The big reveal!

So today, my sweet hubby, my sweet Dad and I tore our basement apart the rest of the way. It is officially....we think....ready for the waterproofing to take place. I am pooped, so I can only imagine how tired and sore that they are! 

Anyway, now for the real reason that I am blogging at midnight. (and encouraging the hubby to keep playing Call of Duty....whats wrong with me?!) The table! You might remember this?

The $5 Goodwill steal table. Here she is after much sanding and a very achy back!

It created a really nasty colored dust that I had to wipe off. Surprisingly, the wiping process did not take very long. I just got an old towel damp and wiped it down a couple of times and then dried it. Once she was all clean, I took the hubby's drill and put a hole for the hardware. I measured to find the middle and drew a dot. Then I drilled the hole. Now my hole was too small for the hardware so Hubby had to step in and help me enlarge it. Thanks babe!

Then I took a can of cheap fast dry black spray paint that the sellers of our house left behind and gave it a few coats. I am so glad it was fast dry because I am SO impatient!

Yeah these were out back at night. With the floodlight on. Sorry about the picture quality! Once I got that all dry (meaning the next day) I broke out the best part!

Krylon is my FAVORITE spray paint! I love it! The satin finish just makes everything look so smooth and...I don't know. I just love it. This is actually why I "primed" it with the cheap paint first. I wanted to conserve as much of this as possible. So I gave her a few good coats of Krylon (letting it dry overnight in between...humpf!). I screwed the screw for the knob from the inside and then put the cute little 25 cent Walmart knob on and Voila! 

 

Yeah, that shelf above it stresses me out too. It just had too much going on. So I decided to simplify tonight, and accessorize our new table. Here's the final product!

I love it! Honestly, I have better pictures. And I can put them up tomorrow. I am just ready to go to bed but I couldn't not share this with you first! Love you, friends!

Living Room Table Re-do!

Okay, so I was going to wait until this was finished to share it with you but I just couldn't stand it any longer. I was feeling like I just couldn't finish this fast enough...so I decided for the good of my class that I started this week, I should just go ahead and share this with you so I can focus on more important things. PSHT! This table is important! I am giddy excited about it!

Since we moved into this house, I have been pining looking for a table to put in the entryway of our living room under the floating shelf that we have. So the other day I went to Goodwill looking for something innocent enough. I wanted a frame to refinish as a gift for a friend. Whenever I go, I casually glance around the pitiful discarded furniture section that our Goodwill has and usually anything I am interested in has a price tag higher than I want to pay at Goodwill. But then I saw it. This poor little table, all scratched and unloved. But it was the right size. (Really it is more of a tall nightstand type of thing).

(The picture is taken in our sad little basement, not the store)

No one was around it so I walked over to check it out. And then I saw it. I had to look twice. And immediately I knew that this little guy was going home with me.

I picked that baby up and carried it around the store with me. Yes I did! You know why? Because apparently there were others with their eye on it that were mad that I swiped it. But you know who cares? NOT THIS GIRL! If they wanted it so badly, they should have put it in their carts!

It seems to have a missing drawer or something on one side, so I grabbed a 50 cent basket thing that fits in there but I don't like the space on the sides. I have decided that on the good (flat) side, I will just drill a hole and put a cute knob on there and let it look like a faux drawer! I can't wait!

So I have made a good bit of progress, but I am not going to share it with you tonight! I guess you will just have to stay tuned for an update (which will probably be tomorrow because I can't stand it!!) Goodnight, friends!

Lawyers and Meetings

Today we met with yet another lawyer. Yet another letdown. It really is starting to look like we are just going to have to suck it up and deal with the mistake basement situation that we bought ourselves in to. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our home. I loved the den. I love the upstairs (even though it has some issues) but when I walk down to do laundry it just makes me sad.

So friends, I am going to ask you to do something huge. Please start praying. When you pray in the morning or in the evenings, please pray that the Lord will provide what we need to fix this and not break us financially. I truly hate us having to go into more debt to fix this. I don't know what His hand will look like, but I know that He has a plan in allowing us to go through this. It is nice to have some closure in knowing that we are not going to be able to proceed legally and we can just move on with life. But moving on is expensive!


On a happier note, I have a funny Goodwill victory story to share with you! Maybe tonight...or tomorrow. We will see. Until then, friends, thank you for all of your love, support and prayers as Michael and I are dealing with this basement travesty. We love you.

I am going to break your heart.

Most of you know the story with our basement. If you do not, you can view the whole. painful. story. here. I have yet to post the pictures of our beautiful manly den directly beside the pictures of our poor, bedraggled excuse for a basement. The warmth is gone from it and I hate it. 

Before:

As of a couple of weeks ago (the only difference is that we have swept the rubble off of the floor in preparation for the waterproofing):

okay this one might be from when we first started tearing up the floors..I had to share it.

Okay maybe it looks worse now. Maybe not, I don't know. I have a few pictures that I took tonight and I will try to add tomorrow. Either way, my heart hurts! But on a trying to be positive note, I can't wait to start the process of making this space ours. More ours than it was before. I can't wait to decorate this space with my hubby and make it feel like home again.

Storage space, repurposed!

 A cute DIY project!

Okay so first of all, here is the latest with the bathroom shelf! I have this lovely fake grass stuff that I can't wait to find the perfect use for. On a wild hair the other day I stuck it in my fav bottle. At first I laughed. A lot. It reminds me of a pineapple. And obviously I don't like that you can see it sticking down in the bottle. But I left it because I like the greenery. We'll see how it goes! HAH!

Now on to the real reason for this post! I want to share a CUUUUTE project that I did the other night! We have this wonderful white medicine cabinet (you know, the kind that you hang over the toilet in the bathroom) that we bought for the apartment before we moved. Well now we have this lovely shelf so we have not needed to use it. The other night I decided to temporarily repurpose it in our office to use craft storage. It is perfect for what I needed it for! The only problem is this:

You can see all my stuff! So I got a great idea! I had some fabric (that I love...like I want to hug it iloveitsomuch) sitting in my craft box waiting for a purpose. I decided it would be perfect to hide the stuff! Heres how I proceeded! First I took a piece of the fabric about twice as wide as I needed:

Then I folded it in half and cut it down the middle to get two pieces:

To add a little sumthin' sumthin'...I found two cute, chunky white buttons to sew onto the middle. This is optional! To find the exact middle I folded each piece in half like lengthwise and then widthwise:

I just used really basic sewing to hold these on. Nothing fancy because this is not their permanent home. (at least not as of right now!)

This is what I had once I got both buttons on:

The I held each piece to the door to center it:

Once I got it centered, I just used scotch tape to hold them in place!

This is what this beauty looks like with the doors shut! I L-O-V-E it!

Oh I just love it! And my most used supplies are right within reach! I am still working on the office organizing/decluttering. I will keep you posted! I just could. not. wait! to share this with you guys! Okay just onemore time! Before:

And After!

Have you re purposed anything lately? Taken something from one room and made it totally functional for another? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Meet my new friend!

So, as much as I hate it and love to put it off, I actually really hate do enjoy cleaning, once I get into the swing of it. There is something about seeing what was just a nightmare look shiny and fresh....The dilemma is that I hate how much a of a process it is to lug out the cleaning supplies (i.e. locate which room of the house each supply is in, find paper towels, find gloves, find my scrubby, find my cleaning toothbrush, go to the office to find the duster, go back to the kitchen to find the Windex, etc.) It just wears me out. SO by the time that I get everything together, I am just about ready to stop and it makes true cleaning impossible very hard.

So the other day I picked up a little something at Target that I have used before and known about forever but very often overlooked. And I have to confess that I am in LOVE! Meet my new bff:

Yep! Clorox wipes! See that sheen on the counter tops? The hardware? The spice rack? The sink?? The molding?!?! Okay so I got a little carried away. And they are not to replace a good thorough cleaning every once in a while. But they are ah-mazing for day-to-day touch ups! I even used them in the bathroom. And then I went around and wiped the dust off of our doors in each room (who knew dust accumulated there) and all of the trim. I love these little guys. And the fresh scent make me happy. So if you are not the biggest fan of cleaning...or at least the cleaning supplies...you should go buy some! I got the jumbo bottle for $4.75 at Target. VERY worth the investment. (For all of my other supplies, I bought a dorm shower caddy on clearance at Wally World for $1 and now have them all in one easy place!)

Anyways, sorry that was not the most exciting blog, friends! I have a really cute (!) project that I did last night and can't wait to share. But my computer does not want to upload the photos. So until tomorrow...

Bathroom Shelf Love..or Not.

So yesterday's teaser showed you the shelf above the toilet in our bathroom. I love this shelf. I even loooove this look for it. Just in case you missed it...here it is again!

We changed it for Christmas (sorry I don't have pictures to share!) and since I put away Christmas I have been itching for something different. Enter one of my new FAV decorating items!

The other day I was walking out of our kitchen and a little overwhelmed with the clutter that had accumulated in there since we got home from Indiana. I was grabbing items to throw in the trash and I got a hold of a Barefoot brand Moscato wine bottle. As I was about to tote it outside to the trash, I looked and though to myself "this bottle has a really nice shape. and I like the tint of the glass. Maybe I won't toss it just yet" and put it back on the counter. Here's what this baby looked like, empty mind you.

Well the next day I soaked it in the sink to get the label off. This proved to be a little more frustrating than I thought. But WOW! I think I am in love. (its the little things, ok?) So I looked and it and moved it around the kitchen for days, trying to find its home. My original intentions were to spray paint it white and add it to our living room, but the more that I looked at it, the more I loved it just the way it was! 

SO, when I de-Christmas'ed the bathroom shelf and was looking for something to freshen it up...i knew exactly where my bottle had to go! But by itself it looked very lonesome. So I grabbed a deep brown faux book that we had in the office. It brings the dark chocolate color of the shower curtain into the shelf. I didn't love the symmetrical look so I threw in a little massager that I got on Christmas clearance at Walmart for $1.  Here is what it looks like as of today:

I looooove my bottle. But I do not loooove this look. The bottle stays. No arguments there. But the book does not. Its too large. I am thinking a small dark basket with a few hand towels would do the trick. And eventually my cutie winter hand towels will move on. And our monogram towels will reappear. Any other ideas? I am thinking that the bottle will probably lose its twine "scarf" too but I can't decide. So for now I am living with it and sleeping on it. for days. Until I get inspired. 

Have you ever been on the verge of throwing something out only to discover that you LOVE it? Have you ever had a space that you decorated and thought you would love it...but didn't? Let me know! Goodnight friends!

Linking this to Classy Columbus Designs' Wine Linky Party!