Renovating for the Lazy

Before we bought Sarah, I was obsessed with home renovation shows. I pretty much watch them all. It probably started with Trading Spaces and evolved from there. I love pretty much everything on the DIY Network, HGTV, and even the classic This Old House which made Bob Vila a household name.

With the advancement of technology came websites to entertain me with renovation ideas: Pinterest, Etsy, Better Homes and Gardens, Houzz, and my new favorite Hometalk. If you've never visited Hometalk, it's similar to Pinterest and Houzz, where you can have idea boards with links to stuff you like. The difference is that it's almost all idea boards that include instructions on how to do things for home renovations. They link to blogs that show you what they do and explain how to achieve similar results.

I decided to tackle a project. I chose the window seat in our bedroom.

I did two things to our window seat area. My first project was to trim the curtains to the right height. I'm not a great seamstress but with help from my handy-dandy-sewing-machine I was able to bring the bottoms of the curtains up to the point where they just brushed the bottom of the bench.

 Here's a picture showing the great storage that the window seat has hidden under the trap door. We keep all of our bed linens and extra blankets there. The colors are all washed out because I'm shooting these in direct sunlight. Paint is actually white and the front of the bench is a very light grey.

The second part of my window seat renovation was to build a seat cushion to cover the trap door and the painted wood (which p.s. my kids had painted with permanent markers - the little sweeties). I found several tutorials online but I went with a no-sew bench cushion. Here is a tutorial if you want to know how I did my bench cushion.  

And if you're curious, here is what the bottom of the cushion looks like using the no-sew method. I really liked this method because the cushion fits perfectly into the space. It's a little snug so that my kids can't get under the bench and get out all of the blankets (and make a huge mess). And see - the wall in front of the bench is light grey, not black like the previous pictures looks like.

 Here is a view from the side, so you can hopefully see what it looks like in my room.

And finally, here's a close-up of the fabric and Kitty (yes, so original, we named our cat Kitty) I guess she wanted to get in on the action and hopped up on the bench while I was trying to take these pictures.

So Long and Thanks (for all the Fish)

For those of you not geeky or nerdy enough to recognize the title of this blog post may I introduce you to one of my favorite movies. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of the funniest movies and is based on a great book series of the same name.



On a semi-related note, my dear grandmother died in May. She left our family all of her possessions, including trying to give us her fish tank filled with guppies, which my father dropped of at a Petsmart since none of us kids wanted them.

We have been greatly blessed, however, to receive many great items: from family heirlooms, costume jewelry, to furniture. Sarah is now filled with vintage pieces from the 1950's and beyond.  We got end tables, dressers, desks, a rocker love-seat, and two upholstered chairs. I've been doing a lot of research on dying and painting furniture. I think I've decided to the chairs using chalk paint. Here's a great tutorial that I found on using chalk paint on velvet.

Step one, for me was to remove the dust skirt. That's all I've done so far, and I must say that I'm quite pleased with the results so far. I am a big fan of large pieces of furniture and clean lines. 

I've decide that I'm going to do one chair at a time, instead of both chairs at once so that I can show the progress of the transformation. This should be fun, stay tuned for the progress and final transformation of my Grandmother's chairs.

So long Grandma, and thanks (for all the furniture).

Old School is the New School

I've got some exciting news that I would like to share. And, let me get this out of the way first - No, I'm not pregnant.

I will be attending school next fall at Idaho State University in Pocatello. It's been a long time coming. I have thought a lot about what I want to do with my life and what kind of person I want to be. I have been seeing a therapist and I feel like now is finally the right time for me to go forward in obtaining my bachelor's degree. I got my Associate's from BYU-I way back in 2002. I was looking at getting a second Associates degree to become a drafter and found out that I could transfer almost all of my credits and get a Bachelor's of Applied Science!

I feel like this is the perfect degree for me. I have a sister who got her Bachelor's in Technical Writing and I have a brother who Minored in Graphic Design for his Bachelor's degree. AutoCAD strikes a balance between the two. I will be able to create blueprints and 3D models for engineers, architects, construction and more. I have taken several graphic design classes and I know my way around Photoshop and several other computer programs. I think that this would be such a great specialty for me to pursue.

I have been praying and fasting about this decision for a month or two and I had some of my husband's family over (interesting side fact about my husband's family - he was adopted as an infant. He's both the youngest of 17 kids and the oldest of 4 kids) for dinner a few weeks ago. One of my sister-in-law's was discussing the new home that she is building and how their architect couldn't do the drafting so they had to have it outsourced. There is only one draftsman in town capable of doing the work and he is so back-loaded that they might have to go all the way down to Provo to find a company to do the blueprints for their home.

I had never considered becoming a draftsman (draftswoman?) before but we talked about how fun it is to see an idea become something more tangible when it's drawn up and you can visualize it - like on Property Brothers and other renovation shows. I have loved renovating our home and considered going to school for interior design but there are no programs near where we live and I felt like the job opportunities for interior design would be very limited and sparse. I considered the Construction Management degree from my Alma Mater, but I'm honestly not that interested in becoming a manager or general contractor. I continued to search the internet and looking at all the programs that my local colleges had to offer. When I stumbled upon the "Computer Aided Design Drafting Technology" page on the ISU website, I felt immediately excited and nervous.

I have a meeting with the programs recruiter and another one with a college adviser tomorrow. Wish me luck!