Oh hi there! It's been a while, but I swear I have a good excuse. So, one of my biggest pet peeves in the 'blog world' is when a blogger just randomly stops posting out of nowhere- especially when people are at least used to a consistent schedule. You mean to tell me that these blogging people actually have a life outside of their computer that would constitute them associating with the real world? While I doubt any of my 2 blog followers went through withdrawal (Nathan and Mom, you can be honest), it's still way annoying and I hate that I took two months off…. IT IS BLOG BLASPHEMY!
Anyway- when I started this thing I swore I would never be one to drop off the face of the earth, but then I was introduced to the "First Trimester" and became good friends with my couch. Not to be dramatic- well maybe a little- but I literally didn't do any productive project from the end of October to about a few weeks ago. I even had so many plans for Christmas posts, but eventually the thought of putting up decorations made me want to vom. Thankfully, my mom and dad came down and helped get my house into the holiday spirit, but no blog posts were produced. Maybe I'll do a Christmas in July special since I did manage to get a few pictures of some décor. Scratch that- I'll have a newborn baby in July. Sooooo Side Note: Looks like I will also be taking a blog hiatus this summer too. I hope you survive it.
Back to blog stuff and an end to my rambling…. One thing that we were productive on was the built-ins. (And by we, I mean Nathan and Josh). I know it's not the most exciting project in the world and has taken a while- but we are almost complete! You can see the previous posts here, here, and here.
The only thing left to do is install new doors on the existing cabinets, add some hardware, and finish off the legs of the NEW cabinet!
Yes- the new cabinet has arrived in all of its glory. It was constructed in Josh's workshop and those handy guys measured it to fit perfectly up against the existing bookshelves. They're so smart. We did have to mount it to the wall to leave some clearance above the floor vent, but I think it works pretty well. I don’t really like the "floating" look of it, so we're investigating some leg options which shouldn't be too difficult to produce. I'm glad we also go rid of the old, dark, existing cabinet- The new white cabinet just pulls it all together and actually gives us more storage than before… and it's white- so yeah.
Below is the a picture mid-progress and you can see the old TV cabinet. Not working.
I wanted everything to be closed off and finished, so we added this 'flip down' detail when we want to use the Blue Ray player. I did not want the equipment to be showing if it didn’t' have to be, so when it's not in use, it's closed back up just the way I like it.
Open... ( and yes this is all of our equipment)
Closed.
Below you can see the difference in the doors. Sooner rather than later, we'll be replacing the old cabinet doors so they match... and get rid of those exposed and painted hinges.
Looking at the Before picture, it's crazy how much of a differencce this little makeover has made- and the TV is still "eye level" so all are happy in the Weldy home.
I wouldn't allow myself to put anything on the bookshelves until the cabinet was installed. (It was intended to give us motivation, but ended up really just driving me mad)- so as my first "Second Trimester" project, I dusted everything off and filled up those shelves. Now that this whole conglomeration is more to my liking, I'm going to pay a lot more attention to what I'm actually putting on my shelves. A TON of it is just what I have had lying around the house, but I'm definitely wanting to do some editing and maybe invest in some nicer pieces.
I will say that it definitely makes a difference by putting up stuff that you really like- and using meaningful pieces. I try to stay away from random objects just to fill up space, but sometimes its unavoidable. Hopefully soon I'll do a more 'in depth' post about some of the meaningful pieces we've put up on our shelves.
In the meantime, I have a plan to make a pretty cool mirror to hang above the mantel… I stole the current one from the guest room just to get an idea of size... but I'm liking it's temporary home for now.
And FINALLY- if you haven't seen this on facebook- here is our New Years Baby Announcement! Nathan LOVES photo shoots... and we also really need a tan!
Due June 2014!
-Tricia
