Meet Reba....

Be nice everyone! Say hello to one of my BFF's :)



Reba is my Porter Cable pancake compressor with three (yes 3!) attachments. I have a stapler, nail gun, and finishing nail gun. I got her as a Christmas present from my Dad, which meant that I finally returned the compressor I had borrowed for over a year. (Thanks Jack!)

Over the past six months I HAVE been working on the house. I just haven't been blogging about it because I'm a failure. Here I am, starting my process of catching everyone up. During my recent projects, Reba has played an integral roll in their completions. Don't know where I'd be without her!

So.... the question I'm sure some of you are curious to know.... Why do I call her Reba? It was a rather easy name to come up with:

1-She's really red
2-When she "sings" I wear earplugs

:)

Sorry to all the Reba fans out there... I don't mind her songs really, but she's one of my least favorite country artists. I'm no expert on the genre and I'll be the first to admit it. However, I do love MY Reba.

To red heads that pack some heat,

Boomba

A little privacy please....

Once upon a time (April 10th, 2010), I wrote a post about the door slabs I snagged at the ReStore for $10 a piece. Not sure if anyone recalls, but I took all the doors down during the demolition, then moved in half way through June.

There have been no bedroom doors this entire time! Bless my sweet roommates soul for her patience. I didn't have the money to do them. After I had the money, I didn't have a truck to take the slabs and the old doors to Wheelwright Lumber for the mill to match. After I got that done, then I had to paint them. Two coats... EACH SIDE! Needless to say... It's taken quite some time.

HOWEVER!

The days of no bedroom doors are officially over! My roommate (and her bf) can finally utilize the privacy that bedrooms are supposed to afford an individual (or couple). Thanks for the motivation Brit, I would have NEVER gotten around to it without you pushing me the whole way through! It only took me around ten months to get it done... no big deal...


Doors lined up for painting


First coat. I'm putting this on here to show that the doors were no where near white. Everyone thought I was crazy for painting them, but it make a huge difference.


One coat done! Only three more to go :(


Attaching the hinges to the wall


Hinges on the door


First door up! Yay!!!!


Knobs in too ;) Sorry this picture is a little blurry. Now the door are up and the knobs are in. Privacy can not be enjoyed!

While I did put the first door up all by myself, the others I did have help. I still need to get the bathroom door done, but I'll have to have a much quicker turn around than ten months on that one...

To the glories of shutting things out (when appropriate),

Boomba

Yay for Tax Returns!!!

Ok, so this post has nothing to do with renovating. It has no pictures, videos, or really anything to show my progress like I promised in my previous post.

HOWEVER!

The house has benefited me greatly this evening. I filed my 2010 taxes and am getting a great return. Before I put in my house information, my return was minimal at best. With all of the write-offs that I have because of home loan interest, mortgage premiums, and property tax my return ended up increasing by around 300%.

THANK YOU HOUSE!

Since I was able to write so much off, I actually qualified for itemized deductions. I generally have too few and take the standard deduction. This year I was able to claim a lot of little things that I usually can't (like tithing) and it made such a difference.

What am I going to do with the money?

I'm actually going to put it in savings. There is a potential for a some expenses this year (central air, getting my car passable for emissions and inspections) that I want to be prepared for. I've got a lot of work that needs to be done around the house that I have *most* of the supplies for. So I'll continue on that for a little before I get too excited about spending all the money on new exterior doors or tile for the fireplace.

... But I would like to buy those things soon :)

To Uncle Sam,

Boomba

Utilizing Wall Space

As I have alluded to in other posts, I really like being organized. :) There is something about seeing a group of items neatly organized that warms my soul. Plus, being organized makes it a lot easier for me to be clean. How is this not a win-win?

Recently I organized some stuff around the house that gave me more space and a cleaner home. I was particularly thrilled that I was able to get these done because I've noticed them for a long time and have been putting them off. They were really easy to do, I just was too busy and full of excuses to get them done.

The first organization project was in my closet. I have accumulated a collection of purses and needed to me able to find a way to more beautifully store them in my closet. What? Women and purses? That's never and issue is it? I hate it when I'm so stereotypical...

Before they were just sort of crammed up in the top of the closet and as I took some out and put them back it just steadily became more and more of a disaster. Britney, my fabulous roomie, had a purse organizer that she was no longer utilizing. I traded some pj's I never wore for her organizer and now my purses hang beautifully in my closet. I'm mostly pleased that this little "nook" in my closet is being better utilized.


Cute little bags, all in a row.

The next little project was one in the garage. Since buying a home I have accumulated some things that all needed a place. The garage already had an organization strip attached to the brick, but I hadn't put all my odds and ends up on it yet. So one day after work, I didn't pull in the garage so that I could have the space to organize it. I was satisfied to get all of my useful tools up where I can easily see them, but to be able to have them out of the way.


My parents stopped by and were jealous of how clean and organized my garage was :)

For the record, I have been making A LOT of progress at the house! This project wasn't really part of the renovation, but I have gotten my butt in gear and completed some projects that I have really needed to get taken care of. So hopefully the posts to follow will be enjoyable as well.

To the peace that a clean house can give a soul,

Boomba

Just a spoon full of sugar...

Sometimes I don't feel like doing things around the house at all. Then a person comes in and asks if I need help and it can make all the difference in the world. Not too long ago Justin was over and saw my curtain rod out, unpacked, but also collecting dust. He asked if I wanted to put it up right now. Right now?! Don't worry, I bought it back in July. Sometimes that is just the push that I need in order to get things done.


We were able to get the curtain rod up that I got at Bed, Bath, & Beyond up with relative ease. I got the curtains at Tuesday Morning for $20, a good deal in my eyes!




After we got the curtains up, he also helped me put up the beautiful clock that my mother gave me for Christmas. Sorry the pictures are blurry! They are from my phone and I was apparently rather shaky.

Sometimes a little help is just what I need to help move things along.

To helping the medicine go down,

Boomba

Not so simple after all

I have like a bazillion little projects around the house that I've been needing to get to. So my next few posts will likely be of these "small victories". So while they aren't terribly exciting... Just be proud of me anyway ;)

One small project I've been needing to get to is finishing the vanity. The middle section still needed the drawer and the door attached to it. No... I didn't finish it, but I took a step in the right direction! I got the faceplate of the drawer back in. I didn't just want a to put the faceplate back on though; I wanted a tip out drawer. You know the ones that are kind of like a secret organization spot? Yeah, we know how I feel about organization :)

So I got this tip out kit from Lowe's and proceeded to install it back onto the faceplate for the vanity. What should have been a twenty minute project took me like two hours. It was ridiculous! The faceplate actually was the front of a drawer so the grooves that it had were of course in the exact spot that needed to have the screws. So then the screws weren't long enough and I had to find more... Luckily I have a bunch of odds and ends on hand. After I finished installing it the first time, it wasn't tall enough, so then I had to do the whole thing over.

But I prevailed!


Now it's closed, but then it...


OPENS!

Now it is a little hidden location that I store my make-up. So I just sit in front of the vanity, tip out my secret drawer, and get going in the morning! It's pretty nice.

To not sweating the small stuff,

Boomba

Better Late than Never

I know that Christmas was almost a month ago, but I never got around to uploading these pictures from my phone. While these aren't really "home improvement" items. I still found them to be an adventure at my first Christmas in the house.

For all my neighbors/coworkers, I decided to make a little Christmas treat. As strange as it sounds, I have a very strong connection to jelly. Not just any jelly, my grandma's apple raspberry jelly.

Whenever I would stay at my grandma's house the breakfast of choice was toast with jelly. So in the morning she would toast me up a slice of bread and cut it into fourths. Now it is important to note that she did not cut it from corner to corner, yielding triangles. She cut it down the middle, yielding me four delicious squares of jelly slathered toast.

I have never had anyone cut my toast that way. It left such a strong impact on my memory, that I can stil close my eyes and see her handing me a plate of toast cut that specific way. You also better believe I have every intention of cutting toast that way for my kids. Just a little way of remembering her and keeping the legacy she left for me alive.

I'm not particularly domestic, but I had the recipe and had my mom come over for the first batch to make sure I did everything right and that the bottles sealed correctly. It really wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Here are some of the pictures of my adventure :)

The cute little jelly bottles, cooling and sealing.


For packaging I got little Christmas decorated Chinese take-out boxes.


Christmas gifts and thoughts of Grandma, all in a row.

The gift was slightly selfish in that I made it so that I could have some. To my credit though, I really did enjoy giving something thoughtful and different to people for Christmas this year.

One of my favorite sights this year was when the Christmas tree started getting surrounded by gifts. My roommate and I would wrap them and put them under the tree throughout the month and it was so fun seeing all the interesting shapes appear to give to those that we loved.

Isn't it cute!?

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

To creating new traditions with old memories,

Boomba