New Chairs

The living room chairs were delivered Thursday and I put one together last night and the other this morning.  I decided to wait over night to make sure before I took the time to assemble the second one.

I've decided I love them! And I got check off approval by my assistant house decorators.

Before:

 

I'm not sure where Snuffers got the dog toy from...

After:



From HERE

We also finished the upholstery on the dining room chairs.  I absolutely love how they turned out. 

 

Cost breakdown for chairs:

Chairs - $41 from Craigslist

Paint & Primer - already had leftover from refinishing the buffet

Fabric - $12 from Fabric.com

Total per chair: $13.25

 

I realized the last picture of the gallery wall really wasn't that good.  The light was on in the dining room (ghetto 1990's brass fixture) and it was creating shapes all over the picture.  Here is a replacement picture.

 

And here are some lovely picture of 2 of the children. Kaya is impossible to take pictures of! She is so scared of cameras. I may have tempted her to get up on her hind legs with a Kong toy filled with peanut butter. But only maybe.

 



 

   

You can see the haze in Kaya's eyes.  The vet said she is slowly going blind.  Poor little adorable (old) girl.



 

 



 



New Camera?

Yes, I do mean a new one.  About a week ago Scott brought home a camera that a friend of his at work was upgrading from.  I loved it, but realized it wasn't the right camera for me.  It was about 6 years old and while it had everything I needed, it had been dropped and I worried about it's longevity.

Fast forward a few days, we discovered there is a camera store by our house going out of business.  We decided that if they had the camera I wanted, we'd buy it.  If not, we'd return the one I had been using and wait until another date to buy my "dream" camera.  I'm telling you, it had to be fate.  We walk into the store and they only have 1.  They had two cameras that were body only of the model I wanted, but I decided I liked the kit lens the bundle came with.

We didn't buy it right that moment because I wanted to actually think about the decision.  I didn't expect the camera to be there, so I was caught slightly off guard.  I also wanted to make sure their price was in fact fantastic.

Turns out, it was.  But even better, the prices dropped the next morning.  I went running up there on my lunch and purchased this bad boy.  I absolutely LOVE him.  Love, love, LOVE.  It is even BETTER than the XSI I was using.  And what's even better is we got a slamming deal on him!

Canon Rebel T3i

And just for some random fun, Baker has been home almost 2 weeks.  This is his new favorite hobby.

Cute, right?  Only not so much.  He drips ALL over the floor.

Gallery Wall

Most of the weekend I spent dying from accidental gluten intake.  Let me just tell you, if I had any temptation of ever wanting to cheat, I am completely over that now.  Worst. Pain. Ever.  Ok, probably not EVER.  But it really did suck.  It was about 3 days of miserable-ness.  On Sunday, I was finally feeling like doing something somewhat productive.  I worked for awhile on stripping the buffet.  That is turning into quite a process.  I am now on to the legs and other curvy parts which is much harder to scrape then the flat surfaces.

Other exciting news - we hung our gallery wall! We had a bunch of random frames we've collected over the years that we wanted something to do with.  We don't really have any surfaces to put frames on, so we decided to make a collage, gallery wall.  A lot of the frames are empty still, but here is a general idea of what we've done:

Templeton (the deer) is my favorite part!   And the ampersand.  I have a slight addiction to ampersands.  We also (finally) reupholstered the chairs.  We had the fabric and the seats all ready to go but hadn't got around to them.  I realized that the picture of the completed chair is on the other camera! Boo!  I will post those soon.  I LOVE them. 

I ordered some living room chairs (the floral ones won!) and will get those delivered on Thursday.  After that, it's on to couch shopping for the living room.  It feels so good to finally have some rooms coming together!

PS - Meaghan Dunklee - do you see those empty frames? FIX IT!!  To anyone awesome out there reading my blog, go check out my friend's side business - Ex Libris Journals and Ex Libris Paper Designs. 

Puppy!

My apologies for my absence.  Luckily, you haven't missed anything too exciting in the Wilcox household.  We painted one of our extra spare bedrooms and picked up some Craigslist furniture.  I have 2 more bedrooms to paint (including the master) and then we are ready to start our 1/2 bath remodel.

We are working on stripping the buffet we purchased off Craigslist.  It's a hot mess right now.  The people who we purchased from did a horrible job painting it (lucky for us).  They did absolutely no prep work so the paint is peeling off.  We are attempting to see if we can get the paint off so we can stain it (ideal) rather than repaint it.  This lovely couple (they really were nice even if they were furniture refinishing challenged) also happened to have 2 dining room chairs that looked like ours.  They weren't for sale, but I think they got sick of me dropping the not so subtle hints that I wanted them, so they told me for $20, they were mine.  SOLD! They almost match the chairs we have, but are enough different that I think it's OK.  We needed 2 chairs for the ends of the table.  They need new seat covers and a good scrape and repaint, but I can deal with that.

I also picked out some accent chairs for the living room (attached to the dining room).  They're from Target and cheap as hell.  I'm sure they're not that comfy, but who REALLY sits in a front room other than Snuffers?  Speaking of Snuffers, check out this hilarious photo of her...

And yes mom, I know she's fat.  She also happens to be old, diabetic, a drunk and possibly a huffer.  I'm not sure what she was doing on the dining room table, but that's for another debate.

Back to the chairs.  So I found them at Target and with their current B1G1 1/2 off sale, they end up being less than $100 each.  The chairs I had snagged for free from a garage sale I believe had been peed on by an animal before coming to my house.  The new dog (read on for details on that!) has a weird thing about peeing on the legs of one.  Considering he is completely house broken and not done that ANYWHERE else, I'm blaming the chairs.  So the chairs now must go.  I am choosing between 2 chairs.

I like them both but lean towards the floral print.  The second chair is the exact same fabric as the chair covers, which may be too matchy matchy for my taste.

For slightly more exciting news, we got a puppy! And by puppy, I do not mean cute, little and cuddly.  I mean large, energetic and NUTS! But that's OK.  We already love him.

Meet Baker!

And all three of the puppies together (excuse the blur!):

They're such a handsome group!

Bead board is Delightful!

I have a new, favorite product.  It is bead board wallpaper.  The wallpaper is thick and foam like, but when hung, looks JUST like real, wood bead board.

Over the weekend, I snagged a roll of this stuff while Scott and I were at Lowes getting the things we needed for our 1/2 bath remodel.  For only $20, we figured it wouldn't hurt to at least try and see how it looked.

I have done most of the kitchen and so far, we LOVE it. 

Before:

After:

I forgot to take a picture after I finished more of the peninsula and trimmed it.  It looks even better trimmed, but this gives you a good idea.  Once we get it all hung (we have 3 more strips to hang and trim), we are going to work on repainting the cabinets after our horrific fiasco with our first round of paint.  FAILURE.  NEVER buy Valspar.  Never.  Not even their top of the line "special" paint...No matter what anyone tells you. <rant over>

We also bought the pieces to our 1/2 bath remodel, only to realize that we had to return our sink.  I had my heart SET on a pedestal sink set up in our downstairs 1/2 bath.  It would make the room feel larger and really elegant (or so I thought).  After my delightfully brainiac husband looked under our current sink to see how hard the plumbing would be, he realized the pipes for the water were offset over a foot from the drain.  The choices were to re-plumb the pipes (EEK!), have exposed pipes, or buy a different vanity.  I let him vote for this one as the work would all be on his shoulders.  He told me to pick a new vanity.  Sigh. Back to Lowes we go.  I swear, we live in the hardware stores around here. 

On a more positive note, Scott and I are off to pick up another of my Craigslist finds tonight.

This lady has had this piece listed for quite awhile (I keep seeing it) but it's missing a door knob on the left door.  For the original price she wanted, I just didn't think it was worth it.  The piece also needs to be scraped and re-painted, though you can't tell that from the picture.  Luckily, I decided to email her on it yesterday and she was willing to cut the price in half.  And now that Scott has his sexy new truck (he has named her Goldie Hawn) we have a vehicle to pick it up in.  I think it will look absolutely lovely in our formal living room with our wing back chairs. 

Bathroom Redo Ideas

My name is Lindsay.  And I'm a bathroom snob. 

No, really.  I am.  Don't let my current house's state deter you from believing this.

When Scott and I bought our house, we knew the bathrooms would need some severe updating.  Since that is such an easy fix, we were both OK with it (and still are).  We planned to wait a few years and start doing the overhall to the 2 upstairs, full bathrooms due to the cost that is usually associate with bathrooms.  Who knew such small rooms would cost so much to change?

We are having a big ol' group of guests (6 people so far!) coming at the end of December for 9 days.  My sister in law is bringing her husband and family and Scott's mom is coming as well.  We should have a packed house.  Thank god for all those empty bedrooms!

Due to the guests, I've been trying to think of ways to update the room without spending a ton as we will most likely replace most of the bathroom in a few years.  At least, that was the plan.

I just came across a product that I am dying to try in that seldom used bathroom.  It is a granite paint product by Giana.  From what I can tell, you prime your linoleum countertops with their paint and sponge on some other colors in a certain way until it looks like granite.  The results look awesome (and the product is only $59 on Amazon!)

Frugal Fine Living did a review of the process and the end results and they look AWESOME. 

Before:

After:

Obviously she painted her cabinets and added some knobs, too.  But for that price (she found it for $39 somewhere) I think I'm going to give it a try.  The kitchen looks like a whole different place.  Maybe, if we are happy with the results, we will do our kitchen counters in the interim until we can get some granite slab. 

Scotty told me he'd lay some tile down in the bathroom nice and quick (we will find some in the discount area at Home Depot I'm sure since it's such a small room).  While he's doing tile, we will probably replace the toilet because it is a water guzzler, and the environment hates those toilets!

Then, all I will need is 2 new faucets.  At the rate I am discovering items, the faucets will be the most expensive part of the remodel.

 

I've been eyeballing this puppy from Home Depot because it has a high arc.  I REALLY hate when I'm washing my hands or face in a sink, and my hands touch the back.  Maybe I just have a weird phobia.  But at $89, I think it's a great deal.   After using our oil rubbed bronze spraypaint (best invention EVER) on the towel rack and toilet paper holder, I think we should be good to go! 

DANGIT! I lied.  I need new light fixtures and mirrors.

I just took a quick peak at the picture from when we were touring the house to see what else I'd need to do.  I forgot about the mirrors and lights.  I can't see the lights in the picture, but if I remember right they are brass 3 fixture lights.  I'll check tonight because Joss and Main is having a sale on a $200 3-light fixture for only $29.  Let's hope they don't sell out before I get home. 

I also have a hatred of full wall mirrors.  They drive me bonkers.  I'll find 2 mirrors at Home Goods or Hobby Lobby and hang those on the wall instead.  Which also means I need to paint.  Sigh.  My small project just got a little bigger. 

1 Week Gluten Free

It has been exactly 1 week since I was diagnosed with all my lovely food ailments.  And I am HAPPY to report that things could not be going better.  I feel better, I have more energy and the bags under my eyes are smaller.  Nothing wrong with any of that.  This Friday, I am going to a specialist to figure out the extent of my allergies.  They will be testing the severity of each of the current things on my list as well as looking at other foods.  I am really hoping that my list of "no's" does not get any longer. But if it does, I am confident that it will work out.

 

One of the BEST meals that I've made since going gluten free, corn free, soy free, peanut free, pork free and dairy free (I'll just call that GF in the future) was a Sante Fe Chicken Chili.  This chili was SO good that even Scott was surprised (and he is a chili and chili dog connoisseur).  I found the recipe on the Gluten Free Goddess' website.  So far, her and Gluten Free Girl are my new heros.  I'm reading the Gluten Free Girl book and already want the cookbook that her and Chef wrote. 

 

My favorite thing about these 2 ladies is they took the same approach as I did to this whole gluten thing.  They received their diagnosis, had a short grieving and then embraced everything they could.  I am trying to follow that same mentality.  And while it has only been a week, I have no intention in ever going back to feeling as crappy as I once did.

 

Sante Fe Chicken Chili from Gluten Free Goddess
 Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• 1 medium sweet onion, diced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I used dried powder)

• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground cumin, to taste

• 1/4-1 teaspoon ground cayenne or chipotle pepper, to taste (I used chili powder because that's all I had)

• 1 sweet potato, peeled, diced

• 2 15-oz. cans pinto or white beans, rinsed, drained (I used 1 can garbanzo and 1 can black)

• 1 28-oz. can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes, with juice

• 8-oz. (1 cup) chopped roasted green chilies- mild or hot (hot)

• 2 cups chicken broth, more if needed

• 1 tablespoon balsamic or apple cider vinegar (forgot this part)

• A small drizzle of agave (forgot this part)

• 2 heaping cups cooked chicken pieces- hand torn looks nice

• Juice of 1 lime, or to taste (lemon juice)

I threw everything but the chicken in the crock pot and accidentally cooked it for almost 36 hours.  I didn't realize I had left it on overnight (I was sleepy!) and woke up to it being just fine.  I just added additional chicken stock and went on my way.  The day we were eating it, I plugged in my other crock pot and threw 3 frozen chicken breasts in some olive oil in and put it on low all day.  When I got home, I simply shredded the chicken, added the lemon juice and we dug right in.

 

To serve this, I put sour cream and shredded cheese on Scott's bowl.  I am still using up some of my gluten full foods and haven't replaced these with GF versions just yet.  Greek yogurt would have been good, but mine was expired (naturally). 

 

I imagine if I had felt like venturing to the store to get all the ingredients that this recipe is actually supposed to have, it would have been better.  I used what I already had and it still turned out good. 

 

Nom nom nom.

 

I promise I'll do an update soon on the house (since this is a house blog after all).  But this happens to be all that we are "talking" about in my house right now.