Sunburst mirror and lamps redo

I've been on the hunt for the perfect mirror to go about our bed in the new house.  I scour homegoods each and every week with Sophia while Olivia is at school.  They must think I'm weird to come in each week on the same day and time...little do they know I'm homeless and have no place to go while Olivia is at school.  There will be an updated post on that shortly.

So I found this sad guy.

 

It was on clearance because of all the dents and scratches and was the perfect size.  I would have loved it in another room as is (minus all the wear) but I thought it would be perfect for our bedroom with a little update. 

I sprayed a few coats before I realized that I probably should have used a primer first.  So after a quick trip to the hardware store and about 10 coats later...I had this!

Pretty...right!?!? 

I can't wait to actually have walls in a house to hang it on...

And for the lamps...I had a set of old ones that I figured would also look good painted white.  I'd really like clear glass looking ones for our bedroom...but figured this might due the trick until we can upgrade. 

Here they were before...nothing special but perfectly working.

And here they are now with two thin coats of primer and around 10 coats of gloss white.  I know...10 coats seems crazy but I made the mistake of not priming first on these as well so I had to keep covering them until they were finally covered.  Live and learn...right!?!?

And for any of you that might have noticed all that over spray...  Yeah...my dad did too and has officially banned me from spraying in his barn unsupervised.  For the record...I asked him if he wanted me to cover everything and he said that he didn't think the over spray would be that bad.  Oppsie.  This leads me to think about what my future grass will look like when I'm in project mode.  Dave will be less than pleased I'm sure.

House update...

We have garage doors!!!!  Seriously...that's the best update I have.

The house is going through all the rounds of inspection before the interior can come together.  The water, sewer, electrical and cable lines all still need to come in from the street before the yard can be back filled.  The garage floor still needs to be leveled and poured.  Ohh...and we need insulation, drywall, floors, mouldings, cabinets, light fixtures.  Ahhh!  The builder is still saying we're on target with a Nov 3rd close date.  Rrrrrright.

Here are a few pictures of our electricians handy work...you would think we're supplying power to the whole town.  Everywhere you look there is wires, outlets, light boxes, recessed lights.  It's like a big maze.

 

 

Can you tell that Dave (also type A) did these wires below?

 

And here's the little devil right before she started running around the house and giving me a heart attack.  She look so innocent...

Not much to report but hopefully things will be moving faster soon.........

A Sunday at Nana's

This past weekend I had the honor of spending some time with Dave's Nana.  She is wonderful and has welcomed me into this family since the first day I met her.  I remember clearly that it was a big deal I was getting the introduction to Nana.  It was the first holiday season Dave and I were officially dating.  I don't believe he had ever introduced her to anyone.  I remember sitting at the table feeling like I was an outsider until Nana sat next to me and held my hand under the table. I loved her like my own Nana from that day on. 

So this past weekend, she taught me how to make her home made pasta and ravioli's.  I went over on Saturday afternoon while the girls were taking their naps and we began to make the dough.  Apparently it's not a one day process.  It's not even a two day process.  And to think...she still makes this pasta on a regular basis! 

Making the dough was simple enough but required a lot of arm strength.  And Nana's got it.  This girl does not.

So I went back over on Sunday morning for day two. I walked in to the house completely ready for me.  She's got it down to a science.  The dough we made the day before was under those bowls so no air got to them.

We (ahem...Nana...) began by separating the dough and putting it through the dough roller. Then she showed me how to fill the little tray and make the most delicious ravioli's around.

 

 

 

 

 

Holy yum.  I can't wait to eat these.  But...the third day comes into play here.  She makes us freeze them before cooking so they don't fall apart.  So...Nana had a back up plan...

 

With the scraps of the dough...she cut us up a quick lunch.  These little spaghetti's have to be my most favorite things.  So fresh.  So light.  So delicious.

 

So that was my weekend with Nana.  Her ravioli recipe has been passed down.  Now...if only my ravioli's can come out half as good as hers when I try and make them myself!

 



A special 4 year olds birthday

There is nothing new to report on the house progress (besides electrical, plumbing and heating) so I thought I'd share a few pictures from Olivia's 4th birthday party this weekend.  Besides starting dance class and preschool this week...we also threw in a birthday.  And my little girl loves all the details that go along with milestones.  So I've been BUSY. 

When we asked her what kind of party she wanted this year...she immediately said ballerina. My little girl loves everything princess, dance related, twirly and PINK.

We surprised her in the morning with a room filled with balloons.  She didn't immediately notice but when she did it was priceless.  Liv liked gently throwing them up in the air and watching them float down.  Sophie liked drop kicking them.

 

 

Liv helped with the decorating of the signs, balloons, table cloths and the cupcakes.  Thank you Pinterst for all the ballet ideas.  What have I done all the years without you??? 

 

Here is the site for the ballerina cupcake toppers http://partiesandholidays.blogspot.com/2009/06/ballet-cupcakes-and-wands.html

and then I added a little tulle around the bottom of the cake stand.  A few weeks ago I started making the party favor bags and Liv loved helping write every ones names and stuffing them.  She probably liked it so much because she knew she was getting one of the bags with the goodies in it:)

 

 
Sophie had to be a ballerina too.  She loves to copy everything Liv does...even dressing like her now.  It's super cute to see them doing things like this...super scary too.

 

I finally finished Olivia's birthday present (with a little help of the finishing coat from my mom!).  I ended up running out and getting a dark walnut stain at the last minute to make the wood even darker.  It came out super cute.  What's even more cute is that Olivia has used it every time she's wanted to color or read since getting it.  I think that's a sign that she's going to be a total dork like her mom and dad regarding school work....

 

 

 

Dave and I kind of trapped ourselves by getting her a bouncy house for her second birthday.  Now she thinks it's party of any birthday party.  Awesome. 

 

We had an amazing day with our girls and our family.  I live for my kids birthdays.  Everyday is special but I love making birthdays the BEST.

Holy moly...

Things are crazy!  I've had to pick out lots of things for the house these past weeks.  I've kind of knew what I wanted for a while, but it was hard deciding on the final item.  I roamed Lowes and Home Depot more times than I would have liked comparing fixtures and then going home and reading reviews and price checking.  Ohh...and some of those times I had the two girls which was awesomely productive.  We left a trail of goldfish crumbs everywhere we went and I had to leave once the bag started running low. 

The plumber needed to know the brand of shower fixtures we were going with for the internal plumbing.  So it was game on making final decisions with our allowance.  Here are some items that we chose (all from either Home Depot or Lowes):

 

Here is the kitchen faucet and sink

Here is the 1/2 bath faucet and sink 

 

 Here are the girls faucets and shower/tub fixtures

 

 

 

 

Here are the undermount sinks for each bathroom (both full baths will have double sink vanities)

 And here are the faucets and shower fixtures I picked for the master bath

 

 

After picking out all of these items and sending the list to  my contractor...it made me nervous for the rest of the items I had yet to finalize (type A...remember?).  So my awesome mom offered to have the girls overnight for me so I could have an errand day.  I basically put about 500 miles on my car and crossed so many things off my list.  It felt good.  I didn't have to worry about snacks, carting the diaper bag around with me, taking the stroller in and out, what place would have bathrooms, nap schedules, breakfast, lunch, dinner...  It was amazing to be that productive in one day.  The things I used to take for granted...

 

Anyways...I tackled back to school shopping, birthday party supplies, ordering kitchen cabinets, picking out countertops, selecting bathroom tile, hardwood floors, and the rug.  This was all before 3pm.  Then...after I went to my moms, had dinner, and went out for some ice-cream...I decided to put a few coats of stain on Olivia's desk that is for her birthday!  AND THEN...I got so excited for the crafts that I decided to make for Olivia's party...I made an example to show my mom.  MOST PRODUCTIVE DAY EVER.  Thanks mom:)

 

Here are some of the things I picked out...

 

 

If we end up going with prefinished wood, this is what I picked.  3 inch planks in the darkest color in our allowance.  Dave and I would both like it to be darker...so we'll see what it would cost to have natural oak stained darker. 

 



 

Here is the carpet we're going with.  I'm so at all excited about this but it is what it is.  The carpet I want is way out of our price range so I only had a few to choose from.  One was oddly shinny and felt weird and the other was this.  We are going with the the color that is in between both the green and blue paint color samples.  Pretty neutral...pretty boring.  We can just upgrade it in a few years...right Dave????

 

Here is the tile and hopefully the countertops for the girls bathroom.  The tile is a plain beige and I'm hoping to have extra of the ceasarstone (sample is on the bottom of the picture) from the kitchen to use for the countertops in their bathroom.  That will all depend on when they measure the kitchen and how big the slabs of ceasarstone come. 

Here is what I'm going with for the master bathroom.  I'm so excited/a little nervous to be doing something so different than my normal style.  My gym has this tile in the bathroom and I have been obsessed.  The floor will be these grey 11x24 inch tiles that will be put down in a brick pattern.  They have the most amazing texture...kind of like corduroy and some of the lines are a little shinny. 

The double shower in our bathroom will be all white subway tiles and have a glass mosaic boarder at eye level.  Since the grey tile on the floor will be masculine I wanted to bring something girly. 

Here is a picture with all the tiles against the carrera marble countertops that I picked.  I'm so excited!!!

 

 

 

 

Progress progress progress....

Things are continuing to move super fast.  They are finished with the siding, the basement floor has been poured, the plumbing has been started and they are wiring wiring wiring.  Here are some updated pictures...

They still need to put up the shutters and possibly some dental molding by the roof line.   But other then finishing touches...the outside is weather tight.

 

 

What does weather tight mean to us now?  I means wiring.  Lots and lots of wiring. 

 

Here are the basement stairs.  By far, this is the favorite place for both girls right now because there is minimum risk to them down there and I let them run.  Sophie literally runs around screaming with her hands waving above her head.  She's crazy.

 

 

And we have a tub....such big things.

 

More to come...I've been knee deep in tiles, countertops, rugs and hardwood floors.