The Bryan's are upgrading to laminate from mauve carpet

Ever since we bought our house we have planned to rip out our carpet and upgrade it.  We bought our house in the summer of 2009 in hopes to upgrade a majority of the house within the first year because I already had a job and Nick was graduating that Fall and we were hoping on him getting a teaching job.  Well God must of thought we were quite funny, because that never happened.  God had way different plans for our life. 

Well fast forward almost three years to now May 2012 and we have done as many updates in our house as possible (painting, taking off wallpaper, etc.) the cheap way.  We have finally made a big purchase and we are getting rid of the carpet finally!!!  WOOHOO - its like Christmas times a million.  We decided to put laminate in our entire house and leave the tile alone in the kitchen/utility and the two bathrooms.  When we tell people we are putting laminate in pretty much the whole house - they are like WOW big project.  But if you knew what our carpet looked like you would of too and with little kids carpet is just not our friend.  Not only did we have the 1970s slightly thick (not shag) mauve carpet, it was filthy, no matter how much we did a carpet cleaning on it.  When you are trying to update your house, mauve carpet just doesn't fit. 

We ended up doing a little research and decided to go with Lumber Liquidators to get our laminate.  They have some awesome sales!  We were really trying to go the cheaper route because this house we live in is not the house we will stay in - we actually plan to move in maybe 3-4 years.  We were thinking ah 99 cent or less laminate would be great, but then you have to take in consideration the moisture barrier, the padding, the quarter round and the t-molding.  Alot of different things that can sure add up.  So we decided to get a laminte flooring that already had the padding attached to save money there and it when you do that you actually get a better quality laminate.  Most of the cheaper laminate is 7mm and you actually should get 10-12mm.  So in the end we only had to buy the laminate flooring, the moisture barrier, the quarter round, and the t-molding. 

Now here is the other two dilemmas.  We really did not know how much square footage we were dealing with.  So when we bought our laminate flooring and the other we had to guesstimate what our square footage was before the installer came out to give us a quote.  Well we did not order enough so we had to order more!  And we were debating since it was such a big project and we have ALOT coming up this month - Nick starting a job and the new baby - that should be tackle the project or pay someone to do it.  Well that was an easy question to answer after the installer came.  They wanted way too much money.  So we were back to square one - bought the material and Nick was going to install it with of course help from a good friend!

I know - I know your dying to know what we got - well here is the laminate floor choice and what it looks like in a house - not our house!  Those pictures will come soon I promise.                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

We began the project last Thursday night - I probably shouldn't say we because I'm pregnant and I'm not allowed to do anything - its very hard to sit there and watch.  Nick started ripping out carpet and by Saturday our friend Mike and Nick took on a huge project this past weekend and got about half of the house done - minus the quarter round and t-molding.  So we are hoping to get the house done or almost done before baby is here, because my house is a mess!!!!!!!!!!  And the dust is horrible. 

More to come with photos but I will leave you with a before picture of our mauve carpet and what the flooring looks like that we are putting in our house.  By the way I LOVE IT so far - its beautiful and really does wonders to our house.

Mauve Carpet (Before)

Hair bows galore!

I finally finished Codi's last painting for her room!  Its her hair bow holder.  I took an 8x10 canvas and decorated it with her initial and some fun shapes and then I attached two long pieces of ribbon at the bottom that are actually in the same fabric for her bed skirt and in her owl painting.  Then I attached more ribbon at the top of the canvas with a bow to hang.  Super cute and fast project.  Tomorrow I will hang it in her room and hang all her bows on there.  Can't wait.

3-1/2 more weeks!

Artwork for Codi's Nursery

So I've slowly been adding the last finishing touches to Codi's nursery.  I hope to have a final reveal by next week!

I had three pieces of art that I wanted to put in Codi's room.  One of which I decided to order instead of make and the other two I wanted to make.

The first one is an ABC version with her room colors and then her name is standing out in the ABCs - I ended up ordering it from Made By Girl.

The second one is an owl painting with her name on it and I included bits of her fabric swatches in it to tie it into the room.

The third one which I hope to start on this week is a small canvas that will have fabric hanging down to clip on all her bows.

Then the room is complete!!!

I was blessed this past weekend with a surprise shower given by some of my closest friends and family.  Codi and I were super spoiled.  She is definitely set with clothes, shoes and bows!!!  I hope to have pictures soon =)

I think the only thing left I need to order for her is her cloth diapers - which I will do this week and her bottle labels which I will take care of soon as well.


4 more weeks till we meet this sweet baby!!!

Refinished Dresser

Two years ago Nick and I decided to get rid of our bedroom furniture because we needed more drawer space and we wanted an update look. At that time we had my parents bedroom furniture that I believe was their very first bedroom furniture. At one point I was just looking for a dresser that we could use until we could afford a new bedroom suite. I searched craigslist and found a dresser that was only $60.00 and I had Nick go pick it up. Well when he brought it home it was not at all what I imagined it would be and the pictures really did not give the best image of it. The dresser had ALOT of drawers but it was super small. All in all we made it work for awhile. I wish I had taken a picture of it when we bought it because it needed to be restained. Nick and I spent many hours sanding and restaining the dresser. The dresser also had a bunch of nasty glued in liners in each drawers, so those needed to go and took FOREVER. Once the dresser was restained and we added new knobs to the dresser and new liner it actually did not look that bad.

(this is the best BEFORE picture I have of the dresser)

After about a year we ended up getting pregnant again and needed a dresser in the baby room. It actually was the perfect size and the color matched the crib so we decided it was time to move the dresser in Caden's baby room and get a new dresser and then we ended up buying a whole new bedroom suite. The dresser has worked great for Caden and did everything I needed it to do. Well another year has passed and we found out we are pregnant with a girl this time and I really want the dresser to be white with the decor we were doing. I debated many times getting a new dresser for her and moving Caden's into his new room or just refinishing it. Well I ended up refinishing the dresser. I love it! I basically primed the entire furniture with two layers and then I had a semi-gloss white on hand that I painted the base frame with. Then the drawers I primed twice and then painted the drawers the same gray as in the bedroom. I bought 6 new knobs for the top drawers from Anthropologie that were on sale from $8 to $2.50; they are aqua and match the room and I kept the silver knobs that it currently had on it for the rest of the drawers. It looks awesome with the room and I'm glad I took the time to do this project. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do

(white frame of the dresser)

(another view of the white frame)

The final look!

Fourth Phase Complete

PICTURES:

(baskets from Lowes, still need to finish the dresser)

(closet area, new diaper bag, quilt made by my grandma, rocking chair that needs paint)

Today we woke up and got the gray paint out again and my mom rolled over most of the chevron wall. It freaked us both out because the paint became very wrinkly and wanted to roll off with the roller. So she did not press too hard afraid the tape might come off. Then I went in and did the edges and the second touch-up of all the areas. I knew the gray paint would bleed onto the white areas because our wall is so textured. We let the wall dry most of the day while we ran errands and picked up a few things for Codi's room. When we got back we took the tape off and sure enough I have ALOT of touch-ups to do. I can honestly say I spent an hour doing some of the them today and I'm not even half way done. So I have another time consuming task on my hands, but I'm in no rush to complete it. So I might spend an hour on it a day and finish it when I do. Basically I'm taking the white paint and a small paint brush and using a steady hand to make my lines straight.

A few other painting task:

1. paint the rocking chair white

2. paint the drawers of the dresser (they are primed right now)

3. two canvas art I will add to the walls

Friday task for tomorrow:

1. make the bedskirt

2. work on the drawers

Things I still need to order:

1. Lamp from IKEA

2. cloth diapers from cotton babies

3. piece of art with Codi's name on it

4. her name plate for the door

5. another art decor

More updates will come over time as I add decor to the room and then hopefully a room reveal at the end of April.

Phase Three Complete

Today has been a much easier day, but my hands hurt from taping the very textured wall. We all woke up around 9am this morning and ate breakfast. My mom was planning on spending the day with my brother, nephew and sister-in-law so we did not expect to get any painting done today. Just me taping away on that chevron wall. It so happened that she did not end up going to visit until after lunch time, so we decided to go ahead and start painting. We finished the bottom half of the wall with the Candy Mix paint. Then I went around and took all the tape off the walls to see what touch-ups I needed to do. I took care of most of them. The only touch-ups I have left to do is on the white border where the paint bleed through the paint. Lets just say edge lock tape is not edge lock on super textured walls. I will take care of that tomorrow with a small brush, because I'm sure I will be doing that on the chevron wall too. After mom left for the day and Caden was napping and Connor was either in the backyard playing or playing with playdoh I took care of finishing the chevron wall. My fingers hurt so much from taping, but ITS DONE!!! Don't know if I will ever attempt another one again. It was super tedious, but tomorrow I will see how much I like or dislike it. Towards the end of taping I ran out of tape and had to start cutting down 1.5in tape to 1in tape which was not fun and made the task longer. After I was done Connor and I went outside to eat popsicles and enjoy some of the pretty day.

(Chevron wall all taped)

(Another view of the room)

(The closet area with of course the crib in it - that has been moved all around the room while painting)

(Another view of the room)

(More of the Chevron wall)

Task for Thursday:

We are ahead of schedule, so all I have left to do tomorrow is paint the chevron wall gray and take off the tape. Then I will let it dry and start touching up the white areas that need it with a small brush

Get curtains and rug

Start attempting to make the bedskirt

Move all the furniture back in the room - still working on the dresser - frame is done, but drawers are not. Rocking chair still needs to be painted. Still debating on painting it white or gray. Decisions, decisions

Then its time to decorate the room!!!!! More on that later!!!

How to do a chevron wall:

I took the measurements of the area I was working on. My height was 45.75in and my width was 135in. I then how to do a little math. Basically I divided the width in half and found my center point of the wall and then from the center out to each end I put a vertical line of tape every 5in. It then left me with 1.5in on each end which I ended up just being fine with, because it was too hard to figure out how to make it even. Then deciding how far apart the chevrons were going to be was the tricky part. I really wanted to do 5in again, but when I did the math it didn't work very well, because I had to take in account that I have 1in tape thickness as well. So I decided to go with 4in and it worked out pretty good. So I made a little sheet with my measurements and started measuring and taping away. Once I got it down it went pretty fast. If you have more questions on this please ask and I will try to be more detailed, but it was just trial and error with my math until I found what worked best.

I should have another update tomorrow - stay tuned!

Phase Two Complete

So here goes Phase #2 and a sore back!

Before picture of the closet:

(Caden's closet)

So today my mom came in town and I had already started taping off the room to begin painting and when she got here she helped me finish it up. We first started with the closet because it was one color and went pretty fast. All I bought was a quart and man did we almost need more, thank goodness it covered well and I have a drop left for touch ups.

(Surfer Paint - closet)

(another view of the closet)

All my paints were Behr paint color, but I had Sherwin Williams tint them to their paint since I had coupons. Then we had lunch and sat a little bit. I believe the paint colors are Milestone (gray color), Candy Mix (coral color) and Surfer (aqua color). After lunch we began on the gray color at the top of the walls. It covered really well and we did not need a second coat. Once we finished the gray paint and let it dry for a bit we took the tape off.

(Milestone Paint - window view)

(another snap shot)

This was the other project I was working on today - which by the way is the longest task ever so it better look good when its done. My only fear is when this house was build in the 70s they must of loved textured walls and tape on textured walls do not leave a nice smooth line - I see touch up painting in the future. Anywho this is my chevron wall I'm working on. Its a pattern on the wall for those confused on what a chevron wall - it makes the chevron design. The wall will also be the Milestone gray color after I finish taping it and where the tape is it will be white. Tomorrow I hope to spend the day taping the rest of the wall. Then on Thursday it will be painted.

(a lot of math goes into figuring out this wall)

(oh by the way I tried a program off pintrest on creating this wall, it seemed like it was going to work great and then it didn't - oh well)

Task for Wednesday:

Mom is off to spend the day with my nephew, brother and sister-in-law, so I will be taking the day slower. I plan to finish taping the chevron wall and then do some small errands with the boys. Then Nick and I have a parent dedication class at church for Caden to attend. I will try to post some more pictures of the chevron wall tomorrow evening and maybe a little info on how to create it.

Task for Thursday:

Paint the bottom of the wall Candy Mix color and then paint the chevron wall. Then take all tape off and do touch ups. Then we will move all the furniture in. Keep watching for more updates.