Our Snowball of a Project

Back in September we finally decided to bite the bullet and get our floors refinished (professionally - not DIY). We have a lot of hardwood in our house so it was basically like moving but only for four days.

Everything had to be moved out of the rooms, even the clothes in the closets - in our case that meant all three bedrooms, our hallway linen closet and the living room. Yes, 3 beds, a crib, two couches, a television, the list goes on and on.

A before look of the floors in Nora and Myles' bedroom.

 And naturally when we start one project it snowballs into other projects as well.  It only made sense to freshen up the paint on the walls in our living room.  It was time for a change anyway. We went with Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore.  We also figured we would take off the baseboards and replace them ourselves as well.  

Before in the living room.

This is the view from the doorway of our basement. The only room that
remained on the floor was for the door to swing open.  The couches and
kitchen table were in the garage.  Our mattress was standing on end in the bathroom!

Then we were both starting at our dated fireplace and figured now would be the perfect time to rip up the tiles on the floor in front of the fireplace and get rid of that lovely blue faux marble we have.  Maybe even get a new cover for the fireplace to modernize the gold.

So off everything came! 

After Dan got most of the tile off and the mantle safely down
the kids moved in to help with their worker gloves (garden gloves).

Our living room before.

A view of some of the most worn areas on the floor.

After a visit to the fireplace store, we got a quote for a new cover for the fireplace.  Because it's an old model they only have one choice... for $700! No thanks! I was actually recommended by the employee to skip that (like it was even a question) and use the Rust-oleum heat resistant spray paint to give it an update. Sold.

And naturally, redoing the fireplace leads into yet another idea.  Dan gets a major itch to buy a giant tv and mount it above the fireplace.  I'm all for it because who doesn't want a bigger tv and getting rid of the tv stand to the right of the fireplace makes the room feel much larger. 

This is how the fireplace was for a long while until
Dan had enough time to fill the hole.  It's where the
blue tile was which we decided we didn't need at all.

Once everything was said and done -- here are the final products! 

The old mantle with a new shade of paint and shorter legs
along with new 5.5" baseboards painted the same color
as the mantle with a 55" television mounted above.  

And look at those floors!
No stain just a clear coat of polyurethane.
It really lightens the room up. 

This is the area where the really worn spots were.  It looks
absolutely amazing. 

One last thing - I took this chance to redo my gallery wall too.  I was looking at it one day and finally realized the reason I didn't love it before was because I had too small of frames for the space. I bought a few new frames, the key and the clock then chose some of my favorite pictures of the kids to display and viola!

Plus Dan rearranged the furniture just a tad and it really opens things up.

We literally just finished painting the baseboards and doing some touch ups on the fireplace on Valentine's Day.  So while this snowball of a project took five months - almost to the day - to complete we are extremely happy with the results.  I have never loved our living room more! 

DIY: Time Out Chair

Our chair. Our sad chair, which we  refer to as "the time out chair", was in need of a little TLC.  As you can see it's gotten a lot of use during the past couple of years. It was more of an accent chair but we wanted to to stand out more and as we were getting ready to refinish the floors and paint the walls in the living room what better time to get it done. 

Before.

Dan often jokes that I am really good at starting projects.  Finishing them is not necessarily my strong suit.  Sadly, he's right but I'm glad to say that I showed him! Started AND finished in the same day.

After taking the cushion off I scuffed up the bones of the
chair and started spray painting. I chose a golden yellow as an accent
to the new color on our living room walls.

Then I went to JoAnn fabrics to find the perfect fabric for the seat cover and bought remnants of high density foam.  I used Dan's jigsaw a cut a new base for the seat cushion and everything.  Guys, I'm really proud of myself for that one! 

And... the final product!!

It's done and I love love love it! It looks great in the space
and it's pretty comfy too! 

Photo Update

Oh man. This is funny. And embarrassing.  I started this about six months ago.  It saved as a draft and I never went back to it.  Still some cute pictures included so I'll post it.  I'm almost done filling in some of the {giant} gaps from last year though!

 I know I haven't posted too much beyond Greta's monthly updates lately. As a peace offering, I'll just post some pictures from the last couple of months. I do miss posting updates. I'm hoping to carve out time to be a little more consistent with the blog but, you know how it goes... 

He is very concerned when he sees garbage cans that
have fallen down after the garbage man has emptied it.
On this walk, I said yes and let him put all the fallen garbage
cans upright. 

A lovely ensemble put together by none other than
Nora herself!  

Nora got a gift certificate to a place called "The Tree House".  It's like an indoor climbing, sliding, etc place for kids.  It's neat how it's set up - a long room with the play area on one side, a line of recliners, couches, and comfy chairs that face the play area so moms/dads/caretakers can watch without having to go in and then an eating area behind that.  I thought they would love it.  Disappointing.  We went on a rainy day (likely mistake one) and my kids (even Myles but a little less so) got overwhelmed by all the kids and didn't want to do anything.  Nothing.  Nora stood by my side nearly the entire time.  She went down the slide once. Myles climbed to the top of a "tree" and got all turned around. He didn't know how to get down and just started screaming. I handed Greta to a complete stranger so I could climb up to get him and help him down. Needless to say he wasn't too keen on going up again after that.  Oh well.  We still have another half of the certificate left.  I will try again. On a nice day.  And I'll prep them about the other kids being there first. Crossing my fingers they'll like it more next time.  I have high hopes.

Myles finally went down the slide right before we were
going to leave and then got the itch.  He went down about
five more times after and then we had to leave.

Trying to pick up ants at the park.

So much to love about this picture.  This was my Mother's Day present from
Nora.  In school, she made me a plate and a card.  The plate has a picture
of me on it surrounded by flowers and a sunshine with a face.  The flowers
and the leaves on the card are made with her finger prints.  I use the plate
all the time (which makes her really happy) and the card is put in her keepsakes bin.

The rolls on her legs <3 td="">

Nora with the very best preschool teacher that there ever was,
Mrs. Morris

A visit to the farm to see the cows.
Jake is one of Myles' favorite men.

The students of the Blue Room's Afternoon class during their spring field
trip to the park.  We took the Metra and then caught a school bus to get there!

A hot day at the horse races.  Taking in the horse races Memorial Day weekend
with the entire family (grandparents and aunts and uncles, too) has become
a tradition they look forward to.

Dan told them if they picked rocks out from under the bushes in the front
yard they'd earn a quarter per rock! Kind of steep in my opinion but I don't
think he expected them to pick so many either! They each earned $8 that
day. 

In search of her next favorite book.
Killing some time at the library.

I participated in the Color Run in Chicago this year.
Lots of fun!

Exploring the fountain in search of fish, frogs and
the turtle. It's one of their favorite things to do.

Snow Angels

It took a long time this winter to actually get a good measurable snow to sled on and play in.  When it finally did happen it was way too cold to go outside to play.  Then we had 19.5" dumped on us! It happened on a Sunday but the plows couldn't keep up.  Around noon they gave up and schools in the entire area were called off before bedtime.

Monday was cold but we couldn't resist going out for a while.  How could you not with that amount of snow?! 

It took a while to shovel a pathway to our slide and brush it off.

The snow was so high Nora was able to touch the
branch our swing normally hangs from. 

There wasn't too much for this one to do but cruise
this pathway.  The snow was too deep for her to walk in.

Because of that she got frustrated and didn't last long outside.

Luckily the weather warmed up within the next week so we bundled up again and headed out.  This time, I got out the DSLR camera because it was warmer and I was hoping Greta would last longer with dryer pavement and a clear path to the slide.

They're "painting" the snow - it's just water with food coloring in it.
Of course this turned into, "Mom, look! I'm peeing like Rusty!"

Help! She's fallen and she can't get up!

This is how she prefers to sled. Sitting in the sled without actually moving.

Nora asked if we could go sledding at the big hill in the park but I wasn't brave enough to venture over there with all three kids knowing that when we went over the weekend Greta did not like it. So she got creative and used the "homemade hill" in our back yard that was made from shoveling off the patio. 

Side note: Myles didn't like sledding when he was her age either.  I wonder if she'll like it next year?

The ambulance cozy coupe was one of a couple toys we left out this winter
and it was a great idea.  She plays in it constantly when we're outside.

The best action shot as she came skidding to a stop.

You can see the concentration on his face as he tries to balance the sled
so it won't go down before he can get in.

After about an hour of being out we thought we heard someone say Nora's name.  Sure enough -- Jack heard us screaming and playing outside and came down to play with us.  We haven't seen Jack since the beginning of winter.  They all have missed each other so it was a nice surprise to have him join us.

"tees"
It makes me giggle when she stops to say cheese and flash me a smile.

Greta was ready to head in after nearly an hour of playing outside while the big kids stayed out another 30 minutes at least until I had to call them in for dinner.  The fresh, crisp air was a welcome change and much needed for all of us. We all slept well that night.