Entry Way Project

We've lived in this house for almost 19 years, and the entire time I've been wanting to do something about the entry way. It is tiny and has no electricity or lights in it. 

More than 12 years ago, Jeremy and my brother and Dad hung new drywall around the window Jeremy replaced. I'm pretty sure it was years later before it was mudded and taped and sanded.

Two years ago, my friend Dawn started helping me get a vision and plan for decorating and organizing the space.  She drew this sketch, and we talked about wallpaper, ways to light it, storage options for shoes, using things I already have...

I finally painted the room for the first time since we've lived here.

Over a year ago, I bought peel and stick wallpaper and supplies to apply it, and 6 Trones from IKEA. 

And, Dawn and Shannon came over to measure the space for wooden things Shannon would build and help with.  I brought up trim pieces from the basement and figured out which ones will go back up.  I am THE slowest person at decorating.

I am so scared of wallpapering.  I've been putting off and putting off applying this peel and stick stuff for over a year, because I am scared to death to hang wallpaper without my mom! I decided last night that it was going to get done today.  Sylvia agreed to help me.  She had a Zoom farewell meeting at 10:30, and after that we started.

We tried applying the paper horizontally to make the small room look bigger, but our old house is so crooked, and I am so NOT knowledgable about applying wallpaper, that after more than an hour of fighting with it and not having a second ladder to get Sylvia up to the height I was at the top of the room...I decided it was not getting hung horizontally!

We put up the piece we'd cut to hang horizontally in a corner, and I calculated.  There was no way I had enough paper to make the repeat come out even this way.  I texted Dawn and called my Mommy (who is a major wallpaper expert!!) and they both agreed that it was totally fine not to match up the repeat. 

 Two hours in, we had one partial strip of wallpaper up.

I was getting so frustrated!!!  I was scaring my poor Sylvia!

I thought I had bought enough paper to do the whole room, since it is so tiny and has 3 big doors and a window in it. Alas...I had not! And this particular pattern is not available anywhere anymore, since it's been over a year since I ordered it.

 I was able to piece together enough to cover the spaces that will be exposed on 2 walls.  The current look is still very much "in progress," but hey, it's been that way for almost 19 years!

I have to say, I am not a fan of the peel and stick wallpaper after today.  The bubbles do not come out as promised, and I think it kind of stretches a bit if you pull it off and re-stick it too many times.  Thankfully, this brand, Repeel, you can do that! 

Today's lesson--well, not really a new lesson; I already knew--I am a terrible DIY-er!

A coat of paint

When we moved here from Ohio, the first room in our house that I did anything to change was the downstairs bathroom.  It had a huge hanging cupboard that was oddly placed, barn wood "shelves" dilapidating along the entire wall behind the toilet, and it just needed something immediately.  I painted it off-white with navy blue accents and an Americana theme, including stamping all around the top of the walls. 

It has been looking really yucky for the past few years.  I often walk into the bathroom and wish I could rip it completely apart--I mean gut it!!--with my own bare hands. We wish we could do a major renovation to the bathroom and kitchen, but that won't be happening for at least a couple years--or decades.  :)

I decided a little over a week ago that I would just paint the bathroom to give it a little lift.  It's nice to have it looking a little fresher.

I didn't take any 'before' pictures, but these are the old switch plate covers I had decoupaged with fabric.  I had made a matching shower curtain, and it's so faded there is barely any color left to it now.

Here are a few 'after' photos of the bathroom after this project.  Annah and Sylvia went with me between church and youth group a couple Sundays ago to choose colors and towels and rugs.  We had a good time together with that process!

I had a shower curtain picked out online, but when we saw this one, we liked it and decided to go with this color scheme.  I love the scripture on it--some of my favorite verses.  

Serve - "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15 

Believe -"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20

Praise - "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;

Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises." - Psalm 98:4

Trust - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." - Prov. 3:5

I like that we now have those great reminders in the place where we do much of our preparation for each day and night.

The paint tan/grey color we chose for the walls is called Wild Bramble.  

The doors on the built-in cupboard are from an antique Hoosier cupboard, so I'm glad to keep them.  I painted the dark brown parts with $.88 craft paint to cover the navy I had painted them before.  

 I really like this new rug.  It, and most of the things I bought, came from WalMart.  Basically the only thing I bought anywhere else was the big brown bath rug, and it came from Meijer.

 For this curtain, I bought another shower curtain, cut it the length I needed it and hemmed it.  (It is basically to cover the fact that the window is unfinished.) 

 The biggest expense of the project was new towels.  Our 13-year-old towels have been raveling and shredding over the past year, so it was a good time to move them to gym towels and get new ones for the bathroom.  

I had received a wonderful appreciation gift card from our church in August, and chose to use it to fund part of this project.  I wanted to keep the total expenses down below $200, and I was really close.  I actually kept track for the first time, and I spent $239.00 total:

Paint - $15.97

Painter’s Tape - $6.27

Outlet covers - $1.88

Rugs - $11.97, $16.99 = $28.96

Shower curtain $16.96

Curtain - $16.96

Curtain rod - $2.97

Bath Towels 8@ $5.88 = $47.04

Hand towels - 6@ $4.88 = $29.28

Washcloths 10@$3.88 = $38.80

stacking organizing baskets inside cabinet - 10 @ $2.99 = $29.90

helper shelf for under sink- $3.99

And actually, the organizing items were kind of free, because of mPerks rewards I used at Meijer.  (If you shop and Meijer and aren't using mPerks, I highly recommend starting.  I have saved over $110 in the first week of October using mPerks. And I am not a crazy coupon-er!  mPerks are just that awesome!)

So anyway, it's not a fancy HGTV bathroom, but it's a nice freshening up for now.

The Reveal

Sooo...the power apparently came back on about 7:45, and we arrived back home a bit after.  I went up to Caeden's room and waited there so I could record his reaction on video when he came in.  

In all these (iphone--didn't grab the good camera) pictures and video, I didn't really get any good shots that show his room.  And the room's not totally finished--still have some posters and a clock that haven't arrived yet, and a denim rug to finish.  But you do see a little bit of Caeden's initial reaction when he first walked in, which was darling...

So my chatterbox boy who never stops talking was speechless!  It was a great moment and a great reaction.  And, really, he's still reacting so gratefully.

After he took a minute to look around and take things in, he opened a card from us.  

Pretty soon, he got to playing with his new little LEGO set on his new mat.

He's totally surprised and really happy!

Some things are new, some are not.
New things: painted ceiling and walls, new curtains and rod, new desk lamp, new sheets, pillow cases and shams, blanket, comforter, pillows, mattress, bedskirt, black floor mats, lampshade, outlet/switch covers, and posters, dresser, and wall clock to come.
The desk was given to us by neighbors many years ago when their teenage son went to college and moved out.  The bookshelf was just painted with leftover paint.  We removed the old carpet remnant and pad to reveal the wood floor.  And I rearranged the furniture.

The girls wanted to hang out in Caed's new room too, even when it was time for bed.

Caeden was super excited about his birthday surprise, and when I tucked him in bed he said, "I really think this is one of the best things to ever happen to me."  Well that right there totally melted my heart.
Happy birthday, my sweet-face boy.

Stealthiness

I dropped Annah off at school at 7:10 this morning to catch the bus to auditions.  She is guaranteed to make the orchestra, since she is the only student from RJHS to audition.  But, she really wants to make the choir.  I just hope she has fun today!

Dawn sent me some pictures of Caeden and Reece playing Kinect this morning.  I know he is having a great time, as he's been asking for a sleepover with Reece for weeks.  I'm so grateful to Dawn for having Caeden so I can work on his room.  I'm painting and redecorating for his birthday, and it should be a complete surprise to him!

After we finished Sylvia's leaf project, I got right to work in the room this morning.  I had started by cleaning Caeden's room last week.  Sadly, it took me a few days to wade through all his junk and sort things into categories: trash, recycle, donate, sell.  His room has been so neglected.  It was last painted and decorated when Sylvia was born 10 1/2 years ago!  The walls were not only scribbled on, but so dingy and dirty.  There was about 1/2 inch of dust on the decorative toys on the shelves on the wall.  Ew!  

Caeden knew I had been cleaning in his room last week, and we'd talked about how dirty and cracked the walls were.  Thursday, I'd started patching some of the cracks in the plaster, and I told him I did it because I just couldn't think about anything else but all those cracks and how they needed patched!  He didn't think anything of it, and said he thought it looked like he had lightning on his walls. 

Friday, I finished patching the walls, patched the ceiling, painted his bookshelf with leftover paint I had from our den shelves, took down his antique toy shades and valance, removed outlet and lightswitch plates, etcetera.  Then last night, I sanded down all the patches and taped around all the trim.

So this morning, I put down the drop cloths and started with 2 coats of white ceiling paint.  Already a huge improvement!  I decided to do the difficult edge between the ceiling and wall next.  With our old plaster walls, I have to do this with a tiny paint brush, and it takes hours.  But, doing that before painting the bulk of the walls with a roller makes me want to keep going.  (I've done it after rolling the walls and it makes me want to hurry up and quit when I do it that way!)  

While I was painting the edge line, Sylvia finished practicing her instruments and decided to read to me while I painted.  What a blessing that was!  She read one of her Dear America books about the Revolutionary War.  It was not only a wonderful book (her favorite book, she says), but she reads with great expression.  It was a wonderful way to spend the day together, because she enjoyed reading to me and we could still hang out while I painted! 

However, the painting took longer than I expected.  Dawn and I texted back and forth throughout the day, and she was so sweet to pick up Annah along with Addie when the audition kids got back to the school.  She even brought her and Caeden home just before we had to leave for String Project.  I wasn't finished with the room, so I told him he was going to have to sleep in the girls' room tonight because the present Krampa and Gram got him was in there and he wasn't supposed to see it until Tuesday.  

By the time we got back from String Project and had supper and showers, it was bedtime.  I put a little throw over Caeden's head so he wouldn't smell the paint and pretended I was "smuggling" him past his room so he wouldn't be tempted.  He decided that he wanted to wait until tomorrow night to "open" his present from Gram and Krampa so that he wouldn't be tempted to play with it, so that made me not worry about him trying to sneak in his room.

After three very exhausted kids went to bed, I begged Jeremy's help with the room.  He took the bed apart and moved it temporarily into the hallway.  We rolled up the carpet and padding (that were originally bought for my college dorm room!) and carried it and the old mattress downstairs.  Then I mopped the floor and cleaned all the wood doors.  Jeremy reassembled the bed frame, and springs, and brought up the new memory foam mattress, which was Caeden's birthday present from Gram and Krampa, and put it on the bed to expand.  Then he put up the new curtain rod and brought the desk back into the room.  At this point it it is the middle of the night and we are exhausted and going to bed.  Finishing touches can happen tomorrow while Caeden is at school!

Window Trim

Several years ago, Jeremy replaced our big living room windows with new wood windows. We chose to use new construction wood windows thinking it would help us keep the look of the original wood in our old home--rather than replacement windows with white plastic trim.  However, these windows weren't the exact same size as the originals and we didn't get the trim put back up...

So our living room window has been without trim for years.  I've avoided taking pictures near it, but this is what it looked like...

A board has been missing at the back of the window bench where there was a sill before, so it's just been open and exposed.  Spiders love it.

It was insulated, and we could see the proof.

Well, this past weekend our talented word-working friend Shannon helped us once again!  He and Jeremy spent half the day filling in the extra spots and putting up the original trim to finish the window! Today I put a coat of stain on and will do another before sealing it, but it sure makes a difference in the room to have the trim completed!

Here is the end of the room right now.  Soon we will have to put up the curtains I bought.  

We make slow progress on our old home, but each step is exciting. 

Blessed by my friend

This is my friend Dawn.  She is a blessing to me every day.  I'm usually even fortunate enough to get to see her face-to-face several days a week--for her piano lesson, for her daughter Addie's piano lesson, at our Moms In Prayer group, usually for some school event, or just because our families are getting together for one reason or another.  Over the past week, she has given 3 days to help me with a project, and I'm so incredibly grateful!

You may remember the gorgeous red shelves Dawn's husband Shannon built for our den project a couple years ago...

Well, when he built those, he also built two more sections with 7 adjustable shelves like the center section.  They've been waiting for me for to prime and paint them so Shannon can install them in our living room.  

So, over the past week, Dawn and I sanded the shelves and cabinets, blew off the dust, wiped them down, primed them with oil based primer, sanded them again, blew off the dust, wiped them down, and painted them with two coats of "Brown Velvet" semi-gloss paint.  (And, boy, do they look pretty!)

It was much less work with Dawn's help, and we had such fun chatting and listening to Disney music, and talking about life.  She and Shannon were extra kind to let me spread this mess out in Shannon's workshop for a week, and they even heated it so we could work and the pain would dry well.  AND, Dawn fed me lunch while I was there too!  I just feel so blessed and fortunate to have friends who give so much!

I'm excited to see the shelves in our living room someday soon!  It will really help the function of our living room--and the look!  :)

"Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor." 

- Romans 12:10

Coming Along

I finally made the time this morning to take a few photos of how the design is coming along at church.  

(It was dark and raining this morning, so not a lot of pretty natural light.  I'll take more photos later, as we continue to progress on the designs.)

This is the view when you walk in the foyer at our main entrance.

Looking to the left in the foyer.  

(If you go down that hall way you see towards the right in the photo, you come to the sanctuary.)

Looking to the right as you come into the foyer...

Next Saturday we will have a Community Prayer Canvassing event, where we will pray around the entire community (about a 1-mile radius around PoC) and hang about 2500 of these on front door knobs.

View from the back of the sanctuary, looking at the stage, as Celia leads our pre-service prayer time.

The hospitality table at the back of the sanctuary.

Pastor Jessica preached about the Shield of Faith this morning.

Our current sermon series, about the Armor of God...

The Kids of PoC are excited about the new towers that will be outside the classrooms in their hallway!

Our Director of Children's Ministries, Lisa, and her sister Shelia at the children's check-in station...

Our nursery director, Jana, her husband (Pastor of Servant Evangelism) Brian, and baby MacKenzie, who was the only baby in the nursery this morning.

 another view of the nursery

Toddler/Pre-K classroom

Toddler/Pre-K classroom

Elementary Children's Worship

The kids were acting out the story of Abraham and Isaac.  (Caeden was chosen to be Abraham.)

(Sylvia, a little unsure about playing the part of Isaac. ;)

After the service, I watch the children of workers who tear-down the sanctuary and foyer.  Chill time for these kiddos, and maybe a little snack.

Truthfully, July and August have been full of working hard on the design of the building, and we are down in attendance about 10-15 on average these past several weeks.  It can be a tiny bit discouraging to look among the congregation on Sunday morning, and see only 20 people.  However, we trust God will continue to use us to bring people to Himself.  We know there are many who need Him, and we remain burdened and committed to helping them find Jesus.

We were reminded this morning of the story of Gideon in Judges 7, when God pressed him to decrease the number of men in his army in order to bring glory to God when the battle was won.  God draws all people to Himself.  It will not be our work that brings people to the Lord; God will do it.  And we trust Him!