Jack Gets a Bed!

Doug was lounging last weekend and said, "I need to build something."

Whoa. An open-ended statement. He started going on about a bookcase...I thought about a wall of bookcases that I had pinned on Pinterest...and then I remembered: we're trying to do projects that don't cost a lot of money. Stuff we already have going. Hmmm.

The bunk beds! I mentioned this loooong ago, hoping that Doug would fix them soon after we moved in. Didn't happen, due to an overly-large garden and basic exhaustion from moving. But! I nonchalantly suggested that he work on the beds. Then left it alone.

When dealing with a Hales, this is a survival tactic. Mention it, move on. If you nag, or stick with the subject, it will get purposefully left behind. But the mentioned-in-passing topic? Possibly the top of the list. Don't understand how that works, but work it does.

You may be wondering what was wrong with those bunk beds in the first place. Well, the kids were having a bounce party in their room (unbeknownst to the several adults talking three rooms away), and one of them jumped onto the side rail of one of the beds. Crack!

The other bed lost its side rail in pretty much the same way, although it didn't include children from other families.

I tossed the side rails after about a year, intending to use just the headboards and footboards, attached to a twin bed frame (as an idea). I think the slats went at the same time. Okay, I realize that I just made a case for Doug keeping things.

Anyway. We shopped for wood, and got enough for the beds and the aforementioned bookcase. Go, Doug. Then he spent a good part of the morning assembling all the pieces from wherever they had landed during unpacking. The basement had a good many of these pieces.

A headboard (or footboard) for the bunk bed...
plus a few miscellaneous pieces of the captain's bed that also awaits finishing

The side rails are now done...for one bed. Doug didn't quite get enough wood (he's growling), so he'll finish the other one soonly. At least Jack now has a bed off the floor!

Polyurethaned and everything

These are some thick pieces - they shouldn't break quite so easily as the last pair

The finished bed, with the slats still in boards on the top

The second bed, waiting forlornly in the garage behind some wood

And finally (drum roll!), Jack has a bed! Being tried out by Sophia, of course. What are siblings for?

Pleased that she can climb up all by herself!

Competition: Doug vs. Walmart

Last year, Doug was very disappointed with our "starts". The plants we started in March were still so little come planting time.

And Walmart had some big, beautiful plants. He kept saying, "We should have started ours earlier! Why didn't we start them earlier?" The easy answer was that we followed the seed package directions. Eight weeks before planting time, we started our seeds.

This year, he is going to beat Walmart. It's a male pride thing. He started these in January, and they're already looking pretty respectable:

Broccoli and cauliflower in the foreground - my shasta daisies in the background

More broccoli and, in the back, a few peppers

Mmm, onions

And my chamomile lawn

Remember when I talked about the chamomile lawn? I decided to go for it. After all, the seeds only cost $10 - and I got a lot of them for that price. I started about half of them inside, even though they are a direct-sow according to the package directions. If they don't like being inside so much, then at least I have half of my seeds to start outside.

And here I thought we'd have all winter to just plan the garden, without actually doing anything.

Before You Dig...

Yup, we've all heard it a million times. Before you dig, have the utility companies come out and mark everything so you don't inadvertently ruin a power line (and a perfectly good life).

Two days ago, little flags started showing up in my yard. But I didn't call. I'm not planning on digging. The neighbors are all asking what we're up to. And I have to answer, sadly: nothing.

So why the little markers everywhere?

Gas lines in yellow, Power in red

When we moved in, our phone crackled with static and made every conversation a lesson in listening. Difficult to do anyway with five children upset that your attention has wandered. Then our internet also started acting up. It probably never worked right. Doug called at least once a week to complain. We even had a few techs come out to tell us they had no idea, but they messed with xxx and it should be fine.

Wasn't.

Finally we got a tech that realized that our problem wasn't the internet. It was the phone line. The phone line needed to be completely replaced. And in pouring rain, the darling man put in a new line. It was December, though (yes, a full seven months after we started our service), so the crews couldn't bury the line until probably April. Never mind that this year has been unseasonably warm (did I tell you I have been weeding this February?).

Apparently, though, said crews realized that the ground is not frozen, nor does it have any plans to become so. And they called the utility companies. Mystery solved.

The kids were very concerned about the spray paint on the lawn.

Just to feel like I had some say in it all, I went out and took pictures. Now we can know where those lines are when we want to dig. Like for a fence (hint, hint, Doug).

I Reached 100!

Posts, that is. 100 posts.

This blog started as a lark. Maybe get the whole house decoration and remodeling thing out of my system, while documenting what we're doing for our own records, and spurring ourselves on to actually finish some projects.

And now I've reached 100 posts. Hurray!

Just for fun, here are some of my favorite projects:

• The Front Door: From Boring to Primed to a Beautiful Red...it still does need a second coat. The lockset also needs some attention, but it looked nice when I first painted it!

• Bedrooms: from the coral reef to the garden, these two were so fun to do!

• Curtains: they just make the house feel so cozy and, well, homey. I customized curtains for the kitchen and the front room. Love them!

• Gardening: oh, yeah. Basically the entire summer last year was just gardening. And more gardening. Personally, I really enjoyed the basil.

And some that are still in progress...

• The Upholstering Project: I haven't forgotten about it. There are just so many pieces and it is taking time to find the time to get through them all and get them all back on the naked chair. Got all that?

• The Front Room: There was the plaster, that is now gone. There were brown and red walls, that are now repainted (off-white). There are the continual on-going conversations about color and texture. No worries. I think we have a resolution on this one - and soon!

Thanks for hanging in there with me and encouraging me!

No More Plaster!

With a deep breath and a lot of effort, I removed the last of that fake-block-look plaster. My hand is now killing me, although I don't seem to have any trouble typing (lucky you!).

From the left, Sophie's coat modeling itself on the stair rail

From the center, including some of Sophie's stuffed animals
(they just had to get into the picture)

And from the right. It's DONE!

So now we have a very featureless opening to our hall and stairway. Soon it will even be painted. Dance of joy. We do still have some clean-up from the plaster, although that will be worked into a child's chore. Why not?

Making Custom Curtains from Purchased Panels

Now that I've found decent curtains for the front room, I need to make them long enough.  Here's the high-water look they were sporting:

And although we do love tubing and rafting and water sports of all kinds, we won't ever be taking the curtains along. So there is no need for them to be ready. JoAnn's had a great fabric on sale (I am really into the brocade look - have been forever) that I can sew onto the bottom of my original curtains. This took a bit of unpicking, so that the new look is seamless (pun intended).

The material was easy to cut to size, since I could use the original curtains as a template. The original hemline hung right underneath the windowsill, so I used it as the start of the new material - the perfect height to make a visual change!

The material sewed on (again, using the hemline as my stitching line), and then I did a zigzag stitch along the seam so that it would hang nicely. The thread is matched to the brown so that it melts away into the pattern.

Then I had a lot of material left on the back from the original curtain. I was going to line these suckers, but I think the extra light coming in through the drawn curtains is actually a nice thing in the front room. They are opaque enough to not be worried about see-through after dark, so I left them as is. I don't want to ditch the extra material, though - you never know when you might want to use the original curtains again - so I turned up the hem again and just stitched it along the same stitch line I'd already done. The back looks just fine.

That done, I turned in the sides and stitched them. Then it was time for the hemming. I actually tried one with a five-inch hem and just hung it up. My original idea was to have it "puddle" on the floor, but the brocade is too heavy and the curtains aren't quite long enough. So instead of a puddle, I had an awkward hem that doesn't quite turn underneath. The others went up without a hem so I could mark the floor length. No puddle on these babies. Maybe the next time I have the cash for silk curtains? Or maybe after the kids aren't around to spill chocolate milk on them, and after we don't have an inside dog? Okay, we don't have the dog yet. But we want one, and a dog definitely wouldn't mix well with puddlin' curtains.

Sophie is already mixing it up with those curtains - see her cute bum?

They're all lumpy and folded over strangely

Once hemmed, we finally have our fishbowl sewn up again. I didn't realize how much I missed having curtains in that room until they were gone. And how long did we not have curtains there? Months and months. Craziness.

It looks a little bare...but the dark wall compensated a little

The back light adds a glow to the room during the day

So here's a question for you: should I put a band, or ribbon, or some sort of decoration to mark the transition from one fabric to another? What would you do?

A close-up of the transition

Let me know, I definitely would love some additional ideas!

We Need to Talk

Could there be a more dreaded phrase in the English language?

And I'm saying this to...myself. Let's have a talk. Because there is much more that I want to do than we can afford. At least, all at once.

For example, I would love to put planks on my cathedral ceiling. Warm it up a bit, yes? This picture is from Armstrong Flooring...they also make ceiling tile. And planks. Sigh.

I can think of a million things that I want. Unfortunately, the tax return isn't going to go as far as I had hoped, so we're going to be scraping by to get that fence in. Which is, after all, first priority.

So what am I going to do until it's time to put up the fence? Save money for said fence.

Which means I have to scale back some of the inside projects. I'm planning on spending this week finishing up curtains for the front room (I have all the material there), prepping for paint in the same room, as well as into the dining room and kitchen, and thinking about grouting the bathroom tile that I put in last week. Maybe even doing the grouting. Or continuing work on the chairs that need upholstering (no, I haven't forgotten them!). But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

The only purchase there would be the paint. I think I could swing that - paint isn't terribly expensive for the impact it provides. Maybe I could do something small and crafty for decorating the house. Of course, I have explained my abhorrence of the "made-at-home" look, yes? Again, sigh.

Were there money enough in the world...I would still want to paint my own walls. Onwards!

Mini-Vacation: Arches!

Doug suggested early last week that we take a trip to Arches National Park. A day trip. Arches, mind you, is four hours away. Remember, also, that we're taking all five children with us. As a bonding moment. I wasn't quite sure about it. But we really need to get out more.

Now, eight hours in a car with five children under twelve might not sound like fun to you. And there were a few meltdowns that could have taken us much farther south than Moab. We found out, for instance, that Jack is terrified of pit toilets (he would much rather we stop along a highway - which we did. Hopefully, passing motorists thought the little boy hobbling along with his pants around his ankles was pretty funny, instead of being embarrassed by the display.).

Once we got there, though, we were amazed by what we found:

Climbing
This park is what playgrounds aspire to be: plenty of opportunities for children to "get out their wiggles" by climbing, climbing, climbing.

Bonnie found this sign at the top of a rock. It says: This is Not a Trail.

The boys

How did they get up there?

The Sandbox
Arches has this great hike to the Sand Arch. We walked a path through an open area, then walked in between two large rocks. Inside the rock was a large area filled with sand. Nothing but sand. Okay, a few trees. The kids loved playing in it without their shoes - who cares if it's freezing? There's sand to be played in! It was almost as good as a beach.

Sophia, playing in the giant (natural) sandbox

The girls with daddy-o on yet another rock

Hiking
Of course, this is a major joy at any national park. There are plenty of easy hikes that you can do with children. There are also lots of major hikes that I would love to conquer when the kids are older. And going in February was a great call for hiking - this park gets seriously hot during the summer.

Speaking of weather, the day started out freezing and windy. The sun did finally make it's debut, however, and the weather warmed considerably. Our favorite part was definitely the natural sandbox. We also met another family, who had intelligently brought a ball with them. Our boys played ball with their boys, took off their socks, ran up and down the sand and up and down the sandstone rocks, worn smooth from all the wind and rain.

We also stopped for dinner on the way home. All of the kids except Malena took a nap on the way home, and Jack and Bonnie were completely sacked out. Even with the nap, everyone went to bed right after we got home - Jack and Bonnie just crawled straight into bed, and Sophia didn't last much longer. Collin and Malena took a little convincing not to wake the entire household in their excitement to be home and their dismay at realizing that there were only two of them to help clean the car.

Needless to say, the car is still needing a clean-out. But! Even with a ton of driving, it felt so relaxing just to drive away from the homestead. And drive. And drive. We had never taken the road to Moab before, and we enjoyed snow-covered mountains, huge wind turbines, antelope, and even a train now and again. The park was not crowded, since February is a little early for crowds. We did wish for heavier jackets while the sun was hiding, but we will definitely do this again, and soon.

Now We're Caulkin'!

Watch out: mama's got her caulkin' gun. Anything that remains motionless for long will be seamlessly molded into the wall.

Fair warnin', Doug. (He has been watching TV a bit lately, but we can blame that on the Super Bowl. For now.)

I found the caulking gun, rested after so many years in storage, and set to work. There was a dried-up tube of caulk, which only needed a little coaxing (imagine how ready you'd be with a stick up your, ah-hem, in your back) to get flowing again. Caulking is not necessarily something I enjoy, but there is a certain satisfaction to see seams come together. Without it, our house would be drafty and look terribly unfinished.

And - since we can't have that! - I'm off on a mission. To fill every seam that winks at me until I run out of caulk or the kids pull me away.

Whichever happens first.