"Honey Do's" and House Projects

First of all, we love our new house. Love it. It was built in 2005, but the people who built it should probably never have been given a mortgage in the first place--it apparently went into foreclosure within the year. After that, some investors bought it and never lived in it. So, we're the third owners, but it's basically a new house. The downside is that there is so much that we want to do to it--no thanks to HGTV for giving us dozens of ideas that look really fast and super easy on a 30-minute TV program but that are a little bit more labor and dollar intensive to pull off in real life.

Our maiden project was working on our cheap Sauder computer desk because we figured we could ruin it without feeling too bad.

Here's the before:

Here's the after (with new paint job and new hardware):


Feeling encourgaged we decided to do the same thing to a cheap bookshelf--but with white paint. We left it outside in the backyard to dry. Unfortunately, that pesky, unpredictable Indiana rain managed to sneak up on us while we were out and by the time we got home to rescue it the damage had already been done and the wood-like composite material was all warped.

Feeling discouraged we decided to hire out for our next project: installing electrical wiring and ceiling fans in each of the four upstairs bedrooms. When you hire good professionals it's amazing how well things turn out.

Somewhere in there I built Megan's desk from the last post. She ordered and assembled some stackable drawers as well as a desktop from Target.com. However, the desktop didn't fit or match at all and there was no way to find one that did--even after much Googling. So, I took some measurements, went to Home Depot, picked up some melamine, dowels, braces, screws, and footers, then had the melamine cut to the dimensions I wanted, came home and screwed it all together, and then ironed on some melamine finish over the cut parts. Voila! New matching desk. Let's take one more look:


Now, our house project budget is dwindling, but we're in the process of painting our front room (where the successfully painted black desk goes). I've been stingy with the photo-posting because I want to show everything when it's all done and together; you need the "big reveal."

In other news, today on our first full Sunday in the ward, I had to substitute as the Gospel Doctrine teacher and Megan was extended a calling. (Guess what it is?) Talk about a speedy "welcome" to the ward!

Ali wants to introduce herself to all of our neighbors, Kaitlyn fell asleep eating cereal at the table after church, and Max has got a little cold.