Greetings from the Living Room!

Yesterday was very productive.

We moved all the furniture out of the room.

Then my husband and my son did a little dance on the barren floor...

Then they started doing John Cena's "You Can't See Me."

 Then Will got home from practice, and John was still doing the "You Can't See Me."

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should watch more wrestling!

;)

Anyways, we tore everything out, pulled out all the tack strips, pulled up all the staples, and laid our underlayment.

This is as far as we got.

At 9:15 last night, when I was dragging the flooring in, I realized that I forgot to buy spacers.

Menards was closed.

Darnit!

So even though we could have easily knocked out most of this floor last night, it didn't get done.

Menards doesn't open again for another 15 minutes, so I'm just popping in to give you an update while I'm going crazy patiently waiting for the store to open.

"How long does it take you to paint a room?" -Hubs

"Depends on the room size" - Me

"What about a room like this size (the living room)?" -Hubs

"Mmmm...about a day, more if the trim is painted." -Me

"Alright then! You might as well paint the room since all the furniture's out already!" -Hubs

"Wait...what?!"- Me

Little does my husband know that since I'm the one that has to paint the room, I also get complete control over colors and whatnot!

White board and batten 5-6 feet high.

That's my decision!

He hates white anything, and I love it.

If you're not into whites either, check out A Country Farmhouse.

You'll change your mind!

May To-Do

Oh man, I'm a little worried about starting this month!
I have soooo many things that need to get done!
I'm determined to get everything done, though, so give me lots of support and encouragement to get me through this!

1. Fix up the playhouse.
I need to get it painted, install carpet, and add curtains this month!

2. Buy new outdoor lights.
I like these ones from Lowes, but I can't make up my mind on which ones would look best on the house!

Priced at $49.00

Priced at $49.98

Priced at $24.98

Priced at $19.98











Which one would you put on this house?
Please help me decide!

I was thinking maybe the $24.98 one. I like that it's a bit bigger. Since the light wires are on the tops of the doors, I think I need something to cast a downward light. And since I only can have one fixture per door, I think it should be the bigger one.
What do you think?

3. Get A's in my two Psych classes.
I dipped down to a B in one of them, but I'm determined to get it up!

4. Paint the entryway.
Here's what the green should have been will be!

This is what I got.

Wow! Seriously?! Quite the difference, right? That's okay, we'll just redo it. No problem!


5. Install my new flooring!
My carpet gets shampood at least once a week, and it still looks like this.

I'm soooo sick of it! This carpet just attracts dirt, even if I scotch guard it after shampooing it. So it's getting the same laminate flooring that's in my kitchen. I was coveting the bamboo, but it's more than double the price, and I have a huge living room. That wasn't in my budget!
It's sitting in the back of my vehicle, just waiting to be put in!

6. Begin erecting our fence!
I'm ridiculously excited about this one! We've been wanting to build a fence since we bought our house, and it's finally going to happen! I just sent in the money for a land survery, then I'm off to get my permit!
It's going to be 6' planks around the backyard, but the front yard is going to get a low picket fence with a gate. I can't wait to start the flower beds around my picket fence!

7. Begin getting my craft room ready.
We are getting rid of all of our basement furniture during our city's spring cleanup!

8. Trim out the rest of the kitchen cabinets.
I have all the trim already, I just need to force myself to get it done!

9. Transplant as many lilac bushes as possible!
My neighbor gave me free reign to split and take all of his overgrown lilac bushes! It's a big mass, but I know that once I split them, they will flourish! I'm literally going to have 20 lilac bushes in my yard...lol! It's my favorite flower! I couldn't be happier!
This is all overgrown lilacs:

10. Build my circle bench.
The lumber shouldn't cost me that much. I'll definately show you when it's done!

11. Buy some supplies to get my island transformation done.
Lol, yeah...like this is acutally going to happen...It's just wishful thinking!

Think I can make it??

April Reflection

Can you believe it's already May?!

That's so awesome!

Anyways, it's that time again to see how I did on my to-do list.

1. Fix the playhouse.

I at least wanted to get new windows and a doorknob on, but I exceeded that! The walls and most of the trim is put on!

2. Get all the lawn furniture out.

Kinda done. I still have my metal chairs in storage from my old patio table. I'm thinking about putting them around the fire pit...

3. Find plans for a circular bench to fit around my tree.

I found an awesome one!

4. Have a nice, small birthday for my daughter, Hailey.

We went to McDonalds! Haha! I like doing that with really young kids.

5. Do something special for my husband and I's anniversary!

Well, I couldn't book couples massages, but I did build that awesome new patio table on my anniversary, so I'm going to check this one as "done!"

6. Finish trimming the inside of the kitchen cabinets.

Ummm....I did 1 1/2 more.... I still have 2 1/2 to go, plus the painting. I'll eventually get there...

7. Begin my island transformation!

My lord, I've wanted to start this for the past two months! The only progress I've made is purchasing the tools that I need to complete it. That's still progress, right?

Overall, it's been a pretty productive month!

This next month is probably going to be the busiest month of all!

I have a couple major projects coming up, and tomorrow you will find out what they are!

Message Board

We have plenty of message boards in my house.

Remember when I made this one?

It's great for tacking on coupons or phone #'s. Sort of like the face of a fridge.

Or how about when I crafted this one?

I use this one a lot less. I guess because I don't yet have a great place to put it...

The kids have one MAJOR rule at my house. (Well...at least my oldest does because he's the only one old enough to go places by himself...).

If you go somewhere, make sure someone knows where you are.

About 3 years ago, I had to quick run to the store. I grabbed my toddler son and went outside to get my oldest.

He was nowhere in sight...

I tried calling his name, I checked the neighbor's houses...

Couldn't find him...

I started panicking!

I strapped my little guy in the van and started driving all around the neighborhood, yelling for him.

(Got some strange looks on that one!)

I finally drove home so that I could call my husband....

There he was, crying on the front porch.

He never told me he left our yard to play with a friend, he came home, and I was gone! (Out looking for him, lol!)

That event was a great teaching tool. It showed him that my rules aren't meant to be mean, but for safety!

Now he always lets us know where he's going ;)

Anyways, so I figured I would help give my kids options for this rule. My oldest is 10, and before I know it, he'll be old enough to be at home by himself. I know that I need a good place to write notes to each other to communicate.

I remember writing my mom notes all the time, to tell her where I was going <3

My mudroom was the perfect place!

I was working with this:

Yes, I know I still have St. Patty's Day decor up.

See that lime pastel green color?

I changed it out to white.

That way if I ever get bored with the room color, I will never have to paint the door again!

Oh, just a warning, the picture quality on this post is going to be terrible. I was in too much of a hurry dealing with a setting sun to care about getting that "perfect" picture.

I found this old clipboard in my basement. It was my husband's.

I think I'm going to stop nagging my husband about being a pack rat.

I seem to find a lot of cool stuff in his "junk" bins =)

It even had a cool map of the city on the back.

No cool history on this one.

It was his clipboard from his pizza delivery guy days!

So I found a pencil and drilled a hole near the top.

I threaded it through, tied it off, then tied the other end to the clipboard.

I purchased some velcro and stuck that on the top and bottom.

Then I smooshed it on my door.

It's also a perfect place to write love notes to my husband!

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about the playhouse! I'm just waiting until I get further along for more "WOW" factor!

It's almost ready for paint, so stick around to catch that!

I am also about to start 3 MAJOR projects, two requiring building permits. I have only a two week window between the end of my spring semester and the start of my summer semester (yes, I take classes in the summer!), so I'm going to try busting butt to get as much done in that window as possible!

Featured: Knock Off Wood

My patio table was featured over at Knock-Off Wood!

Ana makes great furniture plans! They are super easy to follow, and the results are amazing!

Check it out for yourself!

Click here to check out the feature!

Thank you so much Ana for bragging about my furniture, again!

You're the coolest!

I do have a bunch of things lined up to show you, and one BIG surprise.

I have to go to work 5 hours early (plus...ya know...work my original shift. Blah....), so I'm a bit constrained on time today!

Stick around for more fun to come!