Dining Room Progress

While 85% of blogland is sailing through house projects like nothing, there's the other 15% and myself who seem to be inching along like slugs. I have yet to find that 15%, but I know they're out there. If I can manage to get one room in my house completely finished by our 2nd house-anniversary, I'm throwing a huge party.

Right now I'm focusing my dollars on the kitchen & dining room. I took down the piece that I made last month because I just wasn't feeling it. I decided to add a shelf instead and now the wall seems much more anchored. Doesn't it feel like a different person lives here after viewing that "before" photo?! Crazy. Anyway- the shelf is just pressed particle board that I got for $7. I really wanted a nice piece of wood that I could stain, but there was no way I could spend $35 for a low-end plank of wood and another $11 on stain. So I used this cheap piece of wood along with paint that I already had.

And those are the dining chairs that I talked about in my last post. I reupholstered them with some fabric that I had, which was a super simple project that of course got effed up towards the end because even the easiest things seem to go awry...damn pneumatic staple gun cramping my style.

The paint on the chairs is chipping but I'm going to leave them as is because I am a sucker for things that are worn. Moonshadow started worshiping to the chairs right away and even showed her prized dead mouse how awesome they were. I know this because I washed the chairs last night, found Moonshadow in the living room with a battered mouse before the sun came up this morning and then noticed dried blood spatter all over one of the chairs at about 2:00 this afternoon. Fortunately, it was only on the wood. But she must have been doing loopdee-loops with it because there was blood all. over. the place.

Anyway, this is the grossness that it was before I put the new batting & fabric on:

Ugh, gross. 3 layers of moldy fabric and one layer of tattered batting that almost made me yack. For real. I started envisioning the people who may have once owned these and I got the heebeejeebees because it was almost like they were in my house or something. Ew. Ick. Nasty. Don't get me wrong- these may have been stored in a damp garage for a couple of years, but after driving by the guy that lives about 3 miles away who sets his tube tv out in the front yard to watch from his 1980's lawn chair, anxiously awaiting for the next person to drive by so he can spring up and viciously wave and scream "hiiii!", it's only natural that I think of the weirdos with old furniture first.

Oh and PS- it is taking everything in my power to leave that scuzzy photo on my blog. It's really grossing me out.

Anyway. I got this cork lidded jar at Saver's & I'm going to plant some moss in it, but until I get real moss I'll use this fake stuff that I picked up at Pottery Barn last year. As you can see, the cats have free range of the house and are allowed on the table & counters. We did try to make them stop when they were kittens but it didn't work so we decided that it didn't really matter.

In the background is the orchid that Joe got me for Valentine's Day. Isn't it sweet?! I am waiting to get a different pot to place it in, but until then I put some crinkled paper around it & secured it with hemp. I like the way it looks so I'm not in a huge hurry to find a pot.

Okay, well that's all for tonight. Sorry for all the words. Thanks for visiting. :)