Update

We have been busy weeding, trimming trees and

 buying stuff for upcoming projects... 

There were some great Memorial Day sales, so we took part in the savings!

I have picked the paint colors for 5 rooms and the main hallways and we bought some ikea sofa tables (on sale!) and a vanity for the bathroom. My goal for each week is to paint one room and fill up a trash can with weeds. 

Summer Update!

We have start our themed weeks this week but honestly I am feeling pretty overwhelmed so this summer will be more low key than normal. Things are going to be getting pretty crazy around here before is calms down and I don't want to go nuts! The kids will be happier if I am happier!!!  We will make our weekly library trip and field trip and besides that we will be going with the flow :)

Here are the themes:

*Reptiles and Amphibians

*Robots

*Legos

*Plants

*Art

*Bikes

* Presidents

*Camping

*Broncos

*Olympics

* Some of these were thought of with a field trip in mind... Can you pick out which one Dave thought of? (I guess there were a few ;) )

diy Boxwood Wreath

I have always wanted a boxwood wreath for our front door. I have searched and searched and to buy what I wanted was $80+... not happening so I decided to make my own. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a 20" wreath with a 40% off coupon and 16 bunches of fake boxwood that were on sale for 50% off, 
making them $1.50 each. 

I laid them out to see how it would look 

(and how many I would need)

I cut the bunches into 4 pieces and slid the pieces in. 

I used twine to tied branches down that stuck out too much or to help them "fill" in spots. 

And the finished wreath!

The total for this came out to $28 and I love the way it looks. Classic, simple and understated. 

The Fireplace Needed Some Attention

Time for another change. 

Picture from the home listing- 

not loving the gold on the fireplace...

After closer inspection, all but one of the gold pieces slid off- leaving black! Those came off really quickly.  

The top piece didn't come off, so after Dave took it off, I painted it flat black to match the rest. 

Then it was time to clean. There is no way that this fireplace has EVER been cleaned before... So that is 18 years of yuck. 

I read to clean the glass with watered down ammonia. So I did that and after a couple of deep scrubs with that and glass cook-top cleaner (another tip), it was a lot better. It isn't totally clean, years of use has left a few frosted-looking areas on the glass but I am out of ideas and it is SO much cleaner that I am happy with it. 

Then it was time to clean the actual fireplace. SO GROSS. 

After the first major cleaning, I noticed the paint on the sides was coming off. Great... So I scrubbed to get anything loose off. 

 Out came the spray paint again. There are three big windows a few feet away from the fireplace so I opened them all the way up, taped cardboard around and painted...

The light is putting crazy shadows here, it is actually very uniform...

come to think of it, it is probably the fumes you see... I took this right after painting!

I put the glass back on and now I can check that off the list. 

The Nitty-Gritty

Today I worked on getting some of the annoying little projects out of the way in the front yard. I have been focusing on the front of the house because we are waiting on other people (contractors) for the inside right now... and the outside makes the biggest difference to the most people- not too many people coming inside these days with the house the wreck that it is...

This was the side yard- to the right of the house...

Much better. 

I mentioned before that Dave is going to bury the gutter and have it drain out somewhere else- (I can't seem to quite understand how this will work, but he worked landscaping for a few summers in high school and knows what he is talking about...), but I do understand that we won't have the long gutter going out into our yard, it will just go down the column like it is now and then into the ground... This has been a big eyesore and so until it gets buried, I helped it out a little by painting it...

Better huh?

Once the rest of it is buried and we add a bunch of bushes and flowers, it will hardly be noticeable. 

See how it blends in with the brick now and the white of the columns pop more? Makes me happy. 

Another thing I keep meaning to do is get the random paint drips/spots off of the cement. 

This stuff is amazing! I have used it all over inside our house. The company that painted the inside all one color was pretty sloppy... I picked it up at Home Depot not knowing if it would work (I was looking for something else) and this has proven to be an amazing product. It gets paint off of everything- 

very easily. 

I sprayed the spots, let them sit and then scrubbed them with an old toothbrush... and scrubbed some more...

I hosed everything off and after everything had dried...

It doesn't look brand new, but I am thrilled to not have the big white splatters everywhere. 

A little more curb appeal

This past weekend we checked a few more little projects off of our long list.

Here is a little reminder of what the house looked like when we bought it. Fading gold/brass house numbers and the lights were gray/green- the almost looked like someone has sponge-painted the green on them. 

Time for some change. We took them off, took them apart, I cleaned the glass...

We got a lot of coupons to home improvement stores when we moved- so we used one and got a deal on some bigger, black house numbers. 

Ready to install

I got to painting the fixtures... I used spray paint meant for metal and choose a satin finish- not flat and not too shiny...

Side note while the paint dries :) I ordered a new doormat...

 (I just noticed the gold there too! I can't seem to escape it! Add replace that to the list... I also need to get the white paint drips off of the steps/entry- this was here when we moved in too, not from when we got our house painted.. but I love the new mat!)

I was THRILLED when the tree next to the house became full of white flowers! 

It is exactly what I would have picked.

And here we are- lights installed again, much better. 

Oh and we put the flag up- there are two places for the flag pole so we had to test which one worked better (I need to take the other one off).. and left the flag. 

Our neighbors asked Dave if we bought new light fixtures! He told them I painted them and they are looking into painting theirs now. Everyone on the street is very excited about how great the house looks, they keep saying things to us :) Still more to do but the improvement has been drastic to say the least!