Wednesday, June 27, 2018

New artwork for the master bedroom

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Hey there!

As I told you in the post about hiding cords in the master bedroom we had just gotten a large box delivered from Ballard Designs with some new wall art. I can't tell you how excited I was to find this piece. I had been searching for something to hang above our bed for quite a while. The picture we had up there was one we had gotten while living in Germany. Change was way over due. 


I had wanted a pretty, old window to hang above the bed but couldn't find one that was just right. They were either too long, not long enough or too tall. I wasn't being picky about finish or anything because that is something I could have changed if it had been painted some horrible color but we never found one close to what we were looking for. 

Ed and I had been out antiquing one Sunday afternoon and I was feeling defeated by the lack of windows so I decided to do some online shopping to make myself feel better on the way home. It had been a while since I had checked out Ballard Designs so I thought I would see what they had to offer. And there it was. The answer to my art above the bed dilemma!

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

DIY powder room remodel

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Hey there! 

There is not one room in this house that we will leave untouched in our remodel. Even the closets are getting makeovers! The powder room is no exception. When we moved in it looked like this:


 

Um, what?!?.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Another DIY bathroom remodel

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Hey there!

As with the rest of the house when we moved in, the upstairs hall bath was in much need of some TLC. We thought the walls were painted white but realized they had actually been primed and not painted. We assume the previous owners primed to cover either a dark color or messy walls. Whatever the case it was a mess. The vanity actually had nail polish on it that I knew wouldn't come off without damaging the finish so I knew I would have to paint it. 

This is the only picture I could find from before. All white and all boring.


I had initially wanted to rip this room apart but after weighing cost, time and effort decided to leave the tub and vanity and replace or update the rest.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Crocheted hats for kids

Feel free to share or pin our projects (share buttons under each post) we would really appreciate it! Thanks for stopping by!


Hey there! 

Today I'm sharing a couple of crochet projects I made for my grandkids. 

The first is a Harry Potter Sorting Hat for new born pictures. My daughter Marisa is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. So much so that she wants to decorate her house (when they buy one) all in Harry Potter. I happened upon a pattern for making the sorting hat and made one as a surprise for her. I found the free pattern at craftyiscool



It was a little (lot!) big but we managed. 

I also made a Charmander hat and diaper cover for his newborn pictures. She is also a Pokemon fan. Pretty much if it's nerdy one of my family is into it! 


I got this hat pattern from Raverly. It wasn't expensive. The diaper cover pattern was free and came from Crochet A Flower

It had been years and years since I had crocheted anything so for practice I made a couple of hats for my other grandkids. 

These are basic hat patterns I think I found in a book but can't remember. 


Those ended up smaller than I had planned so the larger one went to Knox and I made another one for Miss Addisyn. 


I added a flower and she loved it!


I am still working on a blanket but those take a while. I have begun working on a new project that I will make four of, one for each of my grandkids (not hats). 

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 22, 2018

Hiding charging cords and some new decor

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Hey there! 

As I was cleaning the other day I once again came across a mess of cords next to my bed. It irritates me so much to have to move this to clean and it just looks so messy. 


I needed to come up with a plan to move this unsightly mess. I decided I would set the multi plug on the dresser so the short iPad cord would reach. It barely reached being beside the dresser and I knew if I put the multi plug under the dresser there was no way it would reach. Now I had 2 more issues to contend with. One: the iPad cord would be laying across the dresser top and two: now the unsightly mess would be on top of the dresser . Nope. Stashing the iPad in the top drawer would solve problem one and shopping would solve problem two. 

I started by pulling the drawers out of the dresser. Then decided exactly where I wanted to put a hole in the back. 


Thursday, June 21, 2018

Italian Style Pepper Steak

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Hey there!

Way back when I first started out on my own I received a Better Homes and Gardens Cook book. I am not sure who gave it to me but I have been carrying it around for almost 30 years! Publication year was 1989. As you can see the book has been well used and about 15 years ago our Beagle Kess thought the book itself tasted good. 


This recipe comes from that book. It's one of my families favorite dishes and it's pretty easy to make. 

I always use my wok when preparing this. It's large enough for everything that needs to go in. A couple of things I do differently; I use a larger piece of meat because Ed hates most vegetables and I use more onion (he will eat that), I also make more of the sauce (gravy) for serving. 

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Master Bathroom

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Hey there! 

When we move into this house the master bathroom had carpet. Yep, carpet. And no, there wasn't tile or anything under that carpet. Just wall to wall carpet. Ew. We weren't here long before we ripped it out and got to work on the master bathroom. 

Before. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Fourth of July porch decor

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Hey there! 

This is our second summer in this house but really the first summer I am decorating. I don't have a lot of front porch decor because we have never had one this big. It is one of the things that I really liked about this house. This is my favorite front porch of all our houses. Last year we bought 2 rockers and a glider bench from Sam's and I just threw some pillows on them and called it a day. 



Monday, June 18, 2018

Summer Bedding

Hey there!


I like to change our duvet cover at least every three months. I last changed it back in March which you can see here. It was a nice change from our winter bedding but to be honest you could see the dog hair too easily on it!

The duvet I have on now is the one I bought last year from Pottery Barn. It's still available on their website if you are interested. It's the Veronica Organic Duvet and shams. 


The colors are perfect for this time of year and for our bed. The Mr. and Mrs. pillow covers are some I made years ago and the heart shaped fuzzy pillow is one I picked up on clearance at JC Penney after Valentines day. 



Friday, June 15, 2018

Our Grand Canyon Rail Journey with Traveling Homeschoolers

Hey there! Back at the end of April we took a trip via Amtrak with the Traveling Homeschoolers. This was our second rail journey with them and it was just as fun the second time around! We flew to Chicago the day before we were due to board the train. 

We stayed at Homewood Suites by Hilton which is right across the street from Sugar Factory restaurant and behind (shares the building with) Eataly Chicago. 

Me in our room. 

We had a nice dinner with awesome desserts at Sugar Factory. It's a bit pricey but it is Chicago!




Wednesday, June 13, 2018

The Stairs: Adding a runner

Hey there!

In my last post I showed you how Ed removed the carpet from the stairs and added the Retrotreads and Retrorisers. After doing some caulking and touch up paint he was ready to install the pads and stair runner. 

Before

He used white caulk on the areas where the trim and risers meet. At the top of the stairs where the tread meets the flooring he used a brown silicone that he had used in the wet areas when installing the flooring. 

 After

Monday, June 11, 2018

The stairs: From carpet to wood

Hey there! 

The stairs are done! I don't like carpet, anywhere but I especially don't like it on the stairs. I just don't like how it looks or what a pain it is to keep clean. I am fine with runners but not full carpet. Aesthetically I prefer wood treads but with our dogs we have to have some sort of cushion so a runner it is.

Here's a before picture. The carpet on the stairs was original to the house. Fourteen years old. Ew. 

We started by removing the carpet and pad from the stairway. Yuck. Ed pulled the carpet/pad and about a million staples. Seriously, every time he thought he had gotten them all he found more!



Monday, June 4, 2018

The Laundry room is finished!!!


Hey there! It's finally done! Yes I know it has been months but things like trim and end panels are aesthetic so not a priority when so much else is going on.

Here is the before (listing picture). 

Saturday, June 2, 2018

A new author I just discovered

I was browsing around amazon looking for a book to read. I knew there were a couple to be released by authors I love within weeks but I really needed something to read right then. I stumbled across Jana DeLeon and her Miss Fortune Series. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't put them down or stop laughing. I downloaded and listened to all that I could and read the one that didn't have an audible yet. If you like Janet Evanovich you will love these books!

(screenshot from my kindle app)

Jana DeLeon also has other books and series. When I was done reading the Miss Fortune Books I read the Shaye Archer books. Those are fantastic but definitely not for those faint of heart. They are a lot darker and even scared me a bit at times. They are VERY good though.

When I was done with those I read the Ghost in Law series. Those were freaking hilarious! That Helena is something else! I think I read somewhere that there won't be any more of the Ghost in Law series but there will be more of the Miss Fortune and Shaye Archer Series. I can't wait for the next ones!

If you like mysteries go check out some of her books. You won't be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by. 
Chris

Kitchen remodel: Cabinets


***Previous related posts:
The IKEA home planner tool
Purchase and delivery with IKEA


Hey there!

This post has been a long time coming. *Note: this post is picture heavy! I wanted to post earlier but it took a while to get the trim and end pieces on the cabinets. We decided to do the cabinets in stages. Our kitchen only had cabinets on 2 walls and we were putting new cabinets on 4 walls so we started with the walls that were bare. Since we had already painted the ceiling and walls that wasn't something we needed to worry about. 


This wall is where we decided to put a coffee bar. Up to this point we had been using the buffet cabinet we had inherited from Ed's parents as a coffee bar/extra storage and counter space. Ed moved the wall outlet up and changed the light switch to another outlet. He moved the light switch to the other wall. He also had to move 2 can lights that were above this area away from the wall so they wouldn't be right above the cabinets. That wouldn't be good. 

Since we were doing this in stages and it was still quite cold outside we didn't want to remove all of the flooring and have to be on the cold concrete too long so Ed cut out an area of the floor where the new cabinet would be. 


After assembling the cabinet boxes he put the brackets on the wall for the cabinets. Then he hung the cabinets on them. With our wavy walls it was a bit challenging but he managed to get them lined up and level. 


Monday, March 26, 2018

Kitchen remodel: Purchasing and delivery with IKEA


So you want to buy a kitchen at IKEA? Great! Make sure you use the online planner tool or if you have trouble with that you can always go to the store and one of the awesome associates will help you. We chose to do it online and it worked pretty well. Nothing is perfect so be prepared for some anxiety and stress using any software like that. We also had the consultant come out and measure the kitchen to make sure we were doing it right. That fee was reimbursed to us when we bought the cabinets. 


I spent probably the better part of a year (basically since we moved in) planning and redoing the plan online. The IKEA here wasn't even open until October 2017 so if I had wanted help I would have had to go to one of the other stores 3-4 hours from our home. Nope. I just don't have that kind of time. I highly recommend planning the kitchen and working with one of the associates on the plan at least once before buying your cabinets. 

Ordering the kitchen

When we were ready to buy our kitchen we had actually already had some experience buying cabinets from IKEA for the living room and the laundry room. It took WAY longer to order the kitchen though. Of course the living room consisted of 4 cabinets (originally we bought 10 but had to change our plan) and the laundry room has 6 but the kitchen has 27. Yes, that is correct TWENTY SEVEN cabinets. We really like having storage space! 

We arrived at IKEA right at 10 am on a Saturday morning. We went straight to kitchens and found an associate. She was awesome. She listened to us about the changes we needed done to the plan that the planner would not allow for and made notes of that and the extra items we needed to buy. Once we had gone though the entire plan she got to work on her part. She had to go through each cabinet and make sure that all the parts would be included and that we had enough end panels, lights, trim, etc. Once she was done it was checked by another associate to make sure nothing was missed. I like that. 


While we waited we shopped and picked up other things that we needed to get. We also chose our counter top. That was a big deal. It's so hard to choose things like that when faced with so many decisions! 

Delivery was set for 20 days later. We could have had it a little earlier but we wanted it delivered on a Friday. In all it took about 3 hours from the time we walked in to the time we left the store. Not bad at all I would say.

The Delivery 

Up to this point we had had very few hiccups and I should have known a big one was coming. Delivery was scheduled for March 2. I received multiple confirmations via text, email and a computerized phone call the day before. I was shocked when I got an email a little after 10 am Friday monring telling me my delivery wasn't going to happen. Ed starting calling to try to figure out what was going on. He was finally told by someone that the order had been cancelled because there were some missing pieces. We didn't like it but said fine. We were told we would get a call to reschedule once everything was in place.

About 30 minutes later I got a call from the delivery company. Did I mention that IKEA hires this out? Well they do. The woman from the delivery company apologized and told me the truck had broken down and as soon as the recovery truck got loaded they would deliver. She assured me we would get our delivery that day but a few hours late. We were okay with this. Well, that didn't happen. Saturday we started calling again but this time we called the delivery company directly instead of the number to IKEA. We figured they had the stuff and they needed to answer for what was happening. Ed talked to someone who assured us we would get on the schedule for Sunday. Great. I didn't believe them at this point though.

Sunday morning we called to confirm like we had been told to do the day before. Ed was told to call again around 10 to make sure it was loaded. At 9:43 am I got an email stating our delivery wasn't going to be delivered. OMG I was livid. He called and was told they would figure it out and call back in about half an hour. Around 5 pm we got a call finally telling us they would deliver that night. We had no idea why this kept happening. I still didn't believe it and I stated as much. They said they would be here between 5 and 9 but probably closer to 6. At 6:40 pm we got a call saying they would arrive in about 35 minutes. At 7:21 pm we got another call stating they would be there in about 35 minutes. A little after 8 they finally showed with our stuff and guess what, it wasn't all there. Yep. Fourteen pieces were missing. After the weekend we had had trying to get the stuff delivered I just wasn't surprised. We asked why we kept getting cancelled and were told it was because we had such a large delivery they kept bumping us for smaller ones. That's BS. When they unloaded it they counted and got 307 pieces. We were due to get 321. So after they left Ed and I sorted it out by cabinet to figure out what was missing.


We were short 5 glass doors, 5 toe kicks, 3 power cords for the lights and a remote control for the lights. Ed called IKEA Monday and after almost 2 hours on hold and being transferred 3 times he finally talked to someone who arranged for the items to be delivered Saturday. I prayed we didn't have a repeat of the previous weekends delivery issues.

We ended up going back to IKEA and buying 2 butcher block tops for the island and asked that they also be delivered at the same time on Saturday as the rest of our first order. We got it all set up and went on our way. I received a text stating we would get delivery on the 10th between 2pm and 6pm. At 2:15 on the 10th I called the delivery company to find out where our stuff was and was told the manager would be calling me soon. He called me about 1/2 hour later and told us that our orders had been combined and were missing some pieces so they would pick them up and deliver them the following day. After our conversation I received a text stating the delivery would occur on the 11th between 9am and 1pm. At 1:13pm on the 11th I received another text stating that the delivery was rescheduled for 2pm to 4pm. This was really getting old by now. The delivery did occur a little after 4pm on the 11th but guess what? There were missing pieces. The driver told us that the manager had already talked to us we would be short some items and I said no that he had told me that they would pick them up before the delivery and all would be delivered. The driver then called his boss and put Ed on the phone with him. This was when we were told that the remaining items were being FedEx'ed to us. Okay. I am just tired at this point. We did get a FedEx package 2 days later but it was still short 2 cords. We called and told them we would just come up and pick them up ourselves because we needed to order the Quartz counter tops anyway. What an ordeal this was.



My opinion on a company hiring out things like delivery is that they are only as good as the companies they sub contract to. A builder is only as good as the sub contractors who actually do the work. Same goes for delivery. This is not a company I would hire to deliver anything. I am thankful we finally got in touch with someone who saw the problem and did what they could to fix it. I can't imagine there was a human making the decision to bump us repeatedly so I will assume it was the software they use for loading their trucks. Frankly I hate that so much has been taken over by technology. I hate hearing a computer on the phone, I hate having to try to communicate with one. I am a human and I want to speak with another human, not a machine. Computers have their place but I think for the sake of saving a buck companies are taking it too damn far.

The IKEA Kitchen Event

The IKEA Kitchen sale was not happening when we bought our cabinets BUT we are IKEA family card members so we knew all we would have to do is take our receipt to the service desk and ask for our refund during the sale as long as it was within 90 days of purchasing the cabinets. The plan was to use this refund to help pay for our counter tops.

Counter tops

Before we ordered the Quartz for the counter tops I changed my mind about the island counter top. I was thinking it would just be too much light with white cabinets, white back splash and light counter tops. I really wanted to do butcher block but needed to figure out how to treat it so that we wouldn't have rings and spots like the last one. We used mineral oil only on the last one and it drove me nuts with the rings and spots. I did some research and since we won't be cutting food on the counter top itself I found a couple of options.

I looked at different options for buying butcher block and decided that the Hammarp butcher block from IKEA was our best option for the money and time. We had to buy 2 of them and cut them then join them together to fit the island. But that's a post for another day. :D

If we ever do this again we will not ask that IKEA deliver. We will pick up our items ourselves. It was be much easier and less stressful.

Thanks for stopping by!
Chris

Friday, March 9, 2018

Kitchen remodel: Planning with the IKEA Home planner tool

Related posts:

Hey there!

     Planning our kitchen using the IKEA Home planner tool wasn't exactly the easiest thing I have ever done but definitely doable for most people. It is by no means a perfect plan either. I had trouble lining cabinets up once the side panels were put on but that seems to be a problem with the program, not me. I just left the cabinets askew because I needed to get a good estimate of the cost of our new kitchen. I was only under by less than $300 and that was for panels I had not accounted for and a very cool feature we bought for the trash cabinet that will open it with a bump of the hip or tap of the hand. It will be so useful when my hands are full! The shocking part of paying was seeing how much we were paying in tax. I hadn't even thought about that but if you are on a tight budget you definitely don't want to forget that! We paid over $600 in tax! 


This is the view from the top of our kitchen. 

Back wall
Front Wall 

    As you can see above we are putting 15 inch deep cabinets on the front wall. Originally this was just blank wall. We need the storage space and had the wall space so we added them to our plan. 

China cabinet in the breakfast nook along front wall. 

Coffee Bar in the kitchen along front wall. 

     We also went up with the cabinets. We have 9 foot ceilings and the original cabinets were 42 inch. IKEA doesn't do 42 inch and we wanted to go up anyway. Our upper cabinets are 30 inch plus 20 inch on top.


     The cabinets over the microwave and the refrigerator are 30 inch.


     We bought the sink cabinet for the Domsjo sink but we will not be using the Domsjo sink. They no longer make the single basin large sink so we ordered a stainless steel one from Wayfair. It had really good reviews and we are excited to get it installed! It is deeper than the Domsjo so we had to figure out how to adjust for that. What we did was change out the 20 inch tall doors to 15 inch tall doors and when we put the cabinet together we will adjust for the different sized sink. 


     This is the view of the island facing the back wall. I am going to love all those drawers!



     Each end of the island will have an 18 inch wide, 15 inch deep cabinet facing sideways to the larger drawer cabinets. We will use these for additional storage and the space in between will be used for the bar stools. 


     This view is from the back wall by the back door.  


     Here's a view from the sink area. 

     I know it looks like the island will be too close to the front wall and that's probably true on the program. I couldn't figure out how to measure the distance from the back wall to where I wanted it to go in the center. It works for planning purposes though. Now to get it done! 

Thanks for stopping by!
Chris