New DIY House Project: Landing Craft Space

So I mentioned in our weekend recap that we were starting a new diy project. We usually do one big project around the house every year. So this year we are building out a desk on our landing area going upstairs. One of our neighbors who has the same model of house as us did it a few years ago and we've been talking about doing it too for a while.

Now with me starting a crafting business on the side Michael wanted to create a space that was just for me. Ethan's nursery used to be my craft room so when we made his nursery, all of my crafting supplies got put in tubs and stashed throughout the house. It takes me forever to find things when I want to do a craft project. Now I'll have all kinds of storage and a big work surface. I'm so excited!

Before

Right now it's a bench and totally unused space except for housing our travel wall. The desk space will basically be replacing where the bench is now. 

This past weekend, Michael started demo. He ripped out the bench, took down the pictures and pulled up the carpet. It's looking pretty rough right now but it won't take long to make it all come together.

So the plan is to have base cabinets with drawers, a butcher block wood top and then wall cabinets and shelves mounted on the wall. I'm already planning how everything is going to be organized in my head!

We got the cabinets from IKEA. They are economical and they come with a 25 year guarantee. They get good reviews as well. We went to the store this weekend and picked everything out.

These are the base cabinets, they won't have the weird silver stick legs. They also will have handles.

On the wall will be two cabinets and then a shelf in the center.

Countertop

Now we just have to put everything together. It's a lot of boxes for 4 cabinets!

But luckily Michael is a machine and he got the middle shelf and two upper cabinets done during the Blackhawks game on Sunday. We just have the base cabinets to finish up this week.

We are ripping up the carpet on the landing and replacing it with wood floor so that a desk chair can roll around easily. We picked up the wood floor this past weekend. We picked a beautiful Brazilian cherry.

The floor is most likely going in next week and Michael and his dad put in some additional electrical outlets above the desk space. 

We will have some drywall patching and painting to do but hopefully we will be installing the cabinets next weekend. I can't wait for it to be finished and start moving all of my craft supplies in, organize everything and get to work! 

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend. We didn't have anything planned, but like always, things always pop up. The only thing we did have scheduled was a photo shoot for Ethan's one year pictures. We used Sarah Melissa again because she's done a great job with all of Ethan's pictures this year. He did awesome and I can't wait to see them!

The rest of Friday Michael worked and then Ethan's new kitchen arrived! Daddy surprised both Ethan and I with this delivery! Michael and I put it together during nap time and then Ethan woke up to his big surprise and loved it! He has been playing with it non-stop this weekend.

Friday evening I noticed Ethan's ears seemed to be bothering him so we got in at the doctor's and sure enough he had another double ear infection. They seem to think he just didn't fully heal from the last one but all I know is I think it's time for some tubes. This poor little guy has had way too many ear infections. Friday night Michael played poker and I hung out and worked on my Etsy store.

Saturday morning I got up early and Ethan and I headed to the farmer's market and let Daddy sleep in since he didn't get home until late. Ethan and I found lots of yummy things and some pretty flowers.

We also started a new diy home project I will be sharing more details about this week, but it did involve a trip to get some hard wood floor.

Saturday night we hung out at home to watch the Blackhawks game and I worked on some new items for my Etsy store.

Sunday morning we got up and I made some breakfast and Ethan whipped up some breakfast in his kitchen too!

Michael worked on some demo for our new project and Ethan and I hung out. We made a birthday card for his teacher at daycare because they are having a surprise birthday party for her tomorrow. We made a butterfly with his foot prints.

After a nap and some lunch we headed over to Rich and Tif's to see the Roselle parade. The weather stunk but the kids still had fun. Michael brought his race car he got for Christmas over to show Jacob, he loved it.

Jacob was so excited for the parade, he was telling everyone, "let's go!"

Ethan was ready too!

Jacob was most excited to see the firetrucks and seeing his face was priceless. 

"Are they coming yet?"

"They're coming!"

Ethan waved to the firetrucks too!

Jacob and Makayla were so excited for the candy all the floats were throwing out, they got a ton of it!

There were a lot of cool floats and we stayed for almost the whole thing but Michael and I were both pretty cold and Ethan was due for a nap so we headed home.

Ethan went down for a nap and then I started working on dinner. I made a new recipe that was really yummy for mozzarella pesto chicken. I will post the recipe this week!

I hope all of you had a great weekend too!

Chef Ethan

Ethan is obsessed with all of his play food. We bought him a play food set on vacation that he played with the entire time and then when we got home he fell in love with his grill he got for his birthday. I had mentioned to Michael that I wanted to get Ethan a big kitchen for Christmas this year since he loved playing with the food so much and he was skeptical. But apparently Daddy was watching and saw how much Ethan was playing with it, so Daddy called in a favor with Santa a little early and a kitchen showed up yesterday. Both Ethan and Mommy were surprised! This little boy is obsessed, maybe we have a future chef on our hands!