"Manly" Dog Bed

Pin It We're adding to our family with... a puppy! We got our new puppy on August 11th - she's a little Weimaraner and is as sweet as can be!

Say hello to Cedar!

Such a big dog! Ha!

In preparation for our pretty little girl we went shopping at all the pet stores - and guess what??? Dog beds, especially the big ones, are expensive and not terribly attractive... this does have to sit in my house you know! I just couldn't go there, so I decided to make it. While at the store, Zach picked out some more "manly" fabric for the puppy and decided we should make two beds - so here we are.

Adorable Puppy + Homemade Puppy Bed = Comfy naps!

Want to see a slightly bigger and fancier (but still simple) version? See my other dog bed post!

Project Expense: $36
2 Yards of Fabric: Varies (My hubby has expensive taste so it was about $15)
2 Pillows: $8
1 Zipper: $6
Shower Curtain: $7
Duct Tape: Already Had
Thread/Sewing Machine: Already Had

Step 1: Remove magnets from your shower curtain. I can just see puppy chewing through and finding these!

Magnet in the hole...

Magnet out of the hole....

Step 2: Slice your curtain in half, using the pillows as a guide.

We used our old pillows so it would smell like us... ignore my my husband's drool stains!

Step 3: Make a pocket out of the shower curtain, using the duck tape. I know this isn't fancy, but it creates a waterproof, removable interior.

Step 4: Slip the pillows in and use the duck tape to seal it up like an envelope.

Step 5: Measure and cut your fabric so it will fit around your removable, waterproof interior. I'm not too exact, but you can be! You're basically making a giant, sewn-shut pillowcase.

Carefully selected fabrics chosen by the hubby

And no, our downstairs floors are still unfinished... don't judge.

Step 6: Proceed to sew it all closed, just like you would if you were making a pillowcase, right sides together.

Always wanted to do a sewing machine shot... tre professional!

Step 7: On the final open side, sew in your zipper. I've never done this before, so I'm sure my picture/technique is all wrong, but it seems to be working!

Tah - Dah! You have a finished puppy bed!

Blurry much?

Were my nails that chipped?!

Then, wait three agonizing days to bring home the puppy so she can try it out... then take it home, use it in the car, and pretty much show it off to everyone! (In case you were wondering, everyone loved it!)

Puppy beds are for cute little nieces too, right?

Sooo sleepy after testing out the lake!

Sleepy husband and sleepy puppy!

Front Yard

Pin It First of all I'd like to say my mom is a superstar... amazing... incredible.

She has come up to visit us (3 hour trip both ways!) the last two weekends to help us with our house. And by help, I mean really help and tell us what to do - we've never done this after all! But fist she prepared us an awesome and adorable picnic lunch.

Back to the yard... Yesterday she weed-wacked everything like a pro. This morning I woke up to her doing our very dirty dishes (thanks mama!). Then today, she masterminded, and did more than a fair share of the labor for this amazing feat (plus the backyard... which is to come later).

Yep, she is amazing... and this doesn't even show it all! And my amazing husband is a pretty great hard worker too, I think he took about 100 yards to the recycling center to haul all the yard waste... oh yea and he carried all the granite landscape rock! But can you see that stone edging... all me baby! (Even if that is pretty much all I did!)

Here is what we did, mixed in with several trips to the recycling center and the store:
1) Trimmed bushes
2) Raked around bushes
3) Pruned (lopped) off the unwanted bushes
4) Laid PREEN 25 year fabric over the ground to prevent weeds
5) Stapled in the PREEN
6) Relocated rocks to create a natural edger
7) Transplanted and watered some flowers (not in the picture) into the PREEN
8) Put 43 bags of pink granite over PREEN

And tomorrow we will go buy more... because we still aren't done, but the store was sold out of our color of stone! Steps 1-2 were last weekend and the rest we did this weekend.
I've got a hardworking husband and mom... maybe it has something to do with them sharing the same birthday? I swear they're the same... more on that strangeness later, ha!

Movin on up...

Pin It First projects!
Goodbye tonue cover! Now we actually have a usable teensy tiny small truck.

Goodbye 70's style blue and brown carpet! Hello hardwood floors!

I promise his head isn't that blurry in real life

Creeping Around

Pin It Zach and I have always said we are so glad the house we are buying is vacant because we just can't stop driving by and checking it out a couple times every day. We are totally creepers. To increase my evidence, this past Monday we went to visit some friends of my sister's. They happen to have a really cute retro house that I kind of fell in love with. Before we left I took some pictures of the things I love... they may or may not have wanted me to leave!

Zach & I can't decide what to do with the trim in our house - I thought this was a nice compromise - White on the outside but the window stays natural wood. Looks classy and fresh.

Doing our kitchen is without a doubt one of the most exciting parts of the home-makeover for me! I loved their kitchen. I'm all about the simple cabinets with white (or maybe a grey) color. Just really sweet. I also love their coffee nook. What a great idea! A shortened counter with plug-ins for tea and coffee. Genius!

And pallet furniture. Could you get much better? I also love their design - eclectic but maintaining a retro feel. A perfect place to sit and chat.

Thanks D&C for letting me creep and gush! What do you think about all these ideas?

Juicy Details

Pin It Okay so here is all the house information I'm CERTAIN you've been dying to know about. The house is a 1920 Foursquare with some Craftsman features that badly needs to be landscaped. Here is the current outside.

I took a bajillion pictures that I hope will be the eventual "before" pictures. I had planned on giving a "home tour" here... but I've had enough house for the day. I'll leave you with one of the many little things about the house that makes me smile - the door handles. ALL the handles are like this, gorgeous and authentic. Until next time...

Yay for pretty things!

Obsession

Pin It Yep - I'm obsessed. The sheer idea of redoing things makes me feel like Pinterest is my best friend (maybe it is?). Anyways I had to share my pins... check it out!

Big News!

Pin It No dad, we aren't having a baby! But we are doing something pretty exciting... buying a house! We've run the numbers about a 1000 times and have finally jumped into making an offer on a home! (We'll give more details further in the post.)

We got a great deal on a loan from the USDA (read: perfect for a couple living on 1 modest teacher income). This is great because we need a project to work on together... something other than choosing our next movie on Netflix. We are also pretty certain living in a house will be about the same cost as apartment living plus we'll hopefully recoup some of that money.

So here are the juicy details I know you've been waiting for. The house is currently listed at $25,100 less than the appraised value because it has been on the market a year and is an estate sale. Sweet, right? Well, we happen to be looking at the top of our budget even with that schnazzy discount, so we offered $16,900 less than the listing price. That is a full $42,000 under appraisal value. Yep, that's right, we low-balled 'em stayed comfortably in budget. We also wrote a "seller love letter" saying how much we loved the house and how we could imagine ourselves and our future children (that's right dad, but focus on future). Then we waited...

We waited a full and agonizing 2 hours. They countered us... at only $1,500 more than we asked. HOLY COW! We obviously accepted and locked in the deal at $40,500 less than the appraised value. That number is huge, especially in this community where real estate is relatively inexpensive already. And the real estate agent told us our love letter to the seller was very effective. Yep - I'm that good.

We still have a slew of inspections and loan things to go through, but right now we are riding high on the fact that we are going to be homeowners on July 6! We've been told that the mixture of excitement and terror is completely normal - we hope so!

Can you see the terror in our eyes? The terrifying dreams of houses falling apart and negative balances in checking accounts? The excitement of learning new skills together and building something lasting?

I'll give details on the house itself in a later post - for now... YAY!