Shoe Solution

Kyle and I are both fairly neat and organized people. But I have to admit, we do have a problem with accumulating piles of shoes on the floor.


And while I have no problem with keeping those frequently worn work or work-out shoes easily accessible by the door, I prefer they at least be out of the way in some sort of organized fashion.

I began researching (online shopping) for a way to neatly house shoes. I decided to go with some sort of entryway bench. We do have a small entryway, but it's not wide enough to comfortably fit a bench. See?


Buuuut, I didn't let that get me down and I found another place that would work alright.

I searched and searched and searched online for entryway benches. Let me tell you there are A LOT out there in all price ranges. I came across this one on several websites:It was just the right size and made of wood that would match the other woods we have going on in the house. It also included the 3 baskets! Score!

I decided to order from Target.com, since we get a discount with with our Target card. It was originally $169.99. It was 15% off and free shipping. Plus we got 10% off with our AAA discount, and another 5% off for using our Target score, bringing it down to $135. Nice!!

It came in about 5 days and took me about 30 minutes to put together.


And now our shoes have a home :)

Laborous Labor Day

I decided to take full advantage of my 4 day weekend to get the master bedroom painted. Since I'm so in love with our new duvet from Pottery Barn and know it will be years upon years until I replace it, I decided to draw a color from the pattern.


I decided to go with the blueish, greening, greyish color that composes the background of the print since it would be calming and relaxing for a bedroom. Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been bringing home paint chips from various stores. I accumulated quite the collection.


Shockingly though, none of the paint chips was even close to matching. So I went back to Pottery Barn, bought a sham to match our duvet cover (to be returned later), took it to Lowes, and scanned the hundred of colors until I found this:

"Pine Needle" by Valspar. I picked it because it is too light, not too dark, not too green, and not too blue. And it looks pretty sharp up against the duvet cover. Do I think it looks like the color of pine needles? Not even close, but that's ok.

So the fun part was over, and it was time to get to work.

I had to bust out the ladder for this one, since this room has vaulted ceilings. I also had to get over my moderate fear of heights!!

Since nothing can ever just work out the way you want it to, I had to overcome one obstacle. The paint didn't get mixed up all the way at the store. After painting two walls, I noticed minor variations in color. I didn't think I could live with it, so I tried to stir the paint by hand as best I could, and repaint over what I had already done. This seemed to do the trick, but added frustration and time and the need for another gallon of paint, which I sent Kyle out to pick up.

I marched onward, and completed the rest of the room without needing to do a second coat (just some minor touch-ups to some parts that got missed with the roller). And I'm very pleased with the result (minus the obvious need for some serious wall decor above the headboard) .


Ahhhhh...tranquility....

Oh yeah, and we have blinds now..... The ability to sleep in past 6 am and change clothes outside of the closet returns :)

Behind the Scenes Sneak Peak

re-FINISHED!!

Earlier this summer, I scavenged through some 5 different antique stores while visiting my parents in Missouri. I was in search of some sort of piece of furniture I could put somewhere on the main level for extra storage. I knew I would probably have to refinish whatever I found, but I wanted an interesting piece that no one else has. It had to be sturdy, and it had to be unique. Those were my only requirements.

I came across this one and knew it was just what I had been searching for.

So it hung out at my parents' house until last week when they brought it up to Des Moines.

It definitely has some unique components....


And it also really showed it's age....


I determined the whole piece was solid wood, so I could just strip the finish off the top and refinish the wood, as well as paint the rest.

So I smothered the top with a chemical stripper and finished bragging to my mom about how great and effective these chemical strippers are. "All you do is scrape off the stripper with a putty knife, and all the finish comes right off! It's amazing!!"


Guess those were my famous last words. Because after about an hour I came back to remove the stripper along with all the nasty stains on the top of the cabinet. Much to my surprise, nothing came off. I waited until the morning.....nothing!!

So it was time for Plan B: Sanding and scraping.


But still, after at least an hour of combined effort between my mom and me, the dark black stains where still totally noticeable.

So I faced my fear of power equipment and rented this guy from Ace Hardware:


And voila! After 15 minutes of sanding with an electric sander the top was good as new.


Then I could fiiiiinally continue with refinishing the top. So I preconditioned the wood, stained it, and finished with two coats of polyurethane.

Next up: painting. The cabinet had been painted bright green, then partially painted over with light yellow. It had to go.


In light of my recent failure with the chemical stripper, I decided to just paint over the existing paint. So after removing the hardware.....


....I did the fun part. Just paint!!


Kyle requested the cabinet be painted "Barn Door Red" (a made-up-in-his-mind color) and I had no objection. However, this color is actually "Spanish Red" from Benjamin Moore.

So after 2 coats of paint and reattaching the original hardware (which I thought about spray painting but that will have to be another day), here's what it looks like now:


And check out the top. Muuuuuch better.


And several less-used items in our kitchen have already found homes in the new cabinet in order to clear up some valuable real estate in the kitchen cupboards and cabinets. And as you can see from the above picture, Kyle's birthday present from my parents has also claimed it's spot.

Paint Job #1

Well, it took 26 days for the first drip of paint to touch the walls of our new house. I actually thought it would take me months to be decisive enough to paint, but my mom was in town and I welcomed the help. Plus I couldn't take the entire beige house another second. I decided the first room to paint would be the master bathroom. It was a safe starting point since not many people see it, plus it was in dire need of some color. I was also anxious to get the flat builder-grade paint covered up by something more glossy, so that the steam and moisture from the shower wasn't being absorbed into the walls.

If you remember, this is what the master bathroom looked like a few days ago:

I knew I wanted some sort of orangish or yellow-orange color to tie into the colors planned for the master bedroom. Se we headed to the hardware store and picked up a few samples.


I forgot to snap a picture of the samples on the wall, so I'll get right to the finished product. Drum roll please....


And I love it. Kyle might be indifferent, but that's ok because I love seeing walls saturated in color. Watch out because I might now be obsessed with painting. We'll see...

A second bathroom update: In other equally intriguing news, I replaced our toilet seats this afternoon. The builders put on those crappy plastic ones. When mom and I were painting the bathroom, we found out real quickly that those lids could not be stood on. They also cannot be sat on (when the lid is down). Where else can you clip your toe nails?!? I mean come on. And since then I've been itching to replace them.

So I went to Menards all by myself and (without help) picked up these:


And within 20 minutes of being home, our toilets went from looking like this:


To this:

I know what you're thinking....it's a dramatic change. But the new ones have chrome hinges....ok, so you might have to be here to understand. And I learned the replacing toilet seats is probably the easiest home improvement project I will ever have.

Presenting....The House!!

It's been a crazy busy last few weeks but I finally have time to give you a "tour".

Welcome to the House of Crouse!

Come on in....

Now to the upstairs....

Guest room:

Office:

Guest Bathroom:

Master Bedroom:

Master Bathroom:

Kyle's favorite "room":

Basement....to be continued eventually.....

Last but not least, the backyard.

A very "Iowa-esque" view from the deck:

Now it's time to put that deck to use and grill up some burgers!