Horrible to Adorable: Closet transformation

Hi, my name is Heidi and I am a secret stasher. Stashing is a light form of hoarding.  I don’t let the mess spill out into my house but I have a few problem areas of my house where I stash stuff never to be seen again. This closet is my problem area.  Seriously.  Look at it.  HORRIBLE!! 

 

I mean, I had an entire box of random chargers stashed in here, including a charger from a digital camera of Paul’s that literally broke the first year we were dating.  I had a problem.  Not only was this closet full of junk but it is such a strange location in my house to be used for anything practical.  So what is a girl to do?? 

 

Two words:  BOOK NOOK

 

 

 

I’ve been drooling over Pinterest, looking at closets converted to fun little reading spaces.  I got my inspiration HERE from one of my FAVORITE DIY Bloggers, the Thrifty Decor Chick.  Her projects are amazing!!

 

 

So what was my first step??  Cleaning out the junk.  Much of it was able to be organized and put back with my homeschool supplies.  The rest was donated and or tossed in the trash.  It feels so good to purge.

 

Then, of course, I had to go shopping.  I hit up my favorite home decor and craft stores.  I couldn’t find what I needed/wanted so I caved and went to Hobby Lobby.  It was my first time there and my mind was BLOWN.  Insanely adorable things and just what I was looking for. 

 

I started with the wall adjacent.  This was the easy part.  The top picture is from Hobby Lobby for $13.99.  The burlap wreath and chevron burlap I found in the closet, buried in chargers. (surprise surprise)  The bird knobs I bought this fall and was just waiting for the perfect place to hang them.  Found it!

 

Now on  to the fun part.  Lets put this nook together!!  (Fabric from Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabric that I had in my craft supplies)

 

 

First, we framed in the base.  By “we” I mean my very excellent and skilled carpenter of a mother.  She rocks.

 

(Lumber was all scrounged from her garage too.  Thanks Mom!!)

 

 

Next. “we” cut the bench.

Perfect Fit!!

 

While my mom upholstered the bench, I hunted down some paint for the front board and began sewing covers for some of the 8 billion throw pillow I have store in my linen/blanket.  (That’s my next project.  That closet is SCARY too!!)

 

I found THIS tutorial on Pinterest and it was sooo easy.  I covered 5 pillows.  I wanted to cover 2 more but three charming children awoke and began curiously exploring all my cool craft supplies so I closed up shop.

 

 

Here’s my little sewing trick I want to share with you.  When I am doing an easy/quick sewing project, I hate busting out my whole ironing board and iron.  This handy, dandy hair staightener presses fabric perfectly :)

 

 

 

NOW FOR THE FINAL PRODUCT……

 

 

ADORABLE!!!!!!

 

 

 

USA Picture was my big splurge for $60 at Hobby lobby. Throw pillows were mine just re-covered and the cool yarn poof pillows ($15) were also from Hobby Lobby. Touch lights were from Amazon and can be found HERE.  Bins were in the closet before but look so much better now in THIS closet.

 

 Can you believe it??? I can’t. 

 

I LOVE IT!!!!!

 

My favorite part???  This pallet  book shelf!! (Pallet scrounged from my mom’s yard)

 

Seriously awesome. 

 

Tutorial on that can be found HERE.

 

Here’s a look at how the nook corresponds to the rest of our house.  Right near the table where most of our living, and learning takes place. I have grand dreams of the kids curled up with books as we progress with our homeschool days.  (For now, they are climbing in and out of it, and playing with the lights.)

 

  It changes the entire look of the room.

 

 

Have I mentioned that I LOVE it???

 

 

 

 

What do you think??

 

House repaint- 95% done

Here is our house before :)
Here is AFTER :) (Note: we still need to finish the landscaping but anything is better than the iris jungle that was over taking the front. We also still need new house numbers and a new flood light)

After getting new windows this fall, I am also going to get some red shutters to helps with the accent color :)

Pictures of the back yet to come...

Yard work, yard work, and more yard work

Ok, so here is the view out my patio door into my back yard. I wish I would have taken pictures a year ago when we moved in because it didn't look nearly as nice as it does now. We live on a small lot in town 50x150 but we make the most of it and have awesome neighbors so it works for us. I took some pictures yesterday of the work we did. First off..notice the pool. It's nothing fancy but sure will be nice to have when these hot Minnesota summers strike down here SW farm country. Plus it was FREE!! Along with enough chemicals to get it up and running. Anyone who know Paul and me knows we LOVE free!

Notice the pretty little rock circle around the pool? Even though we live in one of the FLATTEST regions in the country, our yard seem to be very uneven so some sand and field rock border do the trick just fine. And again the price is right...FREE!

Next onto or lovely lilac bush which was a weed, prickly bush collecting machine. I don't know how many handfuls of weeds and debris I cleared out from under here before digging it up, putting in edging (Well, Paul did that), planting flowers and adding mulch. It looks so much better I can't even believe it. It looks like someone actually lives here now and cares about the yard.

Last but not least is my pride and joy..(well besides Tanner). It's my garden!!! Look how lovely and almost completely weed free it is! It took Paul and I a good couple hours to get it to look so pristene. I can't wait for the veggies to start coming in so I can start canning and making baby food for Tanner.

I also took a bunch of "before" pictures of the exterior of our house so that we can do a comparison when we are all done painting and landscaping. I would post them now but the peeling paint and dug up front yard might lose the dramatice effect if not pair with a hopefully amazing "after" pic. Stay posted for house updates...We are a busy crew around here!!

Bathtub pics

I FINALLY got to be the first one to take a shower in our brand new- CLEAN- tub this morning. Which is pretty great. I maybe shouldn't admit this to the public but have not had an actual shower since FRIDAY!! I have been washing my hair in the sink and washing with a soapy washcloth...Sorry if that is TMI but it does help explain the amount of joy i have from finally having a tub that I can bath in and not be grossed out. Just look at the pictures and you will see what I mean. The tub was SOOOOO stained and nasty before I honestly cannot believe we did not find the time to fix it sooner. (it is almost a little embarrassing) Like i said before I tried EVERYTHING short of a power sander to remove the stains and ickyness of the tub but to no avail. Maybe part of me was just content that this house, we bought for basically the price of an SUV, had plumbing :) I'm no fancy pants, but the rest of my house got remodeled last spring before moving in and the bathroom was still such an eye-sore. I just wanted a nice, re-finished bathroom that I knew was clean before the baby made it's arrival. Which thanks to my WONDERFUL farmer/electrician/plumber/handy-man of a husband- We now have!! To all you future home-owners out there, let me just tell you that if you are handy at all there is really SOOOO much you can do to a house and to not be fooled or turned away from a property because of cosmetic/refinishing work that needs to be done. We have had our place for a year now and can't BELIEVE everything we have done to it to make it our home and just how we want it. (there is still plenty to do, but there have been so many great changes/improvements made already)

BEFORE
(like i said-a little embarrassing that we used this tub since moving in May...I feel like this is something you would see in a house full of college aged guys)


DURING
(Paul is just mudding up some rough patches)




AFTER

Look how CLEAN everything is!!!! I might even have to take a bubble bath soon!!!

It always takes longer than you think.....

So we completed phase 1 of our bathroom remodeling project about a month ago. but as you can see in the pictures, the shower curtain is strategically closed and there are no pictures of our tub. Why you ask.... because our tub was DISGUSTING and yet to be re-finished. The previous owners had painted the tub surround with what seemed like normal semi-gloss wall paint (NOT GOOD FOR SHOWERS) The tub and surround were so stained that even after MANY hours and EVERY possible cleaning product I could think of or was recommended to me, it still looked dirty. The new tub surround and tub re-finishing kit have been sitting nicely in our entry way for the last month patiently waiting to be of use. So let the tub demolition begin.... We (Paul..I'm mainly the clean up lady) ripped out the nasty tub surround yesterday and cut out any of the wall behind it that was icky, wet, etc. Well today we dove a little deeper into the project and realized that the whole shower has to be re-plumbed.... It always takes longer than you think. Paul is at the hardware store now picking up supplies....With any Luck we will have a fully functioning shower by Mon....Wish us luck!!!

I'm so glad I married a handy-man...He may not know how to do EVERY home project right away but is darn good at figuring it out :) (Even if he gets crabby along the way)

Pics will be posted upon completion....

Bathroom Remodeling Project

We have been in our house since May and have re-done almost EVERYTHING on teh main floor besides the bathroom. I guess we just got busy and kept putting it off. (It was really bad though) So, Paul and I decided that it needed to get done before the baby got here or we would be living with the eye-sore of a room WAY longer than we ever wanted to. Roughly $900, 3 trips to Menard's, and a week later, we are ALMOST done. We can see the home stretch!!! The pics already show the HUGE changes we made, from flor to ceiling and Paul got his coveted "fart fan" (exhaust vent installed) there was not one before. Here are a couple pics of our project! I will post the absolute finished ones hopefully sometime next week :)