Picture wall: hang it in less than an hour!

I wanted a fun, new arrangement for pictures at the house, and found lots of inspiration on Pinterest (follow me!).I found what would be the perfect arrangement behind the couch, displaying all of the pictures of our family our kid. (Definitely made me realize I need more photos of the husband and myself...)

I set up my arrangement on the floor, took a photo so I would remember the arrangement...then piled all the pictures by the end table for about a month. I just didn't know HOW to do it! And do it right! And make it straight! And not put a dozen extra holes in the wall!

But recently, while the husband was destroying our basement (that's another post altogether), I decided I was going to be handy as well. I laid my pictures out again, and picked up some tools including:

Hammer
Painter's tape
Tape measure
Pencil
Nails
Ruler
Small and large level



And got to work. I marked 60" from the floor, since that's about standard for where you want the center of the picture to hang for eye-level. I held a picture up, centered on the 60" mark, and marked the bottom edge of that frame. That's about where I wanted the bottom line. From there, I ran painter's tape level along that line.

I also measured the length of the entire picture span, including 2" gaps between each picture. I centered that behind the couch, and marked my end points. This is where the line of frames would begin, and end.

Start hanging! I always hated hanging pictures because I always found it so hard to mark the spot where the nail should go, and actually get it right. And if there are TWO hangers?? Come on! But I found this little trick on Pinterest and it changed my world:

I'm sorry I don't have in-action pics, it was just me hanging these!

I placed the frame facedown, held painters tape sticky side out against the back, where the hanger is. I used a nail to poke a hole exactly where the hanger is in the tape.

Carefully holding the tape in place with the frame, I held the frame up, level against the bottom line, and pressed the tape to the wall. It wasn't always pretty, but it did the trick. I nailed through the tape in the place I marked, peeled the tape, and hung my frame. Perfect!

Making progress! 

I marked a 2"gap, did it again, and hung the next one. Took me about an hour start to finish with seven frames. Check it out!

We bought a house!

After many months of waiting, we finally have a house!

Husband and I put in an offer back in June, but it was a short sale (IMO, a horrible name for this type of transaction because as we learned, they are so rarely "short"). In October we got word that we are final, and would close in November. Finally on November 15, we were handed our keys!

In just 14 long days, we've made significant progress on the house, special thanks to our fabulous family, including my dear partner in crime here, Hannah. I'm preparing that picture post now, look for it coming next week! For now, check out the long list of "what we've done in 14 days."

Tore out 1400 sq ft of nasty carpet
Destroyed a dilapidated basement kitchen
Removed a ton of ugly wallpaper
Filled 30 yds of dumpster with said carpet, kitchen, fencing, edging, wallpaper and other refuse left in the home
Gave away two yard swings (thanks, Craigslist!) 
Raked and hauled two years's worth of leaves in the front and back yard
Removed a rotten treehouse
Cut down and evaluated overgrown shrubberies
Mowed the lawn one last time before winter
Repaired walls damaged by wallpaper and bad workmanship
Primed two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, living room, long hallway and tall entry
Painted two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, living room, long hallway and tall entry
Primed and painted all of the trim upstairs
Primed and painted 5 closets 
Bought new appliances
Selling old appliances (thanks, Craigslist!)
Cleaned windows, bathroom, kitchen and hardwood flooring
(I'm sure I missed a ton of other things, so for now, I write "LOTS OF OTHER STUFF")

And finally, packed and moved our entire two bedroom apartment to the basement for now, since we moved before the carpet came. Carpet was installed on Tuesday, and we've been slowly organizing and reorganizing to make it home. Hoping to be sleeping there tonight! Hooray!

Special special special thanks to our family to make this happen. There was no way we could have done this without their dedication. We owe all of them pizza, and help when they move, paint and have yard work. LOVE!

(By the way, we've been working our day jobs this entire time, too. SO most of this happened on weekends and evenings...)
 
Promises for more pics to come!

-Katie

Organizing home improvement chaos

Secretly, outside of my messy baking and scattered crafts, I’m a charts girl. I like things neat, tidy, laid out on a beautiful, color coded excel doc that you could frame it’s so gorg.

It was only natural that my head quickly started spinning when we started to believe that this house could actually be ours, and then was. All the talk of caulking and primer and tile and toilets along with the many, many dollar signs agonized my brain.

I needed to chartize.

I hopped on excel and set up a pretty simple chart. One tab for every room, including each bedroom, living room, entryway, etc.

Columns include the order in which each task is to be done (i.e. Remove wallpaper is number 4, and prime is 5, paint is 6, etc), cost, date the task was updated, and additional notes. And when my husband and I sit to go over our plans, we can be on the same page, literally.

Now, of course other things will come up, and it’s not an end-all, be-all perfect solution, but it works for us to keep us on the same page, and keep our priorities in check.

I've made the doc public here if it may help anyone else. Enjoy!

Keep an eye here too, as we close on November 15 and start (de)construction that night!