6 months behind... & a BIG paint job

How sad is this.  I haven't posted anything to the blog in SIX MONTHS.

I'm sure at this point we have ZERO readers because you have come to expect nothing from us!! :)

Well, we have over the last 6 months had a lot going on that could have (and probably should have been) blogged about.  I'm hoping now that it's summer I can go back and retroactively post about some of the things that have happened at the Jacobus house.

For now, I'll leave you with this....
In case you're wondering what it looks like to live in a house that is being completely painted all at the same time.

Everything in the center of the room, kids piled in our bedroom since the oil-based trim paint smell upstairs is too much.

 VERY close quarters in the living room.  Sadly, our kids have adjusted to this set up very easily and "love the TV being so close"

Bare walls everywhere!

And do you wonder where everything is?  Piled into the few rooms NOT being touched....

The thing I am most looking forward to after this is all done is the purging of things I've held on to just because they filled the space before but I didn't really like.  This job just got a little more expensive.  I anticipate a trip to Marshalls in my future.

Happy Wednesday to you!! Check back soon (I hope!!) to see how things are progressing around here.

Lindsay

My Painted Secretary

It is finished! 

Last week I wrote about how a visit to my blog reader prompted an inspiration for me to finally paint my Craigslist Secretary desk.

We had a very rainy week here in Central Texas and my husband was out of town for most of it. So, that gave me plenty of time while the kids were occupied to get to work painting.

Remember how it started?

The day my hubby left for a 4 day retreat/conference/wedding {three separate things...not a wedding at a retreat! ;) } I asked him to get everything all ready for me to paint.  I wanted to do it inside so I'd be near the kids and keeping tabs on them so he moved it into the entry way for me and disassembled everything.  Good man, Good man.

I had to prime it before painting and our primer is oil-based.  I can't stand oil-based paint.  Not because it stinks - but because I am MESSY with painting and messy with Oil-based means a lovely bath in Paint Thinner when I am ready to clean up.  So, it's not LITERALLY a bath...but really, I can get paint EVERYWHERE on my body.  It's ridiculous.  In an effort to protect my skin I covered up EVERYwhere.  Don't believe me...

And yes, that is a basketball hoop on our front door.  Somehow my boys {old and young} decided to move it here and it gets more use here than it ever did in our son's room so... it stays {for now}. Last night it provided entertainment for our college kids after dinner - competition can be found in anything!

After priming everything I let it sit overnight.

We removed the inner workings of the desk for two reasons. One: I didn't want to hand paint all those nooks, crannies & crevices. Two: I wanted it to be another color.  More on that later...

The front of the drop down desk had a ugly lovely to someone wharf scene. I'm sure someone paid a lot extra to have that etched into the wood.  But this girl wasn't a fan.  So, we used wood filler for the deep etchings and then sanded it somewhat smooth.

I was amazed that after just the primer coat how you really couldn't see the etching anymore. And after two coats of color you would never know it existed.

I bought a chair from TJMaxx that had a bit of sass with the zebra print, but still blends so well with my color scheme that's working in this room right now.  I loved the detail on the legs.

 

I love looking online to see if I can find where the chair originally came from.  I never found an exact match but I did find very similar chairs at some of the big name home decor places.

We also took the glass out of the doors to paint.  I wanted to remove the "panes" look that was on the front of the doors and to do that we needed to pop the glass out and then the wooden panes just pried right out of the inside of the doors. {It wasn't attached directly to the glass}

 

We ended up getting a new piece of glass cut & mounted inside the door after we cracked one side trying to secure it.  It only cost us about $15 and it's more professionally secure than what we were trying to do! :)

 I went to Lowe's and picked up new drawer hardware.  I settled on these because they were literally the only in-stock pulls that were the same size as the old ones.  Thankfully, I also liked the look of them.

I'm so happy with how it turned out! It's come a long way since my dad brought it to me from Houston after I spotted it on Craigslist.  I think I paid around $125 for it.  

And here it is today!

Where I happily have a new home to blog from!

And for the details:
Paint color is the same as our kids bathrom redo: Valspar Mountain Smoke
The interior part of the desk is spray painted with Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover in Ivory {Gloss}
Drawer hardware is from Lowe's
Original hardware was spray painted with Rustoleum Hammered in Dark Bronze

Linked Here:
Fine Craft Guild
Someday Crafts
Southern Lovely

Family Year Book

Now that 2013 is in full-swing and things are settling down I can finally start to think about 2012 in review.

One of our favorite ways to remember and reminisce about years past are family photo books.

I first started in 2006 after our daughter, Brooke, was born.  Back then I did the scrapbook thing and after filling up an entire album for the first 6 months of her life I realized that this was going to be time consuming, expensive and space taking.

I also became frustrated that they weren't as "cute" as I wanted them to be - mainly because I really couldn't afford all the cutesy embellishments to make them cute.

So. I. Quit.

{Source}

Gave up.  Threw in the towel. Finito.

After the birth of our twins in 2008 I had a bit of mommy guilt that nothing was being documented like baby number one.  So, I used an online source to create a digital photo book.  I chose this particular company because you could use digital papers, stickers, embellishments for free and once you downloaded them to your workspace you had them forever and could use them over and over again.  Ah-ha! I could make them as cute as I wanted - FOR FREE!

{Source}

I was really happy how it turned out and the kids LOVED looking at it (and still do).  After a few years I thought it would be time to make another one.  I went back to that website and started the process all over again when I noticed all my FREE things were much, much more limited and you had to buy credits for any of the cute stuff that was currently offered.  No. Thank. You.

On the hunt for another option that wasn't web-based (after an unfortunate weekend retreat where a group of us girls planned to use the internet to get caught up on our books - only to find out the internet DIDN'T WORK) I came across this.

I downloaded the free software, got to work and furiously finished a book in 2 days so that I could take advantage of the promotion being offered!

And we LOVE how it turned out! It's less "scrapbooky" and more "yearbooky" and I'm so glad I made the switch!

I promise the kids look at this book at least once a week and it's so fun to see them excited about it that it makes me stop and look with them and remember their sweetness in its earliest form.

If you're looking for an easy way to put your family photos together and have a really professional finish for a reasonable price...look no further! Blurb is the way to go! It was SOOO easy... drag and drop into premade templates (and editable!) templates.

Right now they're you can save 15% off on your Blurb Photo Book purchase from 1/8 through 2/14 with code LOVEBOOKS. YAY for discounts.  Seriously, check them out... you'll be glad you did.  I plan to start working on 2012 before too much of 2013 slips by!

I'm going for it!

Don't you just love when visiting some of your favorite blogs you get inspired to GO FOR IT!?

That happened to me last week while catching up on my blog reader. 

I came across Layla's painted secretary and FELL. IN. LOVE. 

Even more awe inspiring was the before shot.

Doesn't it look almost identical VERY SIMILAR to mine!?

When I first found this on Craigslist I bought it with then intention of painting it.  But, I could never decide what color to go with.  I'd lived with it in it's natural state for about 2 years.  I've even tried selling it on Craigslist without any success. 

Seeing Layla's finished product I was convinced.  I'm keeping it! And I'm painting it! 

I've also decided to use it as a desk (and not just as another home for a lamp and decorative accents here and there as it has been used for the last 2 years!).  I can't believe I haven't used the three drawers for storage before!

What have you seen on your favorite blogs that have made you GO FOR IT?!
I'd love to hear about it.

My new chair!

I caught you up earlier this week on what my living room looks like these days. I've been so excited about the progress & the changes!  One thing that I knew once we bought a new sofa was that I was going to need a new chair for the room for some additional seating. 

 Remember what we had & sold...

Although it wasn't what this room needed layout wise - it was perfect for large gatherings and Sunday afternoon naps.  We could get at least 5 college students on it when we had different events and meetings at our house.

So, the search was on for a chair to add to the room.  Since the chair is going to go here...

I had several things to keep in mind.  The back of the chair would be seen from the entry way and the chair needed to both serve as a part of the conversation group & also be able to view the TV as well.  That left one option in my book.

I needed a swivel chair.

I don't know if you're searched for swivel chairs lately - but if you Google that term you get a lot of this turning up.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you that those aren't exactly the style I am going after.

Thankfully I knew exactly what I was after and where I could get it!  Best Home Furniture makes some of the most comfortable chairs around and best of all you can customize the fabric.  This great store near The Woodlands, TX carries this line (as do most baby/nursery supply stores). 

Thankfully they had several for me to sit in and test out (and also bring my husband back to do the same).  I finally narrowed it down to two options.

I needed the chair to have a skirt to hide the swivel mechanism and these were the two best options.  It all came down to comfort and the Quinn won out! Unfortunately, it doesn't also recline which was something my husband was hoping for.  Note to Best Home Furniture since I know they read this blog (haha!)

Then I had to decide between hundreds of fabrics.  I knew I needed a pattern since my sofa & existing chair in the room are both solid.  I went back and forth between two but ultimately knew that if I went with a neutral tone I could punch in color with throw pillows and blankets and change more frequently.

So, in 4-6 weeks I'm excited to have this in my slowly improving living room.

(Sorry for the awfully grainy photo! It's a screen shot from the interactive website)

Do any of you own any Best Home products?
I'd love to hear from you!