build | our new bed

This is a basic overview of how we built our bed. Visit Ana White's website for the actual plans for our bed and many other projects.

Back story: shortly before we got married I found a free Ikea bed frame on craigslist. It wasn't much to look at but, hey, it was free. It was exactly what we needed (being free and all), but it wasn't in the best condition to begin with, and by the time we were getting ready to move to fort Wayne several of the screws had started stripping out of the wood composite. We knew it probably wouldn't survive another disassembling and reassembling, so I started looking around for a new bed. We didn't really want to go the Ikea route again (as much as I love Ikea), but every solid wood bed I found was waaaay out of our price range. I tried craigslist, garage sales, and furniture stores, but we didn't see anything that we actually wanted in our bedroom for under $200 (the approximate cost of a new ikea bed frame and our backup if we couldn't find anything else). I knew about the Ana White website and started seriously considering the merits and difficulties of trying to build our own bed.

I have a sincere love of all things Pottery Barn but a garage sale budget, so I figured it was at least worth a try.  Once I decided on a design, I got the go ahead from Isaac to purchase the lumber. For about $100 I got all the lumber we needed, plus another $20 in nails, screws, and stain.

Isaac and I worked on the bed in the evenings after work for about a week. It did take us a lot longer then the plans state (which we were expecting), but it was a lot of fun working on it together. Because this is a physically large project, we did find that two sets of hands were absolutely necessary for the construction stage. Once we got the headboard and foot board together, I went to work sanding, prepping, and staining.  I mixed one part ebony stain to two parts walnut to get our color, and once everything was stained I used a clear rub on poly to seal and protect. We did modify the original plan because the wooden frame Ana uses to attach the headboard to the foot board is rather permanent, and since we will probably be moving multiple times over the next several years, we knew we needed something more mobile. We ended up using a cheap metal bed support that screws into both the headboard and the foot board. It is incredibly sturdy yet very easy to disassemble and reassemble without damage to the wood.

The actual Pottery Barn Farmhouse bed $1,199

Our completed bed $120

Not a perfect match but close enough for me!

home | our new apartment

We've been here a couple weeks now, and it really does feel like home.  It happened a lot quicker than I would have thought -- I think jumping right into work helped a lot because it got us into a routine right from the beginning.  I'm quickly finding my way around Fort Wayne (it actually reminds me a lot of Omaha), and it's nice being in a larger area, though I do miss Hillsdale and being able to walk everywhere. 

As promised, here are a few pictures of our new place:

When you come in the front door you enter into the dinning area with the kitchen to the left.

Our apartment has a little galley kitchen but I am amazed at how functional it is -- tons of cabinet space, well laid out, and a nice large pantry.

The dinning area opens into the living room.

This hutch was holding books in our bedroom at our old apartment because we ran out of bookshelves.  I'm very thankful for the built in bookshelf in our new living room so the hutch can now hold all our glassware! 

I'm excited (though happy to wait) for cool weather so we can try out the fireplace. :)

The aforementioned built in bookshelf -- probably my favorite feature of the whole apartment.

Down the hall from the living room you will find the spare bathroom on the left.

The spare bedroom/office has a corner for me to work on projects and take care of mail and papers.

Isaac had an old office chair that he didn't need anymore so Victoria helped me spruce it up while she was visiting us this weekend. :)

Because our new kitchen is fairly small, our kitchen cart didn't fit.  However, it works wonderfully as a storage cart in the closet.

I saw something like this on Pinterest -- just find a plastic bin with holes and feed the ends of ribbon through for easy and tangle free access.

If you come visit this is where you'll sleep. :)

Isaac has a study corner too -- he has already made good use of it and taught himself Hebrew over the past two weeks in preparation for starting at the seminary!

More books. lol

Our bedroom is a work in progress -- we are currently on the lookout for nightstands.  We love our new bed!

Our bedroom opens into a walk through closet/vanity and master bath.

Vanity

Storage

On my side of the closet we installed a rod from Ikea ($2.99) and used hooks to hang jeans and pants.  It is behind the hanging clothes and makes good use of previously wasted space.  It also keeps all my pants wrinkle and crease free!

My side of the closet.

Isaac's side of the closet.  

Our bathroom.

Hopefully I'll be back to posting more regularly now that we're settled in.  I'm looking forward to sharing some of the projects that I hope to complete in our new apartment!

Update

New background, folks!  With so many cute options out there I can't seem to stick with one for too long. :)

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

I'm finally home!  Home as in our new apartment in Fort Wayne!  The past few weeks have been a blur of packing, moving, unpacking, flying to Nevada, Brigita's wedding (!!!), getting bumped off my return flight, spending the night in a sweet hotel compliments of United Airlines and ordering room service for the first time in my life (also compliments of United Airlines), finally getting back to Michigan, picking up the last bits of our stuff in Hillsdale, driving HOME to Fort Wayne, and a little more unpacking.  Whew.  Oh yeah, and I started my new job!

A few things (big and small) for which I am thankful:
1) This stop light at the entrance of our new apartment complex.  I have to turn left every day to go to work and I really appreciate having a green arrow every couple minutes instead of having to wait for a rare break in morning commute traffic.

2) All the people that helped us pack up and move.  My mom drove all the way from Nebraska and stayed 5 days to help me unpack, clean, paint, and set up our new home.  Isaac's dad helped us move and arranged for us to borrow two trailers so that we wouldn't have to spend the money to rent a u-haul.  Our dear friends Matt, Julia, and Josh spent countless hours helping us finish up odds and ends and load the two trailers.  Josh actually traveled down to Fort Wayne with us to help us unload as well.  I honestly don't know what we would have done without our friends and family during this move!

3) As much as I love looking for deals and sales, it can be discouraging trying to piece together a nice home on a very small budget.  For example, we really needed a couch and all I wanted was one that wasn't completely hideous.  However, given how small our budget was, hideous was about all we could find.  Until God provided a lovely family that was moving and selling their near perfect condition couch, love seat and chair SET for about half of what people were asking for the hideous couches.  On top of all that, when they found out Isaac was going to be attending the seminary, they offered to store the set for free until we were able to move into our apartment here in Fort Wayne.  Now every time I look at our couch I am reminded of God's faithfulness even in the small, seemingly insignificant, things.

4) More closets then we know what to do with!  Our new apartment has six, that's right, six closets.  A coat closet by the front door, a closet in both bedrooms, a hall closet, a small closet in the bathroom and a linen closet at the end of the hall.  I've never seen so many closets in one place before, it's like they added a closet wherever there happened to be an open space in the wall. :)

Pictures of our new home are coming soon!

I'll be back soon!

Just a quick post to say that I am coming back.....soon.  Between working, weddings, a little traveling, and packing up to move, I am taking a little summer hiatus from blogging.  However, stay tuned to see the completed bed that Isaac and I have been building.  Here's a quick preview:

Headboard -- half way through being stained

Footboard -- ready to be stained

Cleaning for Dummies (aka me)

The older I get, the more I find cleaning to be rather therapeutic at times (key: at times).  Folding some laundry and watching a show on netflix is a great way to unwind after work.  I get to be productive (laundry) and lazy (watching TV) all at the same time.  However, I do not find it therapeutic to clean when we are having people over in 20 minutes, I got home from work 5 minutes ago, I need to start dinner, the bathroom is a mess, the kitchen floor needs to be swept, and the tablecloth is beyond wrinkled because I let it sit in the laundry basket for almost a week.  The Fly Lady calls that living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).  Funny but also true!

My goal via

My reality via

It's a little different for everybody, but for me the two biggest contributors to a messy place are:

1) We have way too much stuff (we're working on this, I'll continue to post our progress on this blog).

2) We don't have a good maintenance schedule for what needs to be done and when.

Now there are some obvious ones: dishes need to be done everyday, laundry needs to be done before you run out of socks and underwear, etc.  But what about all the other little things that add up to a clean home?  For example, how often should I launder our bath mat?  Or what about our kitchen floor -- how often to I really need to bucket-and-mop clean it?

I came across these handy-dandy checklists from Martha Stewart: daily, weekly and monthly tasks to keep your home clean and in good working order.  Perfect.

Again, do what works best for you -- for me, I slipped each checklist in a page protector and put them in the front of my "home book" (my collection of recipes, crafts, paint chips, fabric swatches, etc.) with a dry erase marker.  Reusable lists and a daily reminder of what needs to be done -- perfect for a visual learner who needs a check mark in order to feel productive. :)

P.S. My all time favorite, use-it-on-everything, cleaning product is Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbana Countertop Spray.  This thing is a miracle worker and you really can use it just about anywhere.  A little goes a long way, I got a bottle of it from my sister-in-law for our wedding over a year ago and I just recently had to replace it!

Decluttering Update

Maybe I should change the name of the blog to Coupons. Crafts. Cleaning.  Just kidding!  But it does feel like I'm doing more cleaning (well, organizing and decluttering but neither of those start with "C") than just about anything else lately.  Before we pack a single box I want to ensure that the only items in our apartment are those which we actually want to take with us to Fort Wayne.

Via

We're doing pretty well on the decluttering front so far:

• 1 small shopping bag a clothes to Plato's Closet (made $17)
• 1 large shopping bag of clothes to Threads (made $30)
• 5 items sold on Ebay (made $90...crazy!)
• 1 1/2 trash bags of clothes and misc items to Salvation Army
• lots of stuff has gone into the trash (haven't really kept track), but I'm trying to sell or give away as much as possible

All the money that we've made from selling our "clutter" we're saving to put towards a new couch.  The current couch in our apartment isn't technically ours.  Plus, it's a hide-a-bed couch (meaning it weights about 5 million pounds), so we weren't exactly wanting to move it anyway. :)