Colorado Reno- Project 1- $500 Laundry Room Makeover

I will cut to the chase with our finished product! But do not be deceived, many many hours went into this over the course of this past month.  But the heavy lifting of ripping up the existing floor, prepping the subfloor and laying the tile happened in about 3 days total.  We could not be happier with this cheery laundry/mudroom now! In the midst of my chaotic and NOT organized (yet) new home, this little room brings me a smile whenever i pass through it from that garage door entry.

Renovating is my mission, my passion, and something that I have faith will financially pay off once we move again(fingers crossed!).  But see, when we did this the first time, we waited until the very end of our stay to renovate things to sell our home.  And while it was still fun, I realized I seconded guessed myself WAY too much and should have gone for it at the start so we could have enjoyed all our improvements as well.  I have much more confidence in myself and dear husband now, after all I went to 4 years of interior design school right? 

So with this house, we started working our way through the projects from the outside in.  The house is not what I would call a "fixer upper" by any means- but it needs cosmetic help in all the right places that will pay off later- kitchens, baths, floors.  So we invested in a few key tools which we found on the cheap at a pawn shop actually- Tile Saw, Miter Saw, Drimmel tool, and we borrowed our awesome neighbor's brad gun (Mr.Ralph is the best!). Starting on the laundry room allowed us to practice our DIY skills on a low risk area too.

We started out with the laundry room because 1. our lovely movers failed to bring our washer and dryer anyways. 2. HELLO 90's border and blue vinyl floors. But you know it had good potential with lots of storage.

Laundry BEFORE! hard to even see how bad the vinyl floors were.

For our first tile floor hubby and I rocked the herringbone pattern.  Laying tile is tiring and thank goodness I had my awesome husband for the measuring and cutting.

This is an IKEA glass message board which I added a "self serve laundry" graphic detail from this great Etsy shop :Toodlesdecalstudio Shop

Total cost $14 for glass board, $15 for decal

 By adding a small 1x2 to the left side of shelf- the width was perfect to add this wire bin by Allen Roth at Lowes, which slides out for easy access to my laundry goodies.

Now we have a place for mail, shoes, two laundry basket spots, and more!  And it all looks pretty clean and tidy when you walk in.  My favorite part of this shelf are the roll out wire shelves I added because Ev now puts her shoes away and on all by herself!  

 After we had it almost done, I decided it was missing some contrast and a shelf for the items you reach for most when you are doing LOADS of laundry - and we do lots and lots of loads here between the 4 of us! So we followed a simple DIY tutorial by Young House Love and I love love how it turned out.  Tom cut it (he does all the cutting because I have a fear of power saws) and I stained it with this easy to use gel stain.  The color is called Prairie Wheat and it really shines with a nice golden hue which I like. http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/09/come-pet-our-tile-the-musical/

I added some pretty bowls- One for stray kid socks and one for loose change and such.  Oh and I couldn't resist adding an extra motivator to my laundry routing : Key Lime Pie Marshmellows! That may or may not have been a mistake to show Ev.

 The beadboard was all cut to size at Home Depot.  Tom cut the 1x6 which is topped with a 1x2 picture ledge.  We replaces the baseboards with simple 1x3 MDF.  Brad gun was used to adhere it all to the wall very quickly.

Material Cost Breakdown:

• Tile: Daltile Porcelain plank style, on clearance at the showroom from a return: $75 or $1.88/sq ft
• Cement Board Thinset,  Grout, Sealer: $100
• Beadboard, 1x6 and 1x2 and 1x3 MDF): $75
• Pine Board for shelf: $17
• Gel Wood Stain in Prairie Wheat: $16
• Paint : $40
• Allen Roth Sliding Wire Shelves (x2): $40
• Basket and square laundry baskets: $20
• New Ikea Hardware on cabinet doors/hooks: $10
• Fun Laundry accessories from World Market: $30
• Tiled subway backsplash+ Mastic: $30
• Ikea Sign and Etsy decal : $29
• New Doorknob (which i need to switch out again on both doors) $20
• LABOR: $0!!!
• TOTAL: $500

Tools :

Miter saw

Ocillating tool

Tile Saw

Brad Gun

Drill

Let me know what you think! And if anyone has any ideas to get our dryer vent not to take up so much room please let me know!

~damsel in a mess

What's In A Name Anyways?

So sometimes, God sends you a message that He is real. And sometimes He sends it after the fact, years after the fact, and if you let it....it will blow your mind.  This was one of those moments.

Yesterday in our attempt to clean up and declutter, we came upon this little piece of paper.  It was a handwritten translation of a German "play" passport given to Evelyn by her Aunt Bronwen.  Reading the last two words "little bird" just kind of stopped Tom and me in our tracks.  We must have missed it the first time we received it almost 3 years ago.  But it was like this little sign from God that He always intended for her to be called Evelyn,  and he put her name on our hearts as if it were our own great choice, and then let us in on the little secret later.

"Dear Evelyn- your name is an English name.  It comes from the English form of the French name "Aveline." This is in a turn a familiar form of "Ava", the meaning of which is "Little Bird."

As many of you already know, we chose not to find out the gender of our babies until they were born. 

So flashback to my pregnancy with Evelyn before we knew she was a girl and before we had named her.  We are living in our little humble apartment, and Tom is singing in the kitchen a little tune as usual- but this time it caught my attention...it just had such a sweet tune.  I don't know why, because I never asked him to do this EVER again- but with THAT song in particular, I asked him to sing it to our baby in my belly.  Can you guess the title of this song?  "Little Bird" (tune is in this youtube video if you are interested). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrMpo0YDiDY

We had picked out a boy name and a girl name for the big day, initially it was Collin or Monica.  We were pretty set on these names, but towards the end of the pregnancy I started feeling more and more that this baby was a girl and I thought harder on what name felt right.  The name Evelyn popped in my head, and I talked it over with Tom and he was like "Yea, Evelyn was on our list of names before we were ever even married, I have it here on a word document because I am a nerd." Sure enough, I had forgotten all about that conversation but there it was on his hard drive.  So we kept Monica as our number 1 pick and Evelyn as a back up if baby M was to be a girl.  When she was born and was in fact a girl, I took one look at her surprising little blonde head of hair and her face and the decision was so easy- she was definitely meant to be an Evelyn.  

Tom continued to sing the tune "Little Bird" to her almost every time he rocked her to sleep, so much so that she eventually would make him stop because she had wised up to the fact that this song indicated it was time to SLEEP, which she never liked much.  

Finding out that her name literally meant "little bird" was just mind blowing to me! It is not an easy translation to find by a simple google search since it has to be traced back, and had it not been for Bronwen writing that note(thank you Bron!)- I would have never made the connection.  

I guess what this immediately brought to mind was wow God really does know us by name, knows our children by name in the womb before we even have a chance to name them ourselves.  It specifically made me think of the very verse I chose to post on the day our sweet Evelyn was baptized:

Isaiah 43:1 

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."

Perhaps this is God's little way of nudging me along, as I pursue my own baptism this Easter- to remind me that he knows my name just as he knows Evelyn's. 

People often say to me, "what a beautiful name Evelyn is, was it a family name? " I never really know how to explain that this name was just meant to be hers, but now you know.  There is a lot to a name, even if we never can quite put our finger on it.

Our Little Bird, aka Evelyn

Small beginnings, my first paid gig! You really CAN hire me you know

After my last closet blog, an Army wife acquaintance messaged me interested in my services available for help on her current rental home.  She just needed some paint ideas and ways to improve her kitchen that would be agreeable to a landlord. Obviously the changes needed to be diy, cheap, and removable. 

This is a common problem that plagues many Army wives, as renting or on post living is very common. 

I gladly accepted the small job- She sent me a few photos of her space and a Pinterest board ,of course, so I could get a sense of her style.  I provided a few hours of my time, the visualization above and a roadmap to explain how to achieve the look (exact paint names, approximate costs, tutorials on how to make your own pendant light). 

What do you think of this type of service?  I would love to do more work like this on the side, so please message me if you or a friend is interested! I can do most work over the internet, so location isn't usually a problem. 

Being a mom and wife is my first priority in this season of my life, but I must admit doing a little paid work was rewarding too :) 

If you want to see more of my work, my online portfolio can be found here:

http://www.coroflot.com/kmyers/sample-portfolio

3 more months

Last night I was reminded of my deep bond I have with Evelyn- I was lying there with pregnancy insomnia at 1am and thinking how much I missed her, how I missed getting up to nurse her or when she used to sleep all night with me in the crook of my arm.  I wished that she would wake up tonight, just for a minute so I could hold her and rock her to sleep in the dark.  Within minutes, I heard her wake up and cry for me- and I jumped happily out of bed to go rock her to sleep.

 It was so nice.  It's like she knows when I need her as much as I know when she needs me. She may sleep in her own room now ;she may not nurse anymore, but we are still connected in this crazy way that I never knew existed before having her.  

I hope I can remember this as I enter the chaotic time of having another newborn who has no sleep schedule and needs me so many times at night I lose track. We are building a bond that is worth it. 

I am so excited about having another little tiny life coming in three more months, but at the same time I think every second time mom experiences the jitters as the big day nears. 

See, as you might know, Evelyn is my whole world right now. I am feeling like that time of it just being me and her is passing by so quickly- I just want to soak in every sweet moment where life is this simple- one nap to worry about, one bedtime, quiet nights that are filled with sleep and predictability. 

At the same time, this new sibling can't come soon enough! Evelyn needs her sibling even though she doesn't know it yet. I see how I am at my limits at being able to play and interact on her level everyday - I cannot wait for her to have this new person in her life that is small like her and to see how they love each other.  I know it will take a little while for them to get used to each other, but like any special bond- all the ups and downs are worth it.  

Can a Master Closet Sell Your House? Our Master Closet Reveal!!

This one sure wouldn't... but when we bought our house I just KNEW this closet had the potential to be off the charts awesome, Carrie Bradshaw worthy, every girls dream.  It just needed a little TLC and some money.  Fast forward to now, as we are preparing to PCS (move thanks to the Army) and have decided to sell our home.  While I could leave it to chance that some other visionary type would love this closet, the odds are they will see paint splotched plywood and clutter.   

Don't judge- this was in it's best state before the makeover! We do have two another reach in closets in our master so this was just our overflow space we rarely went into because well..there was no floor!

Prepping the walls, painting every inch! Next the carpet went in (Absolute Flooring in Clarksville, TN did a great job and at a great price, highly suggest them!).

BUT what about this closet??  Same space, way different reaction right?  Low Investment -- BIG Impact --- = Successful! 

I have been doing a lot of research on what sells homes and for the least amount of investment.   Everyone knows kitchens and baths are a great return, but they are also a great EXPENSE.  The average mini kitchen reno is about $16k and the average bathroom reno is about $7k.  So we ruled out this option long ago.  I won'd reveal the final cost of this closet, but I will say with a little creativity, some great finds at Salvation Army and Lowes, it is VERY affordable for the impact it has.  It did not come from a box, but rather we (my awesome hubs was a huge help) pieced together several pieces that mostly came from Lowes and Home Depot.  We also had everything cut at Lowes except for the rods, hubs cut that with a hacksaw.  I will have to blog about the how-to's on future blog if people are interested.  All I know is,  I am excited to get dressed and put away my clothes now!

I am no real estate expert, but I do have a degree in Interior Design and job experience in professional sales.  So I started reading a good bit about the value of home staging and how to prepare your home for sale.  It is all about putting your home on display as if you live like Martha Stewart basically (that would be quite a lie for me personally but i do love her style).  It is quite deceptive in a way, but staging is proven to gain you significant advantages in selling your home- up to 10% of a better sales price.  The key is creating an emotional response from buyers when they view your home.  Buyers are viewing upwards of 15-20 houses a week sometimes- you need some way to be memorable.  Everything you have out should help them imagine what the purpose of the room is, what the possibilities are, and how living here would offer some taste of "the good life."  

Now back to closets...most people are moving because they want more space.  Many times if people cleaned and de-cluttered their own house while adding some minor cosmetic upgrades, they would probably be quite happy with what they have.  The last thing you want to do, then, is have buyers walking through, opening closets and having things falling out or blocking the floor space.  This alone will trigger their brains to think, " this house doesn't offer enough space for us, we could never make it all fit because even they can't."   But well organized spaces are going to create the opposite feeling- leave them thinking - "wow, this person takes care of their home, and I could be this organized if I lived here."  If you know me, I am not naturally organized...so this IS a challenge.  

So without further ado, I introduce you to our new Master Closet/ Dressing room.   I'd love to know- what are your thoughts?  If you were on the fence on two properties and both had similar stats - but one had the closet of your dreams ready to move into.... would you bump it up on your list?

His and Her sides - well mostly he got his own side but you know how that goes... (but I had to steal that space for shoes on the left there ).

 A little motivation to start the day- nothing like your toddler's smiling face!

Rope lights to light up the floor

 the hardest part was collecting all the parts and pieces and measuring! I am not so good at that, but luckily my wonderful husband is!

this is how the 26 week preggo lady gets things done with a toddler! I was in charge of procuring and getting all items cut- husband never even made a single trip to the store! Tula carrier to the rescue at Lowes trips.

after revamping my salvation Army finds!

 My Stud Husband hung EVERY inch of this- because I am quite terrible at measuring as I said, and also securing anything to walls.  One day I will learn...he did awesome though!

 another sad before photo.

Will I miss this closet when we move in a few months?  YES, absolutely...BUT we learned a lot about closet design and how to execute on our own.  I hope our next house we can do this right when we move in!