Five Dollar Kitchen Island Update

We have a very white kitchen. All of the cabinets, island, and floor are basically white. I love bright colors, so I decided to add a yellow chevron pattern to both ends of the white island using contact paper. I used this helpful post as a starting point except instead of putting my colored contact paper chevron pattern onto white contact paper, I put it directly on each end of the island. I am really happy with the way it turned out and it I want to change it up, I can just peel it off!

Drawing up my chevron pattern

Chevron pieces ready!

Today ended up being a very craft filled day. I wanted some fun Easter eggs and found this pin on Pinterest for ruffled fabric eggs. I had some extra t-shirts lying around from other craft projects, so I used t-shirt fabric strips, plain plastic eggs, and a hot glue gun to create fun ruffled eggs.

Bring on Spring!

I am ready for spring! To combat my winter mood, I spent way too much time on Pinterest but did manage to make a few things for the Ranch:

Artwork - I found this fun website on Pinterest that turns any paragraph into a heart shape. I choose to make the lyrics from the song that was performed at our wedding, Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath, into a heart to frame.

Felt Heart Garland - Another Pinterest find - here is the website to create quick Valentines decor.

Spruce up a wreath - I bought some inexpensive fake flowers at Michaels and used wire cutters to break them into stems that I could insert into the plain wreath. Instant spring!

New House Numbers - our old brass numbers were not visible from the street, so we purchased larger 6" numbers and placed them above the garage. 

BEFORE - old brass numbers

Signs of Spring outside - the cover crop that I planted back in October is taking off and the moss on my mini brick patio is going crazy. 

 

Bring spring inside - I can't resist mini daffodils! I bought a small pot and put them on my kitchen counter. They make me smile every time I see them.

Pantry Redo!

The pantry space has been on our to-do list for a LONG time and we are excited that it is finally a usable organized space. When we purchased the house, the washer and dryer were located in the pantry and we knew immediately that they needed to go. They were moved into the garage, but then we were left with an open space with only a few cabinets for storage. 

We decided to use what we had on hand - random bookcases and DVD racks - to create a make-shift pantry until we could invest in a more permanent solution.

Our pantry is a little unique in that it has a mess of water and power lines running through the back wall. In order to reduce the chance of hitting something during installation, we decided that the Elfa shelving system with one track that mounts at the very top of the wall was the way to go. 

First things first - demo time! We removed the cabinets and built in shelves from the wall, sanded, puttied, and prepared for paint.

Thank you mom for painting our pantry while we were at work one day so that we could get it installed in one night! As Kyle said "Elfa is like legos for adults" and we had fun putting it all together.

Luna even has her own treat drawer so we are all happy with the new pantry space!

Winter Projects

Cleaning gutters ranks right up there with one of my least favorite activities. Especially at our new house, where the gutters on one side of our house are 20' and next to our main power line. I don't mind heights, but I am not fond of the idea of climbing on the roof like Santa. Little did I know that Kyle does not mind this task! 

So - off to the Depot to get a 16' extension ladder and 200' of gutter guard to hopefully reduce our gutter cleaning events. 

I have to say that I was a little surprised when Kyle volunteered to climb on the roof to install the gutter guard and while he was up there - the Christmas lights. Major husband brownie points!

I worked cleaning the gutters and Kyle installed the new gutter covers. I was hoping this project would take us a few hours, but as you can see from the fading light in the last picture, it took all day and into dusk - but it is DONE!

My mom also crafted up a winter evergreen basket with cuttings from our blue spruce, oregon grape, and pine tree and we created the JOY letters with scrapbook paper on  painted paper mache letters. Lastly - forcing paperwhites - my favorite winter flower.

Overall - 2012 was full of change, new challenges, and adventures. 
Now off to start the New Year! 

Finishing Touches

The shiny brass door knobs had to go. Some of our knobs were brass on one side and silver on the other side, which was especially bizarre. Off to Home Depot to find new outdoor locks and get them all re-keyed. Little advice - don't try to do this on a Sunday afternoon... They were of course super busy and only had one guys trained to re-key locks, so the wait was long. When we got home and tried the key in each lock, we found out they forgot one. Back to Home Depot to convince them that going through the last few weeks of keys to find the one that matched our lock so that they could fix their mistake was not a reasonable request - they finally gave us a new one. 

We hired professionals to put in the new outdoor locks and to add dead bolts. Of course - after they were done, Kyle was bound and determined to redo all of the interior knobs himself. It took him over a day to get the first one off...there was definitely a trick to it which he discovered on the second one. You have to pop off the collar around the knob, then use a paperclip/letter opener to push down on a button within a tiny hole while rotating the knob to the correct position. Then he discovered that the new latch hole was a different size then the existing hole, so back to the Depot for the correct hole saw bit. What we thought was an afternoon project turned into a week long chore, but they are all done - fhew!

The old chime doorbell was another item that we wanted to get rid of. Instead of investing in a new doorbell, we decided to find a way to cover up the eyesore. Originally we thought about finding a piece of framed art to hide the 12" x 47" inset doorbell, but then thought about having a canvas made with a picture from one of our hikes. 

We looked through all of Kyle's panorama photography of trees and waterfalls and decided on dry falls. The canvas we ordered is 18" x 48" and is a welcome sight above our stairs. One more thing to check off the house to-do list! Last but not least, we removed the front screen door and took out the last of the garden veggies and planted a cover crop for the winter. Now for some pictures!

The only BEFORE picture I could finding showing the brass door knobs

Door knobs off - finally!

New knob done!

New bathroom knob - adios brass!

BEFORE - Large chime doorbell 

Kyle panorama of dry creek falls

Love looking at this waterfall instead of our old doorbell!

BEFORE - Front door with Screen

Screen - getting ready to find a new home

BEFORE - Screen off but old brass hardware still remains...

Screen off and Hardware done!
Now - what color to paint the door?

Cover crop starting to grow