Gallery Wall on a Budget

One of my favorite bloggers Veronika's Blushing did this AMAZING gallery wall in her home. You can find her blog post HERE. When she posted the gallery wall it was around the time we were listing our house and planning to move to Texas. I decided in my next house this was the type of gallery wall I wanted to do. It was clean, crisp and beautiful!!! 

When we looked at our house I immediately thought of 2 places to do the gallery wall. I started planning to do one. I loved the frames Veronika used. She got hers at Target HERE. I put a lot of thought into those frames. I have all silver or brushed nickel hardware in my house. I love the gold frames, but I was concerned with having large statement gold frames with silver every where else. Also the cost was another reason I just wasn't sure I could go for them. 

Walmart has REALLY stepped up their game with their home items. I have bought a few things from them for the new house. I bought this bench for my mud room. It is very sturdy and adorable! I also bought this desk which matches the bench. We have the desk in the mud room too. The mud room is very large, so I wanted the items to match. The colors of both items are gray and they go together well. The description of the names isn't the same online. I feel they might have had a different option for the desk when I bought it months back. Anyhow these items are great quality! 

I started looking for frames all over the internet. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kohls etc. I read a lot of reviews to see what people were saying. I wanted to keep the gallery under $150. The size of the frames I wanted to use if I went with the Target frames it would cost me around $300. Walmart had THESE frames for $10.99. I was able to get all 9 frames for under $100. The frames I bought from Walmart are AMAZING quality! If you bought them from any other retailer you would spend $25 and up on them. 

The frames sat in an enormous box in our guest room for a month. The thought of measuring and hanging them was daunting. I ordered all the pictures except one. I had Cash's pictures taken, so I wanted to put one of his new pictures in a frame. I was talking with my friend Krystal and she mentioned using these Command Strips to hang pictures. Using the strips no longer sounded like a daunting task trying to hang 9 frames. I ordered the strips from Amazon. Then I came down with strep throat and the project got pushed back another week or so. 

One day during nap time I decided it was time to just bite the bullet and hang the pictures. The huge box kept George entertained while I took all the frames out of their packaging, put the pictures in the frame, adding the command strips and arranged them how I wanted them to be on the wall. Laying them out of the floor really helped give me a visual of how I wanted them on the wall. I moved certain pictures around and was able to determine the order before applying the strips on the wall. 

I used a level to make sure each picture was level and to measure the space between each frame. It was so easy to do! It took longer to take them all out of the packaging then it did to hang them. It took me maybe 10 minutes max to hang them even with letting G climb up and down the step ladder a couple times. The entire project took me around an hour and a half from start to finish. I was able to sit down for about 10 minutes to enjoy the amazing gallery wall before Cashy woke up from his nap. 

I absolutely LOVE the final results!!!! I sit in my living room and love look at the gallery wall at least once a day. This is one of my favorite projects I have done in any of my homes. I love the white frames! I think it really lightens up the wall and makes the pictures pop more! 

Frames: Walmart 

Photo Credits:

Photography by Chelsea Lynn Bulik 

Sparkle Photography by Ashley 

I ordered all my pictures from Costco.Com  I have always used Costco to print my pictures. I find their quality to be great! I have pictures from them from 11 years ago that still are great quality and crisp. I spent maybe $10-$15 on the pictures. 

Total cost of the project was around $132. 

Frames were $98.91

Pictures were $15.00ish

Command Strips $18.00

I'm Back!

I have realized blogging goes to the back burner when I have a baby. When I had G I took a break too. It takes a little while to find your groove and be able to do it all again. 

I took a break from social media over Good Friday and Easter. It was really helpful to me to just give my brain a break from all the scrolling. It helped me come up with some things I wanted to share and realize I do miss blogging. I just haven't been able to fit it in. When Cash was first born I felt all I did was sit and nurse all day long. It's true that is about all I did. I was constantly feeding him. 

Then we packed up all our belongings and moved from California to Texas during the Christmas season. When I think back to all that I am like how in the world did we do all that? Well it wasn't easy, there was plenty of stress, anxiety, tears and frustration. My only tip is do not move during Christmas with kids. Putting your house on the market while trying to keep it decluttered during Christmas was a major struggle.

That wasn't our timing for the move. We had been trying to move for 6 months. The entire move was God's timing. We had been trying to move to Sacramento prior to Cash being born. It just didn't happen. I remember being sooooo frustrated because nothing was working out. The middle of September I went in for more tests. I remember thinking is there a reason why the Sac move isn't happening before I went in for tests? I pushed that thought away because things would be the same. Normally my doctor emails me with the results within a day - things are the same we will do scans again in a year, but that email didn't come. I was just going to contact her to see what was going on. She called me a few days after the scans. When I saw her calling I knew it wasn't good. There were new spots and some were growing. I remember getting off the couch and going to my bedroom to talk to her. I had a baby 6 weeks old. How could this be happening?  We decided to have a baby because things have been so stable. 

I took a week after that news and just decided California wasn't an option for us anymore. If I wanted to be with the best doctors for my cancer we needed to move by MD Anderson. Once we made a decision things started happening. We put our house on the market - sold it in 6 days - had a bidding war over it. We flew to Texas to look for a house and Art to interview for 2 jobs. We looked at 34 hours in 2 days. As we got on an airplane headed back to CA we put an offer in on a house. Art had 2 job offers. It was going so fast! 

While all this was happening I remember thinking don't push doors open. If a door isn't opening let it be. I had spent so much time praying over all these changes. I had put it all in God's hands to handle. In the past when I have pushed to get things done things have become a mess. This time I was impatiently patient. It was really hard to be patient. 

I plan to write a blog post on my experience with MD Anderson and the care I have received since we moved. It's TRULY amazing!!!! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday! Maybe today you needed to hear to just be impatiently patient. It's ok to be frustrated with the fact everything isn't working out! 

Painting!!!!

Here are some pictures from our weekend of painting. Art and I painted for a total of 25 hours each and FIL painted for 10 hours. Saturday we spent 16 hours painting and Sunday 9 hours. We are all walking like we are 95 years old.

FIL painting the family room
Me painting the living room

Art painting the living room

The living room before we started painting.

Art not happy I was taking his picture while he was painting the hall closet.

The Kitchen - The kitchen painting has a story.

I bought blue paint for the master bathroom and periwinkle paint for the kitchen. I had to make 2 trips to Lowe's over the weekend. We didn't buy enough paint in the beginning. I came home from Lowe's to find Art painting the kitchen. I was happy he had started the kitchen. He said hey dear I see you took my advise on the kitchen. I was very confused as to what he was talking about. He said the blue paint. I thought he was kidding so I laughed. He goes on to tell me how much he likes white cabinets and blue walls. WHAT!!!!!! My dear father in law labels the cans incorrectly. Art had started on the kitchen with the WRONG color. At this point we had been painting for 14 hours and I didn't find the humor in this at all. Luckily Art had just started.

Art painting the kitchen ceiling

My pretty PURPLE kitchen!

I love the color of the kitchen!

The family room looking into the living room

Aw it's the little man cute!

Pretty blue master bathroom. I LOVE the bathroom color almost as much as I love the kitchen.

Master bedroom

I will admit the master didn't turn out how I had hoped. I picked too light of a color. I wanted a darker cream color. It looks white.

Family Room

Family Room

Living Room

Living Room

200th Post

WOW I can't believe I have made 200 blog posts!

This post is an exciting post!!!!!!! We are nearing the end of our house process. Wednesday we have our home inspection at 10:30. Once the inspection is done they will replace the roof and tent the house. Wooooo hooooo!!!! Our scheduled date for closing is May 4th. The day after Art's birthday. So exciting!

Wednesday we will be taking lots of pictures, measuring windows for curtains, taking an inventory of the items we need to purchase for the house etc. I can't wait!!!!

The plan is for this to be our starter house and to upgrade in 5-7 years. I am wondering if I will ever get the itch to house hunt again in my life. I LOATH house hunting!!!! I do not understand why people enjoy looking for a house. It's the most awful chore ever!!!!

Back to work I go day dreaming of curtains, paint colors, decor and area rugs!!!!

House Hunting Week 5

I can't believe we have been house hunting for 5 weeks. Week 1 & 2 we put in offers. Week 3 we took off because we were waiting on an offer. Week 4 we found nothing. Week 5 we found 2. One of the houses has been flipped and is all up to date. It's a super cute little house. Down side no garage. If there isn't a garage it's a no deal for Art. Going into house hunting we had a list of things we wanted in a house. Some of our list has been negotiated. You have to negotiate when a budget is involved.

We are putting in an offer on another house. It needs some mirror work. It looks like the people were told to leave in an hour. They left a ton of stuff. The realtor told us they might not be able to come back for any of the stuff. I am not sure I want all that junk. There was some antique sewing machines. There is a nice finished shed in the back that was used as an office. One ad says the shed is not staying. Not sure how they plan to get the shed out. lol

This brings me to the 3rd to last house we looked at. OMG!!!!! When we pulled up the yard was FULL of junk. I said "THIS HOUSE"? It's awful! When we get to the door there are 2 dogs running around. The guy yells come in. We walked in and HOLY COW! These people were hoarders. The kitchen was packed full of stuff, stove full of junk, living room there was only room to sit down, the guy was packing I don't know what. A woman came out of a back bedroom. She said sorry for the mess, but we are trying to pack. This was BEYOND just packing. The floor had cardboard thrown down. I went into the bathroom and the bathtub was LOADED with clothes. Art couldn't get down the hallway to the bedrooms. At this point I walked out of the house.

Every week is an adventure. I am really tired of looking at houses. Yes, I know it's only been 5 weeks. I just feel week after week it's full of disappointments. Our house is out there and we will get one eventually. Although when we are done with our search I will miss some of the insane houses we walk through. Always an adventure. I just bust up laughing now when I see somethings.

We will be house hunting on week 6. We already have some houses lined up to look at next week. We figured we will keep looking since we have no idea if our offer will be accepted.

House #2

This morning we received an email that another offer bid was accepted. We were outbid ONCE AGAIN! We will go look at houses again on Decemebr 27. Our house is out there. I knew going into this that it would take us awhile.

Pantries!!!!

You know you are getting elderly when you dream of a pantry!!!! There are only 2 requirements for a house. 1. 2 bathrooms 2. pantry!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't this pantry a beauty!!!!

House Hunting Outing #2

The house hunting continues.......
Sunday we went out and looked at 5 houses. Out of the 5 we found 3 we liked. Sunday was an experience. House #3 that we looked at was the BIGGEST mess I have ever experienced. I didn't feel I could breath while walking through the place. There were 2 or 3 families living in this house with boxes EVERYWHERE! The bedrooms had so much stuff in there I don't think anyone slept in the beds. They had converted the garage into a bedroom and another storage room. BOXES everywhere in this garage. It was horrendous!

House #1 we liked needed no work, but was under priced. We felt we would get outbid on it again.
House #2 - I liked the house, Art wasn't sure. Huge backyard.
House #3 - Art liked the house, I was blah.

Guess which house we put a bid in? DING DING DING House #3!!!!!

We took a trip to Home Depot priced items that would need to be replaced. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be pricing things. When we got home we looked at Megan's Law and crime reports. That pretty much sealed the deal on which house we put an offer on. The house needs to be upgrade, but it's in good condition. The best part of the house is the Christmas red living room carpet!

Now the waiting game starts again.......

House Hunting Continues

Well looks like we won't be getting the house. Someone offered them cash plus $30K over asking price.....so we will continue to look. We are meeting with the realtor tomorrow to look at 3 homes.

And now we wait.....

We submitted our offer this morning. I think the longest of the process so far was sending a large email with all the paperwork. Now we have to wait to see if they accept our offer. If they accept then we will pay to have an inspector check out the house. Our realtor asked the bank how many offers were coming in. I hope they answer us today. :)
I am ANXIOUS!!!!! It's no fun to keep people waiting when they feel this is their house!

House Hunting

Today Art and I went house hunting for the first time. Our morgage was approved last week. I didn't think we would find anything today, since it was our first time. The first house we looked at I was so discouraged because of all the work that is needed. The realtor took us next door to a house that was update with the same floor plan. AMAZING!!!! Although they wanted $125K more for that house. It gave me hope that the crummy house could be fixed up.

Off to house #2. House #2 was NICE! It needs minimal work. The master bathroom needs new flooring and the shower redone and new molding through the house. It was new paint, nice carpet, hardwood floors, a nice backyard. The garage needs to be painted and cleaned. Overall nothing major needs to be done.

We looked at a few more houses after that. One of the houses had dark panelling on the walls. GROSS!!!! One of the rooms had a 1/2 bath. It looked like someone had smacked up a wall and threw in a toilet & sink. It was just a gross house! Aw no thanks!

We decided tonight to put an offer in house #2. I have a feeling we will be one of many offers that will be put in on the house. I contact our realtor and she is in the process of getting all the paperwork ready. Tomorrow morning we will sign the papers and submit them. Craziness!!!!

If this is the house for us it will all work out!!!!