The Palace Arrival....

Craigslist...ever heard of it? If you live here at The Gaertegang Homestead we've heard of it a few times....okay let's be honest...someone at our house might have an addiction  love for Craiglist! I won't mention who, although it's not me...smile... I do love CL, it has so many deals and steals to offer to those who keep their eyes peeled then pounce quickly on an offer.

The Palace is our latest snag! The Poultry Palace that is....It came with windows that needed fixed, a chicken door that no longer existed, and a roof that needs a little attention.

It has that fabulous weathered look to it, with a great gray color. It came with windows to fill in the holes,  we  my hard working Hubby just had to buy a few panes of glass and then re-install the windows. It also came with the same shingles that are already on the roof so we could touch up a few places.

 The window framed were pretty rotted. Justin re-framed each them and made new ledges out of the old red barn siding we had left over from the house project. Love it!

Here is the new chicken door...again using what we had on hand.

 Here is my handsome, hard working, Craigslist stalking Husband! While I joke with him a lot about CL, he's has saved us a ton of money by his frugal online shopping. I think our coop is adorable and we saved over half of what it would have cost us to build a smaller one!

 Here is Mr. Caleb...it was his night to help out Dad.

The next night we transferred over the feeder, water, the nesting box, and the ladies.

 Lance showing off his muscles...

 Caleb is by far the best chicken catcher...he was constantly coming out with two chickens!

 Zach being a big help...

 I think the ladies (plus our beautiful gentle rooster picture here) will like there new home

 The Palace" is now open for egg laying business!

Old Hymn Book DIY project!!

We've had an old hymnal book for awhile, I think we got it at an auction..imagine that! The covers have fallen off, some of the pages have fallen out, but there was no way I was getting rid of it. I saw an idea (although I don't remember where) a long time ago where someone hung sheet music on the wall of a room. I thought that was a fun idea and maybe someday I would be brave enough to try something different like that.

WELL GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY?

 It's rather hard to see it, I did it in our half bath, which is pretty tiny & not camera friendly.

 Hear is another angle...you get the idea, right? I really LOVE it! So many wonderful hymns!

 I framed "In The Garden" it's a special song here at our house.

 Here are a few more that I really love...The Rugged Cross

 Jesus Loves Even Me....

There is Power In The Blood

I have plenty of extras still in case any get ruined for any reason. I love the floor to ceiling look! I used Stampin' Up mini glue dots to fix them to the wall. They will remove will no problem and not leave any marks if I choose to ever remove them. This makeover took about an hour. I did a totally random layout...no planning involved. I really like thinking outside the box when it comes to making your home your own. 

The real test is if the MISTER likes it....

New Lighting: One At A Time

When we bought our Dream Home a year ago, one of the first things I noticed when touring the house was that all the lighting would have to GO! I'm not a fan of all the gold brass fixtures, never have been. At the same time they are not priority around here either because although they might not be my first, second, or third choice they do work and function just fine. Several people got us Lowe's gift cards for Christmas and I knew just what I would do with it......buy at least one light! (I actually bought a light, a new outdoor rug for our front door, several door stops, and a knob for my bedside table.) Just for the fun of it I thought I would show you a little before and after. Although I'm sure the pictures of the before & after just don't do them justice.....I found it hard to get a good shot. You'll get the general drift!

 BEFORE: This is the light that hung in our entryway...all the way up in the loft. 

(This actual picture is of the light above our table...twins cause I'm lucky like that.)

 AFTER: I picked this up at a garage sale last summer $20

The picture just doesn't show it well, but it's a wonderful change!

 BEFORE: This is the light that was right inside our front door.

 AFTER: From Lowe's with Christmas GC...LOVE IT!!

My hope it that throughout the next year.....one by one, I will replaces the "old" lights/fans with lights more to my style. I'm not in a rush, but of course I won't oppose to someone dropping a healthy LOWE'S or HOME DEPOT gift card into my hand if they feel so lead. Since that happens....never....I'll just be patient and see what the next year brings in my finds at garage sales, auctions, and thrift stores.

School Room Project....Dry Erase Paint!

While planning our school room this year I wanted a "board" without using a chalk board. The very thought of dealing with chalk dust on off-white carpet is enough to send me running the other way! When we were buying way to many gallons of paint while painting the house I spied an idea that appealed to me. A paint-on dry erase board kit! It looks a little something like this......

This is the brief version of how it works...sand the wall, prime with Kilz 2, lightly sand again, combine the "this" and "that" cans, apply one nice coat to walls. After 7 days of curing..your good to go.

I got out my yard stick and level and taped off an area that measured 4.5' X 3'.

This picture is after only one coat of primer...I ended up using three thin coats. Then applied the one coat of mixture to make the actual dry erase board.

I wanted to frame in the painted area to give it more character...so we used the old barn siding we still have....thanks to my helpful hubby for his help!

Ta-Dah! Now we have a beautiful dry erase board...who wouldn't want to come up and write problems on this baby? I'm loving it....the kids think it so cool...win..win!

Barn Addition

No, not another animal addition....instead a DOOR INSTALLATION PROJECT. When we bought the house we noticed that this barn didn't have an entry door...so is was one of the projects we added to our priority list to accomplish this Spring/Summer. Here is a picture of the before....

Here is an AFTER shot....the door needs clean and painted, but it was a quick easy installation! ( A BIG thank you to my wonderful father-in-law for his help!)

Another look at it...just because I LOVE it!

QUESTION: My husband suggested to paint the door white to match the barn. I was thinking of putting a color on the door...what is your opinion?

Yahoo for completed projects!!

WOW!!! What A Whirlwind!

A FULL 18 days without blogging!! A whole two weeks of that without any internet! Believe or not I did survive......hahaha! So here is a little update on what we have done over the past 18 days.....lots of packing, then moving, and then unpacking. A tiny bit a decorating, shopping for a few essentials, window shopping for a couch or two, catching up on all the school we missed during our two weeks off, cleaning the new house after being here for a week and a half now. Now we are cleaning, painting, carpet cleaning, putting stuff in the dumpster at the old house, getting things in order to sell it.......gasping for air......ohhhh ya and soccer season started last week which means two nights a week for practice and one night a week for church.....and the other two nights for MORE WORKING......


Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but I'd be crazy if I wasn't real about the fact that I feel a tiny bit overwhelmed right now!!! Which is why I won't be showing you an avalanche of new photos....or sharing all the details of our move, or our settling in....at least not yet. I am happy to report we are probably 95% unpacked and put away.....the other 5% can't be put away until we find magic hours in the day so that we can hang shelving, buy book shelves/cubbies, and have everything all neat and tidy how I'd like it. We will get there....it's a process (I have to keep reminding myself that!)

Since the move I have enjoyed doing my laundry! These two beauties have helped make laundry a FUN thing to do.....well maybe that is stretching it a bit...but it sure does get done a lot faster! I can put about what would equal 2 1/2 or 3 loads of laundry in my washer now than my old washer, oh ya!
I also have been loving my new steam mop (a house warming gift from my mom & dad)! My mom thought I could use with all the tile we have.......and ohhhhhh buddy it's my new favorite toy! How genius is all I can say!! Okay, so it doesn't take much to get me all giddy with excitement, but if you have followed my blog for any amount of time......you already know that!
So while things are mainly squared away inside the house, we are all in flurry with activities outside! We are suppose to be getting 4-H pigs this week, which I would be a little more excited about if they didn't stink sooooo bad! It's all in the name of the 4-H experience though, right? I got the chance to transplant some strawberries and rhubarb the weekend after we moved. I also brought a few of my favorite flowers from the old house as well.....although I am sure no one will even notice I there gone because of the VAST amount of flowers that remain...smile! I also planted some Colorado Blue Spruce trees this past weekend....eventually they will make a great wind/snow fence along part of the drive.

So I guess there are most of the reasons for my 3 week absence! So I can't promise you a time of when I will be sharing pictures......but I do thank many of you who have spent a few seconds commenting, calling, or stopping by to wish us well and share in our excitement. We are so excited and thank you for all the encouragement, and help many of you have provided in one way or another.

Well it's so long for now....until I can squeeze in some more time scheduled time to blog!

We finished up our last "project" this week.....

The beautiful old barn siding was our last project to tackle before the big move in....and we checked it off our list this past week. I originally thought I would run it vertically, but then because of several factors I went the other direction and ran it horizontally. Several advantages....less cutting...less waste, no top trim piece needed, the pieces are more secure to the wall, etc. I really am smitten with how the project turned out. The pictures don't really do it justice...plus I had really bad light (too much of it coming through the windows)....but you'll get a sneak peek anyway.

I'll try to get better pictures when we move in, but you can get the general idea....lots of fun!Well all this talk of the new house has been fun but this weekend I am off on a girls' weekend with my mom & sis...my mom's treat! Shopping, going to a spa....more shopping, hot tub relaxing, no cooking, no children, ohhhhhhhhhh my I can't hardly contain myself. Have a lovely weekend....I know I will!!!!!!!!!!!

Carpet......and the moving begins

This past Friday, the carpet guys showed up to carpet the basement and living room. I signed my kids up to help them out by picking up all the scraps of carpet padding. The kids thought that it was cooling helping them. I'm sure the guys liked one less thing to do!

I guess I haven't taken any new pictures with the carpet in......gasp! So unlike me....I'll have to get on that! But now that carpet is in and everything is sparkling cleaning pretty much everywhere......we started moving some boxes!

Here is the first official load....with many more to follow. Our moving date is in less than two weeks. I hope to take a load over each day and put it away until we move. I hope this method helps make the transition a bit easier on my nerves/stress level. If you can add us to your prayer list over the next two weeks and we pack and unpacked, load and unload, I would sure appreciate it. This end result of this process is such a true blessing, but that doesn't make it stress free.
So if you don't hear from me much over the next weeks you'll know why...smile

Cabinet Update.....

Here is a shot of pre-sanding, pre-priming, pre-painting, pre-antiquing, pre-poly......

 This is after sanding, 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of paint, antiquing, glazing, then 2 coats of polyurethane......drum roll please.......

I still have the hinges to put back on and the hardware to put on.....plus these beauties I picked up

They were only a few bucks and came as bare wood. I painted and antiqued them, then put some poly on them. They are going on the two "drawers" under the sink. You know the ones that looks like drawers but they are not. It just a little jewelery to dress it up a bit. You simply use a good wood glue to put them on. Remodeling the cabinets has been a big job, but I have had help with all the layers of priming and painting. I am very pleased with how they look! I'm so thrilled with the results that I can't wait to tackle the vanity in the master bath....eventually.....after a nice long break.

Painting the Cabinets!

This was our kitchen when we first bought the house...wallpaper boarder...laminate flooring...flowery fluffy curtains...ohhhh my! Not exactly dreamy in my eyes. So I immediately knew there would need to be some elbow grease involved in this space.

We have reached the point in our remodel that my attention had been directed solely to the kitchen. So this past weekend I started digging in......

First I removed all the doors, hinges, and drawers. Then we spray them all down with a chemical called TSP. It removes all the grease, dirt and any other yuck that is on the cabinets.

We just ripped up the carpet in the living room, and I thought this would be a great workshop area. After cleaning everything with the TSP, it was time to sand everything down. I used a hard grit (360 for bare wood) sandpaper and went to work. All the cabinets bases, the island, doors (both sides) and drawers were roughed up.

In the first picture you can see that these cabinets bases have a laminate overlay on them. Not my favorite. So I bought the nice thick wood bead board to replace it. I bought the wood version so it would take the paint well. Here it is with one coat of primer on it. I wanted my island to look more like a piece of furniture, and I think this bead board will help accomplish that look.

I find painting all of the doors so relaxing. I like to see them transforming right before my eyes! Believe it or not painting these cabinets has been one of the most controversial things we've done. People get really passionate about whether or not to paint wood. That's also one of the things I think is fun about making all my decisions for the house. Having your home is about making it your own. Your home naturally will reflect your taste, your personality, your style. My dream kitchen happens to include painted antiqued cabinets....I think I might even win over a few of those who thought painting them was a terrible idea....if not, I'm okay with that too! I know I WILL LOVE IT!!

Well minus all the tools and junk which have found there home on my kitchen island for now....this is the progress so far. One coat of primer is on everything in this picture....I'm a bit farther than that now. Well that is the house update for now. I'll post more on the entire process when I am totally done, just in case some of you would like to tackle your cabinets!

One Step Closer.....

We are moving one step closer to the end of our BIG PROJECTS at the Dream House. I have been painting.....painting....and painting some more.....and just when I think I'm done......yep you guessed it! The good news is when I am completely done every ceiling and wall in the ENTIRE house will be freshly painted which will hopefully last a very long time!

When you are painting trim for the basement.....you getting even closer! Ohhhh that feels good!

After one of the bathroom looks like this.....

Then another looks like this..

Ours kids have decided that demo is pretty FUN!

All in the name of getting ONE STEP closer to move in day..........

Paint Selections....

While I realize it's really hard to tell the exact colors via the computer screen, I thought you might like a peek into what colors I picked in the basement. Some are neutral (the common spaces), but I really enjoyed adding lots of colors to the different rooms!

I LOVE this teal and dark brown!

 You tell your mom you want a RED room and she delivers! I paired with this gray (old driftwood to ease the shock fact a bit.) I also used this gray in the school room.

This really isn't a good photo, I see the spot light is on in the room. Well anyway it's a nice spring looking green....I'm planning to pair it up with some whites and dark brown accents.

I don't have the stairway and hallway painted yet, but it's called "creamy pebbles"...reminds me of sand. I think it will look great once I get it all done......Almost done with our HUGE painting marathon! Almost............

Here soon I'll post some pictures of what colors the other two kids picked for their rooms.