A Zoo Quilt for Brooks

Here's my latest baby quilt, made especially for Baby Brooks!  Brooks' Mom pointed out that he and our baby will be in the same grade!

Sweet little Brooks is the second child for our friends.  I made his old brother, Brecken, an Eye-Spy quilt a few years back.

Eye Spy Quilt

Since the family already has an Eye-Spy quilt (you can make your own), I thought I'd mix it up a little with this one!

The pattern is called Zoo Sunsets, and was designed by my Mom.  Her design calls for the animals to be solid black, and placed on top of sunset prints.  I've been more interested in modern quilts lately, so I mixed it up a little, making the animals out of bright prints and putting them on a white background.

I also modified her quilt by shrinking it to be crib-sized.

She usually traces and cuts the shapes by hand, but I wanted to try using a Silhouette.  I transferred her images to the Silhouette Studio software, and had my Silhouette Cameo cut them out for me.  To be perfectly honest, it didn't do a good job, and it was more of a pain to transfer the images, clean them up, and deal with the sub-par cutting job than it would have been to just use my Mom's tried and true method.

But anyways!  After that I had my animals, and was able to put the quilt together!

I found the perfect backing at a local Modern Quilt Shop!

Aren't the animals cute?!

I love all the fun colors and animals, and I hope Brooks does too :)




You might also be interested in these posts:

Penelope's Eye Spy Quilt
Giuliana's Eye Spy Quilt
Quilt from Upcycled Dress Shirts

Bonnie Projects

Basement Remodel: Imperfect Progress

The contractors have put in a few long days at this point, and have been making lots of progress!  Not all of it is perfect though, and one thing I've learned is this: If you can be home for your remodel, DO IT!!!

I've been able to telework for 2 of the 5 days they've been at our house.  The days I was there, I learned a lot about where the leak was coming from and how bad the damage really was.  I also learned how people cut corners, mess stuff up, and don't necessarily respect your property.  I saw a lot of things I otherwise would never have known about.

Also this: If you can't be there all day, go over all the work EVERY NIGHT with a fine-toothed comb.

So, what's been done?

New sliding doors in the living room

• They broke the old one getting it out.  If I hadn't seen it shatter, I probably would have wondered about all those glass chunks under the couch for years....
• The door handles were 5" different.  Yeah that's gotta get fixed!
• The doors are installed 1/2" different in height.  Jury's out on the solution for this one.
• In general, I'm expecting at least one door will have to be completely removed and replaced. 

the handles are 5" different in height

one door frame is 1/2" higher than the other

New window in the basement

• Wasn't ordered with the grids like we asked, but it sounds like they can fix those after the job.
• So much more light down there now!  It feels like a real room!

new window, new French door, and no rotten wood!

New French door in the basement

• It's so pretty!!!
• The panes are definitely smaller than the original sliding door, but we were willing to sacrifice view to have the French door down here.  Good thing we added that window!

 

Structural Work

• It's not pretty.  I guess that's why they invented drywall!
• The corner of the header got crushed during installation.  We brought it up to the contractor, and the ended up pulling it out, rotating it, and installing it where the crushed corner wouldn't take any of the load.
• I also learned the extent of my Dad's engineering nerdiness, as he calculated the load on that crushed corner over the phone using his old textbooks that were copyrighted in 1914.  From what he calculated, and how bad the damage was, apparently we're really lucky the whole house wasn't caving in before we started this project!
• On the positive side, there's no more rotten wood!

 

What was causing the leak

• A big chunk of siding missing
• No waterproofing under the sliding door

The bottom piece of siding is missing a triangle, so all the water shed by the siding 20 feet above this is able to get into the house.  No wonder the damage was so bad!

This is what it looked like when they removed the sliding door.  Those are shingles used as "waterproofing" on the left side, and nothing at all on the right side.  Which is what allowed water to rot out everything and cause stuff like that awesome hole in the floor.

 Other issues and things I've noticed

• Only one of three exterior lights I ordered was shipped.  Good thing I opened the box and realized the error in time for them to send the other two before the electrician comes!
• Subcontractors seem to be unreliable, and your contractor may have trouble getting in touch with them!
• Keep an eye on how the guys treat your stuff.  Yeah, my landscaping looks like crap right now because it's the end of winter.  But that doesn't mean that throwing a sliding door on top of my crispy azaleas is OK!!!  And they're really lucky they only set the saw on my pansies and not my peony!!! 
• If you want your furniture to survive your remodel, move it yourself and cover it well.

Everything I was ever warned about seems to be true.  It's expensive, it's loud, it's stressful, and you need to keep a close eye on what's happening.

I've already made Tommy promise we won't ever do a project bigger than this if we can help it!



You might also be interested in these posts:

Basement Remodel: Getting Started
Save money on your remodel by doing your own demo

Bonnie Projects

Striped Monogram Pillow Shams {West Elm Knockoff}

Happy Friday, y'all!

I'm over at Teal & Lime today sharing a tutorial on making monogrammed pillow shams.  It's a beginner-level project with big results, so check it out!

You might also be interested in these posts:

Dye your bedspread
How to shorten a flat-weave rug
Make a cute cover for your dress form

Bonnie Projects

Gain Closet Efficiency by "Removing" a Window

So...we added another project to the list.  We've never felt our master closet was an efficient use of space, but then another section collapsed over the weekend and this project jumped to the top of the list!

This closet was initially built as two reach-ins, but the previous homeowners converted it to be a walk-in.  Making the nook a walk-in meant that there would be a window in the closet, a problem they solved by covering the window with a blackout roller shade.  There is also a floor vent that can't be covered up.

Here are the "before" photos.  Keep in mind the closet had just collapsed!!!  The closet felt cramped and wasn't efficient.  Plus I couldn't even reach the long hanging bar on the back wall.  The part that collapsed had been holding my knee-length dresses.

Left Wall

Back Wall

Right Wall

The roller shade successfully blocked the light and gave privacy, but the window treatment didn't match the others than can be seen from the front of the house.  Tacky!

Not only did we need to rearrange the closet for better efficiency, we also needed to fix the window situation.

Keeping the window useable would mean losing a LOT of space.  We would also have to be careful about sunlight hurting our clothes, and making sure the window treatments would allow for plenty of privacy.  It was a tough choice, but in the end we chose function over form and decided to "delete" the window.

We decided to use an Elfa system for the closet.  This presented yet another challenge because the standards would have to hang in front of the window space.  They need to be flush to the wall, so we had to get creative!

So that the standard could lay flush to the wall, we cut notches in the top and bottom of the window frame.

Jumping ahead a little here, but here's what it looked liked once the Elfa was installed.  See how the notch allows the standard to be flush with the wall?

Now to fix the tacky window situation.

We bought 2" plantation blinds to match the blinds in our bedroom (I've used Just Blinds for years and am happy with their service, pricing, and quality).  There wasn't space to be able to install and use the mechanical system, so we cut the blinds off of the support bar.  We screwed the tapes to the top of the window frame so that the blinds would lay flush inside the window.  Even with the blinds were closed, light still penetrated, and could possibly fade our clothing.  We cut the blackout shade off the roller and stapled it to the window frame.  No more light!

The blackout shade isn't very pretty, but clothes will be hanging in front of it, so we decided it wasn't worth the extra effort to make it look nice.

Now all the window treatments look identical from the outside of the house. 

The previous owners had attached 1x4 boards to the wall to shore up their closet bars (which actually didn't work - this part of the closet collapsed the day we moved in).  We damaged the wall in the process of removing the boards, but four skim coats later we were back in business.  Tommy also touched up the paint here and there to make everything fresh and pretty.

So, what about the design of the new closet?

The old closet had a double rod on an entire wall, plus 48" of long hanging that was split between a rod I could reach and one that I couldn't.  The new design kept the 48" of long hanging, but placed it low enough for me to reach.  It also allowed us to add a 31" double rod, or 62" of additional hanging space for short garments.

The dresser does partially block access to some of the hanging space, but we'll keep off-season and lesser-worn clothes back there.  Like all my non-maternity stuff!!!

We installed the Elfa system according to the directions - it went up really easily with two people working on it!

Here it is all installed and ready to go.  What window?

Finally we loaded it up!  I separated Tommy's stuff by type - polos, dress shirts, sweaters, and outwear.  Right now, my stuff is organized by whether it fits my pregnant belly or not, so I had plenty of items that could be moved into the hard-to-reach areas.

The laundry basket tucks nicely under my knee-length dresses, and I bought a folding stool to help us reach those upper shelves (but that tucks away when we don't need it)

Back Wall

Left Wall

Right Wall

I also sorted everything by color to make it look less jumbled.  I've successfully gotten us out of using wire hangers (the ones from dry cleaning get put into a box for recycling), and now I'm working on getting rid of the plastic hangers in favor of the velvet huggable kind.  It looks so much less cluttered and is much more enjoyable to use when all the hangers are nice.  I think he's set for blue dress shirts for a while!

Was it worth it?  We spent $200 on the Elfa system and $50 on the plantation blinds.  We reused the blackout roller shade, and already had the joint compound and white paint, so those were "free".  This project took us about 8 hours total, but much of that was spent patching the wall.  It would have taken only 2-3 hours if we had been able to skip the wall patching and just focused on the blinds and closet installation.  We had to be really creative with the window treatment situation, as well as devising a way to get the standards to be flush to a wall, even over a window.  Thankfully, it all worked out great, and now we have a super efficient closet that doesn't look tacky from the outside of the house!

You might also be interested in these posts:

Removing textured ceilings
Extra long (and cheap) curtain rod

Bonnie Projects

Update Linens with Fabric Dye

Want a new look for your linens?  Check out my post on Teal & Lime today!  I overdyed a bohemian-style bedspread with fabulous results!

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I dyed my wedding dress!

Bonnie Projects

Basement Remodel: DIY Demolition Saves Money

Quick review, we are trying to get from a dark, cramped basement with structural issues to an open and bright space we'll enjoy for years to come.

In my last post, I mentioned that we negotiated with the contractor that they would deduct any work we complete on our own from the bill.  I love a bargain, so you can guess what happened next.

Tommy's grandfather, brother, and brother-in-law (thank you, I love you guys!!!) came to help, and the four of them started destroying our basement.  I say destroy with a smile on my face, because I hated the basement!!!

They started by taking down the wall that made 1/3 of the basement into a walk-in closet.  It's amazing how much more open a room becomes when you get a third of it back!

We considered building a new, smaller, closet, but couldn't think of anything to put in it that couldn't go on a shelf, so we decided to skip it for now and just stick with a big open room.

Next they removed the shed from the lower deck.  It was only storing potting soil and a few pots, and we plan to build a storage bench later this summer to store those items.  Removing the shed will allow us to add a window.

Our brother-in-law is really tall and strong (think offensive lineman), and he ripped out the ceiling without using a ladder or really any tools at all.  It was incredible.

Tommy took up all those carpet tiles.  They come up pretty easily, but it's tedious.

I ripped off the top layer of wallpaper, and Tommy and I spent many long hours scraping the backing and glue from the walls.  In case you're wondering, I would much rather spend my 6th month of pregnancy doing something - anything - else!!!  But that's life.

The guys carted all the debris around to the front of the house, and made four trips to the dump to dispose of it all.  (BTW, the dump is really cheap and it cost less than $50 for them to take all that stuff)

Our contractor came by to adjust our contract based on the work we'd accomplished.  My Mom's birthday gift to Tommy is painting the basement.  Between taking out the painting, and the crazy amounts of demo the guys accomplished, we're saving over $3,000!!!

We are already so much happier with the basement.  Even though it's covered in drywall dust, it feels so much more spacious, open, airy, and light!  I can't wait for more!!!

PS: What do you wear in a work zone when you're 6 months pregnant and don't want to sacrifice your new maternity jeans?  Your 15 year old overalls with the straps let out all the way!  As a side bonus, my Southern side was coming through all weekend and I picked up my accent and made a big batch of sweet tea.

You might also be interested in these posts:

Basement Remodel: Getting Started

Bonnie Projects

Easy Dinners with eMeals

Between a basement reno, two full-time jobs, and growing a baby, there hasn't been a lot of spare time lately for me to focus on cooking.  But we still need to eat, albeit easily and affordably!

A long time ago, I signed us up for eMeals.  It's a subscription service that sends me a week worth of meals at a time, complete with recipes and a shopping list.  I hate thinking up what to cook, and having a bunch of food go to waste.  eMeals is perfect for me because they decide what we're going to eat (we're not picky, and if a recipe doesn't look good, I just skip it), and they also coordinate their recipes to make sure you use up ingredients.

I used to make their recipes most nights of the week, but I really haven't been able to spend time cooking lately.  Easy fix - I switched to their slow cooker recipes!  They are easy to prep and make a ton of servings, so I can spend 30 minutes prepping a dish one day, and we can eat it four times that week.  It's also saving us a ton of money because we're not getting expensive prepared freezer meals every night, and we're not eating out.  Seriously, mint.com says we're spending half what we usually do.

So if you're like me, and spend every evening scraping wallpaper in your basement, I suggest their Slow Cooker plan!  Or if you're trying to do Clean Eating, they have a great plan for that too.  I also like their Paleo, Vegetarian, and Mediterranean plans.  I switch up what we get every few months just for fun.

It's been fun to be challenged to try new things and new ingredients.  Before doing their Clean Eating plan, I never knew how much fresh lemons or herbs could improve a recipe!