Blog 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!

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. 🙂

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.

Friday Favorites 9.9.22

It was a short week, so I only have two posts this week. My goal is 3, so hopefully next week I’ll make that goal.

This week marked my first week at the new job! I’m learning a lot every day and meeting a lot of new people. There’s a lot of travel this week, but I think that will decrease as time goes on. They greeted me with flowers in my office and there were treats everywhere I went. Everyone is very welcoming, so it feels like a good fit.

A few weeks ago Brandon made a crucial mistake of leaving chicken breasts in his car over a weekend we were gone. Whatever you do, don’t do that. I thought Clarence had killed something big and it was rotting. Nope, just his car. He took the carpet out, used an anti-stink bomb, and even took the plastic out and replaced it with plywood, but it still smelled. After some recommendations, he took it to Shane’s Shine Shop and had it detailed. They worked some serious magic and it no longer smells like death. Most likely I’ll start driving his car since it gets better MPG than mine and I don’t want to show up smelling like a corpse.

Not a Friday Favorite is Clarence has been gone for over a week. I’m still holding out hope he will show up, but it’s diminishing as time passes. His biggest threat is coyotes of course. Plus I saw a large tom cat in a shed and I’m worried he chased Clarence away. But if that was the case, I think he will come back eventually.

If this is the last picture I get of him it’s incredibly appropriate. He brought a live ground squirrel into the house. Brandon got it away from him and we think it lived to see another day.

Tonight, Morgan has her Storm Sweeties dance at the football game. Then we take off from there to pick up Dexter and head to Macomb. I need to get a few more things to wear for work and other staples we didn’t initially pack but realize we need until the big move. I know she is excited to see some of her Macomb buddies and I am too!

Putting the Labor in Labor Day

It was a busy weekend to lead up to my first day of the new job. Since we want to finish up the floors downstairs while Brandon is off the next month, our bedroom needed to be sanded, primed, painted and carpet removed. So that was the main event with a lot of other stuff filling in the gaps.

How can you tell you are in the Midwest? You watch Friday Night Football next to a cornfield. We hadn’t planned on going but while we were eating supper, Morgan asked “is there a game tonight?” Which I knew meant her friends must be going, so we headed to our second game in two days. But it was worth it because both girls found friends to play with and had a great time. Natalie was not ready to leave when the game was over. 🙂

Another way to tell is there is an inflatable pig costume at the game for no other reason than it’s funny. We hope it makes an appearance at all the games.

View from my new walking route. I will soon be walking in the dark, so I ordered a lighted vest last week.

Then it was time to get rid of the yellow. Yellow ceiling, yellow walls, and yellow carpeting…

We had done a round of plaster repair but that was interrupted, so there were still spots that needed sanding and a couple that we had to put another layer on. While that was drying, we headed to the canal where Brandon and Morgan rode their bikes in pursuit of walnuts while Natalie and I threw some rocks in the water.

We finished up with priming and painting the ceiling Saturday and it needed time to dry before we could tape around the ceiling to add the paint to the walls. It worked out since we had family pictures then had to come through with the bribe and got ice cream after. Morgan would pose for hours for pictures while Natalie was done after one shot.

Morgan had a practice for the Storm Sweeties performance for the upcoming football game after pictures and ice cream. Brandon and I got the room painted while she was gone.

We explored the “West Place” Sunday night. It has a cool barn with a basement and some other interesting old buildings. The girls and I had explored there in the spring, but Brandon hadn’t checked it out yet.

Had to get a picture of the carpet before it went bye-bye.

We got the carpet up and are working on the tack strips and staples. We rounded out the long weekend with a trip to Menards to get fun stuff like a dehumidifier and water dispenser.

The girls are getting driving lessons down the long drive way. They have a long way to go. LOL!

Hope you all had a fun and productive weekend! I’m excited to start the job tomorrow!

Friday Favorite 9.2.22

This will be short and sweet. This was a more laidback week with a full week of school and doing a few things to prep for starting the new job.

Brandon found this toad in the basement. He had been living a pretty good life down there. Morgan didn’t mind holding him until he peed on her. LOL! Natalie thought that was the funniest thing to happen to her sister.

We finally cleared off the tools from the dining room table so I got a few things at Walmart’s dollar spot to celebrate being able to sit at a table inside.

Natalie was very proud of her mixing of orange and brown. 😉

Thursday Night Lights in Princeton this week. With a referee shortage they had to move the game to Thursday night.

My new walking route. I just ordered a lighted vest when I have to start walking in the dark next week.

Now we are moving the furniture out of our bedroom to finish patching the cracks and get it primed and painted. Then pulling up that bit of carpeting, so the sanding can begin. Not sure all that will get accomplished this weekend, but a lot will. Have a fun weekend!