Reupholstering a Toddler Couch

So, we still haven't finished our sprinklers yet, but its not because of this project!  We needed to switch the heads from pop ups to rotaries and are just waiting for the sprinkler guy to finish our plans and deliver the parts.  In the mean time, I got bored!  I really LOVED making the bed, and wanted to do more with my house.  Other than knock-offwood  (the inspiration for the bed), my other favorite blog to follow is All Things Thrifty courtesy of my friend Mackenzie Walker(thanks again by the way, I totally LOVE her blog!).
Anywho, she has TONS of fun stuff on her blog, but the one I decided to conquer was reupholstering my daughter's couch.  It was somewhat unsightly to begin with, but over the last year and a half since we bought it it has become covered in marker, and tons of other stains.

Ugly, right?  There has been a lot of spilling on this poor little couch!  So I decided it needed a makeover.  On the blog I mentioned earlier there is this tutorial that was super easy to follow, and she made it sound easy.  Plus, it was a toddler couch.  How much could I mess that up?  Luckily, it was easy!  It was a bit time consuming taking all the staples out to take the fabric off, but once it was off it took about 2 hours to finish!  I am so pleased with it, and of course, I can't wait to start my next project!  I've found a fun new hobby!  Here's the end result.  I didn't even realize that I picked the same colors for the couch as my living room and dining room walls.  I really like blue and brown together, apparently.

Building a bed

So we finished out very first building project from Ana of KnockoffWood and it turned out great!  From start to finish we built and finished(painted) the bed in about 6 days.  We had a few problems, but overall it was fun and easy!  Vaeh's bed had been sitting on the floor for almost a year!  I had been meaning to just buy a metal frame, but couldn't spend $40 on a new one and couldn't find any cheap or free ones.  So we discovered Ana's website and fell in love with this bed.  Total it cost to build was a bout $140.  I know, its a lot more than $40, but this bed is beautiful and it will hopefully last her until she gets married, and even then maybe her and her hubby will want to share a full.  Who knows?  And the reason it ended up being so much is that we didn't have any supplies.  You'd be surprised at how much the cost of screws, wood putty, wood glue, sand paper, primer and paint add up!  The lumber by itself was about $80.

I also have to thank Rayan of The Frugal Designer.  She did a guest post on Ana's site about antique finishing that I thought would look perfect for Vaeh's bedroom.  We(or rather she) decided she wanted a Tinker bell bed spread so I thought we would design her room around that.  So we decided to put a purple underlayment under the white so that when we sanded the edges the purple would show through.  It turned out better than I thought it would and I LOVED the effect!

We still have a ways to go for the rest of her bedroom, but so far my husband and I like our daughter's room more than ours.  Its just so cozy!  I think we were more excited than she was, although she loves jumping on her bed now. 

Next up on the agenda is to put the same finish on the nightstand and decoupage some pretty fabric on it to spice it up a little.  Then we are going to paint the whole room a lavender color.  Its going to be pretty!  But my husband says we have to finish the landscaping first :(.  Probably a good idea.  I would like some grass in the yard!
I've got some big plans for our little house though, so stay tuned!

Home Life

So we've been living in our new home for about a month now and it feels like home.     We are all unpacked except for our book boxes.  This is due to the fact that we don't have enough housing for our books right now.  We are wanting to build shelves at the end of the hall way for said problem, but we've been spending like drunken sailors for a while and have decided to put ourselves back on a budget.  Our housing accounts still haven't been closed, which means we haven't had to pay our mortgage yet, and we still don't have a set date.  The result?  Free flying cash!  Then we came to our senses and figured it might be a wiser decision to save than spend.

Our lived in kitchen

Our dining room/desk area(picture courtesy of Vaeh)

The living room being lived in

Since we've moved in we've maid a few improvements.  First, we switched the refrigerator door.  It was opening into the laundry room rather than the kitchen.  Then we switched out the light fixtures in the bathroom.  They were those hideous Hollywood type lights, so that was a no brainer.  Then we built our own baby gate for the stairs.  Joseph is a new walker, which translates into him being super clumsy.  Our stairway is at the end of the hallway and I would just hold my breath every time he would walk by.  So we figured since we built our house, a gate would be a piece of cake.  Not so.  We struggled, but it is finally up and functional after some slight alterations from the original plan.  I think it looks nice, but Aaron wants to build another.  I don't blame him, we did have to jimmy rig it to fit.  No painting yet.  I can't seem to decide on colors, or which walls to paint.  It makes such a huge difference, so I don't want to make a bad choice.

The baby gate in all its glory

One quite impulsive and not well thought out choice we made was to get a puppy. Our original plan was to wait until the spring when our gate is up so that house training, and everything else that comes along with a dog, would be easier.  Since KSL is my new favorite place to shop, I of course was looking at puppies.  Aaron expressed his interest in Huskies, so we found some really cute husky muts(they have lab and german shepherd) that were really cute and we caved.  He is super cute and has one blue eye.  He looks like a husky with the floppy ears of a lab.  I hadn't had a dog since I lived in Farmington, and I either forgot or never noticed that puppies are somewhat of a pain.  He hasn't had many accidents in the house and has been surprisingly easy to house train.  The problem is his constant need to chew on everything(including the children), and his tiny bladder that makes him have to pee every two hours(including night time too).  I have to constantly watch him to make sure he isn't peeing somewhere, or chewing the children.  I also have to watch the kids to make sure they aren't torturing the dog.  Breaking him of the biting habit has proven to be difficult.  Last night I was toying with the idea of getting rid of him, but he has also brought something to the table.  Because of the dog, my brother Drew has decided he wants to come around often.  Its been fun to have Drew over, and I'm pretty sure if the dog goes Drew will follow suit.  I'm hanging in there fighting for the idea that when Kenai(our puppy) gets bigger he will be a wonderful, loyal and smart dog.  For those two reasons the puppy has immunity for now.

The little trouble maker the day after we got him

Looking innocent

I suppose this post has exceeded its limit so I will leave it at that.