Chicken Coops for the Soul

Since I don't have any new house photos to share, I'll bore you with some future plans.

I have been promised chickens. Well, I have been promised that I will be allowed chickens. I'm pretty sure this means that I have to take care of them and Brad will tolerate them. As Spring creeps closer I am getting more and more excited to add to our furry, or in this case, feathered, family. My first step is finding the perfect coop. We can't just have any old coop in the backyard. It has to be "The Coop". I have high standards.

#1 I has to have a completely enclosed run area.

#2 It needs to house at least 10 hens.

#3 I want something that is easy to clean.

#4 It MUST look pretty. I like pretty things.

#5 Budget friendly. The chickens really don't care if they have a million dollar mansion.

Here are some ideas that I've found so far...

The next step is picking out chickens. I really want a variety of eggs. I want to open my fridge and have year round easter eggs! My niece has specifically requested blue and pink eggs. I'm allowing myself one non-functional bird because I am simply in love with Sultan chickens!

This guy is a Rockstar. I dub thee "King Cluck". He came to party.

Aside from my super awesome useless chicken, breeds I'm cosidering are Brahmas, Ameraucanas, Orphington, Plymoth Rocks, Sussux, and Java, and Cochins. Anyone have any experience with chickens? I would love some recommendations on what breeds to get.

Furniture that Won't Break the Bank

We have a bit of a dilemma. I don't think our current sofa will fit in the room we are planning as using as the main living area. We also don't want to drop $1,500 on a new couch at the moment. So I've been scouring the internet for ideas. This is what I've got so far...

This is the KARLSTAD loveseat and chase in Isunda Gray from IKEA. It's $978 and we would probably want a chair as well. I like the color a lot. We're hoping to go with lighter colored furniture to contrast the floors.

This is the Oregon Chaise Sectional from Dania, priced at $799. Again we'd probably need a chair to go along with it.

This one is probably more of a pipe dream. Also from Dania, this is there Wellington 2 Piece sectional. I love the look of it but it's $1,299 and probably wouldn't fit anyway.

Another one that is on the pricier side is this sofa from LA Furniture. It's $1,195.

If you know of any place that sells more modern style furniture at decent prices let me know. We could always get a cheap couch from one of the discount places around here, but I really want to have something that fits our style.

I can see the finish line...

I thought I liked the color of the floors with the first coat of stain. Oh how wrong I was! The second coat brought out so much more color and I'm in love. I don't think I could be happier with the color we ended up with. The first coat was a little ashy, which I liked, but the second coat has really darkened and deepened the color as well as added a ton of warmth. Should be done with them by this weekend. (Fingers crossed) We have to let the second coat of stain sit for a few days before we put the Bona on.

Plywood floors, you win!

Slow and Steady...

Nothing ever goes as quickly as I'd like. I was really hoping to have the floors done and ready for pictures by today. Alas, it is not to be. Finishing up the flooring in the kitchen took a little longer than expected on Saturday so we didn't get to stain until Sunday. That being said, we did get a first coat of stain on all of the flooring that is done. It's really dark and I love it! The pictures below are before the excess stain is wiped off. I pretty much looks like black paint when you first apply it. I kind of freaked out a little when I first started applying it.

The plan this week is for one of us to work on the house each night. We're going to swap out nights so that we each get a little down time and then hopefully we can apply the sealer this weekend. We have a ton of stuff going on over the weekend, so it would be really good timing if this all works out. After that we'll put up the trim, move the saws and everything into the side of the house and finish up the small amount of flooring that they sit on now. Then we can move! Wow, it's seems so small when I write it down, but I know that's going to take another couple weeks.

Here are just a few pics of the first coat of stain. I think that it's going to look fantastic when it's all done. Second coat will darken it up and even it out and the top coat will even out the sheen.

Photo update... Long overdue

 After beating my head against the wall on what color to do our bathroom in I finally gave it over the Brad to decide. He went quite a bit darker than I would have gone, but it's all painted now and I absolutely love the color.

 Prepping the floors to make sure there weren't any screws or large bumps to cause problems.

           

 My beautiful cabinet doors. One more coat of paint and they're ready to put back on the cabinets, which shiny new hardware of course.

 Our first plank down! It was a very intense moment for us.

 The rest is pretty self explanatory. Floors, floors, and more floors. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have some pictures of what it looks like stained. Here's keeping our fingers crossed.

I Am a Blogging Liar

I promised photos, like forever ago. I'm a liar as well as a terrible blogger. Such is life.

Status of things....

Floors are coming a long nicely. We probably have over 1/3 of the house done. Here are a few pictures to tide you over. They are taken from my phone so I apologize for the quality. When we are completely done with the floors I may post a tutorial on how we did them. 

I'm really thrilled with how they look so far. Actually, I'm pretty thrilled with how the entire house looks so far. We are staining the floors with Minwax Ebony (pictured below) and then most likely going to seal them with a product called Bona Mega Clear HD.

We bought all new appliances the other week also. The idea of having the washer I've always dreamed of has really motivated me to get all of this stuff done. The walls are painted, the ceilings are done, the kitchen cabinets are 85% complete, and the floors are well on their way. I really will try to get some comprehensive house photos up soon. I was looking at some of the first house photos and I can't believe how different things look. Also, power tools are super fun.