The Carmel Haven : May 2012

While Steve was gone I took on a pretty big task of transforming an old round pedestal kitchen table and six chairs that I purchased on Okinawa Yard Sales for a whopping $50! It was definitely meant to be. For one, I've been dying to get rid of our ugly government table, but I didn't want to buy a new one because we have a great one waiting for us back in storage. Also, I didn't want to get a used one that was similar to the one we have in storage, because then we would just have to get rid of it when we move. Who wants two long wood tables? So I was really wanting a round table that could eventually be used as either a breakfast table or a game table. We had thought about buying new but found NOTHING even close to what we wanted. And things that big definitely don't ship over here from the States, so buying from a store online was out of the question. I checked Okinawa Yard Sales just a few times, but had pretty much given up. Nobody was selling old tables, only semi new tables that they had bought here and needed to sell before heading back to the States. You see, us Marine families are only allowed 2,000 pounds to bring over here while the Air Force is allowed 5,000 for some unknown reason. So the only people who would even have shipped their kitchen tables here would be Air Force. That cancelled out all the Marines on Okinawa Yard Sales. So I went on one day just to see if I could get someone to weed whack our lawn while Steve was gone when I happened to see this table and six chairs selling for $50! And the family was SO nice. They took it apart, DROVE it to our house (a good half hour drive), and set it up for me. Score! This is what it looked like:

I know, ugly, right? But I knew it had potential, and I knew it was going to be a HUGE painting job. I knew how to paint a table from doing a bunch of research, but the problem was the paint selection at Kadena was extremely limited. And I couldn't read the lables on any of the paint at the Japanese stores. And paint didn't ship here. I'm not going to bore you with details, but I certainly learned a lot through the process. I had originally sprayed the top with primer then CHANGED my mind and wanted to keep the top brown. So I had to sand it all off which was way more work then I thought it was. But I still wasn't happy with it like this:

I had completely scratched up the top with all the sanding and scrapping, plus there was only so much of the chairs I could take. I like them in small doses, but all together they were too much cottage for my taste.

Lots and lots of work (and thrilled that amazon shipped the protective seal that I needed...so random because they would not ship any other kind of paint/primer or seal) later I got this table which I love!

Two of the chairs were actually out on our patio (we picked them up a few months back). Here's an old picture of them before I painted them white:

I bought two more and did the same thing. I also found the natural round chair pads for $4 each. Love them! I also did some rearranging so we don't have the desk right there in the dining room now. I think it has more of a breakfast/sun room feel. I moved two of the chairs over to create a pseudo "bar", painted one green and stuck it outside by the front door, put one in Avery's room and one in our room. They serve as night stands since we don't have any. I think it's safe to say I've gotten my painting fix for some time now.

I love our little "coffee bar."

Avery likes to make my coffee each morning....such a good helper.

In case you're wondering, here's a view of our (TINY) kitchen:

And turning a little bit more, this picture of our living room is probably the closest to what it looks like today. It's been through multiple transformations. I know, I know, I'm crazy because we're not going to live here for that long...but I've "up cycled" or made a lot of the things you see, and the lightness of it is so refreshing.

I still can't believe this is what it looked like at the beginning...I'm not sure what we were thinking buying the black couch. It was dark and depressing in the house. I could have slip covered it, but we sold it very soon after we bought it, so we didn't loose much money at all. And the cream colored couch and chairs we got instead were super cheap.

Now I hope you have a better idea of where we spend the majority of our days.<3

*Real time update:

~Avery had the work done on her teeth on Friday, and she did wonderful! She had to have anesthesia and didn't shed one tear throughout the whole process. She had her two front teeth pulled because she fell and chipped one when she was 1. They were afraid the back teeth were going to become infected because of it.

~Noah has been successfully without his pacifier for a week now! And he has been using the potty!

Steve was in the Phillipeans for Easter...booo...I thought about postponing our celebration (a whole month!), but I think that would have been a bit confusing for the kids. My good friend Liesl invited us to her church that morning. They had a brunch afterwards as well. We had our own mini Easter egg hunt when we got home, and that evening we went for our usual walk. It was nice. We missed family a lot, but were thankful for good friends that day. And we continue to feel lucky to have the chance to live here.=)

Each kiddo had plastic eggs in a pot as part of our Easter decorations. The night before Easter one of their eggs "laid" some "magic jelly beans." They "planted" those beans in their little pot filled with grass, and on Easter morning it "grew" a lollipop. I found this idea on the internet of course. I was a little unprepared and didn't have any lollipops, so I just stuck an oreo onto a crafting stick. Hey, it worked!

Even though it was completely crowded, we managed to snap a picture of Avery with the Easter bunny when he visited Tengan Castle. Noah was not into it.