Robots in the City.... my boys are 6!

We had the boys' family party on Saturday night.  Carter wanted to do a city theme, Dylan wanted Robots.  They told me this like 9 months ago and stuck with it, so I said we could do Robots in the City.  Pretty easy theme to work with.  My hand was a little tired from drawing cityscapes and robots around the house. 

This road was SUPER ANNOYING!!!  So happy to pull that up.

NO!!!!

I really didn't plan this.  Sorta ridiculous. Clearly I like stripes!

I thought the cake turned out great, I didn't even give her any Pinterest pictures, just told her what I was thinking.  Tasted great too!

Family of Five pics never turn out too great.

Kasper was being a goofball all night.

These two had a great time all night!!

So what are these two dudes like at SIX?  

CARTER

• Still pretty much ALL BOY
• Loves bugs and all things that move, perhaps a future vet
• Loves playing with our neighbor boys
• Can't get enough Legos
• Seems to enjoy school- PE & Recess are the highlights
• Does not eat his school lunch and is picky as ever when it comes to food
• Loves peanut butter sandwiches with cinnamon on it
• Still gets scared easily (by movies like Frozen)
• Way too into the monkey bars
• Is a great little builder, he does such an awesome job following his lego instructions or can free build pretty well too.  Latest thing he was proud of was the out-house he built:)
• Loves to be at home, if we are really busy and away from home he will keep asking to just stay home
• I finally let them have gum (I know, it was like the last thing I held off on) and Carter LOVES gum!

DYLAN

• Dylan is loving school!  Thank goodness!
• I think he loves the monkey bars even more, I don't but they do seem to be getting really strong from their daily monkey bar training.
• Dylan is also really into swinging and jumping out!  You can only imagine why we have had 2 broken arms?
• Loves to draw pictures
• Loves PE
• Big fan of his little sister
• Loves playing with the neighbor boys
• Likes legos, but I think Carter likes them more.
• Still loves his mama:)
• Seems to naturally take on the oldest child role- even though I NEVER point out to either who is older
• Still my little party planner
• They are both into Scooby Doo right now
• Really into experiments, he wants to mix food coloring like every night.  

This may be my only DIY accomplishment this summer

This was my first time painting a garage.  If you plan on painting a garage, I highly recommend doing it BEFORE you move in, hang shelves and store 500 bottles of this and that.  This is something I have been wanting to do for sometime, but lacked the motivation.  I finally got started the night before we went on vacation, I figured if I did one wall it would keep me going.  I quickly decided painting a garage was like obstacle course painting.  First, our ceilings are about 12' - I don't love heights.  Second, we (and by we I mean I)  had to take down all of our shelves and the junk that sits on them. Third, there were tons of bugs and things I had to clean off the walls.  Fourth, I had to have the doors shut because the bugs would come in and with it being August, it was very humid in the garage.  Finally, there were so many odd things to paint around - like the garage doors.  So this lady is happy to finally be done!

I let these two help out a bit, they thought they were pretty darn cool! 

overall, I'm super happy with how it turned out, so totally worth it!  

I should also mention that I used Behr flagstone paint with the primer from Home Depot and I got away with one coat of paint on these super dry walls.  Four cans, so I went through a lot, but I was very happy to only do one coat!  So I would highly recommend their version with the primer, it works great.  Plus they can color match if you are looking for a specific shade.

Project Pantry - 98% complete

I have been wanting to re-do our pantry shelves pretty much since the day we moved in. I hate these wire shelves.  Everything falls off them and they can barely support the weight of a can of soup.  The most annoying part they weren't installed very efficiently.  See all those big gaps of space.  I added in a few on the left a couple years ago.  The new ones are adjustable!

This is a project that I knew would be a super pain in the but once it was finally go time.  I ordered the shelves from Menards and they took a ridiculous amount of time to come in and I did not want to get started until they arrived (see kitchen table picture for reasoning).

First step was pulling out all the food and old shelves.  The boys were extremely helpful and had a blast helping me.  I've heard them tell like five people about it!  And they really were helpful and worked super hard!

I initially thought I would load the food up in the office, but this all conveniently worked out the same time we were cleaning our carpets, we had to squeeze our massive couch into the kitchen too!  

After I pulled out all 100 nails/anchors (which did no tome out that easy), we had to fill all the holes (twice) and sand!  I think that was Thursday night.  Then we had to move our furniture and get ready for the zerorez (the radio commercials sucked me in).  

Next step was painting!  Not my finest job, but I can't tell you how excited I am to no longer have nasty, chalky ceiling paint in the pantry.  

First unit in.  We used the same system we used in our master closet, so Keith is almost an expert with the system now.  We did run into a few challenges (hence the 98% complete).

I'm sure you are thinking... they weren't very efficient, look at that big gap.  The shelves come in sets of 3 and you have to screw in the middle one.  So our cereal goes on this shelf, it's working out OK for right now.  However, I do like to maximize closet space, so if needed, I'll add a shelf.

And at about 12:30 AM on Saturday Keith was cutting the last few shelves, I was doing a bit of multi-tasking - peeling hard boiled eggs for Easter dinner, tagging garage sale clothes and installing shelves.  I finally got most the food back in by about 1:30. 

So we have one more shelf we need to buy / install and fix all of our cable box cord business....(I DON'T LIKE MESSY CORDS!)  

So overall, I'm pretty darn excited about the new pantry, it looks much better and seems to be much more organized for now!  

This would also be a good time to share my new tupperware system- not sure if I've shared, but I HATE TUPPERWARE!  I mean it's great, but really freakin annoying when it comes to unlatching lids and a cluttered mess that falls off your shelf every day.  So i am trying these soft baskets.  Working great for the lids so far, could be better for the bowls.  Great excuse to buy a new basket, have I mentioned I can barely walk past these things without buying one.  

DIY & Project Update

Though we really enjoy a good DIY project, time just does not allow them to happen very often or very quick. Well, I should say, we do them really, really fast in the window of time we have to do them.  So here is a little recap of what we have in the works…

BEFORE

AFTER

I have been hunting forever to find something to replace that shelf.  I hate that shelf because to be honest, I don't really have anything that fits into those squares.  Then it just ended up being junked up by kid stuff.  So I am loving these cupboards where I can hide all of that.  I think I will maybe add a few more frames to the table and am still on the hunt for a chair (have been for months).  I just read something somewhere about home decoration, it's more of a marathon than a sprint.  I will agree to that.  I'm so darn picky that it takes me forever to find something that I like.  I was a bit nervous about this item to because I ordered it online, luckily it turned out fine.  Keith did not enjoy putting it together:)

OH, A CLOSET??? 

Let's take a look!  I'm super excited about this little project. I added these little shelves first, which was great!  Then I decided this would be a far better place to let the mail and all the in and out junk pile up!  It is no longer on my counter - huge win!!!!  I bought this rack so I could organize kids stuff, coupons, etc.  It could be fancier with fun labels and things, but it works for me.  I LOVE IT!

 

 TREES!

We try and add a couple new things to the yard every year.  It is quite toasty in our backyard so we thought a couple bigger trees would be a good investment.  We picked them out a while ago, but they were just installed last week.  Keith's grandfather passed away this summer and he was a farmer and a big lover of trees and nature, so we thought it would be perfect to plant this tree for him.  It is a red sunset maple and I think it will be beautiful in the fall.

And of course Grandpa Clarence's tree needs a sidekick, so we also planted a beautiful, silk ivory lilac that we can call Grandma' Caroline's tree.  I'm really excited to see how these change through the seasons, I think we will really enjoy them.

Also - we are finally done with the patio!  You are probably thinking that is old news!  However, if you were to ever look close there was a gap along the entire edge (child trap!) that needed seeded.  Keith did that last week as well.   We also added lights and pillar caps this summer too.  So now I need to think of some fun landscaping ideas around it.  The sun killed our orange chairs too - so if anyone has a great recovering idea let me know!

FINALLY - MORE ROOM FOR OUR JUNK!

We would really like to build a shed for our lawnmower / snow blower and the rest of the junk, but realize that would take us a really long time.  So in the short-term we decided to build a little loft in the garage. Luckily we have really high ceilings so you don't really even notice it.  We were able to take a ton of things off the floor and toss up there.  When we were in MN we had a two-car garage, so I though having a three car garage would be plenty big.  Well, a jeep, a riding mower and a bunch of other toys later, things are getting tight! Who knew?  We think we might be able to put the wagon and lots of other toys up here in the winter too, so that will be nice!  Now one of the next big projects on my list is to paint the garage.  This will not be fun.  Why on earth did we paint our garage white?  Good question, I wouldn't have if our builder asked us.

WHAT ELSE IS IN THE WORKS?

• Well, the basement stairway is halfway painted.  Seriously, I started a few weeks ago, haven't touched it.  We need the ladder and Keith to hold it, so that requires after bedtime painting and I am always too tired for that business.
• Staining the deck! After about 5 failed attempts due to weather, Keith finally knocked out the main deck boards.  Then I did a section.  We still have the stairs and some rails.  I told Keith it was his turn.  I just don't enjoy staining decks.  You know when you wish you had a smaller deck, when you are staining it!  Because it sucks! I spent like 2 days powerwashing it just to get ready to stain it.
• I would like to start getting a plan in place for the basement, so we can start exploring costs, contractors and the works.  We are not doing it ourselves.  Maybe some parts, but most we will not.

Closet is finally complete!

BEFORE

 Like all projects - this one was a doozy.  Not so terrible to install, but turned into one of our longest projects.  We probably started this in January.  Again, like most projects we hit several roadblocks.  Since I'm a bit of a nut about maximizing closet spaces, I've never liked the wire system we had.  It was a quick- do you think this is a good spot for your shelf in the mix of a million other decisions when we built.  so it would have been nice to have done this right in the first place - however, using the space for a while helped us determine what would work best for us and all our stuff.  So i would say it was pretty jammed!

 After looking around quite a bit, exploring building our own - I finally decided to go with the easy track system from Menard's.  We figured keith building was not realistic.  The system worked out pretty good - but the big downside was - we went with white and they do not keep that in store, so you have to order and it has like a 3+ week wait.  That doesn't work with my- do something when you have a free moment backed with a bit of motivation- DIY style.  

So once I had the system ordered I had a confirmation email the system was in and planned a day off work to paint the closet and start installing.  So I believe that Wednesday night (this was back in feb) at first I started to slowly move our stuff out - which quickly turned into the office being the home of our clothes in a massive pile.  No big deal- we would be done by the end of the weekend:) 

Once I got the old system down - I was surprised to find 75+ clips with large holes that I had to pull out (which didn't come out too easy).  The holes were so big we had to do a-not-so-high-quality-fill-job.  Then sand EACH SPOT! So i think I was up until 12-1 that night doing it.  When I had hoped to be taped off and ready to paint.  Then Friday I took the day off and finished cleaning up, and got ready to paint.  I was going to pick up the system - but even though I called to confirm my stuff was there, only a basket was there - the rest to arrive about 2 weeks later (remember our temporary closet -the pile in the office:)).  

Anyway - back to the painting.  I absolutely had to paint this before installing because this is super nasty, chalky ceiling pant that I think you get drywall chalk on  your hand if you touch it.  I debated a bit on the color to go with.  I really wanted to go navy, but was afraid it would be like a dark hole.  I even considered something fun like red. Then a friend told me that can make your clothes look a funny color and since my husband struggles making matches, adding a funny tint to everything would be a bad idea.  So I went with grey and absolutely love it!  You don't really see much of it now, but I like it. And thank you to my mom for helping me paint!  Good thing that was pre-broken ankle.  

Here is the first unit up.  This is mostly why I went with this system - because of these corner units, they hold so much stuff.  This system also hangs, so you don't have to deal with your woodwork.  Keith and his dad worked hard one Sunday to start the project off.  Which then we would have our next big delay.  

They have regular drawers and "hutch drawers" - of course I ordered the regular hanging pieces with the hutch drawers, which ended up being a costing us about an extra $100 and adding another 4 weeks to the project because we couldn't install that section until it was ordered and shipped.  (I have no idea why it takes so long - ridiculous).  However, totally worth going white because it is cheaper and we had to piece in a couple pieces and you would have noticed if we used their fake wood.

AFTER
OK - this might not look significantly better- but I promise you, it IS!!!  I just love it, everything is organized so much better, the space is used better - noticed there is lots of room on the top shelf!  We did get rid of a ton of clothes, so that helped too - but much, much better!

Sorry I couldn't get a good picture. 

hopefully Keith will skip over this line, but got these corner shelves worked out nice- the top two are his, and the rest - well, you can guess.  Actually do have more room on them if he needs to put something on them.  

*This project confirms my husband is far worse at getting rid of clothes than me.  He will look through all those shirts and come up with one.  

That gap in the dresser part now has a drawer - again, another 3 weeks on top of the last thing I said.  We just got that in last week.  We were actually going to put shelves above the dresser, but the corner shelves held so much we really need more hanging than shelves, so we did that instead.   

If you are ever looking for space in your closet - try pants hangers.  I ordered pants hangers online and it raised all our pants up about 8 inches.  See the pic on the left.  The right side pants are on the new hangers.  this was a huge improvement.  

Huge project to have checked off the project list.  Next closet to fix will be our bathroom.  And that will be much easier, just switching from wire to board.  I hate the wire ones in our bathroom, every time I set something on the shelf, something else falls on the floor.