Days with the Dorans

I should probably do a proper before and after- and I will, but for right now, I'm just playing catch-up. After my laundry room mini make-over, I wanted to do something to our kitchen too- especially add a backsplash. My friend Shannon's boyfriend, Jeremy did the work and he also fixed my lights and some nail-pops in my walls! (He's amazing... but I'll go over that another time). After Jer did an amazing job on the backsplash, I needed to paint, so I went with gray- but if you give a girl a paintbrush, she's going to go nuts so this table that I hate... I painted it. It's darker than the walls but I like it. I am a girl of hand-me-downs and have never bought a table. This used to be my parents' table but now it's ours and we've had it forever so it's really old and cruddy. i painted darker than the walls though it's hard to really see. I also got some new accents~ The sign above the door says, "Love lives here."  We also got this ar...

I always hated the color of our laundry room (but it's our laundry room) and I HATED the floor which was gross (but it's our laundry room). When our dryer finally broke (for a second time after we tried to fix it), it was time to finally change that laundry room. I found a stacked washer/ dryer on sale at Costco that was cute and had great reviews.Turned out it was also on sale at Lowe's (who had better reviews for delivery and installation). So we pulled the trigger. This meant removing top cabinets. Oh my goodness, did all that removal of things (old tub, machines, cabinets) and uncovered a world of gross! I'm tough though and so got to work. I painted the room a light gray and found a flooring (still a laminate but a nicer one) that matched. At first we thought we had to pull up the old laminate but thankfully Shannon's boyfriend came over to see it and said we could just go right over the old floor. That was a blessing because it was WORK! Jeff went on a disc go...

After a year of a microwave that didn't work and using an old one that we had in our dining room... we finally got this beauty! I absolutely LOVE it!!! Not only is it beautiful, it's SUPER quiet and the popcorn feature senses and works like a dream. All is right in the Doran universe again! Thank you Home Depot~ (last of it's kind so we had to install it ourselves... well... we hired someone ourselves).

 May 22nd. That's the day we originally ordered a new door after our old one was damaged in a wind storm. It wasn't like we had NO door, but still... it was ripped from the wood and annoying. We ordered it thinking it would be delivered over the summer while we were home. I can't begin to tell you the nightmare it was. Everything was pushed back and it was FINALLY to be delivered on August 9th (Jeff's birthday) IT. WAS. THE.WRONG. DOOR. So.... They had to reorder it again. They said they'd put a rush on it but we waited over another month to finally get it installed and now that we're back in school, my parents had to help out and be there for installation (thanks nana and papa). So it's in. It looks great. But almost 6 months for a regular- no fancy- we'll take that one- door... ridiculous. Back to Home Depot for us!

It's an exciting day for the Dorans whenever we get ANYTHING new and we were LONG overdue for some new couches! I was going to take my Nana's old couch, but my brother got it so my mom said she'd get us one. Well you can't have just one, so we ended up purchasing two more because they had to match. These are fun couches! Leather so easy clean-up (why didn't we have this when the kids were younger) and they have remotes to lounge back like a lazy boy! There are 6 spots that do that (so one for each of us- and they have plugs for your phones (we don't really need that, but still...). We were pretty excited! And for Jeff's upcoming birthday, he got a new electric mower! The old mower was a mess and we've been much more environmentally conscious lately. This is seriously the coolest mower out there!! It's super quiet and has a headlight so you can mow in the dark (and yes- at the time of the writing of this blog, we have done that). It also w...

I don't know what took me so long on this one. I tried to power-wash our house but it did NOT work so I FINALLY made the call and had it professionally cleaned! They did a GREAT JOB. Had to post it here in case I need them years down the road again! (MDTH Services)

How lucky Ali is that my mom painted her room from left-over paint from Maddy's room! It looks so pretty now. She also got her a new dresser and new curtains. I got her a new bedspread, pillow and blanket and my brother got her that cute reading chair in the corner. This is Al's sanctuary. So happy she's happy!

Nothing like waiting until the last minute... We LOVE our deck but it was in need of some TLC for sure! Jeff power-washed it and then it was time to paint. I opted to do grey instead of the tan color and I really like it. This was after one coat. I actually had to wait a week to do the second because of rain. The leaves are already starting to fall so I got it done just in time. I can't wait to get the fire-pit back on our deck! Bring on the fall!

So this summer Dave (and Jeff helped him...) built us some awesome shelves in our basement for storage! That meant that it was time to go through the bins I had stacked down there. OH MY GOSH!! I was a bit sick going through them and seeing 1- all the things that I should have given to my friends who had little kids because they were so cute and 2- all the things I had with TAGS that my kids never wore!!! (ugh) There were even some favorite outfits I had of Joe's that I don't think I got out for Z. We had soooo much stuff! I probably should have done a garage sale but I don't have the patience or time for one. I did get a few bags with shoes and clothes for Jodi, but still... sick I didn't go through it earlier! In one of those giant black bags, Jeff donated books. We have so many books they're coming out of our ears. I thought about looking in the bag but knew if I did, I'd take them out and the bottom line is... libraries are good. I hope some little girl...

So two years ago we bumped out our kitchen.  Last year we built a deck and this year was finally the year to finish it off with some paint!!  I went back and forth trying to decide what color/colors to do but I am REALLY happy with how it turned out.  Between everything going on I felt like this took a while (especially the dumb white railings) but it was well worth it! I loved the idea of the white railings but was on the fence with what to do on the bottom.  For a long time I was thinking about going darker but then opted for a lighter look.  I was going to to go with a transparent stain but after sanding for hours (trying to get the dumb stamps they put on boards off) and still having so much to do, I opted for the easy route and went with deck paint.  My dad helped and we also did the bottom part gray to match the house.  I am so happy with how it turned out and perhaps more so that it is DONE!  Now I can finally give some attention...

 It's been a long time in the making but we've been really enjoying our new deck!  The only thing left to do is stain it (which will happen next summer after the wood has been 'out' a year).  It is now much bigger than the deck we had prior to our new kitchen and I love it.  I thought I took more pictures of the progress, but I didn't.  Here's a bit of a recap.  It started with (of course) deck demolition.  We were able to keep many of the original braces (is that the word~ maybe joists?) from our lower deck. During demolition, Jeff stepped on a rusty nail.  It was the first (but not the last) trip to the ER.  We were able to get the boards all cut and out of our yard which was nice.  It was also a good work out!  The next step was digging post holes for the new portion of the deck.  Danny put a deck on his house too and so we worked together renting materials.  Danny's yard (sadly) had a lot of clay which ma...