The Cloffice

I finally cleaned up the cloffice enough to post "Before" and "After pics of our wet bar demo/closet office (or "cloffice") project from way back in March.  Here is the before. 

During- we had to strip it all out to the dry-wall and rip up all the flooring. Happily, the light is pretty cool, so it could stay.

After painting and floor tiling. We even had to put baseboards down. The white square is where the wet bar plumbing. We decided that with our luck, we probably wanted it a little more accessible in case of leaks and stuff :)

Ta Da! The plan was to build a built-in desk and shelves, but after pricing things and looking around, we were happy to find we could do well with Ikea pre-made stuff. Yay! Less painting!

And with the curtains that I can pull when people come over and I want to hide the messy desk :)

Home Improvement is unexpectedly grody

 

As part of our home improvement projects, DMP had to remove a plug plate thingy.  This is what he found inside- a complete gecko skeleton and her (?) eggs.  This could help explain the explosion of dead geckos last summer.  Also, ew.  The skeleton came out totally intact and DMP now has it and the egg shells on the work bench in his garage.

The kids and the Elders (who came for a visit shortly after it was found) were very impressed. I'm more grossed out.

Spring Break: I'm Crazy

Just in case you have ever doubted that I'm truly crazy, I just want you to know that this happened on spring break.  That is 3 kids (+1 white dog + 2 cats) painting Birdy's bedroom pink. Don't be fooled by the color of the wet paint. It really dried pepto-bismol pink and it is way, way awesome (if you are a 7 yr old girl, which she is). 

I'm still putting the room back together and decorating, so stay tuned for a before/after.  You know, in 6 months or so.

My New Laundry Room

I know I'm way behind on the blog, but we've been working hard at the 'ole DIY lately and I wanted to share one of our finished projects. Getting this done is better than Christmas for me! No more backpacks, RS bag, Church Bag and purse scattered around the house! Plus, it is bright, clean and cheerful. This is the room we enter more than the front door, and it is HUGE to have it organized and happy!

The "drop zone" Everyone has a hook for jackets and whatnots and DMP built a bench for backpacks and bags. The shelf at the top will store gloves, scarves and other winter stuff we only need for about a month :)  I LOVE that the cat food has an out-of-the way place and there is a basket for shoes right as you come in!  No more coats in the cat water!

He also created this nifty shelf all the way across the washer and dryer and we changed out the handles on the cupboards.  I also painted the door. It used to be ugly industrial grey. That puppy took about 8,000 coats. It isn't my best paint job, but I now have a testimony of  primer. Don't skip it folks!  Notice the cute, perfectly matched piggy for laundry change! He has orange hearts on him and was a $3 Thrift Store score!

Another view of the shelf and washer/dryer space. I love that everything has a place and it is accessible. Also, I love that the art that used to be in our kitchen in the old house matches the new "mimosa" colored walls PERFECTLY.  This room makes me happy every time I come in the door. Which is good since that happens about a million times every day.

 

Sorry there is no "before" on this project. I didn't think about it until it was already torn apart for painting. Besides. It was way too depressing. You don't need that stuff in your life.

Juniper House: First Look

 Front of the house from the street...

 Lovely kitchen.

 More kitchen...

 Living room

 Front door and entry. To the right is the Library (i.e. formal living or dining...)

The Library- the piano, a comfy chair and books and more books will live here.

 Our awesome, shady backyard. The yard hasn't been mowed in a while, and it needs some work, but those trees!

 More yard

Back corner of the yard facing the house

Of course, there are bedrooms and bathrooms, but they are boring and hard to take pictures of. The house is all pergo- no carpet (boo).