rust-oleum REFUND

Slight progress on the kitchen cabinet end: rust-oleum will refund your $$$ if you aren't happy with the result...  Getting the $150ish back is nice, but having to spend another 40ish hours on cabinets = not ideal.

Cabinet progress:

The bonus of an unfinished basement is that it is semi-barn like.  We paint (well, Matt paints), store, etc. all in our boxy basement.

The timeline for the cabinets has been pushed back, ahem, several times because Matt is busy learning about "drugs of the day" and other anesthesia things, but I am hoping they will be finished in the next week or so.

We also invested in "soft-close" hinges.  Matt is stoked about this:

Last, but not least, I'm plotting the next decor move for our living room.  I am inspired by clashing color.  Here is a link to a color scheme that I love (the decor is amazing):
clashing color scheme

I would never have put this together... but I started thinking about brightening up our living room and have a few ideas that involve either a bright mustard or teal + an old window.  The bright mustard may win.

light it UP--porch finds

We LOVE our front porch.  But, the tricky part is how to furnish a long, rather large rectangle?  When we bought the house (one year ago this weekend!), the porch looked like this:

It had POTENTIAL, but was dirty and a home to 102 spiders.  EWW!!  

The first night we slept in this house, we were tired.  We had spent the day cleaning the inside of our new house and starting to unpack.  We then had to finish cleaning our old condo--which was put off so we were still cleaning at 11:00 p.m.  Finally at 11:50 p.m., we came HOME to our new house, I put my key in the front door, and a giant spider fell on my arm.  NOT good.  I think I cried.

Needless to say, at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, we were up and SCRUBBING the porch--I couldn't sleep because of the unknown "creepy" guests that were likely in our house...

After scrubbing and red cedar stain (plus landscaping and lots of pruning), our porch looked like this last summer:

It was cozy and we enjoyed it!!!  BUT this summer, we decided to add a few things:

I love lanterns. They add to nighttime porch sitting... I found this beauty at World Market for only $25.00 because it had a small crack in the back!! SCORE. Secret: Lanterns crack anyway.  My full-price lantern from Pottery Barn cracked days after I had it home.

We also added the RED stool (another World Market find).  The stool works as an EXTRA seat or a side table for drinks and snacks:

So this is our porch summer 2013:

We are pretty excited about the transformation:

Come sit with us!!!

TASTE of a weekend.

Here's to a NORMAL weekend.  A weekend where Matt was home, we hung out with friends, and checked out Taste of Ann Arbor:

Taste of Ann Arbor is a food-filled festivity where many local Ann Arbor restaurants put up booths and serve delicious mini-portions for a certain number of 50 cent tickets (check it out here: taste of Ann Arbor).  Although Matt and I aren't "foodies" as the article suggests, it was fun, social, and tasty.   Especially the fish tacos from The Black Pearl (and I'm normally anti-fish taco).

One of the best things about our small house is its location.  We were able to WALK downtown Ann Arbor for the foodie-festival with a group of friends.

We also stumbled across a "doggie" boutique on the walk back to our house in Kerrytown--Dogma Catmantoo (here's a link: http://dogmacatmantoo.com/)  It's a great little store filled with fun pet items.  Stella-bear is now sporting a new Bella Bean Couture collar:

She knows she looks extra cute (and desperately needs a haircut):

FREE fixes

How do you make a small house "work" for entertaining? I've blogged about this in the past (see link: prior Wixson house layouts), but never felt that we had quite the right setup.

The past two months we scoped out the options, which include:

1. Hire Contractor to tear out wall between living room and third bedroom on main level;
2. Hire Contractor to finish big room in basement; and
3. Put in a double-sided fireplace between living room and third bedroom on main level

BUT all three options were lots of $$$ and there was no guarantee we would get the same amount of $$$ back when we sell the house--someday.

Needless to say, I was disappointed.  I really wanted our house to be a place friends and family gathered, celebrated, and spent quality time with one another in a welcoming setting; not feeling squished, for instance.

Then, there was a suggestion from a good friend's mom, who just happens to be an interior decorator-- "it's free to move furniture." So we started MOVING (she also drew some helpful diagrams).

We ended up with this:

And it's GREAT.  Thanks, Linda!!!

Last night was our new setup debut.  We ended up having 19 friends come and go and it was a blast.  

The third bedroom is a work in progress--I'll blog about that later.  But here's an update on the cabinets:

We decided on a GRAY white color: "gray owl" (Matt loves referring to this as "growl").  We used ACE Hardware's cabinet paint, which is a latex paint, but works like an oil paint in terms of hardening. I wanted a color that worked with, but was a bit edgier than, our Kingsport Gray and Elmira White:

This project reinforced that my painting skills are rated at: "0".  But Matt is an awesome painter and now our cabinet boxes are DONE:

And the cabinet doors will hopefully be done by this Monday.  To anyone thinking about painting/redoing their cabinets, straight up painting the cabinets with ACE Hardware's paint is easier and cheaper than Rust-oleum.  You simply de-gloss or sand down the cabinets, paint two coats, and you're DONE.

Believe me, we've tried both.

Do and REDO

The story of 2012-2013 has been "doing" and "redoing."  Maybe this is the nature of Do IT YOURSELF (DIY) projects, maybe we are flat-out indecisive, or maybe home ownership simply lends itself to "redoing," I'm not sure.  

You all are familiar with the idiom "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try AGAIN?"--William Hickson.  This idiom is our MANTRA.   

Here is a taste of our unsuccessful firsts, that we have TRIED again or are in the middle of re-TRYING:

#1: Mission: chocolate.

June 8, 2012:

December 2012:

Unfortunately, around February of 2013, I had the "bright" idea to use duck tape to keep a broken-hinged cabinet hanging.  BAD MOVE resulting in a very CHIPPED cabinet.  So Matt tried to touch up the CHIPPED cabinet, as well as all other cabinets, and we ended up with BLOTCHY cabinets.

Note to anyone using Rust-oleum: touch ups are DIFFICULT (and don't use duck tape).

Back to ACE Hardware we went for paint samples to re-do our blotchy cabinets.  We tried Benjamin Moore's: Charcoal Gray, Ashley Gray, Davenport Tan, and Pismo Dunes.

And all color attempts were a FAIL.  So back to the drawing board for us re: cabinet colors.  Either we are going to keep the chocolate theme or we are going with a STARK white.  I'll keep you posted...

#2 STEPS

This is supposed to be MATT'S post--but sometimes residency is well, residency.  SO, we went from:

the great WALL of carpet:

 to porch paint: 

to hickory hardwood:

AND finally, we are LOVING the hickory hardwood.  Hopefully Matt can write an update on this project soon!

On a side note, we have been busy outside this week:

The lattice has been stained (goodbye s.k.u.n.k):

Lava rock was added to the "flower" garden in our side-yard:

And, we have CORN:

We would LOVE to hear about your spring projects, paint colors, or garden plans...

"How Does Your Garden GROW?"

Last summer was about survival--WHEW, I said it.  We bought a house, Matt started his residency program, and I had my head buried in books until the end of July--love that Michigan bar.  With all of that behind us, this summer Matt and I have HIGH expectations.  We have ALL kinds of plans that include traveling--YAY to the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Gordon getting hitched in Colorado; boating and beaching--Holland love; and gardening--domesticated??

Before we bought our small house, spring was about jogging, being outside, and opening doors and windows--which rocks, and I still do it as much as possible: 

freshly painted front door, courtesy of Uncle Wayne

But this spring is different.  We are having FUN.  We have been PRUNING, planting, mulching, sodding, and FIGHTING off squirrels attempting to ruin our gardens:  

I love how this has bloomed--no idea what it is

    My favorite plant--hydrangeas--TRADER JOES $6.99

We learned the hard way last summer that sod dies in 90+ degree summers--re-sodding.  Hopefully take two goes a bit better...

There is a local store in Ann Arbor called the PRODUCE Station that I love.  We paid a visit there last week: hanging baskets and a pot of petunias for our porch: 

Note: we used red cedar stain last summer that held up WELL during this past winter

+ some Petunias in the window box attached to our garage

 Matt and Steve worked on the soon-to-be stained red cedar LATTICE! This was much needed as we had a visiting s.k.u.n.k. this past winter.  Thanks, Steve for your help!  

AND, we are attempting to grow a VEGGIE garden in our side yard:

But at this point, I have no idea what is a plant vs. weed?? So time will tell how this project is going to pan out!  Not to mention I have caught squirrels digging through our "garden," which explains the bare spots...  How does one keep squirrels out of a garden?

I also owe a shout-out to my mom and gramsiebaby for all of their gardening tips...  With Mother's Day tomorrow, I can't help but think about all of the influence they have had on my life and our family, both immediate and extended, and I'm thankful.  Don't worry, I won't add an over-used garden metaphor now.

So come on over, friends and family!  We are ready to enjoy the end of spring, beginning of summer 2013 with you!!

P.S. Here is a sneak-peak of the next post--authored by Matt: Step'n Up!

small house, BABY boy

Last Saturday the women in the Overway family celebrated the up-and-coming baby d, who will soon be joining the Danello family!

There were gifts:

and many smiles and hugs:

and more gifts.  But most of all, there was excitement surrounding the anticipation of the baby boy that is going to join our family.  So much preparation and love poured into something so small, so beautiful, unborn.

Although I have no personal experience, I can only imagine the dreams a mother and father have for their newborn son, the completion and true start of their family.

And because of my experience with love, I can't imagine how God, knowing that He was sending His son, His beautiful baby boy, to die on the cross, could follow through with such a sacrifice for me and for you.

I look at all the nursery planning many of my friends have accomplished in anticipation of their little ones, the outfits washed and hung ready to be worn, the books precisely placed on the small bookshelves, just at the right height. Again, the love, the anticipation.

Yet, God's plan to send His son involved so much more than we can humanly fathom.  He prepared many hearts, completed the trinity, and sent His only Son, knowing so many would miss the message, and knowing His son would ultimately be sacrificed.  It was a raw, but perfect plan.

I don't know what God's plans entail for baby d, or for any of us, but because of the gift of Jesus and the price Jesus paid, we get to celebrate the life of baby d and I'm thankful.  New life, new hope, and Easter eggs.