Provident Living...

I have wanted a garden for a while. I was lucky and grew up with parents who always had the most amazing gardens, growing everything from corn to squash to strawberries. We have a wasted space near the fence in our backyard that I thought would be the perfect place for some raised bed gardens.

We had my dad map out three beds, but after putting two of them in we felt like that was enough. I took the boys and my dad to get some plants early one saturday in October. We ended up planting an entire bed of califlower, one of broccoli and one with mostly herbs like cilantro, basil, rosemary and oregano. We also planted rows and rows of carrots, radishes, green onions and butter lettuce. Yes, if you did the math we ended up with three beds.  And now that we are loving it so much we plan to take out a bush in the corner and add two more.  The kids want us to plant pumpkins and corn in the fall!

Here are some pictures of back when we planted...

 My dad and Braden prepping the soil.

They were so small!

And today...

 The bed on the left has Broccoli and green onions and on the right cauliflower and butter lettuce.

 All three beds.

 The herb bed. Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, and there are radishes and carrots in this bed too.

 Look at that beautiful lettuce! It is great on tacos and burgers.

This just shows the whole area, the big bush on the right didn't survive the harsh freezes we had, so I will work on cutting it down and hopefully we will be up to five beds by the time we plant our spring garden!

A New Look to the House...

I know asking for baseboards for Christmas was kind of a weird request. However, it was exactly what I wanted.  After ten years in this house I felt like we needed to do some updating. We spent most of the week after Christmas painting and installing the baseboards.  Rusty also thought some beadboard would look great under the countertops. I mentioned, while we were doing al this we may as well repaint the kitchen. Rusty wanted to paint red, but I have been toying with the aqua, red, yellow color pallet. So, I was more than shocked when he said sure, let's go pick out some paint.

 I hesitate to show this pic, but really, it makes for a great Before.  The baseboards are beat up and once we replaced the carpet a few years back, these tiny baseboards all but disappeared. And yes- the wall under where the boys eat is nasty.  Having it nice and white makes it so much easier to clean.

 So much better, right!?! It's like a little slice of heaven right there.

 The kitchen before. And yes, I am a piler- as in I pile things all over my house until they bug me enough to put it away.  Don't judge. We painted this olive green color about a year after we moved in.  Since our lovely countertops are a mix of -shall we say- seafoam green, my kitchen color choices are limited. Thus the olive.

 The kitchen after.  The beadboard made such a huge difference.  I think the color on the walls especially pops against the molding we put up around the windows years ago.

 It's so bright and cheery.  And, as an added bonus, it makes the countertops look more grey and less green!!! As we were finishing the kitchen, Rusty relented and let me go a head and paint the family room as well.  So we painted the family room a fresh grey color.  I love it.  It has enough brown in it to still look great with our couches, carpet etc.

This was one of my side projects.  It was white, and after we painted I wanted just a pop of color on the wall, so I painted it red, and then added some black-bronze paint to bring out the details.

I added that turquoise pillow too, but switched it for this super cute yellow damask cover instead.  I love it.  This is the grey after we finished the paint in there.

(This was the before picture- it's from a party in October, but it shows what the old color GoldenGate looked like )

We have a list of things we want to do now.  Like paint the rest of the interior the grey color, put rock on the fireplace surround, do the baseboards upstairs, and paint the kitchen cabinets-I say WHITE, Rusty votes for a darker wood stain.  So, until we decide, that project is on hold!

Let the Home Improvements Begin...

I have been staring at the gold door handles in my door for more than a year now thinking they could use a good updating.  A while back my friend Stephanie did this in her new house and I stored it in the back of my brain for rainy day.  Well, it wasn't really rainy, since that isn't conducive to spray painting, but I did finally get a round to it.

When all was said and done, it turned out way easier than I had imagined for the following reasons:
A) Braden took nearly all the handles and pieces off for me.
B) The spray paint dried pretty quick in between coats.
C) My door hinges were painted white not gold, so I didn't actually have to take any doors all the way off.
D) Braden put most of the doorknobs back on for me.  What? The kid has his own tool set, or two, what can I say?

Before and after

I LOVE the finished product.  They feel different in my hand, and they look like they cost about $30 a piece- which is what it would have cost me to change them all out.

Reasons why it was more work than I thought:
A) Getting spray paint off your hands takes a while.
B) Cranky babies WILL wake up the second you get prepped and ready to go.
C) Not paying attention to which piece goes to which particular door, may make for a fun puzzle to solve.
D) Your 5 year old son may want to help since his big brother gets to...

Here it is during the process.  I even pulled the hardware off in the bathroom, and off the double doors in the master.  That was tricky, but had to be done!

It really only took one good coat, but because of all the angles and sides a lot of the pieces took three or four shots to get it right.  The kids took special care to make sure all the screws got covered.  I really really love it and now the only complaint I have is that I really, really, really want to paint the doors.  We are going on almost TEN years in this house and it is time for a little lipstick and rouge.  I have plans to paint the master bed and bathroom this summer. And once I see that project complete, I will maybe tackle those drab by doors.  All 16 of them.  And closet doors, and baseboards.  Ah man.  I've got to get to work!