Born Again TV Stand

Today my productivity is falling a little short of what I need to accomplish. Which is why it feels good to have this project done and put in place. It's like making a to do list, and putting something on it you've already done, just so you can cross it off. But it still feels pretty good.

Anyway, in my grand tradition, this project has been about a year in its completion. Major hangups include procrastination, and choosing a color for the inside. Don't worry about the mess in the background - it's still on my to-do list ;)

I love the way it came out! And my little helper in the corner. Hubs helped me pick the color for the inside, and I think it's pretty fabulous. Here's the before picture:

As you can see, I chose to keep the original hardware. I actually really liked it, and it's one of the reasons I liked this piece of furniture in the first place. The challenging part came with the veneer - painting veneer is HARD. Especially with all the little crevices in the doors and drawers. There are some paint chipping problems, but I think it helps it to look "antique" with the peeling paint. If it gets too bad, I'll touch it up at some point.

Here you can see the spot where the paint isn't sticking very well.

Since I don't notice it from a distance, I'm not going to worry about it right off. I also had my handyman cut a hole in the back so I can keep the base to the surround sound and our dvd player on the inside. It has definitely cleaned up this little TV corner from what it used to be, and is another step towards us living like grown ups.

Here's a before picture of the inside of the drawers:

I really liked the look of the old newspaper, but in the end I decided to paint it green because it just all went together better that way.

And another picture, because I just like it so much!!

Just an Update

Things have been super crazy around here. The husband's thumb is finally better, after numerous doctor and hospital visits and a few different antibiotics. He's back at work and feeling much better! Thank you everyone for your concern and well wishes. The hardest part was that the rest of him was fine, and as such he was super antsy with orders to sit home and do nothing. I have to admit, the day I tried to do nothing with him, it was much harder to do than I thought it would be!

Today I am home alone and tackling many forgotten about projects. Hopefully you'll have more updates soon on those, but admittedly I tend to tackle more than I can handle and feel like quitting part way through. Hence why I have so many to finish in the first place.

I got a promotion at work! I'm super excited for the additional responsibility and new challenges I will face. I'm back to having a more variable schedule, which I'm actually really excited about. Sometimes you get stuck in a rut with the same routine all the time, so I like that some days I have time in the mornings, and some days I have time  in the evenings. It is definitely another "grass is greener" situation, as last time I switched positions I was really excited to have a set schedule and the ability to have more of a routine.

Things are going pretty well with the addition of Zoey. She still has a lot to learn, but at least she more often than not chews on dog toys versus eating my stuff. Fiona is still adjusting to being completely outnumbered by dogs, and then my rearranging the living room sure didn't help her. My dear feline hates change, and I'm sure she will be voicing her displeasure very soon. Already she seems to hate being separated from us at night and does not appreciate having the bedroom door shut. The funny thing is this is definitely not the first time we have shut her out at night as Bandit has a tendency to eat garbage, and Fiona has a tendency to try and eat my feet while I'm sleeping. I am sure everything will sort itself out soon enough, and we will all live happily ever after.

The Chickens are Home to Roost!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Barbara and Gertrude:

We call them Babs and Gert. Though sometimes I like to call Gertrude "Trudy". They're super friendly, they eat lots of bugs, and they lay eggs. It's a total win situation for us! On top of that, they're effing adorable and totally hilarious. They are show chicken flunkies, so they are obviously the perfect chickens for us.

Like all women, they love the hubs more than they love me. It's possible I traumatized them a smidge; they had to ride in my car (including a trip to get some coffee in a drive-thru and a few stares at the chickens in my back seat from our friendly baristas).  I took my sister home and wanted to show them off to my family,  then when I tried to walk them into the house sitting in the rubbermaid bin they came in, first Gertrude flew out, and when I was catching her, I lost Barbara! They are fast, man! Luckily my brother was willing to help his sister out, brought out some fishing twine in an effort to net her, but she took off into some underbrush. Meanwhile, my sister Mary was trying to show Gertrude off to my dad, but the dog barked and she flew off again! My uncle lured her out with a slice of bread, so they were able to catch Gertrude, but Barbara was still on the lamb. Turns out her weakness is also white bread, and after my entire family came out to help, I was finally able to pick her up and get her back in the car. It was quite the adventure, and naturally include multiple members of my family. It does, however, explain a little bit why they don't want to be around me so much.

Currently their "coop" used to be Bandit's doghouse. He never actually used it, because he prefers my couch and despises being outside without me, so we added a second story and put their house up on blocks. It's how we roll. Other than purchasing the chicken wire (who knows why hubs only bought it 3' tall), the rest of their current coop was built with stuff we had lying around, I think they did a pretty good job:

We'll upgrade eventually, especially if we get more chickens. We'll see how we do with this dynamic duo first.

Bathroom Improvement

I'm going to let you in a dirty little secret. This was my bathroom:

Hubs lovingly built that shelf so that I could have some more storage, but it always ended up being a big mess. We used those things daily, but there just wasn't a way to neatly put everything together.

And then I remembered I had this:

I had been meaning to paint it white and find a home for it. It was once my nightstand when I was a single girl, but since I put it together myself it was starting to get a bit wobbly and hubs just didn't like it anymore. He had the idea of putting a support piece on the back of it so it would be more stable, and about a billion coats of white paint later, it makes my bathroom MUCH happier!

I still have some things out, but the majority of my daily use items are now in the top drawer. I even have extra space in the drawers!! And I LOOOOVE that the towels now have a space in the bathroom. Our bathroom isn't *small*, but it's not super big either. It's kind of an odd shape too, so it's tough to put in extra storage. So far, this is doing very nicely. If I were better at photographing small spaces, you could see how everything (including the two-tone walls and shower curtain) go together. And yes, that's a bobble-head monkey sitting on a banana holding the water cup. This is what happens when you leave a man alone to register for bathroom items.