Super Cute Crate Buffett

I have been planning and dreaming about making something amazing out of my little, old, junky crates for years! I imagined a darling buffet in my kitchen! I have used them to store things and even prop things up all this time. 

One Sunday after church, the girls and I set off on an expedition to collect all of my random crates!

To create my buffet, I gathered some two inch screws (Similar to these), some stain (Minwax Red Mahogany) that matched my table and some white spray paint (Love this brand) that I had on hand that almost matched my table. The only thing I had to go look for was the wood I planned to use for the top. I purchased two 1x6x6  nice quality boards at Lowes to act as the counter top for my buffet.

All of the crates are slightly different sizes and are all made out of different kinds of wood. I had to rearrange them and set them up several times to make an almost level platform for my 1x 6's.

There were spaces that needed to be filled to make the top level, so I had to break one of the extra crates a part and stick the pieces in the spaces. Once I had all of the crates placed exactly how I wanted them, I started to screw it all together.

I was a little over zealous on the first one... I was excited, what can I say? The wood split and I am pretty sure I might have shed a tear.

After this moment of horror, I simply started screwing the screws in on the second slat in from the front, and last slat, so they cannot be seen as easily from the front, just incase they split again. You live and you learn right?

After I fastened all of the crates together, I painted the entire structure. As I swept the paint over the crates I realized that they were going to absorb the paint like a sponge. In my vision of this project I imagined a thickly painted heirloom white piece of furniture with a satin finish. I used the who full cans of spray paint that I had in no time. I was exceptionally disappointed in the fact that it looked a little beachy and almost shabby chic.

I made a decision to press on and complete this project, so I fastened the top boards to the structure and made sure the whole thing was still level. Then I stained the wood pieces to match my table as planned.

After the paint and stain was dry and placed in my dining room to took my breath away! It was actually perfect!

The subtle colors of the wood coming through the paint and the texture was truly beautiful. It matched my style exactly. My husband actually fell in love with it right away and said it is new favorite piece of furniture!

Moving Again... Wait.. What!?

Wow... I cannot believe that we have decided to move again! It seems as if we move about once a year! Never again! Yes, I have said that before, but it is different this time! We have finally found our tiny piece of heaven, one little acre of land. Never in our wildest dreams did we believe that we would be home owners again, much less the owners of a darling little house out in the country. We grew up in a place where houses were close together. You could very literally hear the neighbors using the restroom. Now we will have our own piece of land. One acre to raise our babies, with a new baby on the way, grow a garden and learn to be more sustainable/financially responsible at the same time.

Let me back up... A little over two years ago we were living in a house that was "fine." There was a huge fun basement, and a small upstairs. The yard was unfenced so we spent a majority of our time missing the kids and chasing the dogs through the neighborhood. I didn't hate that house, the neighbors were even wonderful, but it wasn't perfect for us.

So, like cereal movers do, we decided to keep our eyes open for something better. We prayed about it a lot. We happened across a friend of ours from church who was looking for someone to occupy their home while they were trying to buy another. The husbands got together and decided that the Wightman family belongs in their home. The rent was high but the house was AMAZING! The house had plenty of space to play, live and an amazing kitchen. The plan was to live there until we can buy it. It was truly what we thought we had always wanted and we do not have a single complaint.

After several months of living in our dream house we started the process of trying to buy it. Our dreams were dashed when we were told that, because of our past bankruptcy, we could not qualify for the cost of this home. We tried any number of ways to get a loan to buy it. Nothing. We lost many nights of sleep devastated. We came to realize that even though our heart was in this house, we could not settle here.

We wanted to OWN a house. It was hard knowing that our heart break was made of our own choices. The financial irresponsibility of our youth robbed us of our dream. The hard work we have done over the past five years had repaired our credit, but that wasn't enough. God is funny. He knows that the only way we will learn a lesson is if a lesson violently knocks us off our feet.

I get it now. We need to stop reaching, stop living above or means and stop trying to have the best of everything. We need to start appreciating what we have, knowing that God and family are enough and start truly living out our dreams in real time.

It took only one week. We finally understood what God was asking us to do. We made an offer on the perfect little house, they accepted and we found out that we were expecting baby number 6. Wow.

May the escrow begin!!