It's Hot Here!

The ratties have been so hot, that they roll over on their backs and leave their little arms and legs in the air. At first, I thought they were dead, but they were just too hot!

Poor babies! It has been over a hundred for a couple of weeks, but this week it dipped down just under a hundred. It is still very hot though!

I usually put a cold water bottle in their cage to help cool them down. They immediately snuggle up against it. Or I give them frozen fruit. They love that!

I hope everyone else is staying cool!

Love,
Lauren
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Ikea Hack: Functional Black Workstation

Materials Used: (4) 19"x20" Gorm Shelves, (2) 19"x12" Gorm Shelves; (2) 30"x12" Gorm Shelves; (4) 68.5" Gorm Posts, (10) Ekby Valtar brackets in black, (3) 8'x8"x1" boards, (2) 10'x12"x1" boards, (2) 4'x8"x1" boards; black paint; cherry wood stain; polyurethane; L brackets; Kasset Black boxes


My husband and I needed a good workstation for the both of us. We had a lot of books, and wanted to incorporate them in a clean, simple way. I came up with my Ikea hack from this other desk hack here. I really preferred black and dark cherry stained wood (the top is cherry, although it looks black), plus we wanted to be able to spend as little money as possible. The Gorm unit was the cheapest I could find.

So we gathered all of our supplies, which included needing to go to Lowes and getting many cedar boards. We painted all of the Gorm shelves black, as well as 2 of the 8'x8"x1" boards.

We then cut the Gorm posts to the right height. This was actually kind of scary because all of the holes needed to line up perfectly, which a few didn't. So I sanded the ends to make everything even. It was a lot more work than one would have thought. I also sanded the planks of wood that would become stained.

At this point, we began installing the units. We put the Gorm pieces together, as well as attached the Ekby brackets and black shelves to the wall.

To attach the planks of wood together, we used leftover Gorm pieces. We actually did not drill through the predrilled holes in the Gorm posts because we thought it would be stronger.

From there we attached the top to the L brackets, put everything away, and Voila! a new desk!

You can really see the color of the wood in the photo below. We are generally happy with the entire unit. It suits our purposes well!

Love,
Lauren
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Ikea Hack: Kitchen Chopping Block

Items used: Ivar shelves (4) 33"x20" and (2) 17"x20"; (3) Ivar Side units, cut to correct height; (1) Lagan countertop 50"x26";  (2) Byholma baskets; (1) Gorm height extension post; (1) 39" Observator crossbrace; string and white paint


We had very little countertops at our new home. We had a lot of Ivar shelves (from the shelving unit in the office). 

We decided to take our three side units and cut them to the height of our cabinets. We now had 6 pieces - 3 shorter ones lining up with each other, and three longer pieces that lined up. Now we painted all of the Ivar pieces white.

We put all the pieces together and added the crossbrace to strengthen the unit. L brackets were added to the top of the side units. Then we screwed the Lagan countertop onto the L brackets.

As you can see above, I miscalculated how long the countertop would be. So we went back to Ikea and got Gorm pieces and some baskets. We screwed the Gorm extension post and tried on the baskets. (I'm sure there is a better way to attach them. But they aren't going anywhere, so we were satisfied.)

It was really easy to put together. And we are very happy with it overall! It fits all of our appliances, dry food, and pots and pans.

Love,
Lauren
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Our little home!

So we finally put everything together! Here are pictures of our little house!


Here is our living room. Thank you Mom and Vicki-Lynn for the couches!!!!

My Texas Star! Isn't it awesome?

A look from the living room into the kitchen.

We actually built this chopping block unit from different pieces from Ikea. I painted the shelving unit white and we added a wood countertop from Ikea.

Some copper jars I found at Goodwill and a cow creamer we got as a wedding present. :)

Our little dining space.

A look into our bedroom.

Our bathroom

Our office. We built this desk from Ikea shelving units too!

We are going to get a black futon for the office, so we can have visitors!!

Love,
Lauren
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Our Neighborhood

Hello everyone!

Here are some pictures I took today of our neighborhood. It is so beautiful! The river is literally a few blocks away from us!

One street to get to our house....

Here is our street....

This is to our right.

This is to our left.

And this is what we see from our house. (Note: The yard is awful! But I am excited to make is pretty!)

Love,
Lauren
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Finally got Internet!

Hello everyone! We got into Texas last Thursday, but only this past Wednesday did we get internet. So I will start the post off with some photos of our trip to Texas.

The ratties getting comfortable for the loooong drive.

Los Angeles traffic. Yuk!

Arizona's sunrise...

New Mexico!

Welcome to Texas!!!

The sunset that evening...

We'll get pictures of Austin soon! We were too concerned about taking the right freeways and exits that I didn't really get pictures. But Austin and our home will be next!


Much love,

Lauren
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