Changes

There have been a lot of changes going on with us lately and I think it's about time to update everyone (for those who care and don't know....). First of all, I have done a few projects and I'm in the middle of more, but here are some pictures of what I have been doing!

I have been wanting to paint the front door for awhile and we had an heavy ugly glass door as well that we wanted to take down. So I took off the glass door and filled in millions of nail holes around the trim. Then I sanded and painted the trim white and painted the front door black! I got some vinyl and a new rug and I love the new look!

Here is the front porch when we first bought the house before we closed:

And here is the front door now! I really like it and it looks great from the street. I still have a lot of plans for the porch to do eventually! For anyone interested, my door was already white, and I bought a quart of Behr outdoor paint + primer in black. It took a few coats, but it looks awesome. I used a satin finish and it covers really well. I also took the doorknob and deadbolt off and spary painted them with a metal finish that closely matched what was already there! It was peeling and looked bad and the spray paint looks awesome!

New doormat from Lowes. Weird how much I love Home Depot and Lowes now...

Next are curtains and new lamps for the family room! I have wanted curtains since we moved in and even though it has taken awhile, did something different than I originally thought I wanted and I love this even more! It was so cheap and easy and they look great!

I made the curtains out of painter's drop cloths from Home Depot. I was planning on doing 4 panels, but it looks good with just 3 so that's what I ended up with. I got the idea from a whole bunch of different blogs who have done it and since I don't sew (at all), I loved the idea!

I bought 2 packages of 6 X 9 foot drop cloths. They come already hemmed which is awesome. I washed and dried them and then laid them out on a blanket on the floor and ironed forever. Then i cut them in half and used hem tape (stich witchery) to hem the edge that I cut.

I used the hem tape to attach some brown trip to the edge and I was done! I folded over the top of the panel and attached it with clips on the back. It's the perfect length and "pools" on the ground a little, but you can't really tell because the couch is in the way!

I also re-did these lamps and I really like them, but since I'm a perfectionist, I'm a little bugged about some small imperfections, but oh well! I learned a lot which is good :) I got the lamp bases at D.I. for $7 each. They were ugly off-white and gold! I spray painted them heirloom white by rustoleum. I also got the drum shades at D.I. (different trip) for only $1 each! Score! They were tan colored and I covered them in this cute fabric I found. I also trimmed the top and bottom with matching ribbon.

The lamps were not my idea either so I can't take credit for any of this. I'm just really good at copying other peoples' great ideas! I just love blogs and their great ideas!

The total cost for this was:

drop cloths: $20 (I still have one panel left)

trim: $8 (JoAnns with coupon)

curtain rod: $25 (JoAnns with coupon)

curtain clips: $15 (Lowes)

lamp bases: $14 (D.I.)

lamp shades: $2 (D.I.)

fabric/ribbon: $18 (Pfaff/JoAnns)

TOTAL: $102! Sweet!

I took some pictures this afternoon with the sun and I thought it looked weird so some of these are done at night and some during the day.

The above picture is the view from the front door when you first walk in.

Some other exciting news is.....

Not pregnant sorry folks :) Haha but Danny started school again, but he was doing summer school so it's not a huge change. I'm just sooooo glad to be graduated and not stressing over school all the time! It's great to be done but somehow I'm always helping him now! Haha it never ends I guess. He's still working a ton but hopefully he'll work less or get a new job soon.

As for me, I was told that I had a 60 day notice at my job and would be laid off and my last day was August 20. I was told this in June so I had some time to digest and figure out what the devil we were going to do. It wasn't a total shock because Flying J (I worked at the headquarters in the IT dept) was in bankruptcy and we basically got bought out by Pilot. So the headquarters was moved to Tennessee and we had no interest in moving there so I had to find a new job!

Thing were really stressful and overwhelming, but at the same time, I was pretty calm about the whole thing and I felt like things were going to work out okay. I was really lucky to have 60 days notice, a severance package and the ability to look for jobs full time at work! I applied for TONS of jobs and was really optimistic about them, but after 4 weeks, 5 weeks, 6 weeks and only 1 or 2 interviews I was getting pretty bummed. I was stressed because we have a house now and a mortgage to pay! But the Lord was watching out for us and like always, He knows what is best. We tried to make an effort to go to the temple, fast, pray and pay tithing and fast offerings. I still wasn't sure what would happen, but I was at least at peace because we were doing those things.

Anyway, I ended up getting a whole bunch of interviews the last week or two of my job and I was so excited! I got several job offers and I had the difficult decision of weighing my options and choosing the job that I thought was best for me. It was a hard decision but I feel like I made the right choice! I have a job with SunGard Protegent which is a large financial company with offices all over the world. I will be a Systems Engineer and working with Brokerage software. That's about all I know right now! The office I will work in is at Gateway Mall downtown and I'm so excited to work downtown! It's only about a 35 minute drive for me and I can also take FrontRunner if I don't want to drive when it's snowy or to avoid traffic!

The job has great benefits, time off, pay, and the location is cool too! I'm still nervous about the position because I feel like they are going to think they made a mistake and I don't know what I'm doing! Ahh! But I'm sure it will be fine. The best thing is that I get 3 weeks off between jobs! That is exactly what I was hoping for and it has been amazing. I have been able to sleep in, go to the gym, run errands, cook, and best of all-do projects around the house! I am in the middle of doing our master bedroom and bath and I can't wait. Here is a picture of my inspiration to give you an idea of the colors and stuff I'm doing. Mine will be different, but it's similar to the pic and I ended up buying one of the same pillows! I've started the painting process and hopefully I'll be done by this weekend! YAY~!

So that is the latest with us and now that things are settling down, we are so grateful for the blessings we have received. I'm so grateful for my education and experience and that I could find a great job! Dan has been amazing through everything even though he is super busy. We just have a great time together and I love him so much! It's so nice to have a partner to go through life with and I'm lucky to have him :)