Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Little Things!

First off...props to Tim for making our blog look amazing! I love it, don't you? Thanks Tim!

Second, I thought while you're patiently waiting for our chairs to get finished, I'd share some things from in the house.

When we bought the house we had a million different ideas of what we wanted to do here and there, and that's when we decided were going to do a room at a time. That way we could put all our focus on that room and not feel overwhelmed. Obviously we tackled the biggest and most seen area of the house. Sadly, it's a big area and is kind of overwhelming, ha! But I think we're doing a good job so far! The one thing we promised each other is that we'd do everything...and I mean everything...on a budget. Now we never really sat down and said this is how much we are spending, it's just an understanding. Actually that's one of the reasons we decided to do this blog. I love watching HGTV and I really like "Sarah's House." She completely guts a house and then walks you through all she does. Only problem is, she has an endless amount of money. Yea if I had $150,000 to redo a room I'd get a lot of things she does. But realistically there's just no way we could do half the things she does! Now I'm not an idiot, I know only a few people read this but I think if one person saw that we did a room, and saved a ton of money, then maybe they'd try to do it themselves.

So I'm going to show you the things we've bought and how much we bought it for...that way you can see that you don't have to spend a lot to have the things you like!



This bad boy we found on craigslist. Craigslist is our best friend. We look at it numerous times during the day and send each other things we've found. We got him for $10. Yup $10. Now it doesn't work and if we wanted to spend the money to make it work we could, but we just don't want to. Instead, Tim put 2 old computer speakers back behind and we have a cord that connects to our phones. We can plug it in whenever we want music. Not bad for 10 bucks!! That little fan cost us $40...oh wait we got 2 for $40!! One big one that you'll see someday in our room :)



This beaut is from an antique store and only cost us $50. We really wanted this other table but just couldn't bring ourselves to pay over $200 for it...then we ran into this. It's dirty but that gives it character. (I added some more when we painted..whoops) Antique stores are a lot like craigslist...you can barter. We talked them down and that's how we ended with $50. Amazing!



And then there's this little gem. Just look at her. She's glorious. We didn't become obsessed with card catalog's until we started reading dreambookdesign.com. They have one that makes us drool!! (Go look at it!!) Sadly KC doesn't have a big supply of these and when we came across this on craigslist we acted fast! It was originally on there for $200...no thanks! I patiently watched it go down, and down until it got to where i could write and barter her. Yea we got it for $75!! Holy steal batman!! She was going to go in the entry way but was just too small :( She's downstairs now, where we can take in her beauty every night.

There will be more where that came from! And hopefully soon some dining room chairs!

jo

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Kitchen light DIY

When we moved in, all the lights were thankfully livable. Since our house was a foreclosure, a company came in and painted everything inside and out, laid new carpet, and painted all the light fixtures. They looked a lot better but they don't match! We have had an amazing white chandelier from my brother and sister-in-laws wedding, that has been with us for a while. We love it! It went up I think the second night we were here. We are still trying to find lights for in the kitchen and the entry way. And the fan in the living room might get a white face lift...not 100% sure if you can paint a ceiling fan. Guess we will find out!

We have a light above our sink that was ok...but I found this lovely idea on esty.com and decided we had to do it!!



I wasn't really sure how it was going to get done, but that's were Tim comes in. He took apart our old light and tried to figure out what we could do.



After throwing out a few different ideas, we came up with this...He took off the glass surrounding the bulb, and then twisted off the part that the glass attached to. We found some hanging light things that dangle (good description!) and thankfully they fit in the previous light. We painted the light white and found 3 mason jars that match. Tim cut out circles in the lids so the dangling light fit perfectly through.



He shoved the dangle lights through, did all the wiring and voila! Here's the beauty! We love it! I can't wait to change out the rest of the lights so they all match!



Next on our to-do list are chairs...lots of chairs. 6 dining room chairs and 2 new chairs for the living room! Hopefully they'll be done soon!!

jo