Master Bath Surprise

My husband likes to joke that he is scared to leave me alone at the house because he never knows what to expect when he comes home.  Usually, I will have painted or refinished something.  What can I say?  I get bored easy.

With My Handsome Man

  A couple Saturdays ago, my husband was going to hang out with a buddy of his after a really long stressful week at work.  I went to call a friend to come hang out with me when I decided that it would be really nice to continue painting my ceilings white (finally, my ceilings were getting done!)  I texted my husband asking him to pick me up a couple cans of white paint.

When my husband came home, I realized that he picked up the name brand paint when I use the super cheap paint.  There was the chance that the whites would not match and this paint was twice as expensive as the kind that I had been using.  By the time I realized that I had the wrong paint it was already time for him to leave. 

“No!!  I only have a quarter of a can of paint left!  What am I going to do when you are gone!  The ceilings won’t get done and it will be another day staring at stupid beige ceilings!  What a waste of time!”  I am sure I said something like this and, no, I am not dramatic at all. ;)  I just really wanted to finish a large part of my ceilings!

Christian is a really hard working attorney and I had been complaining about having to paint the ceilings since we bought the house.  He had told me that he was going to paint them and not to worry about it.  When he works all day and finally gets to come home I want him to get some relax time!  I make sure to try to get as much work done as possible so he can come home to a stress free, works already done space…..This is the intention.  Not saying this happens often but I try!  I’ll take my, once in a while successes as being successful!

I used almost the rest of the white paint I had left to finish painting the master bedroom ceilings.  This took all of about 20 minutes. 

Ugh!  I needed something else to do! 

At this time, there was only one room had hardly been touched yet…the master bath.  

I thought, “If I hurry, I might be able to finish this before Christian returns!” 

I set off like a mad woman! 

After getting all the supplies that I needed and setting up my tablet so that I could catch up on “Grey's Anatomy” as I worked, I removed the knobs from the vanity and used my little hand sander to sand it down.  

I then, wiped the whole thing off with a wet rag, taped the edges and spray painted it black.  To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure if I would like the black vanity, I just happened to pick up a can the last time that I was at the store.  It cost all of $2 and change.  Figured why not?  When you are addicted to updating things, bad choices really are not that scary.  I could always change it if I didn’t like it. 

I then painted the trim, door and the ceiling white.  

 Last, I painted the walls “Passive Gray” by Sherwin Williams. This is my all time favorite color.  At least for paint…and at least for right this moment I am almost certain that this will change.  Gray won’t be awesome forever you know. My daughter’s nursery is the same color and to me it is the perfect gray and I had just enough left over to paint the bathroom. Baby Girl's Room 

I seriously cut it close.  I had a paint brush in the can trying to get any last bit out to finish the last little part of the bathroom.

 

Right as I was finishing I heard Christian come home.

 “Uhh, Erica.  What are you doing?”  the sound of concern in his voice. Surprise! J 

He is learning to trust me on these things. 

A friend of mine recently asked if I discuss all my projects with my husband before I do them.  No way. If ever there was something that I knew that he didn’t want me to do then I would not do it or any significant purchase to make then that would be discussed. 

  It is much better for his stress level when he comes home to work done than if I discuss all the plans in my head.  There is a lot rushing around up there.  Also, if I tell him what I am going to do he would want to help.  I love his help, but once again this guy works hard for us and gets a whole lot less time with our kiddos than I do.  He has a really hard time not doing a bunch of stuff when he gets home from work.  He is always cleaning something or fixing something else.

So far he has been very happy with all my work and I sure love surprising him!!

I still would like to update the lighting, mirrors, bath and shower…and other things, but we will get there.  I didn’t spend a dime on this project.  I was able to use supplies that I already had!

Here is the bathroom now!

Love the black vanity!  I did our guest vanity the same way after how this turned out.

What I Would Do Different

-        -  The only thing that I would do different is that I would have a ventilator!  I still need to buy one of these.  The spray paint is so strong.  I will not use spray paint again without one.  I value my brain cells way too much and it is quite possible that I killed a few.  Please do not use spray paint in a room without protecting your lungs and brain!!!!

Thanks for reading!

-      Erica

When Life Dumps On Your Garden…Make a Pool?

Mother’s Day weekend!  I do enjoy Mother’s Day but I have to say, my favorite thing about it is that when Mother’s Day rolls by I know that it is time to plant my garden!!!!  WooHoo!  My Grandma Nijakowski would say that you have to wait until after Mother’s Day to be safe from the frost.  I waited till the day before Mother’s Day. Close enough.

It has actually been years since I have been able to have a garden….a real garden.  Last year Jackson (my son) and my husband took me to the store on Mother’s Day to pick out a few things to plant in pots on our balcony off of the apartment we had.  So sweet.  We had some basil and maybe 20 cherry tomatoes from our harvest J I loved growing things with my son even though we didn't have the space or the money to do much.  But now, I have a whole  yard to work with!!!

I also planted a few plants when I was living in New Zealand.  I was sharing a small house with 8 other girls. This was a two bedroom one bath home.  I miss those days and all you beautiful ladies. I planted a few plants, but for whatever reason I got a few beans out of it and out of two tomato plants only one tomato grew!!!  I think the dirt was too sulfuric or something. Who knows? 

 When we bought our house, we couldn't see much of the back yard since it was buried under a bunch of snow. As spring has now sprung, all these wonderful plants, bushes, and flowers are coming up!  It has been such a joy to find new things growing all around.  The previous owners had put a bunch of love into this yard.  I could hardly wait to get a vegetable garden going, especially being able to do it with my son.  I love doing things with him, teaching him, and seeing his little mind grasp new things. 

This is my boy after we went on a bike ride/run (he rides, I run). We love to find new places to explore and came across a park loaded with dandelions.  Of course, he got so excited and started picking a bunch for me. Uhh, who would have thought dandelions could become such treasures?  I made this chain from all the flowers he picked me.  

Focus Erica, focus…Garden got it. J

So the week before Mother’s Day, as I found time, I began to dig out a big rectangle in our back yard.  I had a bunch to dig up since it was all landscaped, taking plants that I wanted to save and replanting them elsewhere. 

I went out to begin gardening and I hear rushing water.  As I walk closer, I realize that the whole corner of our yard was flooded.  I ran and got a patio chair to stand on and look over our fence only to realize that our neighbors were draining their pool.  We have a drain right behind our fence that they were aiming for but a ton of water was coming into our yard. Awesome.

As I am stressing out by the fact that not only is our back yard being flooded, but a bunch of pool chemicals were also dumping right where I was going to plant my garden, my little guy comes up to me with a huge excited smile.  “Mommy, is it OK if I put my feet in the water?” he asks.  I sighed giving up my garden spot and told him to run inside and get his swim trunks on.  He was thrilled, to say the least. 

As he was changing I built up a bunch of dirt along the fence to keep more water for coming in and then dug out a little hole for my son to play in.  

“Mommy, it’s ok?” He asks again to make sure I didn’t change my mind.

I love him.

Such a happy guy!!!!

After this I decided to move my garden right up by the house on either side of our deck, and since I have a billion different seeds, I planted in other random spots around the yard.   I cannot tell you how happy I am that our neighbors didn’t decide to drain their pool one day later.   Thank you Lord!  All of my plants would have needed to be moved and I would have needed to buy all new seeds.  I probably would have cried.  Like, a whole lot.

I love that I will now be able to pick from my garden as we sit on the deck! Love it! We can also, watch to make sure bunnies aren’t eating everything.  There are at least 3 bunnies running around our yard at most times.  This could be a problem, but they are so cute!

I had a real love, hate relationship with what happened. There was a ton of wasted effort that I put into clearing out the back corner of our yard. A TON.  However, Jackson and I had a blast.  It is also quite possible that I really enjoy playing in the mud. 

 

I know you all are wondering where my little girl was this whole time.  She was with her daddy mostly.  Every time she goes outside she eats dirt, rocks, mud, anything she can find!

That’s not chocolate on her face. 

Girl, stop eating mud! It’s nasty! Pretty sure that she thinks it is a game now.

Here are some pictures so far of our gardens and some of the fun surprises around our yard.

I got the back mess somewhat back together

We found a birds nest up in our shed.  Everyday, I would lift Jackson up to see what was in there.  He was so excited when the first time he looked he found four eggs.  Yesterday, I lifted him up and his little face lit up when he saw that the eggs hatched!

We are loving this yard!  

We are so excited to see our garden continue to come to life!  I will be posting updates on our gardens in the future.  Thanks for reading!!!

- Erica

Free Ottoman! No Sew Reupholster Project

The church that we attend has decided to update some of their furniture.  As they were getting rid of an armchair and ottoman, I asked if I could take them.  This furniture has seen better days but has great bones.  I was very excited.  Sure, I can totally reupholster things.  J Well, worth a shot at least.  This was my first time reupholstering anything but I will definitely be reupholstering again....  soon.  Like as soon as I can get to a fabric store because I still have to do the armchair. 

I started by going to Walmart.  I will say, there are a TON of places that I would rather shop than Walmart but some of their prices can’t be beat.  I found the perfect fabric.  It was a thick light gray fabric with just a little shimmer in it.  There was only 2 and 1/2 yards remaining with a patch that was a little beat up.  The lady sold it to me for $4 total!   I prayed that it would be enough.  I also bought 3 packages of nail heads for doing a nail head trim. These were around $1 a box.

Once Christian (the husband) and I put the kids to bed, I started taking off the fabric.  I first cut off the buttons and then cut around the base of the ottoman.   The old fabric came right off. 

I then laid my new fabric over the top of the ottoman leaving a little slack so that I could fold the fabric to leave a nice clean line.  Next, I stapled the fabric all along the base.  The old fabric had fabric tubing along the bottom that I left on.  This made for a perfect ridge to staple underneath.  

 Look at that nice clean line I got! 

I did both the long sides first to make sure that everything was lined up.  I then folded the edges in (as you would a gift) and did the short sides.  As I was on the last side, I accidentally cut the extra fabric a little too fast and went a little short.  The very last spot I had to do was a bit of a stretch.  I seriously almost ruined this whole thing right as I was about to finish.

Once the fabric was on, I couldn't wait to pretty it up with a nail head trim!  I measured out all along the base where I wanted the trim to go making marks as I went.  How hard could it be to nail these in a straight line?........  Freaking hard!  Are you kidding me?!  Uhh.  As I would hammer them in they would bend every which way!  And then, when I tried to take them out to do them over the stupid heads would fall off!! This was a blast, can you tell? My husband gave it a go too with no more success. 

If ever any of you get into the predicament, forks work awesome to get the nail heads out.

Christian enjoyed getting this picture of me as I was about to lose my mind.

After way too long fighting these nail heads, I gave up and went on Amazon to buy this beautiful invention.  Nail Head Trim. With this trim, you just have to nail in every fifth spot. The others just look like nails! 

So much easier!  Ahhhh!   I kind of liked the look of the nail heads being more separated but we are not even going to go there because this was 1,000 times easier!

I did plan to wrap the buttons with the same fabric and reattach them to ottoman but my husband threw the rest of the fabric scraps out.  I cannot really complain about this because I love how he cleans up for me when I do stuff like this. 

I plan to put a shelf with hooks and a built in type thing behind this.  Another day J

 

Anyway, I love my new ottoman!  Yay!

I used about half the trim and I am not going to count the stupid nail heads because I am going to return them to Walmart since they were useless.  Total, this project cost $11! 

I am really looking forward to doing my armchair.  This ottoman was a great first project and once again crazy easy (minus the nail head issue).

What I Would Do Different

·         I wish that I did some research on nail heads before buying the first cheapo thing that I found.  I am assuming there are all different types of nail heads and some super awesome fancy ones, but here’s the thing, if I wanted to spend a bunch of money I would just go to Pier 1 or Homegoods and buy something that didn’t need a lot of love.  If anyone has nail heads that they love to use and are reasonable let me know!  I really like the ones that I got on Amazon but I am very open to different ones.  I love the look and kind of want to put nail heads on everything. J

·         I would have cut slower.  What can I say, it had been a long day and I went a little scissor crazy.  If it was any shorter at all I would have been out of luck.  I did great all the way around. It was just the very last bit that got me.  Uhhh!! So maybe I should say I wish I had drunk a cup of coffee because I should probably not cut fabric when I am so tired.   As I was going along I was shocked at how perfect it was coming out.  Perfect! Due to it being too tight in one spot it now does pull a little.  Not very noticeable if you are not looking for it.

·         I really wish I had the buttons to put on it!  They would have looked so great! 

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This ottoman turned out pretty dang good.  Especially, with it being my first time.  I am looking forward to taking on the armchair.  More and more I am realizing that a lot of things are way more doable then they seem to be.  Don’t be scared to tackle new projects!

Thanks for reading!!!

 Erica