Lane's Creations: Shelves/Desk

I am completely impressed with Lane. He had a vision in his mind of what he wanted around the fireplace and then he built it from scratch. I think he did an excellent job with putting it together. After many hours, here is the final project!

Just a reminder of what it looked like when we moved in...

 



Pre-nursery Projects

If you have been to our house, you may have noticed that our front door sucked. It was ugly, scratched, let in a draft and easy access in for insects, and didn't exactly shut all the way ~or you at least had to slam it shut a few times~. We were definitely due for a new one, but they are so expensive! We were at Lowes one day and saw one on super clearance because someone had it custom ordered but it didn't work out. It was basically sitting on a throne calling our name. So...we bought it!

Here she is! If there's a word to describe it I would use "gorgeous." We still need to paint it but it still looks 1000 times better!

Here's the old one, from the inside. It might not look so bad, but trust me, it was.

See? So much better!

Lane decided to build a desk and shelves to go around the fireplace. Part of that process included covering the mantel and staining all the wood upstairs to match. It's starting to look beautiful. This was the mantel before:

Here's the desk and new mantel. Excuse the mess; he is still working on the shelves. We also need to figure out how to contain all those cords! (Better picture to come)

The only other update on our house that I can think of is that we have grass now...and weeds. We've managed it well enough for now. We just fertilized it so it can sit over the winter and we can get going on it and landscaping come spring. Also, our next updates will probably include some nursery projects! We're havin' a baby!

And Cue the Yard!

We have finally begun the process of putting our yard in! We rented a trencher from Home Depot for a few hours so that we can put in our new sprinkler system. While Lane worked the trencher, his dad and I dug up weeds, cleaned up the dirt a little (oxymoron) and sprayed weed killer all over. We removed tennis balls, pool parts, plastic, cans, bottles, tools, dog toys, rocks, weeds, and diapers. About 5 hours later this is what we got it to look like. You may just see dirt, but we see the outline of our yard and where cement will be, and an organized mess instead! Hopefully by next weekend we will be able to get sprinklers in so we can hydro-seed.

We will also by pouring concrete. The irrigation system is in that back corner (above) so we will pour some slab there for a shed and box. To the left will be more concrete for our patio area and garden boxes. In the picture below, that area is on the top left.

Here's Lane working the trencher.

Here's the side of our front yard.

Front yard.

                                        

Next on the list:

-sprinklers

-curbing

-hydro-seed

-pour concrete

Some More Organization

Well projects have digressed. I'm getting to the point where I just want to put more stuff on walls or buy little things to fill space and organize. It doesn't help that I spend hours on Pinterest... I see SO many smart, beautiful, and fun ideas on there that it now completely consumes my mind. Here is one idea from Pinterest. We have a hallway closet that I have concluded makes our towels smell. We didn't paint over the shelves and I think it just has the old smell of the house. So I decided to use this idea and bought three baskets, screwed them to the wall, and now I have my towels in there, along with t.p. and (for now) just beach decor. It's nice because they store stuff and you can use the top as shelves. I love it!

I know this is boring but our entry way was driving me bonkers, especially when it started to snow. Lane piled his coats upstairs on the couch, counter, and table. Shoes were kicked off in all areas of the entry way floor. So I cracked down and we purchased a coat hanger and shoe rack. Solved so many problems (with my OCD).

1 year

This week marks one year since we became homeowners! Sometimes it feels like it's been longer because of everything we've done in this house. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year we gutted the house, reconstructed, and moved in. Between last Thanksgiving and this Thanksgiving, here is a list of things we have done (and I may forget some):

-Ripped out carpet

-Knocked out walls

-Ripped out baseboards

-Scraped wallpaper

-Ripped up vinyl flooring and toilets

-Put up new walls

-Built island shelves/counter tops

-Texture/drywall

-Fixed plumbing

-Fixed/added lighting

-Painted

-Wood flooring

-New toilets

-Replaced windows

-Replaced window trims/painted

-New carpet/vinyl flooring

-New blinds

-New appliances

-Shelving in closets

-New baseboard trim

-Painted inside trim

-Stained cement in basement

-New sinks downstairs

-Removed large pine trees

-Worked on sprinklers

-Tiled back splash, fireplace, entry way

-Renovated deck

-Removed hot tub, gazebo, pool and surrounding deck

-Rototilled

I'm sure I'm forgetting tasks; maybe some major. We've had a busy year between all of this, work, and school. With a lot of help from Blake and some self-teaching, Lane has learned how to do SO much! I am so impressed with his hard work and accomplishments. Projects for 2012 are more limited, but some include:

-New sprinkler system

-New grass

-Plants/yard

-Cement slabs in backyard

-Build shed for back corner

-Fix deck/stairs

-Caulking/painting base trim

-Build desk for living room by fireplace

Things for future/I want:

MASTER BATHROOM! I really just want a nice tub...annnd a new front door. What does all this require though? $$....~sigh~ someday....

Just in Time!

First off, Lane ripped out the deck, gazebo, pool, and hot tub. It was all just a mess and took up space. So we hauled all of this out:

Our yard then sat dead-yellow for a few months...you know, just blending in with the fall colors. Finally, Lane rented a tractor and had his amazingly skilled brother (and nephew) come over and rototill the front and back. It made a huge difference! The yard was all smooth, looked clean (in a dirt-filled sort of way), and made the yards look a lot bigger.

This was literally done with just a minute to spare. The boys drove over the dirt to pack it down a bit, loaded the dump trailer and hauled it to the dump, came back and the minute they got back it started snowing! So now after all the snow this winter, we'll be able to dig the trenches for our sprinkler system and hydro seed in the spring. Just in time!

I don't think I ever really took pictures of our entry way because it was so ugly (dirty, gross wood which I covered with a large rug), but my Mr. Handyman also ripped that up last week and covered it with slate. So now the beautiful slate-look flows from our entry way, to our kitchen's backsplash, to our living room on the fireplace. The tiles are still dirty in this picture...I'll update it when it's clean and we get a smaller rug/shoe rack in there!

Yard

Just so you know, the fine line between the properties was intentional. We had to kill our yard of weeds because, well, it was weeds. We tried bringing it back to life but it just wasn't havin' it. So currently we are sporting the yellow.

We're going to rototill it and then hydroseed. Since we're almost done with the inside projects, we'll be able to focus more attention on the yard.
See the green? That's as much as we got, and most of it was weeds.

This was the yard when we first looked at the house.