new house

This is house number 17 for me.  Why not...?  You all have been with me for the last five houses at least.  We decided we were at a point where we needed to either put some money into our current house to make it still work for us, or start looking. We looked.  And we looked.  Our realtor called one day and said she had families who wanted to look in our neighborhood but the inventory was really low.  So we decided to list it and give it a little while and just see what happened.  We sold in 10 days!  So we had to start looking hard.  

We had one house fall through- but we never loved it.  After we thought all hope was lost and we'd be living in a hotel, we found it. 

This picture is from the assessors website- so it's not the right season. 

It never even went on the market.  A friend and collegeue told us about her neighbor who was thinking of selling. We went over and fell in love and begged them to sell to us. 

Then the seconed part of the hard work started.  With the deadline of school starting in our vision, we worked like crazy to get it all unpacked.  Crazy.  

The kids are happy to have some carpeted rooms.

There's so much light and it's just so open.  We are happy campers. 

The only immediatd project we did was to change out the track lighting fixtures in the kitchen.  The others were fine, just a little modern looking.  These hanging Edison bulb fixtures were the perfect addition. 

Every room is white, but we love it.  It's clean.  

After much debate and hem-hawing, we took out the grids in the windows.  The family room (to the left) has floor to ceiling windows and matched the rest of the house better with the removal of the other grids. 

Bee is happy with her room.  Lou asked for no picture of his room so it can be a surprise for our family when they visit. Ok, buddy. 

Perhaps the best part is that we have room for lots of friends to come over.  Is there aything better than a huge pile of shoes by the front door- when it means that you have a house full of friends?

We are right by several acres of woods. The pets love it.  We own like 8 feet of it, but we've been exploring beyond that line!

Here's our first day of adventuring.  Clearly fashion concerned. 

I found a whole bunch of poison ivy (which I'm now paying for), and we found a skull- racoon maybe, fox?  

The new house and the woods are giving the kids lots of time to play adventures.  Bee just finished reading Hunger Games (after me!) and the survival and hunting theme is coming out in their play.  Here is Lou working with his flint and steel to start fires in the driveway.  

I've said it before, but this is the last house.  They're going to have to drag me out of this one.  And if there is another move- we're getting movers! 

new shoe thing

Our shoes have a new home thanks to my dad.  He built us this really great shoe shelf after a phone conversation where I described what we needed.   We were having a shoe crisis because we have no real landing spot in our front room. Shoes were everywhere. We have an older home and apparently in the 60s you just walked right in and wore your shoes in the house.

   
I love how it looks in the entry way/living room. Most of our rooms are combo like that. 

We totally love it.  It fits in great with the living room and makes for a nice shelf for catching items as we enter the house.   It holds a million pairs of shoes.  

I just noticed you can see my 'new' cabinet.  It's new to the blog, but I've had it since November.  An antique style shop in the next town over closed down and was selling display pieces.  I snatched this guy up.  Hubby was less than pleased with my purchase.  I think it's grown on him.  

It had doors on the top with it but they didn't fit well.  We ended up using one of them to make a photo holder.  Our poor kitchen table is now smooshed in there, but I insisted on putting the new cabinet in the dining room/kitchen.  

There are 10 days left of school.  10 days!  I only have to make it 10 more days!

bathroom shutters

I had the shutters already, so when I kept seeing shutters as memo boards on pinterest, I just needed a spot for them.   I put them in the bathroom, which is a weird place for a memo board.  

 They used to be Bee's headboard, but her room is now a similar green color and she has hanging princess sheer curtain things hanging around her bed.   To the bathroom shutters, we added little notes that Bee writes, some pictures from Lou and some bible verses.  

Our shutters had a bar running down the middle.  I had to pull them off so that the shutters would lay flat against the wall.

Here are a few that have been all over pinterest. Here's one from Martha Stewart.com .

Here's another cute one that doesn't seem to link back to it's origional source.

simple fix=happy mama

My sweet hubby had a great find a yard sale this past weekend.  For free, he picked up two pieces of pretty counter top.  Right after we got home, he went right to work installing them in the garage.  He'd be really wanting to set up some kind of work bench in the garage and now he had a one, a pretty one.  That freed up a piece of good size piece of wood that I also had be eying for a project for me.  He had planned on using a scrap from this kids stage project for his work bench, but I was all too happy to get my hands on it. 

Here's my sewing space with my new fix.  I now have a great space for laying projects out and big enough for my cutting mat.   The sink area (while great when the kids and I paint) was a wasted top space.  I didn't want to pull out the sink, but I wanted it more usable for sure.

The big piece of wood was cut to fit the top plus hang out a few inches to accommodate my cutting mat.  Hubby cut out a notch for the sink faucets and this simple project was done leaving one happy mama. 

I also finally hung something on the wall behind the sink (although you can still see through this current fabric- leftover from Bee's dress)  See what's back there?  It's the fuse box.  The curtain hangs out an inch and a half or so, so the fabric isn't laying right on the box.  It's probably still a fire hazard...

I've been doing a lot of cutting lately for a new project (my ADD kicking in again).  Happily, I will not be cutting on the floor anymore!  Here are four blocks done of a spider web and star pattern.  Maybe for a quilt, probably for a smaller project.  I do love using us these small pieces of favorite fabrics from other projects. 

Hubby has been asking me every day if I've shown his new work bench here.  I guess I'll have to take some pictures and show off his free counter top find.

The tree is done... mostly anyway

I showed a little about the tree I was painting a few weeks ago.  I think I have it mostly done now.  I want to add a few more photos of great grandmas and grandpas, but it may take some searching to gather them.  

Here's where we started.

 Here is the artwork that inspired this painting. 

Brown tree.  I tried to draw some pencil lines, but I mostly winged it. 

Leaves and a second color added to everywhere for a little dimension.   I have zero special painting talent.  I just lack the fear of messing up.  This has proven to be a disadvantage at times in my life.

I found some photo corners that were made from brown ribbon. They were even on clearance.  I wanted to be able to change the photos as needed, so I didn't do anything too permanent with the photos. 

Here you can see the photo corners better.  This picture is of my sisters in Mexico.  I love it.  I think she's at the edge of a volcano?  I don't even have a passport.

Here's my youngest sister.   She's a super cutie 16 year old.   She has a passport too. 

I didn't stay too balanced,  like my siblings are one one side and hubby's on the other; we would have been lopsided.  Our parents are up there of course.  I want to add our grandparents and great grandparents but am still working on gathering those photos.  It's all a kid level so they can see them easily.  I'll put more photos up when we get the great grandparents up, but I'm calling this done for now. 

I am linking up to some of these fine parties. 

the big tree- work in progress

(Lou eye update at end- Praise the Lord!)

I've had this idea for a tree painting for a long time.  I haven't been able to do it thought because we've rented for the past several houses. The house we did own had textured walls.  Anyway, the new house had a great spot. 

This is the end of the hallway where the bedrroms are.  The bucket is for dirty clothes.  

 

The tree wall art piece was a gift from my best friend from junior high (and high school and even college roommate).   It's sort of been my inspiration for this painting.  There used to be little picture frames that pinned on the tree.  They got lost in a move years ago.  So my idea is a large tree and then pictures of our family members get attached some how.  

I grabbed some paints that I had on hand and got working.  I penciled a rough draft and sort of went with that.

Here's after the first painting session. 

Then I added the leaves and some depth with adding a second color to the wood.

Next, I need to work on gathering the pictures of each person I want to use. I am not sure how to attach the photos to the wall.  But, this post on Being Grown Up about a tree in a baby's room has given me the idea to use spray mount.  I'll be trying that.

Lou eye update: We have two eyeballs!  He was opening both eyes about halfway yesterday. He seems to see just fine.  We will go back to the doctor in a few days to check the healing and see if we can determine if his vision has been effected.  This is such good news!   Answered prayers for sure.  EDITED TO ADD:   Later in the day, both eyes were fully open and his pain seems to be greatly reduced.  From what mama tests I can do, I would guess his vision is fine.  Happy day!

a few other house pictures

Here are a few last pictures of the house. The boxes are about 95% done. I guess we just don't need the rest! Christmas boxes are coming out today. The kids have been asking all week. I was telling them that everybody else was just early, but they've stopped believing me.

Here's the rest of the basement. My sewing area is to the left, the kids have a play area in the middle and then there's a small living/treadmill area at the end. There is a doorway to hubby's office to the right of the TV.


Most of the kid's toys from the old playroom are in this funny basement storage area. It's like having a walk in attic. There is a similar one across the hall that has the laundry area and more storage.


Here's the living room.



This shelf is in the kitchen. I love having some of the canned food out. They are too pretty to have put away. This is most of them. There are more green beans, pickles, and tomatoes in the basement. I think we made plenty of pickles.

Here's our bedroom. The walls are light blue, although here they almost look green.


Finally got the curtains put up late this week. They were a funny material to sew with and drove me so crazy I would work on them in small allotments.

All of the bedroom furniture fit, which is always a concern. We have such large pieces.

Poor Lou, his room is the least 'finished.' He has asked not to have his dinosaur stuff up again, and wants monster trucks. We're still discussing this.