Well, we had a little hiccup in our Geiger Cleaning Week preparations for day 3's post. I guess this picture will help you to understand why.

Yea, that is our bed chilling in on our stairwell. Long story made really short, I decided to switch bed frames. We had one sitting in our guestroom and then we had the frame we were currently using.  I thought I could switch the two on my own. While Jonathan was at work. Yup. I was sadly mistaken. After trying to wriggle it around a bunch, I realized that I was just damaging the stairs more and more and that the headboard wasn't going to be going anywhere under my man woman power (or lack there of). So I gently rested it there and sent Jonathan a text along the lines of, "You might hate me when you get home, our headboard is currently wedged in the stairwell. I promise to fix all damages. Just assure me of your love please." 

Needless to say, my plan for day 3 was totally destroyed at this point. I wanted to clean out our guestroom and get it looking organized and spiffy, but after the realization that the beds weren't going to be switching positions any time soon, I gave up on the rest of the process and moved onto another project for the day. In the end, it was probably for the better anyways. I was feeling awfully sick and by one in the afternoon had already gone through an entire box of kleenex. So, I banished my sick self to the couch and started working on an easier project. 

Awhile ago, I saw this project on Pinterest. I remember thinking that it was cute, but where would I put a gigantic pink heart in our house? It really wasn't my thing. So, until recently, I had forgotten about it. But then, my sister-in-law blogged about it a couple of days ago. I sat there reading her blog and suddenly inspiration hit! See, I have been wanting to do a monogram project ever since I did this one. I was satisfied with the afore mentioned project, but I still wanted something else. Seeing the string and nail project, it hit me that I could do our initial instead of the heart! I figured it would be something different and also be a statement piece. I had purchased all of the materials last weekend and since I was banished to the couch, I figured yesterday was the perfect time to get working on my idea!

First I gathered all of the materials. Like I said, I had purchased some nails and string to match the color scheme I was headed toward and  I just created an outline of a big "G" using Microsoft Word and printed that out.  I also grabbed a hammer and a board that I found in our garage. The board was the backside of the cover that was used for the crawlspace entrance above the back-end of our house. Do you remember this gross before picture? See the big white blob near the middle of the picture? That's it.

This project was pretty self explanatory and if you need more detailed directions, please visit this link. But basically I just laid down the piece of paper in the center of my board. Then I proceeded to hammer nails into place about every half inch around the outline of the "G." Then, I ripped the paper out and started going back and forth with the string. The only thing that I didn't do, that the directions said to, was outline the entire thing with the string at the end. I didn't feel the need to and really liked how it looked without it.

To tie off the string I just turned it back on itself. This is an old boat tying trick that I learned as a kid. It creates a pretty solid hold. And with that, the project was done! I quickly set it on our end table and snapped a few pictures. It won't be staying there, but I will find a more permanent place for it once our house is put back together.

Oh and just to keep things real around here, this is the current state of my dining room. 

Are you as freaked out as I am? Tomorrow I should be back with a full update on our guestroom. I really don't think you are going to want to miss this! 

You Win Some, You Lose Some

It's fall right? 

Finally!!

I decided to get into the fall spirit and do a bit of decorating. We are on a tight budget right now, so I wanted to gussy things up without spending a lot of money. Dollar Tree to the rescue! I always love Dollar Tree as a resource for decorative items on a budget. 

As I was walking around, I spotted these paper doilies  and came up with the idea of putting them all together and creating a runner. For three dollars, a half hour, and some tape I had on hand, I figured I could create a great piece. I was inspired by this runner by Ashley Ann and thought that I may be able to recreate. 

My first attempted involved layering them. I would overlap them and just sort of put them together at random. Whatever I thought would look good. Well, I ended up getting rid of that. It was too...cluttered.

Then I decided to put them together with more space in between them. It turned out better and I put it on our buffet and proceeded to accessorize. 

 I went around the house collecting a bunch of things that I thought would work for a fall-ish feel. I gathered a few accent jars I had on had, a bunch of candles, some fall decorations from last year, a bag of split peas, a bag of popcorn, and some decorative squash that I picked up from a local produce stand.

Then I just started layering them on the buffet and worked with things until I had them the way that I wanted. I also kept in mind that I didn't need to use everything on the buffet because I wanted to put some stuff on our coffee table in the living room too. The result was satisfactory enough. I wasn't sure how I liked the runner that I had made, but I decided to live with it for a day and then decide.

In the basket I crinkled up some paper and then layered the decorative gourds on top. I followed that by putting the two scarecrows, that I had, in the back. A set of Fiesta salt and pepper shakers made the perfect compliment to the pitcher on the other side of the buffet.  Then to top the grouping off I used a mason jar, split peas, popcorn, and a candle to create a fun decorative piece.

On the opposite side, I used a large glass vase I had leftover from our wedding and a small votive, to do the same decorative element I used with the mason jar. I decided to move the pitcher with flowers from its spot in the living room, because the colors worked well with the overall scheme I had going on. I also decided to utilized the 'fall' decoration I had purchased from Christmas Tree Shops on this end as well.

It all came together in the end. The colors from my mom's picture, that hangs above our buffet, and all the colors of the adjoining rooms seem to compliment everything nicely.

Then in the living room I decided to do a small arrangement and I used some more doilies, a wood chicken (left behind from the previous owners of our house), a couple of glass votives, a decorative tray, and a pumpkin I had on hand from last year.

The goal was to do something simple, but fun. I attached the doilies to the bottom of the tray, with tape. Then I layered in the chicken and candles. The pumpkin went on the bottom shelf. I also love how the baskets I have holding our magazines, are made with chicken wire. In the end, there was an overall country theme that I didn't plan for!  :)

This is where I was originally planning on ending the post, but after living with the doilies for a day, I decided that I wasn't a huge fan. So, I removed them from the buffet and this is what it looks like now.

I like it a lot better... I think. Oh! I forgot to mention that I also put our ipod and its speakers back on the buffet. Function is way more important than beauty, around here. 

So, what do you think? Do you like the display better with the doily runner? or without? Honestly, I'm not 100% convinced either way. I'm thinking that I might try to make a new runner with just the sunflowers or the leaves and see if I like that better. Some input would be greatly appreciated :)

Can You Say Built-Ins 5x Fast?

I apologize ahead of time for how many times I say the words "built-in" in this post :)

The first thing that many people comment on, when they walk into our house, is the built-ins in the dining room. I'm a sucker for built-ins as well. There is definitely something charming about the fact that someone took time to build in a beautiful bookshelf, set of drawers, or even a whole entertainment center. The older the house, the better the built-ins.

Well our house had these cute built-ins that everyone loved. I appreciated the charm, but honestly couldn't stand them. Someone would compliment and I would go into a huge lecture about how impractical they were. They seemed old-ladyish to me and I wanted them gone! So I declared war decided to come up with a solution.  

There were two of them. One on each side of the dining room. Plus, there was also a pretty cool built-in that used to house the previous owner's phone (see right corner of picture below).  I really loved that they added visual interest to the room, but at approximately two inches deep, there wasn't much that I could put on them. I'm not really a chotchky-type person.

So I decided to do a bit of revitalizing to the built-ins. I wanted to make them more practical for the things that we owned. I knew that the amount of shelves was limiting the height of the object that I could display, so I decided to take down two of the shelves. My idea was that I would then be left with two shelves to put things on. Plus, removing them allowed everything to open up a bit more. I like simple and airy. 

A quick coat of primer and we were left with this:

Significantly better if you ask me. I was starting to warm up to the granny-esk built-ins. Slowly they were becoming more practical for a women of my modern tastes. HA! ;)

The next task was to decide what to display on them. I contemplated this for awhile and then realized that the answer was hanging on the wall in our old apartment.

We were given all sorts of beautiful platters as wedding gifts.  I knew that I may only use them a couple times a year, so I decided to use two of them and a pie dish as art in our old dining room. So, when we moved I needed somewhere new to display them. I decided that these built-ins would be perfect!!

I just took the plate holders and used them on the lower shelves, but the upper shelves had grooves cut into them, so I was able to just rest the plate holder in the grooves without hanging them. The end result was this:

and a little side-by-side action:

I think they look so much better! Oh and our little phone cubby got some paint action as well. From phone to flowers. It's looking a-whole-heck-of-a-lot better!

The Entertaining Rooms

Continuing on with our tour a la $$, I decided to group together the living room and the dining room. They were the rooms that had the least amount of work done to them, before we moved in, meaning there is still a ton we are waiting to do.

Can I get a DUH?!

Sometimes I amaze myself.

My whit is so original.

You thought so too?

Good. At least we agree.

Moving on.

So, in our dining room and living room we decided to paint, rip out the carpet, and call it a day. There was wallpaper all over the walls, but because of the state of the walls (i.e. the wallpaper was holding up the walls) we decided to just paint right over it.

Can I get an 'AMEN!' for not having to rip down wallpaper?

'A' to the double 'men.'

'Heck' to the 'yes.'

Overall these rooms were pretty easy-peasy. First, we shall take a look at the before pictures.

Ok, puke.

Get it out...all out.

I promise you will feel better.

Now that it's out of your system, let's talk about the process a bit. Once Jonathan and I took possession, the carpets were our first priority. We knew that they held a bunch of dirt (they looked like they hadn't been cleaned in ages) and some smells that we weren't too fond of. You know, cigarette smoke and a musty smell, weren't really what we wanted to be greeted by on a daily basis. So out the carpet in the living room went. We waited on the dining room one because it was the only one that was completely tacked down.

Then, the living room and the dining room were basically left alone until the month before we moved into the house.

Finally, at the beginning of April, we decided to start working on them a bit. We primed right over the wall paper, picked out wall colors and then painted, and ripped up the dining room carpet.

Things were looking a whole-heck-of-a-lot lighter and brighter! I still can't get over what a coat of paint can do.

Finally, we were ready to move in. We arranged everything we had into the rooms, I purchased a new rug for the living room, we bought blinds for the windows, a ceiling fan, and we were all set to go! Definitely a transformation.

Now on to the cost of it all. We needed two cans of Aqua Lock Primer, one can of wall color for the dining room and two for the living room, one can of semi gloss white for the trim, and two cans of ceiling white.

Paint: $270.00
Rug: $350.00
Blinds for windows: $ 202.93
Ceiling Fan: 109.95
Total: $ 932.88

Now, that may seem like a lot. But, remember, it is for two rooms. Plus, if you are just moving into a house, you won't necessarily need a rug, ceiling fan, and blinds. Just $270 worth of paint will take you a long way.

Like I said, we definitely got the most bang-for-our-buck in the kitchen, but the living room and dining room are a close second. I'm very happy with how they both turned out. It makes me even more excited for stage 2!!!

What do you think of our living room and dining room? Any questions about why we did what we did? Come on lovely readers of mine, feedback please! :)

An Update: Dining Room Floors

Last week, I also worked on the floors in the dining room. I would put a coat of paint on the walls and then work on the floors. If you remember, we had pulled up the carpet in the dining room only to find tar bordering our entire floor. It wasn't a huge deal, but we worried that the humidity during the summer would make the tar sticky. Sticky tar = unhappy homeowners. So, we set out to find a solution.

Thankfully, a friend of ours recommended a spray that is supposed to be fantastic for all things sticky and tacky. It is called Contractors' Solvent and had a wonderful orange smell to it. We were told to spray it on, let it sit for five minutes, and then wipe it off.

I sprayed it, rolled a coat of paint on the walls--while I crossed my fingers that the juice would work--and then proceeded to rub off the tar! Multiple dish towels and a few coats later, the solvent worked wonders! It took multiple applications and a bit of scraping, but our floors are now tar free. I'm sure that all of that elbow-grease will pay off this summer...my feet will thank me later.

Now, all we need to do is put down an area rug, set up our dining room table, and invite over some friends! Our dining room is definitely taking shape.

P.S. Don't worry about that dark border. The tar stained the floor in certain places. At least we were able to get up the sticky part!

We would totally recommend this product in the future! We were really impressed. Now, do you have any heavy-duty cleaning products you swear by? We use white vinegar and baking soda for pretty much everything, but sometimes you need to pull out the "big guns." What do you swear by?