Kitchen Pullout

This project is also from Pinterest (shocker). I wanted to maximize space and storage. I'm hoping one day to have a place for my kitchen-aid mixer. It hasn't happened yet but a girl can dream. As for the project, I would say painting was the most time consuming. What can I say, I married a perfectionist. This was a great learner project for me. Vocabulary words include casters and dowels. Look those ups.

Cleverly hidden between my fridge and wall...

...is some pretty amazing storage!

Kudos to Matt for going all out with the chevron.

I was in charge of choosing the shelf sizes. I wanted a shelf for soup, and a shelf for homemade jams and sauces. 

The other shelves are used to hold awkward things like water bottles, coffee mugs, and pizza pans.

I also used some leftover paint for these boxes, which now store cocoa and tea.

Kitchen Command Center

Another project was a kitchen command center. These are all over Pinterest and anything to make life a little more organized I approve of. A shout-out of thanks goes to Matt's parents for buying the supplies for this project as a birthday gift.

As for a breakdown: There is a monthly calendar, a bulletin board, a mail box, a coupon box, and a box for my recipe binder. 

The calendar (with a special spot for meal planning) and a handy container for pens, a notepad and gift cards. There is also a small knife in there in case I need to stab anyone, wait I mean open mail. 

Mailbox. 

Coupons! Everyone loves coupons.

Recipe box. 

How cute is this binder? I love being able to flip through this and find some of my favorite recipes. Its also a great place to store all those random recipes Matt prints out only to leave thrown about the apartment. 

Garage Shelving

The project I am most happy with was also one of the quickest major projects. I decided I wanted shelving in the garage. Matt suggested bolting something to the well, but I wanted something we can take with us when we move. Friday morning I sent him plans and by Sunday evening the impala was parked in the garage. Talk about turn around!

Matt using his new drill. The plans said we would spend about $50 for lumber... we spent over $100. I guess we went for quality? And size. 

The finished product! Room for Christmas decorations, college textbooks, decoys and a duck blind.

Room for the "summer tires"

Take note Matt has more book space than I do, and I have an additional degree. Why is that? Hoarding tendencies. How an OCD gal and and almost hoarder got together I will never know.  

We hung Matt's old snowboard from the ceiling with $0.99 hooks from Walmart.

Still have room for boxes and empty tubs. 

Fishing rods mounted on the walls. That was Salvin's idea. 

This project was really hard on Ponzi. Obviously. 

One Month Later

Hello All!

As many of you may know, Matt has officially moved to Iowa about a month ago. It was a HUGE adjustment for me. Only child syndrome calling. Thankfully, I have Pinterest on my side and Matt has power tools on his. Matt has been a GREAT sport about all of this. He says its his love of power tools. As soon as one project is done, he is asking what we will be working on next. If only he got that excited about "projects" like laundry and the dishes. Before I get started on a project updates, a big shout-out to Perry for buying "us" a new fancy pants drill impact driver thingy for Christmas. It was a huge help during most of these projects. If any of you readers out there need an exact name of what this thingy is, better as him. Bigger project updates to come, for now a few new things we have added since the "big" move.

Scarf rack! A girl can never have enough scarves. This required drilling into studs in the closet but it adds some nice color and one less thing in the dresser drawers

Matt and I have become grownups with white towels. I'm very thankful for bleach. One does not know how much the professionally styled hair color bleeds until you own white towels. 

New rug from Target. Best $5 spent this week. Don't worry though, the rug about flowers that came from one of my bridal showers will be making an appearance as soon as the grass is green again. 

Laboring Last Weekend

Laboring last weekend, because it was Labor Day. Aren't I punny? Matt came to visit last weekend. It was his first real visit since the move and gosh did he have a honey do list. We finished not one, not two, but THREE Pinterest projects this weekend.

First off, a project that has taken over my garage since I moved in.

My old Target bookcase didn't survive the move so Matt volunteered to build me a new one. This became a "we" project when I signed up to prime and paint when he wasn't around. I also had the task of choosing the color. I wanted something that would match my duvet cover because the bookcase would be in the bedroom. I was that yahoo who actually brings in a pillow sham to Home Depot (Matt suggested I bring in the shower curtain, sadly I didn't think that was necessary).

I picked out 3 colors I thought were close and had a sample at home I wanted to try. I'm glad I did. The sample I liked best in store ended up looking a little like baby poo when freshly applied (my dad had that problem with one of his paint selections recently as well). That was a big no. I ended up choosing "Antique Tin." 

When Matt got to Iowa on Friday, we had the task of nailing and screwing all the pieces together. All in in 100 degree Iowa heat. We took a lot of breaks. Or worked in the mornings. We got some nasty looks from the neighbors for pounding away in our garage at 8 a.m. Who knew we were THOSE people? Anyone who knows either sets of my grandparents probably wouldn't be surprised. Anywho, the bookcase is finished and plenty of room for more books!

The second project was a coffee table made out of milk crates from Micheals. This was a project that we bought the materials for last winter with the intentions of it being a Napoleon project for Matt. Well Matt got busy with agronomy season and it didn't get completed until this past weekend. 

The tutorial stated you should stain the crates and add wheels for increased mobility. I decided I liked the idea of white washing better and not exactly sure why a coffee table needs to be mobile so the wheels were left off too. I'm really happy how it turned out.

The final project we did kinda on a whim. Our dresser didn't match our bedroom set anymore and we had extra paint, so why not refinish it? Matt put me to work using the power sander to get the old paint off. I can now say that I know how to operate a power tool. 

I love how the knobs pop against the grey. Yes, I know there is a knob missing. I still have to make a run to home depot to get a replacement of a stripped knob. 

For those of you out there who think we are all work and no play, some of the fun things we did this weekend including:

The farmers market in Downtown Des Moines

Granite City Brunch

Baked monkey bread

We also spent one afternoon car "window" shopping. I got to test drive a Ford Fusion and a Chevy Malibu. We are sticking with American just in case we live in rural america again and I need my small town mechanic to be making my repairs. I'm looking for a car with a touch screen command center and a GPS (Matt doesn't like me messing with my phone's GPS when i'm driving, shocker). Chevy's were about $5,000 more expensive and the do NOT offer GPS. They do however offer a compass. Ain't that cute? No decision yet, but its clear which way i'm leaning. 

Other exciting events this weekend included a fantasy football draft with coworkers (Perry thought this was Matt's idea. I will make it very clear I won my league last year THANK YOU VERY MUCH), dinners at home, and plenty of time on the couch watching HGTV and Food Network. Are we old farts or what? :) 

Next on the to-do list? Clean up the mess all these projects made in the garage. Maybe I will be able to park in there before the first snow fall!

Becoming an Iowan

Today, I became an Iowan. And by that I mean I got my Iowa driver's license. Let me tell you it was no an easy feat! I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. In North Dakota, you make an appointment, in and out in under 10 minutes. How hard can it be?

I looked up where I needed to go. The closet location was in Ankeny. 15 miles and 20 minutes away. Longer than I would like, but hey, I only have to do it once right? Wrong. Monday I show up. Pretty empty parking lot. This impresses me. Once I get inside i'm told that they aren't open Monday's. Ohhhh. In all my times researching their website that never showed up once. 

Show up Tuesday. The line is almost out the door. I check the sign. The wait is 153 minutes. Yes I typed that right, OVER two hours. Yeah, I don't think so. Decide I will come back first thing tomorrow. 

Show up Wednesday morning at 7:25. This is an hour and five minutes before they open. I had thought they open at 8 but i'm glad I showed up when I did because even then there was 18 people in line. I'm not even exaggerating. Good thing I brought a book to read. 

I told myself that if I didn't have all the correct paperwork, I would go home for the day and call it quits. This SO was not worth my time. Thankfully I did and I was in my car at 9:25. In case you aren't good at math, that is two whole hours at the DMV. I casually mentioned to one of the workers the set up in NoDak with appointments. He laughed and said they didn't have funding. This location serves 500,000 people. 

Let's hope I don't have to do that EVER again. I wish Matt good luck.

P.S. Matt and I both didn't get deer tags this season. Looks like we won't be home in November after all. 

Moved On

Guess what? My pink couch has moved to Iowa!

This past spring I accepted a job at John Deere Financial in Johnston, Iowa. Over the past couple of days the family has been helping me move. Lynnell, Salvin, and Grandma Sandy helped Matt and I load the truck. Perry drove the U-haul to Iowa (he had some hearing loss along the way). Phil, Sue, Perry and Greta helped us unload. Unloading was definitely more work since I now live on the second floor. It is "technically" a condo. I say technically because to me it looks just like any other apartment. What's different is that we have our own central air system and water heater. There are also other buildings in the area which you can buy instead of rent.

So how about a tour? Don't mind the mess. I'm not totally unpacked yet.

Can't wait to put stuff on the walls!

The kitchen is actually WAY smaller than the kitchen in Fargo. According to Matt the cabinets are 6 inches smaller. We also only have 2 drawers. I had to get a little creative with the organizing.
It is also my first experience with stainless steel. I had to go out and buy some special cleaner.

The office... and it will be Ponzi's room when I'm at work.

Guest bedroom. Probably will have to move the bed around a bit. Its a little weird to be laying in bed and your pillow hits the blinds.

This shower curtain was a wedding/shower gift.

Guest bathroom. Can't wait to hang stuff on these walls too. The bathroom is also a fair amount smaller than the old place too.

Master bedroom. Matt attached the headboard to the bed frame this weekend. Previously it was attached to the wall. Not exactly apartment friendly.

Master bathroom.

Ponzi is adjusting pretty well. Not a huge fan of the stairs. He likes to bark at the neighbors. Whenever we let him out of the crate he runs around to see what else has changed.













Can't wait to see what the future holds for this place. Anyone want a skype tour and chat soon? :)