Thank God For Paint

As most of you know we've owned our new home for eight months now. We've been through a number of stages of "move-in" since we closed in early January.

1) Empty House Stage - Our beautiful new house sat empty except for deliveries of goods such as our fridge and new mattress until a couple of weeks into February

2) College/Camp-Out Stage - As our condo was still on the and market we wanted it to remain "staged" we left the majority of our furniture there. Also the whole double-mortgage thing meant we were watching our pennies and not buying ANYTHING new for the house.

During this time Bennett slept in his Pack and Play in our closet and our furniture consisted of a borrowed couch, our TV sitting on a side table, a mattress on the floor, a card table and folding chairs for dining, and camping chairs for any extra guests.

It was lovely.

3) Sick and Tired Stage - I just new that the second we sold the condo I was going to head full-force into home decorating mode. We would have our (limited) furnishings back and room in the budget for acquiring a few new things. I had big plans!

Except that we closed the sale of the condo right about the time I turned up pregnant. Suddenly, unpacking, shopping and decorating were the very last things I wanted to do. It was all I could manage to feed my child a few times a day and try to convince him that it was way more fun to lay on the floor and play with blocks than go to the park and swing.

4) Current Stage - Suffice it to say until about a month ago boxes of non-essentials sat unpacked, all walls were bare and we were still sleeping on a mattress on the floor. As my energy returned and puking subsided I began to finally focus on getting this house to feel a little more like a home.

My goal is to be totally moved in (which means NO MORE boxes anywhere...not even neatly hidden in closets) and all rooms (with the exception of Bennett's "big boy room" and maybe the formal dining room) sufficiently appointed so as not to feel cold and bare by the time Baby Dos makes his or her appearance.

We're making progress! We've gotten great deals on a kitchen table and chairs and a bed for the master bedroom. In trying to stretch our "home" budget dollar I decided last week to attempt to create bedside tables for our bedroom out of two sad specimens that have been hanging around.

Here are the pathetic little tables before I got started.



First I sanded them down real good. It was a glorious almost-fall afternoon and I scrubbed away at those ugly ol' things as Bennett cut the grass with his new plastic lawn mower.



I bought a few supplies from Lowe's and made a few minor repairs.


Next came the painting. I got to work while cheering on the Cowboys during Monday Night Football. Not a bad way to spend an evening if you ask me. One coat of paint and they are already looked much better.


A few coats of paint, some new hardware and a new door to cover the gaping hole in one and...tada! (Forgive the horrible lighting I took the picture inside tonight with the flash...maybe I'll get some better photos outside tomorrow.)

Now it's not Pottery Barn quality or anything but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out considering that it cost about $18 in supplies and a few hours of work.

What do you think?

And here's a peek at some planing I was doing today for my next project. This one is significantly larger and will require the help of my husband, mom, dad and sister. I'm really excited about it!