The minute I walked into our house for the first time the first sentence that came out of my mouth was, “I can’t wait to paint these ceilings white.”  Well they are not white yet and I need your votes, it’s me verse the husband.  It’s the only thing in this house he has much of a opinion about.  He’d love them when they are done, I am sure of it but I think that the thought of that permanent change scares him a bit.  So I am throwing it out there, what’s your opinion… Yes or No.

Make your vote here, I’ll leave this up for 2 Weeks and post the results on March 27, 2012.

I’m getting ready to turn this pink room into something a little more suitable for my little boy. So I’m going to give away the reclaimed headboard and two side tables/dressers to any of my local friends that can come and pick these up.

Leave a comment on this post proclaiming “I NEED!”  Because…

Queen size bed shown above, King size fits as seen here.

I’m a pretty lucky gal; I can paint any room, any color, any time.  I even squeezed my way into the one room of the house that he can claim as his own.  My mans office, step careful folks stuff ahead.

Here’s the run down of items to tackle:

1.  New paint for the walls and the trim

2.  New window blinds

3.  Additional lighting

4.  Modify his existing desks or find something more streamlined

5.  Address the shelving and storage issues

So now that we have all those before pictures covered let’s dive into his new and improved office.

1.  New paint.  I went with a great color called Hasta from Martha’s Stewart line at Home Depot.

2.  The blinds were a in-stock blind from home depot, I had each custom cut to fit the windows.

3.  Additional storage with the Expedit shelving from Ikea.

4.  Buying a new desk was not in the original plan but as the room evolved and I took into consideration the storage he would need and the new room arrangement these desks were a better fit.  So we sold the original desks for the same amount we paid from them on Craigslist and ordered up a new set to replace them.

I still have lighting to place above his work space.

Also need to find a solution to cover up these shelves, since there is a countdown on this cleanliness, scheduled to expire in one short day.

So hold tight on that solution, hoping to find something soon.  What rooms have you painted lately?  Have you ever used any of Martha Stewart’s paint colors?  Whats your thoughts on these ceilings being painted white?

One of the first rooms we replaced the carpet in was our sitting room, the first room you see as you walk into the house.  My parents basement had some water damage so I claimed a section of carpet that had not been ruined.  I thought it would fit perfectly into this sitting room.

If you recall the kitchen over haul, we also replace the wood flooring and removed the railing that led into the sitting room and updated railing around the stairway.  I had also applied some color to the walls, you can find the color details here.  That seems so long ago now, it’s been almost 5 years.

So back to the carpet, I just visually guessed the dimensions, assumed it would fit.  I tore out the old carpet, rolled out the new and walla, it was to small!  I couldn’t believe I could possibly be wrong.  So my free carpet became free to someone else and to the store I headed.

I love the new carpet better than the other of course, I just hadn’t planned on buying any.  Have you ever just guessed how big a space is?  Did it work out for you?

Here’s a shot of the stairway after the kitchen reno.

We remodeled our kitchen during the summer of 2008, one year after purchasing our home, while wedding planning…I tell ya folks, if you can make it through a kitchen remodel your golden.  Our kitchen worked for us, but it had a few issues.  Most of the appliances where on their last leg and some of the cabinet doors where missing.  I had lived in my previous home for seven years and wasn’t until I was close to moving that I remodeled the most used room in the house, the kitchen.   I vowed not to wait until it was time to move again and actually get to enjoy a new kitchen.  Our kitchen is the most used room in the house, not to mentioned one of the best investments and return for your money.

This could be one of the worlds longest posts but this seems so long ago so for the sake of catching up without further ado here we go.

I couldn’t image how to use such a big space in the best possible way, so I hired a incredibly experienced and creative kitchen & interior designer; Brenda Higgins from Kitchen Comfort. Brenda designed a double island kitchen with only lower cabinets.  If you are in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area and looking for a kitchen remodel you must get in contact with Brenda.

I love the open floor plan, separate dining area all of the natural light.  The island areas are great during parties, I don’t feel like I am stuck away in the kitchen and there are lots of great areas for people to gather around during conversation.

If I were a billionaire I would have custom shelving and cabinetry in every closest in the house, my OCD would flourish.  Until then I rely on old faithful, metal shelving.  Metal shelving is my go to for closet organization; I can install it myself easily and quickly, it’s super affordable and I can customize it for any size storage I need.

The linen closet in one of our basement baths drove me crazy every time I tried to put something in it, I had been dealing with it knowing some day I’d like to tear the whole thing out.  I couldn’t do it anymore and really wanted the extra storage space.

The glass doors the previous owners had installed were to big for the opening, which meant I could only open the doors on each side about 8 inches.  It was chaos inside and only housed two shelves, barely reaching from one side to the other.

I took the doors down making some Craigs-lister quite happy with their new find.  I fought with the existing shelving brackets for at least a half hour before giving up and working around them.  I was being lazy and didn’t feel like repairing drywall so I worked my new shelving around the existing brackets.

See the old brackets there, they look like they are supporting the new shelving.  I didn’t need that extra support in this particular closet but they get to stay there anyways.  I filled the closet back up with all our odds and ends towels Diesel’s shower towels and some random baby stuff in storage until needed again.

Hung up a extra set of random curtains and called it a day.  I’ve got room to spare and no more stuff on the floor.  Have you ever used wire shelving?  Do you like it?

I still kick myself every time I wish I had taken more “before” photo’s of our home.  I have a bazillion “progress” pictures, but if I would have just pulled the camera out a few times during the first 2 years in our home.  I’ll just have to change everything again…

We had this hole at the bottom of the original front doors, big enough for the mice to join us over the winter and keep themselves warm and their bellies full. I remember saving for the new front door, it was a big purchase for us. Diesel had jumped through the screen doors several months back when the neighbor lady showed up with treats in her pocket.  Diesel always knows she’s the holder of the good stuff.  Shortly there after I took down the screen doors and our entrance actually looked much more inviting, I just didn’t care for the extra critters.

If you look REALLY hard you can see our old front doors through the big bushes.

If someone really wanted in they would simply need to lean against these bad boys and in they would go.

A inside view.  Dark, fuzzy photo, I know.  You can see where I re-purposed the doors HERE.

So I was pretty pumped when these bad boys arrived.  They shut, locked, there was no longer a draft and my little mice friends could no longer sneak in.  What I didn’t expect was the daylight that streamed through these into our front entryway, nice surprise.

Any big changed in your house lately, any small critters sneaking in your front door?

Remember when we tackled our yard few years back?  You can find it here.  It was weekends of work, in fact I just found these in between photos that reminded me how hard it was to potty train a dog with no grass.

Yup, that’s Diesel…I could carry him then.  But he grew so fast, here’s a few months later.

Lots of change in our little big pup, not so much for our beautiful landscaping.  We did get grass in that summer though, it looked like we rolled out green carpet the day we laid the sod.  We gave ourselves a break for one summer before we resumed full force through the buck thorn in the corner section of our lot. The second half of the lot was not nearly as bad as the main property, we cleared through it in a long weekend with help and a skid loader of course.

The oak tree seems to be a good point to find your way through these photos, it’s amazing how much our lot has changed since we bought our property in 2007.  Here’s a good round up of our progress.

Lot’s more for me to mow   That’s the far corner there looked like this for 3 years, most people in the neighborhood leave their lots like this, buck thorn and all.  The OCD in me couldn’t stand it, must clear, must clean, must make perfect.

It may appear we took down several trees but I can count on my hand how many were removed, and they were already dead I promise. Here’s a shot looking toward the house.

It’s pretty amazing when I look back and see were we started, actually hard to believe sometimes.  I’ve got lots of landscaping to put in someday but am waiting for the exterior of the house to be done.  Besides for once I’m not actually sure what to do, it’ a huge lot and I may need to seek out a little help.

It was a show stopper in the neighborhood I tell you, people couldn’t believe we had a pond in our back yard they could never see it before.

If I were to name my least favorite room in the house it would have to be our basement TV room.  It’s decked out in cedar all the way around, it has the fanciest little bar (complete with a few mice in the deep dark corners), the worlds most awkward fireplace set up making for a even more awkward room set up.

Here’s what it looked like the day we moved in.

Here’s the Moved In version, TV check, Couch Check – Everything a man needs.

And I almost forgot, dirty, dirty carpet even after a hundred carpet cleanings.

I’ve wanted to redo this room since we moved in but had other plans for the budget.  So to tune things up a bit I tore a lot out and only spent money on paint and new carpet.  Since we have plenty of natural light upstairs and through out most of the basement I wanted to create a Theater like room so I used this as a opportunity.  I had to use words like “Mans Room” and “Theater Room” to really sell my husband on the idea of painting the cedar he loved so very much.

So I tore out the bar area and the brick/fireplace opening the room up more and making for a better layout.  I also went with dark paint colors for the walls (Sherwin Williams Malarca) and ceiling (Sherwin Williams Bronze Tone).

Let’s not forget my favorite part – New carpet, I’ve waited to replace this carpet since we bought our house 4 years ago.  I finally feel like I can sit on the floor, just in time for out little one

I’ve got plans to put a new bar in the future.  I’ll be working on the tile first and then install cabinets.  We also just scored a Electrolux Beverage Center at a fundraiser for an amazing deal so I can check of the appliance purchase early.

What’s your least favorite room in your home?  What are your remodeling wishes for it?

Husband said I nested through my entire pregnancy, realistically I nest everyday.  I’m a neat freak on the surface (not a germ freak) and love having everything in it’s place.  I had our whole house unpacked and put together in a couple of days if you don’t count the laundry room which seems to be the dumping ground for things that don’t have a home.  If you remember back when we moved in Husband didn’t really pack very well, if at all.  He also needs to get a library card since we don’t have a room we can dedicate to his books.  Here’s our embarrassing room that I usually leave out of our house tour when guests come over:

I don’t remember how it all went down but I made a trip to Ikea to buy new book shelves 7.5 months pregnant and was not able to lift the boxes.    So I had to enlist Husband (who greatly dislikes projects) to haul the worlds heaviest boxes through the house and down to the basement.  But like he says, he can bring the muscle just don’t ask him to put anything together.

Most of the mess really was just a matter of putting back in it’s place, I had put up the long metal shelves when we first moved in and now we needed a better place for Brad’s books.

So I had everything all organized and then Husband needed to reorganize to his specifications, hence room a mess again.

Have you ever used the metal shelving units you can find at Home Improvement stores like Home Depot?  They are a must have in all my closets, easy to install and pretty affordable in comparison to the California Closets of the world.  This awkward space quickly became functional.

With just a few tools you can multiply your storage space.  I also hung a few curtains to hide the clutter (stole the idea from an awesome blog – Young House Love)

Hoping we can keep this room presentable.  What room in the house is your go to room for things that don’t have a home?