Still going to paint the interior, and since I don't need to worry about getting paint on the wire since it will be covered up, it wont be that difficult to do, especially since I will be leaving those where they are.  I have some leftover grey paint that I want to use from our bathroom, so I am hoping I can get Glen on board so I can at least paint it this weekend.

I will slowly be collecting new baskets for it as well.  They aren't cheap since I want the pretty woven ones from Target, so it will take time, but the end result will be awesome.

I found these glass jars at world market and grabbed some large mason jars from Target.

Those jars are surprisingly cheap, so I will be ordering a good sized collection of them for a bunch of random stuff I plan on filling them with.  I can't wait for them to arrive!

Anyways, here is an updated to do list as a few plans have changed.

• empty and sort all of the items
• remove fire extinguisher from wall and put inside pantry
• patch wall
• paint interior
• get boards for shelving toppers as well as face boards to cover wire shelves
• purchase glass jars from world market
• create labels for all jars... currently using painters tape on a few mason jars... no good.
• continue collecting baskets
• jar/can steps to see everything inside - make from 2x4's - paint red
• DIY art for above pantry doors
• find new/cute handles for the pantry doors

So that should do it.  I am hoping by Monday I will have some updated pictures for you to see.  Very excited to start getting this cleaned up, the unorganization has made me insane for far too long...

Operation Pantry Organization

Our pantry has, since we moved in, been a place we just toss stuff into and close the doors.  It is highly unorganized, we end up buying duplicates of things because we can't find something in there.  Plus it makes my OCD go insane.  I would personally like to have everything organized by name and for it all to have its place.  My husband thinks differently and doesn't think its necessary to clean up.

So, I am tackling this on my own.  Here is a picture of it as is right now...

It's a complete mess.  The cube storage is fine, but all of that has to be picked thru and cleaned out.  I am actually going to replace those with something a bit nicer as we need more cubes in the coat closet and I have a vision for the pantry and they aren't in it.

Pantry to do list:

• empty and sort all of the items
• remove shelving and patch holes
• remove fire extinguisher from wall and put inside pantry
• patch wall
• paint interior
• replace shelving with wooden stained shelves
• find glass containers for dry goods
• grab some large mason jars for small amounts of dry goods
• find a few storage boxes/baskets for boxed sides and such
• figure out spice solution
• jar/can steps to see everything - made from 2x4s
• DIY art for above the pantry - exterior
• 2 new handles for pantry doors

And I think that should do it.  This will be an ongoing project, so don't expect many updates that often as I have to get my husband to approve for me to pull the trigger on a majority of these projects as well as toss in his ideas as he becomes more interested in it.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

A weekend full of photos!

This past weekend we did nothing for the house.  I made a trip back to WV to take pictures of my grandfathers dog, Penny, photos of a family friend and her family and then traveled back to MD to take pictures of my bosses party as well as a few shots of a little bird who chilled out on my deck.

Lets start with my grandfathers pictures.  He had been asking me for awhile to come down and take pictures of his pup, Penny on the farm.  She is a true farm dog.  Has a nice little bed next to the front door and gets fed leftovers from dinner and milk with her dog food every evening.  She is free to roam the farm as she wishes and is just the sweetest dog you will ever meet.  I also snuck in a few pictures of my grandfather ;)

Next up was my family friend and her family.  This was a gift for her parents and it ended up being a perfect day to take pictures of all of them.

And finally this little bird.  This little guy actually hit our glass door and laid on the deck for a bit of time to recoup.  Once I felt that he was going to survive I grabbed my camera and a macro lens to go outside and take pictures of him.

That should do it for my photo dump I just took on this blog... haha.  I am going to post pics of my bosses party soon, just waiting on approval from him.

And back to house stuff.  Pretty sure I am not going to make it for the Pinterest challenge.  I simply had no time over the weekend to go grab what I needed.  So, I am hoping, this weekend I will be able to knock that out as we have a bunch of stuff we want to do for the house then.  I am also planning on taking pictures of the house for the home tour page.  I think its about time I get on that project! haha

Pinterest Challenge

So what is this Pinterest Challenge you speak of?  Well, it is a challenge hosted by the lovely ladies from Bower Power Blog, Young House Love and a few others where everyone picks a project they saved on Pinterest to actually complete.

We get a week to create... so next Wednesday I must be finished with my project!  Should be an interesting task... But we then link up on their blogs to share our projects and oo and ahh at everyone else's stuff :)

So after that blabbering explanation, what am I going to tackle??  Well, might not be nearly as interesting as some, but I am going to FINALLY put frames on the art above my bed.  I found a few tutorials on Pinterest for the best way to put a wooden frame around a canvas piece and will be knocking that sucker out.

Wouldn't normally do this with a canvas, but since my husband requires basically every fan in the room on at night, yes multiple fans..., they blow and bang on the wall, so randomly one or two will be sitting on the floor because I can't deal at night.  Plus I feel like it doesn't really look "finished".  So something needs to happen to fancy them up a bit.  I love the prints and won't get rid of  those, just needs something a little extra :)

So there you have it.  Not the most exciting of Pinterest challenges, but something that needs to be done for my sanity at night and I think it would look nicer.  Check back Wednesday to see what I did :)

Main Floor Powder Room

I think this project qualifies as my all time favorite in the house.  We knocked this one out in October of last year and was worth every moment it took to do it.  I failed in getting very  good before shots of this bathroom, but you will get the gist of it with the shots below.

That mirror had to go.  Was the previous owners DIY project that just didn't work for us.  So I took it down one day and ripped the frame off.  I then used nail polish remover to get rid of the paint on the mirror itself.

I then flipped the frame over so I had the flat side and attached dominos to it.  Yes I had a strange assortment of them in my house... and I then added a thin wooden frame.  As you will see below, I left 3 of the dominos face up, those signify my wedding date.  Maybe a little cheesy, but I love it. :)

We then decided it was time to replace the light fixture... as you can see above, the old one was nasty.  Well, its not like it was gross, but just super ugly.  So I went to home depot and grabbed a $20 outdoor light for the room.  I think its perfect.  My husband thinks its a bit dark in there still, but he likes light super bright... I like dimmed out and moody light, so its perfect for me... lol

The mirror was just the start of the reno in there.  You can see a pretty green tie dyed marbled sink in there as well.  Had a basic oak base, gone.

It took us a little while to get to this point as I had to get a replacement base as well as a new sink and faucet... so we basically painted the entire white room before removing the sink.  More of a pain in the butt than we thought it would be...

We had to make a base for the old dresser that we were going to use.  The old dresser was my great grandmothers and had been sitting in my parents basement, so I snagged it up to use in the house for this reason.  It needed a good home :)

The dresser fits in there perfectly.  We had to place it to make sure our base was tall enough and then it went back outside to start drilling the holes in the top of it for the sink and faucet.  They knew how to make dressers back in the day... the bracing on the inside top of that dresser was insane.  But we got thru it and finally have our sink and faucet in the bathroom.

We are in love.  We chose to leave the bottom drawer out and make it a shelf just because I liked the way it looked more that way.  One thing I will say, is that these sinks, while they are pretty, make a giant mess.  Especially if you have strong water pressure.  Water. Goes. Everywhere.  Cant wait to have kids using this one day... ha!  But I will deal with a little water on the mirror/dresser for the look we ended up with :)

Now... don't think we left the other side alone.  We painted over there as well and added some floating shelves above the toilet.

Its only 2 shelves, I wanted 3, but the top shelf would of been too tall to really be worth it.  Sorry the angle is a bit strange here, but you get the gist of it.

And that should do it.  We are so happy with this room and love that everyone who comes to our house mentions something about it after using it.  The arrangement of stuff on the shelves has changed a few times, holidays and such, but for the most part, we still have the photos on top and an assortment of collections on the bottom.