February - A Look Back

It’s that time of the month again (no, not THAT time of the month) – time to look back at all that was accomplished over the past 28 days.

February started off with my 1 Year Blogiversary! Starting this blog is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

(source)

 

February was my first month linking up with Shine Your Light’s Before/After party. I chose my office as my February project. This was what it looked like on February 1^st.

Around the middle of the month I showed a teaser of the changes.

And finally, I shared the ‘After’ pictures of my February project. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m so happy to actually have a functioning office.

February also holds one of my favorite projects to date – my DVD organization project. Seriously, I have so much more space without all of those cases!

In master bathroom news, I added new towels and new artwork.

In puppy news, Hurricane Ringo struck again…

And last, but not least – we brought home our Abby girl.

I can’t believe we are already 2 months into 2012! Where does the time go? March is going to be an exciting month around The Junk House – I have a new Before/After project to share, we are finally working on the front yard and backyard, and someone’s been buying furniture…

February After – Office

The time has come – the “after” of the February Project!

Y’all remember how my office looked at the beginning of the month:

Here’s how it looks 27 days later:

(plus a cute puppy)

OK, that picture is a little deceiving because it doesn’t show the whole room…  So, let’s take a before and after tour from each corner.

Before

After

The bed frame and fan were moved to the garage (where they belong). And the artwork on the floor was moved to my “art stash” in my craft room.  I added a pair of Overstock.com curtains (hung on a Hobby Lobby rod) to the room.

Before

After

(Yes, I like to watch Breaking Bad while I run on the treadmill)

I cleaned! All of that mess in the before picture was put away, donated to Goodwill, or thrown in the trash. I didn’t just move the mess to another room for the ‘after’ shot. The white bookcase is currently in the garage…I need to post it on Craigslist. The books were moved to a new bookcase in the closet.

Before

After

I finally painted the desk I bought off of Craigslist - full details to come in a separate post!

Before

After

We didn’t have enough room in the garage for the mattress, but making room in there is definitely on my list. I also haven’t found the perfect TV armoire yet.

With that, I managed to cross 7.5 projects off my to-do list!

Paint stripes on the walls
Find/sew curtains
Add top trim piece to closet doors
New closet door knobs
Add artwork
Finish painting the desk
Paint/upholster desk chair
Finally unpack “desk stuff” into desk
Organization system
Sell white bookcase on Craigslist
Buy/Build shelves where bookcase used to be
Find small bookcase/shelving system for the closet
Move boyfriend’s old mattress and bed into the garage
Find an armoire for the TV
Donate/trash unused/unwanted stuff

I still have some work to do, but I think it’s a huge improvement…and I love actually having a desk to work on!  As usual, I’ll keep you updated as I continue to cross projects off that list.

Another Pup!

Sorry I’ve been blog slacking this week! I’ve had a LONG week at work and by the time I get home I just want to slum on the couch and watch all my DVR goodness.  But I’ll be back in full force next week with my February Before/After Project. I think we all know I didn’t finish everything on my list, but it looks significantly better and is actually a functioning office now! Huzzah!

In other news, Abby came to live with us Wednesday night!

And we love having her around! Well, Ringo isn’t sold on the whole idea yet, but he’ll come around eventually. 

He did let her play with one of his favorite toys....

Someday I’ll get a decent picture of the 2 of them together…

February Sneak Peek

So…I don’t have any projects to show off this week because they are all top secret! I’ve been busy working on my February Before project and I don’t want to spoil any of the changes until the reveal at the end of the month. But I can’t just leave y’all hanging, so today I have some hints for you guys.

I’m sure you remember the mess:

And here’s a sneak peek at the changes I’ve made so far:

From the pictures, can you guess what I’ve crossed off the list so far?

Paint stripes on the walls
Find/sew curtains
Add top trim piece to closet doors
New closet door knobs
Add artwork
Finish painting the desk
Paint/upholster desk chair
Finally unpack “desk stuff” into desk
Organization system
Sell white bookcase on Craigslist
Buy/Build shelves where bookcase used to be
Find small bookcase/shelving system for the closet
Move boyfriend’s old mattress and bed into the garage
Find an armoire for the TV
Donate/trash unused/unwanted stuff

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope everyone’s day is full of love and chocolate!

 

source via Pinterest

We don’t usually do much to celebrate Valentine’s Day, so no big plans here (I didn’t even decorate). My boyfriend has his late class tonight, so we’re going out for dinner tomorrow (less crowded too). However, I did make this for tonight:

source via Pinterest

Caramel Apple Cheesecake! Yum!

Hurricane Ringo

Has struck again…



Master Bathroom Update

As usual, progress has been slow in the master bathroom. The missing drawer is the biggest holdup…and I’ve been too lazy busy to search around to get a replacement built. One of these days! I haven’t just been sitting on my bum though…I’ve made a few updates worth sharing.

As a reminder, we last left off at this:

I think the biggest change I’ve made has been adding some artwork to the room. Finding the perfect picture was so hard! I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted and nothing caught my eye until a trip to Hobby Lobby (of course). I loved the picture, but I hated the frame. The red details aren’t really my thang.

Yay for spray paint! I painted the frame with the Krylon Dual Paint + Primer I had left over from my gallery wall and now I love it!

Problem solved!

I also bought new bath towels and one set of new hand towels. I’m still looking for a second set of hand towels (I like to use a separate towel for just my face).

I’m actually on my second set of new bath towels. I the first set I bought were quick dry towels from Target and I hated them. The texture was weird and I swear they made my hair static-y. Luckily, I bought them on sale and only wasted $20. Well, not really wasted…they’ll probably be Ringo’s towels for when he jumps in the pool.

The last small change is a new tissue holder – from Goodwill (originally from Bed Bath & Beyond). They make tissue boxes cuter than they used to, but I still think these are better looking.  

Cost

Chandelier Picture – Hobby Lobby $24.99 $12.49

Spray Paint – On hand

Bath Towels (1^st Set) – Target $20.00 ($4 x 5)

Bath Towels (2^nd Set) – Target $18.70 ($3.74 x 5)

Hand Towels - HomeGoods $17.97 ($5.99 x 3) $0 (gift card)

Tissue Holder – Goodwill $3.99 $0 (gift card)

Total $51.19

(Would be $31.19 if I didn’t have a towel FAIL)

Next step: Replace missing drawer!

DVD Organization

The one (and only) thing I liked about my old TV stand was the storage. It held SO many movies for such a small TV stand. Once we got rid of it I needed to come up with a new DVD storage solution.

Here’s my movie stash (Blu-rays and TV shows not pictured):

Inspired by Kasey at Little Brick House, I decided to remove all my movies from their cases and box ‘em up!

I bought this CD/DVD storage box and 2 packages of these CD/DVD paper sleeves from Amazon. I took all of the movies out of their cases and put them into individual sleeves. I recycled the paper/cover artwork and took the plastic cases to Goodwill (along with my old TV stand).

(One of my favorite movies!)

There were a few movies that didn’t have a title printed on the disk. I ended up cutting the title out of the cover artwork and placing that with the disk in the paper sleeve.

But wait! How am I going to find a movie in this box without searching through 100+ disks?! Search by genre of course!

I created the labels in Picnik and then printed them out on cardstock. I tried to match the font and paper color to the “mood” of the genres as best I could.

I love my box o’ movies!

Cost

CD/DVD Storage Box – Amazon $4.43

CD/DVD Sleeves – Amazon $5.99 x 2 = $11.98

Cardstock – On hand

Total $16.41

Links contain affiliates

February Before – Office

Today I’m joining Lisa at Shine Your Light for a Before and After party! Basically you post ‘before’ pictures at the beginning of the month and then share your progress at the end of the month.


 
I decided to pick the office as my February project. I’ll warn you now…the before pictures ain’t pretty!

I took a picture from every corner, so you can get the full effect of the mess!

The plan:
Paint stripes on the walls
Find/sew curtains
Add top trim piece to closet doors
New closet door knobs
Add artwork
Finish painting the desk
Paint/upholster desk chair
Finally unpack “desk stuff” into desk
Organization system
Sell white bookcase on Craigslist
Buy/Build shelves where bookcase used to be
Find small bookcase/shelving system for the closet
Move boyfriend’s old mattress and bed into the garage
Find an armoire for the TV
Donate/trash unused/unwanted stuff

I think you all know by now that I won’t get all of this done by the end of the month. I’ll be impressed if I finish 3 of these! Turn around time isn’t my strong point, but hopefully this challenge will motivate me a little more!

23 days until the end of February! Hopefully I’ve made some good progress by then!

1 Year Blogiversary!

I almost missed my blogiversary! Yesterday I thought to myself, “I think I started my blog last February. I should check the date of my first post, so I can plan a blogiversary post.” I checked the date and realized my first post was on February 1^st!

(source)

I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a year!

I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into a year ago. I thought The Junk House was going to be strictly about my house and the projects I finished…no personal nonsense. But I quickly learned that I don’t have enough time to finish and post multiple projects a week…and that you guys kinda like me, not just my house/projects.

I also had no idea I’d “meet” such wonderful people and make friends all around the world. I love reading all of your comments and look forward to hearing from y’all every day!

I started this blog as a girl living in an apartment, planning to buy a house. I write today as a homeowner, living with a man (gasp!), and a puppy (soon to be 2 puppies)! Yep, lots of big changes in my life over the past 12 months and I’m so happy y’all have been along for the ride.

Here’s to another great year!

Oh, and maybe I'll have a giveaway soon to celebrate 1 year and (almost) 300 followers!