Before I link up, I’d like to say a round of thanks to everyone who helped with Heather’s room.  I said in the first post that I didn’t have an HGTV crew–but it turned out I really did–just no cameras and scripts (yep, reality TV is scripted.)

Oh and while I’m totally off topic–last year this week we were having Heather’s No-Stress Birthday.  How times change :).

Here was our team:

Heidi, J and B for moving day

Heidi also did popcorn removal, Painting, and Organization.  Plus was my shopping and design consultant and domestic support–which sounds better than laundry, childcare and dishes :).

And of course Elizabeth, who painted while I had a family visit from the church. She was here for hours and also brought Tapioca pudding, which is Darren’s FAVORITE.

Mom, who was chief mudder (Bwa ha ha–get it? Mudder!); Child care extraordinaire (She kept all my boys for 2 full days); emotional support; pharmacy (she brought me flu meds); seamstress consultant; Floor installation assistant (She was here until 4am people!) And my top person to talk to when I’m not sure how to do a project under budget. She is the most frugal person around and by that I mean she’s the most awesome and responsible person when it comes to respecting the hard work done to get money and making it work hard for her. (Not that she’s cheap–which is not the same thing at all.)

And then there’s Darren, who really didn’t want to do this project from the beginning.  But because he loves Heather and me so much, he did a little bit of everything, especially laying a brand new floor all night until 5:30 am Thursday morning. He also mudded, sanded, installed trim, and made the money that paid for it all. And finished just in time for his 40th birthday :).

Ok, now for the tutorials I promised:

Ombre Curtains–which I sized up and turned into the hula hoop tent.

This is just one of the many tutorials I looked at to make the tent. Only I made mine differently to use one full sheet, which meant less ruffle fabric and less cost.  But then it didn’t go around my hoop all the way.  So I took a hack saw to my hula hoop to MAKE IT FIT in a wicked step-sister sort of way.  So just because I did it differently didn’t make it better, kwim?

And if I were smart, I would have used this tutorial to hang my gallery wall.  But instead I just hung one at a time by eyeballing it (Do you get the feeling I don’t like to measure?) Then moved it over a bit if I stepped back and it didn’t look right. Which mean I had to patch some holes before the big reveal :).

More than once, I was standing in line at Home Depot feeling like my wallet was bleeding. This was the most expensive birthday present I have ever given anyone.  But then Heather was the most valuable birthday present I’ve ever received.  I brought her home from the hospital on my 27th birthday :).

Since I gathered stuff over a period of 6 months, I didn’t have a clear picture of the total cost.  While everything was still fresh in my mind, and I could still find receipts, I decided to find out for sure.

Ceiling:

1 bucket of lightweight drywall compound: $14

1 gallon Kilz Primer $17

1 gallon Behr ceiling paint $24

Trim Paint: 1 gallon Behr Ultra Pure White in Semi-Gloss $27

Wall Paint: 2 gallons Behr Ice Cube in Eggshell finish–$50

Spray Paint:

3 cans satin white (Lowe’s)–$12

2 cans brushed rose (Lowe’s)–$8

2 cans primer (Lowe’s)–$8

Tools and Prep supplies:

Paint Rollers–$3

Disposable roller trays–10 pk for $6

Deglosser (for bed frame) $8

Wall Art:

Bed crown –50% off at Hobby Lobby  in the metal shelf aisle $8 (I spray painted white and added gold rub and buff)\

Bridal illusion drape fabric–free from Mom’s stash

1.  Chevron Magnet Board–50% off at H.L. $13

2. Chevron wide picture frame (80% off clearance at H.L.) $8.50

3.  Dry erase canvas (80% off clearance at H.L) $7.48

4. Owl canvas (50% off at H.L.) $10

5.  Sunburst frame (garage sale) $3

6. I am Strong canvas (DIY materials; print from Etsy) $8

7.  Round picture frame 50% off at H.L–$7.50

8. Lion and Lamb gold plaque–Heather made at Church Camp

Princess canvas (free with Zulily credit, paid shipping) $6

Oval frame with toe shoes (stash from our old house) Frame was originally from Hobby Lobby though I bought it at a garage sale and painted it.  The shoes were purchased off etsy–though now, Heidi has her own old broken pointe shoes to use for art 🙂

Wire flowered row of hooks (50% off at H.L.) $10.00

Beatitudes canvas art–Heather made at Bible School (the other closet art was found in her things we took from her old room)

Plastic polka dot tray (Dollar Tree) $1

Other:

Bed Craigslist $50

Feather Pillow Inserts (Pottery Barn brand from Cargo Largo) 3 large at $5 each, 2 small at $3 each total of $21

Hula hoop for tent–from stash

3 twin white sheets (2 for duvet, 1 to cut for ruffles) (Walmart)–$12

1 full turquoise sheet for hula hoop tent base — $11

1 twin turquoise sheet as yardage to cut for ruffles –$4

Fabric from fabric.com for pillows and ruffles–$38

Prints are from Riley Blake’s So Happy Together Fabric Line

2 charm packs of So Happy Together from Etsy (for a quilt, not yet made)–$18.15

Fabric and piping for bird pillow (from Joann with coupon)–$8

Twin down alternative duvet insert (Cargo Largo) $20

White dust ruffle (Ebay) $14.40 (still waiting on delivery)

Pottery Barn Teen Furlicious Beanbag ordered as a second from Uglysofa — $119.99 (big splurge)

Yarn for a polka dotted crochet throw (some from Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann and my personal stash):  $35 (not yet finished–soon!)

Fabric rose satin curtains (Walmart) $10 a panel–$20

Turquoise satin to lengthen the curtain  panels (40% off from Jo-Ann) $7.50

Trash can from Target (we’ve had it awhile)

Desk drawer pulls (Liberty Emblem in Heirloom Silver from Home Depot) $13.92

Curtain Rod (144″ Martha Stewart white turned wood from Home Depot)–$25

Total before the floor $676.44

Floor:

Underlayment (Black Jack brand Foam from Home Depot): $129.00

Laminate boards (Trafficmaster Hand-scraped Saratoga Hickory from Home Depot $.99 a square foot!) $263.21

Sales tax:  $65.25

Total with Floor: $1135.90

Ways we saved:

Used existing floor trim (even though it was shorter than I like.)  And painted it for an updated clean look. Approximate savings: $150

Scratched our DIY upholstered headboard project:  Approximate Savings $75

DIY installed click floors instead of hiring mid-range wall to wall carpet:  Approximate savings $400

Took advantage of paint rebates:  Savings:  $15

Use friends and family for help with labor and did a lot ourselves too:  Approximate savings:  $2,000

Took advantage os Hobby Lobby Sales on art and yarn:  Approximate savings:  $100

Used Joann coupons:  Approximate Savings: $16.50

Skipped the 8×10 wool area rug for now (it was out of stock during the sale price :(.)  Approximate Savings: $300

Skipped the crown molding–though I really wanted it:  Approximate Savings:  $150

Reused curtain hardware:  Approximate Savings: $20

DIY’d a duvet cover for ($30)  Approximate Savings:  $100

Ordered Furlicious beanbag from Uglysofa instead of Pottery Barn Teen:  Approximate Savings: $100

Grabbed PB brand feather pillow inserts from Cargo Largo instead of Pottery Barn:  Approximate Savings: $71

Total Savings: $3497.50

(Whew!  That makes me feel better.  I always aim to save more than I spend.)

Ok, I said this was the last one, but this post is really long! Tomorrow I’ll share the list of tutorials I used to make the hula hoop tent, duvet, pillows, and some of the art.

My hopes of a timely floor installation were misguided, lol.  Everything my husband does, turns out amazing.  He’s a perfectionist and has great skills. But that means it takes time and before he can start he has to know how to do it right.  If I push him to move faster he has a stress outburst.  So I wait and tiptoe around and ask if I can do anything to help.  Around 6pm, (2 and a half hours after I expected to lay the first board) he announces he needs to buy a sliding compound miter saw and a rotating saw to lift the door trim (which was installed all the way down to the subfloor.)

I’ve been dreaming of owning a sliding compound miter saw since the first day I saw Ana White’s blog.  So initially the sound of buying a saw gave me this happy feeling deep down. But shopping for such a large tool needs time:  Reading online reviews, consulting Consumer Reports, finally choosing the exact model and then waiting for a sale/coupons or finding an online deal.  And I wanted this floor done…today.  I encouraged him to go quickly. He called me from the store, saying the good saws ranged from $400-$600.  YIKES! And that he would find someone to borrow a saw from.  What? How long will that take?

Amazingly he was back by 7 pm with NEW saws.  The drama.  And what a cool miter saw it was.  It had a laser guide light and a self retracting blade protector.  I didn’t have have the courage to ask what THAT cost.  But we have 3,000 square feet of floor left to lay as part of the kitchen remodel–it will pay for itself.

We started laying out foam underlayment.  (By “We” I mean Mom and Darren.)

Put that camera down and help us or I’m going to suck YOU up this vacuum.

 I didn’t know that the underlayment had to go up the wall 2 inches, so am glad I resisted the urge to lay it out earlier in the day for him.

The cool thing was it had this self adhesive water barrier tape stuff to connect each section to each other.  Other types of foam underlayment require an additional tape purchase (which I also didn’t know about so didn’t have on hand.)

At this point I’m living on Theraflu just to stay in the room as an emotional support.  The first row of boards goes in (I’m laying on the black foam underlayment saying things like, “Wow, you are amazing.” “I’m so glad you know how to do things.”  “This is looking great.”

And Darren says stuff like, “How do you make sure this floor is square with the wall?” “It’s floating, will it move off square?”  “Did you notice any squeaks in the floor that I should fix before we go further.”  (I’m thinking, “Don’t stop!  Don’t get distracted…lol.”)

At this point I figured out I could help and stopped taking pictures.

We knew we wanted to off-set the seams in the floor and since these were manufactured boards and not real hardwood, every board was the same length.  It turns out, when he cut the last board in the row to fit, the rest of the board could start the next row automatically varying the seams.  Perfect! And no waste.

There were only a few different patterns of boards (which we didn’t’ realize until we had locked two identical boards in side by side.)  Which Darren was NOT happy about, but I said my phrase that had been my signature phrase for days, “There will be so many beautiful things in this room that no one is going to look at THAT.”  (That referring to any flaw that was bothering Darren at the moment.)

After the third row of flooring went down, Darren told me the story of a youtube video he watched.  A handy-man videoed his non-handy wife laying the floor,  click click click.  I listened to this and I thought, if she can do it, I can do it.  So while he went to cut the last board of the previous row, I clicked in the next row.  It WAS easy.

So for the next few hours we worked like that. I almost forgot I had the flu.  Then 1:30 am hit and the night-time Theraflu dose was forcing me to sleep.  I reluctantly left my Mom and Darren to finish.  When I heard him come downstairs to bed, I looked at the clock, 5:30 am!!  My poor mother husband!

“When did Mom leave?”

“Oh, she left early–around 4.”

Me “Gasp.” When I planned this project I expected to be miserable myself, but I didn’t mean to make everyone else miserable too.  I need to learn more wood working skills!

After a few more hour sleep it was time to move in. This was the best day ever.  We had a ton of work to do before Heather got home the next morning:

 Hang the curtains and artwork.

Assemble the bed.

Clean up the hall. Cringe.  And reinstall her doors.

Sort through all her things still in Caleb’s room and create a place for everything so she could keep it clean.

Rub and Buff Gold the details on the white frames.

Annie Sloan Clear Wax a protective coat on the painted desk.

Heidi was amazing!  I was still not feeling great and stumbled around in a fog while she was the real brains behind the organization.  Mom was sick from staying up so late the night before.  (I feel really badly about that.) I called her to let her know we were doing ok and just to rest.

Already dark again?  And there was still so much to do!  Darren was busy nailing in trim around all the furniture I moved in prematurely.

 At 2 am, we called it quits and went to bed.

Tomorrow — is the big reveal 🙂