Spring Cleaning - Part Deux

Finally right?! OMG, life has been so busy the last few weeks & I have been procrastinating on actually putting this list in writing. Don't ask me why, but I feel like if I blog it, I must DO IT, lol. But, I got a lot done at work today, so I'm taking my last 30'sih minutes at the office to put up this list...finally. This list will be for the main & upper levels of our townhouse (Parts II & III if you are following along form my first Spring Cleaning post). I'll do the basement list separately, but I need input from the hubbs on that b/c that's his "man cave" & I'm not to make plans for down there unless he approves them first, hahaha. That's so changing when Baby J gets here! After I get all the lists up, then I'll post updates on how we are doing on everything.

As I mentioned before, these have turned more into spring/summer/getting-ready-for-Baby-J lists, so everything won't be done before the spring is over (in just a bout a month...eeek!).  Anywho, here goes....

Main Level To Do's:

Living Room

Powder Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

We actually don't have too much to do on this level for the time being, or at least anything we anticipate having done before Baby J gets here. We are absolutely going to be either painting or replacing our cabinets (you can see how sun damaged some of the sides are in the above photos - boo to the sun for that one) & getting new counter tops in the kitchen at some point & we'd also like to add a back splash. I'm looking at a few options, but our main D&R priority right now is the baby's room. Eventually we will also replace our old @ss fridge & oven with new appliances that are a bit more energy efficient (read: not original to the house - like our fridge is & the oven is just crappy). I'm also trying to beg persuade my husband into some DIY crown molding, which I think will make our little joint kitchen/dining room look 10 million times better. Oh & I'd also like to replace ALL of the white, aluminum horizontal blind in the house with the shades we got for our bedroom, which are these fabricky {I realize that's not a word, lol}, light-blocking, honeycomb shades - I LOVE them!  So the list for this level will be short, but here goes:

• Replace all remaining brass/old light fixtures in all three areas - there are a total of 4 left, including the powder room light fixture.
• Get ceiling painted in all 3 rooms, but especially the living room.
• Buy new rug for living room.
• Mop hardwoods in all areas; I usually do only a few good moppings a year - I spot clean with our steam mop in between time.
• Replace powder room brass fixtures - everything in this house was brass when we bought it, so we are slowly, but surely switching out everything for brushed nickle fixtures.
• Find & install valance over sliding glass door.

Upper Level To Do's:

Master Bedroom

Master/Upstairs Bath

Guest Room...being turned into Nursery!!

This level has already gone thru many many changes this year between our Master Bedroom re-do & the Master Bathroom re-do & now the currently in progress Guest Room/Nursery re-do! Because of our newest edition, we have lots of things to do on this level:

• Remove all the furniture & other misc. stuff from the guest room, go thru it, get rid of what we don't need, recycle anything that can be recycled, sell/give away furniture, pack up our personal items that we are keeping for storage in the attic.
• Clean out guest room closet; buy additional storage drawers for extra storage (something like this).
• Paint, buy furniture for, replace all outlet covers, replace blinds & decorate nursery.
• Find fillers for master bedroom apothecary jars/vase.
• Purchase lightweight bedding for the master bed for use during the hotter months.
• Go thru clothes & pull out items to donate.
• Buy same type of storage drawers for extra clothing space in my closet.
• Decorate master bath over toilet storage nook.
• Go thru boxes in attic & get rid of anything we don't need any more.
• Get carpets steam cleaned.
• Replace any remaining brass light fixtures in hallway.

I think that's it. The list for the upper level doesn't look that big, but it's a lot of work. The first item, which is done (yaaay!), took us like two weeks to complete. But all the stuff (minus the stuff in the closet) is gone or put in a new location. :)

Stay tuned for the lower level of the house portion of this list & updates on how far we've come since starting spring/summer/getting ready for Baby J cleaning! Tomorrow is my 27th Birthday, woot! And we are having a big summer BBQ @ my casa {complete with my fav mocktails}, so I'm not sure I'll be participating in 5QF this week, but I'll post some pics from the BBQ on Saturday or Sunday. 'Till next time!

My master bath makeover is being featured over at the DIY Show Off today!!

The DIY Show Off is an awesome blog that my blog friend Roeshel created only a few months ago. I remember that I was one of the first 30 or so followers & today she has over 1,000!! She is a DIY genius (I have used many many of her projects as inspiration) & features both her beautiful room makeovers & other DIY'ers projects, crafts, room makeovers, etc. Today she selected my Master Bath Re-do project to feature & I'm so excited!! Head on over & check it out...and while you're at it, browse her site, there is a lot of DIY inspiration to be found!!

Thanks for the feature Roeshel & congrats again on all the success of the blog!

Big master bath reveal!!

Ok, so I know it's been a WHILE since I posted the sneak peek of the Master Bath. We had a little bit of technical difficulty with the over toilet storage nook we got from Overstock (read: we were missing one of the required parts). Once we finally got the part, it took the hubbs a little while to actually get around to putting it together. Enough about the hold up - it's FINALLY done...yippie. I know you have all been anxiously the big reveal (or maybe that's just in my mind?), so here are a few reminders of the before:

It wasn't bad, it was just plain. I really, really loved my shower curtain, but since we took everything out of the bathroom while we were redoing it, I washed it & guess what? I faded my like $50 shower curtain - FAIL. So I looked around online & finally found one I liked from Kohls. And without further adieu, I give you the afters:

 

We painted the room in Granite Dust by Valspar & re-painted the trim white, replaced the old faucets, changed the outlet & register covers, changed the knobs on the doors (from brass to brushed nickel), framed the mirror, painted the vanity & added knobs to the cabinet doors, changed the lighting fixture.

Changed out the shower curtain, added a new double towel bar, changed out the robe hook on the back of the door (from brass to silver) & added the inspirational quote art on the wall.

Put up the over toilet storage unit & replaced the toilet paper roll holder.

Close up of the detail on the candle on the storage unit shelf - it has changeable screens for the different seasons, so right now I have the winter screen on it!

What do you think? Do you like it? I think it looks awesome. I love it! It is a close second as my favorite room in the house to the Master Bedroom!! I do think that I am going to move the inspirational quote wall art over the storage unit & add floating shelves on the wall it's currently on, then put knick knacks & framed art/photos on the shelves. And I will mostly cover the glass doors on the storage unit with frosted glass stick on's you can get from hardware stores. Besides those two things - it's done & I'm so happy. Next up is the mancave (basement), and that is going to take a while, b/c the hubbs wants A LOT & it's gonna cost $$. So yeah, definitely not doing much more than painting until after the new year.

On an unrelated note, can you believe Christmas is next week?!?!? Whaaaa. Again, how did the time fly by so quickly. We are staying around here for the holidays, no big plans yet...in fact, we may be having Chinese food for Christmas dinner, lol. Oh & last but definitely not least, today is the hubbs & I are celebrating our 7 year dating anniversary today! How did we celebrate you ask? We went to happy hour, lol. Hubby says now that we are married, we can't celebrate this anniversary too big (if at all)!

Man oh man...Thanksgiving is over!

Wow. That's all I can say is wow. Thanksgiving is over - actually it was over hmmm, 3 days ago. I apologize for JUST now getting around to writing this post, but I have been extremely busy for several reasons...mainly I was cleaning & cooking non-stop until Thursday night at about 10:30pm. I am happy to report that I got all of the things on my Thanksgiving to do list done by the time the big day rolled around, got all the food cooked. And everything was huge success!

My husband's family arrived on Thursday morning about 9:30am & I hadn't started cooking the hot food yet, but I was up soooooo late on Wednesday night finishing up the MBath cleaning & general house cleaning, then the cooking of the sweet potato pie, potato salad & cranberry sauce, so I decided a little sleep in time was in order. Anyways, I got started on that stuff shortly after they left to go check in to their hotel & chill out until it was time for dinner, which I said would be served at 4pm. Guess what?!?! Everything was DONE by 4pm! That never happens in the House of Dennifer! I'm usually a little behind, so that alone makes me very happy. Second thing that makes me happy: everyone LOVED all the food I made, yay!! I was hoping everything would turn out great & I guess it did! Woot. Now, on to my holiday planning/shopping/decorating - much to the chagrin of my hubby! I was at Michaels for about an hour today stocking up on some great crafty stuff for my holiday decor! Inspiration pics coming soon to a blog near you. :o)

The CRAZIEST part of this whole weekend though....Black Friday. Yep, that's right - we braved the stores (well, store) & got my hubby his new lova:

Yep...we are now the proud owners of this lovely new 40" flat screen. The hubbs was soo happy to finally get a TV for his man cave (the basement). It was seriously one of the the craziest things I think I have ever done! We literally got to the Target parking lot @ 11:10pm. We were the only ones there, but more people started showing up by 1am & so at 1:30am, we got out of my warm, comfy Stella (my *new* SUV) & went to sit on the cold pavement in front of Target. It is probably the only thing we will be purchasing for down there for a while. And I also scored a digital photo frame for $30, so it worked out for both of us!

In other news, the master bath is DONE, but we have had a little hold up with the over toilet storage unit - a bag of dowels we needed are missing (& HD/Lowes don't carry the size we need), so we had to contact Overstock for the replacements - takes 2 business days for a response...still waiting to hear back. So, once we figure out everything with that, then the hubbs will put it up & I will finally be able to post some after pics! Worth.the.wait...believe me. My husband is summoning me upstairs since we have to be up in 5 hours for work tomorrow - ugh...the end of long weekends SUCK.

Clearing out the clutter!

So I know in several of my previous posts about our Master Bath re-do, I have mentioned cleaning out the clutter under our sinks, like here & here. Well last night I FINALLY completed the task! Yes, yes I realize the slackerness (is this even a word?!) was running PRET-TY on high on this one. However, I got it done...please lay your eyes on the before of this area AKA Exhibit #1:

 

Super embarrassing! How did I let that clutter get THAT out of control?!  Well anyways, last night while watching my husband do all the work finishing up some of the final items for the big reveal of the bathroom, I decided to go ahead and finally tackle this project & I'm so happy I finally got it done. Behold the clean, organized afters AKA exhibit #s 2 & 3:

*my side*

*the hubbs' side*

Ahhh...so much cleaner & much much more organized! I just took some contact paper, measured it to the correct size & cut it to fit under the counters, bought the baskets from Marshalls & got rid of the junk that we had under the cabinets, but didn't ever use. Just looking at it makes me feel better!

We are nearly done with the big Master Bath project & should finish up the last few to do's in the next few days. I can't wait to share the final reveal with you guys...believe me it's worth the wait! In the mean time, I will leave you with my *updated* Master Bath project to do list (I removed the items that were previously completed):

• Buy the mirror framing materials, prime/paint it & put it up
• Paint second coat on vanity & do any necessary touch ups
  
• Install the new faucets
• Steam & put up the new shower curtain
• Clean out under cabinets, put down contact paper & organize stuff into baskets
  
• Clean entire bathroom
• Assemble over toilet storage furniture & add fabric cover to glass doors
• Put cabinets back on vanity & install new hardware
•  **ADDED** - put up wall art purchased from Kohls & decide if additional decor touches are needed (I think they will be, but we shall see)
  

Almost done! Yay! :o)

Master Bath Sneak Peek!

We have been slaving away working super hard on our Master Bath project this weekend & have made soo much progress. Unfortunately, it's not quite done yet, but our goal is to get it all done before next weekend gets here! I am so excited! Based on the list I made in my last post, here is a little preview of what we still have to do & what we have already completed from the list:

• Buy the mirror framing materials, prime/paint it & put it up
• Sand, prime (where needed) & paint the trim around the bathroom
• Sand, prime & paint the vanity frame
• **ADDED** - paint second coat on vanity & do any necessary touch ups
  
• Install the new faucets
• Caulk tile areas in shower that need touch ups
  
• Steam & put up the new shower curtain
• Clean out under cabinets, put down contact paper & organize stuff into baskets
  
• Clean entire bathroom
• **ADDED** - assemble over toilet storage furniture & add fabric cover to glass doors
• **ADDED** - put cabinets back on vanity & install new hardware
  

Our only one set back this weekend was the fact that we couldn't find the composite casing material we wanted to use for the mirror framing project, so we got the real wood, which is supposed to be heavier & therefore, not ideal. It was the thinnest, most lightweight wood casing we could find that we actually liked, so *hopefully* it'll work out...there is actually no other option, or you may see yours truly going insane soon, lol.

And without further adieu....progress:

*FRESH paint & NEW towel bar*

*NEW lighting fixture that makes me smile BIG :oD*

 

*REFRESHED vanity*

*NEW light fixture & another close up of the paint ;o)*

Oh my...Thanksgiving is in less than 2 weeks!

How did this happen? Seems like it was summertime only yesterday. Eeeek! Don't get me wrong - I lurve the holidays, it's the most wonderful time of year after all! I am even beginning my holiday decorating planning...but then ::light bulb:: first comes Thanksgiving & we are having my husband's family over this year. OmgOMGomgggggggg. I have to cook all.that.food. I'm actually a grown up, lol. Not that I have never hosted parties at my house - actually, the house of Dennifer is quite the party spot, but having all my ILs over is a completely different story. I love them, they are cool, but it's still stressful anytime family is over the house & half of them are scared of dogs, which makes my life that much more difficult. I mean really - who could be scared of this cutie?


He's harmless - wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, maybe a fly, but he'd just be trying to play. He is literally the sweetest dog in the whole wide world, or maybe I'm just a wee bit biased?! Anyways, I feel bad for him when they come over b/c some of them tend to freak out over any little move he makes - harmless as it is. I don't blame them - they just aren't used to animals as pets & being in the house & being treated like children...it's just how it was where they are from. One time I even went upstairs with him & refused to come down if they were going to be weird about the dog. I know - I took it it a little over board that day, haha. Here's how I feel about animals when you have guests over - I don't mind gating him when a lot of people are at the house & moving about or eating, but once the crowd starts dwindling down or if you are staying at the house overnight - I'm sorry, but I'm not locking him up the entire time someone is staying at my house! However, we have moved past their fear of dogs & they even like him a little now, so my current biggest concern is: the food & finishing our Master Bath project!!!

Okay, so I'm not sure how much assistance our guests (possibly including a few of my family members) will be chipping in to help with the meal, but here are a few things on my list:

Turkey (w/cranberry sauce) of course - but the big decision here is fried or roasted?! I hear fried is amazing & I have never had it, but you have to fry it outside & it's cold & I am not experienced frying something that large & would rather not burn down my house this year, sooo yeah. If we did fried, it would be purchased from somewhere & heated in my oven. I need to figure out how much that would cost & then I guess we will decide.



Next, side dishes - I am thinking of the following (warning - yummy food pics below):

a nice green bean casserole

homemade mac & cheese (yum!)

homemade stuffing

mashed potatoes + gravy

candied yams

potato salad

hot dinner rolls

And...for dessert, my Hubby's aunt is making her delish famous banana pudding

& if I'm up for it, I may throw in a pumpkin pie.

Just thinking about all that food makes me sleepy! Now I need to go beg my MIL, mom & possibly step mom to help me cook, lol. Am I missing any Thanksgiving staple food here? Do you have any good recipes for any of these dishes? I am most scared of the stuffing & turkey. :o/

Oh & the MBath project is going well. Last night I finished painting the cabinets, woot! Those were a PITA especially since Dizzle's hair is flying all around the house, so it kept getting onto the drying cabinets. We also ran into a bit of a problem trying to find the molding/casing for the mirror framing project, but now that I realize just how close Thanksgiving is, we just need to make a decision & go with it. I need this house in order when everyone gets here in 2 weeks (plus I'm hosting a candle party next weekend).

Here are the things we still need to do to finish up the bathroom:

• Buy the mirror framing materials, prime/paint it & put it up
• Sand, prime (where needed) & paint the trim around the bathroom
• Sand, prime & paint the vanity frame
• Install the new faucets
• Caulk tile areas in shower that need touch ups
  
• Steam & put up the new shower curtain
• Clean out under cabinets, put down contact paper & organize stuff into baskets
  
• Clean entire bathroom

Looking at that list makes me feel like we have more to do than we even realized...and so little time to do it. Eeek! Time to get working this weekend. After today, lol. :oP

Mater Bath Progress!

We are making some progress on our current major project! So far, so good - the walls are painted & we are waiting a week to paint the trim, so tomorrow actually. The new light fixture is up (looks fab, but I'll make you wait on that ;), the over toilet storage has arrived (hubby needs to put that together), the TP holder, hook on the back of the door, wall art, towel bar & new shower rod also need to be put up. I have primed the cabinet doors & will paint at least the first and 2nd coats on the fronts of the cabinets today. The only thing left to purchase is a new shower head...so it's coming along! It should hopefully be done by next weekend - yay!!!

Here are some pics after we tore everything out & patched all the holes - hubbs is taping the walls:


And here are some of the painted walls:

Please excuse the MESS under our cabinets - organization of that area being done today!

And I leave you with something cute the hubby did w/o me making him, lol:Our initials on the wall before painting :o)

I can't wait to show you the final reveal!

Gotta love 99 cent shipping at Kohls.com!

Today I purchased a new shower curtain for our MBath - the re-do is coming along nicely btw (progress pics coming soon!). When I took everything out of the bathroom for the renovation, I decided that it would be a good time to wash the shower curtain, and...well...I sorta-kinda-accidentally faded the shower curtain, which made me sooo sad because I actually really did love it. It was a housewarming gift from Bed, Bath & Beyond and I went on there to try & find it again, but I figured it was a long shot since it was given to us over 2 years ago. And guess what, it was a long shot - trying to find a 2 year old shower curtain at BB&B = FAIL. So, my next idea was to still try & use the old one & see how bad it looked. But I showed DH the poor shower curtain & he told me to just go ahead and buy a new one! Well I wanted one very similar to my old one, and I searched the internet high & low and FINALLY found one that is somewhat similar (and not ridiculously expensive) AND was up to both me & DH's standards, behold:


You like? I think it's pretty & will go well with my planned MBath re-do . I am not sure it'll be the same quality as my B,B&B curtain, but for $20 I think it'll do for now.

While I was browsing on Kohls' website & since they are having a $0.99 shipping promo right now, I decided to see if they had any gray sheet sets. We want new sheets for our MBedroom since our current sheets are white, which looks fine, but we want to have another option available, lol. So I also bought these in silver:

They are microfiber, which I have never heard of in sheets before, but our couches are microfiber & are fine...I even think they may be extra warm in the winter!! Warmness is great for me because I am one of those people that are always col - seriously - even in the summer. Have any of you ever tried microfiber sheets? How do you like them? I guess if I hate them I can always return them right?? Ahh the joys of online shopping ! Head over to Kohls' website to take advantage of the $0.99 shipping - it ends today so hurry over!!

I have been such a bad blogger!

It has been nearly 3 weeks since I updated the blog - the reason?? I have been SUPER busy & unfortunately not with D&R work - I have had a lot going on. I am ashamed to say that we have not even begun our big master bath makeover project. We have been slackers, but I promise pics later this week/this weekend of some sort of progress - hopefully the walls will be painted. In the mean time, here are a few items we bought for the big makeover:

(click on image to make it larger)

I sent the Hubbs to Home Depot to buy something small (I can't even remember what it was), but he came back with all these beauties - new shower caddy shelving, a double towel bar & double shower curtain rod! We also plan to buy a new shower head, new faucets (haven't picked those out yet) & replace the vanity lighting with something like this from Lowes:

I also attended a friend's candle party last weekend & bought this "Change-O-Luminary" for the counter top in the bathroom. I heart it because you can change out the screens for each season.

I got a coupon in the mail yesterday for free shipping from JCP, so I want to buy that over toilet storage tower I mentioned in my last post & get it shipped for free. Free is always good! My husband is going out of town on a boys trip to Las Vegas next week, so I really want to get all of the painting done in the bathroom before he leaves. That way I can paint all the trim & prime the vanity to be painted & then he can put up all the new stuff when he gets home.

Stay tuned for this year's Jack-O-Lanterns - we have gotten a late start & plan on carving them tonight when my hubby gets home! Eeeek - I LOVE carving pumpkins! OH & I got my new lap top on Monday!!! I love it & am still playing around with it, trying to figure out how everything works on HPs (I have always owned/used Dells) & to get all my old files moved over, but all in all, it's GREAT! Anywho, hopefully I will have more to share between tonight & the next few days. Thanks for stopping by! :o)