Garage Make-over

Hi. I am alive. I've been busy with projects and sickly kiddos, but I am back. And I will be showing you what I have been working on for the last month. 

The Garage.

I can't find my very first before picture, so you don't get to see that no one could park in this bad boy. I completely cleaned it out, threw away a truck load of stuff, including 3, that's right, T-H-R-E-E Christmas trees. 

I moved all Christmas decorations out to the storage shed, and all clothes to the attic. I re-organized a lot of stuff. There is still some organization to be done, but I am pleased with the outcome. 

Along with all the organization going on, I scraped up all the old chipping paint on the floor. It was awful. Three weeks, it took me. In my defense, it probably wouldn't have taken that long if I were just going to Lowe's to pick up the paint remover, but Philly was ordering it through the store and they only get a truck once a week. It was a nightmare, and I did it all by myself and ended up making myself sick sniffing the fumes. 

But, then John banned me from helping with the rest, but which kinda ended up ticking me off since it took a total of 4 hours to complete over the course of two days. 

Anyway, here is the before picture. 

Some of the paint was totally stubborn

So, Friday evening, we moved everything out of the garage, and I mean everything that was on the floor. We did the acid bath on the floor as a clean and prep kind of thing. It sounded scary but was super easy. 

You mix it with water, spray off the garage floor with a hose, and then sprinkle the acid stuff on the floor, agitate with a stiff bristle brush, and then rinse off again. 

You get to wear awesome outfits too

Yep. No make up. Wet hair. And a Cherry Coke. Friday nights are exciting! 

Our stuff was everywhere!

Hey look! More stuff! 

Doesn't everyone keep their refrigerators on the sidewalk?

Old school Oakleys.. too bad the acid ate the tint off. 

Dropping the acid... on the floor. 

Modern day Cinderella

 It needs to set for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. So, we got up Saturday morning to paint the floor. You mix the paint color with the Epoxy and it has to set for 30 minutes before using and then you have 2 hours to use it. 

You paint in small sections

 and then spread the flakes.. that was my job. 

It has to dry for 24 hours before you can walk on it, and then 72 hours until you can drive a car on it. 

Finished product.

Maybe your wondering where all the stuff went that didn't need to sit outside in 100 degree temperatures for 72 hours... well. That answer is the inside of our house. There was STUFF everywhere. It make Philly very cranky. I can't believe he doesn't like to step over a wagon to get to his bedroom. 

Verdict? I love the floor. It's amazing. And the garage is so clean. I highly recommend doing this if you have unpainted concrete. It's not that hard to do. The scraping? I'm not sure I would do that again. It was miserable. Or maybe if I had a helper, would I consider doing that again. 

Closet Mini Makeover

So, I have a problem with re-doing rooms in the house that probably don't need it.

The closet was one of those things. It was not functional anymore and I was getting tired of stepping over the piles of STUFF in the floor. John also had this great shelving that really should be used for shoes and he didn't use it for that. So, I wanted to downsize the amount of stuff in there and switch sides. 

Plus, I couldn't STAND looking at this every day. 

Before

Now, what should have been a FUN and easy project.. I wanted to re-paint the walls and do a houndstooth stencil on the main wall. So, I took everything OUT of the closet and took off the shelving. Try finding a place to put all that! 

I got the holes patched in the wall and painted. I started on Thursday afternoon and got that all finished by Friday night. I was waiting the stencil to come in. So, late Friday night, I start with the stencil... and it's bleeding everywhere. So, I take it down and decide I will need to re-paint over that to start over. Saturday morning, I started again and I realized that the stencil just wasn't going to look the way I wanted it to, so I made a modification to just do white stripes. I measured and taped everything off in about 45 minutes. I didn't take the bottom part of the wall, because it was still drying where I painted over the white stencil. I paint my stripes and am finally feeling good about this project- it's going to look good, maybe not like I wanted, but I should be finished in time for dinner! Yay! 

So, I waited to pull the tape until the paint was almost dry..As I am pulling the tape off, HUGE CHUNKS of paint are coming off.. all the way down to the sheetrock. I thought I was going to cry. It looked worse than before. So, after throwing a mini-fit about it, and people telling me to just leave it, I decided I couldn't just leave it, so I HAND PAINTED the last two stripes and then patched the holes and re painted the spots that were messed up. 

Then it was time to put everything back. 

My new side

Philly's new side

 John's shoe rack that I got from Target for $9.99!! And I put it together myself!

I decided to put my seasonal footwear on the bottom shelf

My new earring holder that I made

bags

So, what do you think? Probably not worth the headache, but I am happy with the results. The closet is less cluttered and we using our space much better!

Crafty- My Awesome Sign

Anyone watch "How I Met Your Mother"? I love Barney. He may be my favorite character. I saw this sign originally on Pinterest and I knew I could make it myself. So, I had Natalie use her handy dandy Cricut and cut me some letters. I then, figured out the size canvas I needed and headed to the Hobby Lobby. I laid out all the letters on the canvas to make sure they would fit, and then used a ruler to make sure the words were straight.

After I got all the letters on there, I mixed my paint color and just painted over the entire canvas. Once it was done and had dried, I took all the letters off. I did do a little touch up white paint.

And then I hung it on my wall. :) I love it! It's in the perfect spot to cheer you up when you aren't feeling so awesome. 

Girls Rooms- Decorated.. FINALLY!

I thought it was about time I showed y'all the girls rooms as a finished product. 

I made the headboards and did a tutorial on that HERE. 

The got the bedding from Bed, Bath, and Beyond- I ordered in online. My sister made the crown ribbon things. The plan is to hang pictures or artwork from them, but I am waiting to see if they won't mess with them. 

The curtains are original from Addy's nursery- Pottery Barn Kids. 

The pictures, I, of course, took and the frames were black frames I had and I just spray painted them pink. 

I made the hairbow holders. 

My sister made the letters for the girls. 

She also cut the vinyl letters that go above the window and it says, "May You Grow In The Eyes Of The Lord." That was hand painted above the window in Addison's nursery, but we went with vinyl this time so it was easily removed. 

The room get's terrible lighting.. and they take horrible naps and wake up entirely too early, since the room gets SO MUCH SUN. 

These are pictures of the girls that are framed above each of their beds. 

At least Addison's bedtime drama has eased some, not completely, but I think it's s-l-o-w-l-y getting better. 

DIY Headboards

I have been getting a lot of a requests for a DIY Headboard tutorial. Since, this was my first time doing something like this, I have tips and tricks that I can pass on to you!

I started with plywood, cut to the dimensions that I needed for the two twin bed. I think my height was 48? I can't remember. 

I then used some spray glue... I don't recommend this brand. I don't think it does a great job with the plywood and foam. 

I spray glued my foam.. which I cut myself. Apparently, the Hancock Fabrics around here don't cut foam for you, but I have heard of others cutting it for you, so just ask. I had a hard time getting it straight, and I think that was my big problem in the end. 

I stapled quilt batting around the whole thing.

 Gotta love the toys and clutter around...

I laid my fabric out and then stapled it the same way I did the batting... I think I pulled it too tight. That combined with the lumps from cutting the foam myself made the sides look a little wonky. Once I got it up, it's really hard to tell that it's messed up. 

See what I mean about it being lumpy?? The girls don't care though. 

Once I get the whole room done, I will show you what it looks like, but consider this a sneak peek!