Dining Room!

Better living room

This thing is finally what I want it to be....I think!

Kitchen....yay!

We still need counters, but the walls are done. Woo-hoo!

Catching up on life

While vacation, moving, and life took up a lot of my time, I'm finally working on things I should have done six months ago. Like uploading photos. Here's what you missed:

The pinewood derby


Aspiring doctors


Birthday boys


Tough guys


Crying girls


Hot cocoa


Big hugs


First haircuts



Little League


Guitar Hero


Group reading


Bi Hawks


Ballet recitals


Six Flags


Paddle boats


Fishing


Long drives


New looks


Shooting guns


Crazy faces


Chickens


Capturing kittens


Visiting Grandmas


Swimming with cousins


Cool castles

Living Room....Check!

We painted this weekend...the color is a little better in the close up. I really love it, so if you don't, too bad! It's called red pepper, but for some reason I thought it was chipotle, and that it was more brown/orange not red. Duh. Still love it!

Before:


After:

Today's accomplishments

Now I'm really tired, but we made some unexpected progress. It started with the replacement of the back door knob, and ended with the wallpaper being down from the living and dining rooms. Curt found only one area in the stair well that was three layers deep, and worked on it the whole time I did the living room. He was not happy. Tomorrow is glue removal, as there is no way we are doing that tonight. It is going to be a pain since the walls are plaster, and every time they took old wallpaper off in the past they...well let's just say they weren't picky. Scrub scrub scrub. Wipe wipe wipe. But I am very excited that I won't ever have to take off paper in those rooms again, and soon we get to paint! Now if we could only agree on colors...

Yesterday's accomplishments

It's nice to know that I actually get something done each day besides the 'norm'. Today was a slow day for sure, but we did have our first guests that I actually cooked a full dinner and dessert for. Nothing extravagant, just chili and southern banana pudding with Nutter Butters. Yum. Curt also found a spare sink fixture thing downstairs in the old workbench, since I gave the other one away to the guy who was wonderful enough to take my dishwasher, making one more thing we don't have to buy. No one wanted the blinds and valance I'm trying to give away, but tomorrow's another day. Oh yeah, the hedges got trimmed too. That's pretty exciting. Not.

Hidden Treasure

I impulsively decided to start ripping carpet the other day, hoping to find something in decent condition. I did in the first two rooms, but then the living and dining rooms surprised me. The edges of the floor were all finished, but a square of about 8' x 10' feet in the center of each was totally unfinished, moving floors up to a much higher priority. Whoops. I am still working on getting up all the tack board or whatever it's called, but at least the dusty old nastiness is gone, and I think I am breathing a lot better. Here's the first room I did, the office:

New House

Here's our new house. It does need some major updating, but it shouldn't be too hard. Just time consuming. It was built in 1920 and has some cool details like built in bookshelves in Winnie's room. The big tree on the right has already been cut down, as well as one by the back porch. Our outside plans for now are to paint the shutters and front porch white, and take down a lot of the overwhelming shrubbery and garage and put on a new roof. Oh yeah, all the stuff inside is NOT ours, just the previous owners.

Was it the gum?

I love it when my daughter goes into my room, in which she is not allowed, and then goes into my purse, in which she is definitely not allowed, and eats all but three pieces of a brand new pack of strawberry gum, and I do mean eat. Then I really love it when she won't fall asleep because she took a nap, and sneaks into the closet to play with toys, and pukes all over all the zoo animals right when the new episode of The Office comes on, and makes her way downstairs crying and letting any residual puke fall where it may. The best thing is that I am so proud of her for trying something new for dinner, and eating it all, that I am not disappointed when I find three pieces of chewed gum in the drain of the bathtub- where her jammies were washed out- since it drains nice and slow because I have put off calling maintenance. It really thrills me when I am in bed about to fall asleep, and she is crying again and my wonderful husband is cursing and I go to wash the next round out of her hair and find that I have to cut a piece of puked up gum out because I am not getting the peanut butter at this hour with a cold and upset princess in my care. The crowning glory is really when that princess comes to sleep with me, and I am smart enough to grab a bucket first and then be on alert the entire night for any distressing sounds coming out of her, and get the next four pukes successfully contained in the bucket. Then I realize the real crowning glory is that I am eating the same thing for breakfast that we had for dinner last night.