Just An Update

I have been a bit MIA around these parts lately. The Husband and I took a trip out east in April to catch a ball game and a hockey game as a late birthday present to him. When we left it was winter. When we came back it was summer. I am pretty sure we were only gone a week though.

With the beautiful weather suddenly upon us we took advantage and quickly got started on our outdoor to do list. 

The List: (in no particular order)

1. Front columns and stone build outs
2. Front step
3. Siding and Building paper
4. Backfill/grading
5. Yard clean up
6. Driveway
7. Build Deck
8. Seed Grass/landscape

I think we might be busy this summer. 

We started with yard clean up so that the yard would be easier to work in when we get to the siding. We have a good chunk of this done already. We have been cleaning up construction garbage that's still around from last year. There are quite a few dead trees on the property that we want cleaned up so we have started working on that too. Plus the old man that lived here years before us was kind enough to leave us all sorts of junk so we have been picking away at that too.  The yard looks so much better to us already but there is still a lot of work to do. I honestly didn't take any pictures of this though because who really wants to see a bunch of dead trees and other junk being cleaned up? Not I. 

We have started working on the front step and the stone build outs. I have a small internet glitch that I am trying to figure out and then hopefully I'll have an update on that.

I haven't forgotten about our office makeover either! I have a update that on that too. stupid internet interfering with my blogging. 

There may have been some other small projects that we fit in there too :)

Oh, and the worms are back :(.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! 

Easy Peasy Key Rack

The last time my parents came down for a visit my dad walked into the house and said 'you guys need a key rack' A few days later The Husband's mom (aka my mother in law) came over and said 'you guys need a key rack'. True story. 

So we made a key rack. An easy peasy one. 

What you'll need:

- A Mirror or Picture Frame

- Painter's Tape (I used Frogtape because that's what we had laying around)

- Paint and Paint Brushes

- Hooks and Screws

- A Husband (or someone comfortable with operating a drill. I am not, so I used my husband for this step)

- A drill

We used the Malma mirror from Ikea for the back of the key rack. Our hooks are also from Ikea, I can't find them online though. 

To paint the diagonal stripes I used painter's tape. I just eyeballed the angle to be as close to 45 degrees as I could. I then taped over the whole mirror with diagonal tape, using full pieces to go all the way across the mirror and butting the next tape stripe right next the adjacent tape stripe so they could later be peeled off with out disturbing the tape that I wanted left on. I then peeled off every other piece of tape. Looking back I probably should have taken better pictures of this step. Sorry! Once you've peeled off every other stripe your mirror should look like this:

I bought Martha Stewart craft paint for this project. I picked Beach Glass (aqua), Deep Sea (navy), Pollen (yellow), and Chipotle (red). Once I had the stripes painted on I didn't like how the chipotle worked with the rest of the colors so I switched it out for Benjamin Moore's Adobe Orange. I had that paint on hand already so it was a quick fix. 

Tip: Before painting use a credit card (or something similar) to press down the edges of the tape to make sure it seals really good so you don't get any seepage. I went over each piece of tape a few times pressing fairly hard to make sure the tape was good and stuck. 

As soon as I was done painting and I had enough coats on (I let the paint dry to the touch in between coats) to get the coverage I wanted I peeled the tape off. 

The husband then attached the hooks along the bottom. He used 1/2" screws (the hooks we got from Ikea didn't come with screws) to attach the hooks to the bottom of the mirror. He measured and spaced the hooks out evenly (which, with the Malma mirror was about 2" apart) and then drilled a hole for each hook and then screwed the hooks in with a screwdriver. This took him maybe 10 mins. 

The Malma has a predrilled hole on the back for hanging but because we are going to hang keys on it we needed to two holes, or hangers (which is what we used) on the back. Otherwise when you go to hang one set of keys the whole rack will tilt. That's not really what we wanted. So The Husband attached two picture hanger hooks to the top two corners of the back of the mirror so we could safely and securely attach it to the wall. 

The hangers we used on the back of the mirror (we only used two though)

And that's all there is to it.

How Easy Peasy was that?!

Getting Down To Business - Office Makeover Series

The Husband and I are both self employed with a home based business. So we need a space to work, otherwise known as an office. Until our basement is finished (which won't be happening for awhile) we both have to share an office in one of our spare bedrooms. Buying a desk from an office supply store just wasn't an option. We wouldn't have found a desk to fit in our spare bedroom that would give enough workspace for the two of us. Plus it would be quite a bit cheaper to DIY the desk and that way we could get exactly what we wanted.

When planning out our new office space I, like any rational person, turned to Pinterest for some inspiration, or pinspiration, if you will.

source

I like how this desk has the option for some extra desk space but isn't always taking up valuable floor space.

source

Seeing as the office will also function as a second spare bedroom for now we like the idea of a murphy bed. Guests come over: voila, we have a bed. No guests: No bed = open spacious office. It's the perfect solution. 

We took into consideration what we all wanted in an office and this is what we came up with:

We decided to add some movable tables underneath each desk area like in the first inspiration pic. We both liked the idea that if we need more desk space because we are working with large scale drawings we can pull out the extra table. If we don't need the extra space the tables can stay put under the desk.  

In our situation I feel a murphy bed is a necessity. We decided to camouflage it as a full height cabinet with a panel that we can utilize as a whiteboard. 

The open shelving will allow quick access to reference manuals and help keep the room look larger and more open.

Magnet boards and hanging pen/office supply storage should hopefully help keep our desks clutter free. 

What do you think of our new office space?

Have you given your office a makeover recently?

Anything we should add to our office?

Is it spring yet?

I am ready for green leaves, flip flops, drinks on a patio, the smell of a freshly cut lawn, not wearing a jacket and boots everywhere. I am ready for Spring. Instead our yard still looks like this:

I am so sick of winter. I am ready for the warmer days ahead.

Laundry Love.

When we were working on our house plan we knew that we didn't want upstairs laundry. I feel like this is on everyone's wish list but it just doesn't work with our lifestyle. We had upstairs laundry in our old house and I knew it wasn't something I wanted in our forever home. It was convenient to have the laundry room just down the hall from our bedroom but for us that's where the positives ended.

In this house we wanted the laundry room to be closer to where we spend most of our time, aka the living spaces of the house. We put it just off the mudroom, close to the kitchen. In reality I spend about 99% of my time in the Family Room. Its where we work until the office is done and it's where we relax. But I am still close enough to the Laundry Room that I don't find it inconvenient to stop what I am doing for a few minutes to switch the laundry.

Aesthetically I knew I wanted a bright, and clean looking laundry room with lots of white. I think we succeeded.

Under the window on the left I eventually want to make a sorting station with different hampers for different loads but I haven't found any hampers or containers that will work how I want them to. 

I hang the majority of my clothes to dry so I wanted an open area, as opposed to a closet, where I could hang everything to dry.

I love how our laundry room turned out. I kind of wish that it wasn't a room that I had to go to work so I could enjoy it a bit more. Maybe I should put a recliner in the corner and a TV on the counter. My little wife getaway. The Husband seems to be allergic to doing laundry so he'd never find me! 

Make This. Now.

For Real.

Saturday was The Husband's birthday. I needed to make him a birthday cake. I of course headed over to Pinterest to see what I could find. I stumbled across this marvelous masterpiece. Oreo Brownie Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake. His favourites are Oreo, brownies, and cookie dough it was the perfect recipe. I made a few tweaks from the original recipe and it turned out amazing. Seriously. The Husbnad is a lover of all things sweet and I was told that this is the best cake. Ever.

Ingredients:
1 Pkg Oreo Cookies
1/3 Cup butter melted
6 Cups cookie dough ice cream
Chocolate Fudge Sauce (you can use bought but I made my own. I think the homemade sauce really made this cake. I included the fudge sauce recipe at the bottom of this post)
1-9x13 pan of brownies ( I made a batch of two bite brownies, next time I think I am going to just buy them. I don't think it would change the end result at all.)
1 container of Cool Whip

Food Processor (or you could buy oreo crumbs instead of oreo cookies but I liked that I could make them coarser chopping them at home)
8x8 casserole dish (the original recipe called for a springform pan, but I don't have one of those. A casserole dish worked just fine though)

Instructions:
Crumble 2/3 pkg of oreos in food processor. Reserve about 6 Tablespoons of crumbs. I tried to save the bigger crumbs because I wanted a crunchier layer in the middle.

Mix remaining crumbs with the butter and press into the bottom of your pan. Freeze for 1 hour.

Soften ice cream and then spread 3 Cups ( I didn't actually measure this, I just made sure I had an even layer) on top of crub crust. Freeze for 1 more hour.

Top ice cream with reserved crumbs. Top crumbs with fudge sauce. I didn't measure this either, I just made sure I had a good even layer. Freeze for 1 more hour. (the original recipe mixed the crumbs and the fudge together. I liked the idea of them being seperate layers though).

Sofen ice cream and spread the remaining 3 cups on top of fudge sauce layer. Again I didn't measure this, just made sure I had a nice even layer keeping in mind that I still have 2 layer that I need to fit in the pan.

Cut up two bite brownies into halves and space out over the ice cream layer. I didn't end up with a solid brownie layer but that was my personal preference.

Smooth softened Cool Whip over brownie layer. Freeze over night.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce:

For the 8x8 pan I used:

1 Cup Cream
1 Cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons of cocoa

Bring to a boil over medium-low heat stirring constantly. I let it boil for a few minutes while stirring. Remove from heat.

Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Let cool.

Enjoy! It will be gone before you know it.

Family Room Updates

On Black Friday Rugs USA had a 75% off sale. Seeing as how we need to buy about a million (okay maybe not a million) area rugs for our house I took advantage of the savings. We need a fairly large rug for our family room and I figured this was the perfect time to snatch one up. I had my eye on the Inspire rug in navy for awhile. It worked with our color scheme and I loved the pattern. It was a win win.

Before the Area Rug:


After:


Such a difference. It helps visually anchor the couch and it makes the space so cozy.  Plus the ottoman doesn't slide around when you put your feet up. Who wants a slidey Ottoman? Not me.

Remember our weird looking fireplace on the ugly white wall? Yeah, that silver box is a fireplace. We didn't bother to get the painters to paint it beacuse the plan was that we were going to put either stone or tile on that wall around the fireplace. We now realize that we are at least a year away (if not longer) from putting stone around the fireplace. It just isn't high on our priority list right now. The painters thought the plan was to tile it so they didn't paint the edges very neatly and the random whiteness was bothering the Husband and I.

So we decided to paint it.

 We went with Benjamin Moore Mellow Yellow. We had used that color on one of the chairs at the back of the room so we still had some extra paint kicing around. That means this update was free! We love the results. It ties in with the fun, colorful vibe we are going for in this room and it looks so much better than the ugly white wall.

So that's what our Family Room looks like now. We still have a lot of work to do in this room, like the handrail on the stairs, the TV Stand, whatever we end up doing in the back corner, and we need to hang something on the back wall. It's starting to come together though!