Fabulous Weekend Project - Day 1

Whew! We are almost finished with the mantle/fireplace makeover! The 2nd coat of paint is drying right now. So I have a bit of time to share some pictures with you.

Friday night until...I have no idea. It was really late... We worked on measurements and the layout of where everything was going to be placed. We were worried that this "weekend project" was going to turn out to be much longer than that. But not at all! We are so happy with how it is coming along!


Here is the icky before. See those nasty wires??? Ew. So messing up the feel of the living room. But soon they will be gone!! Remember, you can enlarge the pictures just by clicking on them :)

Saturday morning we headed out to Lowe's - my new favorite store! Andrew's, too. He kept asking to go to Lowe's...too funny. We got all of the molding that was needed, LOTS of nails, caulk, wood putty, and a few other things. We spent $214 on Saturday's supplies. We had lunch and since we have our 2 little guys, we played with them until naptime. And yes! They must have been tired! They slept a full 3 hrs! Awesome work time for us. So, here we go:

Obnoxious wire mess

Lots of sawing...I really want a table saw. Jason says no.  

The first pieces cut and ready for nailing. And, the last time we see Mr. 55 until the project is complete. 

Lots of leveling and double checking

Check out that little miter job :) Jason wanted to add that in so there would be less bending on the wires. He bought some crazy awesome wires for the Wii and HD stuff going on. He sort of attached to them. Lol, I kid (only a little)

 

So at this point, naptime is over and the little guys are ready to come out. Only...there are things ALL over the floor in the living room. Lucky for us they were ready for a snack and some games at the table. 

Andrew saw what we had done and was like, "whoa!" And then added, "Lowe's?" So silly! The colored and had some juice and goldfish while we finished the rest of the base molding. AND while I was also getting dinner going. Lots of multitasking going on at this house!

We took a break during dinner and played with those cuties for another hour until it was bedtime. Once they were down, the clock was ticking away. We really wanted to get to the point were we would just need to sand and paint on Sunday. And, we did it! Here are the rest of the pics:

 Getting the last of the base pieces up

 Time for me to caulk it like it's hot. LOL I know, lame. But it was late and we had the music going. It's amazing that the boys slept wonderfully WITHOUT their humidifier buffering any noise. 

 

 All the base molding is up!

Now time for the sneaky wire trick! 

Ready???

Sneaky wires!

 Finally! At 11:47 pm, we had everything nailed up, caulked, and puttied to be ready for tomorrow. Sweet :)

Home Goals 2012

There is going to be a whole lot of updating and a mess of DIY going on at the House this year!

There have been many things that I have wanted to change about our home, but we could never decide how long we want to stay in this house. We know we do NOT like the schools we are zoned for currently and we LOVE another system further down the road. And we are even thinking of Catholic school... So, we have some more thinking to do about that. But in the meantime, we want to give our house an update to make it more ours and less "house-in-a-box" (like bed-in-a-bag...but ya know...).

You know that I have been working on the kitchen this month (organizing, decorating, etc). But then we had a crazy incident happen last week that set back a part of the kitchen makeover (my backsplash will have to wait...again).

It's all good. This is what I have left for this month (go here to see links):

1. Clean glass between oven door
2. DIY dishwasher tune-up
3. Add Velcro to kitchen towels
4. Make a casserole carrier
5. Homemade sugar scrubs
6. Rug for under kitchen table
7. Paint touch-up

Now for the fun part - GOALS FOR OUR HOME!

MAIN GOAL BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE - FENCED YARD!!!!!!

Living Room:
1. Media storage
2. Updated gallery wall (hallway) with DIY photo canvases

Master Bed/Bath:
1. Framed bathroom mirror
2. Better storage
3. DIY headboard
4. Bedframe

Boys' Room:
1. Wall art on Andrew's side
2. Toddler bed for Alex (this will be sometime next Fall - wow!)
3. Book sling & reading area
4. DIY curtains (the ones we currently have are fine, but the two monkeys who live there are a little wild with them...)

Office/Playroom:
1. Window treatment
2. Lamp

Hall Bathroom:
1. Framed mirror


Linen Closet (formerly the hall closet):
1. Add shelving to closet for towels and bedding (there is a sad hanging shelf in there now that doesn't do anything except annoy me)


Front Yard:
1. Planters by front door
2. Brick/stone bordered beds
3. Touch-up mailbox and fix the flag


 

**Linking up with The Nester**