We Think We're Funny: May 2013

Someone once told me couples that laugh together, last together. Luckily Jonathan and I think we're hilarious!

While we were working on the cover patio...
Jonathan: Babe. What are you doing?
Berennisse: Why you worry about Behr? Don't worry about me!
Jonathan: You're my wife! I have to worry about you.

Berennisse: Babe, rub my belly.
Jonathan: Rub your belly?
Berennisse: Yeah, like a Buddha! A Behr-da!!!

Jonathan: For my birthday can you buy me a squirrel suit?
Berennisse: Like "Hey little buddy! Want a nut?" suit?
Jonathan: I see how you can think that.... (Proceeds to explain what it really is) but if you got me what you were thinking I'd probably rock that!

Berennisse: Jon! Kate (my Kate Spade purse) is on the floor!
Jonathan: Kate was in the way. She's fine.
Berennisse: Kate is NOT OKAY.

When I bought our new dining table and chairs...
Jonathan: Hey babe, did you get the table?
Berennisse: Yeah! But guess what? Those chairs I liked? The ones I thought were $100 for the pair? They were way cheaper!
Jonathan: Oh, how much were they?
Berennisse: $30 for the pair!!!!
Jonathan: You bought six, didn't you?
Berennisse: They're in the car right now!

Deeply Discounted Dining

Would you believe that we got this BRAND NEW table and chairs for $120? And its not from Craiglist.

I love a deal. Seriously. I am one of those crazies that goes out all night on Black Friday. And I will push you out of the way (it's do or die out there!). I hold off on buying stuff if I think it will go on sale. And when I get an AMAZING deal I will tell everyone I know.

I just got our new dining set for almost 90% off. I know! SUCH A DEAL!!!!

After Jonathan painted the dining room last weekend we I talked out how we needed a new dining table. Obviously  I can't go out and buy whatever I wanted. We got bills to pay! Thankfully window shopping is free.

The Monday after Jon painted I had an errand to run right by the JC Penny Furniture Outlet and I decided to stop and see how much a decent table and chairs would be. I figured we could start saving for that. I found this elegant eight seater and thought "that would be perfect..."

But then my little eyes spotted the price tag and I knew destiny had brought us together.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. Original price $350. Sale price $70. The only thing stopping me from buying it on the spot was making sure it would fit in the space and that Jon liked it. With an affirmative answer to both those questions I called up my favorite shopping buddy (my mom) and made a date to return the next day.

Luckily the table was still there (once its gone, its gone) and we quickly found a lady to stick a sold sticker on it.

That's when things got interesting. My mom asked why I wasn't buying the chairs. I explained I had shown Jon pictures of the chairs I liked but the side chairs were $50 for the pair and the arm (ones at the heads of the table) chairs were $100 for the pair. $200 for 6 chairs isn't bad but Jon and I weren't looking to spend that much since we got other plans for right now.

I won't tell you exactly what went down (mother-daughter secrets) but she convinced me to get the chairs! We were in the process of looking for the nicest ones (they're sold as is) when I spotted a pair with a lower price in the corner. $30 for a pair. 

The saleswoman said that those were cheaper because you had to assemble it yourself. I shouted (louder than my normal loud voice) "I got a handy husband! I'll take 6!"

The original total would have been $350 for the table, $450 for the pair of arm chairs and $700 for 4 side chairs = $1550. My total? $70 for the table + $90 for the 6 chairs = $171 with taxes. BUT I still had $11 on a gift card (we used the rest to buy our bed frame) which brought my total to $160. Killer deal!

Oh but I said I got all this for $120? It's because I sold our old table and two chairs for $40 to a coworker. $160 - $40 = $120.

We had to live in a mess of boxes and tables for a couple of days...

but its SO worth it now.

This is one of the best deals I've ever gotten. All that, brand new, for $120? Unbelievable. People sell stuff for way more on Craigslist and its used. If you're not shopping at the JC Penny Furniture Outlet and you live locally you are missing out. If you do decide to check it out please note that I will push you out of the way if you try to buy something I want. Told you I get Black Friday crazy.

Stuck Sliders & Caricatures

Chances are, on any given weekend, you can find us at either Home Depot or Lowe's. Doesn't it seem like all our weekend are full of home improvement-ness? But it's not just our weekends that are consumed with DIY stuff. Every now and then a weeknight becomes a house night. Case in point this random (Wednesday?) evening.

Our sliding screen door to the backyard is an old beaten up thing that never stayed on the track. It would get stuck whenever we tried to open it and sometimes if we were carrying stuff back and forth (like laundry) we would just kick it down, do whatever we had to do, and then prop it back up.

One night Jonathan finally had enough and decided he was going to fix it. He grabbed a screwdriver and the hammer to try to fix the sliders on the bottom of the screen. Apparently the rollers on the bottom and the top of the screen were not extended enough leaving a lot of wiggle room for the screen to fall off the track. Yeah... I'm not sure what all that means but I do know Jon fixed it.

Sliding Door from Berennisse Behr on Vimeo.

Meanwhile I was going through the enormous pile of stuff we brought into house after our massive garage cleanup day. Jon would like to point out that yes, that is a copy of Doom 2 on the top of the pile in case you were wondering. (Remember that!?)

I am a firm believer that the garage is the cars'  bedroom. I will never understand how people choose to store tons of miscellaneous stuff over an investment that's thousands of dollars. Protect the car! Those boxes won't get you to work! The only things that should be in a garage are cars, sporting equipment, tools and holiday decorations.

If something (other then the afore mentioned items) means enough to you that you want to keep it should find a place in your home. That's what I was doing with the pile. Until I found this!

This is a caricature of Jonathan and I in 2008. Jonathan's Granddad has an annual Christmas party and an artist was the entertainment that year (past years have had fortune tellers, palm readers...). We had been dating for a little over a year so I guess this a funny version of our younger selves.

Our walls are pretty bare and I find myself making stuff to hang on them. So far I've made a wedding shadow box, 3D guest book, wee wee dance canvas and a framed monogram. Luckily this was a lot easier and free since I had old frame that seemed to be the right side for the caricature. I just removed the photos of my sister and I (sorry seestor) and trimmed off the top and bottom of the paper. Done!

We hung it next to a framing grid made up of frames that sat on all the tables at our wedding. I'm sure we'll change it out on day (you might make it back seestor!) but for right now it works.

And that's how you spend a midweek evening when you're us. 

Jon's Gray-t Weekend

I was out all day Saturday and came home to this.

Jonathan is the BEST HUSBAND EVER. He also went to store, bought me my moisturizer since he "noticed I was out" and made dinner. Swoon.

We've been steadily working on our place but we haven't really touched anything downstairs aside from our half bath. But all that is about to change since we are excited to make our dining space pretty. 

After some discussion over paint colors (welcome to married life!) we settled on a dark gray for the space. Once we brought it home we had a momentary freak out because it was super dark. Luckily the lovely folks at the Home Deeps added some white to it for free and lightened it up. Crisis averted. 

Then Jon got to painting. 

He prepped the space,

primed the walls,

and painted.

And of course remembered to take pictures to share on the world wide web.

We want to purchase a new dining table and chairs, add shutters and maybe some wainscoting. I also think a mirror and new light fixture are necessary. And of course white baseboards and crown molding. 

Since you all just saw Jon's weekend, I guess I need to share mine (and my brother's).

Again, Jon is amazing. And yes ladies, he's taken. 

Frame That S

Look what I made this weekend!

Jonathan and I need a lot of stuff. Like matching pillows for our bed. And a dishwasher. This means we don't have a lot of stuff to put on our walls. But acquiring artwork is at the bottom of our massive To Do List... actually it may not even be on it. Anyway its not a priority. We did purchase a cool wall clock and hung a wedding print on our living room wall but it was still pretty bare looking.

I was debating between putting up more pictures but I didn't want to go crazy with the wedding memorabilia. We have a canvas wedding print, a shadow box and our guest book on the walls. A little too much wedding. So when I saw a cool 3D S (for Jon's last name) graphic print at TJ Maxx I knew it would look awesome in our home. Only problem is that it was too small and cost about $20. Not worth the money in my world.

But I had a plan. I knew we had leftover MDF from our Man Cave bookshelf project that was a similar size compared to our wedding canvas print. I went to Joann's (with a coupon of course) and purchased a hollow wooden S that wouldn't look too small on the MDF.

At home I used some basic craft paint and applied two coats of metallic gold to the S. I let it dry for about a... week. Ok, I left it on the coffee table for a week.

Finally I thought I should finish it up / had guests coming over so I picked up a can of black matte spray paint and got to spraying. Once the MDF was all covered and fully dry I brought it back to my crafing area (the couch) and used tacky glue to adhere S to the board. I let that sit for three weeks. Have you noticed we are slackers around here?

This past week I visited the Home Deeps (yep, that's my nickname for Home Depot) again and picked out some wall trim and a miter box.  Jonathan and I don't have a fancy saw yet, so we needed the miter box to help us cut the necessary angles to frame this out.

Since I am a big wuss, afraid of cutting myself and destroying the trim Jonathan helped me measure and cut the wood pieces. We just marked the trim at the edges of the MDF and used those to make our angular cuts. The miter box is really easy to use and has the angles on the box so you know where to cut. Pretty easy.

The next day I gathered up my supplies and went outside (in the blazing heat).

I painted the trim pieces a glossy black.

Once it was dry I glued them to the board and waited for that to dry. I then used some caulk to fill in the open spaces between the trim since it wasn't a perfect fit. After that dried I painted over the caulk to finally have a finished project!

Actually, I was done but Jon was not. Weeks ago I had picked out a cheap framing kit from Michaels for $2.50. Jon used that to add a wire to the back of the frame and FINALLY we were done!

We hung the final product other side of our clock with our wedding. Not bad right? It looks even better in person. This is probably one of my favorite crafts to date because it was super easy, cheap (I already owned most of the materials) and I learned to use a miter box and saw. And I think my version is way better than the TJ Maxx version. Just saying....

Fit for a King... & a Queen

Hello new king sized memory foam mattress!

Goodbye old uncomfortable Ikea bed!

Really not sorry to see you and your broken slats go.

During our house search, one of Jonathan's absolute must haves was to find a master bedroom that was big enough to accommodate a king sized bed. Just another reason we chose our condo. We had been sleeping on Jonathan's old queen bed with my full size sheets. Classy. For our wedding we registered and received fancy king sized bedding. (Thanks again to my parents, Jon's mom and my Tia Pierina!) Unfortunately although we had the bedding we did not have the bed. We wanted to wait to find the right one at the right price.

I like to visit my favorite stores regularly and stroll the clearance aisles in case I find a good deal (doesn't everyone do that?). Right before Thanksgiving I dragged Jon into the JC Penny furniture outlet on one of my trips. We got lucky on our first scouting trip. The bed frame was front and center saying "Please take me home!" How could I resist? Not only it is pretty, its incredibly solid and durable. A far far cry from our old Ikea bed. Luckily we received a gift card to JC Penny (Gracias Tia & Primos!) as a wedding gift so we able to get it for F R E E. My favorite price!

Problem was we couldn't fit the bed frame, even in pieces, in one of our cars. We figured it would be super cheap to get it delivered because we live 7 minutes down the street. WRONG. The delivery company wanted to charge us $300. HECK NO. Thieves.

It ended up being way cheaper for us to rent a U Haul and do it ourselves. Once we got it home we stuck in our garage for almost 5 months until our tax refund (speaking of thieves) came in and we started mattress shopping.

Also mattress shopping? Not that fun. Its not like something pretty I can wear but its necessary. Sort of like buying pots and pans.

Eventually we did find a find memory foam mattress at Sam's Club (of all places). The difference between our mattress and traditional mattress is the lack of metal springs. Our bed totally molds to your body. And because its firm you can't feel the other person moving at all. Heaven. The best part is the cooling gel technology which prevents us from getting too warm, especially since the weather is heating up (It was 102 degrees last Sunday at 11:30 am!).

Before we could sleep on it we had take apart our old bed, assemble the new one and "inflate" our mattress. - A HUGE thank you to my brother for hanging out at our house all day waiting for the mattress to be delivered. You are the best bruder I have.

When we got home from work we were really surprised at how small the mattress and box springs boxes were. Not all what we were expecting but it made moving them a lot easier. We dragged/pushed/pulled the boxes upstairs and opened up the mattress. As soon as Jon removed the plastic wrapping the mattress sucked in a ton of air and began to fatten up. Doesn't it look so weird compressed into a tiny plastic lump?

After I was done prematurely trying out the mattress, Jon took apart our old bed and we moved it to the garage. We moved the big boxes containing our new bed frame upstairs. Since it required both of us there aren't any photos of us in action. You can see by the size of the box above how big it was and you can only imagine how heavy it was!

I tried to do my part to put the bed together but I was more hindrance that help. Typical. I did hand Jon some tools and read the instructions out loud but after he accidentally hit me (twice!) I was done. Clearly I was no help so I got in the shower and when I came out it was all done!

Like magic. If magic = Jonathan. I did help him move the new mattress onto the bed and the old one to the garage.

The new bed is the best thing to happen to us in 2013. That's a bold statement but its true. I didn't realize how bad the old bed was until we got this one. We slept so good we woke up in the same position we fell asleep in. And the new bedding makes me feel like I've brought Macy's home with me. Minus the pillows. We're working on those.

We ended up putting our new bed right where the old one had been (see failed layout change above). Since this bed is a lot bigger than our old one we have to change things around in here. The other furniture is too big for the space and we need to update that. I think our next projects will be to paint, rectify the mismatching nightstands problem and address the storage situation for all our clothes. Plus we still need all the make-it-pretty stuff like frames, rugs and lamps. More reasons to repeatedly wander through the clearance sections at all my stores....

But really, such a big improvement!

You See Me Rollin'

A couple of weeks ago when Jonathan and I tackled our garage project I was in Behr Beast mode. Using power drills. Teaching myself some basic HTML stuff. Designing a new blog header. No biggie.

Ok. Big deal! I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Stepped out of my comfort zone and ROCKED it. Obviously this called for self fives, repeatedly asking Jonathan if he was impressed by me and calling my parents to tell them of my recent accomplishments.

The fun didn't end there. 

Recently Jon and I had discussed making some changes to our backyard. We're thinking less concrete box and more suburban oasis. We have some big plans but one of our smaller projects is to add some green back there. 

Step 1 was to move a plant tree thing from our front porch to our backyard. Jon had tried to move it but its really heavy. I thought we could use our dolly to move it. Unfortunately this required moving it around our building. I didn't want to go through our house and we share walls with our neighbors so the only option was to go from our front door all the way around to our garage. 

Considering how much work we how put it on that day I didn't want to ask Jon to do it. I knew he was tired and I figured that it would be a lot easier with a dolly. Except I forgot that I had to lift the stupid pot on the stoop so I could use the dolly. Have a good laugh and excuse my profanity. 

They see me rollin', they hatin'.

We need a lot more plants back there but at least now there's something other than concrete back there.

Third Time's The Charm

First the BIG REVEAL!

Now let's back, back, back it up.

Jonathan and I started this project right after Christmas. We finished at the end of January. Yep, it took almost a month to update the smallest room in our house.

After Plan A- our pedestal sink idea- didn't work out, we opted to buy a new, smaller vanity and sink. We did some shopping comparisons and purchased one from Lowe's. We brought it home and left it in the box. In our dining room. With all of our Christmas stuff. For three weeks. You know while we did this and this.

It's kinda embarrassing to show the world wide web the hot mess that was our house but I keep it real. Our house looks like a disaster zone whenever we are in the middle of a project. This was not our best moment but at least we had an excuse to (keep on) eating on the couch.

We finally decided to get on it and do this thing in the last week of January. Jonathan got back into Handy Husband mode and installed the new vanity. Which he did pretty quickly while I said "I love it! Don't you?" several times.

He hung up the old mirror and we stood back to admire his handy work. And we were not impressed. The vanity was awesome but the mirror looked way uglier than it had before. Time for Plan B- to frame out the mirror a la a thousand Pinterest tutorials (you know, where you cut trim and glue it to the mirror).  We went to Home Depot, spent twenty minutes picking out trim and took it to get cut. Only to be denied. Apparently they (and Lowe's) can only do straight cuts and not the angled ones we needed.

We went back home to wallow in our my defeat. Until Jonathan said that we should just buy a new mirror. He had actually suggested this back when we started brainstorming for this project but I wanted to try to revamp the existing one. AKA I was being cheap.

Obviously that failed and back to Lowe's we went. After some late night wanderings, I selected a pretty new mirror.

Jon picked out a new towel holder. We also wanted a new stand alone toilet paper holder because we didn't want to make holes in our new vanity. Back home Jon installed the new mirror and towel holder. I used a floor vase ($8 from Target!) and stuck some twirly nature-y fillers (Ross is my BFF).

Next was the artwork. Jon and I each picked out a frame on our Ross trip and I made the canvas piece. The rug was a purchase off Joss and Main. Recently we added the glass shelf underneath the mirror to hold the soap and this adorable elephant ring holder my cousin gave us. You can't really see but its cute. Promise. I painted a salad dressing maker thing and stuck some flowers in it  but the door is hiding it. And we are done! It took forever but I am crazy proud of the way it turned out.

One more time- Before & After:

Unfortunately its hard to take good photos because the room is so small and there's no natural light. Obviously an orange bathroom isn't for everyone but we like it. And if we want to change it down the line, its nothing paint can't quickly change.

$350 + 3 weeks = The prettiest orange half bath you ever did see. At least in my humble opinion ;)

Throwing Shade

One of my favorite things about our condo is that we have a private backyard. Jonathan and I looked at several places and no other complex had pretty patios like ours does.

When we first saw our patio I was thrilled. It was all concrete which meant less dirt during the windy winter season and the skeleton of a cover patio. The previous home owner said that she had originally tried to cover the patio but it had flown off with the wind. Jonathan and I deduced that it was probably due to shoddy workmanship since there was so much of that going in the home. Haven't you seen the photos of the nasty paint jobs? We were pretty sure that it would be easy to cover ourselves. 

Just to clarify: Ourselves = Jonathan. 

The weather has been beautiful lately and that means summer and its 100 degree heat is just around the corner. So we kicked our butts into gear and did our homework to see what kind of material we were going to use. 

Its really popular to use lattice or tons of skinny slats of wood on a cover patio but since we enter the house through the patio we wanted to have something that would allow us to walk without getting wet. See what I'm talking about? That's the door to our garage.

My parents had actually done something similar to their cover patio last summer and used plastic carbonate roofing paneling. Jon had helped my brother do it and it wasn't hard. We figured we'd copy them and do it our place. Imitation is the highest form of flattery right? 

Maximum shade, easy install and it was cheap! Total we spent $250 including the nails. Heck yes!

Once we got back home Jon morphed into handy husband and did his thing. First, he moved our cable line so the top of the wood frame would be free to drill into.

Then he placed one panel on the frame, positioned it and drilled it down using special roofing screws. 

He started with the piece closest to the garage and then moved on to the panel that would partially lay on top of it, making sure he hit wood he used the drill to attach it to the frame. Meanwhile, I sat there and looked pretty. I may have enjoyed an adult beverage or two. I have the best husband ever.

It took a few hours but once he got in the groove it went pretty quickly. At least from where I was sitting!

We did have a couple of issues. One, the screws weren't long enough for some spots so we only got about halfway done before we need another Home Depot run. Two, some of the panels were not being fully supported on the inside because they weren't touching the frame. This was a problem because we didn't want rain to come in through there and we didn't want the panels to become loose due the strong winds this area gets in the winter. We tossed around a couple of solutions but then I decided to adhere the panels together using Liquid Nails.

Jonathan was concerned about me and the mess I was making so he stepped in to help me do it himself. Because the wood was warped and not completely straight, the panels didn't lie flat on top of each other. That meant that we didn't have a flat surface to work with for the Liquid Nails. Jon cleaned it up and just threw a couple of the roofing fasteners into the two pieces. Way faster and easier than my idea.

Since we had to make another Home Depot run, Jonathan ended up finishing it the next day. And we FINALLY got to enjoy the lovely shade.

Now that he's done his part, its my turn. I'm thinking of adding some new furniture and plants. And I'd really like to add some lighting. What we currently have is ugly and doesn't really work that well.

But that's for another day. For now we'll enjoy it as is!