Avery's *NEW* Big Girl Room!!

Avery comes home on Wednesday. YAY! Troy is laughing at me because I have been nesting in preparation for her homecoming. Her room is done, the house is sparkling, the nursery is starting to look like an actual room, and I'm buying her some clothes and toys. Which I haven't done in almost 3 months.

I have been slooooowly collecting things for Avery's big girl room. Like, over 6 months. When she left for my parents house in April, she was still sleeping in her crib and very happy in there. No attempts to climb out or anything. However, I started buying things for her big girl room transition in January. I was very excited...I don't really know why. This is an overview of her room:

We decided to transition her now for several reasons.

1. With the babies coming, we want her to see a tangible difference between what babies do (sleep in cribs) and what big girls do (sleep in big girl beds).

2. I didn't want to be dealing with new babies and also trying to keep her in her room/bed without her getting out.

3. Her crib was a drop arm crib (OH THE HORROR!) and I was always fearful of her trying to climb out and somehow getting crushed or hurt if the side dropped down with her in "mid climb."

4. Her crib was not a transition to a toddler bed crib. Even on the lowest setting, her crib mattress was super high so we needed to buy her a new bed whenever she transitioned out of it. I'd rather have time to shop around for one and get a good deal than feel panicked and buy one on impulse.

I started shopping for a bed on craigslist in November? I'm talking early. We wanted to find something that was a good deal and would also transition well to her being a teenager. I don't want to keep buying and buying. For example, crib ->toddler bed -> another bed. So we just went for it.

We decided on a day bed for several reasons.

1. It is a twin bed, so it's good/not too huge for a kid.

2. It has a pull out/pop up trundle underneath so she can have sleepovers and the other kid has a bed.

3. If we have family visiting with kids, no matter what the gender, they can sleep there too.

4. If we have adults who need to sleep there, it's 2 beds OR it pops up and turns into a king size bed which is good for adults or multiple kid sleepover situations.

With those things in mind, I set out for something on craiglist. I looked at IKEA, but I really wanted quality wood that would last, so all the pressed board crap was out. It took me about 2.5 months of daily checking before this beauty came up. I paid $280 and it included the all wood day bed frame, metal pop up trundle bed and the 2 mattresses, which are BRAND NEW! And now covered with a pee protector since baby girl is still working on the potty training thing. The edge of the mattress also looks huge because we are trying that Pinterest trick, where you put a noodle underneath the edge of a fitted sheet to keep the kid from rolling out of bed in the middle of the night.

The dresser I snagged in March for $50 off Craigslist and that sucker is HEAVY and QUALITY wood. Troy said that when he went to go pick it up, he felt guilty. The quality of the dresser and mirror is AMAZING and he felt like he should have offered more money. I was like "ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?! YOU GRAB IT AND RUN!" The wood of both the dresser and bed match super well. Troy still needs to hang the mirror. We need to get the hardware for the back. That will happen when my stepdad is here next week for sure. Troy won't let me lift anything over a gallon of milk and it's pretty annoying. So no holding up 40lb mirrors. I like that it's a classic shape.

I got the cube self at IKEA with the plastic cubes for toy and book storage. The lamp is from Target and the duck was a gift from my stepmom. My grandfather makes homemade wooden toys and he made the phone. Avery loves phones. So she has a play phone in her room :)

All of the paintings on the walls are Natalie originals from those group painting classes.

Aunt Taylor saw this laundry basket at HomeGoods while she was visiting and decided that her niece HAD to have it for her room. I love it. It has a draw string on the inside, so it'll be good for traveling in the car also. Toss snacks, toys, books, diapers or whatever in there, close it up and toss it in the car. It's awesome.

I bought 5 dresses for $7 from our online community yard sale thingy on facebook too. Apparently, with Avery getting a hang of this potty training thing, she is refusing to wear pants. Dresses only. So I figured I'd stock up. It was exciting, especially since they were all name brand dresses from H&M, Gap, and Gymboree. SCORE! I feel ABSOLUTELY NO guilt about buying Avery clothes because I know we are going to have 2 more girls to wear them. Muahahaha. Imagine me doing my evil laugh and tapping the ends of my fingers together.

MAP Nightstands! Seriously My Favorite Project to Date!

I cannot say it enough. I LOVE CRAIGSLIST! There is evidence of my love affair with Craigslist (here, here, and here). Up next on the "decorate the house on the cheap" is our bedroom. We have all the same furniture in our room that we got when we were married. And by "got" I mean given. Our bed we got from neighbors the day we moved into our house. I think they had pity on us. We literally had no furniture. Our nightstands were in Troy's bedroom when he was growing up. My dresser is from my childhood bedroom. Troy's dresser was given to us by one of my friends parents. NOTHING matches. Until now :) I saw the idea for using modge podge in the Young House Love book. But I didn't want to use wallpaper. I got the map idea from here and here. Gotta love execution of projects on Pinterest.

Have a look at our "new nightstands" in all their glory!

Our master bedroom was definitely designed for a king sized bed. Now I know that there are pros and cons to king sized beds. Everyone we know has one LOVES it. "Once you get a king bed you'll never go back." We know, we know. HOWEVER, I don't want to sleep in a different bed than Troy. Which is what I feel like a king sized bed would feel like. AND with Troy being in the military, you never know what your housing situation will be. You could have switchback stairs (folding your king mattress like a taco), or a tiny bedroom in Japan (where you can't use nightstands), or a tiny townhouse in Northern Virginia (where all the colonial style bedrooms are TEENY). So a queen is just a smarter move for us right now. Ask me again in a few years when Troy and I have been married for ten years. I kid, honey. Not really.

So this was our bedroom situation. The nightstands were barely large enough for a lamp and a book with the alarm clock on top. TEENY. And because the room was designed for a big bed, the furniture looks tiny on that big wall. Not having art is not helping proportions either. But I hit Craigslist hard for nightstands.

They're just too small...

Sorry I didn't get a full "before pic." The one on the left hasn't had anything done to it, but the one on the right I had already started on with the sander. I love the lines and the hardware. :) They're awesome.

I love love love the parkay top. You can see that there were some water stains and overall wearing down. After some work, it re-stained awesome!

Here is one fully sanded. Mistake #1 : I got a little too aggressive with the sander around the edge. It didn't take the stain that well...BUT that's okay. It gives it a little more texture.

I stained them with Minawax Dark Walnut and wiped them down really well. I didn't want the color as dark as the table top from the kitchen. After they dried, I put on a coat of polyacrylic clear gloss. I bought 2 giant fold out maps off Amazon. Troy was born in Texas and I was born in South Carolina, so that's what I went with. I used Modge-Podge to apply the maps to the front of the drawers. Troy was like "Really? That's weird." You wait and see who gets the last laugh (it's me, by the way).

I love how you can see where the maps would have connected. The highways are a little offset, but overall, I'm super happy with them.

Here is the after shot. See how the wall doesn't look so huge? No more Alice in Wonderland furniture!! YAY!

And here it is at night with some mood lighting? Oooh la la! And now we both have 3 drawers instead of one and tons of space to avoid stacking everything up. It was like an avalanche waiting to happen on Avery's head. And direct quote from Troy, "Ok now that I see them up here, they're pretty awesome." Win.

If I was going to do this project over again, I would have tea-stained the maps. The white backdrop of the map is a little stark white with the cream and gold tones in the bedding. But overall, 9/10. And still winning for my favorite project in the house. So far...

I've got a SWEEEEEEET project coming up. I'll give you a hint. It starts with play and ends with kitchen. For Avery. An EPIC trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore was in order. I CANNOT WAIT!

A Pop of Color/My Devil Furniture

This is the story of how our breakfast nook table went from this:

To this:

The color is a little orange in the picture because of the time of day that I took the photo. The sunlight streams into the kitchen in the morning and it's super bright. So sorry for that :(

I bought this table on Craigslist for $100 while we were still in San Antonio. It's a typical table that can be found at any big box store. I thought it would be great in our kitchen, knowing that I was already planning to refinish the wood to a darker stain.

After looking at it in our kitchen for 2 and a half months, I decided that the white was not working. At all. The tile floor is more of a tan and the backsplash is all different shades of cream, brown, and tan:

Troy knew that I was staining the table a dark color, but when I told him that I was planning to paint the white to a color, he was like, "NO! The white is going to look so clean and modern when you stain the top." And I was like, "but there is literally NO white in the kitchen and the table looks sterile. And SO white. It's a little jarring."

He wanted me to paint it cream. But I thought that would look dirty. And I always do what I want around the house. It's only fair. I move 4 places in 1 year for his job = getting extra votes for home decor. So I picked red. Spray paint. Less work. WIN.

Here is a side by side comparison. I feel like this picture is also the most true to color.

I first used a palm sander to roughen up all the wood on the table top and seats of the chairs. It took about 45 minutes to do all 5 surfaces. Then I used a paintbrush to stain all the wood with Minwax Dark Walnut ($7 and I only used about a 1/5th of the can). I did 2 coats and made sure to ALWAYS brush the same direction as the wood grain. This took me about 1.5 hours. I was able to do all that during Avery's afternoon nap.

I let that sit outside for 2 days. Then I went out and put a coat of clear finish on top with a paintbrush. That sat for 2 days. I covered the newly stained wooden chairs and table top with a clear drop cloth and used blue painters tape protect the wood. I drug the furniture into the unfinished part of the yard on cardboard and drop cloths and went to town.

I used a spray paint and primer in 1 because I am lazy. I didn't want to spray with primer and then with paint. I could have used a paint and a brush but (again) I am lazy.

I tried to do 3 thin and even coats with the spray paint on all surfaces. I kept finding spots that would peek through white when I thought I was done. For all 5 pieces, I went through 4 cans of spray paint. I'm really happy with the color.

Now for the title of the post. Troy is calling it my "Devil Furniture."

1. Because it is red.
2. Because he is trying to get back at me because I didn't keep it white. And he knows I was right. The red is better. And he can never just say that I was right. Which I was. I can admit when I was wrong. But not this time. Because I was right.

I got another picture when the color was a little better:

What do you think? Too much? I love my "devil furniture." Red as a great color. And it's keeping our main living area from being too "blah." It makes my "big box" furniture look more custom and special.

A Thrift Lamp from Alamogordo Crosses an Entry Table from Craigslist

I bought some things while we were in Alamogordo. And Troy was mad every time I came home from thrifting with something that we had to "figure out how we were getting it to Las Vegas." We were SO out of room.

And then I bought a lamp for $5. The shade was free. WIN!

Troy: "But um, that stuff is breakable and the shade takes up a lot of room. How do you intend to pack that? Miss Overpacker??"

Oops. We were still mid-move (with 2 months to go in the TLF) at this point and moving everything we had brought from Texas in February. 6 months living out suitcases is rough y'all. Let me tell you. A piece of advice from me to you? Pack WAY less than you think you'll need. You'll buy stuff anyway. You'll buy it if you absolutely can't live without it. And everyone shops and accumulates a few things over the course of 6 months. It's not possible to buy nothing. So...you're packing the car and all of a sudden you're like "oooo look at that teeny little bit of space right there!! I need to bring more baby toys!!" Yeah not so much. RESIST!! Don't do it! They would rather play with a spoon and a magazine that they can shred. Lesson learned. Pack way less than you need. So when you find a $5 dollar-make-you-holla-lamp, your husband doesn't try to knock you out with it Clue candlestick style.

So here is my beauty of a 5 dollar lamp. It's pretty blah here. It's like cream with beige paint splats all over it. But isn't the shape GREAT??

Here she is all taped up with bags to protect the cords and the top...aka give it some "I've-never-spray-painted-anything-in-my-life" protection.

I saved a box from some deliveries that we had gotten just for painting. Then Troy was all, "for real, you're gonna do that next to our brand new house?? Spray paint? Really??"

And I was all "I love you I miss you I want to be close to you. That's all...and I want to stay out of the wind...I gotta be close to the house to block the wind or there will be spray paint everywhere."

I got this face:

And then "MOVE!"

So I moved. And then he was all "for real, you're going to do that right next to the air conditioner intake so we wind up with paint all in our house and duct work??"

He was planning our hike for the next day...he has our Vegas hiking trail book in his lap, discussing pros and cons of different trails, distances, dog friendliness, elevations, etc. Blah blah blah. Pick something easy, okay? That's all I ask!

Well, I guess my brain was turned off? I moved again.

I used this primer.

And this color, to match our new color theme to go with this.

Here she is with 3 coats of primer. Pretty, eh? Troy was like, "oooo leave it white, it's looks great!!" Um, no baby. RED! You picked the color palate. Gotta push forward! I'm all about progress.

Here she is with 2 coats of red! Sexy Lady in Red! I did 3 thin and even coats.

Here she is (moved inside) on the entry table by the wall out to the garage that I picked up on Craigslist. God I love that man and his list. Best thing ever! I nabbed it from a lady selling it because she was getting married and they were combining households and getting rid of stuff. It was less than a year old! YAY! And way more proportional for the space than the buffet I had picked up the day before.

So the shade was free. I'm still deciding what to do with it. Because it's not quite right. Stencil it? Cover it with fabric? Or buy a new one? Any votes? I'm trying to decide. In it's current state, it looks a little sad on the vibrant colored lamp and next to my whimsy pig.

Sidenote: You may have noticed that I have a thing for piggy banks that are weird and cool. I love them. I have one that my grandma straight up stole from a restaurant that used them as table centerpieces. I'll tell you about that later. Some one remind me about it and I'll type up a blog post about it. Imagine my grandma hopping into a car in pouring rain with the door being held open by the restaurant host and two pennies bouncing around inside. I almost died. Hilarious.

So, as you can see, it's Troy's new drop spot. There is a metal shell that he puts his keys and wallet into. The drawer contains his wide array of sunglasses and his running watch. One pair for running, one for in the car, and one pair that are crappy for when he can't find the other pairs. His fall-back pair.

Avery's diaper bag drop spot is underneath, with her little shoes. There is also a grey and cream woven basket with rope handles from HomeGoods for Avery's toys. I hate when it looks like ToysRUs exploded in my house. Or PetsMart with dog toys all over the place. I have baskets EVERYWHERE. To hide stuff. Clutter makes me nutso. So instead of pairing down and organizing, I pile it up in something pretty and pretend it's not there. Denial is pretty powerful tool in this house. It's really easy to toss all her toys in there at the end of the day. We have 3 baskets of toys throughout the house that we rotate through with books and toys. Very easy. Optimus has one too. And he has a whole cupboard in our kitchen. I wish I were joking.

Then I have the pretty decor on the right side. It is 2 books that I removed the jackets from, because they match the color scheme. And THE book. Mr. Bible himself. With a pretty vase from HomeGoods and then the Willow Tree statue on top. I got that from a friend when I was having all kinds of trouble getting pregnant with Avery. It's the Angel of Hope :) It's good luck. And pretty. I love it.

Who Loves Craigslist??? ME!!!!

I have been shopping around for an antique buffet table on craigslist for a long time. Like 6 months. And my dear dear readers, I have found it. I started looking for one while living with my inlaws, KNOWING that I couldn't have it because there would be no way to transport it. So a perfect one would come up for sale in Vegas and I would cry because I wasn't there to pick it up.

And then, THIS happened on thursday night:

THIS IS AWESOME!

ANOTHER ONE?!?!?!

NOOOOO WAY!! THEY'RE SELLING 3?????

Like I said, I have been pricing these for about 6 months. 200 dollars a piece was a STEAL! WHAT! I thrust my computer in Troy's face and said something like "Igottahaveoneofthesewhichonedoyoulike???"

I was already on the phone with the lady before he could respond. ALL THREE where still there!! She wanted me to come that night, but Troy was going to play poker with some of the boys at work and Avery was already in bed, so there was no way that was going to happen. Friday I had 2 job interviews and offered to come pick up whatever was left in between them. Troy was in serious eye roll mode. I was salivating into the phone. And sweet talking the lady a little bit :) By the end of the phone call, she had agreed to $180.

I go to her house and all 3 are still there. I get my pick of the litter. To be honest, I would have been happy with any of them. She told me that they were used in a restaurant downtown for storage and the restaurant was recently demo'd. She rescued them for her daughter, who refinishes furniture and resells them. Her daughter lives in Iowa. I guess after talking it over with her, they realized that it wasn't cost efficient to transport them all over the place to resell them. So she's selling them here. LUCKY ME :)

My favorite one (look wise) was the 3rd one. I love the long spindly legs. They're so pretty. So much detail. But ugh. With all those crossbars and support rails underneath, I would have to move that monster every time I swept or vacuumed around it. No thank you.

Number 1 had some splintering and split wood going on on the doors and the sides. Sorry buddy, but that just will not do.

Lucky number 2 came home with me. I was worried that it wouldn't fit in the back of my Ford Edge, but she slid in nicely.

We set her up on the wall in the family room coming in from the garage.

Here is it bare. It's that wall right there on the right:

And here it is, occupying said space:

I didn't get a picture of it, but it was the MOST gorgeous piece of furniture in the room. And tallest. Taller than our media stand that our TV sits on. I couldn't stop staring at it. Troy loved it too. We found this on the inside of the top drawer and he immediately starting researching it.

We cleaned it out and found straws, receipts, and credit card carbon copy papers dated to 1994. We found a newspaper from 1999. And someone spilled SOMETHING that was making me gag in the left door. I kept wiping and wiping and it was sliding all over the place. I rinsed out my rag and it was making more and more bubbles. Then I realized....oh thank God, it's just orange dish soap. And I was able to stop gagging.

How cool is this drawer? All the separations are awesome for organizing. It makes my OCD heart so happy!

After staring at it for about 3 hours, I was like, it can't stay here. Troy almost started crying. He was like, "but where am I going to put my keys, and wallet, and sunglasses, and my watch, and my spare change??" This was going to be his "drop spot" when he comes home from work. He is currently keeping everything on the island in the kitchen and it is making me CRAZY! So he was looking forward to a home for his stuff.

I was like "eh, I'll figure it out." So we hauled the buffet into the foyer and put it on the wall right to the right when you walk in the front door. It looks MUCH better because of proportions. The room is bigger, the ceilings are higher. It isn't competing for attention with the rest of the room. I am OBSESSED. So I dressed it up a little bit.

Isn't she pretty?

I took the covers off some books and stacked them up. And put my prized favorite pig on top.

There are some pictures of me and my Mom (love this picture) and then Troy and I at the annual awards ceremony in Dover, when I was preggo with Avery.

This is an old tray that I bought at a thrift store in Alamogordo with some other little things for decoration :)

So what are we doing with that empty wall now that the buffet was just too big? Well let me tell you...I hit up Craigslist again and picked something up on saturday between nanny interviews. And it's perfect. Shorter than the TV stand, narrower than the buffet, and not such a domineering piece of furniture...be back later this week with that :)

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!