The Modern Midwestern Home

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Meet EKBY

Introducing the first of my IKEA finds that I have incorporated into our house…EKBY.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S69851470/

Technically, I bought two EKBYs. For those of you unfamiliar with IKEA they are known for giving their products odd Scandinavian names that you can’t remember or pronounce. It just makes shopping there all the more fun.

So where did EKBY 1 and EKBY 2 end up? Well I’ll confess that this was one of the few things at IKEA that I had in mind to purchase for our kitchen. Let's review where we left off. The last time most of you saw the space it looked a little something like this.

Since then I brought up a spare cabinet from the basement, and also purchased a slab of butcher block off of Craigslist for $60. I really lucked out with finding this butcher block. It originally looked a little rough with a “torn” corner, but the dimensions were the exact width and depth that I needed to create an additional work space in the kitchen.

I sanded everything down and rounded the rough corner so it now looks a little something like this.

It still needs several coats of oil & finish, a product specifically made for butcher block, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. I also have a pile of lumber in the garage waiting to be assembled into the other half of the kitchen “island”. I say “island” since it is not technically floating, but it’s also not a peninsula so I’m at a loss for names (suggestions?). For now, the microwave cart is filling in as support for the butcher block and it just happens to be the perfect height.

The gray wall looked a little bare, and the off-centered vent was well, a little off-putting.

I thought some wall shelves would fit the bill, and I knew there would be plenty to choose from at IKEA. What attracted me to EKBY was the combination of the sleek white shelf with the stainless steel end caps. To install the shelf I enlisted the following tools along with my step stool.

I decided that I wanted the shelves spaced between 15 to 16 inches apart. I also measured the width between the door frame and the corner of the wall and determined I needed about 4 inches on either side of the shelves to center them on the wall. After determining the placement I marked the holes for the first bracket, drilled the holes, and placed the wall anchors for the screws. I found it easiest to attach one bracket, insert the shelf, add the second bracket, and using the level mark the position of the second bracket on the wall.

I’d like to add that I managed to do this alone, not to make Jason feel bad, but to encourage others to take on projects of their own on their own. Yes women out there, you can hang a shelf (or picture frame) without the assistance of your man. I think it’s silly when I see women on TV say “honey, can you hang this picture for me?” Really?

Anyways, here are EKBY 1 and 2 in all their glory…

I feel like the EKBY twins helped warm up the wall and keep it from feeling too sterile. The vent is still present and functional but less obvious with the selective styling around it. I also like having Winston's treats and wipes off of the work surface. And yes I did meet Alton Brown once, back in college at Nebraska Furniture Mart. He is awesome and deserves a shrine in our kitchen, but I guess one photo will do for now.

Next on the list for the kitchen…

1. Applying oil finish to butcher block top.

2. Assembling under-cabinet shelving to create a more “built-in” look for the “island”.

3. Priming and painting said “island” (along with the rest of the cabinets and trim).

4. Adding hardware to cabinets.

I’m sure there’s more but let’s not get carried away. Thanks for stopping in, hope to be back with more updates soon!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Last Month in Review

Last night I was asked by a friend if I had abandoned the blog. I suppose it kind of appears that way, April 21^st was my last post. I guess I took a sort of blog holiday, a somewhat forced blog holiday with my life being as busy as it was last month. Here’s a run-down of the last months happenings (prepare yourself, it gets lengthy!)

The end of April was spent with my mom on our Annual Girls Shopping Extravaganza. My mom and I drove up to Minneapolis and spent some time with my wonderful Aunt Robin and her new husband, it was so good to see them! We of course squeezed in a little shopping at Mall of America. Oh yeah, and we always allot an entire day to…IKEA.

This is always the most anticipated shopping portion of our trip. Normally I like to spend months planning ahead of time to strategically determine my plan of attack when we get there. Usually I have a list in hand, and have even made sure it was “pre-approved” by the hubby. Not this time. This IKEA trip was a complete free-for-all, no real expectations or specific items I was in need of. I really enjoyed looking at all of the pretty show rooms.

You realize that this doesn’t mean I came out empty handed. I still managed to spend some serious dough there, but I came away with some great finds. I’ll report back on these later as I incorporate them into our house.

As customary, we also partook of the delicious IKEA breakfast with Swedish pancakes and lingonberry sauce.

All of this was only $7, oh wait, I mean free! The cherry on top of our already wonderful weekend was the fact that we came on “EAT FREE” weekend. This meant that if we spent over $100 (no problem here) our restaurant receipt was deducted from our total. So we took full advantage and went back for round two for lunch.

On our second swing through IKEA (we have to make sure we don’t miss anything!) my mom spotted her super fun cousin Janet. There was a lot of laughing/crying and talking, and complete disbelief that they ran into each other in the bowels of IKEA. I however was not so shocked, my mom can run into someone she knows just about anywhere in the country. Either way, it was great running into her and getting to catch-up!

After a relaxing weekend away I came back to an atypical week at work. Our hospital is reapplying for Magnet status (an award for nursing excellence), and being on the Magnet committee I was able to spend the week hosting the Magnet appraisers during their site visit. Going into it I was a little stressed and scared, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. I took away a lot from the chief nursing officers that I was able to spend the week with and feel that I have a better understanding of our hospital system as a whole.

That weekend Jason and I attended the annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting at the Century Link Center. It was fun to get to see Warren and Charlie in person, they are very entertaining!

My favorite part was probably the model train layout at the BNSF booth. It reminded me so much of my Grandpa and his layout that he had.

The next week was spent planning and preparing for my friend’s bachelorette party that was co-hosted at my home. I had a lot of fun just getting ready, but the party itself was even better! (Pictures not posted to protect the innocent.)

The next day was Mother’s Day and we enjoyed a lovely dinner at the new Mai Thai restaurant in Aksarben Village. I am addicted to Panang curry, and they have excellent curry there! We came back to our house for gifts and dessert. Here are the three generations!

A few days later we left for a wonderfully relaxing trip to South Padre Island, Texas with two other couples. We spend our time lying on the beach, boogie boarding, eating at restaurants, sightseeing and just having a fabulous time with friends. I was even brave enough to try para-sailing, which was amazing and not scary at all for someone who is afraid of heights!

This brings us up to speed to this Memorial Day weekend. Last night we had a small BBQ and hat party at our house with friends. Thanks to everyone for wearing hats. It was a great time!

So there are my excuses for not blogging, pretty fun excuses if I do say so! Hopefully the next few months will allow me a little more time for home improvement activities and blogging, if not, I'm okay with just having fun too. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Garage Sales, Estate Sales and Taking the Easy Way Out

This morning while Jason was still away at his work seminars I found myself awake at 7:00am. Rather than wasting the morning away lying in bed, I decided to take advantage of the only day of the week I can do a little garage sale shopping. I found three that looked interesting in West Omaha, two garage sales and one estate sale.

Garage sales are tricky…mainly because no two are alike. It’s hard to know what the seller is like, and the circumstances that have led to the sale of their items. If you find a motivated seller that just wants to be rid of the excess items, it’s easy to bargain. But if the seller is an elderly hoarder who won’t let go of their used croquette set for less than $20, then you are probably going to pay the price that is listed no matter how much wheeling and dealing you try to do. Usually I can get a sense of the seller by listening to the other customers check out at the garage sale.

The first sale I went to was in a wealthier area of town…I thought I might run into some high-end or antique items on the cheap. There was an old Kate Spade purse for $20, but it wasn’t my style. I also spotted an antique dresser for $50, but the size was not big enough for what I am looking for. I am still holding out for a long and low mid-century modern dresser for Jason’s side of the master bedroom.

After striking out at the first sale, I headed to one promising a lot of antiques and vintage items. When I pulled up there was a couple browsing that absolutely oozed “hipster” so I knew this place must be legit. And it delivered! The only downside was no price labels. When I come across this I think to myself in my mind “I would pay $__ for such an item”. I then ask what the price is, and if it comes at or under my price it’s a deal!

There were a lot of cool wood frames, vinyl albums, crystal and glassware as well as this awesome typewriter.

I thought to myself…. “I would pay $10 for such a typewriter”.

“How much for the blue typewriter?”

“Uh…$5”

“I’ll take it!”

It needs a little cleaning, but it appears to be functional still. I know my mom is thinking, why did you buy a typewriter? Because Mom…it’s aqua, it has a few red keys (love the aqua and red combo!), it’s not huge, and it was $5! I don’t plan on doing much typing; it’s mainly for décor…kind of like our orange rotary phone. Gotta love the fun, colorful, vintage statement pieces.

I also had my eye on a few empty wood frames, but the hipsters got to them first. I still feel like I won with the aqua typewriter…take that hipsters!

The next stop was an estate sale of an elderly couple. It was actually set up by a company that helps seniors with downsizing. The company goes through the house with pricing guns and labels all of the items for sale. They also have a cash register set up for check out. I had never seen this set up before, but it was very neat and organized. The only downside, you can’t bargain with them since they are not the owners of the items.

Old people’s houses are interesting. It’s an adventure sorting through all of the junk to find the treasures hidden amongst them. At this stop I came away with two staplers…one heavy duty staple gun for $4 that will come in handy for upholstery jobs, and one old Swingline stapler for $2.

I also found this adorable tea cup and saucer for $4. I couldn’t pass up the Kelly green and gold combo. It is my dream to someday collect cute vintage tea cups and saucers, so I’ve officially started my collection (if one item counts as a collection).

For now this tea cup will be used for storing jewelry on my dresser.

My last stop of the day was at my favorite local store…TheHumble Home. I would say shopping here is taking the easy way out when it comes to finding fun antique and vintage items. Normally I am not very successful at garage sales, and The Humble Home offers a refuge of presorted and cleaned items to save you the hassle of trekking all across town for rare garage sale finds. The greatest part is their prices; you won’t go into sticker shock here. Today I came home with two items from The Humble Home. A fabulous retro car mirror that stands on its own for $14.99…

And this amazing mid-century modern chair for only $49 ($54.99 – 10% off for posting previous buys on Facebook).

Recently I have loved the mid-century modern look mixed in with my modern-eclectic style. This chair is a similar style to one that I had completely fallen for at an antique store downtown.

The price for four of the above chairs…$1900. That’s hard to swallow. Yes, they were leather, and a full set of four, and absolutely perfect (probably vintage Eames), but there was no way I was about to spend $475 per chair.

I am completely satisfied with our much cheaper alternative, which also happens to be quite comfortable! This chair will help bring in the slightly vintage lounge vibe that I would like to have in our basement. Another plus, Jason approves! I usually shy away from buying furniture without his input, but the price was cheap enough that I was willing to take the chance.

So there you have it; the bounty of my morning out. Total cost…$84. Am I satisfied…yes!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The State of Our Union: Year Three

Unlike our first two anniversaries, this year’s is a little more…well, ordinary. We went to work, came home, Jason ate dinner, I did dishes, Jason is at class, and I’m now blogging. In between coming home and eating dinner we managed to squeeze in a sort of “State of the Union” discussion. We both agree, we’ve been more stressed recently, and we would both like to be less stressed.

Between having Jason in school, more commitments at work, and unexpected demands around the house (Jason mowing twice a week in March?! Who would have thought!), and this just being a generally busier time of year, I think everything has just been building up…including the clutter around the house. We both agree that the clutter has got to go, and hopefully some stress will leave along with it!

The solution is not as easy as just cleaning. This is an ongoing thing as I’m sure you all understand. We’re very capable of cleaning our house; it is the maintenance that we have problems with. And this my friends, boils down to bad habits. My goal tonight is to rethink my “To Do List” and create a new list that focuses more on the things that affect us every day and impact our everyday happiness. Can you tell I like lists?

So after some research on different blogs and books I’ve come up with a plan of attack, some commandments or guiding principles if you will…

A Fair Division of Labor

This comes from Spousonomics by Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson. “Exposing the fallacy of the 50/50 marriage split. Some people are better at, say, making school lunches, while others panic at the sight of a vacuum cleaner. Here’s a tip: Do what you’re “relatively” good at and “trade” the rest.” I feel like at the beginning of our marriage we tried hard not to fall into doing the “gender specific” tasks. Together we helped out with yard work, cooked, cleaned, did laundry, etc. And we tried to divide it 50/50, which did not work. It can create other problems which lead to the next commandment…Don’t keep score (see below).

Over the past four years, my fear of snakes has grown so much that I nearly have a panic attack every time I’m in our back yard…this has left Jason with the yard work. I completely switched my diet last year, so it makes more sense now for me to do the meal planning and cooking. Between evolving schedules and finding what we are truly “good” at, we need to have a new division of labor. I’m okay with doing the “woman’s work” as long as the work gets done and we both feel like we’re contributing to our household. It’s a team effort!

Don’t Keep Score

From Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. “One thing I did was to decide always to do certain tasks myself -- like changing a dirty diaper -- rather than to see myself keeping score. And I try to bite back the words as I find myself starting to start to bargain or trade or make claims. I keep reminding myself of what St. Therese wrote: "When one loves, one does not calculate."

It’s hard not to keep score. One thing that I have noticed with Jason and I is that we are rarely on the same schedule when it comes to cleaning and chores. It never fails that I am in cleaning mode when Jason just needs some time to relax, or Jason desperately wants to get the dining room cleaned while I just want to veg out on the couch after work. This easily leads to resentment. I think if we both remember that we are a team and in it for the same goal, it’s easier to allow the other person that freedom to relax without thinking “I can’t believe he’s playing computer games while I’m doing all of the cooking” or “I can’t believe she’s working on another craft project when she could be helping with the laundry”.

Do it Now

This is another commandment borrowed from Gretchin Rubin. Here she offers Six tips for tackling a dreaded task. Generally, whatever task it is will take little time to complete, and doing it now saves us time from worrying about it later on. I love the idea of a daily chore list. I’ve seen a lot of variations of this on Pinterest and want to create one to fit our needs.

http://media-cache8.pinterest.com/upload/85498092896055807_wGuZBnE0_f.jpg

We agree that spending a few minutes cleaning every day will be worth it when we come home to a less cluttered environment. Here’s a tentative plan I have (still need to run it by the hubby):

Daily Chores/Habits:

Do all dishes in sink before making a new meal.

Clean up all dirty dishes after eating.

Load any dirty bowls glasses directly into dishwasher.

Throw dirty clothes down laundry shoot as soon as you remove them.

Sort the mail into junk (recycle bin), need to attend to soon (on top of file cabinet) or save (file it appropriately). No mail on the table!

Empty lunch bag so dishes can be done.

Make the bed (Still questioning the importance of this one?)

Wipe off bathroom sink.

Wipe down kitchen counters.

Pick up and put away any clutter.

Open any new packages immediately and dispose of box/packaging right away. Find place for new item

Hug each other when we get home from work (we already do this).

Weekly Chores:

Clean main bathroom.

Wash sheets in master bedroom.

Vacuum all floors.

Throw out old food in refrigerator.

Plan meals for the week.

Grocery shopping.

Clean kitchen.

Mow lawn.

Dust.

Monthly Chores:

Mop wood floors.

Wash duvet cover.

Wipe out shelves/drawers in refrigerator.

Wash guest bedroom sheets as needed.

PRN or As needed Chores:

Wash comforters (every 3 months).

Donate items to Goodwill or food pantry.

I know there will be more items added and moved around. I even found this handy template to customize your own chore chart here. I think a visual will be good, and we love charts around here!

I think if we keep those three commandments in mind…a fair division of labor, don’t keep score, and do it now, it will helps us achieve our ultimate goal, which is a happier more peaceful home that we can share together.

I thought the card from Jason's parents was very fitting for this blog post...

What is Marriage?

It's vacuuming carpet and hammering nails

It's saving a dollar by shopping at sales

It's balancing checkbooks and paying off bills

It's cleaning the windows and mopping up spills

It's doing the laundry and matching up socks

It's a washer that dies when the car needs new shocks

It's two busy schedules, but one happy life

With each moment you share as husband and wife!

Although it may seem slightly depressing that we spent our few minutes together on our anniversary talking about what we want to change in our lives, I think it’s an appropriate topic. Anniversaries give us a chance to look back on all of the good moments from the past years, but they also give us a chance to think about what we can do to improve our future happiness and further strengthen our marriage. And don’t worry! We did celebrate our anniversary last weekend by going out to breakfast, one of our favorite things to do.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures (in no particular order) from that wonderful day three years ago.