Yard woes!

So I started this blog as a place to cronical us finding, building, creating and making our dream house.  Sadly things don't always go as planned.  We do have a beautiful home and a project list a mile long.  The thing about new construction however is there is this thing called a yard.   In our first home we loved our little backyard we redid right before moving and it was perfect and wonderful and that was in the plans for our new house.  The part that wasn't planed for were the imperfections.  I've almost written about this quite a few times, but the short of it is... after getting our yard in (about 80%, we still have our patio to do which was to be done this year) we loved it and it was everything we could hope for.  Until one day we started to notice water pooling in our window wells. Through a tough long winter of constantly pumping water out of window wells and cleaning up the floor in our basement, we knew that 2016 summer would NOT be patio..... it would be repair!  :'(
Sadly it was a blame game between the builder and the landscaper so it came out of our pocket,

Clothes

Step One of tidying up is cleaning out the clothes she starts by taking all of the clothes in the home and placing them in one spot for me this just was not going to happen (with the boys, I felt it was necessary to do one person at a time) so I started with my room however if anyone knows me I am not a close person like at all!! I really don't care about clothes I wear them out of necessity and I have some great family members that make sure I stay clothed. (Thanks mother in law!)

She says to take your clothes and choose to put them back rather then choose to take some out it's the great starting point and because I have so few it was relatively easy to get my clothes finished then onto my boys really Chris is on his own for this project idea we go through clothes quite often however that really has to be his thing not mine so getting onto The little boys Liam's clothes are pretty much easy to go through they all pretty much fit and it was just a matter of doublechecking and folding at first I was not sure about her folding method it's some of them seemed a little crazy, but I decided to give it a try and see what Happens. on the other hand ewan has a huge amount of clothes and a very small dresser I kept all the clothes that I had with Liam and let them pile up now for ewan  which is really great for the most part.  I try to go through his clothes regularly and have a great neighbor across the street that I can drop boxes and bags off to that will get used as well so his clot his dresser was a little bit more in depth at first like I said I was really unsure about fulling I am now change my ways and even more of the stock method I thought as reading it going you are in saying she wants beautiful every socks and not just roll them so it's super simple I've changed I know crazy right so honestly take some time look over the book try things see what you think here's some pictures of my most recent projects and so far I am totally a fan

Ewans Dresser

Before

 After

 Liam's Dresser

Kitchen

Step two is the books I think that for me books are going to be a lot more difficult than she says they are. I went through my books not too long ago, athough for the boys that I'm going to need to go through so I decided to skip that step and move on to something else for now I started with the kitchen drawers of been driving me crazy for a very long time I went through them get rid of what needed to and more than anything just got it all done in one fell swoop so here's some pictures I hope you enjoy

The biggest problem I have is that we get lazy and rather then put stuff where it belongs i put it in these drawers. 

That's changing now!!

Left side 

Right side 

Before and after 

Main silverware drawer before

After 

Knife drawer

Before 

After   

I added a few house items which will prob make there way back to the kitchen, this is a good place to keep them!

The life-changing magic of tidying up

Sadly this book did NOT help with the Magic of how to clear my driveway!  Needless to say there are some other fantastic Ideas in here.

This is going to be a slow going process of me cleaning out my house one step at a time.  "Rome wasn't built in a day" Therefore Barber Dream House, will not be organized in one either!
This book has been all over the internet for the last year or two.
I love to blog stock, and play on pintrest so I saw different things.
-You should thank your clothes and send them on their way.  Is it a bad sign that I didn't see that as odd ?

Maybe I should be tested

My sweet Chris gave it to me for christmas,  no he is not giving me a hit, I asked for the book, and no hit was necessary I know I have a hard time getting rid of things.

When Chris and I first got together he used to tease me all the time.  THROW IT AWAY. Was a normal phrase he told me when I wasn't sure what to do with something. We have come along way.  But if you look back to these images.

IMAGE OF MOVING VANS


We have a PROBLEM.  2 moving trucks. Granted we did have a pool table taking up the majority of one, but still NO GOOD.

Knowing we plan to make this our FOREVER HOME also makes me realize I better start purging now or our stuff will over run us, and quick.

I honestly LOVE the book.  I know there are things that I am going to struggle with as I go through step by step, but I know it is for the best and I will end with a beautiful home that I can keep clean and tidy by just doing a few things everyday!

Boys room 5 (reveal)

So I took these photos before I painted the dresser so sorry it isn't a REAL reveal, it is only a kinda one! However I don't know when I will actually take up to date photos and I wanted to get it posted!

DRUM ROLLL!!!!

My big boys beds!!! 

The painting above Ewan's bed is one that I bought a few days after I found out I was gonna have Liam! 

 I have another Christ picture above Liam's dresser

 

Here are the beds side by side! 

FINAL
Before and AFTER

Here is the breakdown of the steps

Plan 1

 

Quilt and Paint 2

Frames 3

Touch up becomes a project and 4b!

 

AND one more TIME! 

  

Boys room 4 (Touch up becomes a project)

I am getting closer and closer to the end! !! And I needed to touch up a few bits of paint. I got a little container of paint and this is what happened!!

FYI that is the back of the dresser Ewan wanted to help! 

Ok the before 

and after

I only did one coat of paint to try and keep the grain of the wood!! 

Not a huge transformation but so beautiful!!! And fun!

Boy Room 3 (Frames)

I will always remember the dress I came home from the hospital in. Not in the way that I remember that day, but I have a sweet picture of me in my blue and white dress that my daddy bought for me to come home in.  When I was little I used to dress my little cabbage patch doll in that dress. It was very meaningful to me that my dad bought the dress and I have treasured it for many years. 

I decided that I wanted my kids to have the same opportunities I have been able to have so their hospital clothes were very important to me.  Shortly after I found out that my first (Liam) was a boy I went shopping. I knew I wanted real clothes (as in not a sleeper). I found the perfect blue mickey mouse jumper.  And shoes! You can't leave the hospital without shoes! :D Then I found these on pintrest! Yes it is an addiction! 

 

I knew that this was something I was gonna need for my kids. So i've had the idea in my head for along time, but no action had been taken.  

Then with my second (Ewan) sadly second kids get the short end of the stick.  A few days before he was born I knew I needed to get him his own special outfit and as luck would have it I found a perfect Red Mickey shirt with cute little TINY pants! Once again he needed shoes too.  

I've had the closes in the boys dresser and finally decided about a 4 months ago that I wanted to get them done before I lost them. I found a cheap pair of shadow boxes and bought them. I also printed a few photos to put in the frames as well.   

Stuck them in the frames and left them.  They sat behind the boys closet for a while then I decided to add another project. OF COURSE before I finished the first. 

Chris was baptized as a baby in the catholic church in this sweet little jumper that his great grandma sharp made for him.  She made the jumper, shirt and amazingly beautiful blanket! 

Both of our boys where then baptized in this sweet outfit. I wanted to make sure it is safe since it is such an amazing piece of artwork. 

On this one I opted to not go for the cheap frame since I knew i wanted it to fit the whole blanket as well. I also plan to put images of my 3 boys in this beautiful frame at the top.

Once I got that done it motivated me to hang the other frames.

I still need to finish the last touches on them but I think it looks pretty good. 

What do you think?

Boys room 2 (quilt and paint)

So I had a big post about Ewans quilt but forgot to post about Liams! So here are some of the pics I took of Liams quilt!

Also hand in had with that is painting the bed.

Ewan had to help and was amazing as always!

 

Primed. I used this, 

and then ran out of the little quart I got. My local HD didnt have the gallon and then I had to go with something different.  I used this (kilz)for the rest.   

TOTALLY use the Zinsserand not the second. 

I used oil based primer, and would totally recommended it.  With the help if the amazing Organizing Jen! 

I also found somewhere online that you CAN use Oil Based Primmer with Water based paint, however do NOT do the opposite.  

Ever since we helped my inlaws paint last year we are HOOKED on Sherwin Williams paint!

To get the perfect color Ewan and I took a fun trip to Ikea, and got a few shelf's then I went into our local Sherwin store and they found a match for me.  I now plan to put those shelf's in the play room. One room at a time I'm taking over my house and making it OUR HOME! 

The sweet worker was very worried about the darkness of my choice, he was worried it would be too dark.  However its on a bed. on a wall, yes I think it would be way too dark, but perfect for my little boys bed!

The paint went on like butter and I will also now and FOREVER recommend it!

For a pop of color I got 2 cans of spray paint, one red and one blue they were to match the back of each of the boys quilts.  I love the pop!

My favorite memory from this experience will be when I picked up Liam from school and brought him home he saw the bed and said. "Mom, I wanted the WHOLE THING RED!" I told him that was gonna be too much so we need to keep some brown.  He was NOT happy!! "Can we sometime paint it all red?" I told him we will see how the brown goes and then decide!  I so love my boys at this age!

And my favorites!  BEFORE AND AFTER! 

It's quite amazing what a coat of paint can do!