home improvement

I have recently come to a realization about being a wife. 

Through my single years I have seen a lot of friends get married. And I have seen them get married and then all of a sudden get crafty or homemakery. 

I have associated wife with crafts and once they get a ring on their finger the crafts just start popping out. 

I have seen my sister learn to sew. I have seen wreaths all of a sudden hanging on doors for ever season. I have seen headbands be made and lots and lots of sewing. 

I have not gotten it. I did not understand how when you become a wife all of a sudden you want to make things. I have never had this talent and so I did not think I would have this desire. 

And then...all of a sudden...I wanted to paint a table. 

And then...I got it. I understood how a ring makes you want to craft. 

At least for me anyway. 

I live in a home that is finally mine. ours. the Herrera home. 

I have never had that before. Sure I lived in my Robins home growing up. But it was never mine. Shoot, I couldn't lay on the pillows on the couch if I wanted to. Cause they were my moms and it was her house. Then I lived on my own in the Aves and in Sugarhouse. But it wasn't MY house. I didn't care about that house. I didn't care to take care of it or make it look nice. 

And now...all of a sudden...I have my own house and I care about what it looks like. 

So Rudy and I have been busy fixing up our house. And getting a little crafty. 

My first little project was my end table. We found this in our storage shed and it was the best table to be my tester. I wanted to make it cute for our house. Its funny how things work out--when you put effort and hard work into something, the satisfaction that comes afterwards--its awesome. 

Next up: our kitchen table and chairs. 

I bought these for a great price at our next door estate sale while in Sugarhouse. 

I knew right away that I wanted to paint it but I didn't know what I was getting myself into. 

It was a long project, a lot longer than I was anticipating. But I did take about two weeks off from working (one week at Kellys, another week where I just didn't have the motivation)

The before. 

Sanding & Acetoning. 

Those chairs were brutal. Lots of grooves.  All of the parts that I couldn't reach with the sander had to be removed with acetone. Couldn't paint my nails for days!! The sacrifice for the job. 

Rudy sanded the table. It took a lot of muscle to get the wood stain off. The table and chairs actually looked so beautiful all sanded down. It almost made me sad to paint the pretty wood. 

Priming for two coats. Painting for three coats. Top coating for three coats. 

Finished product. 

I learned A LOT. It was fun to learn something and then to feel like you understand how to do something new. 

I love our new table and chairs!! 

I am so proud of what they look like. Of course they are not perfect but I put in a lot of time and a whole lot of effort into them. 

Our other project has been painting our house. When we moved in we luckily recognized there wasn't much updating to our 1946 home except for painting. The paint was awful colors. We had tan, orange, maroon and green. Way too many colors and weird ones too. 

Rudy worked tirelessly at painting the house. We were suppose to have a friend do it for us. But he bailed and Rudy stepped it up and painted everything. Of course, I helped with edging but he did it all! 

Our bailing friend took the before pictures. So we don't have the best pictures to compare it to. But the after looks great! 

{the whole dining area was green..although it was darker then pictured, you can see behind the kitchen table picture that it is grey now}

{our bedroom use to be an orange tan color, now grey too with our new king bed!}

Kitchen in maroon 

{its crazy how our kitchen feels bigger now that its painted lighter}

The main family area was a light orange tan too. You can see a little bit of it in the picture with my end table. Now its grey and we are starting to put pictures on the wall

We updated fixtures, doorknobs and light switches as well. Its crazy how those can make a big difference too.
Old fixture..

Updated fixture

And my pretty roses on my new table. Just cause they make me happy.