Boys' workbench

The boys all get their own set of tools when they are 4. These tool sets and the projects that they have inspired have taken over much of my fireplace/den room. So for Christmas we bought the material and the boys helped to put together an area that, hopefully, will contain their creative mess. Jared designed it to be movable because we hope to one day carve out a spot in the garage for them when we build the mudroom. 

Sunset on the James River

Between Jared's one-week break from his two classes this Fall we spend two nights in a cabin on the James River. The sunsets over the soybean and peanut fields were stunning. We took the kids to Jamestown and Williamsburg as part of our history lessons for the year. Fewer than half the trades were open in Williamsburg, but we still enjoyed watching the ones that were around. The boys' definite favorites were the blacksmith, cabinet maker, printer, and wheelwright.  

Since our trip our house has been turned into a print shop (which produced all the boys' Christmas cards and some of our tags for presents) and a wood working shop.  They also found scrap metal pieces in the garage and banged away with their hammers until they had several trays created (which ended up being my Christmas present). 

Gnomes

This Christmas Aldi was selling these adorable little Gnomes. They didn't look too hard to reproduce so I bought two (the last two they had in the store) and brought them home to study them. The first one I made took about 2 hours, but I got it down to almost an hour by making several at a time. These are the first four that I made and I failed to take pictures of any of the other ones. 

We decided to name them after the dwarves from the Hobbit. 

Thorin Oakenshield and Dane Ironfoot - We are keeping these two per the boys' request

Balin, Dwalin, - To my sister

Fíli, Kíli, - To my sister-in-law

Dori, Nori, Ori - To my sister

Óin, Glóin, - To two different friends

Bifur, Bofur, - Not made yet

Bombur - To my mother-in-law

And here is a little tree that I made for a friend. It was a fun project, but it took entirely too long to make more of them. The fabrics are all from projects that I have made for her in the past (an apron and quilt). 

Apron for a niece

I sewed this little apron in a few hours the morning of a birthday party.  The boys had picked out a cooking set for their cousin and while we were wrapping it I realized that an apron would be perfect to go with it.  I love the ruffles on the bottom! 

Evenings at the beach

I am just now getting around to emptying photos off my phone.  This summer we spent a lot of time at the beach.  It is a lot of work to pack up four kids and all their stuff, but they love being outside and exploring.  And we saw some amazing sunsets that reminded us of the glory and faithfulness of God. 

New quilt

I started this quilt two or three years ago and was about 1/4 of the way finished when I set it aside. I picked it up a few weeks ago, hoping to finish it in 30 days (by September 15th)... but other things have gotten in the way... mainly that my almost four year-old asked for a couple stuffed animals for his birthday and I have been working on making those. Pictures to come of those when I finish. And then maybe I will get back to this one. 22 of 30 squares are finished. It shouldn't take too long to finish the last few squares. 

burp clothes for a friend

I made these burp clothes back in May for a friend. It was the only boy fabric that I had left in my stash, but thankfully, she loves dinosaurs. 

A quick project

I'm currently painting my downstairs bathroom. It is just going to be pink like the baby's room because it is the paint I have. But I also painted the ceiling and it looks so much brighter and cleaner. 

The sconce in there is so ugly. But have you looked at the prices of a good attractive sconce? I'd rather save the money for a full bathroom gutting in a few years. I wondered if I could paint a geometric design on it... I followed the rabbit trail of craftman and mission style lamps. Then I fell in love with this Tiffany knock-off lamp. 

I sketched the pattern on with a Sharpie and filled in the color with paint. It took me about an hour. It didn't turn out too bad for free handing it. It is better than it was. 

I'm avoiding cleaning out my dresser. :) I should have been working on sorting clothes that fit me and clothes that don't. That's my next project. 

Quilt top finished

My mother-in-law offered to quilt it for me. She is way more talented at quilting. It will be so much fun to see what see does with it.

This top probably took about 8 hours. None of the blocks are complicated and they are nice and big.  So, it went fast.

Sneak peak at a new project

It should be a twin size quilt for the baby when I'm finished. :) 

A little sign

I used to sing this to James as a baby more than any other song. Now he likes Holy Holy Holy and For All The Saints better.  I was going to just put the words from the first line one the board, but hymns are written to be understood for and appreciated as the whole thing. The line felt off without the rest of the verse. Originally, I started this to hang in the baby's room, but then I used paints from the boys' walls and it just matches so much better in there. 

So the boys get some new artwork for their room. 

Updated Paint List

Paint jobs to do:

1. Baby's closet
Finished: June 29th
(Linen Ruffle - leftover from various painting jobs)

2. Baby's Room
(Off white, pinkish hue)

3. Boys' Room
(two tone, dark blue up top, light blue on bottom)

4. Boys' Closet
(I want to do something fun like lime green)

5. Guest Room
(no ideas yet)

6. Hallway
Finished: June 29th
(Linen Ruffle - leftover from various painting jobs)

Possible jobs:
(all the ceilings are still TAN, but who is brave enough to paint a popcorn ceiling?)

7. Ceiling in Baby's Room

8. Ceiling in Boys' Room

9. Ceiling in Guest Room

All we have left is the guest room, which is the boys' old room and needs some patching to the walls before we can dig in and paint in there.  But we are so much closer than when we started.  The boys and baby girl have a space all for them now.  So she can come anytime. :) But hopefully she holds off a few more weeks to give us a chance to knock out the guest room.

Boys' room (Final)

Before: Realtor photos of the room.  

It didn't look this bright and cheery in person.  It was much more dingy and dark. 

Before: I took this picture the day we settled on the house. 

Before: Goodbye baseboard heaters and tan carpet and tan walls and tan ceiling and tan trim! 

Goodbye cat smell!

Before: We don't have an attic anymore so this is where we were storing a bunch of stuff that didn't have a home.  We took a few loads to the dump and Goodwill. 

The carpets were all ripped up and the floors refinished the week that we bought the house.  Jared did the majority of the work of refinishing the floors.  I pitched in a little bit and some friends came over and helped pull up staples for three hours from all the carpet (and the carpet that had been down before that). 

Goodbye, cat smell. 

Look at that white ceiling!!!

Look at those blue walls! Here Jared is installing the trim for me between the two paint colors.  

Then he installed his old bunk bed.  

And we took off the closet doors to paint them. 

\

Here is a little before and after mash-up. 

After: Everything is so peaceful.  It might be my favorite room in the house right now. 

After: The only thing let is to buy curtains for the windows (I am thinking some sort of grey) and a shade for the lamp.   But otherwise, it is completely finished! 

Here is what we have done to the room:

✅Old carpet removed and wood floors refinished (Bono Mega - Amber seal)✅Baseboard heaters removed (they were condensating and leaking on the wood floors and causing discoloration)

✅Ceiling painted white
✅Walls painted (dark blue - Valspar Space Sky, light blue - Valspar Dreamy Clouds)
✅New trim installed on walls
✅New shoe molding installed
✅Old molding painted white
✅New windows

* Loft bed/book shelves was Jared and his brothers. Build by a family friend. 
* Twin bed given to us by people moving at church. 
* Crib/Toddler bed IKEA - thrifted for $40. 
* Dresser 1 - was Jared’s as a teen
* Dresser 2 - was given to us with twin bed

* Small Ikea chair - given to us

* Car rug - given to one of the boys

* Light blue leaf rug - bought on clearance at Lowes for $90

* Quilts - made by Grandma Cindy (priceless)

We have since switched the lamp with the one in the baby's room.  And I am really thinking of stealing the rug and giving them the rug from our room (it is dark red and would match their quilts still). 

It has been such a great project - one that I have been wanting to do since January, but that first trimester killed me and I never finished it.  We purchased the paints around 4th of July and they were having an amazing sale ($45 back on a 5 gallon bucket and $15 back on a gallon - I think we got an $135 gift card from them when it was all said and done - which we then used on the rug and a rug for the baby's room). 

Boys' room

The closet doors are off because they are the last thing that needs to be rid of tan (aka painted white). 

We are setting up Warb's new bed and dresser tonight and tomorrow we will bring in Martin's mattress and Meem's bed. 

I love the colors. They are making me so happy. Full post coming after Saturday!!

Boys' room - sneak peek

A quick before and after. 

Trim being installed!

Now I just need to paint the trim around the windows and floor. Goodbye tan! 

Closet number two

I forgot to take a true before picture.  Imagine that their is a makeshift shelf (see the boards to the right of the closet) that is laid across the side shelves.  And imagine that they put a short little clothing rack under it (nailed to the wall with different size nails, of course, because nothing is done properly in this house).  For a while I thought about leaving the lower shelves so the boys could hang up their own clothes, but it just took up too much space.  So I gutted the closet and started from what it used to be.  

Here is a picture of the gross, tan side shelves.  

And a picture of the closet once I removed all the makeshift shelves and patched the holes in the wall. 

After:

Shelves painted bright white. 

Top painted white. 

Bottom painted a custom green (it was from a can of lime green paint from my sister's bathroom that I added some blue and black to). 

Two days. Three ceilings.

Room 1:

Before - Everything covered in plastic.  

Also, everything removed from the room.  

After - WHITE CEILINGS!!!!

They make me so happy. 

Here is a teaser of what is to come in the boys' room.  The bottom is going to be a light blue and the top a dark blue. 

**We still have to caulk the molding and finish drywalling where the wall heaters came off before painting anymore. (Those are Jared jobs - I am not good at either - but our water heater broke this weekend and he spent most of the day replacing that and putting in a dryer vent, so he gets a pass). 

Room 2:

Before - guest room --> soon to be the baby's room

Plastic covering everything and stuff NOT moved out of the room. 

After - WHITE CEILINGS!!!

The walls are going to be a pale pale pale pink (or a pink tinted white). I cut in the boarders today and it is going to be so fresh and clean in there. 

Room 3:

I didn't get a good picture of the boys' current room. But I did paint the ceilings today. Yay! I didn't take out any of the furniture or make them clean it first and I covered about half the room in plastic.  I got braver as I went along with the ceiling painting.  

Before and After:

Banish the tan from the house!

Paint jobs to do:

1. Baby's closet
Finished: June 29th
(Linen Ruffle - leftover from various painting jobs)

2. Baby's Room
(Off white, pinkish hue)

3. Boys' Room
(two tone, dark blue up top, light blue on bottom)

4. Boys' ClosetFinished: July 3rd

(I want to do something fun like lime green)

5. Guest Room
(no ideas yet)

6. Hallway
Finished: June 29th
(Linen Ruffle - leftover from various painting jobs)

Possible jobs:
(all the ceilings are still TAN, but who is brave enough to paint a popcorn ceiling?  Me! I was brave enough)

7. Ceiling in Baby's RoomFinished: July 5th

8. Ceiling in Boys' Room

Finished: July 6th

9. Ceiling in Guest Room

Finished: July 6th

New windows

(new on left, old on right)

(Jared working on removing an old window)

We installed new windows in all the windows.  It took about a month to finish removing the old ones (and metal frames), install the new ones, insult around them, and trim them out.  Now they just need to be painted!!!

We would have loved to keep the ones that we had, but they were falling apart.  If the previous owner had painted them and kept them up, then we would have made them work.  However, they were rotting and the glass panes were falling out. These new ones are so much more airtight! Yay! I will miss the frost on the windows in the winter though... 

Picture of the front of the house coming sometime. 

(I really want to paint the front door now)