Project Update: Table and Chairs

The whole "blogging while keeping up with a house" thing has been tricky (as you can see). We're still plugging away at things, and on top of it, we've jumped back into wedding planning! Never a dull moment over here :)

With that being said, we have conquered a few projects. Last week, I was bumming around Fabrics Unlimited and found this great pale grey upholstery fabric with a diamond pattern set into it. I thought it'd look great on our breakfast nook chairs, as they were currently stained cream suede- not exactly the kind of fabric you'd take home to meet your mother :) So I picked up two yards and a staple gun, then got to work.

A VERY easy- and fun- update. Staple Guns are the greatest!

They turned out beautifully, which made the little table look even sadder. See, Cade got the set from a friend who saw DIY potential in them but then gave up when she received a new set for her wedding. The table started out with this RED (yes, that's the best way to describe it), cheap stain on it, and it was as far from cute as it could possibly be. But, with a little sanding, the red went away, revealing a great natural wood.

Adios Rojos! It's time for a facelift.

Unfortunately, the table needed a LOT of sanding, so doing it by hand would be a nightmare. That's where my lovely friends at Home Depot came in- they set us up with a great little sander that was born to take on projects like this. After about 20 minutes of sanding, the table was ready for some stain. We picked up MinWax's PolyShades in Mission Oak and slapped on the first coat (after cleaning the dust off with tack cloth... semi-related: I'm pretty sure people sleep in tack cloth bedsheets in Hell. That stuff is awful).

The first coat went on okay. MinWax suggests you do at least two coats, and I wasn't sure what to expect since the poly is mixed in with the stain. After we let it dry for 6 hours, per their suggestion, I took a piece of 000 grade steel wool and rubbed the whole table down to get it ready for another round of tack cloth and stain. The second coat turned out a lot better, but there are still some spots where it's more grainy than glossy, so we're going to have to do a final round of the steel wool/ tack cloth/ stain before it's ready to go. The edges of the table top are a bit tricky to stain- it tends to pool on the bottom of the sides, but I think it's a result of user error in trying to keep a "wet edge." If you have any suggestions on how to avoid that, we'll take them :)

All in all, not a bad project- I'd give it a 4 on the difficulty scale, just because of the stain being a pain in my keister. We'll post a picture when the final coat is on- until then, have a great day!

Oops!

I am the absolute worst at blogging these days, although I have been documenting all of our fun on instagram. The goal is to post once a day this week, so hopefully that'll catch us up. Here are some sneak previews of what's to come:

Some Pig

One of our other finds at Home Goods last night was this adorable flying pig on clearance. He had seen better days, as he was being sold as-is due to a giant crack across his hiney (insert jokes here). But he was adorable and $6, and no one would even see it when he was sitting on our shelf. So we officially adopted Wilbur and brought him home.

After some spackle and a little paint, Wilbur is looking better than ever. I'm so glad we picked him up last night, as he brings a little whimsy into the house :)

Adventures in Spray Painting

When we moved in, the house was surrounded with brass fixtures to the point where it looked like King Midas was the previous owner. It looked outdated, but we quickly found out that replacing all of them would cost us a tiny fortune. Cade replaced the front doorknob as soon as we got the keys, but the rest continued to shine brightly.

As a fan of the Young House Love blog, I've developed a growing interest in updating via spray paint. And since Cade saved the original front door knob, we decided we could use it as a test dummy. I picked up some Oil Rubbed Bronze Rustoleum (to match the front door) and set to work.

Not only was it easy, it also turned out perfectly. We're going to wait 24 hours to make sure it holds before tackling the rest. In the mean time, I also managed to update an old brushed nickle lamp from college. It came in a 4-pack and the whole matchy-matchy thing was a little too much for me. So I gave the lamp a little ORB treatment as well, and ouila! It's a whole new lamp.

The trick to spray painting is light coats- hang back about a foot and run each coat evenly across the surface before adding another. And make sure you get an all-angle spray. It'll make your life much easier. Also, check out the awesome shade Cade found at Home Goods last night! It's perfect for where we're headed with the house.

Quick Tip: Faceplate Face Off

When we were painting my apartment last month, we ran into an issue with the faceplates for light switches and outlets. Even though they should be universal, that didn't seem to be the case when it came time to put them back on, and most ended up looking slightly askew. We're getting ready to paint our kitchen, and I didn't want to run into the same problem, so I came up with an easy solution: number them!

Write a number on the back of your plate (so it won't show when you put it back up) and put a corresponding number on the inside of the switch (that way it will stay hidden, no matter how fancy your switch gets). It's quick, easy, and will relieve the headache of moving plates from outlet to outlet as you try to find a match.

Shut the front door!

After much anticipation, we finally heard back from the HOA about our proposal to paint the door a new color, and guess what? We were approved! What a small but great victory :)

The approval meant we got to visit our good friends at Home Depot for a little paint purchasing last night. We hadn't seen them in a few days, so it was nice to be reunited, but what a trip that was... The woman running the paint counter was almost as pleasant as she was helpful (which was barely- she tried to sell us interior paint, and then spilled the pigment all over the outside of the can, making the wrong color, which she then tried to sell us. She also was very critical of our color and the fact that we bought a house with an HOA... Not pleasant. At least we knew what we were doing to get what we actually needed!). It took a lot for me to not paint the front door last night- it was cool out, it could dry over night, and, oh yeah... I wouldn't be able to see a blessed thing. Plus we had two Expedits (read: bookcases) from Ikea to put together, so I decided to wait until morning.

Then there was a heat wave.
And our door is in direct sunlight.
I.E.: mission impossible.

But we told the HOA we'd do the project immediately, so I went with it. I figured the heat would help cure the paint faster, which would mean less time with the front door wide open. After three coats, the black is finally hidden, but the heat is causing major brush lines, so I'll give it a final coat tonight after it cools off outside. I'm loving the color though- we went with Behr's Nocturne Blue, which is a subtle pop of color on our formerly monochromatic dream house. And it'll go great with our interior color scheme we're working on, but that will come another day ;) For now, here's a peek at the door after 3 coats! The picture doesn't really show you the true color- for some reason my iPhone thinks our door should be bright blue instead of our dark teal, but either color is MUCH better than the scuffed up black door we originally had!

A-door-able.

One of the things our HOA has asked us to do is paint the front door. Currently it's black, but we're thinking we might want to branch out a little. After spending too much time in the paint section at Home Depot, we narrowed it down to 14 (Cade narrowed it down to 4, and I narrowed it down to 14 as we walked away from the aisle :). At dinner last night, we brought it down to the final six, and we have to make a decision by tonight so we can submit it to the committee for their meeting tomorrow.

Here are our contenders-

Dried Thyme... Pretty, subtle and traditional

Gray Matters... this one kind of gets lost on the house. Whomp.

Grand Canal- a bolder color than the rest of the neighborhood

Rainstorm- A happy medium between adding color and fitting in

Kingdom Gold- or as Cade says, "The yellow that won't get approved"

Concord Grape- again, another happy medium

I think it's safe to say that Kingdom Gold and Gray Matters's days are over. Grand Canal is probably also on the chopping block. The other three are all great options though, and they each give off very different vibes. Which one is your favorite?

Make your own paint changes without spending a dime with Sherwin Williams' Paint Visualizer. 

Birthday Fun in RVA

Cade's birthday was Sunday, so we took a secret trip to Richmond to visit the Science Museum of Virginia (he didn't know about it until we pulled up outside- that made for an interesting road trip since he was driving!). It was a great day, and we learned a lot- especially about the human body as we spent over an hour in the Body Worlds exhibit. The exhibit shows preserved human bodies, and you can see how the muscles work, how disease affects the body, and how the body functions in general. It was pretty cool and a little nauseating if you thought about it too much (the displays with faces kind of did me in...). We followed it up with dinner at Strawberry Street Café, which was delicious- Cade had Drunken Rib Eye (steak soaked in Guinness) and I had Broiled Crab Cakes, yum!- and a walk around Richmond. I'm so grateful for Cade and so blessed that he's in my life- Happy Birthday Cade!

Making Progress!

Things have been going swimmingly here at the Pellegrin Pad, and with the 99 degree weather coming up this weekend, I'm sure we'll be going swimmingly too! This week is going to be a hot one, but with all of our overhead fans and a community pool (not to mention the Atlantic Ocean nearby), I'm sure it won't phase us too much. Plus, we'll have a bit of a distraction as Kelli comes to visit!

Kara and Kelli in their natural environment- at camp!

Kelli's one of my best friends from back home, as well as my maid of honor, and I've preemptively apologized to Cade for getting rowdy when Kelli's here- the girl loves life, and I love having her in my life.

But before Kelli comes, we're trying to get this place in shape- here's what we've done so far:

The front is looking MUCH better after whapping those bushes!

Here's our front room- it's kind of a hodgepodge music/sitting room

The left side of the patio with our $2 Target cushions

The right side of the patio- the grill and Tommy Toes (our tomato plant)

Our guest room upstairs- I love the painting from Cade's friend Chris

Aaaand the guest bathroom! Tada!

Our next big project is painting the front door- stay tuned to find out what color!

We can has internetz

We finally got around to configuring our internet network to the laptop, which means it's time for an update! Things have been going well around here- boxes are gradually getting unpacked, installation schedules are being juggled, and it's starting to really feel like a home. Heck, even the cats spent a good part of the evening exploring the house! Granted, Cleo was in her crate... we're still working on introducing the lion to the lambs :)

Cade's birthday is this Sunday, so we kicked off the birthday bonanza weekend with Red Velvet pancakes al fresco on our brand new (to us) patio set, followed by an exciting trip to the grocery store (no, seriously), and dinner at home followed by birthday pie.

"Birthday pie?"

Birthday pie. Cade prefers pie to cake, so I ventured out into F-burg ON MY OWN WITHOUT GOOGLE MAPS and made it to the grocery store this morning for some Key Lime Pie ingredients. The recipe ended up being the easiest ever (beat 3 egg yolks, add a can of condensed milk, add 1/2 c. lime juice and the zest of one lime, pour into a graham cracker crust and bake for 15 min @ 350), and I even picked up some heavy whipping cream so we could top the pie off right. Cade had his doubts until fluffy little peaks slowly developed. It was a great meal and we're excited to put our new kitchen to good use.

And since it's 1 AM, the rest of our adventures will have to wait. Stay tuned for "Adventures in the produce aisle" and "How to save money without really trying." Thanks for joining us on the journey- life is good!

Lowe's almost spells Love

I spent a good chunk of the morning wandering around Lowe's, looking at fun stuff for the house (although it's just looking- we made a deal that we'd decide on house stuff together). We're one week away from the big move, which means packing and dreaming are in full swing, and Lowe's is definitely encouraging the dreaming right now!

My three favorite finds from this morning are this great bronze light fixture, a cute outdoor fireplace, and this gorgeous rhododendron. And we got to see our new washer and dryer up close and personal (is it weird to match the rest of the house to them?). I can't wait to finally live together and start turning our house into a home :)

-K

One More Friday

We've got one Friday left before move-in day (that's how we've been keeping track- it seems to make time go faster), and things cannot be more exciting. Well, except for the three hours I spent stopping and starting service on all our utilities. I was singing along with the Comcast hold music when the person finally answered- oops! It was totally worth it though whenever they'd ask for our new address.

It goes without saying that Cade and I feel totally blessed when it comes to this house (and life in general). I often find myself saying, "is this actually my life?" because so many incredible things have happened in the past year, and the coming year seems to be mapping itself out to be even better. We met each other a year ago, a year from now, we'll be getting married, and moving into the house is plopped right in between. It's a pretty sweet life :)

Our attempt at a family photo (thanks, Cleo)

Coming soon, to a door near you...

The Adventures of Team P

A LOT has happened in the past year:

• We met.
• We moved.
• We fell in love.
• We got engaged.
• We bought a house.
• We'll be moving again (into that house).

Now that you're all caught up, we figured it'd be a good idea to document the journey we're about to embark on- living together, planning a wedding, turning a house into a home, eventually starting a family.  Nothing happened the way we expected, but we wouldn't change any of it even if we had the chance. John Lennon once sang, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans," and what a sweet life it is :)