Bathroom Remodel. Again.

My husband and I are stupid.

I mean really, really stupid.

Why?!

Because we decided to remodel the upstairs bathroom the week before I had surgery.  We decided to do the ENTIRE thing in less than seven days.

Stupid.

But, we finished the bathroom really late the night before I went under the knife. 

Before I take you on a tour of our awesome new bathroom, I’ve got a story for you. 

Picture this.

It’s crazy late at night.  The Hubsters and I have been working like crazy to get the house clean, laundry caught up, and bathroom finished before I had surgery in the morning.  I walk down to the basement to put the last load of laundry in the dryer only to find the washer clear full of water.

I tried to turn it on.  Nothing.  I unplugged it and plugged it back in.  Again, nothing.  I kicked it, hit it, and even mentally gave it a good tongue lashing.  Nothing. 

It was dead.  Completely, utterly dead.

We bought the washer and dryer when our oldest was a new baby.  He’s eleven.  I do 11+ loads of laundry a week with all these little boys.  I guess it was just time to let go.

So, guess what The Hubsters and I did right before we spent thousands of dollars on surgery?

You guessed it!  We spent thousands of dollars on a new washer and dryer!

(…just pretend that’s what my laundry room looks like, and we’ll also pretend that the cute little puppy is mine too…)

Oh goodness.  I am so in love with them!  They hold so much laundry, and they’re so fast!  I’m doing half as many loads of laundry in just a fraction of the time!  Woot! 

Okay, so NOW we’ll move onto the bathroom overhaul:

This is what our bathroom looked like before:

It’s your typical 1980’s bathroom.

So, so pretty.  (blech…)

We took everything but the tub out and replaced it.

This was taken after I painted the top half of the walls.  I had a lot of paint left over, so I painted the hall, too. 

Ahhhh….that looks so.much.better.  This is how Monkey enjoyed our remodeling:

Poor baby.  Back to the bathroom.  When we ripped out the ugly medicine cabinet/mirror, we were left with a really big hole in the wall.  So, I left a message for my dear, sweet, hubby, and anyone else who happens to live in this house if we ever move.

It’s true.  I love that guy!  :)  I also love how he can tile a floor.

Very nice!

On the bottom half of the walls, we did that fake bead board with strips of Masonite and molding. 

The boards are glued onto the wall with liquid nails, and the screws held everything into place while it all dried.  We removed the tape and screws when it was dry, then filled the holes with putty and filled in the gaps with painter’s caulk.  This is what it looked like when we finished:

Oh, I love it!  We then replaced the toilet, vanity, and mirror.

There’s that good lookin’ fella!

…and that’s it. 

We now have two “new” bathrooms, and their combined total was less than $1500.00.  Yay!

(you can check out the other bathroom here if you want)

Our next big project will be replacing the fence in our yard.  So excited for that one!  ;)

(sense my sarcasm…)

Nursery Redo: Part 3

Who’s ready for the last installment of this nursery redo?

I am!

Who’s ready for their baby to sleep in a big boy bed?

I’m not!!

But he is, so we will proceed…and this is just a curtain refashion.  And he’s been sleeping in his bed for a while now, and I’m still not okay with it. 

Sadness.

Okay.  This is what Monkey’s curtains looked like:

Wow.  It’s hard to take pictures of a window.  Sorry.  So, as you can(not) see, the curtains are just plain and blue.

Now let’s look at Monkey’s crib skirt:

Are you pondering what I’m pondering?

Uh, I think so, Brain, but this time you wear the tutu.

My thoughts exactly.  We can spruce up the hum-drum curtains with the crib skirt!

I cut the edges off of the crib skirt and serged the edges.  Then I gathered them at the tops and sewed them to the top of the curtains. 

I took the two shorter sides of the crib skirt and folded/sewed them into tie backs for the curtains.

They’re even reversible!

So easy.

Wanna see how it all turned out?

Ta-Da!  I love the color that it added to the boring curtains.

This concluded Monkey’s nursery redo. 

Ready for a recap?

We went from this:

To this:

…and this:

The room décor stayed the same.  Monkey’s toy box now sits where the crib used to. 

Wanna know what I loved most about this bedroom redo?!

It didn’t cost a dime!

My favorite kind of project!  :)

Nursery Redo: Part 1

Remember the post I wrote about dollar store nursery décor?

Well…sniff, sniff…Monkey has decided that he is above babyish things--such as sleeping in a crib.  Unfortunately, he wants to be like his big brothers.  Pssshhhttt…

Doesn’t he know that he’s still my baby?!

Sadness…

When The Hubsters and I redid our bedroom, we gave Monkey our old queen sized bed.  We didn’t see the point of throwing the bed out only to turn around and buy a twin sized bed.

Time for a flashback.  This is how the nursery looked before Firecracker moved out.

Firecracker moved out and we put our old bed where the twin sized bed is when we redid our bedroom.

The crib is supposed to convert to a full sized bed.  Monkey has a queen sized bed, so that wasn’t going to work.  I know.  Monkey is spoiled rotten. 

Anyway, I tweaked the full sized headboard to make a queen sized one for Monkey.

I took the headboard and the posts from the front side of the bed.  Hubby sawed the legs off of the headboard.

We took the headboard and the side posts and drilled them into the wall.  Like so:

 

Then we pushed the bed up against the headboard. 

Ta-Da!  We have a big boy bed!

Monkey’s bed isn’t on bed rails.  We didn’t want him to have a long way to fall if he fell off the bed.  So far, it hasn’t happened.  Rather than cover the box spring with a bed skirt, I just used a fitted sheet.

It stays in place and fit like a glove!  Perfect!

Check back on Tuesday to find out how I turned Firecracker’s twin sized quilt into a queen sized quilt.  See you then!

Projects Preview

K, I literally have 3 huge projects this close to being done and able to show you, but on one I’m waiting for something in the mail, on the other, I’m waiting to finish sewing a few things, and on the other, I’m waiting for my husband to have a weekend and finish it…So close, yet so far away. But, here’s some preview pictures to see if you can figure out what the heck I’ve been working on. What have you been busy doing? Are you enjoying the summer?



Have a great Wednesday!

Master Bedroom Makeover

When we moved into our house over seven years ago, the Master Bedroom wasn’t a priority.  Over the years it turned into kind of an “eh…just put it in our bedroom.”

Dumb.

We decided it was time for a change.

Our room started off like this:

Nice, huh?

Please take a moment and admire the LOVELY murals painted on the walls.  The ones that were on the walls when we got here.  I don’t love them.  Heck, I don’t even like them!  No offense, people who used to live here.  It just isn’t me.

For this makeover, we didn’t have enough moola to get new carpet, a new TV, and furniture, so we went with the furniture and TV.  The carpet will come at another time. 

First off, we scraped off the fabulous popcorn ceiling. 

What.A.Mess.

Good thing my boyfriend, Dyson, bailed us out.  Again.

I {heart} him.

Next we textured the ceiling and painted the bedroom.  It’s a nice, relaxing shade of blue.

I spray painted some frames, the curtain rod, my jewelry board, the fan, and the lamp so that everything would match.  There wasn’t anything wrong with any of this stuff.  It just didn’t match, and we didn’t want to replace it.  So, we just painted it.

I {heart} spray paint.

Now I’ll take you on the grand tour of our HUGE bedroom!! 

I kid…it isn’t that big.  Just normal sized.

I really like the curtain behind the bed.  It adds some color to the room.  It’s just fun.

Huh.  Something’s not quite right.

I don’t like that the bed skirt doesn’t reach the floor.

What’s up with that?!

That bugs me.

…nervous twitching…

So, I did what any DIY/fabric snob would do.

I tweaked it to my liking.

Ahhhhh….so much better!

And, now I have a place to store my shoes and a place to hide Christmas and birthday presents.  Perfect!

So, now the master bedroom is a place we actually like to hang out.  It’s fun.  We got a flat screen TV and watch movies in our room all the time.  So fun…

…but it is so much easier to fall asleep in a movie when you’re watching it in bed!  :)

Dining Room Makeover: Cheapskate Edition

Once upon a time (seven years ago, to be exact…) we bought a house.  Our first house.  We still live here, and we’re finally starting to upgrade.

After all of our years of renting, I was so sick of white walls and neutral colors.  We painted most of the rooms the house (still…seven years ago…) and were so excited to be living in color!

But, we ran out of funds to re-do the kitchen.  We’re still looking for those funds…wait.  They’ve been spent on other stuff like babies, surgeries, bathroom and bedroom remodels…(we’re planning a main bathroom remodel as soon as I’m all healed up from this blasted surgery…yay!)

I ramble.  I am sorry.

Anyway, I love color, and we had a horribly awful, bland, OATMEAL kitchen.  With hideous 80’s linoleum.  That is still there.  Ugh.  Just ignore it.  That’s what I do.  Someday we’ll completely gut the kitchen and start over.  Someday…

So, this is the oatmeal kitchen:

B.O.R.I.N.G.

The table and chairs are from our poor, starving, college student days.  We broke two chairs through our moves over the years, so the Hubsters built us these awesome benches.  They don’t really match, but they’re functional.

Also, I don’t love the bland-ness of the table, but I LOVE it’s shape and that gorgeous, curvy let.  {insert sexy whistle here}

Then, one day, I found these little lovelies at the thrift store.  For only FIVE BUCKS a piece.  Um, hello!  Yes.  I bought them.

They also have nice curves, they’re solid wood, and they’re sturdy.  They just not  much to look at.  Easy enough to fix.  We sanded them down and painted them.

Hey, lovey!  I likey the way you work that orbital sander!  Woo, woo!

LOVE the way they turned out.  I spray painted them (with Krylon Periwinkle) then glazed them to bring out those lovely curves.  Gag.  I hate my kitchen floor.  Did I mention that yet?!

We sanded down, painted, and stained the table, too.  Yay!  The table and benches match!! I also made up some cute little kitchen signs with painted frames, scrapbook paper, and cardstock, painted my clock, and hung them on the wall.

Hello, there, Crocky!  We all loved the way the kitchen turned out, and the whole makeover cost less than $20.  Perfect.

Only…it wasn’t.  Every time the back door shut, the pictures came crashing off the wall.  Some of them shattered into millions of pieces.  The plant on the table became a habitat for Lego guys and dinosaurs.  The table runner was NEVER on the table.  Firecracker.

It was time to re-think this whole design and find a way to make it more “wild boy” friendly.

So…

I painted an accent wall.

Made up some wood and vinyl artwork and nailed those suckers into the wall.  The clock has an illegal amount of duct tape on the back of it.  That should hold those bad boys into place when the back door is shut. 

I added some strips of fabric (cut on the bias) to my ho-hum boring white curtains.  I didn’t want to replace the curtains, because I love the natural light that the white curtains let in. 

…and I LOVE my “new” dining room!  (still hate that hideous flooring…someday…someday…patience, young grasshopper…)

This whole dining room makeover cost less than $60!  Awesome!

Before:

After:

Not bad, eh?  Oh, and in case you were wondering, that little centerpiece came off the table as soon as I was done snapping the picture.  With all these boys, I think we just won’t mess with that!  :)

Oh, and I am now accepting donations for the replacement of my flooring.

I kid…  :)