Uncategorized Archives - 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.

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.

Macomb Weekend Wrapup

Once I started my job I quickly realized I didn’t bring a lot of “work” clothes, no jewelry, and the only contacts I had were the ones in my eyes. We “moved” a month ago so those were starting to feel icky. Plus, Morgan was ready for a visit and I was too.

Morgan had her Storm Sweetie performance Friday night at the football game so we couldn’t leave until halftime. So we had a late arrival to Macomb.

What? You can’t find her? Lol. She is the third girl from the left in the second row. She did great and I was very impressed with the whole group. They were incredibly in sync for only practicing for two hours last Sunday and briefly before the game.

They actually fell asleep on the way. We arrived a little after 11 and got them to bed without them waking up all the way. #parentingwin Then Natalie was awake at 5:30am. #waytooearyformama She was Cranky that afternoon and we both took a nap. 😁

Saturday morning started out with Natalie and I checking out the hot air balloons. Then we picked up some donuts and headed home to wait for Morgan and Brandon to wake up. We did all that before 7:30am. Then all of us dropped a couple things off at a friend’s yard sale before heading to Chandler Park for the farmer’s market and Art Show.

Always love seeing the balloons land. Glad they had good weather for the morning flights.

I had to improvise for eye protection that morning. We started out so early I hadn’t even put my contacts in yet.

An extra fun part of the farmer’s market was petting and feeding the alpaca. His name was Bluey and he did not like being disturbed while drinking his water. He sprayed the girl standing next to Morgan. I think she got a bit on her, too.

Only 5 balloons did the flight in on Saturday night. It was too windy for the rest to attempt it. It felt perfectly still to us sitting on the ground but the higher you go up, the stronger the breeze is. The Glow was canceled as well which was a bummer. Maybe next year…

So we ditched the balloon glow and headed to the Powder Puff game at the high school. The girls both found some friends to play with from daycare/school so that was good for them. And we did a lot of this fun stuff with the Westen family which of course made it even more fun. And we spent some football and nacho eating time with them on Sunday before heading back north. All in all it was a great weekend. I should be food prepping or something but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’ll be asleep soon.

Hennepin Canal

This is one of our favorite places to explore. The trail is well maintained and it’s only a couple of miles from our house. Once Natalie is a full fledged bike rider, we will go on longer bike rides. If you want to read about the history of the canal, visit this site.

A stamp under one of the old bridges along the trail.

Some of the locks have picnic areas. There are also a few with camping areas. The girls and Brandon may do that, but I’ll hang out at home. I like the hiking and being outside, but dislike camping. And something else you can’t see in this photo are the mosquitoes eating up my feet. It took them a while to show up, but they did. Once we got to walking, it was okay.

Before I started work, Natalie and I would drop Morgan off at school and then head to the canal to walk and throw rocks/walnuts in the water. I showed her how the light walnuts floated so she could watch them go over the waterfalls/locks.

The girls call the locks “waterfalls”. They were flowing pretty good despite a pretty dry summer.

This bridge is just cool. And you can drive over it which I was skeptical of since pretty much all the other bridges have rotted away. But I watched another car go over, so I was reassured.

These are the typical foot bridges across the locks. I was surprised Natalie went across like it was no big deal. It’s loud and normally that makes her resistant but not this time.

I needed to be higher to capture this better but at this point in the canal it actually goes OVER Bureau Creek. The engineering is impressive when you think about how long it’s been around.

This is looking the opposite direction from the previous picture. You can see the creek down below.

We don’t typically see too many people when we are there. Holiday weekends are busier but still not crowded at all. It’s just a great place to take in some nature and explore.

Refinishing floors is labor intensive

We (mainly Brandon) have been working to refinish the upstairs floors. Once all the painting was done, that was the next step towards being ready to move the girls’ furniture, books, and toys upstairs and be settled. We had a long weekend with the 4th of July so we thought we could get them sanded and prepped for stain, maybe even stained those days.

How the floors looked at the beginning of the weekend.

In order to prep the floors for sanding, I crawled over each board with a putty knife to locate any nails that either needed pulled up or pounded down. We also had to remove all the quarter round trim and those nails as well. And of course, lots of vacuuming and sweeping of dust from all the plaster repair work.

But our plans of sanding were quickly thwarted when the orbital sander continuously gummed up from the varnish. We had to get an orbital sander because the rental place with the belt sander was closed for the holiday. It was a long, frustrating day trying to figure out what our next steps were going to be. We tried using stripper to take the varnish off, but realized that was going to be way too labor and time intensive. We finally just had to give up the idea/goal of getting the floors sanded that weekend and regroup with different equipment on a different weekend.

This was after a quick pass. We tried to remove the gummy parts but it dried and hardened quickly. So salvaging the sandpaper was impossible.

The goop we were scraping off the floors when we attempted to strip it. What a mess.

So just this past weekend we were able to get a belt sander and it worked MUCH better. It was able to take the varnish up without gumming up. Brandon used a edge sander around the edges of all the walls which was not his favorite task. I used a scraper and mouse sander to touch up the corners. The green room’s closet was too small for the belt sander to get in, so we had to scrap up the varnish with a wire attachment on his cordless drill (we also did that along the walls). It was a very labor intensive project.

Once we had the first sanding done with the belt sander that was returned and he got an orbital again. It was easier to handle and got closer to the edges, so he went over the floor multiple times with varying grits of sandpaper to get a nice, smooth finish.

The natural look was pretty but ultimately decided to go with a stain.

The sanding took a full weekend of work. Now we are going to wipe down all the ceilings, walls and trim to eliminate as much dust as possible. Then go over the floors again to look for any gaps in the boards that will mess up the stain application. THEN we will be ready to stain. The three front runners are in the picture. The floors upstairs are pine and took these stains completely different from the oak floors downstairs. So we will be using two different stains. Then the poly coat will go on and cure for several days. It was definitely a good idea to start upstairs and get some practice in before conquering the downstairs.

Can you guess which one we chose?

Repairing the walls

So one of my first goals was to get rid of the carpet. It had been there for at least 42 years because it’s in my baby pictures at that house. It was full of dust that would cause me to sneeze, wheeze, and just be miserable for a couple of days after leaving the house. The girls playing and removing the furniture just kicked up all the particles that wreaked havoc with my respiratory system.

Prep Work

But before the carpet could be pulled up, we wanted to do all the painting so if/when we spilled it wasn’t a big deal. In order to paint, we had to fill in ALL the nail holes. My grandma loved pictures and put a lot of them on the walls. Then there were the cracks in the plaster walls. Neither one of us had ever done anything like that before, so we researched how on YouTube and This Old House. Are we experts on this? I’ll let you know after a few years if our repairs have held. I will tell you we have gotten MUCH faster at slicking on the mud and sanding it. My favorite video for repair was this one. It was straight forward, simple and made it seem less daunting.

Just some of the many nail holes we filled.

The girls got in on the work, too. They did a great job! They really liked sanding it down after it dried, too.

This is a crack in the dining room. It had what I was referring to as a “sister” crack in the office. Basically the same size and same location on the opposite side of the wall. These two were probably the biggest cracks we worked on downstairs.

So you actually have to widen the cracks first which seems counterintuitive, but it allows for the mud to grab on to more area. I just used a box cutter and followed the path of the cracks. For areas that were slightly wider than you see here we used adhesive mesh tape and then a couple layers of mud on top (thoroughly drying and sanding between layers).

This is what it looks like after it’s had one layer of mud. We tried using plaster but it set too quickly for our expertise. We might be able to do it now since we’ve nearly done the whole house but this system seems to be working. Again, we’ll see how it looks in 5 years. I’m optimistic but won’t be terribly surprised if we find some cracks pop up again.

This process has taken a long time because of the drying times, multiple layers, sanding, and then the more we looked, the more cracks we found. But the walls look really good right now. I realized I don’t have a great final picture, so that will have to wait until we head back up there next weekend! 🙂

Jumping in with both feet

That title is a little ironic considering my 6 year old is a better swimmer than me. I would never jump in an actual pool with both feet.

I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a blog for a couple of years and finally decided just to do it and see how I liked it. I read a lot of blogs and like how they chronicle their lives. We have some big changes coming up in our little world and thought a blog would be a good way to document them for us and the girls. Morgan may remember all the work we are doing but I doubt Natalie will. This blog space can be a reminder for them and us all the updates and projects we accomplish on our living spaces.

So my goal and focus for this space is to show how a middle income, middle aged household lives while raising a family in the Midwest. I spend a lot of time doing activities with my girls so I plan to show some of that plus how we meal plan, cook, organize our lives , etc. It will be very rare that you will see staged photos from me. More than likely you will see laundry piles and toys in the background because I don’t have time to create a “perfect” setting. My kids move too fast and I like the real moments captured.