Another Busy (Project) Weekend

We were back at it again this weekend working on the house. Our original plan for Saturday was to hike at some nearby trails. Then we kept hearing about the chance of rain and decided to push it off until Sunday. Instead, we decided to work on more of our brass doors knobs and hinges. The first round of spraying I told you we did 7 out of 24 doors. Well, I was mistaken, we actually have 25 doors in all. This past weekend we completed 8 doors which leaves us with 10 more.

This time we decided to paint in the front yard. With the chance of rain and the heavy clouds all day we figured that would make it easier to move them into the garage if it did start to rain. Luckily it only ended up raining for all of maybe one minute and that was when we were putting the last of the doors back together.

Here is Joe working on while I got to take the pictures. Before and after!

We spent the rest of Saturday pulling weeds, watering plants and mowing the lawn. We did manage to fit in a movie we had on the DVR too. After experiencing the severe heat outside we opted to skip the hiking again on Sunday and continue working around the house instead.

Sunday we made a trip to Lowe's to pick out paint. Our first project is the bonus room. While we were there I also picked out swatches for our bedroom. I have an idea of the color, but I wanted to bring some swatches home to test them out.

I literally told the guy working the paint department "we have never painted before, we have no supplies, please help us." And he did just that. He helped get all the supplies we would need without breaking the bank. It was nice that he wasn't caught up on getting us to buy the most expensive items, but just recommended what we would need for the job.

Here is a little sneak peak at what we worked on. It probably doesn't look like much now (because we only painted the ceiling) but just wait and see what the end result will be!

I love weekends at home working around the house. I could really get use to this:)

Musical Entryway Tables

I work at a hotel, did you know that? We recently renovated our entire meeting room floor and suites. Can I express how incredibly happy I am with the updated space? It is so much easier to sell (or in other words, do my job) when your product is so great! Let me also say that I don't only sell a product, I sell a service. The hotel staff is so great I never have to worry about that part of it.

I have to show off our meeting space quickly just to help give you an idea of what I'm taking about. If only I had a true before shot to show you how big of an upgrade this is. Here it is after the old carpet, walls and ceiling tiles had been ripped out.

Then here are some after shots of the Junior Ballroom after the renovation. What a difference!

With that said, the hotel had an auction for all furniture in the meeting space foyers and suites. There were lots of large pieces of furniture I wish I could have bid on like dressers, dining room tables and upholstered chairs. With only a small car to transport the furniture home, I figured I better not. After spending $75 I came home with two side tables and a lamp. I figured one would work well in the entryway nook.

Here is where I need your help. I'm leaning towards one in the entryway, but what do you think??

Here is the square table with a few decorations on it. (Side note: I think the picture is hanging a bit too high so I need to fix that.)

And here is the circular one. I should have put some items on the lower shelves to really help you see what it would look like. Just picture a few books stacked there. What do you think?

Photo Friday #29

I don't have a lot to say about this photo, but truly I don't think it needs much explanation.

Happy Friday!

Oil Rubbed Bronze > Brass

We tackled a project this weekend that has been on our list since we moved in. Although we didn’t complete it, we got a really good head start. Almost all of our doors have brass knobs and hinges. To modernize this look we decided to spray paint them oil rubbed bronze. My dad had done this same treatment at my parents house and gave us some tips before we started.

We’ve had the spray paint in the garage for about a month now, but never had time to devote to the project. We bought the can from Wal-Mart for just a couple bucks. We only bought one can to test out before committing to more. Now we just need to pick up a few more cans to complete the project.

Between all the upstairs bedroom doors, closet doors and a couple downstairs we have 24 doors that need to be painted. That’s a whole heck of a lot of doors!!

We started by removing all the knobs and hinges. There was way more parts than I expected. About two doors in we remembered the power drill. Shame on us for doing more work than necessary. That thing was a huge help!

Isaac, our neighbor boy, was over helping us out for a bit. He was asking the typical Isaac questions: What are you doing? What’s that? Where are you going? I was out taking pictures so he wanted to see what they looked like on the camera. At least he approved, he told me he liked them. We didn’t want him outside with the painted pieces so I sent him home. He ran as fast as his little legs could go all the way to his back porch. It was so cute, he turned and waved before going inside.

We laid all the pieces out on cardboard in our backyard. It was easiest to stick the screws through the cardboard so they all were straight. The rest we painted, let dry, flipped and sprayed some more. Can you believe all of this came from one single door?

It was a very hot a humid afternoon, I think the high reached 95 that day. The paint wasn’t drying like we expected (probably from the heat) so we brought the pieces into the AC to complete dry. Good thing our dining room is completely empty, it served as a great spot to lay the cardboard. Oh and don’t worry, we laid more cardboard underneath so the screws wouldn’t scratch the floor.

It was a mixture of ants-in-our-pants and anxiousness to see a completed door, but we started assembling the door early evening. After dinner we finished putting together the rest. All in all we completed 7 of the 24 doors in one afternoon. We did inspect our completed knobs and hinges and learned a few angles we need to spray better next time.

What a difference this change makes in the house on such a small budget! Our plan is to complete more this next two weekends and get close to finishing all the doors soon. 

Is This Heaven?

I’m sure most of you know the rest of that quote… leading into my post about our trip to Iowa. You’d think I’d have lots of pictures to share. Sadly I don’t. You’d also think I was more on top of blogging nowadays and have these pictures posted right away. Let me just sum up the fun things we did.

Flew over Iowa farms. Surprisingly very nostalgic!

Tried a new beer... it wasn't my favorite. "Witness the Chickness"

Ate pizza at The OP.

Met my best friend’s new little guy. Meet Alek, he’s 10 weeks old and so cute! The shorts he's rocking were a gift Joe and I bought him. So stylish!

Tried to capture the Iowa landscape that I sometimes miss.

Skyped with my brother on our drive back to NC.

Tried to get pictures of each state line (again). We succeeded with only Illinois, Tennessee and North Carolina.

And some of the other fun things that I don’t have pictures from:

• Swam, skied and tubed on Lake Okoboji
• Celebrated Abby’s 22^nd birthday
• Played in a family bags tournament. My partner and I were out right away…  I blame Tim. Joe and his partner won the whole shebang.
• Played a lot of foosball
• Played a form of charades with Joe’s family. One word… hilarious!
• Shopped with my mom. We had fun browsing TJ Maxx
• Borrowed a lot of books from my mom, my reading list is long!
• Visited Joe’s grandma and my grandparents. In general we saw lots of family!
• Had a drink with friends at the bar

It was a great trip!

(Another) Pleasant Surprise

This pleasant surprise is similar to my last pleasant surprise I shared a couple weeks ago. This tree out front started blooming and I really like it.

I've started to notice these trees all over the neighborhood now too. The two varieties seem to be either pink or white flowers. The problem is, I don't know what they're called. I like to be able to identify what the name of trees and plants are.

See how all the limbs seem to sprout from the base? That's usually how I can identify these trees when they're not blooming. But what are they?

 We'll see if I still like them once all the flowers fall and our lawn is covered in pink petals. For now I'm enjoying the pop of color.

Photo Friday #28

This picture was taken a while back, I think mid May. I just got a copy of it from the Habitat for Humanity crew we volunteered with and had to share. The Area Sales team I’m part of spent a day demolishing a house in Matthews, NC. I guess I should say we carefully demolished it. Most of the house was being reused or sold at the Habitat for Humanity restore. We got to wear these awesome hazmat suits, helmets and eye protectors. I probably spent most of my day getting nails out of floor boards. It was no easy task, but fun with the company I had. I’ve been meaning to stop in the restore to check out what they have. I’ve heard they have some great items and it might be fun to reuse some of that to update our house. Someday…

A Memory From Our City

Joe and I often call San Francisco “our city.” Although most people would argue us on that, we’re sticking to it. While living there we went on so many trips/excursions/tours/etc. and took so many pictures to remember it all. I bought a Groupon about a year ago for a discount on a gallery wrapped canvas. Knowing we’d find a picture to create the canvas eventually I bought it and then sort of forgot about it. I received an email in June reminding me of this Groupon that was about to expire. I quickly thumbed through all of our San Francisco pictures without a specific one in mind. I settled on a somewhat artistic picture of the Golden Gate Bridge we took (I actually don’t remember when we did take it and).

Because the color of the bridge is a weird orange I turned it to black and white to better match our house… and whichever room we decide to hang it in. I ordered the canvas a couple weeks ago and it finally turned up on our door step when we returned from our trip to Iowa. It turned out beautifully and was well worth the wait. Happy house warming Joe!

7-Up Biscuits

I introduced my mom to Pinterest a while back and she is officially hooked. Seriously, she uses it more than I do. Well, I should probably clarify… I probably pin more things than her, but she actually tries the recipes or crafts. That’s definitely on my list to do… go through my boards and actually try out some of the neat ideas I’ve pinned. Last week, while in Cedar Falls, we tried a couple things from Pinterest. This recipe for 7-Up Biscuits being was one of the wildest. You probably think it couldn’t possibly taste good, but they do! I will say they don’t look the prettiest, but they taste great. No time needed to let the dough rise, you just put it in the oven. Now I need to stock my pantry with some Bisquick.

7-Up Biscuits

Found on Pinterest

Ingredients
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-Up
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

Stir together sour cream and biscuit mix.  Add 7-Up and completely combine. Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on dry counter and roll dough flat. Cut into 9 or 12 biscuits. Melt butter in 9 inch square pan. Place cut biscuits in pan and bake at 450 degrees until golden brown.