Let's continue on with the nursery

Let's continue on with the nursery tour.  (Check out Part 1 here!)

Now that Clark is almost 2 months old (Where does time go? Seriously.), it's probably about time to share his nursery.  During my pregnancy I was all worried that we wouldn't finish in time.  Our baby would totally think we were failures because we didn't have a room ready for him. Turns out he could care less.  Babies are weird like that. 

I'm breaking the nursery posts into two parts.  There are lots of pictures and we spent a lot of time in here.  One post didn't seem to do it justice.  My gerbil attention span also does better these days if things are broken into segments.

I always thought at age 33 I would be a totally responsible grown-up. I would do grown-up things like have a job and a clean house.  I actually handle those parts of grown-up life pretty darn well.  It's things that I had never thought of that get me.  Things like buying athletic socks and windshield washer fluid.  No one does that stuff for you.  It's so weird.

Grown-up house needs always surprise me too.  My early 20-something self had no clue things like air filters needed changed or that a rug pad could rock your world.

Man. Long time. No blog.

It's either because our lives have been so crazy busy awesome or so ridiculously boring that there was 100% nothing to write about.  I'll let you guess.

I do have a few posts planned for this week. Whoa.

I was cleaning the office the other day and realized that I haven't blogged about our new office chair. And the death of our old office chair. Normally office chair stories are probably boring.  But then there is my office chair story.

Things have been a little slow around here on the DIY front.  Nate's been working super long hours.  Ike and I aren't really handy.  We have been dreaming up a lot of stuff though.  That counts, right?

We did manage to complete this end table for the living room.  That we started before the holidays.  Let's not rush things.

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Ours was on the boring side.  Nate has started his long tax season hours and I've been on a cleaning/organizing binge.  I'll spare you most of that.  (Here's our shamefully messy closet and here it is after I throw crap away. Ta-da!)  Ike was busy getting into trouble.  He managed to get into the pantry and rip open an entire bag of flour while I was working out.  That was fun.  We've lived here for 6 years and he has never once touched anything in our pantry.  I guess the cold Winter days are getting to him.  Luckily, the weather cooperated and we were able to get him outside yesterday.

Do you all remember when I agreed to participate in a 6 week room makeover challenge with some of my favorite blog buddies?  (If not, you can read more here.)

I basically waited until yesterday to start.  I mean, I did make a pretty awesome vintage clothespin mirror but other than that.  Nothing.  The place was a pigsty.

Participating in this challenge was totally worth it even just to motivate me to clean out this room yesterday.  I'm kind of loving how it turned out.  Basically because it's clean.  It also feels more like current Michelle.  Not Michelle circa 2009. Although 2009 Michelle's hobby was cleaning so there's that.  I should channel my past lame self.

Ike is pretty pumped.  He has a new chair.  Now all he needs is a robe and a cigar. 

We've talked to him about the dangers of smoking.  He swears he'll only use the cigar as a prop.

On a recent trip to IKEA, I picked up the Strandmon chair.  Nate and I both liked it's quirk and velvety fabric.

Ike likes that it makes him look extra sophisticated.

You may have noticed in some previous posts that I have updated our living room pillows to go with the new living room look.  Nate thinks I have a pillow problem.  I don't know what he's talking about.  Per usual.

I may swap out pillows often but it's because I only buy inexpensive pillows.  Today I'm going to share my inexpensive pillow sources just in case you're in the market to update those head cushions.

Alternate Title:  Bookshelf Styling for Dummies by a Dummy

Sooo, I debated even writing this post.  I don't consider styling one of my life strengths.  Napping, yes.  Dog snuggling, yes.  Repainting every room in my house, yes.  Styling no.

I am, however, happy with how the styling on our living room built-ins turned out.  I mentioned previously that I still plan to add more books but I think this is the max amount of knick-knacks these shelves will see.  I'm in the camp that bookshelves should hold mainly books.  There is a "bookshelves full of things" camp too.  I'll let you decide how you want to spend your Summer.  No judgement on this end.

The unthinkable has happened.  We finally finished our living room built-ins.  We didn't think the day would ever arrive.  But it did.  Turn outs it was totally work all of the work.  Okay fine, let's be real.  It was totally worth all of Nate's work.

Ike agrees.  He's pumped that his people might finally be able to sit down on the weekends again.

We've been working on this room since June so it's nice to see the end.  We hosted a party this weekend which was a great extra push to add the finishing touches.  Like doors.  And books.

Did you all have a fabulous holiday weekend?  Ours was productive/exhausting.  Don't worry.  We're taking a little vacation here soon.  Ike too.  Ike really needs a vacation.  He's excited for a week at the lake.

We made excellent progress in our living room.  It'll still be another week or two until the reveal because it's quite the undertaking.  We are loving the progress we have made so far.  Nate's building skills always impress me.  This may be his most impressive building work yet.  He's lucky he has me to give him crazy ideas. 

We finally picked out living room sconces.  Some of you questioned our choice in industrial lighting.  Mainly the functionality of industrial lighting.  We appreciate your thoughts!  You definitely gave us a lot to think about.  In the end, we felt they were the perfect solution for living room update.

I finally made a curtain decision.  It's definitely a bolder choice than I would normally make.  Bold equals scary.  I'm now into scary.  Maybe I'm even grown-up enough for horror films?  Wait. No.  Too scary.

I spent one night Googling "Are black curtains a good idea or a bad idea?".  You don't see black curtains often. (Although, I have seen them pop up more and more lately.)   I kept thinking there is probably a reason.  Eh. I figured I'd order some and give it a try.  (I went with the Threshold Grommet in black.)

Today is a big day.  I'm participating in the Tour Through Blogland.  (Google it. It's a thing. I swear.)  My buddy, Caitlin, over at Desert Domicile asked me to join in on the fun.  I can never turn down blog fun.

If you're new here, run.  I kid.  It's not all bad.  I have a super cute dog.

The Tour Through Blogland includes a few questions and snooping through my house.  I'll post some of my favorites but you can take the full tour here!  (The full tour includes sources and paint colors!)

Here's the exterior of our house.  We needed a color besides the traditional tan or white.  Blue it was.  I love this color so much.  We've actually had strangers stop by to ask us about the siding we used. 

Man.  We're making a lot of decisions around these parts.  That's all we're doing lately but that's cool.

I mentioned last week that our house is suffering from the DIY snowball effect.  The next victim? 

Update:  I've officially lost my mind.  But my kitchen has a pretty new paint color, Sherwin Williams Mindful Grey.

Our house is suffering from a bad case of snowball effect.  I had ZERO intention of painting our kitchen.  Until we painted the rest of the first floor Mindful Grey.  The Svelte Sage of the kitchen was disrupting the flow of the first floor.  Also the cream curtains started to really look yellow next to our newly painted white wall of molding.  This is the only photo I could find to explain the situation (blogger fail).  The walls colors actually look pretty similar here but the flow issue was there.  Trust me.  (You can check out more photos of our old kitchen color here.)

Remember that office of ours that I've been working on since like 2008?  Or was it this year?  I can't remember it's been so long.  

Back in February I painted the walls Thunder Gray (Sherwin Williams).  I then removed the burlap that was on the back of the built-in shelves and painted that area Fawn Brindle (Sherwin Williams).

I finally got around to adding some books/tchotchkes and getting the place in order. (Side note: Nate and I can't say tchotchkes without following with Office Space quotes.  It's a problem.)

Don't let the title confuse you.  Our wall isn't molding.  We're adding molding to it.  The English language is confusing.

As you may recall, this was our wall o' windows in our living room.

Happy Monday!  How  was the weekend?  We mixed ours with half work, half rest.  We're still recovering from painting the past weekend.  Nate and I are both learning that getting old is hard.  Can't move.  So sore.  

Our house is a bit messy right now.  It's making me all twitchy.  Ike is angry that his love seat is not near the window.  There is a 14 foot ladder in our living room.  The living room chair is in the dining room.  But the new wall color is totally worth it!

Who's ready for some time travel today?  Let's check out the journey of how our dining room became this...from this...

Ike is concerned.  Both of his parents have gone off the deep end.

If you're new around here.  Let me get you up to speed on how this house works.  I, Michelle, come up with approximately 1 million crazy ideas.  My husband, Nate, keeps things in line by squashing 89% of my ideas.  You'd think this would be a bad thing but my mind is constantly racing.  Paint this.  Rip down that.  Build this.  There needs to be a check and balance.   

Not only did we help my little brother make over his bathroom but we also helped him paint his dining room.  Well, I sort of helped.  I took my project manager role seriously and I snuck out for a 2 hour lunch one day while he did one of the coats. 

We originally thought painting the dining room would be a piece of cake.  Turns out we were totally wrong.  This room ended up seeming like more work than the bathroom. The walls had this awesome stripes with different finishes thing going on.  

Happy Friday!  On Wednesday I shared with you the start of my little brother's master bath remodel.  And then I was a jerk and left you hanging for the reveal.  I hope you slept okay.  I know the anticipation was a lot but here's the reveal!

It was pretty fun to watch our plans come to life.  There was still some touch up to do and some plumbing to finish when we left.  But it sure did look pretty.  That's all that matters when it's not your house, right?  (Don't worry.  My dad was there to help finish the rest.)

Let's take a look at the details.

Alternate Titles:  

• Nate and Michelle are Gluttons for Punishment
• Lessons in Poor Time Management
• Beer Battered Bacon

Last week I mentioned plans for my little brother's master bathroom.  We made those plans come to life over the long weekend.  And now we're tired (Ike included!) but little brother has a pretty fantastic bath.

As a refresher, here's what we started with...

Did you survive the weekend?  We had a fabulous two days filled with projects, thrifting, bathroom planning, and a Frozen birthday party!  Action packed.  (Check out my Instagram feed for photos!)  Ike is still recovering.

Part of our weekend adventures included helping my brother pick out items for his master bathroom.  Now that sentence makes it seem like that was an easy process.  It was not.  Decisions are so very hard.  I truly didn't know that you could go to three home improvement stores, stare at toilets and still have trouble making a decision.  IT'S A TOILET.

Happy Monday!  Hope your weekend was fabulous.  Nate and I have been hanging in Maui since last Wednesday so our weekend was, of course, amazing.  How could it not be?  It's Maui.

Beings not much new is happening on the home front, let's continue our Then and Now series.  (Check out our living room, kitchen and master bathroom!)

You may remember that our powder room looks like this.  You also may not remember this because we haven't touched this room since 2011.  Crazy.

I occasionally get questions regarding how our kids have changed our home decor.

Honestly, not much has changed. This is mainly because we’ve been too sleepy to tackle home related projects. I haven’t had the energy to dream up crazy ideas. Nate hasn’t had the energy to make my crazy ideas come true. Our second baby is now one and we are finding ourselves with a smidge more free time (and definitely more restful nights).

I have been wanting a new table in our breakfast nook. Nate previously built our first table for this space back in 2011. (I had to look it up on the blog. Time flies!) We loved that table…until we had kids. The old tabletop was not smooth. Every crumb, spill, sprinkle, piece of craft paper, Play-doh, etc ended up in the crevices. Prior to having children it was not a big deal to vacuum the top every now and then. Post-children is another story. There are now so. many. crumbs. I don’t really care to spend my precious free time vacuuming a tabletop. Like I could think of 87 million better ways to spend my time. I could summarize this entire paragraph with “Our old table was gross. The end.”

We are now the proud new owners of a table that has a smooth top and wonderfully curvy legs!

Happy Monday!  While Nate and I recover from a fun weekend in Chicago, we'll start the week out with a quick update here on Decor and the Dog. I'll share our Chicago adventures later this week! 

I've been getting quite a few questions about our backsplash.  I can't believe it's been two years since we installed it.

Ike is so excited to share with you our new office coffee table.  Well, it's actually a vintage trunk that we made into a coffee table. 

Either way, he's seriously pumped.  Can you tell?

We purchased this trunk for $10 at the What Cheer Flea Market in October.  Seriously.  $10. 

Nate and I were checking it out.  We both decided that we liked it but we just weren't sure where we would put it.  As we were walking away, the vendor yelled "It's yours for $10."  And we both were like "Eh.  But where were will we put it? Our garage doesn't need any more junk."  About two minutes later, we both decided we should go back and get it.  I mean $10!  You can't pass that up.

Today I want to write about funny/awesome things.  But I keep getting e-mails, comments and social media requests for a darn cabinet door tutorial.  What's with you all wanting to learn stuff?  Lame.

Oh, good blogs teach you things?  Weird. 

Your wish shall be granted.  Just don't get used to it. I don't like being told what to do. ;)

Last night I was going to skip writing today's post.  And then I called my mom on my way home from work and she said that I was slacking on the blog.  This was after she told me that she wanted a can opener and $3 slippers for Christmas this year.  Bless her heart.

The thing is that I have discovered Gilmore Girls on Netflix and I'm 145 episodes away from any kind of productivity.  I have a million posts ideas.  Just limited time.

Today is a very important day!  It's Nate's birthday!  The big 33.  So old.  Luckily he appears to be getting better with age. 

To celebrate Nate becoming elderly, let's discuss how he built our living room built-ins.  This post is heavy on pictures.  Light on words.  Just like my husband.  Pretty on the eyes, easy on the ears.

Pretend that makes sense.

We recently revealed the finished built-ins.

Before we talk about how we installed our fancy barn beam mantel, I would like to send extra happy vibes out to my fellow retail pharmacists.  Hydrocodone (a pain med) becomes a schedule II medication today.  That means lots more paper work and annoyance for pharmacy staff.  If you're picking up a med today, be extra nice to your pharmacist.  We'll totally appreciate any friendliness we can get!

Anywho, enough boring day job talk.  Let's talk about how we installed our barn beam mantel. 

Last week we shared our built-in cabinets.  Part of our built-in plan was to update the fireplace/mantel.  I picked up this barn beam from a craft night friend a few months back. It was pretty much meant to become our new mantel. Unfortunately it had to sit in our garage until just recently.  I whispered sweet nothings to it as I would walk by on our nightly walks.  I promised I'd give it a proper place in our home as quickly as I could boss Nate around.

I have so many blog post ideas I don't even know where to start.  Totally makes up for my slacking this Summer, right?  The correct answer is "Absolutely, slacker!"

Not only are our built-ins complete but our molding wall is also finished.

Checking things off the living room list left and right.

As a refresher, here's how we started the Summer.  SO MUCH BEIGE.

The unthinkable has happened.  We finally finished our living room built-ins.  We didn't think the day would ever arrive.  But it did.  Turn outs it was totally work all of the work.  Okay fine, let's be real.  It was totally worth all of Nate's work.

Ike agrees.  He's pumped that his people might finally be able to sit down on the weekends again.

We've been working on this room since June so it's nice to see the end.  We hosted a party this weekend which was a great extra push to add the finishing touches.  Like doors.  And books.

Who's ready to see a finished picture of our living room built-ins?  Pick me! Pick me!

Too bad our living room currently looks like this.

Straight out of a magazine, my friends.  

I feel like Ike's toy (Bill) adds the pop of color you all keep requesting from me.  OH NO!

The mantel area is two-toned because were A.) too lazy to finish B.) not wanting to waste paint.  

Time to start another work week!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Nate and I were extra productive.  The laundry is clean.  The floors are mopped.  The toilets are scrubbed.  And the wall of molding is finally done!  *pause for dance party*

While we were working away, Ike was taking it easy.  This whole living room remodel has been hard on him.  We're making sure he fits in time for some R&R.

A few months back I asked Nate if he knew how to make a lamp.  I had an idea.  It was tax season so he told me "no".  I stupidly believed him.  (I should learn after almost 8 years of marriage.)  

Funny story.  When The Home Depot asks us if we'd be interested in partnering with them to build a lamp, Nate suddenly knows how to build a lamp.  Weird.

Turns out even I can build a lamp.  That's how easy this business is.  

Nate and I built this darling lamp that has two very different looks.  It's like the Jekyll and Hyde of lampdom.  (That's a thing.)  One is all industrial/Edison bulb chic.  The other is a little more industrial/main stream chic.  (Those are both things.)

Don't let the title confuse you.  Our wall isn't molding.  We're adding molding to it.  The English language is confusing.

As you may recall, this was our wall o' windows in our living room.

Happy Monday!  I'm starting a petition to extend Summer weekends.  Who's signing?

Today's post is exciting.  A tutorial AND a giveaway for a BLACK+DECKER Autosense drill.  Oooo.

Our weather was actually kind of glum here in ol' Iowa this weekend.  The downer weather gave us time to tackle a project in our office.  Once we added our card catalog cabinet to the office, my recent art purchase didn't make sense.  But industrial shelving totally did.  Nate and Ike agreed.

If tutorials bore you like they bore me, there are goofy photos at the end.  You know.  Things I shouldn't post on the internet.

Whoa.  How is it Thursday and how is it June?  Crazy.  I have all of these post ideas in my head but I never seem to get around to blogging lately.  I'd get all "OMG so busy blogger" on you but the truth is Nate, Ike and I are trying to slow down a bit.  (Ok, Ike isn't.  Ike is always crazy.)  We're loving every second of Summer.  Minus the gnats.  Do you have those man-eating swarming gnats in your area?  They just arrived here a few years ago and I want them to return to their homeland.

Anywho, today's post.  (This is why I don't write posts while drinking iced coffee.)  

Last week I shared my little brother's bathroom reveal.  We mentioned there would be a tutorial for the modern farmhouse bathroom vanity that Nate built.  We don't break promises (all of the time). 

Happy Friday!  On Wednesday I shared with you the start of my little brother's master bath remodel.  And then I was a jerk and left you hanging for the reveal.  I hope you slept okay.  I know the anticipation was a lot but here's the reveal!

It was pretty fun to watch our plans come to life.  There was still some touch up to do and some plumbing to finish when we left.  But it sure did look pretty.  That's all that matters when it's not your house, right?  (Don't worry.  My dad was there to help finish the rest.)

Let's take a look at the details.

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  We finally had decent weather yesterday.  It was pretty much amazing.  We accomplished some much needed tasks including taking down the Christmas lights.  What? It's almost April? Eh.  Ike got a couple of long walks in. He was a happy (and tired) dude.