Up all night

While Robert was running the Ragnar and basically staying awake all night... I was up all night too.  I got this last minute idea when I was getting contact solution for Robert late one night.  I have been looking for some solution for our bedroom, fabric that I like, comforter/duvet cover that I like.  I wasn't for sure what I wanted.  I did want a bedskirt which we didn't have, I wanted a pretty place to unwind and a place that would be desirable to be in.  (I was going to get him a holding banquet type table.)

While I was shopping I ran across a "bed in a bag" kind of thing, which had sheets, blanket, sham covers, bedskirt all in the same package.   Most the one I see and like are upwards of $100 or $200.  I am cheap... I am VERY cheap and don't like spending that kind of money on things.  Robert on the other hand, he is not cheap, he doesn't even look at the price tags I don't think. 

This bed set was $44, so I thought.... I can do that for a KING size bedding set.  I can live with that.  Not to mention fabric may be at least that and then I would have to sew it too.  At that point I thought... this will be for Robert's father's day gift.  I grabbed the bedding and then went to look at fabric.

I got fabric for the curtains, for $5....  a piece that would do shear under curtains and then grey outter curtains too.  I also picked up a grey flat sheet for $3 which I thought would come in handy.  (I love buying cheep fabric from other things to fill my needs.  I often will go to second hand stores and buy sheets that I like for other things, or even curtains to turn into different things.)

I also have been wanting to get a headboard for our bed, which we have NEVER had for any of our beds.  I remember seeing something with wooden pallets that people have used the wood from them to make other thigns... then I also remembered seeing a wooden fence like look for a daybed or a girls garden kind of bed.  I decided I would kind of go that route. 

It was Friday about 2pm and I found some wooden pallets off KSL classifieds for free... picked them up and then went to get paint from Walmart.  I also got some sand paper.  (Later found out we already had sandpaper, but that is okay.) 

I came home started pulling the boards off the pallet... and my goodness, they are stuck on there really hard!  They have those pallet nails I guess they are called, they are twisted nails, so they are inbetween a nail and a screw.  They don't pull out too well.  I had a hard time getting them out without breaking the boards or splitting them in half. 

I finally just got Robert's circular saw and cut down the sides of the pallet, then I just had the middle nails to get out of the boards.  Some of the boards would have 4-6 nails in just one side of the board.  Once I started cutting the boards things went much smoother.

At about midnight, after putting the girls back to bed (they were having a friend sleepover) I started to sand my boards.  I had shut my garage door, and spent the next 3 hours sanding my boards.  I then played with the salvagable boards to make a headboard.  I didn't have enough of them to make a full headboard without spaces, so I moved things around and played with it. 

I then decided to paint some of the boards pink and some grey.  I painted all my boards and about 4am, I ran out of paint.  Ugh!  I didn't want to go to the store to get more paint with the kids at home.  I knew I needed to clean the house too, so I went inside and cleaned the kitchen starting with the dishes. 

Once the paint was dry (it didn't take too long) I started arranging the boards together, and then nailing them together.  I have to admit, I wasn't loving it... something was missing.  I couldn't do anything more, it was now 5:30 am... I swept the floors and did some laundry and sent a few texts to Robert who was trying to figure out why I was awake.  Finally at 6am I went to bed, knowing I needed to wake kids up at 8:30 to get breakfast before the sleepover girl had to go home at 9:30ish. 

I woke up at 8, took a shower and suprisingly felt pretty good all day.  I think it was because I was too busy and was on the go all day so I didn't have time to be tired.

I talked to my sister for ideas... since I wasn't loving it and was afraid it wouldn't look rustic but instead just look like it was unfinished with the screw holes and the cracks in the boards.  I was afraid the fabric style and the headboard style wouldn't match. After talking to hear I decided to putty some of the holes and paint the whole thing grey and leave the pink out.  I puttied and sanded, then repainted.

In the meantime of it all, I made the curtains, hung them and cleaned all the toys out of our room and tried cleaning things up in there.  I made the bed and pulled it out so I could attach the headboard.  I sanded the corners of the boards and got a call from Robert that was saying he was on his way home... I quickly took the headboard up to my room (it was in two parts) and screwed it to the wall.  I pushed the bed back, put all the pillows on it and it looked great, or so I thought!

I am always trying to be frugile and Robert knows that... so once he saw it and we were laying in bed, I was asking him... how much do you think the headboard cost me?  He answered $4.  I told him to guess realisticly, then he said $40.  He knows how frugile I am I guess.  The headboard cost me $17... wood was free, paint was about $13 (including the pink that I repainted) and the sand paper was about $4.  And the curtains were $5, oh and the curtain rod was like $7.  I did buy 2 extra pillows too for the shams so that was extra too.  With all that, even though it was a good buy and things were pretty cheap in my oppinion, I was out of grocery money... which is what I used.  Oops! 

Amber seems to like our bed too! Almost as much as she likes her hat which she wore to the girls' baptism.

Now I just need to work on the furniture in our bedroom that I would like to replace...  Maybe that will be for Robert's birthday in September?