The Chu’s Sweet Home 2021 Recap

It’s been a few days since the new year has kicked in. I felt so unproductive that I only got 14 posts for 2021, whereas it was a year full of blessings, events, trips, and lovely memories! 

Home Improvement:

Bedroom Progress Report

So, Charles tore down our bedroom in November, 2020. Like all our home projects, he only has weekends to work on it. As it progresses slowly, the room is now more presentable than four months ago.

Oops He Did It Again…

Recently, we tore down our bedroom “again.” Last time it happened in 2010, which was waaaaay before we became newlywed. I didn’t get involved much back then so this time I get to pick some bold accent color for our bedroom. I’m currently so drawn to navy blue...

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Fight Against Coldness

Charles has been working on warming up our home over the years. He tries REALLY hard, seriously. It becomes like a routine must-to-do every winter. I have mix feelings about this. I am glad that he puts so much effort into our home but at the same time he spent so much time in the yard and every time he wrapped the project up around the time when the winter was almost over. Skipping through numerous knocking down the plaster and insulating the house, here are a few exceptional examples of fight against coldness:

Headboard Modification

One of my new year resolutions is to update more about our home improvement projects. It may seem that there’s nothing left to tackle, but then there’s always woodworking or DIY projects going on in the house. Home improvement project is something that gets me to continue the blog after all and I don’t plan to stop taking notes about that. We’ll see how it goes :)

I pin this picture a long long time ago and I showed it to Charles. After a few year, (no kidding, a few years) he decided to copy it.

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Charles made our bedroom headboard back in 2015. He didn’t take my suggestion to add this hidden shelf behind it because he believed that save a little space between the wall and the headboard could help divert the cold air… A year later, he completely forgot about his theory and really wanted to get rid of the night stand so the idea of the hidden shelf was taken in:

Leather Anniversary

Three years. Happy Anniversary my man ;)

I bought a pair of travel leather luggage tag with our initial for our Leather Anniversary:

I couldn't recall what we did for our 2nd Anniversary. However, I insisted that we should continue the gift tradition (see our Paper Anniversary) to purchase something “cotton” for our Cotton Anniversary so I bought ourselves a pair of Life is Good T-shirt:

On the other hand, Charles promised me a canvas of our honeymoon photo to be hung on our bedroom wall; It didn’t happen until I kept nagging about it this year… He saw a deal on Groupon $6.99 8x12 Canvas + $9.99 shipping. He bought five of them to complete the panorama that he took in Bora Bora:

Over our new headboard, sweet~

DIY Wood Headboard

I never knew that a headboard could be THIS expensive! Couple hundreds or even over a thousand dollar for a cal king size headboard… There is no way that we’re going to spend that much on a piece of headboard. Thank goodness Mr. handyman has his way to achieve what we want. Small project No.2: DIY Wood Headboard

We’d been sleeping on a cal king mattress on its platform metal. There was a big gap between the mattress and the wall where my pillow often fell down to the floor. I once tried to use a lot of cushions stuff into the gap. It looked terrible and the cushions fell to the gap easily. Since little en now rolls and plays on our bed every night after the shower, daddy decided to expedite the headboard to seal the gap.

We first borrowed the idea from Pinterest. We attempted to up-cycle an old door to a new headboard. Charles spent a whole afternoon trying to get rid of the paint and realized, “Heck, I might as well just buy new plywood and make one. That ought to be quicker!”

Just like the gigantic mirror that he made a few months ago, cut → sand → stain → nail:

Add two supported legs

Hundreds bucks saved right there!

Wall of Love

Oh my oh my, it’s time to count down for Baby Chu’s arrival! Doctor says it is considered full term after 36 weeks, which means going in labor can happen at any time! Copying Chandler’s tone: “Can it beeee any scarier?!?!”

At least we have Baby Chu’s nook all ready; and Charles finally hung the frames on the wall. Let’s call it the wall of Love :) Thanks to all our beloved friends for all the sweet gifts to make this nook all so beautiful. See this colorful Skip Hop crib mobile, changing pad and its cute cover, and the pretty diaper basket:

Check out this handmade cap for newborn (here)

I used spray paint to cover up these 99¢ frames. I meant to put baby Chu’s photos but before we get there, I just printed out some cute animal pictures for now.

I cut some ads paper to tell Charles where I wanted those frames go to. 

Aw... I'm looking forward to see Baby Chu lying in the crib or on that changing table... well, probably when he's asleep...

Nursery Time

I’ve been pinterst-ing all those cute nursery rooms ever since I became a mom-to-be. I'm loving
the idea using Ikea HEMNES dresser as a changing table:

Via: Little Papercuts

Via: Love Taza

Via: The Good Life Blog

We finally started working on Baby Chu’s “territory”. He’s most likely going to share the same room at least a few months with us in the master bedroom because the grandparents are going to stay in the other room during their visit.

**Crib** A good friend of ours caught this good deal for us: DaVinci Jayden 4-in-1 Convertible Crib with Toddler Rail, White with mattress for $186.99. It can be converted to a daybed with toddler rail and eventually becomes a full size bed!

DaVinci Jayden 4-in-1 Convertible Crib with Toddler Rail, White

**Bedding Set** My lovely co-worker bought me this The Land of Nod collection bedding set and this cutest quilt!

The Land of Nod

**Changing Table** Yep, I’m copying Pinterest idea to use Ikea HEMNES dresser as the changing table.

I’m now waiting for Charles to drill the holes and hang the frames on the wall. I have them all ready to go!

The Mirror, the Vanity and the Wardrobe

Apparently, sharing this built-in closet that Charles redid a while ago is not enough for all my clothes, even I tried to get rid of my old clothes as many as possible when I moved in.

So, I created a corner of my own from all years accumulating Ikea products:

我們的主臥房其實不小, 於是我借了查理斯單身時代的小衣櫥 (Ikea-no longer available) 來收納更多的衣服, 還有我單身時代使用的小梳妝台(Ikea MALM dressing table), 鑲上一面鏡子 (Ikea KOLJA mirror); 安上個小擱板 (Ikea EKBY wall shelf) 放置一些書籍和裝飾

上回提及的藍色小盆花, 就在這裡啦!

我還找到這只木頭掛勾 (Ikea MOLGER hook rack), 懸掛項鍊腰帶等小物
另外這個 earrings solution, 則是在 BIG LOT 找到的 @$10.00.

這個腳凳當椅子也當儲藏箱, 是在ROSS撈到的寶 @$39.99, 可以藏入更多的包包, 旅行包等




空間, 永遠都不夠~

The Battle of Closet Space

I gotta say, this hilarious post speaks 80% of the truth about our closet...

回顧2010年查理斯獨立完成主臥房兩面拆牆並添入玻璃棉的作業…