My Husband is the coolest!

Bryan never ceases to amaze me.  His heart is so incredibly pure and kind.  I hope and pray that one day, our children will have the kind of attitude towards helping others that he has (no, we are not pregnant!)

A couple of weeks ago, my little sister was in town hanging out with the two of us.  I didn't really have any plans for the time she was here and wasn't sure what we would do.  We got up that morning and Bryan, my Bryan, recommends the 3 of us spend a day shopping.  He took us to the new H&M that had just opened.  When he vocalized his thoughts for the day, I was taken back.  You want to take us to H&M?  Really??  Well, we spent the day out and about, stopping at H&M and spending more than 2 seconds in the store.  (Let's be honest, I really can't handle these "pop" stores very well because they play music so stinking loud, I can't think...I know you are thinking, "Wow, Alissa... you're old"  but you don't need to say it out loud!)  But it was still exciting to get to see what all the store had to offer.  We picked up a few things there too :)

After the mall shopping, we ended up trying to find a Good Will for some reason (I think we were looking for a bike).  My sister stumbled onto this filing system that would double nicely as a college TV stand for the heaviest TV in the world.  We joked about it, but she decided not to get it. 

About a week or so later, she calls us (This was sometime like the 2nd week of July) asking if we don't mind going back to Good Will to see if that filing cabinet was still there and getting it for her.  So we trotted over to Good Will only to be disappointed that it was gone. :(  But instead we found another piece that as it stood was really rough, but it could be re-finished and look really cool.  With my sister's approval, we take a leap of faith and snatch this piece up.

I forgot to take a picture of it before we got started, but it had two doors and a varnish stain that screamed 1992.  We took the piece to my parents house, because 1: It was for Erin, she was about to move and that is where all of her stuff was.... 2: We live in an apartment... Where are we going to put it?  3: My parents had all of the supplies needed to fix this thing up.

So here we are roughly around July 10th, and my dad is literally going to have foot surgery that is going to make him immobile for over a month, and Erin moves into her new apartment on July 19th.  My mom was going to be much too busy keeping up with my dad to even think about undertaking this project, and Erin is up away at school.... she can't do this.  So Bryan and I take on the challenge.  Bryan gave up his weekend to go to my parents house and be there to help with my dad and work on the TV stand, and he did so with such a joyful heart.  I kept thinking to myself all "weekend" (really it was a Wednesday/Thursday) how bless I am to get to spend time like this with my loving husband.  And how cheerful and helpful he was without even having to think if he wanted to do these things. 

We started this project Wednesday morning (while my dad was in surgery, which was a really weird feeling)  and then we were done by that afternoon with breaks in between to let the paint dry. 

First we sanded the stand.  I never really thought about why you would need two sanders, but my dad always had two.  So that made it very nice because this was something we could do together.  We also learned about the different sanders (ps- the sanders both sand, but do serve different purposes... so my dad isn't crazy for having two!)  We sanded both inside and out. 

When we had finished the sanding part, we took an old can of black paint that had been used for furniture projects before, and took it to the good ol' Home Depot to have them shake it up really well before we started to paint. 

Let's just say... this is one of my favorite parts of the story...

I was wearing the lovely eye protection shown above because eye safety is very important!  Bryan finds a pair and throws them on as a joke.  All of this happened about the time we needed to go get the paint shook.  I jokingly said that we should wear the glasses to the store, and Bryan responds,  "I will if you will."  I called his bluff and said, "Okay!" We drove to the H.D. with our safety protection on, and when we got there, he double checked and said... "Just so you know, you totally called my bluff.  I was just kidding, are we really going to do this?" 

You better believe I said "YES!"  We go walking in and it was awesome!  Most people didn't even notice, but one checker did a double take, and then some ladies at the paint counter turned around and said "Y'all must be mid-project"  We just laughed!

We got back the the house with the paint all shook and lots of laughter, and started painting. 

This is about the time when my dad came home.  It was quite a fanfair! Here is proof that I actually did stuff too....  I worked on this the whole time even if the pictures don't look like it, thank you very much!

A before and after look....

I was very proud of our work.  Bryan mentioned how he didn't like the idea of just throwing the doors away, and I made a comment about a pinterst idea...  and we were off again onto another project :)

We ran out of time, and ended up having multiple out of town trips before we could continue this project.  After our Anniversary trip (San Antonio), the Project "Operation Move Erin" (Dallas), and a wedding shower (Austin) we finally had some time to start this back up again.  We painted the inside portion of the door with a base coat of the black from the TV stand and the outer portion with cream color.  Then we covered the black with chalkboard paint.  Once the chalkboard paint had sat for a couple of days, we cured it with chalk.

Then it was time for our stencil, to give it a little flair!

We had to wait for it to dry... and the Olympics are on... he was soooo happy I was taking this picture. :)

We added back the handle, and stuck it up on our walk.  Now we need to decide what to write!

Everytime I walk past this project on the way to our kitchen, I think about how selfless my husband has been this summer. And it all started with that weekend at H&M.  I really am so blessed.