Projects and Great Finds!!

Who says that summertime is the best time for home improvement? Not us!! We have already started, and finished some of our projects and we are really excited to share!  

When we moved into our house we had A LOT of projects and A LOT of things we wanted to purchase. Many of them went undone, due to time, priority, and financial constraints. After being in this house for 18 months we are finally getting down to some projects and purchases that I have been dying to do!!

First up, we added some furniture to our living room and bonus room. One of the hardest parts of moving from an apartment to a large house, is that you don't have enough furniture. Which also means when people come over, you don't have enough seating. We thought about building some nice bench seating, but I wanted nice comfy seating. So we ended up finding some beautiful couches at RC Wiley. But at $400 a piece (and we needed 2), I couldn't commit. $800 was a big chunk of our tax return and I just didn't think it was worth it. So....I searched craigslist. We've been pretty lucky with CL, and our luck has continued. We found two great couches!

This couch is up in our BSU bonus room,
and now we can have comfy movie nights!

This couch is in our living room, it is actually a "futon" couch,
which folds down into a full sized bed! Great for guests!

Keep in mind, I was going to spend $800 (plus tax) on two couches. I found these for $75 each, So $150 TOTAL. I cleaned them and they look brand new! Great find!

We purchased a new king sized bed about 9 months ago, and have LOVED it. It's so nice having more space and a lower bed (our old queen was pretty high up for me). We decided to just go with a "hollywood" basic frame until we decided if we wanted to buy/build a new bed frame. We love the frame, the only think I have missed is having a headboard. I feel like the bed is unfinished without it. I planned on building one, but on a whim I searched on craigslist and found a STEAL.

Pre-paint picture! We have all dark wood in our bedroom,
 so this just wouldn't match.

After 2 coats of Espresso Rust-Oleum paint, it looks like this! PERFECT!

We are so excited to add it to our bedroom, and, get ready for it, it was ONLY $25. Seriously. It's solid wood, and so sturdy. We are so excited! 

For years, I've been pining over things off Ana-white.com. I love her plans and her gorgeous wood creations. One that I've been staring at for-EVER is her Kitchen Island. The plans are here. It wasn't my first time using a table saw, but I definitely got more practice! It was my first time using a Kreg Jig type approach. Kreg jig holes are the hidden holes that furniture makers use, and I was really excited to apply the technique. After a few practice sessions we got started. And our finished product was this:

I am so happy with it! It will replace our old microwave cart, and I will be able to store my new pots and pans on it! Total cost was around $75. It was a little more spendy that I thought. But it was because of the spray paint it took to cover it! 

Because of tax returns we were finally able to buy some much needed things for our home. Most things we have, are from wedding gifts, or our first year of marriage. So they are between 6-7 years old. They've been used and abused. So, we replaced our pots and pans with a great set from Costco. We bought a new blender, which is super important since I do a smoothie almost every day. We purchased a Bissell Proheat 2x Carpet cleaner. After 6 weeks of having the stomach flu in our house, a carpet cleaner shot to the top of my wish list. We also bought a new dishwasher since our current one is 11 years old, terribly noisy, inefficient, and rusty inside. It will be delivered at the end of the week! We are still looking around for a lawnmower and a few other small things.

Our projects planned for the next few weeks are repainting/transforming the kitchen cabinets (we will be using a Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations kit), painting the master bathroom (the only room that hasn't been painted), building a kitchen table, (yay for Ana White!), building some trellises for our garden, and planning the garden, and refinishing our stair banister (it's been sad for a few months). Whew. I'm so excited!! I'll be sure to post our projects on here as we complete them! 

Other than the projects we have going on, our family is doing well. Andrew is adjusting to his new job, and I am trying to keep the kids entertained inside while we wait for spring to come! I can't wait till they can run around in the backyard again! 

I hope you have some great projects planned, and I'll be posting more soon!

Until then, Happy Blogging!