Porch Beautification

I must be nesting, but since the nursery doesn't need anything, I focused my compulsion on our dusty, barren porch.  I finally brought some life to it by potting some plants, which Colby told me to hurry up and take some pictures of before I kill them.  

Put to use the vintage record table we found while garage-saling. 

It was obvious that we needed to get some porch furniture ASAP to sit on and enjoy the plants while they are still alive, but craigslist continued to fail me on decent vintage patio chairs.  Then I found this glider at Lowes of all places.  WITH matching kid-sized chairs!  It was retro love at first sight.

 The finished product!  We've already enjoyed a couple pitchers of pink lemonade out here.

 Now if only I can figure out where to incorporate this sign...

And find a retro doormat like this one, but without the tacky lights!

HGTV Waltenburg Style

After several gold-buying parties, I reached my goal (and then some), of earning enough cash to renovate our downstairs guest room into a playroom/classroom for the kids.  Colby and I were so into the project that we finished in only a couple of weeks.  We were on such a roll, it felt like we were on one of those HGTV shows!  I wish I had taken the time to take photos of the before and during stages, but we were too focused on just getting it done.  Just picture a bland, catch-all room for forgotten toys, with light beige walls, beige carpeting and white blinds...

Phase 1: Paint!  We did the first coat on our own and are slightly embarrassed to say we hired someone to finish because part way through we both decided we hated painting and the labor was too cheap to pass up.

Phase 2: Flooring.  Colby and my step-dad had the back-breaking job of installing these really cool laminated 4' 6"x 8" click-lock planks from Ikea... well, just about everything was from Ikea.  The finished product looks like a seamless sheet.  Very cool.

Phase 3: Assembly, assembly, and more assembly.  I spent nearly every free moment assembling Ikea furniture.  Every day at the kids' nap time, I could be found in front of the T.V. with a screwdriver, assembling something new for Colby to install when he got home form work.

Phase 4: Accessorizing.  That was fun.

Phase 5: The Unveiling.  The kids LOVE it.

This wire is stretched across the wall and has clips to display the boys' projects from homeschool and church:

 Pics of the kids & Joey:

 I sewed these curtains, which are clipped onto another wire to just slide open:

The Billy cabinets look pretty on the top half (until I fill it with all our homeschool books and stuff!) and hold toys in a store-like display for the kids in the lower, covered cabinets:

 Found these fun decals to go with the robot theme on whatisblik.com.  Their decals are so fun and inspiring:

 These stackable robot blocks were a gift from friends for us... I mean, the boys and go perfectly with the design:

Colby mounted the cubbies about a foot off the floor to give them a cool floating effect (and maybe also to keep the kids from knocking down our their robot blocks every time they come in:

 I filled these photo frame coasters with robot pics to continue the theme:

 I think Ronin's getting too comfortable in the mommy chair I strategically included:

There is also a collapsable table in the closet that can be rolled out and folded chairs hanging behind the door for more school-like activities in the future, but for now, it's the coolest play space in our house!

Treasure Hunting

One of Colby's and my favorite pre-parenthood past times was treasure hunting at estate sales, garage sales & auctions for vintage Danish modern goodies for our home.  We recently braved a sale, dragging the kids along on a hunt for dining table chairs to replace some of ours that were on their last leg... almost literally :) .  We revisited our Danish friend, Lynn who sold us some cool pieces in the past and now has her own shop, Klassik by Lynn.  She's from Denmark and personally brings back shipments of furniture and stuff.  

While on our hunt for new-old chairs, we found this fun piece, not minding that it's a fake of some well known Danish artist.

We decided to keep the price down and get a little funky by getting all mismatched chairs.  We found these four for $200 with the art, which is a steal considering a decent set of four of these style of chairs can easily go for $600:

We put the finishing touch on the dining room by replacing the light fixture our home came with, with the Sputnik lamp we've dreamt about for our dining room, even back when we were in our previous home.  The $400 price tag has kept it out of our reach until we recently found it on eBay for $75 with a few missing pieces that we were able to find elsewhere.

Before:

 After: 

And if you look closely enough at the reflection, you'll see Colby being Colby.  I didn't notice until he pointed it out to me afterwards:

Progress

Concrete poured!

Men at Work

Backyard's coming along!  Ground is level & retaining wall is complete.

A Passionate Housewife

I've hardly been able to shut-up about the book, 'Passionate Housewives Desperate for God' since I read it recently.  The book, written by a former Christian femenist, debunks the modern 'desperate housewife' myth and provides fresh vision for the homemaker.  I recommend it to any passionate wife/mom who can handle being challenged.

One of the many things I've taken from it is the idea that we homemakers create our family's own little universe within our home, which has inspired me to channel my creative side and tackle some unfinished projects.  

I ordered 16x20 canvas prints of Olive & Ronin to match one I had done a long while back of Reid that's just been getting dusty under my bed.  I couldn't find the same frame I had put Reid's in, so I improvised with mismatched frames and had Colby mount Ronin's on top of the frame to give it more depth.  Then I made a collage with the prints and a few folk-asrtsy prints on bamboo that I found at Walmart for just eight bucks each.   Now, every time I walk into my room, this is what I see:

By the way, Canvas People has a sweet deal if you use this link.  You can score a free 8x10 or get other sizes at deep discounts.

Our Outdoor Retreat -Currently Under Construction!

After over a year in our new home, we're finally ready to do something with our dirt mound of a backyard.  In order for us to avoid compromising our design, Colby's taken on the daunting task of landscaping on his own.  Here's a rough, not-to-scale drawing of the design we came up with:

While it may prove to be unrealistic, our goal is to be close enough to completing our project by Olive's 2nd birthday (11/25) that we can recognize the day by planting her memorial olive tree with family & friends.  The tree is designed to be the focal point of the yard, with a contemporary-style stone waterfall as a backdrop.  One of our favorite things about our house is the wide-open layout, which is perfect for entertaining and we definitely look forward to bringing future parties into the open air with the outdoor kitchen-style barbeque, bar area, fire pit... not to mention the hot tub!  The design also includes a veggie garden along the side, which I'm so excited about incorporating into the boys' homeschooling.  

Reid was thrilled that we had our "own" tractor during the excavation phase a few months ago. 

Since then, we've gotten the gas, water, and electric run...

And after overcoming some hurdles, including realizing halfway through laying the first stones of the retaining wall  that his level wasn't... well, level, Colby was able to make some progress on the retaining wall this last weekend.

With the retaining wall mostly complete, it's been pretty cool looking down from our bedroom window, seeing our design actually coming into fruition.