The back of the peninsula in the Kitchen is done!!!!

                     I am so excited to share how the back of the peninsula turned out in the kitchen.




This is what was on the back of the peninsula before we ripped it off.  I was so happy when that came down, it was so stained and dirty.  The dishwasher must have leaked before because it was all bubbled at the bottom from the water.

 

This is when we first got the keys.  Wow!!!  It's crazy to look back at all the work we have done.

The boys working hard.

We bought the backing at Menards and put up baseboard that matched the rest of the house on the top and bottom for a finished look.

Work in progress.

Now for the reveal!!!



This is exactly what I had envisioned when I first walk through this house.  Well  except for those countertops.  They will have to be transformed.



I love my new bar stools too!  We had fabric ones in the last house and they were a pain to clean with little ones.

I am so proud of my hubby he did a wonderful job.

 



Before

  

 

After

Now onto the Laundry Room.  I am so over doing Laundry on Painted Subfloors.

How God has saved me from myself

           All my life I have been addicted to stress.  I will acknowledge most times I put it on myself.  I completely over kill when I am on task for a project.  When I chose to do something I go big.  When I mean go big I will kill myself to make perfection.  As I am getting wiser in my years I am learning perfection is never achieved because it doesn't exist.  When I get stressed my household turns upside down and this is where god steps in.  This year has been one of the most stressful years of my life and I chose this.  Brent and I chose to put our house up for sale and we chose to buy another house that needed lots of love.  We chose this house because it was a blank canvas for me, my husband knows me well.  He knew that no house would be my dream house unless I completely designed it myself.  When we went through this house we loved the layout.  It was a blank canvas for me to paint my forever house.  Achieving a dream always comes with paying a price.  The price we paid was being completely stress to the max during the first five months of this year.  This is where god comes in.  We prayed that god would help us on our journey.  We did not pray for selling our house.  We did not pray for getting a new house, or getting the new house cheaper.  I prayed that god would guide me down the path that would be best for my family, while staying closer to him.  I prayed that this stress would not lead me to crazy town but bring our family closer.  

            I feel like the stress of buying and selling a house and even most of all home renovations can leave you and your spouse screaming at each other.   God total answered my prayers.  After nine years of marriage Brent and I are finally on the same team when it comes to projects.  On previous projects, one of us would have to leave the house while the other worked.  God has taught us to pick each other up while the other was down and most of all has taught me to be a better wife.  I am truly amazed by my husband and what he can accomplish with no experience.  The best part of this adventure is when he is baffled he can ask my advice and together we can conquer this house while giving it our love.  I know this dream would not be possible without the guidance of our heavenly father.  He has tamed the addiction I have to stress and the over powering chaos it creates in our house.

      So I just want to keep it real, we are all human, and I want to give props to the only one who can save us from ourselves our heavenly father.

So remember when those house projects make you so mad that you want to scream, take a step back and remember who you are screaming at.

The Girl with Paint on her Face

Yesterday Brent walked in from cooking on the grill and asked me "did you just paint something?"  I responded " yes can you smell it?"  he said "no you have paint all over your face."   The can of spray paint misfired and sprayed my face.  Thankfully I was wearing my glasses.  After a long hot shower last night I still have some specks of spray paint on my face.

Are you wondering what I was spray painting?

I spray painted everything and it saved me a ton of cash.  I am on a budget, but have a problem because everything I love is so expensive.  So I recreate it with something I already have.  Everything in this house screams 1990's with bright BRASS.  I dream in oil rubbed bronze but I can't afford to replace everything in the house, especially when they are still in great condition.

Here are the same lights painted oil rubbed bronze

Look at those brass fixtures in the master bath.  I love the shape of them and they are in great condition.

This is the towel hook for the master bath.  I searched high and low for new towel hooks and could not find anything that fit just right.  Then I decided to turn the sides of the towel bar down and just use those.  I found the same hooks at Menard's for 8 dollars each.  They are called robe hooks.  I love them.

  

Here is my spray booth.  I use the Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze.  Open all the windows in the basement and I laid down a bunch of moving boxes.

The hardware for the kid's bathroom.

How to paint hardware.

1. Clean fixture well (soap and water does the trick)
2. Let Hardware dry
3. Sand hardware lightly with sandpaper ( I use whatever I have on hand).  You just want to scuff up the metal so the paint sticks.
4. Clean hardware with a soft rag (Just get all the dust off from sanding off)
5. Spray paint several light coats.  I normally spray three coat and let them dry a few hours in between.
6. I let them dry for a couple of days before putting them up just to make sure they cure (paint hardens) a little better.

Put them up and enjoy the fact that you just updated your light fixture while saving a boat load of CASH!!!!!
The average light fixture for a bathroom cost around $60, the average towel hook cost about $30, the robe hook were $8, toilet paper holder $20.  For all three bathrooms I saved an average of $300 on just fixtures.  Rustoeum carries the spray paint in oil rubbed bronze, brush Nickel, copper, or shinny Nickel.

The best part is nobody can tell they are spray painted.  My friend who put in the flooring, said he thought we were switching everything thing to oil rubbed bronze until he found my secret hidden in the basement (my little spray booth).
 

My little girl's Room

I am so excited to share My little girl's Room because I designed it for my princess.  Her entire room cost me less then $154 and that is including her furniture.  Yes you heard me right, less then $154 including her furniture.  I wanted it to be girly but different, so I choose turquoise, creams, and browns.

It's like a blank canvas waiting for me to paint my picture.

This girl has more closet space then most master bedrooms.

 

The picture was from the Circus theme invites I designed for our circus themed birthday party last year.  The dolphin was a present Brent gave me when we were in high school.

We searched for this piggy when we found out we were pregnant with our second.  It had a hairline crack when we got it in the mail.  Brent e-mailed the site that we received it from to see if we could get another one.   Since they didn't have anymore, they refunded our money.  Thankfully, when we put it in the oven it didn't completely crack.

I spy with my little eye something not finished. I am still spray painting the vent cover oil rubbed bronze to match the rest of the house.

Tissue pom poms (it cost me only $5 to make them for the whole room).

The quilt was made by my mother in law as a gift, and the crib is borrowed from my cousin.  We spent over $1000 on Nixon's crib/convertible to Full size bed and a dresser which is falling apart now.  I have learned that I would rather buy old furniture and fix it up, it's better quality. 

We took the curtain rod from downstairs and I just looped the tissue pom poms around the finials with pipe cleaner.

I got the curtains at Hobby Lobby for $6 each. 

Origami Cranes

We found these at Target to go on closet doors and they match her room perfectly.

The paint is Benjamin Moore Mediation

I had this trunk in my room growing up.  It has been repainted antique white and distressed.

The other day I found this basket in the clearance section at Meijer for only $13.99.  It's so much nicer than the moving box I was using as her toy box.

We still need to add trim to the closet.  It's on our to do list.

The dresser was in Brent's room growing up and I had it painted along with the truck antique white.  It only cost me $100 for both.  They match perfect. 

 

If I total it all up 

• The crib was free
• The dresser and cedar chest were already ours, we paid $100 to have them both repainted and distressed.
• The Tissue Pom Poms were $5 for the whole room
• The Quilt was a gift 
• The Curtain's were a total of $12 ($6 each)
• The curtain rod was reused from downstairs so that was free.
• The basket was on Clearance for $13.99
• The pig was free since they refunded our money
• I bought the picture frame from Kohls for $7.99
• The Hardware for Piper's closet was from target and cost $14.99  

For a grand total of $153.97
If I quote my little man he would say "now mama that is CHEAP"

How the girl with the expensive taste was able to stay on budget.

As we are shelling out cash for our whole house remodel, I am trying to keep cost down.  We have a goal  of living completely debt free by the time we turn 40.  I have been told that I have expensive taste, so to stay on track I have to cut cost without sacrificing my vision for our forever house.  Some of the things I have learned along the way are:

It pays to shop around and compare cost.

• For example when we moved into our forever house, we were living out of a cooler.  The house didn't come with a refrigerator, and the refrigerator I  had selected would no longer fit once we realized that we had to include the height of the new flooring (ugggg).   At this point in the game I felt defeated.  So I told Brent I can not make anymore decisions right now, "please just get me a fridge that will fit."  So Brent stopped at every appliance store around Grand Rapids asking for information and our options.  Brent had found only one fridge that would fit our unique space without leaving a huge gap on the sides.  It was even the fridge I wanted!!!  So Brent was able to purchase the floor model and he saved $800 plus he received a $260 rebate/Lowes gift card.

  

  I love this fridge!!!

• After living in our forever house for a week I realized the dishwasher was leaking out the  bottom  (seriously, water all over my sub-floor).  This mama was washing dishes by hand for three weeks before we had time to shop for a new one.  I was looking through the Memorial Day ads and  had seen that Lowes had the Dishwasher I wanted on sale for $550.  So I said to Brent "I have a coupon for 10% off my entire purchase at Lowes, maybe we can go pick up a new dishwasher. " Thank goodness he said yes because washing dishes by hand is not my favorite thing.  When we got to Lowes they had a different ad from the one I was looking at that very same day.  I think they thought I was crazy.  So Brent started checking on his phone and found the dishwasher at home depot on Sale for $450.   Score!  Lowes matched the $450 and I used my 10% off coupon and save $150 on my new dishwasher.
  
• When it came time for picking out our carpet we shopped around and saved big!  I got a 9lb pad, which Brent was trying to talk me out of and the salesman gave it to me for $1.50 instead of $2 a     sq ft.  I really wanted that 9lb pad, so as soon as he told me that I said sold!   Even with the 9lb pad and good quality carpet we were able to save almost $1000. I had already put half down for the deposit when I found a coupon on their website for and additional 10 percent off.  That just sweetened a already great deal.

  

  This Carpet is great!!!  It has so much cushion I think you really bounce when you walk on it.

• Then came the wood floors I so dreamed about at night.  Hand scraped dark wood floors with rich tan undertones.  And yes I dream about wood floors at night, this is my forever house you know.  This is where my budget went south.  Brent would say to me "Kerri do you really need that?  Just go with something cheaper."  My response to Brent, "you always told me, you can get whatever you want on  the next house, guess what we are in the next house and yes I really have to have it".  Don't worry I got my wood flooring and they look gorgeous.  Originally we were going to refinish the existing oak wood floors ourselves.  Well, we ended up ripping them out along with the baseboards.  It just wasn't going to work.  The original wood flooring was not thick enough to refinish, and all the baseboards in the whole house were ruined.  So whats a girl to do?  I know, get the wood floors I dreamed about. Since brent was freaking out over the cost, I called a friend of mine who's husband does floors. He was able to find the the same wood floors I picked out, and negotiated a price of almost $2 per sq foot off.  Now that doesn't sound like much but when you are talking 890 sq feet that is huge!!!

  

  I love my wood floors.  I will say the only thing is you have to sweep twice a day because dark shows everything.  I knew this when I picked them out and I think they are total worth it.

Now when you move make sure you let the Post Office know, so they can direct your mail to your new house and you get tons of great coupons for moving.

•  Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off entire purchase (not one item but entire purchase)
• 10% Pottery Barn ( I haven't used that one yet, I already gave Brent a heartattck over the cost of the new floors so I better stay away from that store even though I love it)

Lowes $10 off $50 (which by the way I went to yesterday and they wouldn't let me use my coupon.  The machine said we already used, but I know we didn't.  The manager gave me a number to call to get a new coupon if there was a error, and he said that I could bring my recite in with my new coupon and he would adjust the price.  I was not to happy.  At this point I just shopped around Lowes for an hour with a 2 year and 5 year old getting all the of the items I needed.  I drove out of my way to go to Lowes because I had a coupon.  After I purchased all of the items needed and got out to the parking lot I decided to march my butt back in there with a cranky 2 year old and returned my five cans of spray paint and painters tape.  I did have six cans but I really needed one can right away for my next project.  I left and on my way home I called customer service and they apologized for inconvenience and said they would send me a new coupon and I told her no thank you, that would not even cover my gas to get back to Lowes.  I would just find another store to buy all my items from.  So she said she would hand it off to the manager at the store and guess who called me at 9:30 at night?  The manager from the store.  I began to tell him why I was upset.  He responded with "yes ma'am I am the manager you talked with today and sorry for the inconvenience.  Customer service should have taken care this when you called and he would credit me the $10 now."  I was really not happy at this point.  "I told him I already returned the spray paint, so what are you going to credit?"  I told him that I just purchased a refrigerator, dishwasher and a bunch of stuff for the house we are renovating, and that we are lowes card members.  So he credited our Lowes card $40 for the aggravation he caused me.

So my whole point is...shop around, get recommendations from family and friends, and use Coupons!  This is the way we were able to stay on budget for our whole home remodel, even though we had some unexpected extras that were not in the original plan.

DIY Baseball Finials

In the old house I made homemade Baseball Finials to go in the sports themed bedroom.  We put them back up in the new room last night.  We had to leave the curtain rod and brackets at the old house so we reused a small curtain rod that was in the dining room instead of buying new.

I went to Walmart and bought 2 baseballs, they were less then $3 each.  Brent added the holes using a drill press.

The items you will need are two baseballs, curtain brackets, and a curtain rod without finials.  Since I am all about reusing, I asked Brent to cut the finials off this curtain rod.

Here is a sneak peak at my dining room before we Kerrified it.  Brent took one of the old curtain rods and cut the finials off with his Dremel. 

Look at those baseball finials don't they just complete the room.  Now I will say we ran into a little problem as usual the hole we had originally drilled fit the old curtain rod perfectly but this curtain rod was smaller in diameter.  Brent came up with a great solution he added black electrical tape around the rod until it fit perfect.  They are snug as a bug in a rug and you can't even tell. 

The sports themed room is complete!!!

One room in the whole house is just about complete only 99 million to go. 

Sport Themed Room

The ceiling fan will be redone.  I am thinking about painting the brass black and new glass fixture shades.

Yes that ring around the bottom of the walls was dirt.  A good scrub with Tide detergent and hot water and two coats of Benjamin Moore Paint did the trick.

The glass mirrors were stuck on the wall.  So we used a razor and very careful scrapped them off.

One of the reasons I fell in love with this house was the closet space.  In our previous house there was not enough closet space at all.

So when we brought Nixon to see his future room he looked at me and said "mom why did you guys buy the stinking gross house?"  What can I say the kid has no vision.  I promised him I would give him a room that was totally awesome, and reminded him we will all be on the same level, which was super important to mommy.

The Room color is Benjamin Moore Mediation and the blue is Benjamin Moore Nighty Night

We went with a sports theme.

I can't wait to tackle that ceiling fan. 

One of my favorite things in this house was all of the closets, which were all highlight in beautiful colors.  I think it adds to the room with a pop of color.

We got all the signs at Hobby Lobby.

I just love to add the little details.  Brent says I go a little over board, but I say that I am just thorough.

Every little man needs a night light.

It's not sport theme but I just love it!!!

Trunks are a great way to store toys.