Making Things Happen

If you know us personally (and maybe you can gather this from my blog), we are do-it-your-selfers. Well, maybe not so much me, but Stephen Grande is for sure. He could build us a shelter with his bare hands from the ground up. Really, he's got skills... and a great eye for design.

Over the course of owning our current home (1.5 years) he has built a screened-in porch AND knocked out a wall to renovate our flooded, earthworm infested, un-usable, dilapidated sunroom.

And I can say after months and months of living amongst half-done projects, we are finally wrapping up some of the major and minor details. Even the porch that has been usable for a while now has had unfinished areas to paint, screens to secure, furniture to purchase, paint, and arrange. We have been taking care of some of these last details THIS WEEK and it feels so great to be at what I call "the fun part" of a project, the cosmetic and decorating part. -- NOT that I am a talented decorator. In fact I'm extremely insecure about my purchases and decisions. I can recognize what I like, but have trouble putting it all together. I'm basically sticking with the safe route which is all neutrals for wall colors, larger pieces of furniture, and rugs. Color (which I am a fan of) can be incorporated with art, fabric, and accessories.

So here's where I've been all week....

Finishing painting this children's table and chairs (given to us by a friend of a friend). The color is Ladybug red by Martha Stewart.


I've ordered two large area rugs for our living room and sunroom. A local carpet discount store will bind up the edges. They should be ready early next week, and I'm really anxious to see how they will turn out. Surely I can't go wrong with such a neutral color. Barbados is this particular carpet's name. It was either that or Casanova Sans. I think those names are fairly dramatic for carpet.


Found some great basket organizers from Lowes. I bought 7 to tuck into our newly built-in shelves in the sunroom. How great are those little chalk boards! I'm still debating whether to write on them with colored chalk or white. Thoughts?


More painting - I painted the back door with a fresh coat of white. I also rearranged some artwork to be seen in more "high traffic" areas of the house. Can you believe I had that ol Rooster hiding on a shelf that was hardly noticeable?


My next project is to sew a bed skirt out of this imitation linen for our bed. Its a little darker than it appears in this photo.


So much to do...so little time. I'm trying to take full advantage of the "honeymoon phase" of pregnancy, the second trimester. I'm no longer nauseated 24/7 and I'm not yet too large and in charge. But that day is coming soon!

We've been holding out and saving for these projects for as long as we've lived here. I'm sure my friends and family will be glad for me to stop talking about them and actually make them happen. We are so grateful for our home and the means to improve it. SG has jokingly said that the money spent to fund these projects can be considered my "cut your guts open prize" since I will most likely have a 2nd C-section. You know, instead of a"push prize." I don't expect everyone to get that, but those of you in your childbearing years are probably familiar with this new phenomenon. It's sort of along the same lines as the babymoon.

Well, off to bed I go, I should have been there an hour ago...I have a painter coming at 7 am. That's one thing we are NOT doing ourselves - painting our living room walls and kitchen ceiling. And I'm so confident it will be worth every penny considering I might loose my sanity if I had to do it myself. Also, SG despises painting. He rejects it from the bottom of his soul.

Good night.