Pie thief protection policy.

Bob bought a small pie for himself.

While he was out tonight, I stole a piece.

But how to cover my tracks?!?!

GENIUS (I think) SOLUTION BELOW! He'll NEVER KNOW....

Bump in the Trunk

Bob: You have a bump in the trunk (referring to the baby belly). But it's in the front... so you're kind of like an old VW.

Me: You really should just stop talking (said as I'm laughing).

Sneaky wife

Bob: While you're in the kitchen, can you bring me my nerds?

Me: Sure.

Bob: BOTH packages (assuming I'll steal one).

Me: Sure.

Bob: UNOPENED (assuming I'll bring him both but open one and eat a few).

Me: Sure.

Bob: ........ Ok, what's the catch?

Me: Nothing.

Bob: You're being completely honest?

Me: Yup.

I come back in, toss the packages at him, both of them unopened. I'm smirking.

Bob: .... what's the catch?

Me: Nothing.

(silence.....)

Bob: You opened my Skittles and took some didn't you?

Me: Yup.

Bob: Bailey (the golden retriever, the kindest beast in the world, 90% asleep under his feet), bite her in the butt.

Intelligence in a Golden Retriever

I commented to Bob tonight that it would have been pretty funny if there had been all the TV shows around Sherlock Holmes that there are now three years ago.

Bob: Why?

Me: Because I could see us naming a dog "Sherlock"

Bob: Yea...

Me: But the dog we got three years ago was Bailey...

Bob: HA!! Yea, smart that dog is not. But that's part of his charm is his simple-minded-ness.

PolyShades Dresser

So, I'm all about this new Minwax product, Poly Shades. It's taken my furniture redo/revamp projects to a whole new and easier level. It covers old stain fabulously, and adds a nice layer of gloss at the same time (because poly is built in).

This dresser was started on before we got pregnant. I had sanded the top two drawers, but then we had to stop. This meant no fixing the top, no hiding the scratch on the side... nothing. We used it in it's beaten up shape anyway.

From this far away, it might not look so bad, but trust me, it was. It had seen MANY better days.

Fast forward to one application of poly shades:

AMAZING. It also matches our buffet in that room, so I'm extra thrilled. It was very low fumes, but still, I wore a nice respirator. I did go back and stain those top two drawers with a very light second coat, which makes them blend in just a bit better with the rest of the unit. And, sometime this week, I'll probably apply a layer or two of just poly to the top for extra protection. It's protected now, but since it's the top, we want to make extra sure it's durable.

The scratches are pretty much hidden. The big gash on the side the stain has hidden pretty well and I'm happy. Maybe someday we'll go back with filler and sander and everything to get it perfect, but it's so exceptional now that I'm pretty darn happy.

I cannot WAIT to use this product again. Only light buffing before application has me SOLD!

Big News!

You might have thought the house painting project and other things have been going pretty slowly recently. 

Well, there's a reason.... I'm pregnant! We're expecting a baby next spring. Since it already feels like winter/late fall here (we've received a lot of rain and a sudden drop in temperatures), this feels like it's just around the corner (though it's MONTHS) away. 

Here is our announcement photo. I'm happy to report the furbabies are excited and bewildered. They don't quite know what to make of the recent reshuffling of furniture and all these new items that smell like little humans.

And, of course, the runner up announcement photo. We didn't choose this one because we thought it looked too much like we were announcing that we were getting another puppy.

Kitchen thoughts

While I'm fixing up the bedroom, I've been thinking about the kitchen.

When we moved in, it looked like this:

LOTS of potential without a dramatic amount of heavy construction.

We painted the walls a gray/green/tan color, by Behr, called Ashwood:

I love it because it changes colors throughout the day. Sometimes it's green, sometimes's it's brown, sometimes it's gray.You can see the brown undertones in the deeper colors on this color swatch.

But recently, I've been thinking about the floor. It's a simple linoleum, but it shows EVERYTHING. Dog paw prints, any little speckle. 

Now, I'm not saying I want to live with dirty floors.... but I also don't want to have to be pristine ALL THE TIME. We already have that with the cabinets being white. 

So, I'm thinking of the idea of putting in faux wood floors. They make linoleum/vinyl planks that are about 1/8" thick and attach to your floors with adhesive. You put them in plank-style, as if they were wood floors. 

It wouldn't be absolutely perfect, but it wouldn't be that expensive to do (they run about $2ish a square foot, and with our cabinetry and island there aren't large swaths of empty space), and it would let us determine if down the line we want to rip up all linoelum and put down wood floors. I could see this lasting 10+ years though. The visible floor space in our kitchen is approximately 189 square feet, but add in about 12 more for the area under the fridge and in one big cabinet. So we're right at 200 square feet.

And, the end result would give our kitchen this feel:

At some point in the next 5 or so years, I can see us replacing our tile countertops with something less icky, and I already plan on staining and resealing our butcher block (on the island) within the next year (already have the special food-grade sealants and everything).

So hmmm.... 

Bedroom Color Scheme

As I mentioned in my last post, we're redoing the bedroom. I'm painting the walls black pepper by Benjamin Moore. I was perusing color palettes recently, and I came across this one. Wouldn't you know it-- our bedroom wall color is very close to the top color swatch.

I LOVE this color palette. We'll get the greens through plants in the room. I'm thinking of making the light blue actually an ivory white instead-- we'll get that color through translucent window coverings.

We also have these roll up curtains:

I'm THINKING about spray-painting them a new color. Maybe white too, but I haven't yet decided. Regardless, I think our room gets enough browns through the brown wood floors, so we don't need them on the windows... especially with the trims painted an off-white white color. Maybe a light cream? I think that's enough in the palette to work.

We'll get the other colors with a throw and pillows and nightstands. 

I'm very excited-- 2.5 years in this bedroom and it hasn't felt "like ours." With this transformation (and really, we're not revolutionizing too much), it's really beginning to feel permanent and like it's ours.

Bedroom colors

I've stuggled with the bedroom ever since moving in. The room isn't huge, but it isn't tiny either. It has one wall taken up with the door and closet, and two of the other three walls have windows (which makes bed placement challenging.

We've literally had our bed in about 6 different positions in the room. 

Add to that 3 dogs that like to sprawl out on the floor (well, one of them also loves her kennel) and it makes nighttime bathroom walks an obstacle course.

Finally though, I think I've narrowed in on a solution, color-wise at least. I think I've determined a room layout solution too, but that's for another post.

But to recap, here are the colors our bedroom has gone through:

The bedroom was a tan when we bought the house. I should note: the color pops more on this photo than it did in real life. The window trim blended in with the wall color, which was the same as it was in every room downstairs except the kitchen.

So, we went a little crazy and painted the walls gray. We thought we were all hip to the max, but after almost a year, it just wasn't hacking it. It was really cold. The tone of the color was good, but it wasn't warm.

We decided to bite the bullet and paint the walls orange. This lasted for a while, but after again, about a year, we decided the orange was overpowering. Everything was wood-toned. The floors were a medium brown, the walls were orange... it was just a bit much.

So, this past April (yes, only about 6 months ago), I painted the walls a lighter blue. I liked it at first, but it lacked depth and warmth. It also felt a bit too baby blue. 

We did add a frame wall to the one wall, but our bed was against a different wall and the frame wall never felt right (more on that in the next post).

Yesterday, I began the job of painting.... again. The new color is one that I think will last a while. It's called "black pepper" by Benjamin Moore. 

I've decided that I really go for colors that cannot best be described in one word. This color is not blue, it's not gray, it's not purple... but it has hints of all three. As the light changes in the room, so does the color. 

It also feels a lot more... adult(?) than the baby blue.

As of right now, I'm about halfway done with the room. I'm hand-painting it this time, since rollers don't give us great coverage on our walls and I actually have a nice paintbrush. 

I'm getting a really nice feeling from this, like that maybe, after 2.5 years of a lot of changes, we may have settled upon the color that works. Next up: the layout that works....!

House Progress

The front by the garage before...




And the same spot now...




We are almost done!!!