Taking The Back Porch Back

We have been cleaning and touching up most of this week so there's not a whole lot to show inside.  I did manage to finish the toy room wall project I have been scheming about. I got this idea from a blog post from My Sister's Suitcase and luckily, they sell the hexagons on Etsy so all I had to do was paint and stick. That's my kind of wall art. 

Since the fence went in (and since the weather has warmed up) we have been spending a lot more time outside trying to get the yard in shape. Brian was at Lowes at 6 AM this morning getting sprinkler supplies (the fence really jacked up the existing sprinkler plan. By 10 he had mowed the lawn, fixed up the sprinklers in the front yard and installed these nifty new handles on the gates. I do not understand how he does it all. 

So since everything was done so early, we thought, "What the heck, let's tackle the back porch."  We cleared it off and put together our new patio furniture.

We had it done in time for a mid-afternoon Memorial Day dinner outside.

Complete with entertainment from Izzypop. 

Now this may not seem like anything to brag about, but you have to understand that half of what you see here was on that back porch. Soooo glad the neighborhood cleanup starts this week!

I realized I didn't post a picture of how the backyard looks now that the side fence is gone. We still have some work to do moving the flowers and planting some sod, but the space really has opened up. Now that the porch has been reclaimed, and we finally have some privacy, it's like we've added a whole new room to the house. It's going to be a great summer. 

Look What I Can Do!

We can wash our hands in the laundry room now!

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

The fence was completed today.

It makes our backyard look a million times better. 

And I don't mind the tree on the other side as much as I thought I would.   It will be nice once we get a few flowers and such there. 

Brian had a great idea to add an area where we can keep garbage cans and other unsightly backyard items. 

I hope we use the newly enclosed side yard as much as we think we will. It basically adds another 50% to our backyard. 

There is a ton of work to do outside still, but this is a big step. 

In other news, we put in all the surround sound speakers.

The fireplace is now in working order.

And we had FHE in the toy room.  Monumental. 

One Week At A Time

This week has been nuts. Brian has been in Florida and we have been crazy busy around here.  We have managed to do a few things though. First, the other two cabinets arrived and we finished putting those up.  Handles are next. 

Secondly I painted Skeeto's car table and got some other fun accessories. I have been moving toys down a box at a time at night. The kids are actually starting to play down there. It is a milestone.

The favorite so far is probably getting the puppet theater back in action. I have to say its one of my favorites too.

On The Fence

Our poor sad fence has been hanging on literally by a thin rope for the past couple years.

Boards are missing, the gate is almost impossible to open sometimes and it is ready to completely fall over on the North side.

Well, it was.

Now it has been forcibly pushed over to make way for a new one. (See Miss Sassypants below.)

It will be taller which will be great for privacy for the kids, but due to city codes, that means we will have to cut the corner of the fence and put it on the other side of the tree.  I will miss that tree in the backyard. But I am excited for a nice corner flower bed potentially. 

And to think we only had to fight with the city for a few weeks.  We are lucky. 

Everything Is Awesome!

Have you seen The Lego Movie where everything is awesome?  Well, that's what it has been like around here this weekend.  It started out on Friday at IKEA.  If you haven't bought anything from IKEA before, it's like Swedish Lego furniture for adults.  Everything comes in about 5,000 pieces and you have to fight with it until it all comes together.  Even the instructions are only pictures, just like Legos.  I am happy to report that we are now Master Builders.

We took the day off and borrowed Bob's truck.  We filled both the truck and the Highlander to the brim and hauled it all home.

And for the next 2 days we did nothing but put furniture together.  Even the kiddos got into the spirit of taking back our basement.  This is Skeeto helping Dad.

And this is Skeeto helping me :)

We focused on three rooms.  The toy room got some fun KALLAX bookshelves, a new rug, and the coloring station that Brian and I made a couple weeks ago.  So far, I love it.

The laundry room got some major organizing as well.  We put together the BESTA shelf with drawers in the center of the closet and bought some hanging rods to attach to them.  Brian has already started filling it up with our winter coats that have been banished to the office chair for the last few months.

I love the dark grey.  It looks great in here.  We even started using our much more functional laundry room this weekend.  I got to use my drying rack too!  Do you hear me?  Excited about laundry?  Everything is awesome!!!

Finally, the storage room is where the bulk of the time was spent.  We combined PAX wardrobes with BRIMNES dresser drawers.  It looks great, but they are a pain to put together.  Poor Brian worked his butt off on these and we're still not done.  We've still got two cabinets coming in the mail since they were out of stock at our local store.

I know it doesn't look like this should have taken two days, but when you have to assemble every cabinet, every drawer, screw in every screw by hand, put together cabinets and have them fall apart before your very eyes, go back to IKEA again to buy different cabinets because no matter how many times you measure, you still get it wrong (my fault, not Brian's), trust me, it takes two days.

Thankfully I had the best partner to go through this experience with.  I didn't want to kill him once and he probably only wanted to kill me two or three times.  Pretty good I'd say.

We are starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel.  Starting to move stuff back in to the basement is a BIG step on this road to recovery.  We are coming down to few enough bullets that I can at least list them:

• Finish the storage furniture including installing all the handles
• Move everything from the office and garage back into the basement
• Install all the electrical outlets and covers for the canned lights
• Install the ceiling speakers
• Hook up the plumbing for the laundry room sink
• Get wet bar cabinets and counters installed
• Finish the fireplace
• Find a contractor to do the entire bathroom
• Get a couch
• Hookup the home theater system
• Clean

Think we can do it by July?

It's A Grey Day

The grey is on the walls!  We've got dark grey in the laundry room which I think happens to be my favorite. 

Light grey in the toy room to keep it bright.

And a medium grey in the family room and storage room. 

Tomorrow, the ceiling. 

Brian also spent the evening fixing our threshold. We've basically had a painters tarp crumpled up in front of our door for the last few weeks to keep the rain out. It's even better than before we had to fix it. Great job Brian!

I can't wait until Friday. We're both taking the day off to go buy a bunch of stuff at IKEA and take our basement back!

I might be allowing myself to get excited... Maybe.... A little.