Carter

This Carter. He is 4.5 years old. My first born. My independant know it all. He likes to take pictures....

OF HIMSELF.

And I let him, haha.

Children are so much fun, and leave you such nice surprises in your SD card. LOL

Chalkboard Creation from Goodwill frame

I got this frame from Goodwill for about $5.  It holds a 14x18, very odd. 

It was wood

And very dingy but I loved the profiles

So some black paint, sandpaper, a coat of poly...

Then a custom cut 14x18 painted with chalkboard paint...

My oldest doing his coloring.  I want the chalkboard to say something like
"Rhyne Diner"   "CowTown Cafe"  I don't know.  I can't decide, so for now it sits plain.

But I definitely need some chalkboard pens.

Maybe I'll just keep it blank so I can always change it.

 

CSN Discovery

There are so many things I need for this house.  I can't stop thinking about redoing the backyard, it's going to be so awesome.  I got a quote from a concrete guy to pour a 1,000 sq ft slab and broom finish would be about $4,000 total.  Is that a good deal?  I have no idea, but I know I can't do it myself. Definitely not a DIY project for me.  But oh how I dream about how cool it will be to hang out out there.

I found these great barstools at a CSN shop, http://www.allbarstools.com/

I can just see myself sitting back with my ice mocha watching my kids play.   And for $98.99 and FREE Shipping, you can't really beat it.

Online shopping gets me every time.  I always get caught up putting everything my little heart wants into my basket.  Like we NEED a chandelier over our bed, isn't this one pretty?

Then I decide I need this fireplace for our living room

Paint the wood  white? Sand up the corners a bit. So cute, yes?
Then I found Beadboard wall paper.

This I MUST HAVE, and apparently everyone else thinks so too. So of course I click "Email me when available" But you can paint it and everything.
Eh, I hate having to have priorities. Can't I just have everything? 

I have OPD

I have OPD, it's pretty obvious and pretty bad.  Couldn't hide it if I tried.  OPD.  Obsessive Project Disorder.

1. We are still working on our front porch, but it's been raining, DUH. It's October in Seattle.  But it looks like we are going to have a few days of sun, so we may get it sudo finished this weeked.

THE BEFORE.... Makes me shutter to look it.

THE NOW. We just need to make the stair stringers, and put down the stair decking.  The railings can wait, LOL. But the fence is gone and I got the grass planted.

2. The dining booth still needs another couple coats of paint, and 2 coats of poly. 

3. My master bedroom "closet" still looks like this

4. Soooooo then why are am thinking about the living room, moving the boys upstairs, moving the door of the "office" and putting Lue in there? 

Just want to decorate a girls room?  Build a mini-kitchen? The office would be so much more functional without the huge bed in there.

Eh, Priorities. Finish deck!

The Booth Reveal

I went with Hamilton Blue.  But my big secret is I just had Home Depot match the Benjamin Moore color. They said they do it all the time for  BM colors and I didn't have to drive 1.5 hours to go get it; Redneck picked it up on his way home from golf.

So here we are before and gold. 

Benjamin Moore Hamilton Blue, so glad I went dark.  By the way, I strongly considered using oil base.  It's so much stronger and I think would hold up to a lot of wear.  But oil doesn't have as much elasticity as latex so I'm afraid with the flex and flux of the vinyl when people sat down, the oil would crack.   So once it's all said and done, there will be 2 coats primer, 3 coats paint, and 2-3 coats of matte water - base polyurethane. 

And the AFTER. I am so happy with the result.  Even the faux wood tabletop doesn't look too bad.

BEFORE and AFTER
 Linking up to:

Ehhh, WRONG

I really want these seats to be a shade of blue, I think it says "Country" best. But I had this "teal" from our last house. Just a year and a half ago, I would have painted everything this color, Laurel Mist. I LOVED it.  I loved it soo much.  Now, NOT so much.

So after the kids went to sleep, I threw a coat on.  Too green... better than gold but still too green. 

If I stay with a light color, I'll be going with Martha Stewarts "Robins Egg".  What do you think?

But I'm torn.  I think I may need to go darker, to ground it.

I love Hamiliton Blue by BM, but I don't want to drive an hour an a half to the closest BM.

So, then theres' Winters Lake by Behr but I much prefer the Hamilton Blue.

What do you think?

Smitten Restaurant Booth

We have been "making do" with my parents table, it was tight and wobbly.  I didn't like it at all, but it worked. 

I consider myself a faithful customer to Second Use. Ok, maybe a bit more than "faithful", probably more like Stalking customer. Anyway, every morning I log onto their site and check for newly listed items and Ooooo and Awhhh over them.  But last week, I had to dive in.  At $95, I thought it was a steal.  66" x 48" would fit perfectly of where I'd been dreaming about putting a booth.

(the only picture I saw before buying it)

I thought it was brown, ugly 70's brown, but that was ok. I didn't mind.  So I called in and bought it. I was soo excited.  Redeck went and got it the next day, it's an hour drive and we had to borrow my dad's van.  We got it on the back porch and I started to scrub 30 years of nasty away, luckily no smoke smell, just filth.  So I finished scubbing and realized, it's not brown, it's GOLD. LOL. 

 (this shot combines the faux wood countertops, different faux wood tabletop and GOLD seats).

Oh well, ugly is ugly.  But it was so functional.  We ripped out the cabinets and gave those away in a day thanks to my best friend, Craig... Craigslist that is! 

So it looked this way for a week. I couldn't decided if I wanted to pay $200 for vinyl paint and haul the whole thing outside and paint. Granted it's now October in Seattle, which means we have another 8 months of solid rain, and I do not have a garage or carport. 

So I decided to start with a latex primer. I'll do  2 coats. Then 3 coats of the gray / blue you can see over the dishwasher. Then another 3 coats of a flat sealer.  It will probably take me 3-4 weeks because I have to work at nap time and bed time, and in the mean time, it still has to function. 

But as for now..  I am one happy momma!!!