ducky house

chalkboard calendar

Just over a week ago I was eyeing the very sad calendar page pinned to my fridge. The calendar is both sad and small, easy to ignore and unremarkable. Then my son missed his orthodontist appointment because sad, small calendar is not only unremarkable but also hard to read with it's small print.

Something needed to be done. It had to be dramatic and noticeable, it had to be easy. And so came the chalkboard calendar idea. I googled the concept and found lots of inspiration. This particular one caught my eye, it's less permanent which can be a good thing if you don't want to mark up your walls. However I'm a mix-it & paint girl so I went the route of paint. 

Chalkpaint to be exact. I used Rustoleums black chalkpaint - available at Home Depot. Next I marked my spaces with 1/4 inch tape to delineate the squares of a chalkboard and wider tape to set a boundary. From here it was pretty fast and easy. I painted a coat of the black chalkboard paint, waited for it to dry and then re-coated (4 hours later).

The next day when I checked my wall it looked a bit rough and uneven. I sanded the chalkpaint down to make the walls a bit smoother, wiped the whole surface down lightly and painted a 3rd and final coat. If it wasn't for the sanding I would say that the whole process was completely painless.

Make sure to let the chalkboard cure for 3 days with no writing, etc. Once it is cured you have to condition the chalkboard by using a piece of chalk on it's side to cover the black. It helps to have minions do this part for you. Finally use a chalkboard brush to dry clean the board and you are good to go. After 7 days you can wipe the board down with a cloth. But as you can tell that won't be happening until the last day of January when I get ready to fill in the next month.  

Give it a whirl, and if your aren't brave enough to paint your wall then remember you could always buy the wall decals linked earlier. 

disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Rustoleum or Home Depot Canada. I paid for the chalkboard paint all by myself :) 

mudroom finished

If you have been reading this blog for any period of time, you know that mr. duckyhouse and I have been renovating our home for quite a while now. These days the renovations have changed from utter chaos - we aren't moving walls around any more like we did when we first moved into the duckyhouse. Rather our projects are more about finishing our space and making it more useful. Since we homeschool and are in our space 24/7, one can not underestimate the value of organization.

Frankly I function better when "there is a place for everything and everything is in it's place". This has been the most challenging aspect of renovating while living in our home, but as I've said already most of the big projects are behind us (for now) and we are free to add the finishing touches to existing spaces. 

With four kids, this mudroom project was much needed. Living in a climate with four distinctive seasons, we have tons of (seasonal) paraphernalia. Our closet at the front door doesn't come close to housing all the jackets and boots 7 people can generate, and since my kidlets are content on growing bigger each year, (as you can imagine) so does their clothing.  

When we originally built the wall in the hallway, I created a design for a small mudroom by the backyard doors. I do the drawings, mr. duckyhouse provides the measurements, markings and brute labour. It's the way we roll. 

More hooks and jackets spill down the hallway off the mudroom out of necessity, and also to provide instant pick up zones for hoodies, bags, etc. 

The sewing part came at the end with custom bench cushions, which have since become glorified dog beds. Spencer, our 10 year old shih tzu/lhasa apso, has proven that there is no cushion he will not sleep on. (:

We also added an Ikea Hemnes dresser opposite wall from the mudroom bench. With one drawer for each kid it holds at least 8 pairs of shoes. Artwork is complements of my girlies.

I must say, kind of nice to close the door on this post one year later.

weekend wip

I sewed something and it didn't have anything to do with pant hemming, jacket mending, buttons sewing, and mending, oops did I mention that already? there seems to be a lot of that going on this house.

We started a mudroom project last year that has been a lifesaver for all the jackets and shoe paraphernalia lying about. It isn't a big space but it does provide me that organization that I dream about - have you seen my pinterest account on mudrooms? 

The sewing portion of "project mudroom" is one of those little tasks that signifies completion of another area in our home. Yay! I need moments like these when I can cross another thing off my list. Some days those feel far and few between. 

I was thinking of writing up a tutorial for this little project but discovered a couple of well done tutorials already in existence so no point in re-inventing the wheel on this one. This is only a sneak peek so I'm leaving you hanging for the finished photo. I'm sure you will kill yourself with excitement waiting for the big reveal. Note: small font indicates that the big reveal is in fact no big deal but I'm dragging out the drama. Try to contain yourselves until I get back here okay? 

sure fooled me!

This fall we started our school year on the right foot with an organized and dedicated space for our resources. Let me tell you how happy I am to finally have this space in place for all these items. Most of which have been sitting in banker boxes until needed and then we go on a mad hunt for such and such, you know the book about "... blah, blah, blah"   

The planning for this little area started way back with these renovations. I knew it would be a long while until I saw this area complete as this is an open concept shelving unit in a central part of the home and I didn't want dusty construction from ongoing projects wrecking havoc on our education resources.

With the hallway & stairs newly completed (more on that later), the hubby started his work on a custom build-in shelving unit. Let me first say that carpentry is not his fortay, but he does a fantastic job at it none-the-less. In the early days it did take a fair amount of convincing that diy is the way to go and a typical conversation would go something like this: 

me: "honey, it would be great if we could build something in this area (of the hallway) since it will be dead space" 

him: "umm, I'm not a carpenter..." 

me: "I realize that but we can't afford to hire a carpenter for every little thing that needs to be done and by the way, who was the first carpenter anyway?? someone had to start somewhere." When I sense he isn't biting, I throw in a desperate attempt aimed at his spirituality :  "Jesus was a carpenter" ...at this point his eyes are rolling and he just wants me to stop already.

him: "alright already, but this will take some planning"  I think that is code talk for stalling but I am immune.  

me: "great! I already have the plans drawn up"... as I hand him a drawing of what I would like. 

him: sensing the lost cause of it all he succumbs to my insatiable desire for project 'organize this home'  "k, I'll need to make some measurements and then we need to go to home depot..." 

Once the unit is built, we jam it into place, fill holes and cracks - I'm dangerous with the caulking gun, add a few coats of low VOC paint and a water based varathane to seal the deal. I let the unit cure to a solid hard finish for about 14 days, overkill I'm sure but at this point I don't want any mistakes.

AND didn't mr. duckyhouse do a fantastic job? he may not be a carpenter, but he sure fooled me! 

The shelves were sorted and organized, baskets (from Costco) were filled with hands on learning items as well as crafty kid stuff.  Our texts, current books, binders, dictionaries, etc all live in this zone. It's our go to place for everything education. I love having it central and readily available. I'm sure the kids find the visual aspect much easier as well and I couldn't be happier! 

happy be-lated fall & halloween

Ready for a little show and tell? I finally sat down at my computer for an extended camera dump & edit of photos.  My main motivation was the rumor that snow is threatening (dismal looking clouds in the sky) which makes taking exterior photos of green things & gardens difficult.  

Smarter girls would have snapped shots of the house during the beautiful warm months when the flowers & trees were in their prime. But I've been too busy fixing things to be smart. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I mentioned here that we were doing a little updating on the outside of the house. You know: scraping, painting, building, gardening, etc.   Yeah, there was a whole lot of all the aforementioned.  

The original exterior was in pretty bad cosmetic shape.  The paint was chipping and peeling not to mention an undesirable shade of sticky-note yellow.  There were rotting boards and pillars in need of replacing and the front garden was disastrously placed with dead foliage, heaps of decorative rocks mixed with weeds and grass overgrowth.   

Knowing all that needed to be done, we set about the task: we scraped & sanded, patched & primed, built & painted, dug up and re-built our way to a new digs, complete with new fixtures, decor & my obsessive need for a burnt orange front door! Our original plan was to tackle the outside of the house a few more years down the road but things weren't going to last that long.

Side note: One of our goals working on our 30+ yr. old home has been to provide it with some character (read: cozy) using colour & landscaping, to soften the linear lines & draw ones eyes away from the front load garage - something I'm hoping we have achieved. (And yes, I realized the roof has to go...but that will have to wait a bit longer).  

From old:

{photo retrieved from realtor's website}

to new:

yes, much cozier. Ready for your visit...come on by. 

right now

This is probably the most serene picture in our home. The girls room: freshly painted a bright yellow to match the mendocino mermaid fabric (plum & yellow colour scheme) that they choose from my stash for bed quilts. The new white trim is so crisp against the yellow - I'm loving it!

Everywhere else I look there are boxes, bins and stuff as we get ready for the last major leg of the renovation.  Our reno guy is coming on Wednesday and he is taking apart the existing laundry/storage room. Sometime after his work is complete I am slated to have a delightful, new sleek laundry room plus (my) studio.  Yay!  

For now I'm feeling a bit like this pumpkin flower I found peeking out amidst the chicken wire - trapped but hanging in there.  Patience girl, patience.

I hurt

I was doing some sanding for the world's longest kitchen renovation project. Umm yeah, I'm still working on those cupboard doors and thankfully in the very last stages.  The unfortunate part is all that awkward sanding has put my right trapezius into stress and it pulled my neck out overnight. Could barely move my head when I woke up yesterday...ugh! That's twice for me now in two months, I think my body is trying to tell me something - quit working on renos, right?  (or get back to strength training, but I like the first option better) Anyway, I went to see my chiro and he set me straight again. Right now I'm typing with a cold pack on my shoulder. I'm in lot's of pain and need to take a little break from this space until things settle down. I hurt :(  

I'll be back after the weekend with pics of a the latest birthday boy in our home who turns 10!

PS: big brother who takes time out of his day to imagine with his much younger sisters not only rocks but will make a great future dad.  xxx.

inevitable

Not exactly my favorite way to spend the day but necessary, we are back to the renovation reality.  Have I mentioned how much I would really like this business to be over with?  Last year I was studiously working on the kitchen cupboards but got completely burnt out from it that I had to just walk away.  It resulted in us living in a kitchen, without cupboard doors for a year and a half.  Crazy right?  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but ultimately I was only prolonging the inevitable.

Working on the kitchen has been extrememly challenging, not just the logistics of working around the four kids, but oh the mess. During the early days of the renovation I thought the drywall dust was never going to end.  Things are better now and I am currently working in an area of the house which will be my future studio space, just off the laundry room.  You can imagine that my motivation for finishing the cupboards may be a little selfish.  I can't wait until we can start carving out a creative zone for lil' o' me.   Oh the dreaming that has been going on for that little space.  I really should put Ikea's phone number in my speed dial for ordering day.  But let's snap back to the cupboard doors. I am making progress, it consists of some painting, sanding, sanding, painting...repeat and then more sanding.  Yup, that sums it up.     Yesterday I finished the final sanding of the upper doors, they are ready for the aging process, I'll explain that in another post.   I should be done soon, only about a year later than our original plan, c'est la vie...sigh. 

things I'm learning

Things are quiet here, mostly I don't have much to say.  My hands have been busy doing the talking lately as has my brain.  They have been conspiring together on how to finish, or at least cross off a big chunk of the renovation list.  They both agree that taking on too much before Christmas is not such a good idea.  So instead of doing too much we settled on painting the living room/dining room walls (twice in one week, since I wasn't totally happy with the first result - the hubby's a really good sport) to liven things up a bit. 

Next we thought it would be good karma to make sure said living and dining room had baseboards & trim since they haven't had any since we have lived in this house - that's been since July 2008.  Today I hope to be sanding and priming said baseboards because the wee ones keep bugging reminding me to put up the tree and eek it's the 8th of December and I haven't started decorating yet. I'm not stressed, really.  Since living in this house I've learned that everything will happen in good time.  My previous "let's do it now" attitude has been shuffled aside in favor of sanity.  Though one may question the sanity of painting before Christmas??  ah, contradictions.

When we purchased in this house we saw a glimpse of what we could make it with lots of patience, thought and love - ingredients that with each step make this house a home.  Most days I feel we are making progress, albeit slow, but still progress.  There are a lot of parallels between renovations and raising kids, you start with a dream and then with a lots of hard work, over a long period of time you see things come together.  Most days I work steady on something and I can't help but think that there is something esoteric that I am building here...that I don't even fully understand but it will reveal itself one day. At least that's my hope. 

Happy Tuesday from my home to yours. xxx

everything

We put a halt to our renovation efforts for July and August in favor of enjoying the long days of summer.  It's a short season and when we aren’t out frolicking in the sun, which would be on those endless rainy days, we migrate to the everything room.  You can see more on the progress of the room by starting here: original room, the redo, painting, and getting funky. We've come a long way baby.  

The everything room is easily the most organized room in our house and one of the first rooms we completed (well almost completed, there are a few finishes touches that need to happen but they are minor). 

It's a room filled with everything and everything has it's place. Guitars and a piano, books, books and more books, laptops and a desktop, homeschooling, art supplies (more on that tomorrow) and of course any decent "everything room" in a house of kids has to have it's toy/play zone. 

I love how this room turned out and believe, over the coming years, it will adapt just fine to the changing needs of our growing family. 

Where does your family gather on rainy days ?