fall cleaning, a bed and an upcoming anniversary

This is the week of Fall Cleaning around here.
I have so many projects I want to do, but like I said before, with my newfound ADD when it comes to my time spent alone now during the week, instead of getting a good balance of lots of chores and lots of projects done... I'm really getting a lot nothing done.
So I'm trying to ignore the project ideas (at least for a couple of days) and get some deep cleaning done around here.
It's only 10:30 in the morning and I've managed to clean (DEEP clean, purge and organize) our bathroom, our closet, both the kids rooms and closets and the office. Pretty proud of myself for being on such a roll!
But this is how I have to do things, for now anyway. If I can get a,b and c done, then I'll allow myself to do x,y and z (read: fun stuff).

And my only motivation for cleaning up the office is because that room's on the top of my list for the projects! I get to do this week when I'm done cleaning.

Ryan and I built our second ever piece of furniture this past weekend. [The first was a storage ottoman we made when we were first married.] Last weekend we made a bed and I am so stupidly excited about it!

You see, we have a four bedroom house, but with a "bonus room" upstairs as well. We use that bonus room as our guest bedroom because what is technically the fourth bedroom is a tiny little room, like not even 10x10, with a walkthrough closet that adjoins the master bedroom. It's perfect for a nursery or an office, but not a great guest room.
We use it as our "office", however we would like it to also double as a second guest room now and then (as you witnessed this summer, it comes in quite handy!) not to mention being a possible landing place for a future foster/additional child in our family.
Other than our desk, we have had no furniture in that room and I've been trying to figure out how to make it a comfy room with a sitting/sleeping space, not only with severe size restrictions, but without spending $$.
Due to the layout and size of the room, our desk/computer is in a nook by the window in one corner of the room and that leaves basically one wall for a small bed. A SMALL BED. As in, even with a headboard, a regular twin sized bed doesn't fit there. So I've had my eye out for awhile for a small futon. Not even a regular size futon, but a mini. As in smaller than a twin bed when it's layed out. I hemmed and I hawed but I could never quite bite the bullet and spend the $100+ to get one that I knew would be so small and probably not all that comfortable to sit on, let alone for anyone to sleep on.

Fast forward to two weeks ago; I was at a local thrift store and they had a whole wall stacked with dorm mattresses for $20 each. My first thought was "dorm matresses?? ew." but the $20 price wouldn't stop chiding me so I eventually made my way over and looked them over. They were vinyl covered, not a loud, uncomfortable plasticky vinyl, but just vinyl enough to not be cloth. Meaning they seemed more sanitary. And while a few had spots/stains here and there, there were actually a handful that looked really clean. And they were full and comfy. So I talked to Ryan about it and brought him back later that weekend and we threw one in the car. Score!
So now we had a mattress, and I was on a serious hunt for a bed. Problem was, anything we found on craigslist or anyplace else for cheap, wouldn't fit in our room. The mattress alone was pretty much exactly the length of the wall itself. So I started looking for platform beds... but that was still going to cost $150 or more. Not excited about that.
And then I kept thinking... a platform bed is so simple. Why can't we just make one ourselves??
So I consulted the amazing Ana's website, and zero'ed in on this plan. We obviously tweaked the measurements, as we were going for a twin sized bed and not a toddler bed, and we left off the backboard, but essentially, those were the basics of our plan. We bought all the wood and a box of screws for about $30.








We measured our mattress, made a frame, slapped on some slats, upcycled some legs from a bookshelf base we no longer use, added a "skirt" over the frame and within an hour and a half on a Saturday morning, ta-da!...







we have a new daybed! Something that actually fits in the room to hang out on or sleep an extra guest on. It's comfy and sturdy and it only cost us a total of about $50, bed+mattress!!












Here's a peek at the bed, but I'm going to wait and show you full pictures when the room is all put together.








I'm also upcycling a hutch/shelf and planning to get some painting done this week as well as some homemade artwork and then hopefully this room will be d-o-n-e and I can share it with y'all. I'm excited!!

With this office done, we will be soclose to being completely done with the whole house, (okay, is it ever really done?!) and my personal little lofty goal is to have the entirety of our rooms decorated, done and presentable to do a little bloggy home tour next month. Which marks the one year anniversary of being in this house.
Wow. Next month-- a year.
On one hand, I can't believe everything we've done in a year. (not to mention the fact that it's even been that long!)
On the other hand, it feels really good to say we're about done. To say that we've taken this house from one of the drearyest, boringest, plainest houses I've ever seen, one that we were really none too excited about... and filling it with light and warmth and comfort and inspiration and letting it become ours. The fun thing is, the majority of my decorating has been reusing, recycling, recreating or making from scratch. And the funny thing is, most of it is so (I think) different from our houses before. And yet this is the first time I really feel like a house is ours. That it truly feels like us.
It makes me happy.
And I'm excited to share it with you!