Our First Place

After Jake and I got married, we were living in my college house with my college roommates. It was fun while it lasted, but married people need their own space, not one room with the smallest closet that ever existed. Just imagine me, Jake, and Lexie all shmushed (apparently this isn't really a word, but I think it describes the situation well) into one room with tons of clothes and no storage space. We were also very eager to have a place we could make or own and use all of our new wedding gifts!

Figuring out our living situation was rough, though. I had already renewed my lease for the house because my roommates were staying and I had no idea when Jake would be leaving for training. Later, Jake and I found out he wouldn't be leaving until October and decided that it would be nice to have our own place instead of living in a house full of girls. So, the search began to find someone to take over my lease. I will spare you all of the details, but lets just say it was very stressful. This was mostly because it was likely I was going to be leaving Lexington in January and would be stuck paying my lease until August 2013. Finally, I found someone to take over my lease. Then it was on to the next stressful situation. Jake and I could not find somewhere to live that was in our price range and that would do a short term lease. After calling every apartment complex in the city of Lexington, our friend who lived in a one bedroom apartment wanted to move into a two bedroom, so he let us take over his lease. It worked out perfectly because the lease only goes until January, when we plan on moving to Virginia. This situation taught me that I need to not stress out so much and that things have a way of working themselves out.

All throughout college, I have been pretty lucky when it has come to living situations. I had awesome roommates and lived in places that were pretty nice for a college student. My freshman year, I lived in dorms that were fairly new and only had to share a bathroom with 3 other girls. Sophomore year, I lived in apartments that were only a year old and that seemed rather luxurious with nice furnishings and a resort style pool. Junior year, I moved into an old, but charming house close to campus with 4 Starbuddies (aka Starbucks coworkers/friends). I have learned so much about living on my own and about myself these past 3 years. I have made so many great memories with great friends and have created friendships that will last far past my college years. Now, Jake and I are living in our 450 square ft. apartment. It is weird going from living with girls and having people around all the time to living with a messy boy and it being just me and Lexie for the most part. It is weird to think that I will never live with just girls/friends again. Growing up is definitely a bittersweet experience.

I'm sure going to miss everyone and at times I know I will feel out of the loop, but Jake and I could not be any happier in our tiny apartment. We love spending time together sitting on our old, slipcovered couch watching netflix or snuggling with Lexie. We love being able to use all of our new wedding gifts and hanging pictures on the wall from our wedding. I have loved decorating, organizing, and cooking dinner as often as possible. I know it's corny, but if I have to grow up and have a grown up place, I'm glad it is with my very best friend.

Until next time,

J and M

The Dresser

Here is a dresser that my Mother-in-Law gave us. It was the very first bedroom suite her and Jake's dad had when they were married, which I think is pretty cool. It is in great shape and is a well made piece of furniture. But, as you can see, it is not much to look at. So, I decided to give it a make over!

I started out by taking the hardware off and then lightly sanding it. I knew that I could not just paint this piece without sanding it with a high-powered sander or priming it, so I decided to go with primer. I had heard about this Kilz spray primer on a couple of blogs and decided to try it out. It worked so well! It was also super easy to apply. I just sprayed on a few coats and then sanded it down a bit after it was dry. The thing that I have learned with spray, though, is that it is hard to get it really even. The one thing about this particular primer is that it takes a lot to coat something. The dresser took 2 entire bottles.

Here is the dresser with the primer

Jake wanted to get all new hardware, but I did some research and found that the hardware we liked ran from $4-$12. This dresser requires 12 handles, so it would have cost us quite a bit to get all new hardware. I actually love the original handles and finally convinced Jake that I could make them look great. I bought a metallic silver spray paint and painted all of the handles.

After I primed the dresser, I used a flat black paint over the entire thing. Wow, it took forever, but it turned out so great!! I really like the way the flat black looks with the shiny silver handles. I also painted a mirror to go with it.

Here is the finished product!

Here are a few things I learned from this project:

-Good primer is a MUST

-The finish does make a difference. Flat has a completely different look than gloss, etc.

-Spray paint takes a lot less time than paint, but is less even.

-Polyurethane anything that is going to get a lot of use

Until next time,

J and M

Very First Furniture Painting Experience

Disclaimer: I do not plan on starting a blog devoted to DIY since I do not have the time, patience, or money, but I thought it would be fun to record my experiences. Maybe some of you fellow amateur DIYers can learn from my mistakes.

My Mother-in-law gave me this coffee table for my house with my college friends. It has been a great coffee table and I actually really like the style. I decided it would be a good "color pop" piece in our new apartment. I wasn't quite sure how to go about painting a piece of furniture, so I did some research. I found that you do not always have to sand a piece before painting it, which was a relief because I do not have a sander. I also found that you can spray paint furniture rather than use plain old paint. I also decided I wanted to paint it blue, not a baby blue, but a light, greenish blue. I wandered the aisles of Lowes today trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I found ready made Valspar paint samples in a color I really liked. So I decided to go with regular paint instead of trying the spray paint.

I started by lightly (very lightly) sanding the coffee table with a sandpaper cube. I decided to forgo primer, because I wanted a worn look with the wood showing through. Not sanding first really worked for this piece because I liked the wear and tear. After I sanded it, I wiped it off and began painting it in long strokes with a regular paintbrush, simple as that.

Or so I though. Little did I know it was going to storm right in the middle of this project. I was under my porch, but the wind blew the rain in right after I was done with my first coat. I kept moving the table, but old house means leaky roofs and water all over the table. Finally, the rain slowed and I was able to salvage my piece. I really liked the wood showing through after the first coat, but continued on to the second. I really liked how the paint looked, but I was not sure about the color. It turned out more baby blue than I was hoping.

so here is the before

And after

I wasn't sure how I felt about the table at this point and was starting to question my creative ability. I thought maybe I needed to do something else with it. Then, Jake came home and told me how much he hated it. He thought that it was too blue, which I agreed with. So the next day I headed out to Lowes (again) and bought some glaze. I sanded around the edges of the table to give it the aged look. Then, I mixed the clear glaze with some black paint that I had. I then glazed the table by painting on the glaze and then immediately wiping it off. I am so happy with the way it turned out and so is Jake. It looks great in our apartment and gives the right amount of color to the room. I consider my first furniture painting a success!

Here it is!

Until next time,

J and M

Housewife Syndrome

I have always heard of "nesting" and that it is something that pregnant women do. Although I do not plan on having kids anytime soon, since being married I feel as though I have been nesting. I am going to just call it housewife syndrome for now. Nothing makes me happier than cleaning and organizing. I spend all of my time that I am not working cleaning, organizing, vacuuming, doing laundry, cooking, researching DIY projects, and dreaming of ways to decorate our house. Yes, I might be spending copious amounts of time on pinterest as well.

Right now, we are living in the house that I have lived in for the past year with 4 of my college friends. It has been so much fun living with these girls and the house is awesome for a very old, college house. Fact is, though, I am ready to get out. I have one of the biggest rooms, but I feel like Jake and I do not have enough space. I also do not have much to work with right now when it comes to my need for decorating and organizing. We are moving to a small, one bedroom apartment this month and I could not be more excited. We are so ready to have a place all of our own. Until then, though, I will have to stick to vacuuming and scrubbing the kitchen twice a day to help with my housewife syndrome.

I have also been couponing. You are probably imaging those ladies on extreme couponing with huge binders and stockpiles of laundry detergent and macaroni and cheese. I cannot promise that won't be me eventually, but right now I only have one small expanding file of them. The other day I decided to put my coupons to good use. I went to Walgreens and bought $70 worth of toilet paper and cleaning supplies. This may seem like a lot of money, but I now have 3 months worth of toilet paper and a large stockpile of cleaning supplies, soaps, and trashbags. Also, I saved almost $30! I was proud of myself.

What does $70 of toilet paper and cleaning supplies look like you ask?

Exciting right?? Well you may not thinks so, but I sure do!

There will be plenty more posts reflecting my current condition. I will be posting about DIY projects, decorating our new apartment, cooking adventures, and much more! I am currently working on painting all of our furniture. As many blogs as I have read on this, you think I would be a pro, but I am so nervous. All of my supplies are purchased and I am ready to go so I will be sure to post the before and after pictures. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

M (since J obviously does not have much say in this post)