another note to self

I also want to do this (in my backyard)  Maybe we would get some Summer visitors.

note to self

I want to do this somewhere in my house - dining room maybe.

whistle while you work

We have an endless list of things to get done in the house and that is what keeps us busy these days.  

The biggest project is painting the whole house.  It is slow going considering it seems to be taking two coats of primer to get good coverage over the dark existing paint.  I'm hoping it will only take one coat of color but we'll have to wait and see since we haven't even gotten to that part.  I'm hoping to write a blog post in a couple weeks that says we're done painting but at the rate we're going it may be Christmas before it all gets done.

Derek's favorite new toy in the house is this beauty....

The existing water heater was rusty and leaking and needed to be replaced so we installed a tankless water heater.  The size difference is amazing - I love not having the big old cylinder water heater.  We are excited about not running out of hot water (which has already happened once while the old heater was still in) and we are anxious to see if it effects our gas bill much since it is not constantly heating up water.

The other new home gadget we are loving is this...
a keyless garage door entry.  No more keys going missing because they have been "misplaced" by Megan.  No more stress when I realize that I am still 15 minutes from home and my girls are being dropped off after an activity and have no way to get into the house.  No more calling Derek at work to ask him to come home because I've locked myself out of the house.  No worries when we are half way to Utah and we think we left the iron on but our neighbors have no way to get into our house to check.  

Beyond painting and new home gadgets we still have unpacking to do (some of it can't be done until painting is done)  We need to replace some light fixtures and see if we can't get overhead lights in the kids rooms.  There are no lights in 4 of the 5 bedrooms and it makes me crazy.  The kids are relying on little desk lamps that don't really provide much light.  We'd like to replace the carpet but have to see what the cost for that would be - we're hoping  it can be worked into our budget but if not we'll be on hold with it.

I better stop the blogging and get back to painting.  The updates here may be sporadic as we try to get everything done.  I have been taking pictures of the process and plan to post pictures here if I can ever find the camera cord needed to download pictures - oh the joys have living in boxes!

stinkin' up the neighborhood

Last weekend we had a big delivery.  Nothing fun mind you, just a big pile o' stinky cow poo.  

The smell was horrible and it brought back memories of a Halloween party gone bad.

  

Quite a few years ago I painstakingly made some mummy hands to be used as centerpieces for our annual Halloween party.  I loved how they turned out but they looked so plain just sitting on a table.  I envisioned a mound of dirt on each table with the hand coming up out of the dirt surrounded by candles.  The day of the party I run to Home Depot bright and early, buy the dirt and get it home and on the tables.  It quickly becomes apparent that I did not buy plain old, looks good on the Halloween tables dirt - I had bought manure-y dirt and it was now sitting on the middle of every table we had set up.

  

The memory is all somewhat of a blur at this point and I try not to remember it but I know that some tears were shed.  The tears were increased when friends would stop by to help with party preparations and exclaim as they made their way through our gate "What the heck is that smell"

My solutions you ask?!?!  I tried spraying down each poo pile with Lysol and carpet freshening powder.  As I type that now I realize how absurd that idea was but at the time I was desperate. Laugh if you want but you might have done the same thing if 80 people were heading your way and the party stunk like a farm.

Super party husband to the rescue.  Derek ran to Home Depot and got the right dirt.  He came home and dumped all the manure and then vacuumed any remains from the tablecloths. He then loaded the tables with dirt smelling dirt, added my mummy hands and candles and the tables turned out perfectly - just how I envisioned them.  The only downfall of it all...every time we vacuumed our house during the next few months it smelled of manure.  It was a small sacrifice to pay in order to pull off the party.

But back to our work day....


Derek, Nate, Davis and Donevan got to work hauling the stinky pile to the back yard so that we could mix it in with our less then ideal soil to get it ready for some planting.  The backyard stunk for a few days and we add a bunch of little buggies flying around but they along with the smell are gone now and we are on to our next step - planting!

a reminder of how it started

The before photo of the kitchen

the final outcome

Here is our new kitchen!  I don't think we ever posted pictures of the kitchen with appliances in place, flooring, etc. 

more house jive

We spent a few days pulling out the old flooring to ready the house for the new dark wood floors that were being installed.  We ended up doing hardwood throughout the downstairs and up the stairs (I haven't taken pictures of the stairs yet)  We are really happy with how it has turned out.

Our next flooring adventure is carpeting the upstairs rooms and hallway and tiling the bathrooms.  We have to take down beds, bookshelves, etc. before we rip up the nasty carpet that we currently have.  It seems like a big project at the moment so we haven't been moving as fast as we should be but we really need to get on it.  The carpet is picked out and the company installing it is ready to move when we say go we just need to do it (I do not want workers in my house again)

some house updates

The finished entertainment center...

One of the features we love is that the tv is mounted to the back of a false wall in the unit.  The tv can be pulled put past the doors and moved around so that everyone can get a better view or so that I can watch cooking shows while in the kitchen.

a media marvel

I love the kitchen but I am pretty dang stoked about this little beauty.  We can now finally use all the space that was in this recessed area.  

I am excited to have the tv behind closed doors. I realize that it's the thing to hang the flat screen on the wall but I have issues (surprise, surprise) about the tv being hidden - it makes me happy.

I love the four gigantic (they really are gigantic) drawers.  I love that our Guitar Hero guitar boxes, DDR mats, video games and controllers all fit in one drawer - no more video game jive everywhere (do you hear the angels singing?)  The other drawers hold blankets, board games/crafts, books, and a multitude of other goodness that a family of 6 needs while lounging in the family room.

Picture of the finished entertainment center coming soon.

granite and handles

It was fun to finally see the kitchen take shape when the granite went in and the hardware was put on.  We are loving the kitchen.  We have a ton more space (I even have empty drawers and cabinets)  We love the easy clean up of the granite, especially compared to the tile we had in the kitchen before - I really have an aversion to grout lines!  

I will put some finished project pictures up once the floor is in since these pictures are still without appliances.

I love this sink.  You can't really tell from the picture but it's huge.  Notice my cute little colander of limes?  My neighbor dropped them off to me to brighten my kitchen.

finally

We have had some major issues with being able to post to the blog - not knowing how to work our Mac adds to the equation.  Derek informed me last night that we should probably try to learn more about our computer instead of only using it to make funny videos with photo booth. Does he not know that we bought the computer just to look at it's beauty :)

Here are some kitchen update pictures.  These pictures were taken after the painting had been done.  Even though the kitchen has been done for a week or so the floor still looks the same as in these pictures.  The flooring will start going in this Monday and I can't wait.  It will finally feel like we have a new usable space.

kitchen & entertainment center

These pictures are of the painting nearing completion.  This was about a week and a half ago (if I am remembering right)

Work gets started on the entertainment center. 

You can see our old armoire in the middle of the floor.  We have had it forever and I can't say that I am sad to see it go.  It did not hold near enough stuff and I was sick of looking at the knotty pine.  It's so nice to be able to update.
The new space will hold so much more - I can't wait to have it done.

kitchen - day creepy

So this picture totally creeps me out.

This is our kitchen all wrapped up and getting a fresh coat of paint.  This plastic beauty was up for a couple of days and all I can think about when I see it is some cheeseball, spooky movie.  I can picture a bloody hand sliding down the plastic - it has that look to me.  It's like the shower scene in Psycho - note to self...don't see creepy movies they stay with you forever.  Everytime I would walk by the plastic I had to tell myself that there was no killer or dead body on the other side -yeah, I kind of have a weird imagination, what's it to you.

it's taking over

The fun continues beyond the kitchen.  

We spent one evening ripping out the rest of the flooring in preparation for the start of the built-in entertainment center.  It was fun to rip up the flooring and see some of the old cream colored linolium (no clue how to spell it) we originally had in the house. What were we thinking?