The New House

In April, we moved to what we hope will be our forever home.   Paul and I had been looking at homes and talking to builders for a long time.  Our wish list was pretty extensive and it had been difficult to find what we were looking for.  Accessible homes with larger bedrooms and bigger yards seem really hard to come by and we had just about given up hope.  I happened upon a small acreage just outside of town that had most of what we were searching for and to my surprise, Paul wanted to take a look.    Houses were moving really fast at the time so as soon as we saw it, we had to make a decision.  Paul and I both felt like it was the one for us so in no time we had our offer in and it had been accepted.

  

There were definitely bumps in the road.  A lot of them.   Things went smoothly when it came to selling our current house.  We got it all ready and up for sale very quickly.  Paul did a lot of last minute projects to get it in tip top shape and we listed it for sale by owner and had it sold in one week.   The buyers of our home were flexible and easy to work with. That was reassuring.  But just about everything that could go wrong on the other end did.  We were afraid we were going to be left without a home at all at one point and then the bank and title company messed up and our closing date was moved which messed with all of our plans and that about put me over my stress limit.   With lots of help from family and friends at the last minute, we did get moved out and into our new home with at least most of our sanity still intact. 

The new house

Outside our front door.   We love the "country" feel and Parker LOVES his new bike trailer that we got.   Don't worry, he normally does wear a helmet but this was the first trial run with the new trailer and Parker's new favorite activity!

Paul and Alexa built a new swingset shortly after moving in.   

We love the big yard but it is a lot to mow.  Both kids really enjoy riding on the lawnmower with Daddy!

Alexa had a lot of fun painting her new room!

Our DIY Bathroom Remodel for under $300

Since moving into this house, we have done renovations or updates on every room in our upstairs. And by "we" I mean my husband did all the work and I picked out the colors and decorative stuff.

Anyway, the one room we had really neglected was our Master Bath.  It needed some major upgrades but we didn't want to spend a lot of money because we know we won't be in this house forever.  I am on the search for our dream house but haven't found it just yet.

We've done bathroom remodels before and we know they can quickly get out of hand from the budget side of things.  So...we really made an effort to keep things affordable.

We started by doing our on-line research to figure out how we could keep our old vanity and freshen it up.  We looked at a lot of products but ended up settling on this really awesome stain that we purchased from Amazon:  Java Gel Stain by General Finishes. 

There are several tutorials out there on how to use this product but Paul most closely followed this tutorial from Monica Wants It.  The biggest change he made was his application method for the poly.  Paul didn't use the same poly as they did in the tutorial.  He just used a regular oil-based poly that he found at our local Menards.  He tried a rag, a natural bristle brush and a foam brush and wasn't happy with any of them.  My Mom suggested he try a woman's nylon (as in pantyhose).  This was an old trick she learned from some Mennonite women she knew when she refinished furniture 30 years ago.  Paul was a bit reluctant to try it at first but it did work out great!!


We couldn't have been more pleased with how the vanity turned out!

It went from this:  

To this:

Paul also put down new flooring, painted the trim, replaced the countertop, put in a tile backsplash, replaced the sink and the faucet, installed new hardware on the vanity and stained the trim around the mirror.

Here is the before:

And After:

Um, yeah.  My husband is pretty darn great!  And the best part is all of this (plus all the little extras to get it accomplished) was done for $289.43 - including tax.  We did take advantage of some rebate offers that Menards was offering and this price only includes the portion of the materials that we actually used for this project (i.e. I only counted 25% of the cost of the Java Gel Stain because we only used 1/4 of the quart).  The left-over materials will be used when we complete the bathroom in the basement and on some other unfinished projects that we have lying around.  

So not too shabby for an affordable DIY Bathroom Remodel/Makeover.  Now...what project should I ask Paul to tackle next?    

Isn't It Lovely!

Who knew a girl could get so excited about a utility sink next to her washer and dryer?  Well, it's pretty darn great let me tell you!   

This area wasn't set up to add a sink so Paul had quite a bit of extra plumbing to do.  Good thing I married such a handy guy.  Thanks Paul!!!

No More Carpet in the Dining Room!

When we moved into this house, I knew right away that the carpet in the dining room had to go!  Why would anyone want carpet in their dining room?  Especially a family that has messy children.  It's just absolutely impossible to keep clean and I was sick of sopping up spilled milk, scrubbing out grape jelly and vacuuming up ground in dinner crumbs all the time.

Well, four years later....my wish came true!!  Our yucky dining room carpet was replaced with easy to clean, durable, good-looking laminate floors.  And I get to thank my wonderful husband for this transformation.

In some ways, it's great to have a handy husband who can tackle and successfully accomplish any house project we have.  It saves money, it gets done well and he enjoys doing new projects.  The bad side is that my husband works full time, is in grad school, has a family to spend time with and already has a to-do-list a mile long. So....elective house projects don't get done very quickly.

Also, did I mention that my husband is a perfectionist?  Well, he is.  And did I mention that when I have proposed contracting out a project or two that I get a look which suggests I just stripped away all of his manhood?  Men are silly.  So, I've learned to just accept the fact that I must wait to get my dream projects done and continue to give occasional frequent reminders of the projects that need done.

It's usually worth the wait though and this was no exception.  Paul not only tore up the nasty dining room carpet, he also got rid of the less-than-pretty tile that was in the kitchen.  This was a lot more time consuming than planned as that tile was stuck down pretty darn good.  But, now I have nice flooring in my kitchen and dining room and I couldn't be happier!

Dining Room - Before

Dining Room - During Renovation

Dining Room - After

Kitchen - Before (YUCK!)

Kitchen - During Renovation

Kitchen - After

And since Paul is finished with this project, I naturally have encouraged him to start his next project which I think I am almost as excited about.  A UTILITY SINK which Paul is going to install in our basement laundry room. You may wonder why this is so exciting.  All I will say is that I have a two-year-old son who is exclusively tube-fed with the smelliest/grossest formula known to man kind and I have failed to find a diaper that can successfully contain the effects of said formula.  Enough said?  Yeah...I'm pretty excited to have a dedicated place to clean out the yuckiness. The joys of motherhood, huh?

Anyway, I love my husband and his handiness.  I also love that he puts up with a wife who always has a never ending to-do list for him and he doesn't complain about it.  I'm one lucky girl!

The Nursery

So I know this post should've been up a long time ago. I was waiting on the 2nd window valance to arrive because the one that came with the bed set was 6" too short (which I'm sure was very much planned by the manufacturer to sell more product - smart!) Anyway, here is Alexa's room and as you can see there is very little pink or purple because Paul had a very strong aversion to such colors (he has since lessened up on his dislike of these colors which is very helpful). Paul tried to explain to me that it was silly to buy a 6 piece baby bed set because it is recommended that you do not use the bumper pad or the baby quilt. I of course in my pregnant state did not listen to him but he was probably right. We don't use the baby quilt or bumper pad but I included them in this picture to pretend it was worth the money we spent. Paul was right again - though we'll just keep this a little secret.

The most comfy rocking chair in the world given to us by Grandpa Donn and Grandma Cheryl. This chair has been a lifesaver for those late night feedings!!