Out with the ugly!

Brad and I moved into our house in Aug 2009. We bought the house from the original owner who had built the house in 1987. Lets just say no updates were made to the decor of the house since it was built!

We've been living with ugly brass lighting fixtures, door knobs and hinges for way too long! I told Brad it was time to get rid of the ugly and bring our house up-to-date!

I love trying to do things ourselves. Not only does it save you a lot of money but it's a great way to learn how to maintain your house and there's just something cool about being able to change a light fixture on your own!

I've had this weird burst of energy of the past weeks and I've been DIYing just about everything! Maybe it's just spring in the air but I want to get this stuff done NOW!

Here's what I've tackled in the past few weeks

• Change out ugly white and gold fan in our master bedroom (project took Brad and I over 5 hours!)
• Did a mini-makeover in our master bedroom which included painting the ugly cabinets to a nice dark brown, painting the walls, changing the light fixture, changing out the faucet and hanging a new mirror. It's amazing what a difference a little paint can do!
• Changed out all the outside light fixtures (the neighbors were looking at me like I was crazy.... what they've never seen a woman tackle electrical before?!?!)
• Organize my closet (it was a mess!)
• Paint our fireplace mantel white (looks much cleaner and fresher)
• Installed new shades on all our living room windows
• Installed new light fixtures in our hallways and entry
• Spring clean up of our yard.

I still have a lot left to do!

• I'm almost done switching out all of our brass door knobs and hinges to brushed nickel
• Paint the brass fireplace doors black so they don't look so dated
• Hang new curtains in living room (they're all on back order right now)
• Hang the new light fixture in the kitchen (should arrive today!!)
• Paint our front door
• Finish putting up privacy film on the front door windows
• Clean all of our windows (inside and out)
• Landscape out backyard after our new patio is installed next month
• Install new storm door

As you can see I have lots left to do!

I hope other women out there take on DIY projects like these... they're so much fun! I like to tell people that I wear the tool belt in the house ;-)

Here are a few good resources

DIY Channel

HGTV

bejane.com

eHow.com

about.com

youtube.com (people post videos on how to do everything!)

Of course our biggest project is still yet to come. Brad and I would like to try to take on remodeling our kitchen sometime in the near future. Should be an interesting experience, hopefully we won't kill each other!

New Posts coming soon!

So I know it's very sad that I started this blog about 7 months ago and I have 1 entry! I do have a good excuse.... my work blocked blogs on their network so I had no way of posting during working hours. I guess they actually expect me to be working during those hours :-)

But not to worry... my wonderful husband bought me a brand new MacBook Pro so now I have no excuse not to post!

So much has happened in the past 7 months... I now have a 1 year old! Crazy!

I have lots of stories to share so please stay tuned!

-Amy

Grrrrr... Eczema!

A few years back I came down with strep throat and was put on amoxicillin to help get rid of it. After about 5 days on the medication, I broke out in a terrible rash all over my body that lasted for about 2 months :-( It turns out I'm allergic to amoxicillin. Anyway, ever since then I'll occasionally breakout in weird rashes (mostly on my hands and feet) that itch like crazy. I was told it's eczema. I've learned how to control it so it's not that big of an issue for me anymore. It's called The Itch that Rashes because you will first itch and then breakout in a rash if you itch it. I know that if I start itching not to touch it or else it will get worse!

A few months ago, Zach started breaking out in rashes too, mostly on his face. We found it was eczema (it's hereditary.....). Poor guy was miserably. His entire face was covered in it and it started to spread down his arms, chest and body. He would claw at his skin and make himself bleed. We started trying every product out there. The doctor gave us a steroid cream that worked well but I didn't want to have to rely on that every time he broke out.

One day Brad mentioned Zach's eczema to one of his co-workers and he told Brad his kids had it too. He recommended a cream that worked well for them. It's called Heimlich Clear Cream and is only sold by some guy in Brooklyn. I was a little leery at first because it's all natural and I just wasn't sure how well it would work. Plus it was super expensive.... $27.99 for a little more then an ounce! I finally gave in a order some.

That was seriously one of the best things I did! We've been using it for about 3 days now and his skin has almost complete cleared up! It's amazing, it's like he's a new baby! Someone told me that the key ingredient in it is Calendula and that you can find it in some other lotions, you just have to look for it.

All I know is that right now it's totally working so we're going to keep using it. Hopefully his eczema will go away one day or he'll learn to control it.....

Welcome!

Welcome to the Domestic Newbie. My name is Amy and I will be your host :-)
I'm a 30 something suburban new mom trying to figure it all out. I love cooking, being creative and pretending that I know what I'm doing in my garden. I hate cleaning so you won't really find any advice here about that!
I hope to share with you lots of yummy receipes that I love to create on the fly (of course that means I might actually have to pay attention to what I'm putting in a dish!). I'll also share my new mom tips and experiences.
Sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy your time with The Domestic Newbie!

-Amy