The New Master Bedroom Mood Light, a Few Injuries and We'll Call It a Day!

My husband and I decided to put up a ceiling fan in our bedroom 2 years ago. I know right? Who puts them up? Well, my husband is always hot at night (good thing usually but not when he's a furnace and I can't go to sleep). To fix the dilemma we decided to put in a ceiling fan. At the time, a good idea. Not in reality. After an entire day of installation, it wobbled horribly. You see, our joists run the opposite way the box needed to go and there is no floor in the attic above our bedroom so with my husband knee deep in insulation we just couldn't get our junction box stable because, yup, you guessed it, it wasn't anywhere near a joist. Go figure!

We ended up installing a ceiling fan brace but the brace didn't quite brace and we just left it in and finished the installation. Well, with a not so stable brace the entire fan wobbled if you turned it on past the lowest setting. Because of this little snafu, we never used it. I hated it! It was ugly and didn't work well and just caught dust.

I had purchased a lovely little light at IKEA shortly after we purchased our house almost 5 years ago. It sat in it's cute little IKEA box and it sat in our closet until this past week. I put our beautiful KNAPPA light together and realized it was a plug in light. Well, duh! That wasn't going to work.

I brainstormed with my DIY partner in crime (my brother) and we came up with the idea of purchasing a mini-pendant light from Lowe's and just using the Knappa shade. By the way, he thought the light was UGLY and so did my husband. Whatev... I'm in love so there.

I then saw one of my favorite blogs Young House Love where they put an IKEA light up with a medallion above it to beef it up. Well, I thought that looked great! With the mini pendant light the base is a small circle and doesn't even stand up that high. so I thought, why not?

 

We took the ceiling fan down which is where the injuries begin. My husband gets roped into doing all these projects with me so we got all of the fan down but the bar that screws into the electrical box. The screw was stripped so I thought I'd fix it by rotating the bar around until it loosened the screw. It worked and the screw came out but so did some skin on my right hand middle finger. After some peroxide, a band-aid and a little break we finished taking the fan down.

This is where it happened. I was standing on the edge of our bed, looked at my husband, told him I'd better step back onto the step stool because I thought I might fall. Well, being the psychic that I am, I stepped on the right side of the step stool and began to move my left leg as the entire step stool tilted and I landed on top of a shut step stool on the ground.

The arch of my right foot and my right bicep/shoulder took the brunt of the fall and let me tell you it took a ton of weight with it as well. My shoulder hurts still today (this was Saturday afternoon) and my foot finally feels better. I have two huge bruises on my left leg but my light is up!

You can see the brass looking bar against the ceiling. That's the nasty thing that cut up my finger.

 Here is my light with the Lowe's pendant already installed and our lovely ceiling medallion ($27 from Lowe's)

Here is Eryn who saw me taking pictures of our little project and said "take my picture. cheese".  Oh by the way, our bed is all torn up because at this point insulation was still falling from the ceiling and we didn't want it all over our down comforter. So we took it off and then took this pink blanket and dumped it in the wash (which was a wedding present to my parents) Yes, to my parents. The blanket is 31 years old.

 My lovely light as it was finished and again that night. The light is not really crooked I just am too short to shoot the ceiling that close. I think I was leaning myself. :o)

We still want to do the feature wall of molding behind the light so that will add to the ambiance. My husband so lovingly says as long as I am happy he doesn't care. What a smart man!

A Bedroom Neglected Finally Gets Curtains + a little more

We have thought about and painted our bedroom 3 times since we have moved in 4 1/2 years ago. When we first moved in it had 3 walls a yellow cream color and one long wall a 1990's mauve. Well.... that had a to real quick.

We ended up painting the mauve wall a turquoise color and leaving the other 3.

After a year we couldn't handle the turquoise and couldn't figure out what to do. So we painted the entire room a gray. Unfortunately, it was a mid to dark gray and I couldn't get inspired.

This past year we painted the room a tan color that I can only say looks EXACTLY like the caramel icing color you get in the can. I even held up the can and checked. YUP! It matches. I LOVE the color but just couldn't figure out what else to do.  This picture is the small corner between the large wall (on the left) and the closet door on the right.

Here is my empty window before. Don't judge on the broken up blinds. These are the original builder blinds from 15 years ago and they are pretty much dry rotted. As soon as I find something I love to replace them, they are GONE!

I finally decided on something. Curtains and lamps. My mother and I went shopping at Marshall's where I found two awesome graphic lamps that I just LOVE!

This is our random night stand on my husband's side for now. It is a wood filing cabinet. I don't love it there but it works until I find two pieces that fit the room perfectly. This picture is taken at night with just this lamp on.

 This picture is taken with the lamp and our overhead light on at the same time. Still night time though. Don't you just love the graphic print? I do!

 This one is on my side of the bed. I have an IKEA end table that was originally purchased for our oldest daughter's room when we moved into this house but it doesn't fit in her room. Therefore, it is my make shift night stand until I fall in love with something.

 Here are my cream curtains. You can tell they aren't ironed. I was in too much of a hurry to finally get them up and check them out that they didn't see the steam yet. I will take them down and iron... eventually. :o)

 Here is a close up of the cross design in the fabric. I like that it is a heavy cream color so it doesn't look to "white" against the caramel walls.

I also found some great cream curtains.




I want a feature wall of trim like the dear people at Rambling Renovators Bedroom

But I am keeping my caramel color on the other walls. I might even keep in between the molding caramel as well. Haven't decided yet. What do you think? Trim out the wall in white and keep the large sections caramel or paint the entire feature wall white with the trim and leave the other 3 caramel?

Our Messy House: What it looks like when we DIY

My husband and I have been in full DIY / organization mode lately. We de-cluttered our cleaning supplies and Shaklee-ized our home with our new Shaklee Business. That really got us going!

We knew our house needed some TLC and that we had a project finish list a mile long.

We began working on the living room last month with picture molding HERE and since finishing that area we began to move it straight through to our kitchen. That isn't finished and we have a few things in the kitchen we started and didn't finish.

Plus... our carpets need replacing badly as you can tell from our House Goals 2011 post HERE.

We started shampooing carpets yesterday and moved EVERYTHING but the computer desk and our bed out of the bedroom. We put it all in our hallway and the one table is still there. We have been going through all the stuff that accumulates in our bedroom during a DIY project (ie... every day).  We like to keep the appearance of a neat and tidy home, as does everyone else. So... when we are hosting a get together we move whatever didn't get put away into our room. That is also where laundry goes while we sort and fold.

Luckily, for now, only my pajamas are left on the bed with a few hangers. See the lamp with no shade? My husband broke the lamp so now it barely works. The wall color I love (it looks like caramel icing) but we have no headboard and haven't decided what else to do with our room yet.

BEWARE: the pictures you are about to see were taken on a holiday for 2 public school teachers with 2 small children. :o)

This is first walking into our bedroom. My husband threw his shirt and socks from last night on the chair on top of the box of "stuff" I have yet to go through from last night's shampooing adventure.

Our computer desk isn't normally this messy and looks much better while I sit typing this but again we threw things to organize on top of it. The purple basket holds small things I need to go through while there are random cords we found in the room on top of the desk.

The girls are getting ready to watch Netflix on our Wii. The fire is going and they have toys and blankets EVERYWHERE. For some reason blankets are the toys the girls play with the most.

Here is what the couch looked like from the other angle. See all the blankets? I count at least 6 plus the monkey pillow, a stuffed cheetah, Eryn's coat and the Haba push car.

The kitchen island is the catch all for things we pulled out of our bedroom last night and trash. We have a trash closet near the garage door but we always hang plastic bags and gather all of that up first. So strange.

This is our 6 year old's room. For some reason she can't just get something to wear in the morning but she must try on at least 4 outfits first and then they get thrown on the floor. She has pajamas and a housecoat on the floor followed by a pile of toys and her church shoes from yesterday. The paint cans are mine. We just purchased paint to do the top 1/2 of her room. She is getting faux board and batten at the bottom.

Here is the 3 year old's room complete with 3 year old. She got this tent from my mother and father-in-law for Christmas (Emma has one too) and she loves to play in it. Yup, it's huge and it goes anywhere from her room to the living room. What you don't see? Toys and clothes laying on the larger rocking chair (you can see her small one in the picture).  She also likes to wear certain clothes and will strip in her room and change them herself. She has broken so many hangers it is ridiculous.





Well, there you have it! What our poor house looks like right now.


Will it look this bad tomorrow when we go back to school? Nope!

The plans for today include:

shampooing the carpets in the girls rooms, putting away toys and clothes in both rooms. Putting the tools in the kitchen away in the garage and doing about 4 loads of laundry. The blankets will get folded up and put away.


What will still look like this tomorrow:

The tent will still be up in Eryn's room. The paint will still be sitting in Emma's room (somewhere)



Otherwise the majority of it will be done today. That's my list anyway




Don't forget about the Shaklee Cinch Sampler Kit for FREE this month!

Household DIY Goals for 2011

My husband and I do not make New Year's Resolutions but we do sit down and make goals (when I can get him to sit down).  I We have come up with some projects to do this year to improve our home as we save up the money. We also have a list of financial goals as well so some of these tie in.

#1: Remove all TOXIC CLEANERS from our home entirely!

I have used 7th Generation and some Method cleaners for years. I tried the vinegar and water and making our own laundry detergent (that didn't go well). I even did a basket for our Valentine's exchange of "Green Cleaners" with directions and materials for all the girls to make their own. Since all of that I have discovered Shaklee.  I still have a little bit of 7th Generation cleaner left but the smell of it is so off-putting I hate using it. I still do have some actual TOXIC cleaners in the house and am in the process of purging them all! My husband and I have devoted our home to Shaklee and are loving it!

#2: Get rid of our ugly KITCHEN FLOOR!

Our house was built in the mid 90's which means that most things should have been pretty updated. Well, let me tell you whoever picked out the kitchen floor wasn't thinking 90's. This ugly linoleum combination is enough to make anyone grab a hammer and crowbar! Also, the person who put down our Pergo (before we purchased the house) put it down wrong. They matched all the seems so it looks like a bunch of plywood. It doesn't help that it is light wood either. I'd love for both floors to match but that means replacing our kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallway floors all at once. We'll have to save up for that chunk of change.

#3: Buy a New KITCHEN STOVE!

Our kitchen stove is original to our house which makes it about 16 years old. It has really seen better days! One of our burners doesn't want to always work and our oven is now finicky (it is just so temperamental) HA!

#4: New CARPET in the bedrooms!

Our bedroom carpet is also original to our home and was originally a light gray (from what I can tell).  It is now a disgusting gray even after we steam cleaned it to death. The only carpet in our house is the 3 bedrooms and there is none in the new bedroom we are currently creating a room.

#5: Finish the 4th BEDROOM MAKEOVER!

We tore apart a wall between a HUGE walk-in closet and our laundry room to double the room size and hopefully move the washer and dryer to the other side of the wall (the garage) and make this room the 4th bedroom the original house plan called for. We're working on it but not a lot right now.  It looks much better than this picture. There is no mess left on the floor. The wall is still open like that for now until I cut drywall. :o)

#6:  Figuring Out What to do with our KITCHEN BACKSPLASH

We put up this crazy stainless steel tile squares up as our back splash but I am SO reconsidering it. I just haven't decided what to change it too. We have also discussed painting the kitchen cabinets. My husband says no but as I reminded him he wouldn't be the one doing it, it would be me. So.... we'll see.  You can see the lovely back splash behind my Shaklee Basic H2. If you look really closely you can see we didn't finish the edge of it either. I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I'm fickle like that sometimes.

#7: Whatever else I can find to do :o)

I am SURE I will find something else to do this year. I'm just like that!








One of our financial goals for the year was to produce more income without losing time with our children. My husband and I have taken the plunge and are now Shaklee Distributors! Take a moment and check out our site: Pembroke Lane Shaklee

 

Organizing: Day 2 The Computer Desk

Today's challenge from  A Bowl Full of Lemons is the computer desk. The top only :o)

Well, my computer desk/ entire bedroom becomes the catch all of the house. We are currently working on projects in the living room and kitchen and when that happens that means everything gets dumped in my room.

My husband and I are also teachers so we do a lot of work on the computer plus of course printing out my coupons. Here is a horrible before picture of our computer desk.

After removing a Christmas gift of the girls and moving my husband's school books and Eryn's Tag Reader books it wasn't that bad. A good scrubbing and it was as good as new.

Pardon the poptropica up. My oldest Emma decided it was her turn on the computer.