Dales Gender Reveal

With so much excitement around these "Gender Reveal Parties" recently, I was excited to be apart of one so soon.  My sister in law, Nichole is expecting her first baby and the excitement for the gender announcement was a lot of fun! The idea of getting all your family and friends together for the big news creates great memories, and who doesn't love another party?!

Since knowing that Nichole was pregnant, I immediately thought "Boy" and never felt any different.  Look below for the gender reveal guesses and who was right :)

I love so much about this picture!  The mustache and bow are adorable for each gender. Huge thank you to my husband, Rick for bringing these ideas together! This frame is something that can be kept forever to remember the guesses but also let Baby Dales know who is excitedly, and not so patiently, waiting the arrival :)

Everyone who thought Baby Dales was going to be a boy, wrote their name on the "Little Man" side.   It was a lot of fun  to see all the guesses. As you can see, Aunt Katie & Uncle Rick are on the Little Man side :)

Guesses for the Little Lady. There were two more guesses for a girl than boy.

The frame is not complete until the middle is filled with a picture of the LITTLE LADY! There will be a baby princess  to spoil rotten soon! 

As you can see, Uncle Rick and Aunt Katie were wrong with the guesses :) Rick and I are very excited to meet this little girl!!

-- Kathryn

Old & New, Kitchen Redo

When going through old pictures on my computer, I came across our kitchen rehab in our last house and thought I would share. Rick and I purchased this home in 2008 and planned to have the rehab complete by the time we got married in 2009. This was the trial to see if our relationship would last! LOL We survived and actually it was a bit of fun! This house was perfect for our first home, absolutely loved it!!  The living area, such as the kitchen (obviously), dining room and living room were small, but there were other perks to make up for it.  We had a nice fenced in back yard that Harley (our four legged baby) loved! An above ground pool that when working was a nice luxury, a comfortable entertainment room, nice back deck and patio. During the three years we were at this house, we were able to meet many of our neighbors and really enjoyed our chats. All in all, I enjoyed our time in this house. 

So back to the point. The kitchen was outdated and we were broke jokers! Being who I am, fixing it on a budget was the challenge! See pictures and details below.... 

This was the beginning! Not much of anything, eh? It seems I always start with an idea, and go a completely different direction. The plan was to have a bronzed look with black appliances. I knew the space was not anything that could really be changed, so the focus was just on appearance.

Started by removing all the doors and hardware.  Doors and sides were sanded and hardware picked out.  I decided to go black for the cabinets.  To be unique, we chose matte black.  Above the sink, you can see the options of the silver back splash or the bronzed gold.  We did decided silver since our appliances seemed to be going that route.  Like I said, my ideas usually take a turn.

Here you can see the cabinets have been painted and back splash has been put in place. I wish there were more pictures to show the progress of the black splash.  The pieces are purchased from Lowe's and can be glued or taped for support.  Suggestion, use the glue plus some! With the odd spaces, we did have to cut some of the backing to get the correct fit, very much like putting a puzzle together.

Starting to look more like a kitchen!

This is the kitchen mostly completed.  During the process, a bottom door "walked off" and we used the kitchen like this for some time.  It did magically re-appear at a later date....yes this is how life goes in the Brewer, Jr household!

The one "final" picture I could find.  At the end, I did have much better decorations above the cabinets, nice rugs on the floor with matching hand towels. Even though this kitchen is very small, with only ONE drawer, it was mine and I loved it!

-- Kathryn

Re-purposed Wood

For awhile, I have wanted to make a wooden headboard and was on my way to Lowe's to buy wood this weekend when the wood pile in my back yard caught my eye :) Being the type to not let anything go to waste, it was time to start my next project.

We have removed a wall between the dining room and kitchen and this was the discard pile. 

The pieces of wood were old and distressed, perfect!

After picking out the perfect pieces, had to check the layout.

An idea of what I was looking for. Btw, I love the brick walk-way!

Richard hard at work, removing the nails from each piece of wood.

Here is a better idea. Instead of lining up the pieces of wood perfectly, they are all off set. After laying this out, we got a thin pieces of plywood as the back support. We used a nail gun and went to town. That was probably the most fun of this project!

Final piece!  

I love that this headboard was made out of old wood from my house.  A fun story and saves on money :) Will be sure to post a picture when the bedroom is complete!