Sunday, April 10, 2016

New Name & New Look!

Things look a little different around here, huh? After a few years of blogging, I decided it was time for a change! I started this blog about four years ago when we were planning our wedding and house hunting (we were nuts for doing those two things at the same time). It was a great way to document both of those things and I never stopped blogging after we got married. I like being able to keep family and friends, both near and far, updated on our life and I've also fallen in love with the blogging community altogether.

I haven't blogged nearly as often over the past year, but I plan to get back in to a regular blogging routine. I thought revamping the blog's look and name to something more fitting would be a great way to start. I purchased this template from DesignerBlogs on Etsy. It came with great instructions and installation was pretty easy. I made some small changes to the template and still have some things I'm playing with to make it just right, but I'm super happy with the way it turned out!

Along with a new look, I wanted a new name for this blog. I wanted something more personal to me and what this blog is about. "This Crazy Thing Called Life" was definitely fitting, but generic. You might be thinking well, "It's A Long Story" is pretty generic too. BUT for those of you that don't know, my last name is Long. So the title is all about my story. Or I should say OUR story. It's a LONG Story....get it?  :)

I'm so excited about this fresh start for the blog! Thank you to my readers and fellow bloggers, for making this blogging thing something I have fallen in love with. <3

- Ericka



Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Basement Makeover Part 1 (Before & Progress)

When we bought our house almost four years ago, I knew I wanted to do something with the basement, because I HATED the wood paneling down there. After I got back from my Louisiana trip, I decided to finally do something about it. So I started painting! I thought I'd get this whole thing done in a few days, but I severely under estimated the work that it was going to take. Here's a reminder of what the basement looked like when we first bought it:

stairs that lead to the basement
one end...
the other end...and super blurry--sorry!

It's basically one giant room, which is great, I love the amount of space down there. But the wood paneling, drop ceiling, and florescent lights were just too outdated for me. We moved our stuff in and basically created two areas: a game area with the Ping Pong table, and a seating area with the TV. These photos are a couple years old, but it basically looked the same because I never put any effort in to this space.



If I had an unlimited budget, I would have ripped out the paneling, drop ceiling, and lights and replaced with drywall and canned lights. But that wasn't in the budget. So paint it was! I did some research about painting paneling, and decided to jump in. I started by priming EVERYTHING. It took so long, because you have to get in every single groove. But I finally got it all primed, which made a huge difference:





don't mind all the junk piled in the middle of the room,,,,

Just priming over the wood paneling made the room seem so much bigger and brighter! Getting everything primed took me 2-3 weekends of work. Then it was time to paint. I went with light gray paint and white for the trim. I'll do a full blog post soon with pics of the space completely painted, but here's a little preview of what the paint looks like:




Have you ever painted paneling before? Any tips or tricks to share?

Monday, April 4, 2016

Weekend Recap

This weekend was pretty low key for us. One reason being that I'll have to work most of next weekend, so I wanted to soak up some time at home this weekend. The other reason being that it decided to snow like crazy most of Saturday. But then the sun came out on Sunday and melted most of the snow, so at least it's gone now.

I did venture out to a couple of fun stores on Saturday and I picked up this super cute clock for our living room from Painted Farmgirl:



I'm in love with this clock. I've wanted a clock for that wall since we moved in, but never found the right one. So I made a starburst mirror, which I really liked. But then it cracked somehow. It never fell or anything, just a got a crack in the middle of the mirror. So weird. So when I saw this clock, I knew I had to bring it home with me.

Saturday night was spent watching basketball at home with Kevin and Admiral. And it was great.

Sunday was full of the usual: grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, and making dinner. I know this week is going to be a crazy one (work is going to be BUSY), but I'm hoping that this relaxing weekend helps be ready for the madness ahead!