We need some rugs...

Our house is starting to feel more and more like home.  Toy room/library has come along way since we first moved in.  Here it is day one.

Here is carpet out and getting ready for new flooring...

New floor and new trim...

Add a wall of book shelves and it looks like a library!  We would play on the floor, but after 15 minutes our rears would be sore from sitting on the floor...what do we need?

A rug!  Heather found a great deal online and it arrived yesterday.  We unrolled it and got it in place!

Trigg is pretty sure the design is actually a train track!

Either way, it fits great in the space, the color works will with the room and I love the design of it!  Great find babe!

Big Boy Room

We are nearly finished with Trigg's Big Boy room and with baby number 2 due to arrive in 6 to 8 weeks, I need to start working on a nursery!  

Here is what the hallway/room looked like when we moved in...a bright shade of pink!

Even the ceiling fan was pink!  We quickly primed it and got some paint samples on the wall.

New trim and some paint gives it a whole new look and feel!

Once the new carpet got put in, we put together his "Big Boy Bed"

Nice and cozy!  I built the bed using plans from Ana-White.com, she has a great website with lots of building plans, here is the plans that we used for Trigg's bed.

We did a similar wall in Trigg's room at our old house.  I ripped down sheets of hardwood into 6 inch boards and put them on the wall...

...then a coat of primer...

...and a coat of "Swiss Coffee" white paint.  Added two floating shelves...oh and I painted the pink fan blades white too!

A room fit for a big boy!

Trigg's room had two closets...so we took the door off of this one, made the opening a little wider and did a drywall finish...creating a nook...a book nook!

...then we added some stripes!  We still want to find a cozy chair and maybe a shelf for some books!

There are a few finishing touches that we still want to do, but for now, Trigg's room has been transformed to a big boys room!

Christmas Home Tour

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas everywhere you go!  We are still trying to figure out what decorations go where, but for this year, we are ready!

 We put these planters together using lights, greenery and silver sticks!

 In the front room we put up our "kid" tree, we use a lot of ornaments from our childhood plus a few new ones...

We have also started the tradition of buying an ornament when we go on vacation...here is the one we picked up from our trip to Las Vegas.

These two are from prior trips to the Grand Canyon and from our honeymoon to Hawaii.

 Trigg has his nativity set up on the bookshelf!

 And mom and dad's nativity set is set up (a little higher).

 We added some garland going down the stairs and Heather made some burlap bows!

 Green garland and Christmas trees in the entryway!

 Amaryllis blooms and chalkboard tray in the front hallway

 The fireplace and built-ins are ready for the holidays!

 "Mom's tree" as it is known to Trigg, we picked up our tree at Costco and it fits perfectly (with an inch to spare)

 Heather made these burlap poinsettia blooms to decorate the tree!

"Noel" is on one of our floating shelves above the couch and our snowflake pillow got unpacked!

 Trigg loves the pretty tree (but don't touch it)!

That's the tour...Merry Christmas

Library...wall of books!

We have had an idea for this wall to be floor to ceiling book shelves.  A place for books, a few toys and a more books!  Time for a trip to IKEA!  A couple of weekends ago, I got up early and headed north to the Twin Cities.  I got to IKEA 5 minutes before it opened, I have my itemized shopping list, including pictures, I was through the store, checked out and loaded in the car in less than an hour!

 ...after a some assembly of lots of Billy bookshelves, we had the starts to our library!

 5 tall Billy bookshelves with extensions on top.

 Adding the extensions...

 The finished product.  I think we are going to add another layer of extensions on top, that will fill the wall...but that will be another trip to IKEA!

 And loaded with books!

 All my boxes of books are unloaded...and there is still room for a few more books!

The room will be complete once we get a rug, maybe a different reading chair and maybe a library rolling ladder...but for now, we have a library!

Barn Door

I realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of the Barn Door project (thanks for the comment Elizabeth!)  We love the idea of a barn door and we were trying to figure out where to utilize one.  We thought it would be a great addition to the main floor powder bath.  Our good friends, the Phillips, have an old family farm with some old barns.  We bought the hardware from them.  I gave the rail a good sanding and then a fresh coat of black paint.

 I was able to hit two studs on both ends of the rail.  For the middle bolt, I cut a hole in the drywall from the bathroom side and added some bracing to make sure it won't fall down.

 The rail is secure and ready for a door!

 The door hardware needed some work, I ended up cutting off the old wheels and added new ones.

 For the door, I used pre-primed mdf boards and used a Kreg pocket jig to make pocket holes...

 All laid out...

 ...with pocket holes to attach everything together.

 The planks attached together.  I then added the front board to make the frame and attached the brackets.

 ...and hung up and ready to roll!

 Added a handle and we have a functional bathroom door!

It took a little work to adjust the rollers so they will slide inside the rail, but after some fine tuning the door is working great!

Coat Closet

Time for another home project update!  Today's feature...the coat closet.  For those of you that don't what the details of the project, here is the before...

 ...and here is the after.  Old doors removed, barn door for the bathroom and open space for the coat closet.

 Now for the details.  We started during "construction week" by pulling out the old doors...jambs and all.  Brent helped me add new dry wall, metal corners and get everything taped and mudded.  We then used a can of spray texture to put the final touch before painting!

 Then to the stencil, I started at the bottom knowing that there would be a bench to cover it up if I messed up...I used a repositionable spray adhesive on the back, that way I could move and stick the stencil as I went!  The stencil is a 16 x 16 square...so two blocks down...lots to go!

 I worked my way up the back wall, bending the corners as much as I could.

For the bench, we used two of Ikea's Expedit cubes and secured them to the wall.  Then cut a slab of mdf for the top.  Then Heather found a foam pad for the top.

Heather also found some old pillow's at Goodwill for $2 or $3 each.  Then she found these great pillow covers at Hobby Lobby for $5.  New pillows for under $10!

Then we added coat hooks to the back and side walls to hang our jackets!

I ended up creating another stencil from a sheet of leftover vinyl to paint the corners, it was easier to bend and seal into the corners.

The finished product, baskets under the bench have our hats and gloves.

We still need to find a fabric to cover the bench, but it is pretty much finished!