Remodel--Bedroom 1

Update--Sneek Peek (scroll down to see more updates as I complete each step)--This is how it currently looks:

Remodel--Bedroom 1

I am currently remodeling the first bedroom that two of our boys share. 
The boys weren't loving the flower border, peach carpet and ruffled valance left by the previous owners of the house (this was their daughter's room).  I wasn't loving the inefficiency of the closets.  The big, heavy sliding doors are difficult for little boys to use and they were constantly getting caught on clothes that would inevitably fall off the too-shallow, too-high shelves that the boys couldn't easily reach.  Plus, the closets were much larger than necessary, which equates to wasted space (a huge pet peeve of mine).

This is how the bedroom used to look:

Original Room

So, I've been at work creating a more functional room with more architectural interest.  Here are my plans:  Two individual closets separated by a reading nook with built-in book-shelves and drawers for the boys' books, nick-nacks, and collectibles.  Now, both boys will have a good 7' of clothes bar to hang their clothes on with one bar high and one low so that the closets function both when they are little and when they are teenagers.  They also have 13' of shelving for folded clothes, long and deep drawers with adjustable dividers for socks, underwear, sweaters, etc.  The reading nook is proportioned to accept a crib mattress snugly and I will install a removable crib rail so that we have an automatic built-in crib or toddler bed for guests that may use the room.  The rail and crib mattress can be stored in the cabinet above the reading nook when not in use.

Remodel Plans

I have the new closets almost completely built.  I am currently working on the closet doors.  While I wait for them to dry, I plan to foll nail holes with wood fill and wire the light fixture for the reading nook.  Once the doors are all glued up (I only have enough clamps to glue one door per day), I can start sanding everything down, add crown and base moulding and then paint everything and install the new light fixture and the door and drawer hardware.  I will also be beefing up the trim on the bedroom entry door, adding trim to the existing window, and replacing the peach carpet with something more masculine and neutral.  This is what everything looks like right now:

Reading Nook and Closets Built

Building Closet Doors

Reading Nook Up Close

I will add updates to this blog post as things progress, but I'm not one to take the time to take pictures every step of the way (hence no pictures during the building stages).  But, watch for the final reveal once I complete the room!  I'm excited and the boys are anxious to move into their new room.

UPDATE:
Ready to prime (notice the light fixture I installed in the nook--pretty proud of myself for wiring that)

Reading Nook Light Fixture Wired and Installed

Primed (notice the old brass ceiling fan has a new schoolhouse light kit to match the nook light, and I painted it an oil-rubbed bronze finish to update as well)

Built-Ins Primed

 Now onto touch-up spackle and paint . . . .  Yay!  Stay tuned . . . .

UPDATE:
I've been working on some details between coats of primer and paint.  I updated the ceiling fan by replacing the light kit with a schoolhouse fixture, painting the brass and white all oil-rubbed bronze, and painting the gray/white blades a softer and creamier white to match the built-ins.

BEFORE:  Ceiling Fan (sorry for the bad picture--only one I had)

AFTER:  Ceiling Fan (again, bad picture, but gives you the idea)

I also wanted more prominent trim throughout the house, so I'm starting in this room and will update as I move throughout the house.  Since it would cost too much to replace all the trim, I decided to just build it up by adding onto it with cheap lumber:

BEFORE Trim:  notice the nearly non-existent baseboard and standard door casing

DURING Trim:  Just routed the edge of some furring strips and added to the outside of the casings and bottom of the baseboards

AFTER Trim:  baseboards after being painted

AFTER Trim:  Door Casing after being painted

 My husband's comment after seeing the finished trim:  "I REALLY like the trim.  I was skeptical as you were doing, but I really love the trim!"  He kept going on and on and staring at the trim so, I guess it was a success. Yay!

The other little detail I've been working on is the door hinges.  You may recall that I painted all the door knobs in our house a while back.  Well, the hinges in the house were all painted white right along with the doors--like they were never removed, just painted over.  So, I put off restoring them.  But, I figured I would have to take the door off the hinges to paint it to match the room, so now was the perfect time to remove the hinges, strip them, and paint them properly.  Stripping wasn't near as difficult as I thought it would be.  I simply took the hinges apart and boiled them in an old pan with some water and baking soda.  The paint came easily right off.  I then scuffed them up with a wire brush and then spray painted them the oil-rubbed bronze to match all the other hardware.

BEFORE Hinges

BEFORE Hinges

AFTER Hinges

AFTER Hinges

COMPLETED Door with updated hardware and trim

UPDATE:
I am getting really close to being done with the remodel.  Here is what it looks like right now, all painted and with most of the doors installed:

Here's what I have left to do:  finish installing clothes rods, hang the last door, install the drawer fronts, install the rest of the knobs and pulls, stain the bare wood, adhere the mirrors to the inside of the closet doors, hang tie and belt storage systems in the closets, install and stain window trim, paint the bedroom walls, and order new carpet.  O.k., so I still have a few things to do, but the hard part is OVER!  Yay!  Then, the boys and I can decorate how they wish.  They will be off of school for spring break this week, so I may take some time out to do some projects with them like making bulletin boards for their walls and storage bins to hold their little precious things in a tidy manner on their book shelves.  It's all coming together and I couldn't be more pleased.

UPDATE:  Drawer fronts are installed and hardware is all in.

Hardware installed

Cabinet above nook holds crib mattress that fits in nook

Drawer Fronts Installed

UPDATE:  Bench is stained and bottom bookshelves painted.  Window trim is in and ready to stain:

Bench Stained and Bottom Bookshelves Primed

Window Trim Installed and ready to Stain.  Walls Painted.

UPDATE:  Working on getting the boys' things moved in (don't mind the pink carpet that is STILL in the room--that will be replaced as soon as we can finalize our decision for its replacement).

Closets Stocked

Socks, Underwear, and Undershirts Stocked

Pajamas Stocked (don't know why Blogger insists on rotating these pics wrong)

Sweaters Stocked.  Dirty Clothes in their drawer.

Ben's Books and Nick Nacks Arranged

Jesse's Books and Nick Nacks Arranged

Check out the Bulletin Board I made for the boys--Cheapo cork board from Walmart covered with Burlap and upholstery tacks.  The boys started hanging their stuff on it before I even got it in the room!

UPDATE:  The boys are moved in!!!  We still need to decorate, but the room is now functional--The things we still need are nightstands, bed lamps, wall decor or bed canopies on the bed wall, quilts and pillows for the beds, cushion and/or pillows in the reading nook, a mirror on the back of the nook, window treatments, and CARPET.

Here's how the room looks today (again, please try to ignore the pink carpet)

Entering the room (notice how nicely my grandpa's old military trunk fits in--I love it)

Window is stained--My husband LOVES it, I'm still trying to decide whether or not I would like it better painted.

Bulletin Board has already been put to use by the boys

UPDATE:  The carpet is halfway in!  I will post pics when the installer finishes.  Yay!
In the mean time, my sister insisted that I post a picture of me pregnant in the remodel (as well as one in the second bedroom remodel, which i will add to that post) since I've been doing the remodeling during my pregnancy.  So, here it is:

UPDATE:  The carpet is FINALLY in!  Yay!

The reading nook finally has comfy pillows and the beds finally have nice quilts (thanks Grandma!):

Now, all I need to do with this room is make and hang headboard canopies and reading lights on this wall:

Grass Stairs and Fire Pit

Update--Here's how things are looking today (scroll down to see how things are progressing):

So, we've been wanting to plant grass down by our firepit.  And some idiot (myself) had the "brilliant" (stupid) idea to build grass stairs from our existing grass down to the firepit area where we will be planting more grass.  A project that should have been long and difficult turned out to be nightmarishly, excruciatingly long and difficult.  First of all, after calling the utility companies to check if it was safe to dig and getting the clear to go ahead, we still found rerouted sprinklers AND electrical conduit (all still in use, mind you) as we were digging.  Thus, we had to reroute both the electrical and two sets of sprinklers.  On top of that, we also ran into an old rock retaining wall with concrete curbing underground as well.  We pulled out tons (probably literally) of boulders.  We already moved half of them down to our lower lot, but you can still see the huge pile that remains at the bottom of the stairs in the pictures.  We destroyed and repaired the wheelbarrow several times, killed the pick ax and the hand rake . . . , well, you get the idea.  I wish I could remember where we bought our shovel, as it has gone far above and beyond it's use.  It's the one thing that's been awesome.

Here's how the planter area looked before we dug it out for the grass stairs:

Not the best picture, but it's the only "before" picture I have apparently.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the stairs.  We still need to buy a few more retaining blocks for the rest of the top row, cut back the fabric, and cut out the concrete curb at the top of the stairs.  We did route the sprinklers to the grass stairs but, needless to say, we never got a chance to lay the sprinklers for the area around the firepit.  Nor did we get to remove all the rock and grade the area for the grass.  That will have to happen next year, I suppose.  It was hard to get a good angle of the stairs due to the previously mentioned mountain of rocks, so the stairs don't look level, but I assure you they are.   They will also look more level when the concrete curb at the top of the stairs is removed (as it is not level and created the illusion that the stairs are not).  I will update the photos next year when we get a ch
ance to finally finish the project.

Update:
The grass stairs have survived the winter and we have made some great progress this spring on the project.  We now have the sprinklers installed on the lower tier around the fire pit area.  I don't have any pictures of the sprinklers because I'm dumb like that and don't think about blogging pictures while I'm installing sprinklers.  But, I assure you they are there.

Stairs today, still looking healthy and happy.

Today, we finished putting in the top soil--12 cubic yards of top soil!  And, to make a big job even bigger, the dump truck that delivered the soil was too big to dump it in the area we needed and had to, instead, dump it at the top of the hill.  Poor Cameron moved all that soil by himself with a single wheel barrow.  Needless to say, he is exhausted.  I raked the piles he dumped into place.

Here are some pictures of how the area looks today and of the hill Cam had to move all the soil across:

And the dreaded hill and now removed pile of dirt at the top of it:

UPDATE:  Sod and Flagstone are in!
So, we spent our Family Home Evening last night installing the sod and the flagstone and it's all really coming together.  We started out by finding some boulders down on our lower lot--remember all those boulders we pulled out when digging for the stairs?  Cameron is the man--he carried them all up so we could place them around the firepit.  I wanted something that was raised around the pit, because I'm always terrified one of the kids is going to trip and fall right into the fire and not be able to get out.  I figured that adding the boulders would help prevent that.  It will also give us a place to put our feet when sitting around the fire.  (You can see the sling chairs I made to put around the pit here).  After placing the boulders, the boys and I puzzle-pieced the flagstone in.  They brought me the pieces and I found places for them.  Finally, we cut grass to fit between all the flagstone--this was the hard part.  This is how the firepit looks now:

And, here are a few preliminary pictures of the whole area where we layed the sod.  It will look prettier as the grass takes root and fills in a bit.  It will also look nicer as we clean up a bit, plant the vegetable garden, lay the flagstone path through it, and level out the gravel.  Once we get that area fixed up, all we will have left to do is buy a tree to plant in the corner planter and paint/stain the sling chairs I built last year to put around the pit and move the climbing dome over to this area.  It's all coming together and we couldn't be more excited.

Update:  The grass has had a little time to start to take root and we got an Autumn Blaze Maple planted int he new planter.

Kids are loving the extra grass.

Family Time on the new grass.

Planted the Maple and transplanted the strawberries to the new planter.

UPDATE:  We moved the climbing dome down to the firepit tier.  The kdis are lovign having another area of the yard to play in:

And we added a Japanese maple and several shrubs, including golden vicary privet, smoke tree, red twig dogwoods, burning bushes, and more to the planters around the grass stairs.

And, just because the sun was peering into the yard so beautifully when I was taking the pictures, here are some pictures of the sun setting behind our yard:

UPDATE:  To kick off the start of Fall, we finally got to try out the new fire pit arrangement for Family Home Evening.  It was so nice to be able to sit in the grass instead of the old gravel while enjoying the fire.

Bread Boards

So my AWESOME neighbor brings me scraps of a variety of beautiful hardwoods (along with other woods as well).  He shares my love for wood and building.  So, I've been saving these scraps up and have been wanting to make some bread boards out of them.  With the holidays arriving, I wanted to get them done so I can use them on Thanksgiving.  So, we had a few warm days this week and I took the opportunity to get outside and make these suckers.  I am so pleased with how they turned out.

First I made these individual mini-breadboards that can be set at each place setting on the table.  Each one is different.  I bought some tiny metal ramekins to set on each one for butter, jam, etc.

Then I made these french bread board because I LOVE french bread and frequently use it in my meals.

Then, I finished up with a couple fancy shmancy boards for fun.  I did a pizza board and what we have already kicknamed my strawberry board.

So, I deliberated long and hard on if I should ensure that they are all perfectly symmetrical and perfectly sanded and finally decided against it.  I tried to make them mostly symmetrical, but I liked the imperfections giving them more of a hand-made, old-world look rather than a machine-made, brand-new look.  I like the finished product.  Now, if I could just get to my kitchen remodel, I will get something built to display them on when they are not in use . . . .

Update (December 2012):

Here are a few that I made for Christmas gifts for my family.  They seemed to like them.

Love it when I get to actually use my "minis".  So fun!

Announcing Abigail!

My dear sister has been trying to have a baby for many years.  She and her husband have decided to adopt and the wait for a baby has taken years as well.  But, after a long wait, many prayers on their behalf, and some truly miraculous circumstances, they have finally been blessed with their first daughter.  She is such a sweet little gal and I knew she needed something special.  So, I spent the last couple months crocheting her this little blessing gown.  It's been a fun labor of love.  The last one I made was from a polyester thread, which was softer and shinier, but since this one won't be used for several months I made it out of cotton thread so that it can be stretched or shrunk as needed.  I hope it fits!