Saturday, January 2, 2016

Our Fixer Upper - Nursery: About Finished!

Baby girl's room is just about complete! To see the complete process to get it here look back at the Before and In Progress post. 

Reese's crib. 
We reused a crib that we had and I made the ruffled bed skirt out of the inspiration fabric for her nursery colors. I also used those fabrics with a few extras for the garland hanging over her bed. 

The accent wall. 
We replaced the blinds. And added the farmhouse trim around the window. 

The gallery wall. 

We added the wire basket for book storage and built the side table. And the lamp to make a comfy spot to read. We reused a dresser that we had and I lightened it up a bit with the girly glass knobs. The pieces I used in the gallery arrangement are so fun and special to me. Reese already loves to look up at those pieces! And I'll continue to add pieces to it when we get her newborn pictures printed and framed. 

The closet. 
I know it's kinda silly to include pictures of a closet in a nursery reveal, but it's kind of a big deal to me! Ha! This was the before of the closet: 

It's hard to tell from this picture, but those are ugly orange bifold doors and shelves on the right and left sides of the closet that stuck out past the closet opening. I chose to maximize that space a different way...

Built in cubbies with baskets for storage and two levels for hanging clothes. 

We updated the doors and added the same farmhouse trim like around the window. I still need to paint the closet doors and trim and put on the door knobs. (That's what Spring Break is for right?!)

We replaced the baseboards. And other little things like updating the ceiling fan and outlets/light switches really completed the new look! One day I'll add crown moulding in here too. 

So there you have it! Reesey girl's room. I found myself just sitting in there before she was here. Just taking it all in. It's good to have it pretty much finished from top to bottom! 

Friday, January 1, 2016

Mitchell Mob 25 Days of Christmas

A few years back I did 25 Days of Christmas with the boys. Some days had really big treats while others had a craft or a book to unwrap. When we got into fostering and had FOUR KIDS and then FIVE KIDS the thought of the 25 Days of Christmas was just too much. We were surviving at that point! 

I thought since they boys' world was about to be rocked with the addition of baby sister we would make this last Christmas as a family of four fun for them. 

Here are the Mitchell Mob's 25 Days of Christmas 2015: 

Day 1: Setting up their Christmas tree
 Day 2: Making twig stars for their tree
 Day 3: Coffee filter snowflakes  
Day 4: Watching Polar Express
Day 5: Riding the Polar Express Train
Day 6: Christmas Cards for packages
Day 7: Unwrapping Christmas books
Day 8: Paper strips Christmas tree
 
Day 9: Christmas color by number
Day 10: Edible Christmas trees
Day 11: Cotton ball snow garland
Day 12: SFA basketball game
Day 13: Christmas shaped rice krispies
Day 14: Unwrapping Christmas books
Day 15: Playing with snow
Day 16: Looking at Christmas lights
Day 17: Christmas cookies with friends
Day 18: Candy
Day 19: Mitchell Christmas
 
Day 20: Cotton ball snowmen
Day 21: Cardboard gingerbread houses
Day 22: Christmas Family Game Night
Day 23: Judges for Taylor Cutthroat Kitchen
Day 24: Taylor Christmas
Day 25: CHRISTMAS!

I don't post these to make you think I'm a cool mom. Because the fact that something happened every day for 25 days is miraculous. And let's be honest I threw in candy as Day 18 and bummed other people's holiday activities (Day 5, 17, 19, 23, 24) to make it through. There were days that my kids weren't grateful because they had just gotten to ride the Polar Express and then the next day they were getting Christmas books that they've had for years. Parker man just wasn't always feeling it (see Day 20). 

My hope is that they can look back on these times and feel special. It wasn't a lot but it was fun. Here's to a new year of adjusting to a baby girl in the house and being the best big brothers ever! 

Our Fixer Upper - Nursery

When we bought this house the nursery was very dark and had lots of holes all over the walls. I honestly don't know what they did in there! It looked like what would happen if I let Luke and Parker loose in a room with push pins...

The before pictures: 
First thing I did was patch all the holes. Each dot of mud covered about 3-4 holes. It was insane. And after painting the walls I saw many that I missed!
Then we scraped the popcorn ceiling in there and sanded it down. I tell you what I don't mind the scraping part anymore after all the heck we've been through trying to sand, texture and paint these dad gum things! 
Then Mom added some texture back and painted the ceiling and the walls for me. That oil base paint is way too strong for me to do in my current preggo state :) 
[Mom's going to love that I included this picture of her! Ha!]
In between one of the many clean ups working on the ceiling I noticed the carpet was pretty messed up. I decided to rip up the carpet and buy new flooring. I totally lucked out too because I caught a sale at Lumber Liquidators for flooring $0.89/square foot! Score!! 

Before I laid any new flooring I wanted to finish all the painting. That included the accent wall. When I showed my mom and SIL my inspiration pic they called me crazy. Now that it is all done I can agree with them...but in the moment my pride took over :)

Inspiration picture: 
I didn't have a protractor and the angles on my ruler I did have weren't what I wanted so I had to make my own..
 Once I got my tools worked out it didn't take that long. Just a little difficult getting down low.. haha!

Then came the flooring. We had never laid flooring before so I was a little anxious about it. We also didn't have a table saw or a  jigsaw so that meant we had to get creative when we had to make our cuts around the closet and the length of a whole board. But we did it! And I love the look of it! 
When we laid the flooring, we had to take off all the trim and doors and door frames. Which is fine by me because I was planning on updating those as well. If you can't tell I was on a mission to have this be the first all the way finished room in the house! 

All the outlets and light switches got updated (it's the little things).


The trim went up around the window and baseboards were purchased, painted, installed and caulked. 

We've gotten the new door for her room just have to paint it and install it. And I would love to get her closet re-worked for better storage and hang the new closet doors. I have a few more things to add for the decor to be done. At this point I don't know if the "finished nursery" post will be coming before Reese does! Almost there!