And Done.....

The curtains are hung!!! Done, Done, and Done!

Had to go all the way to Hillsboro to get this fabric. The stripes were perfect for this room. They matched the wall color and the other fabric on the bulletin board perfectly. The were also not too feminine, because I do like to pretend that this is Brian's room also.

I was planning on sewing them, but got too excited. I came home and just cut the fabric in half and put them on the clips. I figured if I didn't like the look that I could sew them later. ("I" meaning my mom).



The other thing I couldn't believe was the cost of curtain rods. I haven't bought any in a while and could just not pay 60$ for a rod. I wanted to pay around 20$. Well in order to stick to a budget, sometimes you need to make a little wiggle room. I had been looking for one long rod, and while shopping at Target on Mon, found two small ones on clearance! One was 10$ (it had been repackaged) and the other was 14$. Now that was more my speed. So by using two rods instead of one I only had to pay 24$!!! And I think I get a little more effect because of the crystal ball embellishments in the middle!

In that box on the shelf is Brian's Great Uncle's Sextant that he used on his ships. His cousin just gave it to Brian and it really is such a treasure. It is more than a hundred years old. Amazing.

I love this room, so much so, that I want to paint the rest of the house this color.....that however, will not be happening!

The Bakers

Brian at probably age 4. His Franz baking hat.



Grace at 2 1/2 with Brian's Franz baking hat:


Grace on her special day with Ganyea and Poppa. She spent the whole day with them. Made brownies and came home twirling around like she was a princess for the day. Truly Special.

Patsy is absolutely amazing at saving special things. This hat is one of them.

Auto

Jake and Brian met my parents at the Portland Auto show.

My Dad and cars....it's something else. His knowledge and love for them is really amazing. I think it was great fun to be able to share that with Jake.

Jake said of all of the cars, this old cruiser was his favorite.


And second Favorite.

Did I mention that my father loves Motorcycles possibly more than cars!

Porsche. My first car was a Porsche 944. For another post. I will probably include my senior pictures!

Brian's Fave:

Kiran

Kiran came to visit in January. Her husband bought her a ticket to come up without the kids for a WHOLE week!!! Crazy Fun!

I've taken a while to write this post I think because I was just so sad that she had left. Sad that she and her family will probably never live up hear near our family, near her sisters, near our parents.

You see that Kiran is FUN. She is positive. She brings people together. She is giving. I have a physical pain in my heart each time she leaves.


Warren and Kiran share a Birthday and we celebrated up at my parents.

It may look like Kiran is flipping off the camera. She's actually saying she's #1.



You may think the kids are posing for the camera. NO. This is the craziness they exude while together at their Grandparents.

Grace and Dad.

Max the Wonderful.

I think Spence looks the best in this pic.

Dad and Kir.

That Max is such a luv bug.

Blowing out the candles.

Warren counting his ca-ching: 50 bones. Don't think Jake was not making a mental note....

Lunch with the girls and parents. We laughed a lot! Hill tried on my hat. She thinks she can't wear hats, this picture is evidence to the contrary!

Dad and Me

Some hats look better in person. I tried to crop it!

I love this picture. I love my Sisters. They are part of the reason that I had more children. So Avery could have a sister. I hope they will laugh like we do when they grow up!

A two year old + a camera

This is what happens when Grace (2/12 yrs) gets a hold of my camera.....

Thought I would document it!

Final Touches

So the final touch of Jake's room was re-doing this bookcase I've had in our house. It's made of real wood and very well made, I thought with a little paint it could be perfect for his room.

It started with a deep clean ( I refused to sand this bad boy or much of anything for that matter).

Grace and Cassy accompanied me in the garage for much of this project.


The tinted primer/bonder:


The finished product:

View from out of his room. Made those hooks on the right with left over molding and paint.

Almost completed. Will add a few more frames as soon as I get his sports pics developed.

It's amazing how much I loved doing this project. Although time consuming, It is so gratifying to see what a left over gallon of paint can do.

I almost considered doing this for a living to make a little money.

Some Afters

You may ask what I'm going to do with this eight foot piece of galvanized steel....well I had a plan!

I've been dying to redo Jake's room since Avery moved out to share a room with Grace. Well this last weekend it was finally the time! I had seen this idea of putting metal on the wall from "Tater Tots and Jello" blog and thought I could do this!


A before....

Holes spackled from the old cloud shelves.


Jake was inspecting. Things got a whole lot messier before they got better. Isn't that always the way.

Jake helping with the paint. I think I was hyperventilating the whole time he had the paint brush in his hand. But I couldn't not let him help paint his own room. Thankfully, his friends were playing outside and he tired of it really soon.

Some of the Afters. The magnetic board.

Jake's proud expression on his bed. I still have a bookcase to paint blue for his bedroom, but that will take a few weeks and I wanted to get these on here.

Jake loves his new room.

Magnetic!!! And even a place to store little lego guys.

And here are a few of the finished office. I've already done some before and afters of this, these are just some finishing touches.

The entrance:

Still need some curtains. Haven't found the perfect one's yet.

My new peg board. I recovered Jake's old one with my fave fabric.

Shelving left over from our built in by the fireplace. I just bought some 8$ brackets from Home Depot and painted them white.

Another shot of the whole room.

I'm sitting in that chair right now listening to Kid Cudi and Mazzy Star on Itunes. And I can't even tell you how much I love this space!