So there Ikea.

Don't get me wrong now.   I could spend HOURS in Ikea and I would be loving every minute of it.  But when my sister-in-law requested a new shoe cabinet, I just knew that I could build one better than Ikea's laminate version.

The problem area is this space at the front door of their house where everyone comes in and deposits their shoes... and bags... and coloring books:

And since my sister-in-law has a 3 year old and a one month old new baby, it hasn't been getting any better recently.  So she asked me to fix it.  Actually, she pleaded with me to fix it.  And gave me almost 100% of the creative control.  Basically she said, "do what you need to do and give us a big reveal when it's done".  Now, you know that those words are like liquid gold to a DIYer like myself, right?

So I went home and got to work.  I used plans from Ana White (like I usually do) and modified them to fit the actual space.  And soon enough I had this:

We quickly realized that there was no way it was going to make the trip to Princeton in one piece, so it actually ended up looking a bit like this:

I also noticed that my sister-in-law and my brother both sit at the tiny little chairs of their three year old's table in order to put their shoes on.  Obviously that situation had to be rectified.  So I was off to Sal's in search of a chair.  I managed to wrangle home this lovely item after sweet talking it down to $6.  (Yes, I did talk the price of a chair down at the Salvation Army.)

But I knew that my sister-in-law wanted a lighter colored wood and that the pattern on that fabric is just about as butt-ugly as you can get.  So after lots of sanding, staining, stapling and sewing, the chair was looking like this instead:

The next step was just getting it all into their house.  I made my second trip down to Princeton this past weekend, and put the shoe cabinet back together in the entryway.  I had also made a shelf for hanging all sorts of bags and such which proved to be the most aggravating part of the whole sha-bang.  Let's just say that there may be just a few holes in the wall under that shelf.  Hey - I wanted it to be sturdy. And it's not my fault that the builders of this house refused to put the studs where they belong.  But all worth it, I say.  Let me remind you of the before:

And now....

Mission completed.

Our Busy Summer

Obviously I've been a terrible blogger this summer.  But there is a reason.  This summer I made the switch from average stay-at-home mom, to12 hr a day contractor/construction worker.  But you all know that I'm in my element and loving every minute of it, so please don't take that as a complaint.  

Here's the quick back story:  old dilapidated garage, never had a door,  big chunk cut out of its front, might fall on us at any moment.  Also totally obscuring the beautiful view of our property which was the main reason that we bought this house in the first place.  Observe:

So we figured that by moving the garage location to the other side of the driveway (ours is a horseshoe driveway), we could clear this eyesore and have a much better view out of our window and from our deck.  So we ordered a lot of materials and one day it was all delivered to our driveway.  Several pallets of stuff that looked like this:

And then the building began.  And so did the heatwave of 2011.  But we had to carry on.  Let's just say that I spent most of the time building in a bathing suit and repeatedly dumping buckets of water over my head.  First the framing:

Then the sheathing (yeah, that's right, I learned a lot of building terminology this summer.)

Did I mention that it was 104 degrees?  No joke.  No exaggeration.

We brought in a special crew:

And a decorating committee:

And a professional photographer.

We are now super-awesome at installing shingles and vinyl siding.  (although, there might be a smidge of white caulk involved in the aluminum fascia covers and the soffit.)

I even built a window box to complete the new look.  And we are pretty sure that the overhead door is secure and will not come crashing down on anyone's head.

With the new construction complete, we turned back to the source of the problem.  Here is the stunning view that we used to enjoy from our deck:

No one was happier to begin this part of the process than I was.

Immediate improvement in the scenery (even with the piles of rubble).

Let the clean up begin!

Next up (next year.... being that our bodies and our bank accounts are now exhausted) - Building a second, lower level to our deck to make it more useful for our family and friends!