Saturday, May 12, 2012

Itch to remodel

Did you ever get an itch to remodel but have absolutely no extra money to put towards new furniture? Recently, I found myself in this boat. I'm trying to kinda get my house ready for selling 'just in case' the need arises. In doing this, I am trying to update our bedroom furniture. We recently updated my daughters room with a beautiful full set that my husband got for free off of a job he did. We got an awesome offer from a friend to get her old bedroom set for our bedroom which is wonderful because I have wanted a matching set FOREVER! So two of our three rooms are covered. My sons room had some pretty old looking, pressed wood furniture that I sold on craigslist for super cheap. He has bunkbeds that are perfectly fine but he needed a nice looking dresser. Well....my hubby and I had an older dresser in our room that we were going to get rid of because of our new 'used' set that is coming in. I decided to give that old dresser a makeover for JJ's room. It settled my itch for remodling for awhile, and it turned out SUPER well.



This is a picture of the drawers after the hardware was removed and they were sanded. It was a beautiful red cherry color but it was all dinged up needed a face lift. (This was another free piece of furniture so I felt I could not go wrong with trying to fix it up!) So I started sanding. It took FOREVER but was well worth it now that I can see the finished result. I'm sorry I did not get a picture of the dresser before I primed it.


Here is the dresser after the 2nd coat of spray primer. Being a complete newbie to sanding and painting, I took the easy way with the spray primer. It worked really well and was super easy to put on. After several coats of primer, I started with the paint. I went back and forth between painting the dresser black and white. In the end, I chose black because I thought it was better for a boy! As you can see in this picture, the dresser has some really hard to sand decorative sides. They were a pain! I did not use spray paint for the black. I just used some regular black semi-gloss and a good old fashioned paint brush.


This is a not so great picture of the finished product. It looks absolutely brand spanking new! JJ loves it and it looks much better than his old stuff. The awesome thing was that I used the money that I earned by selling his old stuff to by the materials needed to sand and paint. The dresser is missing two of the knobs on one drawer, but its done aside from that! What do you think??

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Happy Early Mothers Day to the BEST mother in the world!


This post is dedicated to my mom. There are always times in life when a person wishes for something other than what they have. I have wished for straight hair instead of curly. I have wished for longer legs instead of short. I have wished for a louder personality...where I am never afraid to be who I am. I have wished for better clothes, more money, more stuff, a bigger house, a job, a different car, a different yard for my children, and many, many other things. It always hard for a human to be content. One thing I can say I have NEVER wished for is another mother. I was, after all, given the best one of them all. It was not until I had children of my own that I realized the extent of my own mothers sacrifice for me. She went without things for herself for so many years in order to put me through a private school and a private college. My dad helped, of course, but it was her passion to make it all happen. She gave of herself so much more than I feel I give to my kids. I try. I really do. I just never feel like I could be a mother like my mother was to me. I know she went through hard times. She had a rough upbringing which caused her a lot of pain as an adult. I hardly ever knew this as a kid though. She just had an amazing way of carrying on. She showed me what a mother should be like. She showed me Christ through her actions. When I first started college 800+ miles away from home, she gave me her personal Bible to take with me. I have held that Bible near and dear to my heart. It reminds me of her. It's marked pages remind me of her true love for the Lord which has always been a marvelous example to me. I cannot ever imagine losing her. I hope I never have to.

I love you mom. Thank you for being all that you are to me! Happy Mothers Day!