Our Home - Part 1

As promised, I am giving you a look into our home! There are two levels to our house; on the upper lever is the laundry room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, living room, bedroom, and office. On the lower level is two spare bedrooms (one has our pool table), the tool room, and extra storage. 

Many of you have already seen our kitchen from the recent update we did to it, but just to recap, here is our kitchen:

We repainted the cabinets white, painted the walls red, and put the brushed nickel handles on the cabinets. We love it! 

We also put in laminate floors a couple of months ago (and I took no before & after photos!). We used to have linoleum floors that was white and a teal color....it was bad. We just laid the laminate right on top, and it totally warmed up the house!

The living room is one of my favorite rooms. We bought a brand new couch and chair in February, so I just love it! I feel like the room is very open to guests.

We have an old family piano in the far corner, a large coffee table in the center of the room, then the sectional couch and my round chair that I super duper love! It's a cozy room to say the least.

Then you enter the hallway (which is to the right in the picture above), which takes you to the bathroom:

We chose to do our bathroom in blue and brown. It flows well from the living room (which is tan, brown, and black, with blue as an accent color).

We got the bath mats and towels from Target, and we got the shower curtain, curtain rod, and the curtain rings from Walmart. Everything was on sale, so we got a super bargain! Over all, the bathroom makeover costed us about $25.

If you enter the door on the left in the hallway, you enter our bedroom...aka, Jenna's sanctuary. I LOVE my bedroom. It's another favorite room in my house. You can't really tell, but the walls are a very light light grey color, which really opens up the room (it's a little small) and reflects natural light wonderfully.

This room is so calming to us. We got a brand new platform bed for our wedding, which was awesome because before that we were using a double-size bed that was my dad's bed when he was younger. Needless to say, we REALLY needed a new bed!

Once again, there is no overhead lighting in our bedroom, as is in the rest of the house, so we got a shelf lamp (on the right) from Target for our wedding and put it in the corner. We use short night stands that are level with our bed. The comforter and duvet set we got from Target as well, and that was one investment that lasts! When the duvet gets dirty, I just take it off of the comforter, wash it, dry it, and put it back on. 

I bought this shelving unit from Walmart, and the baskets are from Target. I had a major problem with scarves filling up random space in my closet, so I got a closet organizer from Lowe's. 

I. Love. These. Shelves. They are on my side of the bed (The window is on the wall on Casey's side). I got them from, can you guess? Yes, Target! They were on sale, so I snatched them right up! The ceramic elephant I got from Michael's.

If there is one thing in life that I love, it's Marilyn Monroe. This poster of her & James Dean caught my eye, so I bought it for $2, bought a cheap frame (probably around $10) and hung it above my dresser. It definitely adds a soft touch to the room!

So there you have it. These are just a few rooms in our home, and I can't wait to show you more! 

A Fast Organization

When Casey and I moved in together, we had a ton of movies. There is probably close to 200 DVD's in our house! We used to have them stored in a cube shelf under our TV:

But today I thought, "Man, I'd really like to have nice little things in those cubes rather than all of our DVD's." So I decided to move them into our storage-friendly coffee table:

And now we have cubes to put pictures in! It took me all of 10 minutes, and I love it.

Coming This Week...

After the kitchen project, I had to take a break from improvements. Mostly I have been extremely tired and my husband is sick, AND my parents went out of town so we are taking care of the family business this week! Oh, and school, of course. 

But, after a much-needed week off, I'm going to show you my home! I will take you inside the entire house...and yes, even the scary parts...and let you take a peek into our lives. We have done a ton of updates before I started blogging, so I will explain all of that as I go along through the photos. See you in a few days!

The Last of the Kitchen...For Now

It's been a long and rough week trying to juggle work, school, and the kitchen project. I'm definitely tired! The end result of the kitchen is totally worth it though! I've had so many compliments on how great it looks. We started out with a stark white kitchen: white walls, white cabinets, white hardware on the cabinets. So the first thing we did was update the hardware from the white knobs to the brushed nickel handles:

Then my mom let us borrow some left over paint that she had, so we took off with it!

 I'm not sure why this picture turned out blurry....but we got this cute little cart from my mom as well, and it holds our cereal and pancake mix! Super cute! The wine tasting sign I got as a wedding gift from one of my bridesmaids.

We also added the wine glass rack to create more space in our small cabinets, then repainted the cabinets white, and that was it! 

I want to refinish the countertops because the varnish has worn off, but that will have to wait a while. Casey and I already have plans for the living room, which is our next project! I have said before that I have no overhead lighting, so we are going to install some nice track lighting to really help open up the space. I can't wait to get started and to share!

Grandma's Advice

My grandmother was a very special woman to me. She and my grandfather helped take care of me a lot when I was little, because my parents had a TON of work meetings that I couldn't go to (or fancy vacations!). She always spoiled me, even in my adult life. I miss her terribly...

This was one of the last photos of us taken together. It was 4th of July, about a year before she passed away. She was awesome to say the least!


I used to help her clean her house when I was really little, and she taught me something interesting....
You know how after a long time of use, your dishwasher gets that rusty color on the inside? Or maybe it gets scaly if you have hard water...? 


She used Tang, the powdered drink mix to clean her dish washer! She would put it all over her dishwasher (without dishes in it) and she would run the dishwasher like normal, just no soap! 

When the cycle was done, she'd open the dish washer and it looked brand new. Crazy, right?


For really tough spots, put some Tang onto the rough side of a sponge, and scrub with a little bit of water. Just one of Grandma's tricks to share!

Kitchen Update

I. Love. My. New. Kitchen. 


It's not done completely, but oh my gosh, it looks pretty darn amazing. Thank goodness Casey helped me paint, because I was ready for things to move along! Want to see? 

First, we hung up our wine glasses that were buried in the very backs of our cupboards.

Then, we bought new hardware for the cabinet and drawers (we used to have the white porcelain knobs, but switched to the brushed nickel handles...love them!).

And now....

We're painting the kitchen red! 

 We only have this one big wall, and under one set of cabinets and around our window to paint, so I thought "why not add some color?" 

We've only done the first coat, so I'll have to wait until EVERYTHING is done before I post more. I want to repaint the cabinets white, finish the red, refinish the counter tops, and get things cleaned up and looking good. It's time to de-clutter! I have told you before that I have a tiny kitchen, so it gets filled up with stuff very quickly.

So there you have it! We're working on getting things spiffy in our humble abode. Check back in a couple of days to see the progress!

Uh-Oh...Guess What I Found?

One of my coworkers was cracking up at me a few weeks ago when I was talking about labels...and I realized it was because I get SO AMPED about labels! I love them. There are some cute ways to make your own:  such as templates on Microsoft Office, buying some from an office supply store, or even making your own from scratch (which I love, because you know that no one else in the world has any like yours!). 


BUT! Guess what I found...


World Label, which is a blog FULL of labels! Free ones! O.M.G. There are some amazing labels there. You can download some address labels, "like us on FB" labels, spice jar labels, box labels....labels, labels, and more labels! Take a moment to check them out!


I'm about to start painting the kitchen cabinets....actually, I'm going to primer them with Kilz primer because there is nicotine on the cabinets and appliances (NOT from us), and THEN we will paint them white. Check back again later today or early tomorrow and see our progress!

Here is a Sneak Peak of What We're Doing Next...

It was rainy and windy in Western Montana today, so I got to work on a project with Casey...We're updating the kitchen! The whole thing is white (I'm pretty sure it's the ONLY room in the house besides the laundry room that is white), and the cabinets have these white porcelain knobs on them, which looks okay....but not fantastic. We all know how I'm a total Type A, and when I get something in my head, I have to just do it or I will lose my mind. 

Casey and I went to Lowe's (our new fave store!) and we were browsing the cabinet hardware when we came across the brushed nickel handles shown above. The nice part is that these handles were offered in BULK, rather than just singular pieces. Once again, we got these for $2 each (essentially...because they were 10 for $20!), so we bought two packages and one singular piece. 

We've got all of the hardware on the cabinets, but WAIT! Now the cabinets need to be touched up, because there are stains and chips of paint missing from wear & tear! I recruited the amazing Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to help me out with the stains part. Let me tell you, this thing is KING of cleaning...baseboards, fridge and oven handles, cabinets, doors, and anything you can think of! 

So I borrowed some paint from my mom and we're going to paint the kitchen (hopefully tomorrow so we can give an awesome update!) and finish touching up the cabinets. I'm trying to get rid of & condense dishes and pots & pans that we don't really use, because we have next to ZERO cabinet space (wait until you see pictures...tiniest. kitchen. EVER.)

I can't wait to get rolling on this project! Check back later for updates!

An Easy, Cheap Saturday Project

I have WAY too many wine glasses. I hardly ever use them, and I think it's because they're so hard to get to in my cabinet! All of my wine glasses are buried in the very depths of my cabinets, behind the coffee and coffee mugs. Not only are they taking up extra space, but I REALLY want to use them! We got a really nice set for our wedding 7 months ago, and we never have been able to use them. Here is what my cabinets looked like before:

What's a good way to store them? That's right....under the counter stemware storage! I have been waiting to find the perfect one....and my mom got me two of these from Lowe's:

Okay, here's the best part: They were TWO DOLLARS EACH. What a bargain, right?? I love them! So Casey hung the racks up, and we put our wine glasses in:

We realized that two wasn't going to suffice, so we went back to Lowe's and got two more, hung them up, and voila! Absolutely beautiful, and classy, all while keeping our cabinets nice and tidy. $8 for a less cluttered cabinet and more useful way to store wine glasses. Enjoy!

Awesome DIY Projects

Everyone seems to be raving about Pinterest right now, and I have to admit that I am too! The crazy thing is, there is a website called Instructables that is just like Pinterest, but better! It has been around for a long time, and it's ALL DIY projects...which I love! You can find pretty much anything, from making origami to reupholstering furniture. It's amazing!

Here are a few projects that I love from Instructables:


How to Remove Grease Splatters & Gunk - and look what product she suggests...Mrs. Meyer's clean day!


How to Store Bobby Pins

and


An Eco-Friendly Way to Clean a Kitchen Sink

These are seriously some awesome projects....I could never have enough time to go through Instructables though! I love love love this website, so hopefully I have opened your eyes to some amazing projects as well!!

Here is Something That I Love!

You know what I love? Besides organizing? 

CLEANING. Holy moly, the second best thing is cleaning! And I come home from school every single day and I clean! Clean my kitchen, my bedroom, my laundry room...you get the idea.

So the THIRD best thing is....cleaning products! I love cute cleaning products, innovative cleaning products, smell-good cleaning products (especially)! I especially love Organize.com's, Mrs. Meyer's, Method's, and J.R. Watkin's cleaning products! The best part is that all of the above products have different scents in the same product! Don't like lavendar? Try lemon! Don't like lemon? Try pine!

Organize.com is my heaven, by the way. They have great ideas, and a great list of cleaning tips and checklists. I visit this page a TON. They have great items and ideas for major cleaning, and they also give ways to de-clutter! I love the kitchen page because I have a teeny-tiny kitchen that is easily cluttered with small appliances and utensils. 

For my counter tops, I use J.R. Watkins lemon scented all-purpose surface cleaner (and occasionally Lysol wipes). This is my favorite of all favorites....Not only does it smell delish, but I use it on my granite counter tops, then I use it on my back splash, then my dining room table, then the window sills, and so on...

It's just fantastic because it is multi-purpose, so I don't have an overload of cleaning products for every surface in my home!