orwigs, Author at Erin's Middle Niche

The Entryway Closet

Obviously I got off the blog writing wagon. We slowed down a bit on projects and fall is my favorite time to be out and doing all the pumpkin patches, carving, trails, etc. so I let the blog slip. Maybe I’ll get more consistent this year. Although it’s already January 6 and it’s my first post so don’t hold your breath.

In case you missed the post of what they entryway looked like before and my original thoughts, you can find that here. We stayed pretty close to the plan. I really wanted to add board and batten somewhere in the house. It’s a pretty common element in Craftsman houses, and I just like the way it looks.

The first step was clearing it out and adding the wall. Brandon and his dad worked on that over thanksgiving. The walls are boards from the barn my dad is tearing down. Brandon added a stain to them. They did the kitchen side boards first and we noticed the cold air coming through, so Brandon added a layer of insulation and two of plastic before putting up the boards on the closet side.

One layer of plastic, then insulation and another layer of plastic between the boards. There was a door here originally so that was easy to use as a brace for the boards.

Then of course the plaster needed to be repaired. There was a big hole and metal plate behind the freezer so even though that was going to be hidden by the plywood, he still patched it up. But he’s getting quick with plaster repair so not a big deal.

Now the measurements for where the vertical boards needed to go to be placed evenly was the biggest obstacle. We were both doing the math and neither of us are slouches in math, but it was not looking right. We found one website that was supposed to calculate it for you but it was off a bit. Brandon found a second that worked great. For the record, my math was only off by .1 of an inch. But that .1 of an inch makes a difference and is very visible.

We primed and painted in the basement then brought the pieces up. But Brandon wasn’t crazy about how the grain of the plywood was showing so he ended up sanding some parts down and redoing it. We were using the remainder of the paint I used in the guest room upstairs. I really loved that color and wanted to find another place for it, and I did! I think it looks just as good here.

We used the trim they was already there for the top. We then added some hooks that had been in the upstairs storage room. Some of you may recognize the bench from Brandon’s office in Macomb. I would like to put some peel and stick tile on the floor. These are my current favorites (#1, #2, or #3). Brandon likes the linoleum that’s there but it’s a little beat up. It’s not a big space and I’m not in any hurry, so I’ll update you when/if new tile happens.

The lights are heat lamps Brandon salvaged from one of the sheds. He’s added a motion sensor light. He only got one to see how it would work and it seems good to me, so we will get another one on our next Menards run.

And here’s a real life picture of the hooks doing their job with the girls book bags and coats. I’ll get a couple new bins for the bench and those striped baskets will be moved elsewhere soon.

It is 50/50 on Morgan hanging up her coat.

Real life. It may look pretty some day for an hour.

It’s really nice to have a spot for the bags and all the coats. If we are entertaining and it’s cold, there is an outlet we can plug in a space heater if necessary. Don’t worry, we will be safe with it!

Next up, I’ll be showing you the chandelier he built. It looks so good!

Halloweens of the Past

I always liked Halloween as a kid but as an adult, I have come to love it. Being in town and getting trick or treaters was so much fun. Growing up in the country we never got them of course. When I moved from the townhouse to our house the number of trick or treaters quadrupled. Then taking our girls trick or treating is possibly more fun for me than them. Compton Park in Macomb(one block from our house) would get packed with kids running from house to house. It was community chaos that was pure fun.

This was the first year Morgan trick or treated. She was pumped about going as a mermaid pumpkin head. Lol. You can obviously see how warm it was that year. (2018)

She loves handing out candy too. Macomb has two nights of it so we tried to stay in one night for that part. I remember having Natalie in the carrier and she was fighting sleeping. She cried/screamed and was asleep the next moment.

In 2019 we were not nearly so lucky with the weather. Dexter loved it but not so great for trick or treating.

However the assisted care facilities are fantastic and always opened up for trick or treating so that’s where the whole town went. Lol. It was packed but also fun. I knew the directors of those places due to work and they all talked about having to run out and buy more candy multiple times that night. I’m sure the residents loved it.

Of course 2020 Halloween was different but it is probably my favorite. Everyone was so creative with candy shoots, candy fishing poles, decorated tables, etc. that it was extra memorable. I was hoping the candy shoots would stick around, but they didn’t.

2021 was the year Natalie got into it, so I would say three is the age kids “get it.” We pumpkin carved and ate homemade pizza and walked about 10,000 steps that night. It was great weather and more houses than ever had lights on. I think that was because we were on an upswing from Covid and people saw it as a celebration.

This is a screenshot from the video I took of this house. They do such a great job with their decorations. This is from 2020 but it looked about the same last year.

This year will be different living in the country again. I’ll miss handing out candy but it will be fun to trick or treat in a new place. The girls are so excited to go so I hope we find lots of houses with lights on.

Pops of Color

Adding pops of color to the girls’ rooms and also functional.

As you know by the posts about fixing nail holes, my grandma had a lot of pictures on the walls. I salvaged a couple after I realized there was an easy craft project I could do with them.

None of the frames were high quality so I had zero issues with painting on the wood. (I do sometimes cringe when I see people painting nice wood furniture.) I kept with the theme of cheap and bought regular craft paint from Walmart in bright, fun colors.

I should have primed them first but since I didn’t, they took about three coats to cover the wood and get the shade I wanted( yellow might have been four coats). This is one of the three smaller frames.

I was going to take the pictures/canvases out of the frames but decided to paint them instead. I thought that would give a better background for anything the girls hung up instead of their purple walls. Brandon just painted them white. A little bit chipped here and there but I didn’t even touch it up. I figure the girls will be rough anyway so why worry about perfection.

Then I just tacked in a couple of nails and strung some gold wire across. A few gold clips finished them off. Morgan has the big frame and Natalie has the three smaller ones.

The big frame was a picture that always hung in the living room. The picture itself was bowed out from the frame quite a bit so we had to use a nail and wire to hang it. After all those nail holes we fixed I’m hesitant to nail anything in the walls. The smaller frames have command strips. I added the felt ball string to add even more color. Plus, I’m really loving all the felt stuff these days.

Natalie’s desk is always a mess. I’d like to change out the hardware on it, but that’s a project for down the road.

Natalie chose this spot. It gives off major Friends vibes.

I think they turned out really cute, adds some fun color to their rooms and breaks up the purple. I’ll keep adding to their walls but I’m taking my time with it to find functional and fun pieces.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend was a good mix of being productive, fun and relaxing. We were going to kick off the weekend with a football game but it was cold and rainy at game time so we opted to stay home and play Qwirkle. We play once a day, and I haven’t beat Brandon yet. I have tied and been close, but not a win yet.

Qwirkle is not a game for Natalie so we played a round of jenga first. Our table is the worst surface for that game. It’s wiggly and the girls are constantly leaning on it. Normally we play on the floor and quickly learned that would be site for all future jenga games. Natalie is surprisingly good at jenga. And that really annoys Morgan.

Saturday started off with me moving the girls desks around in their rooms. And cleaning up. Now, they both need a rug to play on and warm up the rooms. And maybe muffle the THUMP of them getting out of bed. While I was up there, Brandon worked on scraping and painting the porch.

That night we ate at Harley K’s (I always want to call it Harley Quinn’s) for some Philippino food. I was extra adventurous and got the pork stewed in pigs blood. It was good, but I like the pancit better. What was really amazing was the fresh rolls they brought us out to try. They were not as sweet as Hawaiian rolls but close and just delicious. They make them to order so we agreed they would be perfect for thanksgiving. Then we made a quick trip to Princeton for pumpkins.

Since the guys were combining on Sunday, we had my mom come down for pumpkin carving and lunch. We even fit in a game of Qwirkle.

We roasted the pumpkin seeds because Morgan insisted she liked them. She might have ate 5, but Natalie ate a small bowl. I tried both a salty and a sweet kind, but the sweet kind got a little crisp. I should have been watching them closer since it was brown sugar. I think the salty would still have been better. They were really yummy.

Morgan liked the scraping technique for hers. We eventually put it in a closet so she could see how much she needed to scrap for the light to shine through. These pumpkins were really thick this year.

Natalie wanted a scary pumpkin so this is her design. It took a bit to finalize the plans but it turned out really good.

Then we went for a little walk in the timber and checked out the deer stand. It’s really getting pretty back there now. We finished that walk with some hedge apple bowling in the corn field.

We plan on planting some pumpkins next year by a shed. I’m rethinking that plan after Natalie spotted a snake going into the tall grass there. We were walking up to the house and made a couple trips back and forth and the snake was out every time to sun himself. He would slither back in the grass and wait for us to leave before coming back out. I am not a fan of snakes. This was a small, harmless one, but I still didn’t like it.

Next weekend is a trip to Macomb for WIU’s homecoming and more packing. I made good start in the basement last time we were there so I’m hoping to wrap that up and move on to the kitchen. Moving is a pain but moving in chunks is really hard. I want my stuff in both places for when we are there. Eventually, everything will get to Wyanet and will will make due with paper plates and takeout in Macomb when we go there to work on THAT house. Some day we will just have one house to work on. 😁

Friday Favorites 10.14.22

So it’s Friday Favorites on Saturday. I almost remembered to post this yesterday. Fall is the best time of year. It’s cooler and there’s so many activities to do to fill up the week and weekends. The girls had a three day weekend so I took Monday off with them so Brandon could work. So we packed a lot in the past week.

We started out at Verizon to get new phones. Our current carrier’s service ends in our county so we have terrible coverage here. Our current phones are iPhone 8’s and we are going to the new 14’s (when they arrive) so we are really upgrading. It’s never quick at those places so Natalie took some pictures to pass the time.

Then we headed to Hornbakers to check out what was left if their stock. They were running end of year sales so we took advantage of that to get a tree, two shrubs and two planters. It’s nice to have some plants in the yard.

The girls and I headed to a Halloween parade while Brandon went to a concert. They got just enough candy to be excited about it. Then we heading to the fairgrounds to see if there was anything left at the Halloween garage sale(there wasn’t) but we stayed for the Hocus Pocus Dancing Hags (that’s close enough to whatever their name is).

Monday was spent at Tanners with Tony and Abigail. So glad they came to play all day with us! And they did play all day. I was tired, but kids have endless energy so we followed that up with swim practice for Morgan.

The rest of the week was pretty normal with school and work. This weekend holds no plans so I’m planning on wrapping up a couple of little projects. Hopefully I’ll get those posted next week. Have a great weekend!

Friday Favorites 9.3022

This may include a couple from more than just this past week since I missed doing this post last Friday.

Natalie had an apple day or two at preschool. I’m guessing they are made applesauce in the crockpot.

Super cute petting zoo where you just walked into a big pen to pet the animals. There were goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, rabbit, calf, potbelly pig, and a donkey. Of course you could buy cups of feed and the goats very quickly targeted the people with the cups.

The petting zoo was for a United Way Kickoff event. I didn’t get any pictures of Uncle JD reading his book but Brandon did get a video. When he started making (very) loud squirrel sounds, the people in line for face painting jumped. When they saw who it was they just said “oh, it’s just mr. orwig.”

Speaking of face painting, we stood in line for two hours for them to get it done. Can you guess how long Natalie lasted before she wanted to wipe it off? The lady doing it was very talented and did a great job, but it also meant it took about ten minutes per kid, hence the long wait.

They both liked it better than this picture shows. Natalie just thought it was “itchy”.

Little family party for the girls’ birthdays. Easiest party ever. Ordered all the food and I didn’t host it at our house. Thanks JD And Shelley!

Nothing beats a Walmart banner. Guess they spell Birthday different in China or wherever this was made. Lol! I’m totally keeping it for future parties.

Brandon has been clearing a space for the girls to play in a space by the house. Morgan painted some trees and stumps like the park in Macomb. Although that park has eyes and is much creepier.

Natalie had a field trip to the Fruit (Frueh) Farm this week. She loved it. She gets to go on a lot of field trips. Morgan is very jealous.

A normal night. Just sitting at the table, naked, eating a chocolate covered granola bar.

And that’s it for this week. Heading back to Macomb to get warmer clothes. It was 90 degrees when we were there three weeks ago. Pants, sweatshirts and heavy coats weren’t on our minds then. Plus, I want to get the Halloween books and decorations. We need a spot to hang out ghost. Have a great weekend!

What’s been happening

Yeah, I totally dropped the ball on blogging last week. It was a busy week at work with some late night activities and meetings. Then I just didn’t have it in me to blog at night. Hopefully I’ll find a routine soon.

We have made progress on the floors downstairs. They are basically finished and ready for furniture to be moved in. We had to buy quarter round since it didn’t have any previously since there was carpeting. Brandon tried to get ahead of the game by staining it before we did the floors. Unfortunately they turned out lighter than the floors, so now he’s going to try to use tinted poly to go over them and match them better. I think the type of wood makes a huge difference in the stain application.

Brandon used an air hose to blow out all the debris from the space between the floor and baseboards. All the prep work of cleaning takes just about as long as the staining

We did a new technique for the downstairs. Brandon ended up wearing a mitt and applying the stain. I waited a couple of minutes for it to soak in, then wiped it off. This eliminated the blending issues we noticed on the upstairs floors. Which is exactly why we did the upstairs first. 🙂

This method was MUCH more labor intensive though. Brandon was on his hands and knees while I chose squatting and bending over. I’m not sure how much square footage it was but enough that we were glad to be done. I think it took about 3 hours.

Now the issue is the baseboards. We are very tempted to strip and stain those because they have been beat up over the years. Luckily that is not quite as intrusive to living around as the floors. While the poly was drying, we were carrying our food outside around to the porch and piling up on our bed to watch movies for three days. But we won’t have to do that if we choose to do the baseboards. However, we will have to choose a stopping point with the doors and windows because if you give a mouse a cookie…we might end up with everything refinished.

We also have fit in some football games, birthdays, my first overnight work trip, petting zoo, face painting, watching prep work for harvest, riding 4 wheelers with cousins, fishing, and more. This past week flew by and Brandon is about to enjoy his last week off before starting at his new place. Glad we got the floors done before that. I mean there is still our bedroom and the small hallway, but that’s nothing compared to what’s been done. 🙂

Natalie is 4!

So she turned 4 on the 21st but I worked late that night and am just getting around to this.

Natalie is wild one. If you just met her you won’t see it. But once she warms up to you or the situation, it comes out quickly.

She is stubborn and definitely does things on her own timetable. And there’s not a lot of use in trying to change that timetable.

She loves to cuddle and will wiggle her way next to me in about any situation. Natalie also loves to drive her sister nuts and is really good at it. 🤣

She is a spitfire and I think this 4 to 5 year phase will be a tough one. It was with Morgan, too. And then a switch flipped and it was so easy. Can’t wait for that switch to flip. 😂😂😂

She’s always had a good choice in music.

Not impressed with sledding. I think she kept this face the whole way down.

We’ve always let them pick their clothes which leads to fantastic pics like this.

She does crack us up every day. I do love the way she sees the world. I bet she keeps that fierce and fun personality.

Morgan is 7!

Since pretty much all my views are from family and friends, you probably all know Morgan. And if you don’t, that’s a bummer for you. 🙂

Now that I know her, I feel like she was wanting to argue with me that it wasn’t time to come out yet. Lol.

She is full of energy. I have yet to really find anything to use up ALL of that energy yet. I really thought 2.5 hour swim practices would do it but she would still leave there asking what we were going to do and if I had anything planned.

From the time she could talk, which was by 1 year old, she would ask kids on playgrounds their name and if they wanted to play with her and be friends. I really hope she never loses that ability to talk to people and want to be include everyone.

Morgan has never really played with toys. She’s always preferred the real deal. She wants to use Brandon’s tools and my cooking equipment to do projects. And keeps getting more independent with both of those. She loves to make us stuff and wants no help while doing it. She’s been amazing at a lot these past seven years and I have no doubt she will keep doing amazing things.

This costume is pretty perfect for her. Constantly asking questions.

And I just love this one. Captures her personality.

A quick and easy project

We haven’t had a lot of quick and easy projects. We have been focusing on the big things like fixing the walls, painting and refinishing floors so it was nice to have something small to accomplish.

This bed was in the blue room and fit so well in there that we kept it. It’s a heavy, TALL, iron bed. We already had a full-sized box spring and mattress. Plus, this allowed Natalie to upgrade to Morgan’s twin bed without us buying something new.

All I did was wash all the dirt and dust off then scuffed it with some sanding blocks. There were a few spots where it was rough and bumpy so that smoothed it nicely.

Then is was just a matter of spray painting it. The girls got involved in that process. After using the spray paint for a couple of coats, Morgan was impressed with the precision of the graphics we see on the trains. 😂

It took a couple of coats and really looking it over because there are a lot of angles and intersections to that frame. But we finished it up on time to move it up to her room on moving day. I need a step stool to get on it but she just uses the frame. Her feet are tougher than mine.

It never actually looks this neat. 😉

That’s it! I wish more projects were this quick. But they will keep getting easier. I think/hope.