Weekend Recap and Party reminder

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!

My sister's family came into visit this weekend and we had a great time viewing fireworks on Friday..

Going to the beach on Saturday...

And, going to an Astros game Saturday night.

We're very lucky that we live in an area with SO much to do.

I love how the bay fills up with boats before each firework show. 

Liam and I at the beach before he threw his hat off.  ha! 

 Our family, after the beach, but before leaving for the baseball game

 My sister, Samantha, and Liam.

 Overexposed, but still cute.  That is my sister's stepson next to the baby in the black hat.  :)

 

 

Last night we went out again to view fireworks.. and let me tell you, we'll never do it like that again.  Next year we're either chartering a boat or we're doing it smart like these people!  LOL.

Bathroom.. Kitchen... TVs... Beds for the little ones?  Now THAT is how you wait out a 2 hour traffic jam in style.  ha!   We made friends with them toward the end of the night, and they said all the kiddos were in bed in the TWELVE bunkbeds.  Nice.  :)


Here was our crew.

I'm throwing this one in because it makes me laugh.  Man it is hard to work out with kids in tow.  Our bike ride/mommy walk time turned into whiny kids, mommy pushing everyone AND two bikes time.  lol.

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Remember, the Plate Wall Party opens tomorrow!  I hope you'll join in!

:)Courtney

Starting Wed!

I am super excited about hosting my first link-up party, and I hope you'll join me! 

This party is all about the plates.  To me, there is just something classic about plates displayed as art.  I hope you'll join me on Wednesday and link up any posts and photos you have displaying plate collections.  I think this will be a great way for us to see great examples of plate walls all in one spot.  :)

I'd also be super appreciative if you spread the word.  See you then, and Happy Fourth!

-Courtney

Yesterday's Purchases

The boys and I went shopping at Target yesterday morning and picked up a few things for the front room redo.   Michelle over at Dream Home DIY does this little thing called Inside My Shopping Bag, and I've always enjoyed reading it (perhaps because I'm nosy and like seeing what other people spend money on, ha!).  So, I thought I'd completely copy her today.  :)  If you're reading this, thanks for the inspiration, Michelle.  LOL.



What's inside Courtney's Shopping Bag..

I actually need about three more of these magazine holders, but the Target I visited yesterday only had one left in green.   If you look into the background you can see the real reason we went to the store, ha!  Yep, toilet paper.  Tell me I'm not the only one who goes into a store for one thing and leaves with a $100 debit to the account.  LOL.  Anyhoo, this magazine holder was $4.99 and was available in about 4 other colors.

 These saucer size melamine plates were only $.99 and I bought two of them to be used as coasters on our desk. 

I also picked up this four pack of 7.5 inch diameter salad plates.  $7.99 for the four pack.

And finally, something that isn't green! ha!   All of these plates are melamine, but from afar, look like real dishware.  Price wise, I'll start with the white ones first.  The small round plates and the small square plates were $1.79 each.  The larger round plates were $1.99 each and the two blue ikat plates were $2.99 each.

So, why on Earth did I buy so many random plates?  For a plate wall, of course!  Actually, I'm thinking about hosting a plate wall link up party so we call all share ideas.  Is that something any of you would be interested in?  I'd hate to host my first party only for no one to link up, ha!

I'm also thinking of doing a few day in the life posts.  One of my favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner, just did a few and I really enjoyed reading about her activities, especially since she's a stay at home mom like myself. 

Let me know what you think, please, especially about the Plate Wall Link up Party.  I'm thinking about setting it to debut sometime next week.

:)  Courtney

What I found this morning...

Apparently I need to take the baby gating to the bathrooms too.  (Or at least learn how to close doors, ha!)

Liam is loving toilet paper these days. 

Have a great day!

:)  Courtney

Custom Baby Gate HOW TO

Custom Baby Gate How To.

Welcome TLC Party People.  :)

This is strictly a guide to how we constructed our custom baby gate.  If you would like to see more photos of the finished product, they can be viewed in THIS POST.    :)

Materials:

 24 inch x 48 inch x 1 inch woodworkers panel  (found in the trim/moldings aisle) at Lowe's. 

Also seen, the baby to be gated.  :)

One 4 inch x 1 inch x 4 ft board

One 3 inch x 1 inch x 8 ft board

One 1.5 inch x 1 inch x 8 ft board

We also used several small pieces of bender board left over from the Board and Batten project found HERE.

Brandon placed the 3 inch wide board on top of the 4 inch wide board to create the stacked look that the hinges are attached to.   Below you can see a dry run we did, with the hinges and the main door panel, done to make sure everything was aligning correctly.   We also used this chance to trace the outline of the steps, which would need to be cut so that the gate could pass freely over.

Below is a close up shot of the boards used to hold the hinges.  You can see how the stacked the 3 inch and 4 inch boards are arranged, as previously described.  We needed the 2 inch thickness, and could have just used two 4 inch pieces, but we felt this looked better.  We were left with recessed screw holes, which I then filled with wood filler.

I tend to overfill and sand off any excess later.  

I took this photo to show you how Brandon measured the center of each trim piece as a guide before nailing on, but I'm posting it because it just looks so funny.  I know it is just the perspective and because he is such a tall guy, but his legs look so little here!  ha!  He looks like he's in a fun house mirror.  :)

The leftover 3 inch board that was not used as part of the hinge contraption was nailed to the top of the gate.  We used the 1.5 inch trim piece for the bottom of the gate, and the side. 

We spaced out the bender board to an eye pleasing look, and then measured and cut to fit.

Since the bender boards are 1/4 inch thick, and we used them on the front and on the back of the gate, our 1.5 inch piece on the bottom fit flush with the edges of the bender boards.  We used the liquid nails to attach the bender board pieces.

Here it is primed and ready for paint.

3 coats later (ugh! ha!), it was time to attach the caster.  We attached it to the edge farthest from the hinges in order to help with the weight load. 

The receiving end of the gate latch was attached first.

After attaching the gate to the wall with the hinges, we attached the gate pin, ensuring it fit correctly into the gate latch.

Done!

The gate took about 5 hours to build and assemble, and we couldn't be happier with the finished product.

And, just for convenience, here is the LINK to the post with more finished photos.

Thanks for reading!

:) Courtney

Custom Made Baby Gate

Here are some photos of our baby gate the hubby and I constructed this weekend!

Okay, well.. we both designed, he constructed most of it, and I did the painting.

Here it is!

Please, someone, tell this little guy that he is 7 months old and is NOT supposed to be scaling mountain size stairs!  LOL.

I thought we'd have a few more months before we'd have to figure out a solution to baby gate off these weird shaped stairs, but the time came sooner than any of us were prepared for.

We debated a supergate around, or building a similar style gate around the base of the stairs, but after Liam decided the computer cords in the front room made a nice teether, we decided to go ahead and gate off the whole front room.   :)  Sorry little guy.

View from the front room Before

After

View from the kitchen/family room Before

And, a few detail shots.

Ahh, just love that little caster on the bottom.  :)

I ultimately want to find a nice little glass knob to put on it, but it works just fine for now,

....although it isn't making Liam too happy.  ha!

Aww.  Poor baby.  Better safe than sorry though!

Here are semi-detailed directions on how we built it LINK HERE.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

:)  Courtney

Linking to:  Just a girl.

Between Naps on the Porch

Savvy Southern Style

Board and Batten treatment

I've known for months now that I ultimately wanted a board and batten look in our front room. 

However, I mentioned it to my husband those many months ago and he was really less than enthusiastic about it.  So, the compromising lady that I am, decided that I could make do without the lovely architectural addition and just get away with painting one wall blue.   The husband was on board with that idea, so I ran with it, and you can read about the results of that in THIS POST

And here is a little photo of how that turned out... 

Well.  I liked the results, I really did, but something was bothering me about it.  I guess since one blue wall wasn't really my initial vision, I was having a hard time with it flowing with the rest of my plans.  Our neutral walls were now looking really yellow and it was beginning to look very kindergarten classroom-ish, with our one blue wall, yellow-y looking other walls, and our bright red filing console on the other end of the room. 

So, I pulled up some images of board and batten, done well, on Decorpad.com and showed them to Brandon.   He was totally on board this time; I'm guessing the room was looking just as odd to him as it was to me.

We measured out the room and determined that we would need 20 ten foot boards to do the whole room minus the one blue wall.  I still wanted it left the same.

So, off to Home Depot we went.  Our ten foot boards were about $5 and some change each, so we loaded them up, and also put in our cart a gallon of white paint.  Cheapo that I am was a little disappointed that our total was going to be around $150 for this wall treatment.   $100 + for lumber, almost $30 for paint, and a few paint brushes thrown in there added to the total.  I was also I little bummed because the wood that existed in my mind, didn't seem to exist in real life.  Ultra thin (to not stick out over the baseboards), and ultra cheap.   Oh well.  I really wanted it done.   So, we were standing in line at the contractor checkout, since our local Home Depot has EVERY other register as self-check out now.  Ugh.. how annoying is that?  I like self checkout stations, but I like at least one other normal register open.. especially for lumber and whatnot.

Anyhoo, we were standing there with our cart full of lumber and I notice this display of bender board, 3 3/4 inch wide, 1/4 inch thick, by 96 inch long strips of MDF, used by concrete contractors to shape curvy sidewalks or driveways. 

In hindsight, had we not been in the contractor line, I'd have never seen these strips!  I thought to myself that these would be perfect... and wandered over to the display to see how much they were.   $1.60 something each.  Say what!  Needless to say, we put all of our other lumber back and loaded up on 30 strips of the MDF.  We ended up picking up more since the lengths were shorter and we didn't want any weird seams.  Actually we over estimated and we have about 10 strips leftover! ha!  I have another project in mind for them though, so I'm happy we over bought.  Anyway, at this point our $150 project was now around $80.  How great is that??  I have no idea if others have done the board and batten look with these bender boards, but I highly recommend it.  Cheap, thin, PERFECT!  You definitely need to prime first, since the MDF is absorbent, but if you're planning on doing that anyway, then it is really no big deal.

So, after all that jibber jabber, time for more photos!

We are no where near being finished with this space, but we've seen quite the progress so far!

Here is a reminder before (actually more like a during):

And a few during the wall treatment addition:

Ahhh.  This room is finally starting to feel like it is a part of our home.  Love it.

Thanks for reading!

Linking to :  Between Naps on the Porch

:)  Courtney