a DIY dutch door.

[one dutch door and two goonies]

We have dogs...as I have mentioned before, now 2 big ones. We did the doggy-gate thing for awhile in our house until my legs just didn't want to clear the gate any longer. Something about having a belly and no abdominal muscle tone makes stepping over a gate tricky and rather unsafe. We like to keep the dogs out of our bedroom and now we want them to stay out of spud's room too. I was struggling with the idea of putting a gate up in front of spud's room when I really don't want to be stepping over it holding a precious baby. Yes, a dog-free zone is important but what a nuisance! We have an old house that has super narrow doorways, like 26". The fancy dog gates with the door that opens needs a modern sized doorway that is wide.... not tiny like ours. So, unfortunately those wouldn't work in our house.

[a cute one from pinterest]

So plan B?! Well...I tossed out the idea to matt that what if we made a dutch door? I thought he might laugh at my silliness, but instead he loved the idea. We researched how much a dutch door costs- upwards of $1,000. Ridiculous right, for a door...a nice door but still?! Oh...this is a dutch door, also known as a barn door, stable door, half door (pictured above). They are adorable. So... we thought...hey let's DIY a dutch door! That's perfect!! A little door to open and close with a doorknob when we want to enter spud's room. This will be a door that almost 100% stays closed to keep big dogs out and little Cora in. We can also close the top half when its time to sleep and want to keep the noise out of her room. Perfect.

[completed dutch door!]

Our steps to a DIY door...

1. We didn't want to cut the door in half that is already existing to Cora's room. We are renting our house, and it's just not nice to start cutting things in half that aren't yours.

[the old, very nice looking singular door]

2. Get an incredibly helpful dad to help with motivating to start a project and help with the logistics of completing a dutch door project. So, Matt and his dad went to a second-hand-construction store to find an old door that would kind-of fit in our doorway.

[matt, his dad, and even colby trying to help]

3. It took about 2 days for them to make the door fit. That was shocking. But nothing in our house is level or straight. Not the ground, not to ceiling and definitely not the doorway.

4. Two additional hinges were chiseled and attached to the door and frame. This is so that each 1/2 of the door has 2 hinges to swing on.

5. Once the door was custom fit to the doorway and hinges placed they measured a nice 1/2 way point to cut the door in half. The door was cut in half and then fine-tuned to fit yet again in the doorway now that the load was hanging differently on the 4 hinges.

[in progress]

6. The pre-existing old fashioned doorknob was placed on the door again.

7. Matt added a strip on wood to the top and bottom edge of the door interfacing. This made the door look nice, a little more of a finished look. It also made the door feel a little stronger and more durable. He also filled in that awful hole you see above where the preexisting door latch was.

[the strip being screwed in]

[ready to be painted]

8. We painted the door tailor's chalk white- the same color as the trim in the room.

9. This is an extra step that most people would want to make... add a latch to connect the top and bottom parts of the doors into one door. This would be helpful when trying to close the door in its entirety. We are skipping this step for now because we don't see ourselves shutting the top half of the door that often, and can't decide on a nice latch to connect the two. So, we will address this step in about 6 months when we need it.

10. Marvel over the 1/2 door invention, and love it.....DIY dutch door complete!

hello 2012!

[the chew man... photo taken by my new DSLR 50mm lens that matt gave me as a stocking stuffer... i love it, although chewy doesn't look too impressed. perhaps he wants his bangs and goatee trimmed, hard to tell for sure]

Happy New Year!

Well every year seems to bring its own changes here to our lives. This next one will be eventful also, I am sure of it. I will be graduating nursing school, having my first baby, and becoming a nurse (a real career with a salary!!). I hope you're all having a wonderful first day of the new year reflecting on last year or perhaps making plans for the new one. I don't really do new years resolutions so I will just focus on being happy and cherishing this time. Oh yeah, and I'm working today. 

This weeks projects:

-take a bump photo for week 24!

-paint our dutch door white...more on this project soon!

-add a latch to connect the top and bottom together when desired

[family heirloom...our changing table in the closet nook]

-build a platform to raise up the diaper changing table to a better height for us tall people

-paint the wood platform white to match the base boards in the room

[current knobs, which aren't too bad]

-find 6 new modern-ish silver knobs for the diaper changing table

-get a much needed prenatal massage...yay!

- & relax

projects galore!

We have been super busy over here... and it is exciting... let me tell you! We have my in-laws in town helping us with spud room projects, projects galore. Matt and his dad are working on wood/handy man projects while matt's mom, sister, and I are working on sewing projects. 

You've probably seen this clip from "What About Bob" before- "I'm sailing!!!!!"

 Hilarious.

Well that's me over here except... I'm quilting!!!!! Yep, that's right, I'm actually quilting for the very first time. I was very hesitant at first, but with the nudge from matt's mom, her expertise, and her wonderfully fancy sewing machine I am successfully quilting. I will go into details later... but here is a few snap shots from our busy week. It involves greens, turquoises, and grays--full of quilting, painting, new fixtures, a changing table, and a dutch door. I can't wait to have time to tell you all about them!

I hope you all are enjoying this week after christmas as much as we are. But I hope yours is much more relaxing! I will be back to post about the details of our projects Friday and maybe even a belated bump picture.

spud room projects to do...

[here]

Here are our projects to do during school break for spud room (that's now! yay!!). We have been chipping away at our list of things we'd like to accomplish during our time off this winter break. So far, not too bad. We have one more week. But some of the little details can be ongoing throughout our busy semester too.

 DONE:

-find a crib or paint current one
-move my current office (spud room) upstairs where Matt's office is.
-put crib together
-buy a lazy boy recliner for spud room...turns out we have such a small house that a lazy boy will not fit in the spud room. So we are working on shifting around our furniture to fit a lazy boy rocker/recliner in the living room... and it's bought and beautiful & ready for Cora. Thanks mom and dad!!
-paint room gray
-take down shades
-make diaper changing pad covers
-make a platform for the diaper changing table to sit on to make it taller
-make dutch door
-change out light fixture
-new outlets/covers
-buy 6 cute metal knobs for diaper changing table

TO DO:

[maybe just one panel of this per window?! adorable, from land of nod...too expensive, must find cheaper alternative]

-decide on a style and sew white curtains for nursery that not only block out most light but lighten up the room. Is that even possible?!

[love the way this rug looks....so fun yet subtle]

[this cute one too...from anthropologie of course, but is it $348 of cute for a 4x6 rug?! probably not]

[this creme rug is pretty calming and then have louder accent colors]

[home depot rug...big contender. love this one, not sure on light browns/creme going with gray walls, but we do have the dark wood accents in the room too]

-shop for a rug to fit in tiny room...maybe 3x5 or 4x6. Grey rug perhaps? Green-ish? Floral-ish?

[my journal sketches of rope-ladder closet]

-make a little closet rope-ladder for spud clothes. This will be out of about 3 dowels and white rope. I think it might actually look cute and be super functional.

[here]

-make mobile/hanging cuteness for over the changing table

[from etsy]

[from etsy]

-decide on making or buying alphabet & number cards to hang on the big open wall

[like this cute one, but instead of storing bunnies, store toys]

-find cute baskets either metal, wicker, or white something for under the crib storage for toys and blankets etc.

spud box!! (a DIY co-sleeper)

[my dad and matt installing the spud box... in coordinating clothing and beards. nice job guys!]

My dad made Cora a fantastic and beautiful co-sleeper for our bedroom. It's made of pine that he ripped, sanded, and constructed into a "spud box." I got the co-sleeper idea from [here] a while back. I asked my dad what he thought about this project and jumped right to it! When my parents drove out to visit us they brought his creation. It's beautiful and will be incredibly useful.

As you can tell from the pictures, our bedroom is tiny. We have an older 1900-something house that we love for now...but the downside is... small rooms. We want to have Cora sleep in our room to be able to bond with her, provide for easier middle of the night feedings and have the benefits of co-sleeping for SIDS, etc. Pack 'n plays are too big, and why have something plastic when you can have a wood beauty? Plus we are two big people in a queen sized bed, cora needs her own space free of blankets and pillows to rest comfortably.

Spud box dimensions:
36" long x 16" wide with 12" sides

The two long slats slide under the mattress, and it has the two legs for support on the opposite side of the box. My dad says this project took him about 40 hours... but he is a perfectionist and chose to mill his own wood for the project. Hard to say how long it would take someone else.

My dad chose to make the 2 legs of the spud box with the ability to change the height. This will be great for when we move and *hopefully* upgrade to a bigger room with a king sized bed. This may be only a dream, but at least the spud box will fit regardless for our next babe too.

Foam:

I bought 3" high density foam at Jo Ann's. This normally would be about $40 for this chunk of foam, but with those 50% off coupon is was $20...which I think is still pricey. So make the cuts wisely! The foam was cut down to 36" x 16" with just a regular sharp kitchen knife. Super easy.

Spud-box sheet:
I mentioned in the previous post how my mom and I sewed the fitted sheets. Really quick to make. I also cut down a vinyl fitted sheet that usually is for cribs to prevent spill-absorption. This layer goes under the fitted sheet so that it protects our foam from nighttime accidents/spill outs. One fitted sheet came down to about $5 to make and about $7 for the vinyl sheet at Target.

We can use this co-sleeper up to 6 months we think and for our next in-the-future baby...tater tot.

Next step:
Thoroughly clean bedroom and wash all new fresh bedding for Cora's arrival....oh yeah, and kick the dogs out of the bedroom. Something we have been dreading, we love sleeping in the same room with them. Which brings us to the next project- similar to the DIY dutch door....a DIY swing dog-gate for our bedroom!