house projects

since there is a lot of time during the year that justin is so busy, he likes to take advantage of the times when it's slower and he'll just go crazy! i am one lucky woman to have a man who can do so much, let me tell you. but it's no walk in the park either taking care of both kids. still though, i wouldn't have it any other way. here are some things he's been doing around our house.

with our new tile, we needed a rug. rugs are expensive! and hard to find! we bought this online at sears. we didn't realize it was more outdoor rug style with short woven fibers so its not soft or comfy but it's cute and helps a ton with noise and comfort. the curtains we found at target [of course]. i love my old blue ones but it didn't match any of the rugs we liked and i like change anyways. justin also made the cool curtain rods out of the steel pipes. when he first told me that idea, i did not like it. i've since come to love them! the curtains don't block out as much sun as the blue ones did but another project for another time is some sun shades on our windows.

 here's the first curtain rod justin did in our dining room. it used to have a red curtain that was so gross and sun faded- i love this yellow paisley. we also got that cute gray cabinet to house our printer and internet cables/box.

justin did our closet a long time ago- in fact i can't even remember what it used to look like. i had him try to refresh my mind but it still draws a blank- i think it was probably one of the first things he did in our house. needless to say, he finally completed it with this shoe rack. it doubled our clothes hanging area, allowed for me to have some space where i could hang my long dresses and shoe storage. plus tons of storage on top. 

 the next project was one that took a long time for us to decide. our dining room was actually set up to be used as a tiny family room, with a tiny dining room and tiny formal living area in the front of the house. instead, we made a large family room in the front of the house and a large dining room attached the the kitchen. because of space and kids, my books have been in storage for a long time. we wanted to do a build out on the wall of the fireplace [which is opposite of where we put it] but then we would have had to change our sliding door to a single, built walls, etc- way too much work. and i didn't like that idea. then one day he got this idea from a tv show and i love it! this is what the wall used to look like- and then with my bookcase. made out of the same kind of pipes my curtain rods are made out of. instead of the mirror, we got a gigantic picture of a map which is hanging above it. it really makes the room look bigger.

the next two projects are not sexy by any means but they were necessary none the less. notice my absent baseboards in the above pic? i didn't realize this but when you change your flooring you need to change out the baseboards. makes sense but i was clueless. this was a time intensive and physically hard project but justin is about 90% done with it [just the laundry room, closet, and spare bathroom to do- but those places are not as visible so i bug him about those less]. you can see what a difference baseboards make to a wall!

our new and old baseboards- the holes still haven't been filled in yet but it gives you a good idea

another thing was took a bit of time was creating a cable jack for our entertainment center. our living room wasn't outfitted with cable jacks because like i said, it wasn't meant to be a living room. for a long time we just didn't have cable. then we got cable for justin's birthday last year and had a giant cord running along our wall. justin finally strung the cord through the wall and created a jack behind the tv console. looks great!

last but not least, my beautiful table! when we moved in, i wanted to find a nice solid black table but couldn't find one that we could afford or that we loved. well fast forward three years later, justin got an itch and found some farm style tables that we both liked. then pounded this out in about 2 days [4 if you count breaks and work but still, pretty fast]. we found these industrial style chairs on target. not my absolute favorite but chairs are flippin expensive! these were at least somewhat affordable. we also upgraded our bar stools to match, again a target find.

in another month or so, we'll have to put a pause on the projects but for now i'm enjoying the fruits of justin's labors. i'm so grateful for such a handy man- plus, he doesn't look half bad while doing them. so it's really a win-win-win for me.