THEY. ARE. EVERYWHERE. ALL. THE. TIME.

EVERYWHERE.

THOUSANDS of teeny, tiny pieces.  And inevitably, someone would be missing a crucial teeny, tiny piece and would dump said gigantic tub.

Not anymore:

This is what mommy the boys got for Christmas.

Now everything stays in one place, drawers can easily be dug through, and creations stay on the table top.   Each boy has his own drawer for keeping “works-in-progress”.

And this is what Tate does with all the guys:

Inspiration for table found here.

ANYWAY, I actually accomplished some useful projects as well.

My mom called me one morning and told me there was a really cool mid-century dresser just sitting forlornly on the curb by her house.  I called Josh and kindly asked him to take his truck and see if it was worth saving.  I came home to this baby sitting on my porch:

And now it looks like this:

Those cabinet doors open to reveal 6(!) lovely small drawers, perfect for keeping odds and ends.  I love it. (And that chevron table runner fits perfectly….thanks to my sis and her etsy shopping).

I also rescued this mid-cent baby off the curb way back in February.  He too has been painted a lovely bright white and is anxiously awaiting for the nursery to be completed. (Sorry no after pic).

And my mom was busy making this pink number to complete our family of stockings:

This painting took the longest to complete.  UGH! I ended up doing it 3 times before getting it how I wanted it.

It will soon find a permanent home in the nursery (which I hope to start working on while Josh is off for the next 10 days…..hint…..hint……..)

Gavin and Liam’s room was the first room we did when we moved into this house.  Here are some BEFORE before pics (while the previous owner still lived here):

That is NOT my porta-potty

And immediately after we moved in:

Liam was still in a crib!!

And the boys’ room today (all clean….it doesn’t usually look like this):

And, the one major component that is not yet done: the closet.  You see, we have this to contend with:

A teeny, tiny furnace from the 60′s that doesn’t work.  The boys’ room is an addition to the house and instead of adding radiators like the rest of the house, this little thing was installed instead.  Who knows how long it hasn’t worked, but it’s taking up HALF their closet space.

See where I didn’t finish painting the wall?  We’re going to open up that doorway, remove the furnace, and hang a sliding barn door.  See?  Winter project.

(And the white dresser’s getting moved into the nursery when we’re ready for it).

In the meantime, here are the deets:

Paint color: Sherwin Williams “Online”

Carpet tiles: Mohawk brand from the Re-Store

Beds, bedding, floating shelves: IKEA

Red initial pillows: Made by my mom, letters painted by me

Red chair: Slumberland 3 years ago

Red pie cupboard: Antique from my grandpa painted in Sherwin Williams “Positive Red” (which freaked me out because it looks HOT pink in the can)

Brave and Valiant framed print: Restoration Hardware

Clock: clearance steal at Gordmans

Bamboo shades: same old ones spray painted black

Jesus print (on the floor waiting to be hung): Bill Butler

Craspedia (better known as “Billy Buttons”) have been a favorite of mine for a long time.

Unfortunately, they are super expensive to buy online and the real ones don’t dry very well.   Here’s a bettter option…felted balls!  I copied this tutorial and they were surprisingly easy!

Due to our current living situation (or I should say, my brother-in-law’s living situation, yes….he’s still here) Tate and Baby Girl will be sharing a room. I’ve been loving gray and yellow rooms and I thought that would be a perfect color combination for a boy/girl room.  I’m SOOOO excited for my next nursery project…….poetry hand-painted on canvas!!

Pictures to come soon!

]]> http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/billy-buttons/feed/ 2 recoveringgavin DSCN1661 http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/hello/ http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/hello/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:08:39 +0000 recoveringgavin http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/?p=814 ]]> I saw this frosted glass Hello. sticker on a blog and just had to have one for our porch door.  Unfortunately I could never find one, BUT I found a girl on Etsy who makes etched glass stickers and she whipped one up for me!  So. Hello. Welcome to my (still ugly) home.

Here are some shots of the exterior before we moved in:

Brown (leaky) roof, weird little bushes, drafty old windows, ugly storm door, cement blocks for landscaping

I think this is one of my absolute favorite pictures from before we moved in.  Seriously, why didn’t we SEE just what we were getting ourselves into?!  Let’s just stop to really look at this picture: DUCT TAPED french doors,  window air units everywhere, rickety steps for ANYONE to access the upstairs via OLD windows, metal awnings falling off, RED mini-blinds in the kitchen, a tree resting on the roof……but hey……the grass looks good (better than it does now)!

Here’s what our house looks like today (and we are still SO far from being done):

The whole back first floor corner is done!  We chose to go with a fiber cement board that will have a smooth finish when painted.  It kinda looks like drywall, but it’s cement.   Everyone has siding.  We wanted to be different…..as usual. (You wanna know a secret?  This is the same exact stuff we’ll be using as flooring INSIDE in the spring). All new windows (the trim will be wrapped with PVC so no painting is involved).  And see the top wood slat beneath the roof line and the corner pieces?  Those will be painted bright white against my deep dark shade of gray.  Yes gray. I love gray.  (We actually stalked a guy online who’s house color we loved.  Josh called him up and got the name of his paint color. We’re weird that way.  But it was the PERFECT shade and so nice to see it on an actual house rather than a tiny square).

Picture with me a two-tiered deck running the length and width of this corner.  Next year maybe. We’ll be lucky if the second story gets finished this year.  Hopefully fall will last a LONG time.

And the front.  Sadly, this is what everyone sees and this is how ugly it currently is.  The siding is gone, but now the big project is knocking off ALL the stucco-it’s in pretty bad shape.  These windows will also all be wrapped and new basement windows installed. Buh-bye ugly brown trim!

And, are you ready for this????  Are you sure???

This is currently what the rest of the back side of the house looks like.

Hahahahaha!  We are SO white trash.

Here’s the deal.  I posted our aluminum siding on Craigslist for free (that way we don’t have to pay for a dumpster or hauling).  Scrap metal’s worth money baby.  We had 2 guys show up within 15 minutes to get it.  We had only ripped off a portion of the siding and they both offered to come back on Josh’s day off and help tear off more.  Sure enough, one of the guys showed up bright and early last Thursday and worked for about 5 hours tearing off the remaining first floor siding.  He makes money and we get free labor.  Good deal.  Sadly, this is what was underneath all that aluminum.  What was it I was saying about the stucco?  Geesh, there’s hardly any left here. That just shows you the condition of the house the last time it was sided.  It’s taken a LOT more time and energy, but at least it’s getting done right this time.

Josh has plans to work like mad on the front this week, so hopefully I’ll have progress pictures soon!

BUT, since finding out we’re having a girl (woo-hoo!) I’ve begun dreaming of the day that the littlest peanut can enjoy the dollhouse as much as my sister and I did.  I cannot wait to get my hands on it again and decorate it.

I have been loving THIS for a long time and it’s funny that I’ve now been seeing it pop up on random blogs:

Um….pretty sure if I ever got to design my dream home (my real house, not dollhouse) this is exactly what I’d want it to look like.  How cool is that?

Since I already have a dollhouse (this one retails for $300 anyway), I decided that my house MUST have all the furniture inside.  Be still my heart!  Seriously.  If I could furnish my entire (real) house with this furniture I would be in heaven.  AMAZING!!  Take a look:

Can I live here please?????

My happy-spring-painting-project turned into my paint-in-the-scorching-heat-project, but my adirondacks are finally finished! 

I wasn’t sure I liked them when I finished, but it’s the ugly carpet that works against the wall/chair color scheme. They are bright and happy and now I just have to figure out what to do with that floor.  UGH.  I HATE IT.  (The wood floor underneath is in very bad shape, otherwise I would have ripped the carpet out on day one and painted the floor.  Sadly, it needs a lot more attention than that and our porch has never been on the priorty list).

And.  Drumroll please…………

This past week, my fireplace went from this:

to this……..

Painted brick isn’t for everyone.  I got a lot of mixed opinions when I talked about painting the fireplace (and it took me 3 years to convince Josh), but in the end, it’s more striking and brightens up the whole side of the room.

I was not planning to paint the hearth, but my favorite DIY couple just did theirs and it looked amazing AND our tile was so ORANGE (much like theirs).  I still need to apply a couple of coats of Safecoat Acrylacq to ensure durability.  I also love the look of a fresh coat of black inside, but we MAY still use this baby someday and I didn’t want to do anything drastic which might not allow use later on.

I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I’m in love with how it turned out.

MOST of you probably know from reading my other blog that we’re having baby #4 in December.  Because of this, I am needing to purchase another CB2 frame for my living room to go with the other 3 I have for each boy.

Here’s my problem.  Do I order just one more and place 2 frames on each wall above the sectional, or do I leave the 3 on the longer wall and buy 2 more frames?  (One could contain a pic of baby and the other a group shot).  I’m asking because I usually always decorate in the odd numbers.  Usually 3 or 5 of something.  I think that’s what you’re supposed to do (from my limited design experience).

Take a look:

Here’s what the LR looks like now.  Both walls are similar in length, but then one wall continues with our giant picture window and the other becomes the doorway into the dining room.

And for the record, my curtains are black, not green.  It’s a very hot and sunny day forcing me to close them.  UGH.  That’s why I’m inside worrying about silly stuff like this.

And this section of the couch is much shorter.

So what would YOU do?  Would you buy 1 more frame and do 2 on each wall?  OR would you buy 2 more, leave the 3 where they are and put the new ones on the empty wall?

OR…..(I just had another thought), would you arrange them on the longer wall in a grouping of 4 (2 on top of 2)?  Hmmmmm……major life decisions here. 

HELP!!!

]]> http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/help/feed/ 8 recoveringgavin DSCN1193 DSCN1194 http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/have-a-seat/ http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/have-a-seat/#comments Sun, 26 Jun 2011 20:22:16 +0000 recoveringgavin http://recoveringforest.wordpress.com/?p=739 ]]> I bought this lovely little mid-century telephone table off Craigslist about 3 years ago.  It sat like this in my dining room until recently.

The vinyl was ripped and the whole top was a bit rickety.  The boys love sitting sideways and using it for a desk.  It really is a cute piece, just in need of some love (of which I was intending to give it as soon as I purchased and well, you know how that goes).

I finally crossed that project of my to-do list a few weeks ago!  Yay!

Isn’t it so cheerful?!  Many thanks to my mom for her mad reupholstery skills.

And guess what????  The boys’ room is ALMOST done.  Remember when I was dreaming of redecorating it?  We have one more semi-big project to complete before I’m ready for the big reveal.  It makes me very happy.  I walk in and it’s just right-exactly how I pictured it.  And the boys love it too.  I figure this is the last time they’ll let mom decorate their room!