I feel like we have been working in overdrive around here!! Sorry blog world...between chasing Gabers, grad classes, and projects, blogging has fallen to the bottom of the list. Don't get me wrong, we are enjoying some of the more relaxing moments of summer, but we have also been doing A LOT of work around the house. Checkin things off the To Do List definitely helps calm this mama's nerves that at least the house will be ready for Little #2...
So here is a (not so) quick recap of some of the projects of the last few months...
1. GARDENS :)
I had been wanting to put in a garden for a few years, but wasn't exactly sure where it should go. The past few summers the back yard had gotten really, really wet, which led me down the path of raised gardens. Well, we stumbled upon some nice cedar boards at the ReStore and I took it as a sign! They weren't too difficult to put together (says the prego lady who didn't help a whole lot) but hopefully they will yield lots and lots of yummies! I have had to battle the crazed rabbits that live in this neighborhood, but we are still seeing lots of green progress!
Checking the tomatoes!
2. TREES
Staying with the outdoor theme, we finally have some trees planted on our property! And I think they look mighty fine! Grandpa Don and Grandma Looney thought the Schmelzer boys should have some trees, and so we headed to the nursery. For those of you up on your trees, we put an Autumn Blaze in the front and a Crimson King in the side yard!
I love when you stumble upon 3 foot sections of rebar when digging in your yard...
3. LAUNDRY ROOM
So the other main theme has been storage. With the coming of Little #2, there is a real need to consolidate our junk and to make better use of space we currently have. One such space was our laundry room. We needed this to have much more functional storage and to be prettier :) I wish I had a "before" picture, but I don't, which actually may be is for the best. Just think of white wire shelves, with little functionality, and lots of junk thrown basically everywhere. That's pretty accurate.
Well, once again a trip to ReStore saved the day. We found some really nice, solid wood cabinets. After a few coats of grey paint, up they went. Noah painstakingly created floating shelves to fill in the remaining space, and Jeff gave the whole room a facelift with a coat of paint. Somehow along the way, we also inherited a new washer and dryer, which just caps of this redo!
4. GARAGE LOFT
As Little #2 is set to arrive this fall, our spare bedroom upstairs will no longer be "spare". Which means its function as a storage area is no more. So again, we needed to find a home for the stuff which currently resides there. Most could go to the basement, but space is limited there as well. So there needed to be a shift... stuff from the basement up, stuff from the spare room, down. We decided to create a "loft" in the garage to store many of the seasonal and extra items that we don't need often. Noah came up with an awesome plan, and it turned out great.
And if your are curious as to what Gabe does during these projects, the answer is dance parties in storage trailers...
And now to the...
5. BASEMENT
Over the last few years, we have made improvements to the basement, but one item left we just hadn't got to was electrical work. Well, Uncle Kuhly came over and helped us check another box from our list. We were able to add some additional plug-ins, switches, and lights, to make the whole space much, much more livable. We also moved some furniture and added a beadboard accent wall to what has become my craft area. I will eventually pretty it all up, but right now I am totally ecstatic with just how it is :)
And what did Gabe do?!? More dance parties :)
And a few more projects, just in case you thought we were done...
KiTCHEN PAINTING
SHED RAMP (and shelf) BUILDING
I'll be honest... it's 180 degrees out and I'm too lazy to go open the hot shed for a picture of shelves...
STAINING
A huge thank you goes out to Bonnie and Jeff. They were here and helped with basically EVERYTHING. They're pretty awesome :)
