What I've been up to! (warning - long post!)

I have been doing so many projects around the house lately! And, we are still not finished. I don't think we will EVER be finished.

Let me take you around my home for a show: {snicker}

1. On the upper left you will see a new shelf that I installed in our spare bedroom. There is also another picture of another shelf (same kind) that I put up in the bathroom (see 2 pictures on lower left). Got those at Lowes last week, on clearance, for $10.00 each! I have been eyeing them for a while, but didn't expect them to go on clearance. (originally $30.00 a piece). No, I'm not finished with the one in the bedroom, but the one in the bath is. I had gotten that black frame on clearance at Michaels for $6.00 over a month ago and hadn't used it. I love the picture inside it (click to view closeup). The frames on the shelf in the spare bedroom (top left) were from TJMaxx at $6.00 each.

2. The second picture from the left are our new french doors. No way did I install these myself. Dad (HUGE thank you inserted here!) installed them for us. These doors needed replacing when we moved in, but we just waited because of the expense. Well, we saved most of our stimulus check from last year to purchase the doors, and were able to get them 20% off at Lowes during their Memorial Day sale. :) Since getting them put in, I have been caulking the frame and seemingly endless nail holes, and have only the painting left to go. They are beautiful - and hopefully more energy efficient than the older ones.

3. Third picture from the left is the doorway into our guest bedroom. I have needed to patch the sheet rock where the we had a door put into the pass through, making it an officially closed off room. I love to mud sheet rock! I even had to use tape on this job. I also spent the better part of a morning caulking the door jamb. Still more sanding and mudding to do. Still need to paint the door - but like I said earlier, painting is next on the job list.

4. Top right picture is of Kate's room and the bi-fold doors that I hung several weeks ago. If you have never hung these doors - they are a HUGE pain in the neck. But, they make her room look so nice. The old doors were the slatted kind, and they had such grease and dirt on them that they weren't worth painting. Neither of the kids have had closet doors since we moved in. 2 years ago. Yep. And, they too still need to be painted.

5. Middle picture on far left - some old ceiling tins that I found at a flea market in February. I ended up hot gluing some chocolate ribbon to hang them with. I love them above the pass through to the kitchen. You can easily view them from the dining room table.

6. Center picture is my growing "for real vanity" room of the kids pictures; i.e. the spare bathroom. I printed out some more b/w pics and added them to the window frame (top left glass pane).

7. The middle picture on the right is of our (sort of) china cabinet in the kitchen. It was a bookshelf when we bought the house, and I had the trim carpenter make doors for it. ONE DAY, after I get them painted, I need to get glass cut for them to make the doors official. Now that we moved the curio into the dining room (that description is coming) there is more room for the china that I have to display. It certainly looks less crowded. *And, I forgot to take a picture of the cutest spoon rest I got from TJMaxx for $4.00!!! It is lime green with white polka dots. It is the same color green as the tray in the cabinet in this picture.

8. On to the center picture on the bottom row. This is the cabinet that Dad made for me in high vet school (I think) to display my Breyer horse model collection. It really hurt my heart to put those horses away (I am NOT going to sell them), but I really thought that I would get more use out of the piece to make it a china cabinet. I really like how it turned out, but Dad really LOVED how good it looked. He was proud to say he built it seeing all my Great-Grandmother's china displayed in it. I have always been proud of it!

9. Last but not least, Kate's bed! I have put some tender loving care into this baby - and it is just as pretty as I imagined it would be. I am in the process of actually giving her room some style. Neither of the kids rooms have had much attention since moving here. I am thinking of painting it a pretty blue to match the horse picture above her bed (I will move the horse picture - that is just where it hung before we put the new bed up). I also took the side table out of her closet (where it did live) and made a side table out of it. I really like it there.

Just sitting here and typing this I realize how I seem to just bounce from one project to another. I will be glad to finish just.one.room. But, are you ever truly finished? Really?