No more leak!

When we first moved into our house, I went through and made a list of everything that needed replaced either immediately or in the next couple of years. After I gave the list to Ben he said, "so you want all of this AND the kitchen sink!" Yes, the kitchen faucet leaked from the handle and was getting all corroded. I thought, as long as we were changing the faucet we should do the sink too. It is chipped and the color isn't quite right; it was more of a want than a need though.
Well, many other things took precedence, like light fixtures, a sprinkler system and living room furniture to name a few. The last couple of months the leaky faucet has gotten really bad and would even leak a little when it was turned off. I had picked out the faucet I wanted on the Lowes website and was waiting until we had the money for it. About 2 weeks ago I got a coupon in the mail for 10% off my entire purchase at Lowes Oct 1-5; I took that as a sign and went and got my new faucet on Monday. They didn't have the exact faucet I wanted, but they had a very similar one that was 2/3 of the price.
Well,

BEFORE:



My nasty, leaky, old faucet. The "chrome" plating is all worn off and it is turning a lovely green color in places. Not to mention the hard water build-up.






This is what I found under the faucet. GROSS!!!

Underthe counter was even worse. The parts that held the faucet in place were so rusted that it took all my strength and a good monkey wrench to loosen the bolt. I discovered afterward that the rust was stronger than the bolt and I actually broke it off instead of loosened it.

Drum roll please :)

AFTER:

It all cleaned up pretty good. Not all of the rust stains would scrub off and there are a few chips in the finish. But all of the hard water came off with the help of some barkeepers friend (thanks for introducing me to that Karin) and a razor blade.

And.... TA-DA! Here is my beautiful new faucet. The plate for the bottom covered up all of those chips and stains very nicely. I love that the sprayer is in the spigot, not separate. I like that I can put it on sprayer without holding it. And I love the black, it goes so much better with my countertops and appliances. I think the hardwater spots won't be as bad now either.

Tiny Harvest

First of all, I got my curtain rods so now my curtains are up. I just have to hem the bottoms now. I really like how they turned out. They really add color to the room. Now I just have to make a few pillows. I didn't have enough fabric left over, like I thought I would though, so I will have to get some more.
Now to my current harvest. I was able to get 5 ears of corn off of my plants last week. They are tiny though. They were only about the length of half a normal ear, but they were the same diameter. I don't think I planted mini corns, but they all were. They tasted really yummy though. Maybe they were stunted by the chlorine water that leeched over into our yard from our neighbors pool either leaking or just draining.

And yesterday I picked these two tiny little tomatoes. The chapstick is just for size reference. I didn't realize I was planting a miniature garden. The bigger one is from a "patio plant" that I thought were cherry tomatoes when I bought them. So it is between the size of a regular tomato and a cherry tomato. The tiny one is about the size of a grape tomato. I thought that plant would be a roma tomato when it started getting tomatoes on it, but I guess they are just grape tomatoes. I don't mind, I love grape tomatoes. And there are several plants that are regular romas, they just have green tomatoes right now.

I had actually picked a grape tomato a few days ago, but I gave it to Hyrum to take inside, and he squished it.

More of the yard and house

So I finally got my curtains done. I still haven't found a curtain rod that I like so they are set out on the couch. Imagine them hanging up. I need Karin's interior design expertise to decide what style of curtain rod I should get. Wood to match the furniture or the rubbed bronze to match the light fixture and table. Tough choices.

I also found the blocks I want to use for my retaining wall across the backyard. Unfortunately there were only 27 of them because I found them on Craigslist. Good news is they were cheaper that way. I haven't seen these anywhere else. I had the picture in my head of exactly what I wanted. Now I hope I can find more of them somewhere.

I am going to have to get a LOT more of them to go all of the way across the back. It will be a very gradual process. This is only 1/3 of the wall. And I want it twice as tall.

At long last

Woohoo! We finally got our front room furniture. I guess it had been ready for a while, but the guy at the La-Z-Boy store messed up our phone number so they couldn't call us. I finally called to check on it and we were just now able to go get it today. We decided to save the delivery fees and get them ourselves since the pick-up location was across the street from Ben's work.


Here is a somewhat elevated view from one angle.
We got a sofa and two chairs. (The other chair is behind that half wall.) We definately need some color in there now. But it does have that "celestial room" feeling Ben always said he wanted that room to have. I have a few things that I need to get framed and put up.





If anyone ever feels like splurging and spoiling me I really want a copy of "Prayer at Valley Forge" for that room. Just a print of it in the size I want is about $100. You would have to really love me! :)
I love this painting. It was painted by the same guy, Arnold Friberg, that painted all of those Book of Mormon paintings they had on display at the Conference Center. You can read about it here. I will put a copy of the 'Declaration of Independence' on one side and 'The Family, A Proclamation' on the other side, which I already have.










And here is the view from another angle. The diamonds can be seen in this one. There's the other chair! I can't get a much better picture. That half wall is in the way.




Here is one of the chairs so you can see that shape. The kiddos had to get in on the photo action. We are leaving the plastic on them until the novelty of them wears off of the kids a little. They were climbing all over them and jumping on them, so I am glad we did.






And a close up of their cute mugs.












And the sofa, for the shape. I really like them. They are pretty much exactly what I wanted. We had found some at Ikea that I liked, but when we went back to get them, they were gone. They had been discontinued. It worked out good though, 'cause I like these better and I think they will hold up better too.

Finishing touches

I put a few finishing touches on Hyrum's room. I finally cut the curtain into two pieces. I need to get some sort of backing for it now. I also sewed the grass skirt onto a piece of fabric so that it will stay put better.
And then I put his flowers back on the wall. He is so funny, he was super excited that I was putting it all back up.

All he needs now is a collage of surf shop stickers. Hmm, there aren't any surf shops in Arizona... Hint, hint Nana and Papa:)

Sprinklers

Finally, since I got married, I have actually really been able to use the knowlege I went to college for. I have used it a little here and there, for house plants and pruning and what-not, but nothing this extensive. Since early March I have been working a little here and there on putting in a sprinkler system for our back yard. Just digging the trench for it. 2 weeks ago I was able to go and buy all of the pipe and fittings and a trenching spade to get the job done right. This week on Tuesday, Wednesday and today I worked from about 8 or 9 in the morning each day until 3 in the afternoon and about 6pm on Tuesday to get it done. I still have a little more digging to do to get the wiring hooked up to the timer (on the opposite side of the house as the water; DUMB!!) and I have a little more piping to get together for the garden sprinklers, which will be above ground, and then of course I have to bury it all in the backyard.

Here are a few pictures of what I totally completed today. The really white pipe is what I put in and the black/green box with 3 new valves. When I put the T in off of the main line I accidentally stepped on the existing sprinkler line and broke it right at the joint to the valve. It turned out to be a good thing though. I had to put a filter on the new line for the drip irrigation and it wouldn't have fit in the new box, so I just rerouted the existing line to the new box and hooked the new drip line and filter up to the old valve in the old box, where it fit. Yeah! you can kind of see the white pipe going left to right.I wanted to get a box the same tan color as the other one, but I could't find one anywhere that was the right size, I even looked online. I will just have to get one of those cool fake rocks that you can put over them to hide it or paint it someday.



Here is after I buried the part that was in the front yard. In the shadow you can see the pipe in the open trench.

Now you can't even tell I had that part all dug up, can you?! I wanted to get that all back to normal so we didn't get in any trouble by the HOA for having the visible yard torn up for too long. They are pretty picky.

And this is what I look like after a day of playing in the dirt. Josi took it for me. My face, arms and legs from the knee down are sunburnt; my lips, forearms, and shins are chapped and I am sore from my shoulders to the bottoms of my feet, but I love doing it.

Now I am in my jammies for the rest of the day and, yes, it is not even 4 yet! I think I deserve it :)

More Painting

This year for my birthday, Karin gave me service. She said she would help me paint stripes in Hyrum's room. All I had to do was choose the colors and she would take care of the rest of it. Today we were finally able to do it. She came over after she took the boys to school and stopped to buy the paint at Lowes. Then we taped it and started painting. It was pretty fun. It took us about 41/2 hours to do it all. And it was perfect weather for it. Nice and cool, but sunny so we could have the window open for ventilation. After she left I put up the wall decals I had gotten when we first moved here. I had used some of the surf boards on Hyrums fan almost a year ago.



Above his door I put "Hawaii" and a surf board. Tomorrow when the paint is totally dry, I will put his surfboard clock back up right in the middle of those stripes to the left of the door and I have a hibiscus flower table runner I found at Target (love that store) that I had in the middle of the wall on the right side of the door.
Here, above his closet door, I put a palm tree and two surf boards. That wall on the right side is the same one in the picture above that the clock goes on (for orientation purposes).
There is a window on the left from this picture that will have curtains made from red and yellow hawaiian print fabric, courtesy of Aunt Nae. It is still one piece, but I am going to cut it in half and put a backing on it to help keep the light out when they are closed.




And above his bed I put "Surf's Up" and the smaller palm trees and surf board decals. This wall is opposite his closet. Some day I will get some cute fabric that matches the surf motif to make him some sheets for his bed and maybe find a cute lamp that goes along.
I think it all turned out so awesome. Thank you so much Karin, I love it! It wouldn't have gotten done for a long time if you hadn't given me this thoughtful gift. And now I am excited to do Josi's when some of my other projects are finished. Maybe for her birthday when it has cooled off again.

Progress

I got the diamonds done today. I will do the second coat of the main color and any touch-ups on monday probably. I ran out of tape and had to reuse some to get the middle diamond painted. I really love it! Now I just hope our cream colored furniture looks good with it.

I have this burgandy/plum colored fabric with gold dragonflies (they match the paint perfectly) picked out for the curtains and maybe some pillows. I hope that the store still has it when I can finally get some. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

More Projects and Updates

I started painting the front room today. I got the main color mostly finished. I still have to do a few touchups though. I also have to finish the wall on the left. I am painting a slightly darker color in a diamond design over the main color. I saw it in a model home once and totally loved it. I just hope I can do it right. Then I have to do a second coat of the main color on that wall too.

I really like the color I chose. I think it will end up looking so nice. It is really hard to tell how even the paint is in this room because of the way the sun shines in and reflects.

I also sort of finished Josi's french memo board finally. I gave up on finding a dark enough brown ribbon for it and went with pink and white. I also sewed on 3 little butterfly buttons. Initially I was going to use just the 3 butterflies and use something else on the rest of it, but I think the butterflies are so cute, I will get more of them to finish it.
I am not sure it I will keep her letters hanging from it. I really like it except that they don't sit on the wall flush, so they twist a little bit. I just used some pink pins from my sewing stuff to hold them on the board. I also need to print some pictures of her to put on the board. I am so pleased with how it turned out.

My garden is also growing. Most of the corn has come up and I saw a couple of tomatoes too. Just waiting for peppers, the watermelon, cucumbers and cantelope. I am going to plant zucchini too, but I haven't decided where yet.

Dining Room Updates

Here are the recent updates to our Dining room. We put the clock up the end of January. We got the bar stools yesterday. I actually got 4 of them and they all fit, but the whole room looked too crowded. Fortunately, one of them had a ding in the side of it. I ordered them online, so I was able to return it because of the ding and not have to pay the return shipping. They aren't an exact match, but Ben didn't even notice the differences, so I won't worry about it. They are very subtle.

The kids were so excited to sit on them to eat dinner last night. We don't all fit, obviously, but I made BLTs and they started eating before they were all done, so it worked out. We will just have to use them for breakfast and lunch when Ben isn't home and when we have company and need extra seating. They make the room look a little more complete.

My next project will be to paint the front room, before we get our furniture, which we had to special order to get the color we wanted. They still won't be ready for 4-6 weeks, which actually works out great so I have time to paint.

More Home Improvements

With the holidays drawing near and the potential of many visitors during them, Ben and I decided we should get a couple of the little projects done that we had been putting off, because we could live with them. The first was in the kids bathroom upstairs. We haven't used the toilet since we moved in, because we were told that it leaked. So we replaced the wax seal under it, which looked like it had never created a seal at all. Because we have tile floors, we had to use two seals. We also replaced the handle which had been broken and the fill valve because it made a terrible sound each time the toilet was filling back up.

Our next project was in the 1/2 bath on the main floor. The sink in there was not attached to the wall so it wobbled. This first picture is from before we painted the house. It had nasty yellow stuff dripping down behind the sink.
After we took

the sink off we found that

the bathroom wasn't built to have a pedestal sink there. We had to cut out the drywall, put in a backer board to attach the bracket that holds the sink to the wall, and then replace the drywall. This is after we had done that and I was just starting to re-spackle it.

Here is more of that nasty yellow stuff. It looked like someone tried to glue the sink to the wall, so we had to scrape all of that gunk off.

Here is the finished job. It appears that I am a genius with spackle :) You can barely tell we had cut a hole in the wall. And now it doesn't budge at all.

Our last project was to paint our dining room table to match the chairs we got. Karin was kind enough to come and help me with it. I had never done anything like repainting a table so I was nervous to do it myself. First we sanded it then painted it. I got the blackest black that Lowes had but when we opened the can of paint, it looked navy blue! I decided that it was just the reflection of the sky because we were outside. That made Karin laugh:) Ben helped me bring it back inside when he got home from work. The first thing he said was "It's blue". When the light bounces off just right, it does look a little blue.
So here are the before and after pictures. You can be the judge(s).

And here the table is (minus the leaf) back in the dining room. It looks pretty good, but I think I will put a coat of polyurethane to protect it better and make it easier to wipe off.

Here is my crack-up little Josi. She touched the table right after I had finished one of the coats. Karin always gets the best pictures!

Home Improvements

Life has continued to be pretty crazy the last month, so I haven't blogged much. One day we went to do some fabric shopping with Karin for curtains. Afterward we went to Michael's Crafts and found some really cute wooden letters for Josi's room and paint and sponge brushes. Josi was so excited she wanted to carry it all herself through the store. The next day we covered the table with paper and I let her paint them. I just did touchups to make sure they were covered good.

First we painted them all pink.
Then we painted them chocolate brown.
They aren't as dark as I had hoped they would be
Then I sanded them a little on the edges

so the pink showed through.

This is the beginning of a french memo board for her room.
I am still looking for matching ribbon.

Another day I went out and expanded the drip irrigation line in the front yard, so I could put some shrubs where there hadn't been before. The last owners had cut down every plant but this one tree. I was able to find several stumps from the old shrubs so I could plant some of the shrubs in the same place that they used to be.
The pictures are during and after I put in the new line.

<--During

&

After-->

This is the whole area I planted.

<--Before

&

After -->

There is still more I want to do, but this was just enough to keep us from getting in trouble with the HOA.

More House Pictures

This is the entry way. Just to the left of is the living room. A half wall separates it from the entry. You can just see part of it with a candle warmer on it.











This is the kitchen. It has a nice big pantry with shelves on three sides! I am so excited to finally build up a food storage. I've never had room before. I love my appliances and the fact that they all match. I wish that I had Karin's cabinets. I love the color of hers. If you look at the big pictures you can tell the counters are granite look-a-like Corian.
We finally got our chairs and I got them all put together. For the first time in 4 years we can actually sit at our table to eat our meals. The table I got for free from someone I worked with when we lived in Mesa. It is really nice, solid wood. Now I just need to paint it to match the chairs. Mnisa, I hope you can give me some advice; I hear you did yours, too.