Three Day Weekend: Day 2!

We still did quite a bit of running around yesterday.  One more Home Depot stop to get the rest of our supplies, Dunks for our energy, Michael's for a gift, Target to poke around, and a good friends house warming party.

Despite that long list though, we were able to get all the materials and tools upstairs so we can start this morning.  We also got all the walls that will be painted primed.  Goodbye Terracotta walls!

It's freezing here this morning! Time for a hardy breakfast and a long day of work.  But the more we get done - the more we can enjoy seasonal May weather tomorrow.  Back in the 70s New England!

Three Day Weekend!

Checkout guy at The Home Depot last night to Matt "Well, based on what you've got here, I'd say your weekend is completely shot."

We're actually glad for the rainy cold weather we've been handed the next two days.  We saw a three day weekend coming our way and I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity by tackling a big home project.

Let's look at the BEFORE shot before we start:

up stairs guest bedroom

And I'm not sure if we shared this - but we had a blog friend of mine, Paige from Little Nostalgia make up a room design board from us.  I LOVE her taste and she's currently in design school.  This is what filled our car last night:

You can read the full description of Paige's design board here.  I still need to pick up a few things - like the blinds, a side table, and throw blanket but we have all the bead board and trim in hand along with new paint for the trim, walls, and wicker chairs.

We'll keep you updated on our progress as we move along this weekend.
Happy Memorial Day!

Thoughts @ 18 Preston

We share personal things on this blog like photos of our home, what we've been up to, but never how we're feeling.  Today though is different.

Since 2:50 pm on Monday I've been glued to the media - reading other blogs has honestly annoyed me.  I'm craving more information about the Boston Marathon tragedy.  I want to know if they've found anyone.  I want to know which victims went home from the hospital.  And I want to know how the others are doing.  That's all I want to read about this week - and I've been addicted to checking the news more than I ever have been to Facebook or Pinterest.  I just want to know that this is over and that everyone is going to be ok.

On Monday and Tuesday I hadn't felt any emotion yet about the events on Boylston Street.  A street I've run on during a 5K and 10K.  It was because the real stories hadn't come out yet.  We didn't know who that man was in the wheelchair, or that two of the spectators were from my town, or that a newly married husband and wife each lost their left leg.  How do you care for each other in a new marriage when you're both missing a leg?

The first story that really got to me was the one about the runner looking for man who comforted her when she wasn't allowed to finish the race.  She was stopped, like all the others who hadn't finished before 3 o'clock when the raced was officially canceled.  And she couldn't get a hold of her parents who were supposed to be at the finish line to greet her.  Running a marathon seems lonely enough to me - but I can't imagine how alone she felt without her friends or family or anywhere else to run.  Eventually she finds out they are fine and then she loose it - I would have too.  That feeling when you are so worried you want to scream and then all of a sudden the relief that it's ok.  Then a finisher comes up to her to make sure she's alright and gives her his medal to comfort her.

It was a short little news story, and nobody in this one was hurt.  For me it was both the first one I read about real people and so far the only one I've read with a happy ending.  It was the first sign of hope.

Obama spoke at the church across the street from my office today.  We watched his motorcade pull into the parking lot.  I've read some of what he had to say and it was beautiful.  I pray it brought some comfort to the victims, volunteers and men and women in uniform who have been directly effected.  For me though I'm still a mess.  And I'm still checking the news constantly.  We have pictures now but still no arrest.  I'm scared it will happen again, not in this form, but just people hating others this much.  I'm not sure how to clear my head of the worry.  Maybe this weekend.... I need to go for a run.

  

Hallway Progress

It's been a few weeks since we posted about the Pinterest projects we've completed lately.  One of those was a sneak peak of our downstairs hallway update.

In the spirit of getting things done on the cheap we tackled the hallway knowing that: 
A) it was a project that could be done in a day
B) it would be affordable - some trim wood and a can of paint

The goal was to try and use this space as a place to add personal touch that doesn't need a commitment - like a piece of art.  And it could not included frames that need to be taken apart and put back together, that didn't fall into our definition of easy.  

The first order of business was paint.  We took home three samples and Matt ended up winning with his choice of Benjamin Moore Lacey Pearl.  An off white with a light gray tint. 

This is where we started: 

And here is where we ended up:

A huge difference!  I've been hesitant to use cool colors next to our natural wood trim in the Bungalow, but to my surprise, they are all working.  We also switched up type of paint we bought.  We've been purchasing Behr Premium Plus for $35 a gallon.  This time we bought regular Behr paint for $27 a gallon and it's no VOC.  I was extremely happy with the quality and will use it again.  It also only took one coat!  I'm sure that's due to such a light original color, but overall the coverage on the first coat was fantastic. 

Back to the art:

This project was very easy thanks to the router table we inherited from my Dad - thanks Dad!  We purchased high grade pine 1x4 and Matt used the router to add a detail the the bottom and the low profile photo ledge. Then we sanded and stained the wood gray.  For the most part the photos stay up unless you run by quickly.  Yes we're adults, and yes we run around the house sometimes...But it's nothing a little scotch tape can't handle.  Currently the wall is filled with favorite photos, cards, and postcards from friends.  Someday I see this becoming the aspiring child artist gallery wall as well!

The rug is from Target and I love the modern take on plaid.  Our master bedroom is just off this hallway and it has a rustic design element going on. I think the stained wood ledges and plaid are a perfect transition from an eco kitchen to a rustic retreat of a bedroom.  

The only item left on the hallway list to make it complete is a new light fixture. 

Do you treat your hallway as a "room" and have a decor theme for it?  Or what about your fav photos and cards, do you have them on display anywhere?

Time to make dinner - stay tuned for another 18 Preston original recipe soon!

18 Preston To-Do List

Last week I mentioned that I had put together a Google Doc for our home to-do list. I planned on writing about it last weekend too, but that didn't happen. So what better thing to do while I'm waiting to get a haircut. 

Between the two of us, Meg and I probably have half a dozen different places we keep our to-do lists for the house. We have notebooks, binders, iPhone notes and of course, Pinterest. (Meg, Matt)

I was finally able to combine all of the lists into one place. Google Drive offers the best place for a wired family to share a collaborative document. We can share it between the two of us and access it from all of our devices. Google Drive has fairly recently come out with new apps for the iPhone and iPad that give you almost all of the same editing capabilities as on a full computer. 

The list needed to have a few pieces of critical information. We needed the name of the task, the estimated cost, priority, timeframe and time commitment and difficulty.  Once we actually start doing the projects, we'll probably have a completed check box and actual cost. That will help show us all of the awesome things we've done around the house.

So far we've got a pretty good start to the list. Now we just need to start banging them out. Especially the ones with the low cost and time commitment. I think that's going to be the best use of this list, a quick glance to see what can be done right now.
Let us know what you think. We're always looking to make things better, so what should we add? A little bit of color would probably be nice, and I'm sure we'll get there, but the important thing was to get it started.

A Dude's Pinterest

What's that over there? A rabbit hole? And's what's down there in the rabbit hole? thisiswhyimbroke.com? Well let's look down this rabbit hole and see what we can find.

Three hours later, I find myself writing a blog post.

So it turn's out, Pinterest is a great way to store stuff that you find on the interweb. I mean, world wide net. I mean... you get the idea.I personally think I'm really good at using the internet, but not with the social aspects. There isn't a single person I would ask a question to instead of the internet. And I mean real questions, like "Why does my super computer crash when I'm trying rebuild my corridor with custom subassemblies and multiple offset and profile targets in AutoCAD Civil 3D?" not real questions like "What do you think our babies are going to look like?" I save those for my deepest, well-thought-out, depths of ...a pint glass.
But while I was exploring thisiswhyimbroke.com, I found a lot of thing that would be fun to look at again. Usually in this case, I would leave 15 pages open on my Google chrome so I could refer to them on my computer, iPad, or iPhone. (Sync Tabs Across Devices - Google Chrome Help) After everything I've heard Meg brag about, and notice myself quite a bit, it turns out Pinterest is really good for this. So I hope you check out my page, pinterest.com/mkearney028, and let me know what you think.

I've created 8 boards so far and I'm pretty sure there's more to be made. I've tried to cover For The Home, Wish List, Inspiration, Food, I Can't Believe This Exists, Kiddos, For The Wifey, Outdoorsyish.

It's been an interesting experience saving everything that I've looked at and keeping it ready for the occasion it's been assigned. I even figured out how to create a secret board to save things I want to buy for Meg (shhh....don't tell her, she's pretty stubborn about technology, so she'll never figure out how to get to my secret boards, even on our home computer.)

I can really look at this as a to-do list because there are so many ideas. This kind of segues into my next blog.

I started a Google Doc so Meg and I can share our house projects with a cloud based format. I want to shoot out the details so we can get some suggestions to make it better. I've got a few ideas already, but there's always room for improvement. Hopefully I can get that out tomorrow so I can incorporate any suggestions quickly.

Curtain Project No. 2

I tackled my first curtain project last March.  About that same time, I bought some fabric for my craft room curtains.  It was pricey - but I just fell in love with these little birds.  How could you not?!

I've never been a sewer and although I seem to have masted the pillow cover, and did alright at the kitchen curtains, but this project scared me.  It could be because it would be the first time not working with cotton fabric.  Cotton is easy to press and make hems and seams.  This embroidered bird fabric is polyester and I was lost.  Just under a year after the purchase I finally brought it to my mom for help.  It also didn't help that I wanted a London Shade design...

London Shade: a cousin to the Roman shade in looks, but made like a balloon shade with side rigging and the bottom dowel omitted.  

Instead of all the fancy direction in the curtain book I bought - we just sewed the lining and fabric right sides together - leaving a rod pocket at the top.  turned all the fabric right side out through that pocket and pressed just the edges to get this:

We left 1 1/2" for the rod pocket - creating this beautiful ruffle at the top.

Then came in the "cousin to the Roman shade" part and I needed to add rigging.  It ended up being really simple - I added rings 14" in from each side.  The first ring I sewed 12" from the bottom of the curtain and continued about halfway up ever 6"

After the rigging was complete I had my finished product and I couldn't be happier!

Have you ever attempted a project out of your comfort zone?  I'm so glad I finally did because I am SO happy with the results.  They are perfect in my craft room. And if that someday become a baby room, it will be perfect for that as well!