Law & Order: D.O.G.

It's amazing what all you can buy on the internet.  I truly don't know how we survived without it.  If it wasn't for my good friends at Amazon, how else would I have gotten my hands on this:

That's right, it's a doggy DNA kit for the loving mutt in your life.  Monday morning I mailed off a couple of cheek swabs to a lab in Nebraska and in 2-3 weeks I will know Stewart's breed.  Or mix of breeds.

The rescue group gave him the generic label of 'Hound/Lab'.  I'm pretty sure he's going to come back with an impressive mix of a handful of breeds.

Stewart is definitely one of kind, but it will be nice to get a sense of where his temperament and markings come from.  He is also pretty good with his training so far.  We've got 'sit' mastered and occasionally 'stay'.  He's also staying off the couch so far.  Wish I could say the same for my bed at night.

Stewart is many things.  A sweetheart.  A goof ball.  An exercise buddy.  And I can't wait to learn more about him with the DNA results.  There's one thing I'm pretty sure he's not, though...

...a chihuahua.  And if he wants to survive in this house, he should probably stay on Pablo's good side.  Just a tip from someone who's been bitten in the face too many times to count.

I'm Published!

Well, self-published that is.  As a special One Year in the House Anniversary present to myself, I found a company that would turn your blog into a photo book.  I used SharedBook (blog2print.com).  It only took about a week to have my new coffee table book in my hands.

It looks great!  I'm really impressed with the quality of the cover and pages.  You can specify a date range of posts you want included and you can even go through and edit (removing posts, adding pictures, etc).  Sadly, I apparently didn't utilize the edit and proofing features enough.

My House Becomes a House?!?  What?  At first I thought it was their mistake but then I realized it was mine.  I had the blog title section in my settings reading this way by mistake.  Sigh.  If my house is no longer striving to be a home but rather merely a house, does this mean I'm done?  :)  Oh well.  This will just be one of those things I look back and laugh at.

The inside pages read just like the blog.  I think it will be fun to be able to flip through and see the changes I made in my first year at my first house. 

 I promise not to make all my visitors go through the book when they visit.  But I may offer you extra cupcakes if you do.

Dining Chairs are Done!

This weekend my dining chairs finished their transformation.  I ordered fabric online, just hoping that it would go with the other elements already in play in the dining room.  I got it for $8 a yard on fabric.com.  This will be the 4th recovering of this set of chairs between my mom and then me. 

I thought the curvy pattern would compliment the rug even though they aren't the exact same shades of grey.  Once I convinced Stewart this was not his new dog blanket, I was able to get my pieces cut and set up the staple gun.

It was much easier when I had recovered with the mustard fabric years ago.  This go round I had to worry about a pattern.  I tried my best to make all the pieces match without wasting too much of my fabric.  Since Stewart was scared of the staple gun, he hid in my bedroom allowing me to knock this part out fairly fast.

Once covered, I just had to pop them back into the chairs and screw them back in. 

As you can see, the aren't exactly the same color but they still work with the rug (and walls and curtains).

I love the way this whole project turned out.  Between the paint and the fabric it cost me $65.00 total.  Much more agreeable than buying an entirely new dining set. 

After about 40 years in service, I'd say this table still has a lot more to give.  I have a whole new appreciation for it. 

Dining Table Makeover

With my chairs finished it was time to move on to the table.  Since I decided that my dining table was too heavy to move out back by myself, I opted to paint it in its place.  I pulled the table apart and inserted all the extra leaves so everything could be uniform.

I used a plastic tarp to cover the entire rug and then brought in my old curtains/drop cloths for further protection. I was a little concerned about being able to match the black semi-gloss spray paint I used on the chairs but then I made an awesome discovery at Home Depot.  RustOleum makes paint in cans! 

I had no clue.  I was able to buy the exact color in a semi-gloss.  First thing I did was lightly sand the entire table to get rid of the sheen.  The table isn't sealed but it's been oiled over the years.

I started my painting on the legs first.  I figured any starting off errors could be hidden under there.  Luckily all went well.  Next I did the trim since the grain goes in different directions from the surface of the table.

Even though my paint can warned against it, I opted to rolled on my surface paint with a dense sponge roller.  I'm all about breaking the rules.

I applied 3 very thin coats to get full coverage on the table.  It turned out great and looks so much better in the room now.  I finished it up with a couple of coats of Polyacrylic to seal and protect it.  Once everything dried I pulled out the extra leaves and shrunk the table back down to its everyday size.

Voila!  Now the only brown left in the room is that mirror hanging on the wall.  I'm still up in the air about what to do with it.  I could paint it black or some crazy bright color.  I'm going to think on that for a while.  In the meantime I'll be recovering my chairs.  You can see my new fabric that came in waded up on a chair on the right.  It's inside out so you can't see the pattern but I'm pretty confident it's going to be awesome!

Dining Room Chairs

I finally found the time to start working on my dining room table and chairs a couple of weeks ago.  I decided the room was pretty much stalled until I got this part tackled.

I started with the chairs.  These would be easy because I could just take them out back and spray paint them.  My table if a different story since it's heavy and would require help to get it outside.

One by one I removed the fabric pads from all the chairs.  Recovering those would be a whole different project. 

Each chair used a can of spray paint applied in several thin coats.  It took one day to get them all painted and then dry enough to bring inside.  The blazing sun and slight wind probably helped my drying time in between coats.

Can I just tell you how much this spray can grip from RustOleum changed my life?  My dad picked this up for me a while back.  It just pops on the top of a spray paint can and eliminates not only my index finger cramps but also my tendency to cover it in paint.  Brilliant!

I love the way they turned out.  It's amazing how updated they feel to me just by changing the color. 

The table was next up on the to do list.  But I'll get to that tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Master Bath Makeover

Even with the addition of a fun shower curtain, my master bath was pretty drab.  Like every other room in the house, it was painted beige on beige.

I spent about a month with various paint chips taped to all the walls, but kept coming back to a page from Better Homes & Garden (picked out by the Ambassador of Paint aka my mom).

Once I settled on green I just bit the bullet and picked one instead of buying any testers first.  I went with Asparagus by Behr. I thought this was going to be a big disaster because when I threw a little up on the wall my first thought was baby poop.

I put aside my fears and started with painting the ceiling and trim white.  By the time I got ready to paint the walls, the baby poop was growing on me.  It darkened as it dried.  And once I got a second coat on, I was really digging the color.

I think Asparagus might be a bad name for this color, though.  I would actually call it more of an avocado.  That works for me because I love avocado! 

The room is so much brighter!  It's hard to get good pictures since it is the world's smallest master bathroom.  Seriously, my guest bathroom is bigger than this one.  When, if ever, will I expand this one?

Probably when pigs fly.  Turns out, I don't really need a lot of space to shower and brush my teeth. 

New Roommate, Stewart

 After about a month of going to various adoption events around Dallas, I found a new furry friend this Saturday.  His name is Stewart and he's about a year or so old.  He is a 60 lb hound/lab mix (mutt). 

 He is one of the most mellow dogs I have ever met.  He follows me everywhere I go around the house and just lays down.  Part of his mellowness may be due to the fact that the poor guy has heartworms.  Supposedly his case is mild.  He will be on meds for the next 6 months and should test negative once done.  The rescue group is covering the cost of this. 

 I feel so bad that he's sick!  But with such sweet eyes, I will stick by him and make sure we get him all well.

He sleeps alot.  Sometimes his sleepyness interfers with his ability to follow me room to room.  I'm pretty sure I caught him fall asleep while standing up yesterday.  I bought him a few toys but he's been too busy sleeping to really pay them any attention.

 No real damage so far, other than these scratch marks from the first time I left him in the house alone.  Lucklily it's just the paint scratched off and the wood is fine.  I think he was just trying to look out the little window in the door.  I checked on him at lunch today and all was fine.  He was sleeping on my bed when I got home. 

 I'm trying to teach him to pose for photos but he has a tendancy to look away.  He's a shy boy.

He loves the backyard.  I'm trying to overlook the fact that I catch him peeing on my rose bushes about once a day.  After all, he's really cute.

Pablo is pretty cool with his new bodyguard.  I think he's just excited that they share the same hobby: napping.  Welcome home, Stewart!