~~ They're leaving the nest, sew it's time for a trip - or two - or three...~~ D~'s bag ~9/22 ~~

[Terkina]

I'm glad to hear you got some sleep during the day yesterday.

How great that you got the first coat of clear coat on the other 2 windows yesterday morning, and then after your nap, sanded them both down and put a 2nd coat on them. It sounds like you are soon done with the living room.

I hope you all have a great birthday dinner tonight.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

It's great to hear you are almost done with your living room! You must be so happy! Good luck with getting the paint - I hope you were able to get everything you wanted/needed.

 

[DMGeurts]

I hope you get your living room finished today. That will be so awesome after eight years of waiting.

Thanks Sue... It didn't have much to do with me - but the living room and almost *almost* done... Just a few areas of touch-up paint both on the walls and on the baseboards and we are done in there. I am beyond thrilled with the outcome - it turned out so nice! I'll have pictures posted below.

I hope you're having a nice weekend? Any big plans?

Have fun picking out paint today. Hopefully your get everything put back together soon. It sounds like it's going to look great when you're done.
I have to finish getting ready for work.
Have a great day.
Liz

Thanks - it was a lot of fun! We have the big stuff put back together, for the most part... but we still have a lot of stuff to put back and to figure out what we are going to do with - now that I have a semi-plan.

I hope you had a good day at work and a nice Sunday.

I'm glad to hear you got some sleep during the day yesterday.

How great that you got the first coat of clear coat on the other 2 windows yesterday morning, and then after your nap, sanded them both down and put a 2nd coat on them. It sounds like you are soon done with the living room.

I hope you all have a great birthday dinner tonight.

Thanks Lillian... We are getting super close now.

Thanks - it was a lot of fun... It was just the 3 of us, V had to work.

I hope you are having a nice weekend. Did you do anything fun?

It's great to hear you are almost done with your living room! You must be so happy! Good luck with getting the paint - I hope you were able to get everything you wanted/needed.

I am thrilled! I cannot believe that we are almost finished with this project... There were times that I wondered.

Thanks - I think so, I forgot one thing - but it's not something I will need immediately - so I should be OK? I hope.

I hope you're having a nice weekend? Any big plans?

************************************************************************************************

My apologies for a super-lengthly update today...

Alrighty everyone... This is it!!!! I have all of the big furniture back in my living room! But before I get to pictures - I have to tell you about my day yesterday...

So, yesterday - we had to be out the door bright n' early to get V to her class on time. I'd roped Allison into going with me (aka, driving), because I DETEST driving in the city... I am a much better passenger and navigator.

When Allison and I left the house - this is what my living room looked like...

Allison and I dropped V off - then we headed towards Home Depot. Let me just say - I LOVE Home Depot... They give a Military discount of 10% off your total bill... And when doing project like this - every little bit counts. So, if you were to give me a choice between HD and any other home improvement store - I am going to choose HD for this one little fact alone. So, a big shout out to them! Anyways... Allison and I had fun choosing paint. I don't want to reveal my colors, because I do want to surprise you all... But I did get the paint for the remainder of the walls in the kitchen. And I got paint for the little coffee nook cabinet. And I got paint for the new media console. And I got paint for the front door. Lotsa, lotsa paint! I also purchased a huge bucket of primer and some paint conditioner for when I do the furniture - this keeps it from seeing the brush strokes in your paint. Oh and finally - paint related - I got water based clear coat for the furniture pieces, as well. Whoot! So, yah... We have paint now.

Allison and I also took to wandering around the garden center... I know I need plants. I used to do flowers every year - but for the last few years, I've done less and less of them - until finally, last year (and maybe the year before), I haven't done any. Not sure why? I just haven't. Lazy, I guess? And let's just not even talk about how I kill everything plant related in my life... Putting those poor plants in my cart is like a death sentence... But... Allison and I saw a gorgeous ficus tree... And I really wanted a nice tall plant in my living room... The Home Depot lady insisted that this is a hearty plant and "impossible" to kill... We will see... And I also grabbed 2 ivy plants... Praying they all have a full life here.

So, we checked out of HD and went out for breakfast... We found a fun little (BUSY) cafe - a sign of a great place, IMO... And breakfast was delicious.

After - we went to another store, in search of a bigger pot for my new ficus tree (named Sampson, in case you were wondering... Allison names everything...) - we found a great pot - which may be more of an outdoor pot than an indoor pot... but whatever. And I also found 2 buffet lamps at a reasonable price - so I grabbed those too. Overall - a great shopping day... and I am literally at the END of my list for the living room, and a few other areas of the house. This makes me happy!

Right as we were walking out of this store - V sent us a text with her 30 minute warning... So, we headed back in her direction.

We picked her up and headed towards home. She had a great class and is enjoying it very much. We had to drop her off to babysit, and then we came home....

And I couldn't believe, when we pulled up - Josh had baseboards outside on the cutting table... >insert angels singing here< Do I dare get my hopes up that the carpet is done???

Eeeeeep!!!!! Beyond excited here! I cannot believe this room is DONE!!!!

So, we took advantage of Allison's muscles being home and we moved all of the heavy furniture back into the living room... Including the curio. We took some excess carpet pieces Josh had left over from the duplex (which happen to be a pretty close match to our carpet) and put them under our couch and love seat - because one of the (many) reasons we had to replace the carpet in the first place was that our furniture leaves grease spots under them from the reclining mechanisms - so we don't want any grease spots on the new carpet.

Here's how it looks with all of the furniture in place - minus the media console, which is still upstairs...

I am beyond excited! It just turned out fabulous and I couldn't be more proud of Josh!

As we were hauling in furniture - I noticed a box that our mail person had left on our front porch... So, when we were all done - I brought it in and noticed it was from Cindy (NolaCindy)... And it was HEAVY! Hmmm... I knew she was sending me a couple of Magic Bands and a scarf she had picked up for me at the outlet... but what in the world? This box was too heavy and too big for just that. Gosh you guys - I opened the box, and inside was every. single. Disney. Starbucks. full-sized mug... The "You are Here" series and the Disney Parks series... I was seriously crying with delight. I wanted these so badly when I was there, but as most of you know, V instituted a "Coffee Mug Ban" on me before I left - and I was a good girl, who refrained and only purchased the ornaments. Cindy - the sweetheart that she is, decided to circumvent the "ban" and send me all the mugs as a gift... I am beyond excited - because - as you all know - I am doing this cute little coffee bar in the kitchen with this sign:

So, now - not only will I be displaying my Disney ornaments there, but I will be displaying my full-sized You are Here mugs... I am soooooooo excited! I didn't photograph everything in the box - there was so much... Some cute little Donald items, and a HP souvie for Allison... Just a TON of fun stuff in this box! So, Cindy - you are just the best, to have my living room done and to receive a package like this, all in one day - I was just a *tiny* bit overly excited! I miss you girl and cannot wait to see you again in October!

Soooo... the plan for today... It's raining here. Which doesn't impede our plans at all. Thankfully Josh looked at the forecast yesterday - and that's one of the reasons he kicked it into high gear to get it done, he knew we'd have rain all day today.

Just a list - in no particular order...

* Put the shelves back into the curio and put all of the items back into it.
* Put up curtain rods and measure curtains, so I can get them hemmed - either today or this week.
* Bring down media console and measure it for where we want the TV.
* Put the TV back up on the wall and hook the satellite up.
* Touch up paint on the walls and baseboards
* Definitely need to "scrub floors" in my kitchen - as there is a ton of sheet rock dust in there.
* Just in general, put things back to their rightful places - as much as we can, as we will start on the kitchen this coming weekend.

Thanks for sticking with me through out this entire project guys... Hopefully in the coming week - I can start showing you some of my decorating stuff as it goes up on the walls... I've been very excited about this portion.

And also - coming soon... Will be my semi-final Disney plans and ADRs for the upcoming October trip... I've been working tediously on that during this entire remodel project, and because I never release my actual trip dates here - I always wait until the next month to reveal our plans... I really hope you all understand this. It's so difficult for me to wait, because I am incredibly excited. But that is coming soon, I promise!

I hope you all have a wonderful remainder of your weekend! Pixie Dust to all!

D~

 

[Terkina]

Looks like you had a great day yesterday.

How great that V is enjoying her class.

What a great gift Cindy sent you. I can't wait to see it all on display


I'm not doing anything exciting this weekend. I'm really looking forward to get my new car so I can more easily go out of the house alone. I have had great sunny weather this weekend so it's a shame that I can't get out that easily yet.
My mobile charger broke on Friday night. So yesterday I had to go to the store to get a new one. I'm so glad it broke Friday night and not Saturday night because then all the store would have been closed until Monday.

 

[nolacindy]

You are so very welcome!! I miss you so much, can't wait for October! Your living room looks fantastic,cant wait to see the progress!

 

[ljcrochet]

Living room looks great.

 

[Tinkercc]

Your living room looks great.

 

[goofymimi]

Wow, that is a lot of paint..I don't like to paint!! Your livingroom looks so nice, home improvements are so nice when they are done, but a pain while in progress!! Our weekend was pretty exciting, opening day for our grandson's minor league baseball team, and they won!!! Looking forward to all the plans for V's trip..as I am having to live vicariously through y'all's trips these days!!

 

[jandlinz]

D!!!! It looks great. I'm so excited for you. What a terrific day. I can't wait to see it all put together.

 

[DMGeurts]

Looks like you had a great day yesterday.

How great that V is enjoying her class.

What a great gift Cindy sent you. I can't wait to see it all on display


I'm not doing anything exciting this weekend. I'm really looking forward to get my new car so I can more easily go out of the house alone. I have had great sunny weather this weekend so it's a shame that I can't get out that easily yet.
My mobile charger broke on Friday night. So yesterday I had to go to the store to get a new one. I'm so glad it broke Friday night and not Saturday night because then all the store would have been closed until Monday.

We did - we had such a productive weekend - I am so proud of us!

Me too - I am excited to start putting it up... I think I may start working on the little cabinet this afternoon to get it prepped for painting.

I bet you are - I am looking forward to it, for you too. I sure hope that by having the new car and the wheel for your chair - that it makes it easier for you to go out and do, even little things, easier by yourself.

I am glad you were able to get a new charger for your phone.

I hope you had a nice weekend Lillian.

You are so very welcome!! I miss you so much, can't wait for October! Your living room looks fantastic,cant wait to see the progress!

I miss you too - I cannot wait to see you! Lots of fun memories ahead!

Living room looks great.

Thanks - I am super excited about it!

Your living room looks great.

Thank you - I am so happy with how it looks!

Wow, that is a lot of paint..I don't like to paint!! Your livingroom looks so nice, home improvements are so nice when they are done, but a pain while in progress!! Our weekend was pretty exciting, opening day for our grandson's minor league baseball team, and they won!!! Looking forward to all the plans for V's trip..as I am having to live vicariously through y'all's trips these days!!

Hahaha... Yes - it's a lot of paint, but I'd rather have it on hand, than to have it slow us down later... This way - we can just keep on moving along. It was pretty expensive too - but it's just a relief to have it all done.

Yay!!! That is exciting! That's always a good start!

I am so excited to share it with you all!

D!!!! It looks great. I'm so excited for you. What a terrific day. I can't wait to see it all put together.

Thanks! I am really excited about it! It's coming together so nicely - and so much better than I'd envisioned!

****************************************************************************************************

So... I had a nice list for yesterday, and last night I popped back on here to see if we'd accomplished everything on the list... To my surprise - we almost did. There were two things we didn't get done... We didn't get the touch up painting done, and I didn't get my kitchen floors scrubbed. Thankfully - these things are easy enough for me to do during the week or on week nights.

We started off our morning, cleaning the rest of the upstairs hallway... I have a cabinet up there, which Allison and I had to move into her room to make room for our lowboy dresser to come down the stairs. This took a bit of time, because simultaneously to this project - the girls have been doing their own spring cleaning... They each had a few donation bags outside their room to take to the car... We hauled those out - so my car is FULL right now with donation stuff.

While we were doing that, Josh was cleaning out his dresser. We actually have two of these idential ones... One is Josh's and one is mine... Josh volunteered to use his for this project - since it's a dresser he didn't store much in. And because of where mine is situated in our bedroom - we use it for a TV console in our room.

Hauling the dresser down was no easy feat... It took all 3 of us maneuvering it - but it wasn't as bad as I feared.

After we got the dresser/now media console in place - we measured to hang the TV and Josh cut 2 holes into the dry wall to hide the cords...

My issue now, is that now that the console is there - I am not sure I want to paint it? Opinions??? It actually looks really nice. V and I were joking last night... If I paint it and don't like it - we can always move it back upstairs and take the copy we still have up there and bring it down. LOL Not many people have that option. Josh wasn't too thrilled with that idea. LOL So - for the moment, I think I am just going to paint the lamps and live with the media console as it is... I can always paint it later this summer if I decide to. What would you do?

Anyways - I love how it looks, the family loves how it looks... I am very excited about it. The size is perfect, and I think the color is OK... Someone said that it screamed 90's... Do you all think so? I don't... but... I guess I really don't know. LOL

Josh put the shelves back into the curio for me... I can honestly say that these shelves are heavy... I lift heavy weights, as you all know - and if I were to guess, I would say that these shelves are about 40 lbs each! I can only haul 1 shelf at a time - partially because they are big and slightly slippery to carry, but still... The weight of this cabinet is insane! I was able to get all of my "stuff" back in there... However, I do plan to take some of it out and use it in other places in the room, because it's way too crowded. I also plan to move the shelves around a little - there are a couple of them that are off. I definitely like the curio a LOT better in this location - it fits perfectly and it doesn't look so out of place.

Josh also was able to hang all of my curtain rods... I am having a hard time deciding on curtains for the other 2 windows. I really like the brown a lot - they quality is SO much better and they hang so nicely. But the blue is kind of nice too - I like the color, but they are super sheer and super cheap. Both sets will have to have length added some how. With the brown set - I can order a 95" set from Target.com and put the shorter set on the window behind the love seat - so a person wouldn't know that they are too short. With the blue sheer set - I would have to buy 3 more curtains and add length - so there would be a seam across the bottom on all of them. Or I could just find different, better quality blue ones? I can't decide at all. I posted the question on FB last night and it seems to be split right down the middle... So, I am still lost. LOL I guess - the final option, is that I could try to find 3 or 4 more of the sale panels from Pier 1, and put the pattern on all 3 windows... Now that the patterned curtains are up - I am finding that I am really liking them a lot, and they aren't nearly as busy as I feared they would be. Anyone live near a Pier 1? The website has a handy-dandy tool where you can search the stores near you for a product... I need the 96" panels. LOL

So, here's two photos, one blue and one brown... What would you do - blue? Brown? Or patterned (not shown)?

So... Curtains are up - not only are they up, but they are altered and hemmed to the perfect length and also ironed! TV is up... Curio cabinet is full again. I have to say that I totally love how this room is coming together. It is so cozy and so comfortable. To say that I love it - is just an understatement... It turned out so much better than I even imagined it would. And just to have trim - TRIM - this excites me more than words!

For the record... The puppies love it! When they are allowed to enjoy it - that is.

This week - I will be working on getting some of the decor done, and trying to figure out where I want to hang things. I have a lot of ideas, but I haven't decided 100% which wall is getting what. I think that will be the hardest part for me. Because of the windows - I have a lot of walls, but nothing really any bigger or better than the others - so no real focal point.

By the weekend - I hope that we are prepping to finish off the kitchen. I need to get my China off of the counter top, but I don't want to put it back into the China cabinet, because we still have to move it out from the wall to get the wall painted behind it. We figured it out last night at dinner, and Josh only has 4 weekends home before Allison's Open House - so we need to make a LOT of progress while we have him here.

Today... I think I have one more morning of walking... but I've really enjoyed it - so I am going to try to put it back in my work out rotation every now and then. I hope to have my office completely cleaned out by tonight, so I can use it to heavy lift again tomorrow.

I also think I am going to move the little coffee cabinet into the house, along with a frame I plan to paint, and start working on those... I'll put them on a large sheet in the kitchen. I'd prefer to do this outside- but it's supposed to rain all week here, and I want to get it done. Tonight - I plan to work on the baseboards, doing some touch up... we have very little to do, but I don't want to forget about it.

Then, I will be working upstairs all day... Finishing up a couple of projects and starting on my next custom order.

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! Sending out prayers and good thoughts to all of you!

D~

 

[gopherdame]

First I want to say your living room is beautiful. I remember getting ready for graduations and all the work. But just painting made everything look so nice and clean. I love the dresser and wouldn't paint it. It's something you should live with for awhile and see if you want to change it. I also live by 3 Pier 1 stores and looked online to see if they have your curtains. If I'm looking at the right ones they don't show the cheap price you got. But I could look if you'd like me to, I just want to make sure I have the right name for them. I do think that is what I would vote for if they can be found.

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

I love it! It looks wonderful! You guys have done a fabulous job on it! For the curtains...I think the blue look great...the brown kind of blends in with the furniture and the blue really accentuates your gorgeous patterned Pier 1 curtains. So I would go with the blue.

You're inspiring me with home projects...but since we're in a rental, that's not going to happen. I've detested the paint and carpet since we moved into this house, but since we knew we would only be here for a few years we decided to rent instead of buying. Oh, the things I would change in this house if we weren't renting. Oh well.....

 

[ljcrochet]

Living room looks great. I don't think you need to paint the media console. You can always decide to paint if over the summer if you want.

 

[jandlinz]

Great job! The room looks amazing. I can't wait to see all the decorations. My votes are to keep the dresser the color it is. I really like the light color. It brightens up the room. I vote for blue curtains because it brings out the blue color in the fancy curtains. Looks great!

 

[DMGeurts]

First I want to say your living room is beautiful. I remember getting ready for graduations and all the work. But just painting made everything look so nice and clean. I love the dresser and wouldn't paint it. It's something you should live with for awhile and see if you want to change it. I also live by 3 Pier 1 stores and looked online to see if they have your curtains. If I'm looking at the right ones they don't show the cheap price you got. But I could look if you'd like me to, I just want to make sure I have the right name for them. I do think that is what I would vote for if they can be found.

WOW!!! Cancel that... I just went to the website to look, 2 weeks ago, when I was buying curtains, the 96" tab back curtain panels were on clearance for $14.99... Now they are back up to full price! WOW! Sooooo... I guess that is the end of that plan, for now. I will keep watching them to see if they go back down again. Thanks for offering though - there is just no way I can pay $150 for the remaining curtains.

D~

 

[FantasiaMagic]

I hope you're having a nice weekend? Any big plans?

Hi D! Yes I had a great weekend here at school! There was a carnival in town and my friends and I also saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 - it was very cute!

The living room looks great! Both colors of the curtains look nice - I don't think you could go wrong with anything.

The color of the media console also looks great, I don't think you have to change it but you could always see how you feel in a few months!

How nice of your friends Cindy to send you all the mugs! I can't wait to see your finished product of the coffee station with all your goodies on there!

It's also great the puppies approve of the room

Oh! Before I forget again, I saw these really cute Disney shoes on the Target website. I saw the Donald pair and thought of you! There are a couple of other styles as well.
Here is the link: I hope it's allowed to stay lol
http://www.target.com/p/women-s-dis...#prodSlot=medium_1_2&term=disney+womans+shoes
Supposedly they sell these in the store too. Any stores by me don't have any style in stock. They may be in one of your Target's though!

I hope you have a great day!

 

[KathyM2]

Wow your living room looks amazing! And how rewarding it must be to have done it all yourselves! Hmmm we changed a few lightbulbs this weekend lol. But seriously, it's awesome!

 

[UGAFan0829]

I personally love the blue curtains! For one, blue is one of my favorite colors, but also because to me the brown blends in with the couch, while the blue stands out a little more.

 

[kittylady1972]

Love how the room turned out! So great when something like that comes to completion. I'd probably just be sitting in there and enjoying it and I agree about the dresser...leave it as is without paint!

 

[Chicago Mo]

Your living room is FANTASTIC!!! so bright and cheery!!! can't wait to see your decorations! I laughed at your inability to keep a plant alive... neither can i i think you were all making fun out of my plants last time including the ones in my bathroom?

I want a big plant in my house too!!! sadly i cannot. my luck i will buy something toxic to my animals.. you KNOW they will eat it. Stevie will think it's a climbing post and well.. disaster written all over it. so i don't even bother with a fake one.

I do LOVE it and cannot wait too see the kitchen!!!