My parents visited for the weekend. The closet doors in the master bedroom had recently broken off (again). There were no doors on that closet when we moved into the house. They were flush to the ceiling, so we had to special order them. What we got were hideous, hollow bifold doors that never really functioned correctly. We lost a lot of space on both corners, which never seemed worth the tradeoff of reserving the vertical space. They became worn out over time. They fell off constantly.

Home Depot and Lowe’s didn’t offer any other style of door for that height (90 in.). We bought some standard height sliding doors instead.

My Dad built the framework. He chooses to “eyeball” his measurements. I don’t know how he does it, but everything always turns out perfect. It saved us a lot of time.

He also replaced our old drill “zappy” (it must have been from the 70s) with a fantastic new cordless one (no hex key required – imagine that!).

The drywall:

The finished product:

I love the way everything turned out. They’re not only functional, but they look much better, too. I moved my shoes from the top shelf to a wire rack that I bought for the floor. That made so much more sense anyway (no more jumping up and down every morning to get to them). I thought we’d lose access to that shelf, but I was able to fit some odds and ends up there without any problems.

My parents had asked recently what Micah and I wanted for Christmas. I tend to choose practical items every year. I asked for a new nightstand.

When we bought our bedroom set a few years ago, we couldn’t find a matching nightstand. Our particle board / cardboard nightstand from Walmart (Dad’s temporary work bench in the photo above) had fallen into disrepair, and was holding its contents hostage (shocker). We went to the clearance center and found this:

It has a black marble top. It’s missing one handle, but I will either find a match or replace them later. It matches our furniture perfectly, and it has three drawers for storage.

The Christmas season is almost here. We’re not planning on putting many lights up this year, but knowing us, that very well could change!

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):

Quiet. Calm. It’s a rare thing in our house.

Things have slowed down because of school and weather, but I have a few tasks in mind. Our wedding photographer went out of business a few years ago, and the studio offered to sell us the negatives (along with the copyright). I finally got around to scanning them. Our photographer was an old drunk guy (there’s no nice way of saying it), so it took a lot of cropping and Photoshop work to make them look wall-worthy.

I also found this little relic from our honeymoon and framed it:

We’ll have more time to work on things soon. Spring must be around the corner.

When we moved into this house, one of the first things we noticed was the big box sticking out of the master bedroom wall. It turned out to be a cabinet, and that cabinet was an “ironing center”. The mere idea of ironing at all, much less in the middle of the bedroom, was completely foreign to me. I make a point of not buying clothes that require ironing at all. Nonetheless, there it stood.

I removed the four screws that were holding it into the wall, not anticipating how heavy the entire unit would be. All that remained was a hole in the wall, between two studs. I wasn’t sure what I could do with an area that was only 14.5 inches wide and 4 inches deep, but I also knew I wanted to do something creative. I could see the back of the drywall that lined the inside of the closet, and a stud from an adjoining wall running down the middle.

One confusing trip to Home Depot later, I had everything I needed. I had everything pre-cut, and thankfully it all fit together well.

I was surprised that I was able to figure it out. The next step was to paint the whole thing white, but it still looked messy. I had a back piece that was only 11 inches wide, so the sides were uneven (2 inches on the left, 1.5 in on the right).

I went back out, bought a miter box with a hand saw (only $8.00, to my surprise), and some moulding. Micah took over at that point. While he worked, I opened the $9.00 cabinet light I bought at Wal-Mart. I did not know the two lights were actually one unit, and it was too wide to fit. I ended up sawing off some of the plastic casing to make it fit. Here’s the finished product:

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.

I have been keeping busy with a few projects around the house. I found a coverlet set in the closet that I bought a couple of years ago for a guest room. I decided to make some changes to the master bedroom. I chose a very pale shade of lilac for the walls, painted our 70s walnut dressers a soft shade of white, and added a framed print on the wall. I also painted the little chandelier with the wall paint, as well as its cord to conceal it. I set out on a quest for cellular shades after that.

Roman and cellular shades have become a sort of obsession for me. Unfortunately, they are an expensive habit. I also looked into replacing the shades on our living room ceiling fan. The fan is beautiful. It was installed by previous owners. However, it had cheap white frosted glass shades. Home Depot and Lowes sold replacements for about $28.00 a piece! I thought that was ridiculous, and searched eBay before giving up. I found an auction on a set of four tiffany glass shades for $25.00 total. They arrived new in the boxes!

We have a few more projects lined up for the next several months. We haven’t finished the laundry room yet. We also need to tile the shower in the master bathroom. The tile paint served as a temporary fix for our old shower, and now we need to strip them. That will be a big project!

Next week, Micah is going to help me re-finish my rocking chair. It’s the same chair my mother had when I was a baby, so it’s very special to me. I painted it a couple of times over the years, but it gets used so much that the paint is gradually wearing away. We currently use it as a computer chair and for reading. Once we sand it down and strip the paint, we can stain it to match the hardwood floors.

Lastly, we have plans to build a backyard fence and add a swingset for the kids in May. Things seldom slow down around here!