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Sentimental Decorations

Decorating the Verlo house at Christmas is definitely a big part of making the house a home.  These are a few of the decorations that hold special meaning and bring a smile to our faces each year.

Mike’s parents gave us a Hallmark “New Home” ornament the year we moved into the house, and was on our first teeny tiny artificial tree. I kept the box, and put it away carefully every year because its so sweet and special to us. – Sara

These next photos show a few of the ornaments we’ve picked up on vacations over the past couple of years.  We’ve decided that instead of buying knickknacks, we’d rather buy Christmas ornaments on trips.  This way, we can reminisce each year about the journeys we’ve taken together as we decorate the tree.  So far, we have ornaments from trips to Florida and Texas. -Mike

I’m not sure how the story goes, but I was told once that a birds nest in a Christmas tree was good luck (or maybe it was NOT having a nest was bad luck?). Whatever the superstition was, this little artificial nest and bird also has three little eggs, and I just nestle it in at the back – so it doesn’t occlude the lights. – Sara

My favorite ornament on the tree is one that my parents made and gifted to me a few years ago. It started as a joke, but it’s something that makes me smile. It’s made out of the hood ornament from the 1987 GMC Suburban I drove in high school.  I fixed up the truck with dad, which included painting it black and buying new chrome trim.  This hood ornament was the finishing touch on the vehicle, I had to special order direct form GM and spent $120 on it.  My parents secretly replaced it with the old one before it was traded in. – Mike

These wooden reindeer were made by my Grandpa George, and I think they’re older than me, because i remember them even in my earliest Christmas memories. They both assemble into four parts and sit precariously on their angled legs. I can remember being a kid and thinking it was so funny to put the big legs and antlers on the little body, and vice versa. The googly eyes also add a touch of whimsy that’s laughable. – Sara

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Garage Shelves

This is one of those projects I’ve meant to get to since moving into our house.  Storage in the garage has been mostly an afterthought, consisting mainly of leftover cabinets and pantry shelves from the kitchen before a remodel by the previous homeowners.

The first step was to clear everything from the wall.

Can you see how long those shelves must have been there?

The wall where the garage meets the rest of the house is the only one with drywall. The rest of the garage is unfinished. But the wall with drywall never got mud and taped.  I changed that:

Next, I painted the wall using a mix of many paint samples that we’ve accumulated over the past couple of years.  I mixed them all together in a 2 gallon bucket.

This is what it looked like after one coat of paint.  I like the color, which makes sense, because it’s a mix of all the colors we liked enough to buy samples of them.

It’s nothing special, but is a much better use of the space than before and cost only about $50 for all of the brackets holding up 1×12 pine common boards.   The bottom shelf is actually made from recycled wood from the cabinet that was there before.  I’m also happy to have more floor space open against the wall, both for cleaning and to store bulkier lawn equipment.  The next projects in the garage will be putting insulation and drywall in other areas and fixing the cracks in the floor.