I love the wall color in the master bedroom. It’s called Eversong (Color Place), and it seems to change its hue at different times of the day. We replaced the old white ceiling fan with a chandelier three years ago, and after that I started using black frames and accents in a pewter color.

I updated some of the wall art yesterday. I rounded up some extra frames I had in the closet, and ordered prints of some photos I had taken. Total cost: $2.00.

I also found a framed print on sale at Kohl’s (similar to the one in the dining room). It’s hard to resist when you have a 20% off coupon!

I also painted the light fixture in the master bathroom. I couldn’t find a metallic paint I liked, so I ended up using something I already had. I painted the frame of a large mirror (which is now in the master bedroom) and some plates that are hanging in the dining room a few years ago, so I used that. It’s an improvement, and it was free!

Before:

After:

Before:

After (actually lighter than pictured):

Our kitchen cabinets are like lemons. We’ve spent the last five years trying to make lemonade with them… but I’ll get to that.

It all started when I noticed the finish wearing away from the vanity in our master bathroom. We found it through eBay in 2006, and it came with the sink top and faucet. It didn’t match anything, so I decided to sand (by hand) and refinish it.

Before:

After:

The stain is mahogany (Bombay Mahogany by Minwax), and it matches our bedroom furniture. The next thing I knew, I was scrubbing an inconspicuous corner of our kitchen cabinets. To my surprise, the finish came off very easily. I kept going, until I got that sinking “there’s no turning back” feeling I know all too well. I sanded a little at a time, whenever Micah was home and able to watch the kids. I had finished an entire section of cabinets (the area near the pendant lights) before becoming very frustrated. That was when Micah bought me an orbital palm sander for $16.00. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be amazing! We never could have finished without it.

I learned some tricks along the way. I had to strip the first drawer and door after I used a brush to apply the stain. It went on too thick that way and turned out dark. I put on some rubber gloves and covered them in socks. That worked perfectly! I also learned very quickly that I had to do as much work in the garage as possible. The dust would have been overwhelming if I hadn’t!

This went on for about a week, until Micah took over. I never could have gotten everything done without him! I was exhausted.

As I said, our cabinets are like lemons. I don’t know which crazy PO installed these things, but they’re all mismatched. We will never be able to replace them, so we had to get creative. It started when we cut six doors and added glass inserts. Now, they have a beautiful mahogany finish with a glossy coat of poly. It turned out to be a huge project, but we are so happy with the result.

Before:

After:

More kitchen photos are posted here.

I bought a cork and dry erase board, stained the frame, covered the cork in scrapbook paper and added hooks for keys. All of the wall art ties together now.

Cost breakdown for this project:
Stain: $12.00
Sander: $16.00
Sanding pads: $5.00
Board: $10.00
Paper: $1.00
Key hook: $3.00
Total: $47.00.

Click here to see how our kitchen looked when we moved in, along with more before-and-after views.

I would like to get some metallic paint for the light fixture in the master bathroom. It has a few rust spots, but there’s no reason to replace it. I’ve also been searching for a good deal on clear glass knobs for Lily’s dresser and chest of drawers. I think I can find a good deal on eBay if I keep looking. We’ll see!

Amongst the previous owners of this house were two very different people. There was the smart guy, who built the closet in the garage and the bathroom downstairs. Then, there was the guy who destroyed the garage ceiling, put his foot through the kitchen ceiling from the attic, and cut random holes into walls. Now, we’ve fixed all of these things, but I found another piece of guy #2′s handywork the other day. The medicine cabinet in the master bathroom was getting old. I painted it white a while ago to freshen it up and attempt to extend its life, but eventually one of the doors started to crack off. I removed the oversized, awkward cabinet to discover a hole in the wall. I expected this, since the house is almost 40 years old. Perhaps there had once been a recessed cabinet in there. The problem was that this hole was useless. They had carved into one of the studs and left nothing to which you could secure a cabinet. The drywall was damaged on the bottom edge. To top it all off, the dimensions were very strange. I found a cabinet that would almost cover the hole without appearing too oversized. This would also allow me to turn the light fixture in the correct direction, which was previously impossible.

I got to work on installing my $21.00 cabinet. Many improvisational steps later, it was secured. I would have preferred to place it in a lower position, but I had to work with that hole in the wall. I still had to deal with the cracked drywall. It looked like someone had just ripped a chunk out of it. I grabbed a piece of leftover chair rail from the family room and cut it to fit across the area. I suppose it looks like it’s there for decorative purposes, but I brought out the old can of paint to would match the walls. I had to touch up where the large cabinet had been anyway.

Before:

After:

We have been very busy. We went back to the Raymour and Flanigan clearance center and found the matching bed for our dresser. We got them down to $425.00. It’s still amazing to have a queen size bed. I never realized just how crammed we were in full. Serta makes a very affordable imitation of the Tempur-Pedic mattress, but it’s
hard to find in-stock at Big Lots. We managed to get the last one. Luckily, I had been buying queen bedding for a while, so we were able to keep everything we have. I updated the master bedroom photos, along with many other rooms in the house.
This is the chandelier, finally installed:

My Dad and I spent the weekend wiring from the attic. I found a nicer chandelier at Home Depot and decided to keep the white one to install in Molly and Mia’s room at a later time. We wired a dimmer switch through the walls and changed the wiring to
add a junction box to the attic. We plan to use that later for the wiring in the girls’ bedroom and for an outlet to connect the attic fan. It was a bit tricky, but I learned a lot.

We found a handyman who would re-tile our shower for a very reasonable price.

It was a big job. I’m glad we didn’t try to do this work ourselves – even with my Dad’s help!

I can’t believe how beautiful it turned out.

We decided to add a shower door. I had to look everywhere for that because it was out of stock. It was $50.00 cheaper at Home Depot, compared to the price at Lowe’s. It won’t be installed until next week, but this is the one we chose:

I painted three paw prints on Will’s room because he loves Blue’s Clues. I drew them by hand on cardstock to create my own stencils. It turned out really cute. The photos of his room have also been updated.

I moved the mirror from our bedroom wall to the wall above the fireplace. It looks very nice.

Lastly, I painted a wall in the family room with dark brown chalkboard paint. It is the wall with the door to their clubhouse. They’re already having a lot of fun with it.

I have found some deals on eBay lately. I bought white roman shades for the kid’s rooms, and fabric-look pleated shades for the two windows in the playroom. They look nice, but you do get what you pay for. The installation was tricky, and we had to be careful. I added a new curtain rod in Will’s room that I actually bought years ago. Micah painted one of the walls navy blue, so Will has an accent wall now.

I bought a plain white chandelier a couple of weeks ago ($37.00). I spent a lot of time shopping around for a good deal on that. I found some small purple shades on clearance at Pottery Barn. I was all set to install it in the master bedroom, and then I realized that the ceiling fixture is not connected to a switch. I’m going to need my Dad’s help with that wiring.

Will has an old armoire from Target in his room. I bought it when I was pregnant with the twins, and they used it for a couple of years. Throw in several relocation moves, and it was in pretty bad shape. It wobbled every time I moved it. In addition to this, the girls had an old dresser as well. They used to be pretty rough with it, and I had to use duct tape just to hold the drawers together. It was obvious we’d have to do something eventually.

I went to the Raymour and Flanigan clearance store last night and saw an as-is dresser for $509.00, marked down from $900.00. It was missing one handle and had a few scratches that weren’t very noticeable, but it stood out because most of the other pieces for bedrooms were far more expensive. The salesman approached me, but I was stubborn. I finally negotiated my way down to $299.00! The next thing I knew, Micah was taking the seats out of my van and I was picking it up. It’s 70 inches wide and 40 inches high. I absolutely love it.

The kids have inherited our old dressers, which we recently painted white. I’ll post updated photos of their bedrooms soon.

We still haven’t done anything with the rocking chair. We’ll have to wait until the weather is nice so we can strip it outside. We’re going ahead with the shower tile, though. It will be done in about two weeks. I chose this 12 X 12 porcelian tile:

Rapolano Noce Tile

I’ll have lots of updates and photos posted on the site soon.