A Few Recent Projects

One would think that with building a brand new house, there wouldn't be too much that would have to be done to it.  So not the case (as originally evidenced in the landscaping post here). 

We have definitely had some things we wanted / needed to do to our house, but it is going to be a slow and steady kind of thing.  We managed to have some fun over the Thanksgiving break though. 

The first major improvement is the blinds!  Yes, we did not get any window treatments included with our house.  So after a few months of having nothing covering the windows at night (which gives me the serious heebie-jeebies, by the way) we decided to finally order some.  I never thought I could be so excited to have blinds.  It is so nice to have blinds to close when it is dark outside, have it be a little darker in the kids rooms for naps / bedtime, and to be able to close the blinds when the sun is so bright that you can't see anything.  Cameron and I ordered them from Blinds.com, and installed them ourselves, which took a full afternoon.  But hey, I learned something new, right?  :)

Next, we finally got some "real" furniture.  We have been sticking with the college furniture for the last few years, due to the fact that we have been moving so much and have been in such small spaces.  We bought a new kitchen table that I L-O-V-E.  Our table before could fit (barely) four, and now we have room to spread out.  Plus it just looks better in our kitchen, than our previous natural colored table.

Here's a shot of the table with our new blinds...the table really needs some decorating.  I am thinking a table runner and a centerpiece of some sort, but some of those accessories may have to wait a while...  :)

Our foyer has also needed a little something, but it doesn't have a ton of wall space, so I have had trouble finding just the right thing for it.  When we were buying our table, I happened to spot this little gem, and it was exactly what I had been looking for!  Just big enough to hold a lamp, or a picture, or a little decoration (like now), but small enough to fit in the space.

Now for one of our bigger projects...Cameron decided over Thanksgiving that he would tackle builidng lockers for our mudroom.  We just found a picture online that we liked, and he sort of just made it up as he went along.

In the process of building it...

...and the finished product (although I just realized this isn't the COMPLETELY finished product...I will have to take a picture with the trim back up and the touch up paint done)!

We are loving having these to have specific places to put the kids things.  It needs some baskets in the top for hats and mittens and those kinds of things, and maybe something in the bottom for shoes, but I can't quite figure out what yet!  I was very impressed that Cameron was able to whip this out in such a short amount of time.  And I absolutely love them!

So what was I working on while Cameron was spending every spare minute working on the lockers?  I was sewing away on this...

...and I just finished it!  Phew.  Nothing like the pressure of Christmas coming up to make me get this done. 

Well, we had some fun, but now I think it is time our bank account we took a little break!