Announcement...

We love our house. It's our very first home and we've put so much love into it - both by building it up and making memories in it - that we've really made it our own.

Unfortunately, we're putting it on the market.

A very unique, limited-time opportunity was presented to us and we couldn't turn it down. The decision was super quick; on Tuesday we had no intentions of moving in the next few years and by Thursday, we'd contacted a few realtors. They came out and gave us some estimates, and so we decided to bite the bullet and put it up.

...And then go backwards...to renting.

My generous father-in-law who lives across the country also has a townhome about 30 minutes away from here that we're going to rent for a few pennies a month so we can save up enough money to put a hefty down payment on our dream home. We're going to be there for approximately 1 year (though i'm hoping to be out by Christmas). And i mentioned before that this opportunity was limited-time, meaning that my father-in-law will be back to reclaim his house in a year and a half. So we'll have the chance to save a lot of money in so little time, we'll be settled in our own new home before the kids start school, and we might just be able to walk away with some pocket change from this sale. You've heard that saying about opportunity knocking? Well, opportunity pretty much just vomited into our mouths.

Of course i'm ridiculously sad and it's going to kill me when my almost-3-year-old asks to "go home." But i'm trying my best to look at it as taking one step closer to our possible Forever home. And i mean For.Ev.Er...i'm going out in that house a la Gilbert Grape's mom.

Here's what you can expect from this blog, kind readers: The same crap you've been reading. I am not done demanding attention.

Plus, Chris was already in the middle of remodeling his dad's master bathroom long before we decided to move there. So, you see, we cannot escape the projects and we'll keep up our time-consuming hobbies in the new place. There's even a small chance that we'd pay rent with our home projects (Um!?). You can continue to expect our ridiculousness on this blog; we'll just be surrounded by new walls.

Because that's all they are, right?

Inspiration For Your Weekend

Need some motivation and inspiration for your weekend? Looking for a new hobby? Can you not even WAIT until Arrested Development comes back on May 26th?

Lucky for all of us, i already have Netflix, and my amazing Aunt, a self-proclaimed chalk painting and distressing addict, sent me pictures of some of her revamping projects. She surfs Craigslist and also keeps an eye out for discarded furniture that can be refinished and perhaps re-purposed. Here are a few things that have been chalk painted. NOT chalkboard painted, which is all over Pinterest like some sort of rampant STD. Chalk paint produces such a nice velvety finish, and my aunt finishes most of her projects off with a nice distress. I'd also like to mention that she makes her own chalk paint* as opposed to selling one of her kidneys to afford the store-bought kind. Smart lady. Now onto her projects...

Here's a dresser she picked up. I wonder if it was the drawer faces that won her over, because that's my favorite part.

And after chalk painting and some distress, it becomes the piece that i plan to steal the next time i visit. The challenge will be finding a bag big enough to carry it out unnoticed.

This coffee table has a special place in my heart since we thrifted its twin for $10 a few years ago:

She painted the legs white and black washed the top. I really love it. Ours is...not like this, unfortunately. Try Crayola yellow. Dammit, Chris...

 Here's an end table that was a pretty solid street find. Man i love Queen Anne legs.

She chalk painted the bottom, and black washed the top. And you pretty much can't beat that drawer pull, so she just removed it and spray painted it. Pretty sexy.

Here's an old sewing table she picked up:

After the chalking and distressing:

Here are a few After pictures of some other projects she did, like white-washing her brick fireplace that was formerly red:

This dresser was a Craigslist find. First, she chalk painted it white, then antiqued it with stain to use as a buffet in the dining room. So refinished AND re-purposed. And i never would have though to top the chalk paint with stain, that's thinking outside the box:

Check out this sexy wardrobe! Chalk painted and distressed:

I've got some pretty thrifty relatives, don't i? Give that woman a paintbrush and she's unstoppable.

*This blog you'll find after the link doesn't belong to my aunt nor myself and we have no affiliations, although it is wonderful and i do love it. There are plenty of other recipes on the interwebs - including ones that use grout - so Google away.

ReVamp: Rolling Cart

I've wanted a rolling cart for a good minute. There's really only two places for these things: thrift stores and super pricey/trendy furniture stores (weird how that is, right?). I never actively looked, but knew that if i saw one, i'd take advantage. This is also the way i feel about meteor showers.

Luckily, before my neighbors moved, they put a lot of stuff on the common area for trash pickup and when i saw this guy out there, i had to rescue him.

Can you see its potential?

The first step was scraping off the sludge.

After four bottles of dish soap and a few magic erasers, it shines:

The next step was to wait eight weeks until spring showed up and the temperature was right for spray painting. But prepping it was the step after that one. It has these clear wheels and i'm not sure what i plan to do with them yet, but i know i didn't want to paint them the same color as the cart. I tried taking them off and they wouldn't budge...so i covered them in foil.

Now that it's naked-to-the-metal, it's ready for the painting step:

I chose Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze, and here's what it looked like after one coat:

I took this close-up pic below so that you could see that it is indeed oil rubbed bronze and not black, but alas, it still looks black. Just trust that it's different in person.

While that was drying in between coats, i got started on the glass. I did not want plain glass on a table because it always looks dirty, even if it's just a few water spots. Or the pollen that will come through here trying to impregnate everything in the next month or so. So i decided to frost them. I used Rustoleum's Frosted Glass spraypaint. You can kind of see the difference with just one thin coat (top):

When it dried, i stuck it back on the deck to serve its daytime purpose: to hold water toys.

 I got the two little baskets at the dollar store, but now i'm thinking i just want one large one. Here's what it looks like filled with toys. And i can post a picture in a few months when we use it to hold drinks and snacks when we have the fire pit going out there.

It's a HUGE upgrade from what we had there before, which was a wrought iron/stone topped console table that held...nothing. It was just in the way. I got rid of it on FreeCycle.

Now we have more function and more space. I can put the kids' water table out there next to the rolling cart instead of having it take up deck space.

Total cost of this project: $15. $13 for the spray paint, and $2 for the baskets.

Progress pics:

This project was made possible by my dad & stepmom who took my oldest kid for the day, thus allowing me to get something done during my youngest kid's nap time. Thanks, guys!

***UPDATE***

I decided on one large basket instead of the two smaller ones so i could sleep at night:

That brings the new project total to $19. $13 for the spray paint, $6 for the basket. Ratty yardwork shoes that i never bothered to move at all while taking these pictures: priceless.

RePurpose: Pants to Shirt/Tunic

Welcome to my first post using strictly pictures from my iPhone. You're so lucky!

Anyway, a bit about myself: I have trouble throwing clothes away. If they don't work in some way, i'll try my best to fix 'em. I'll dye them, hem them, de-hem them, take them in, let them out, and re-purpose them.

I've had these pants for awhile because while they fit everywhere else, they're a few inches too short. They obviously weren't made for human giraffes like myself.

The legs could comfortably fit 4 wine bottles. That's a new unit of measurement i'm using, and trust me - it'll catch. Nice soft fabric, a-line shape, already has a bottom hem...perfect for my tiny girl. I wanted it to be long enough to be considered a tunic, so i made the cut accordingly.

And plain black on a little girl is boring so i thought i'd put one of her favorite things on there for her. I drew up this little guy...

I cut it out and pinned it to the shirt. Since i intended to use paint, i put another sheet of paper between the layers so that it wouldn't bleed through. You could also use bleach and spray it, but i just wasn't in the mood.

I sponged white paint to surround my little brontosaurus...

Here's what he looked like all sponged:

Now it's time to cut the arm openings. I intended for this to be kind of a pillowcase dress-type of thing, so it'll be sleeveless with a gathered top.

And i hemmed the arm holes because i liked it better than leaving it unfinished, though i probably could have since it's a soft t-shirt material and would have folded in on itself. But it looks better this way. Trust this.

Now i need a tie for the top, and in comes this pink shirt! I cut off the bottom hem after i decided it was the right color. And, lucky me, i didn't throw it away hoping that i could use the fabric for something. Voila!

And i tried my best to get a clear shot of this. I'd pulled down the front of the shirt and folded the back flap over the tie so that i could sew it in there. Does that make sense? I needed the fabric to gather and the tie to be adjustable. 

After hemming that mess on both the back and front of the dress, here's the finished project:

It fits!

I'll not be posting any pictures of or details about my kids on this blog, so this picture is a huge stretch for me, but i deemed it necessary so y'all could see how it fit. You're welcome.

And now i got a pair of one-legged yoga pants in the basement. New fashion trend? You found it here first, Lululemon. But seriously, i'll probably make her another dress. Because nothing says "class" like wearing a pant leg.