A Circle of Eight

I bought these chairs off of KSL classifieds.

(I actually bought twelve!)

I wanted and needed new chairs for the kitchen.

I looked and looked for chairs that were more compact because there are 8 of us at the table now.

These were advertised as "restaurant chairs"and all they need is a good washing.

They ended up being from a Wendy's in Oregon!

Funny, huh?

New York Scrappin'

I went to New York to visit my sister-in-law,

but also went to do today's something.

She has an AMAZING scrapbook room.
It's like a scrapbook store!
Seriously!

We rearranged the furniture and empied tens of boxes.

Look how good it looks now.
Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Another angle...

(The desk is covered with scrapbooking embellishments.

She has a rotating rack from a store that holds some of them.

You can see it on the second picture.

She probably has enough to fill ten of these so

I suggested a 4'x8' sheet of slat wall with hooks and a builder's frame.

It would take up the wall behind the black paper racks.

I can't wait to post the finished pictures of that one!

Better get busy, Jana!  Doesn't she have a cool name?)

This is her stamp collection that I organized late one night.

They're two hours ahead so I wasn't tired yet!

Pretty cool, eh?

I promised not to post her address or even her city

because I'm sure that you want to go steal something or everything!

And to the rest of my sisters, yes, I'll be happy to help you with your first blog post, too!

I'll even fly to New York to do it, but only if you live there!

;-)

New York Decor

Sorry for the delay on the next two posts,

BUT

I've been visiting my sister-in-law in New York!!!

I sure didn't let that stop me from doing a couple of projects while I was there.

She has a great house in a great neighborhood.

With all the trees, it felt like we were in a cabin in the mountains.

Today, we hung a few pictures that she's been wanting up on her walls.

Here they are...

(Forgot the before picture here and wasn't willing to take it back down! ;-))

The Office...Befores and Afters

Here it is!

After weeks and weeks of lots of hard work,

the office is complete.

And I love it!

The office was a dining room when we moved into this house.

I didn't want a dining room so we built a wall before we ever moved in.

It then became a storage space.

The place where you stash stuff when company is coming.

It also housed all of the scrapbook supplies, office supplies, kid's homework,

papers from four schools, the husband's scout stuff, the husband's legislature stuff,

pictures, and two cute guinea pigs.

(Along with a lot of other stuff!)

It went from this...

(The wall went in just in front of Uncle Dan's foot.)

to this...

to this...

And from this...

to this...

Have I told you how much I love this room?!?!?!

Toe Kick

Now that my cabinets are installed in the "new" office,

I needed to put the toe kicks on.

(I actually didn't install the bottom cabinets, they're just sitting there.)

I only got one 8' piece of toe kick with the cabinets.

It was only $2 and that's all they had.

When I went back I saw that they had a panel for a cabinet island

so I bought it and cut 4"strips of it and used the wood glue to secure it.

I suppose I should have nailed it too, but it seems to be pretty secure.

I have a bit more cleaning to do.

I'll post the final before and after pictures tomorrow!

The Last Corner

I took the cute, white dresser out of the office when I installed my cabinets.

Then I decided to bring it back in.

I replaced these

with it.

Much more sturdy and not as much space for stuff.

Clean Carpet!

Look at those beautiful lines!

I had the carpets cleaned today!

The upstairs hasn't been professionally done since the carpet was new

three. years. ago!

I've used my carpet cleaner, but it's just not the same.

The best part about this cleaning job

was all of the cleaning and vacuuming that got done the night before.

It's amazing how much you can get done

when there are eight people on the job!

The kids didn't love it, but I sure did!

Let There Be Light

Every morning when we read scriptures,

the 10-year-old wants all of the lights on.

One of the lights needs a little help so he gets out a piece of tape to do the job.

Today I fixed that.

He's pretty impressed!

I Saw the Light

Today I replaced the light switch in my closet.

The husband is always very quiet about getting ready in the mornings if I'm still sleeping,

but he often complained that the light was so bright in the closet

early in the morning

so I installed a dimmer switch to make him happy!

The Desk

Here's what the desk looked like earlier this week.

I already put the countertop on the other wall.

(Sorry, no pics of that because I got covered with stuff WAY too fast!)

The countertop for the desk needed to be cut down

so I put my mad handy(wo)man skills to work.

And now it looks like this.

 The 7-year-old even sat here to do his homework today.

 P.S.  See the space on the right between the cupboard and the filing cabinet?

I made that space just for poster board and science fair boards.

Now they won't be bent up behind the couch anymore!

(Isn't that exciting!  Haha!)

Guess Who I Met!!!

Last week, I had lunch with one of my homemaking idols, Becky!
(Daryl, of course, is the other one!)

I happened onto her blog last year and decided to do my best to copy it.
I've worked so hard all year and I've accomplished so much that I wouldn't have otherwise.
I owe her a HUGE thank you for inspiring me!

We had lunch at her place.
She has a beautiful home and more beautiful family.
I felt like I was home in her home because I've seen so many
of her projects already on her blogs.

Thanks again and again, Becky!

"I Can't Believe I Let It Get This Bad"

That's what the husband said as I continued to unearth piles and piles

of papers in his office at work.

He had told me that it was bad,

for months.

I even heard from people who work with him.

And he made one last comment about his boss saying something about his messy desk.

So...

On Friday night, I surprised him with a babysitter and a trip to the office.

He wasn't thrilled to start with, but he sure is happy about it now.

Here are some of the before and after pictures...

And possibly the worst (and funniest) part of the whole evening...

(That a not very old, opened bag of beef jerky and 

a passion fruit from a business trip to California!)

 

 Since the job took three-and-a-half hours on Friday,

it counts for Monday's project!

On the way home, he thanked me over and over.

One of his comments was,

"I don't think any wife has ever done that for her husband...

in the history of the world!

And if someone has, it's only like 10...in the whole world."

Now I've gotta figure out how to get him to help me in my office!!!

Another Corner Conquered

I moved some things around in the office today.

My stamp pad holder was made to hang on a wall,

but it has always sat on a shelf.

Today it has a happy, new home!

 I also got the wrapping paper moved to a better spot...

 Right here...

 Just when I thought I was getting close to having this office makeover complete,

I just thought of something else I want to do.

Remember that tall, white dresser I was sending to the D.I.???

...