Pottery Barn Storage Bed

I’ll give it to Pottery Barn, they have some great looking furniture. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to reproduce. I built a storage bed for Nicholas’ room back in July but didn’t put anything out about it because I kind of have a thing about surprising him with a room make over every deployment. Last deployment I painted our bedroom and his bathroom without telling him and this time I did his room. It desperately needed it. He has gobs of Army crap and had put up a huge metal shelf in there to store it all. It looked pretty bad and made the room seem really small. I decided the storage bed would be the perfect solution to get rid of the metal shelf and so I started working.

I used Ana White’s plan for the full size storage bed with a few modifications. I wanted the bed to have a deeper storage area so instead of using 1x12’s like she had in her plan I had 2 sheets of MDF cut into 15 1/2 in strips (or what Ana calls a 1x16). I decided to use MDF because it’s cheaper and I knew that the guest bed wouldn’t be getting that much use and the MDF would hold up fine. If I were building that bed for a kid I would have used Plywood without question. I had the pieces cut at Lowes because it’s just easier to haul them around already cut down and I can’t handle a full sheet by myself at home to try and cut it down. I had everything cut on Sat, started working on Sun afternoon and had it in the bedroom by Thursday night. It was the quickest and easiest project I’ve ever built. It was nice having something so easy after finishing up those chairs! I didn’t really take pictures because I built it so fast and I forgot. It’s a lot easier to remember to take pictures when I have the boy out there with me.

I did use 1/4 in plywood to finish the back and you can see one of the pieces letting the paint dry at the bottom of the picture. I never took another picture with the back attached. I did make one mistake just because I didn’t take into account the extra inches I added to the width of pieces so the bed is 4 in longer than it should be so I have 2 pillows at the top of the bed to keep the rest of the pillows from falling into the crack. Oh well. I could make a head board to fix that problem but it’s just not that important to me right now. Maybe later.

I wish I had thought to take a before picture but it didn’t even cross my mind. I was able to fit everything from the huge shelf into the bed. I was actually really surprised how much this bed holds because I could still stuff a few more thing in there if I needed to. It makes the room looks so much bigger and I think it will help a lot when we get ready to sell the house next year.

Lots of catching up to do…

Us the day he went back. It’s the best picture we took the whole time he was home. We really need to get better about that.

A couple of months ago I came up with an idea for a nightstand with steps in it for Ki to use because she’s scared to jump on the bed. I told Nicholas about my idea and he thought it was crazy but figured why not! lol We had fun building it because we didn’t have any step by step plans and had to figure it out as we went along. That’s how I build most of my projects but it made him twitch a little bit. Poor guy.

Ki and I are still having a battle of will on using the steps. She doesn’t want to and I make her anyway. She would rather me still pick her up and put her on the bed, not doing that anymore. I will win.

When I got rid of the old night stands I just piled everything in the corner so that mess is cleaned up now.

So yep, that was the second week of R&R. Time in the garage and playing Wii, it was almost too exciting. Yay R&R! Tomorrow I’ll post some videos from my volleyball game to prove that I really do play and I’m not just telling people that as a joke. Oh and pictures of the bed that I built for the boy’s room and didn’t post because I wanted it to be a surprise. And he was really surprised because he walked back out as we were unloading the car and said “Um, did you build that bed because I was really confused when I walked into my room”. And just to be clear I don’t make him sleep in there that’s just where all his clothes and Army crap lives so he can get dressed in there and I can keep sleeping in peace. We learned a lot time ago what keeps our marriage happy. :)

Destin

Since it is so quiet down here we’ve been able to let the girls walk around off their  leashes and they are doing so good listening and coming back when we call them. We finally made it to the beach yesterday and when we got over there we were the only ones out there so we hopped back on the golf cart and came back to get the girls. We’ve never been able to take them out on the beach because we are normally down here when it’s crowded but we’ve always wanted to see how they would react to the sand and water. While we were gone to get the girls 2 couple brought some chairs and a few bags of food out on the beach so Ki decided to make good friends with them. They said they are dog people so they loved giving the girls some attention. They were so funny out on the beach. They were running all over the place. Nicholas tried to get Pooh to come down to the water with him but as soon as the water came at her she started backing up and when Ki saw that she turned tail and ran straight back to the people and stood by one of the guys like “whew, I’m safe up here!”. We were all cracking up.

Pooh when the water hit her. It’s blurry because I moved the camera while I was laughing but you see Ki turning to run in the corner. lol

Pooh following Nicholas to the water. Once she realized he was going to get in the water she stopped.

Our family. We had gone to the pool before heading to the beach so that’s why I have a towel around me. I didn’t get in the ocean!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Now that’s it’s raining in Destin and we are having a lazy day I can get the soup recipe up on here! We’ve been having such a great time down here. It seems like time has really slowed down and we are enjoying having such lazy fun days. It is sooo slow down here right now!!! This is the perfect time for us to be at the beach because there are no crowds anywhere! We love it!

Now for the recipe.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Cook and prep time: 45mins

Ingredients

• 4 cup chicken broth
• 3 cups water
• Rotisserie chicken
• 2 boxes Rice-a-Roni Wild Rice
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup butter
• 1 (16 oz) container half and half
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 3 celery stalks (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• ½ white onion finally chopped (I use onion powder)
• Olive oil

Instructions

• In a large pot add chicken broth, water, pulled chicken, and rice (save the seasoning packets for later)
• Sauté vegetables in olive oil until al dente and add to chicken (if I’m in a hurry I just add it all to the pot at the same time and it’s usually fine, but I’ll admit I don’t always add the carrots and never the celery)
• Add salt and pepper to pot and cook on medium
• In medium sauce pan melt butter over medium heat. Stir in 2 seasoning packs and mix until bubbly.
• Reduce heat to low and add flour slowly to form a roux.
• Add half and half while whisking until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook for about 5 mins until it thickens up, stirring constantly.
• Add cream mixture to chicken pot and cook for about 10 mins. Sometime it can take up to 20 mins to get good and thick but if I’m in a hurry and really hungry I’ll eat it right away.

This makes about 8 servings. I made 2 full batches for the family dinner and by the end of the night there was about 1 serving left!