Home: Shelf Project

While looking at houses I kept eyeballing the walls in the living room area to see if I could put my picture photo wall on it.

This house, our HOME, has a circular kitchen and beautiful large wall!!! We are still working on finishing the bedrooms, but enough was enough and I wanted my photo wall and to start unpacking.

A few weekends ago Mom came over and helped paint the trim and baseboards, while Josh worked on patching the crown molding and finish hanging the doors. I had my shelf project!

Ikea and Pottery Barn sell shelves similar to what I made, but in short lengths and very pricey for a 2 foot piece! I needed/wanted 8-6 foot pieces. The wall measured 8 feet long, so 6 foot shelves it was!

We went to Lowe's and I got 6 foot 1X4 pieces of wood, 2 per each shelf. We also got 1" square rods (that came in 3ft lengths) so 2 per shelf again.
I have 3 shelves total.

The wall (ignore all the patched holes and dirty wall, we haven't painted these rooms yet)

They are hung!!! My mom and Josh put these up with my directions. 

They are 18 inches apart

Side View

Loaded up!

I posted the above picture on my Instagram and Facebok page and everyone LOVES them.. So do I!!!! You have any idea how many times I've rearranged the damn wall though??? I keep finding new pictures to add and more I want to add, but clearly I am out of room! I need these on every wall in the house I think!! 

I have made the decision (haven't told Josh yet- he may kill me) to add some more 2 foot length to the wall at the end of the hallway, with a shorter distance between them. 

I'm also going to make a "variety" of the same shelf for Baby L's room, for it's books. Baby already has quiet the collection. 

Dining Table DIY: To paint or not to paint

We are slowly working on the house. I am done with all the "fix-ups" I'm ready to decorate!! I was painting the spare bath, when I got (not even) half way through, found Josh, handed him the brush and said "I'm done".
We have the corner bedroom painted and basically done, just need to hang the new bedroom door. The spare bath is done. The guest room is 1/2 done. The master bedroom is primed, the bath is still as is.
Those are the updates. Now to what I've been getting yelled at for:
We got a nice 6-seater dining room table set from my dad's family friend. Its an old table from probably the 70's. Solid wood, scroll work on the drop "skirt" of it, and on the backs of the chairs. Its a great table, that need needs an update!
Josh has yelled at me to leave it alone, the wood grain makes a "star burst" pattern in the center of the table when its a circle (it also has a leaf to add to make it oval for more people).
My mom has yelled at me because I'm not listening to Josh about not painting it, and that his opinion counts.
We had our old apartment neighbors over for dinner over the weekend, I told them my plans and they yelled at me because the table is true "Americana work" and that I would ruin it.

Go ahead people keep yelling at me to NOT paint it, that just makes me want to paint it even more! It's old. I knew the lady that owned it. I needs an update. It doesn't go with our decor. It needs a simple update. I'm not painting it pink or anything. I want to paint the top of it white. Then the scroll pattern is being plastered over and sanded smooth, on the table "skirt" part it will be painted gold. The chairs, the top piece with the scroll will be painting white, then the bottom part under the "rods" will be gold, and the legs of the chair will be white and gold "dipped".
I'm not taking a saw to it! (not that I wouldn't like to). There is still plenty of the original wood being untouched.
I will let you know about the progress, this isn't something that is going to happen tomorrow. It's a planned project for the next few months.
We'll see if it grows on me during that time span (doubtful)

First Time Home Owners

We have finally closed and bought our first house! We have been actively looking with and amazing Realtor since August. We saw A LOT of houses. Considered a few, but never bit the bullet. We went to this one, after a very disappointing view of another with my parents. When we first pulled up Josh and my Dad loved it. Once we got into the house, there is work to be done, but nothing like we saw in others, and it was do-able. We put an offer in on October. We had to wait an agonizing week for them to get back to us. We lost out, we were the 2nd highest bid. We also signed a page saying if the first party backed out, we would be next. Not giving up hope, we kept looking. Just as things we're getting a little dark, the Realtor called and said the first bidders backed out and they have offered it to us. This was December. We jumped on this! Long story short, the signed paperwork they needed on a DEADLINE was caught up in that lovely winter storm while heading the TN. We lost is again. Finally they re-listed it, we put another offer in and won it. We got serious with the paperwork mailing, but this was a bank owned foreclosure. They do NOT move fast. Finally after getting the offer accepted in January we the Friday before we left for our honeymoon! With things taking so long with the closing process we are in a bit of a rush to move now. We closed 3 days before we left for our honeymoon and have about 4 days to get the apartment cleared out and moved over. The land lord is "kicking" us out end of May. He wants to sell the condo we were renting.

We couldn't be happier, we cant wait to officially get in there and make it our own and put our own stamp on it. I can see us having dinner with family and friends in our dining room on our big (hand-me-down) table that will be re-purposed and painted. Having movie nights and back yard parties and BBQ-ing, with Whiskey running wild and free in the yard. On of the first things to take place however would be having my parents over for dinner, we could NOT have done this without all their help and expertise. They are truly the best parents ever and I can't wait to host Christmas dinner there, in the future. (not ready quite yet!!!)

The day we closed, on OUR porch!!!

Our wonderful 3 bed, 2 bath first HOME!

We also asked Josh's friend and old band mate, Alan to take first home photos for us. He is an amazing photographer and has an incredible vision that is fun, playful and whimsy. I will a few of those photos up later and put the album on the photo sharing site when I get them. If you are on Facebook you may have already seen some sneak peeks and they looks AMAZING!!