Nick told me my life was about to change....

My husband recently told me that my life was about to change. At the time I didn't really believe that inheriting his iPhone 4 would have any dramatic change in my day to day life. I had been getting along perfectly fine with my trusty blackberry for the past 3 years. Yes, that's right 3 years! Sounds crazy in the world if cell phones , I know. However, I was happy with what I had and saw no need to change.

I've now had my phone for about 2 weeks. It just occurred up me that maybe just maybe I'd be able to start blogging from my phone. ( My biggest blogging obstacle tends to be that fact that I simply never seem to be able to find the time to fit down in front of a computer).

So what you are about to witness is me blogging from my phone. I hope this works!

I'd thought I'd post about a quick little project that should have taken 20 minutes and costs less than $5 to make. Instead I dragged the project out for over a month (just getting it hung yesterday). However I did manage to stick to the $5 budget.

This project is do simple.
1) buy a 1x8x6 board of white wood at Lowes. (Total cost $4.64 + tax)
2) Paint or stain your board your desired color
3) Starting at six inches draw Rick marks every inch on your board using a black sharpie or paint market. Start up six inches do you can hang the board six inches from the floor and avoid all the baseboard in your home.
4) Print on a piece of paper the numbers 1-6 in times new roman font, with THD font size set to 250.
5) Put the numbers to the right of your tick marks in the corresponding place and then trace with a pen. The wood is so soft when you lift the paper you will see the indent left behind.
6) Fill in the number indention you just made with black sharpie or a paint pen. Repeat for all the numbers.
7) Put on two costs of polyurethane.
8) Attach a picture hanger to the back.
9) Convince your husband to finally hang the growth chart.

You can use a sharpie to write on the finished product and mark your kids heights. I plan on using tiny picture frames.( I'll post more pictures when i get that done. ).

Don't mind the messy countertop or the vacuum in the background. I'm a mom of a 2 1/2 year old and a six month old. Mess just happens.

Once the beds were made I then decided I just had to have a new dresser for the room.  The existing dresser was small, and more of a baby changing table than a true dresser.  Once again I started looking at furniture stores and craigslist hoping to find the perfect piece and the perfect price.  (That price for me was something less than $100).  Affter much searching I found absolutely nothing of quality that I liked in my price range. As I was surfing my favorite furniture maker /stay at home mom's blog I ran across one of her favorite blogs that began to explain the process of repainting furniture. 

This women's creations were absolutely amazing and beautiful.  I really wanted to give furniuture painting a try and figured I could find a great piece at our local thrift store.  I searched for three or four weeks before settling on a dresser I found for $40 at my local Bonner Springs thrift store.  I was so excited!  I dragged Nick up to look at the piece, he was less than impressed.  I then asked ever so sweetly for my sister and brother-in-law to allow me to use their truck so I could go pick up the dresser. 

Nick and my brother-in-law actually went to pick up the dresser (I mean this thing probably weighs 80-100 lbs. (Hey, it's quality craftsmanship!  The doors are dovetail construction and the piece was manufactured in North Carolina).  Having arranged all of this, it was obvious my mind was made up that this was the perfect piece. However, I still  received an almost panicked call from husband while my at the thrift store.  "Katie, are you sure this is the piece you want?  I'm REALLY not feeling this.  And, it's really HEAVY, not to mention that it will be a nightmare to  to move."

"Yes, honey I'm sure this is the piece I want.  I know how much you love me because your doing this for me!" I replied. 

The dresser Nick went to pick up.  I'm sure you can understand his panic!

Well, begrundgly Nick and my brother in law Travis delivered my $40 dresser to the house.  Nick was positive we had just wasted $40.  Travis didn't say much, but you could tell he was also on the skeptical side.  I went to the paint store the next day and the project began.  I was amazed at how every step of the way the dresser just looked better and better. 

First I took off the ugly hardware and wood filled the holes left from the hardware.

Then we sanded just the top slab of the dresser

The middle door was removed and the entire dresser (except the top slab was primed)

The dresser was then painted in two coats of  Sherwin Williams paint.
Color=classic.  Type of paint- interior acrylic latex.

I then distressed the dresser with 60 grit sand paper, and used a stain/glaze combination to wipe over the entire dresser.  Finally two coats of polyurethane were added.    Added some hardware then VIOLA!!

The picture quality is a little poor due to the picture be taken on my blackeberry phone.  Sorry!

See the distressing created by the sandpaper?

Close up of the distressing technique and glaze compination.  Hardware is a surf/beach theme which cordinates with Spencer and Josie's room.

Have questions?  Be sure to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have.

After successfully completing our first furniture project, I began to look for a new twin bed for Spencer.  Once again, I was disgusted at the cost to purchase a twin bed.  And, let's be honest I didn't want just one bed....No,No,No that would be way to easy.  I wanted TWO twin beds as I had this plan that Spencer and our 2nd born would be sharing a bedroom.  (And, if the bedroom was to look cute in any way, the beds just had to match.)  So, after shopping for sometime and realizing that purchasing a nice quality twin bed + matresses I was looking at anywhere from $350-$500 per bed x 2 beds=$700-$1000 I.  So, decided I better turn back to my most favorite resource.  (Ana White.com)

I have to admit I was a little frightened of this project.  I was worried that the beds just might not turn out right, and we were about to spend $250 on wood at the store.  My husband, Nick on the other hand thought this project would be easy as pie.  He had all the confidence in the world.  I mean, after all he had just been my number 1 carpenter and helped me build ...(ok done most of the building)...of the farmhouse table I recently posted about. 

As I stated in my previous post, I had no idea that I would decide to share my family furniture making adventure with the world, but here I am sharing this journey with you.  I don't have the before pictures but, the finished product looks like this. 
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Project plans  


Don't worry, it might have taken us another 3 months to come up with a decorating theme for the co-ed  room Spencer will someday share with his little sister Josie but, we finally came up with a plan.  (More about decorating the kids room later).  For now just marvel with me that the total cost of two brand new and beautiful beds was (DRUM ROLL...please) $250 for lumber + $100 for each mattress= $450!  WOW almost a 50% savings from the retail price at the store!  I guess a little bit of hard work does pay off.

Sometime in late July I decided that I just had to have a new table for my craft room.  It couldn't be just any table I needed something long and skinny.  (I didn't want it to take up too much room, as I planned on also having a nursery in this craft room of mine).  After searching for furniture pieces  that would work and nearly passing out for what I thought was crazy pricing I decided to turn to Google.  Yes, Google!  Well, I stumbled onto what would become one of my most favorite sites ever.

I decided that if this stay at home mom could build these beautiful pieces of wood furniture than perhaps I could too.  (I already knew my sister Sara would be on board.  She's been talking about wood working for years.)  After convincing my husband to let me spend $70 at the hardware store on what he thought was money he was throwing away, we ended up with this beautiful table. 

Since I didn't realize I would be blogging about this table I don't have any pictures of the building process, but here is the link to the building plans and a picture of  the finished product. 



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So I realized it's been over a year since I've been blogging.  YIKES!  I've decided to completely revamp my blog and start over.  Please bare with me as I attempt to get this blog up and running.  I will continue to keep the old blog available for awhile, but all new posts will now be here. 

The birth of our second child is a mere 8 1/2 weeks away.  With my nesting insticts starting to kick into high gear I'm going to atttempt to get all projects I've been keeping my loving, patient, and understanding husband Nick busy with updated on this blog.

Don't worry Spencer has been helping too!