Magical Transformation

I started this project at the beginning of April, and I've officially finished it before the end of  April. Glorious!

The Master bedroom needed a serious overhaul. Ugly wallpaper, nicotine stained ceiling, dirty maroon accent wall, PAINTED BROWN trim. Problems solved. I'm going to do this in a minimally detailed manner, cause let's be honest, you don't care that much how this happened.

Stripped off the wallpaper. 8 hours of work.

Washed, Spackled, and Sanded. Probably 6-8 hours worth of work.

Primed (x2) 4 hours of work

The green tinge is from the reflection of the plants outside.

Painted. Color and Trim. 5 hours

Again, prettier, cleaned up picture later. I'm tired now, but wanted to get something on the blog. A much improved Master.

Headboard Happiness

I've wanted to do this for a long time. Jeremy and I don't have a bed (yet), so a headboard would seem excessive. However, my parents are coming to visit next week and I've spent the past few weeks putting together the room for them (including a bed). I now realize that I've yet to post about the stained frame, but I'll get that on the blog in the next week.

Without further ado, here's my headboard project.

We cut a 36" by 60" piece of MDF. Then I measured lines across it every six inches and marked alternating holes at twelve inches.

 Then I took a big piece of foam and glued it to the top of my MDF. Foam is sickeningly expensive, so I skirted that by purchasing the cheapest foam twin bed topper I could find (still $30). It actually ended up being pretty close to the perfect size. With a little trimming it fit nicely on the MDF.

So once I had that done a wrapped my entire board in batting and used a staple gun to secure it to the back. Once that was finished and even, I took my salmon-orange suede-type fabric and wrapped the front of the board. *Aside: I got an amazing deal on my fabric. 50% off at Joann's. It was on clearance already for $9 and I got my three yards at half off that. Then the lady said that she'd give me the rest (2 1/2 yards) for half off that. I ended up getting about 6 yards of reallllllly nice material for $17*

Once the fabric was stapled on I made my fabric covered buttons and started tufting. It wasn't that tough, actually. I threaded the needle, stuck it through the pre-drilled hole, attached the button, and then secured it on the back by wrapping the thread around the nail and tying it to a staple.

This afternoon Jeremy helped me attach the french cleat to the back. We took it upstairs and hung it on the wall!

I'll get a few more glamour shots later this week. I know I haven't posted in a while, though, so I didn't want to keep you from this any longer.

More Outdoor Work

Last weekend focused on plant removal. This weekend we focused on plant installation (and a little bit on plant removal).

2.5 gallon pot azaleas were 4/$10, so I picked up 9 of them this morning. I could've gotten the bigger ones that are in bloom, but I'm not on yard crashers and don't have a reveal in the next twelve hours, so I sure as heck wasn't paying $12-$19 per plant. They'll grow. They're plants.

Before

During

Jeremy dug the holes for the plants and I put them in. He was doing the digging because I was ready to give up because the first (and only) hole I dug had a root the size and strength of a human bone running through it. We had to get the saw out.

One of the problems with removing the bushes (other than the stumps, which we're removing, but I don't care to write about) is the algae on the side of the house. We could rent a powerwasher, but that would require money and another trip to Lowes. I looked it up online and it said I could try bleach and water. I think there's a marked improvement. Now it just looks like general dirt, not so patchy.

I also tried this technique on our dirty mailbox and it worked swimmingly. I also repaired the rusting front with aluminum tape.

Before

After

Hey. No judgment. It was much dirtier than that--especially on this side.

Opposite of Lazy Sunday

My Mom called today. I said "Oh, perfect timing, I just finished building your bed!" Her response to that statement could only be described as "skeptical." I'll let you be the judge.

So, my parents are coming to visit from Colorado in a few weeks. I promised my Dad they'd have a mattress... maybe even a bed. I know that an air mattress wouldn't cut it for them. I could've gone out a bought a bed, but Jeremy and I don't even have a bed (yeah, yeah, I know, we're supposed to be adults). Also, we have an eensy Honda Fit, which can fit some lumber but not that much. In addition I have another project to go with this bed that I'm pretty excited about doing, so I really just needed a frame. Yes, I could've bought a metal queen frame for $60-70, but where is the fun in that?

I started out this morning pretty gung-ho. I burned that energy off cleaning the garage out so I'd have space to work.

Pre-clean

Post-clean.

Okay... onwards to the bed.

I started by measuring all the lumber that was picked up by my husband and wonderful Father-in-Law on Saturday. Kudos to them to dealing with my specific requests.

(Don't worry Mom, I used a legitimate plan to build this bed. I didn't just free-style it)

Then, I had very good intentions have having Jeremy teach me to use the circular saw. He did a few cuts. I tried a few cuts. I think that I wasn't able to hold the saw as straight as Jeremy, so after a few diagonal cuts he took the saw and made the rest of the cuts. Then I took the materials upstairs to assemble the bed.

After some significant struggling, moving back down to the garage and back up again, Jeremy and I assembled the frame. I honestly had every intention of completing this project on my own, but found that two people and boy strength was necessary.

After we had the frame together I (all alone) attached all the slats.

Flipper

Supervisor

Then I made the legs and attached them to the frame.

Here it is! We'll have a mattress on it in no time and it should be good to go (or stay and rest, as the case may be)!

Bye Bush/Trees!

The chainsawing happened so fast this weekend I didn't get a chance to take current "before" shots. Here's a picture from the targeted treebushes when we moved in. They're probably about a foot taller than they were when this picture was taken...

With the help of Jeremy's Dad and chainsaw, here's the house now without said treebushes.

In addition to tree cutting and tree trimming, we also weeded and mulch to improve the look of our flower beds.

 Mulch Added: