Random stuff update

Here's a photo of our "new" computer armoire that I scored on craigslist today. Isn't it great? I was determined to put our home office in the great room so that we could watch movies on the computer (no TV) and so we could listen to music after Levi went to bed (cuz it used to be across the hall from his room and was too loud) so I scoured the internet and found this great piece of furniture to help conceal the mess of the computer while showing the house, etc. And I'm going to sell our ugly metal file cabinet and keep our files in the leather storage ottoman I got at Target last week. Woohoo!

Here's a cute pic of Levi and Daddy. They were both so tired that night but Levi managed to lean forward and give a half smile to the camera.

Dave Saturday night. Exhausted but enjoying his new bar counter and bar stool.

The back of the house after Justin and Alex tore off the ugly delapidated "redwood" deck. We will soon have a concrete patio.

The fireplace in the great room and the new carpet, paint, etc. before we moved in the furniture and put covers on outlets, etc.

Dave trying out his homemade extra tall bar stool. We modified plans from ana-white.com but these were super easy to make. Stools that high in stores cost about $300 each. We made two of these for about $50. We're going to paint them black. Of course, one is assembled and we are going to assemble the other one today. All the pieces are all over the great room right now.

This is a view of the great room into the kitchen. Pardon all the messes...

Levi chillin' in the oven drawer. Did I already post this on the blog? Know I did on FB. I just think it's cute. I'm proud that my boy can get around so easily on his own. Last night he climbed the stairs up to a slide and went down on his own (I caught him) at Glen Miller Park in Richmond. A sign said it was for 5-12 year olds. I laughed and asked if it meant 5-12 month olds?

what is left to do on our house

It is June 3rd and we are oh-so-close to being done with our home. It's taken 3-4 years but we've remodeled and replaced nearly everything in this home. And we've paid cash for it. I'm praising God about that. Because it has cost us about 5 times what I originally estimated. Ha! We were so clueless when we started...

But anyways, I estimate we have 2-3 weeks left till we list it. Of course I always underestimate (see above paragraph) so realistically maybe we'll list it in 6 weeks...? I don't know. Anyways, I'm speaking that it will sell For Sale By Owner in 3 days. I am believing that if God wants us to move onto the next chapter in our lives (which He seems to) that it will work out so well. Of course I know there's a ton wrong with all that theologically, but anyways....whatever. I'm trying to be optimistic in my own little way.

So, here's a fun little to do list of what we have left to do on the house....not much in all reality (at least compared to everything that's been done)

1. Build and install upper corner cabinet doors in kitchen
2. Stain and poly the doors and the brackets supporting the bar counter
3. Seal bar counter and re-seal kitchen counters
4. Repair grout in guest bath
5. Build 2 barstools using plans from ana-white.com
6. Move the office to the great room and make it look not cluttery
7. Deep clean the entire house
8. Have the bedroom carpets and couch steam cleaned
9. Landscaping (plants, mulch, etc.)
10. Reroof the house
11. Install new gutters
12. Paint foundation?
13. Paint exterior doors
14. Fix light by side door outside
15. Pour a new sidewalk and new patio
16. Declutter master bedroom
17. Stage guest bedroom
18. Find somewhere to store remodeling tools, supplies
19. Sew some grass seed
20. Have a celebration party!!!!

I hope to post some more pics of the inside and outside of the house how it is right now later this weekend.

design love

lately i've become more and more obsessed with interior design. i love homes and everything about them pretty much. as a child I would draw house plans relentlessly and wanted to become an architect. somehow i found myself with a civil engineering degree designing water lines, interstates, storm sewers and wastewater treatment plants. just not what i wanted to do with my life. so now that i'm a stay at home mom I'm delving back into my passion of making homes beautiful thru remodeling this house and someday when we move, we'll probably do the same to that house. thru this remodeling process i've had some really trying moments, like the 1 year period of time while carrying my first baby and after having him where 6 of our 9 rooms were basically gutted, but all in all, looking back i know that I've LOVED this time. thru the process i've also scoured the internet searching for design ideas. i will share a few below.

Below is an office before/after from Office from Rambling Renovators. I LOVE the bold green walls (something I am not sure I'd have the guts to do) and black and white accents as well as the creative use of IKEA storage units. Someday I'd love to have a similar office space.

And check out this office from Honey We're Home. I love the cheerful yellow and the IKEA expedit shelves and the desk with the "X" legs.

Another fave of my design blogs that I follow is Casa Greer. I LOVE their bedroom, office, laundry room, etc, etc. So much use of the fun color turquoise! Below is a pic of their bedroom. Love the contrast of the dark gray walls with the yellow, white and turquoise accents. The chevron curtains are super cute.

Below is a pick of where someone used an awesome stencil for accents on a wall instead of wallpapering. I love this idea. So much easier to paint over if your taste ever changes. Which of course with me is bound to happen...I could redecorate and move furniture every week...

Found the kitchen below on Kelly Moore's website via Young House Love. I love that they have the same fridge as us. To anyone considering stainless steel appliances I highly recommend the Frigidaire Gallery series. They clean up way easier than Whirlpool. For someone with a child this is super important. We've seriously only cleaned ours about 3 times in 6 months and they look great.

But back to this kitchen picture, I love how they painted their cabinets a fun yellow color and the stainless steel and black island from IKEA is really a nice touch. Dave & I are also determined to have an apron farmhouse sink in our next dream kitchen. Of course they are like $1000 so we'll have to start saving....but anyways. I like the white ones. Dave wants a hammered copper farmhouse apron sink. I'm sure that costs even more. What can I say? I married a man with EXPENSIVE taste.

The other cool thing about this is that they DIY'ed their concrete countertops. We're in love with granite after tiling our current kitchen counters but now I"m highly considering concrete in some setting in my next adventure of remodeling. I think it looks very cool.

The dining area below is also from Kelly Moore's website. I love the use of the IKEA Expedit shelving (again) and the gray walls. I'm loving gray these days. And that table is AWESOME. Maybe Dave can build me something like that someday.

Another blog I frequent is Our Humble A{Bowe}d  This couple shares our love of DIY-ing practically everything. And I love all the amazing paneling they put in several of their rooms. Check it out on their website (I especially love the office and dining room.) But below is a pic of the built ins in their office. Gorgeous, huh?

 

Another blog I'm checking more often lately is a friend of the bloggers on Young House Love, Bower Power. Check out their living room in their former house. I'm in love! I am simply obsessed with that cheerful green color lately.

And of course I love Young House Love. As you've all heard before...time and time again...but here's a photo of their bathroom in their old house. I love that green wall color, the beautiful black floor tiles and the DIY'ed sink.

And this office is also one of my favorites. I love bright cheerful bold colors with crisp white and black. This is on Three Men and a Lady.

Anyways, that's just a glimpse of my ever-evolving list of favorite rooms on the internet. Dave has pretty much let me run the show with decorating this house since we're basically staging it to sell. But he keeps warning me that in our next home he's going to be more opinionated. Hhhhhh...I fear what that will mean. Anyways, now we are in the process of sharing ideas with each other. He leans more towards the rustic, convert a barn into a home type style, reclaimed wood floors and wood paneling type stuff, and I lean more towards what you've just seen in this post. So we are earnestly searching for examples that we can use to help us meld our two styles in one home. I think it will be super fun.

Designing fun

I had the opportunity last week to draw up some sketches of possible kitchen layouts for my in-laws' new kitchen. I absolutely love that type of work. If I could do that kind of thing all day long I would....why, oh why did I not become an architect like I wanted to?

In every spare moment I've had lately my mind has been swirling with decorating ideas. I have devoured magazines and blogs, etc, etc. for ideas. I've also spent a lot of time pondering how I will decorate the great room when it is done. The painting/trim is being finished this week and carpet will be laid next week. I am attempting to make it look very, very nice without buying much new furniture, decor, etc., etc. It's my little design challenge you might say. Anyways, in looking at all types of inspirational photos of family/living rooms I have come to realize that I love chairs. As mundane and strange as that may sound, I never before realized how much I loved chairs. I've always been more of a couch or loveseat type person cuz I figured the more the merrier...BUT now I'm realizing the beauty of occasional chairs. They can move around easily in a living area for conversation, playing games, etc. And it gives you more options for adding small splashes of color and pattern to a room.

Just this past week I purchased these 2 wicker chairs and pads for our great room. They can be used outdoors but I decided they'd add just the perfect amount of texture and color and some fun to the room. And if I get tired of having them inside I can put them out on the front porch, etc.

Just check out all the cool chairs I found simply doing a google image search, click here.

I like how often people put 2 matching chairs right next to each other facing in the same direction like a "loveseat" ....



Or how people sometimes angle them, especially around a circular table (large or small)



And I'd love to add that both of the above pics have something to do with Nate Berkus. I'm a fan, what can I say?

update

so it's been almost 2 months since my last blog post. basically we are in a very busy season of life and i haven't felt like blogging.

we are feverishly working on getting our house finished and on the market sometime this month. roundabout April we realized we'd never meet that goal working alone so we enlisted some help. that's when "Drywall Daryl" (as Dave affectionately refers to him) entered our lives. We were very impressed with Daryl's work on repairing the drywall in our laundry room and great room, how well he did and how he would work as late as needed to finish the job, and as a result we later contracted him to paint the great room (actually my mom offered to pay for him to paint it so she wouldn't have to help us paint anything else...haha! what a great gift!)

anyways, Daryl is a very interesting guy and we've both had a great time getting to know him and listening to his animated stories. he's a 54 year old Napolean Dynamite yet also very very similar to Dave in his attention to detail and wanting to take his time and do a job "right" the first time. his favorite subjects to speak on are his ancestors, especially dear old Sparta who reigned from Arkansas and had his wife committed to an asylum so he could marry another woman, his 90 year old smoking, drinking mother who still parties and dances out at the bars, his aunt who beat up her cheating boyfriend with a high heel, his "maxed out"  Duster muscle car, how he can tell if a "Mexican" has done the drywall in a house and "slam-banged" it, and of course his ex wife and current girlfriend who are women who can "smell money". he said when he gets home with his earnings, the women in his life will have their hands out. one of the highlights of our conversations was when he was imitating the voice of one of his female chain smoking clients and he started having a coughing fit because of course he too smokes....anyways, I could go on for hours documenting all the important life lessons we've taken away from our talks with Daryl but I must get on with the day...All in all, we feel we've made a great friend and he even offered to help us over the phone when we move to Ohio on drywall/plaster projects.

we have also hired a guy to do a lot of work outside. we realize that we have been incredibly spoiled by Daryl's stay-till-job-is-done mentality. Although this new guy is doing a fabulous job his average work day is 2-3 hours long, and that includes a 1 hour lunch break. So the exterior work is coming along rather slowly. As soon as we get a few more inside projects done I plan to go out there and make some things happen. Perhaps if I'm getting things done faster than this guy it will motivate him to work more...?

Nevertheless, our house is finally coming together. All we have left inside is hanging the ceiling fans in the great room, getting carpet laid in there, hanging the curtains and rods, putting on the baseboards, installing new doors and windows in there-which we are hiring done, and tiling the bar counter (and finding stools tall enough for it....). And then my favorite, decorating! I can not wait to move the furniture back in the great room and decide on some of the details in there.

It has been our goal for roughly 10 years to move back to Ohio and Dave start his own business and it seems like things are falling into place this year to make that happen.We are in the beginning stages of working out details with Dave's parents to purchase their home and they are planning to move next door. Perhaps I'm the only one of the 4 of us who thinks this, but I feel that we all are moving cautiously in making all these arrangements because the four of us do have such good relationships now that we would not want any hard feelings, etc. or anything to happen to jeopardize our close relationships. Just in my short life I have seen properties, money, etc. come in between family members far too many times. And I know that hard feelings can begin and then fester into something much bigger if not shared with one another.

In other news, in January, when Levi was 6 months old, I finally admitted to myself and others that I had post partum depression. I have been on a journey since then climbing out of that low place in my life where I rarely got dressed and spent most of my free time surfing the net and eating chocolate chips. Seriously. Some days my only food was choc chips. That depression eating caused me to actually gain back all and more of the weight I lost right after having Levi not to mention created terrible eating habits and sugar/caffeine/sweet addictions that I'm fighting to this day. Just this week I've decided to enroll at the local YMCA and enlist the advice of a nutrition consultant. I am trying to make lasting changes.

In January I also started seeing a therapist a couple times a month and then starting in March Dave began coming along for a little marriage counseling. This time has been very valuable to our marriage. We LOVED our pre-marriage counseling and always wanted to do something like that again so now we actually are. It seems that since we were married 8 years before having Levi we have had a lot of adjusting to do this year with getting used to having him in the picture. Feeling the need to provide for his wife and new baby Dave has kicked into high gear workaholicism and that in itself contributed to my feelings of loneliness early on last fall. Some people say I shoudl be thankful that my husband does work hard, etc. but when my love languages are acts of service and quality time that doesn't leave me feeling v ery loved when he works 12+ hours/day 6 days/week and then spends Sunday at church and then sleeping while I continue to care for Levi. ................hhhhhhhhhhhh............anyways. I think that we're slowly coming up with some solutions to make life more fun and less frustrating. And I'm thankful that we have such a great counselor and friend who is willing to listen to us argue every other week. :)

Also, last night in reading a homeschool mom's blog I was reminded of reading Created to be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl and I realized that although a lot of the things the counselor has recommended  are true I also need to change my basic attitude and think more in the mode of a Help Meet and less of  a liberated feminist needing Dave to pull his weight in this family! It is hard because it is so anti-mainstream culture and I know of absolutely no real life example of someone who really lives this way 100% of the time (but yeah, none of us are perfect...)....but it is my goal.

You Never Let Go Lyrics - Matt Redman

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won't turn back
I know you are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

(Chorus:)
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We'll live to know You here on the earth

(Chorus)

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

random thoughts

i've been reading a couple books lately.

crazy love (our sunday school class is reading it together)

lick the sugar habit (our midwife recommended it)

in lick the sugar habit i learned all kinds of facts that i sort of wish i could pretend i had never learned. for that matter, i'm getting the same thing from crazy love! ha!

anyways, it just seems like it is easier to not change and these two books are weighing on my mind pressuring me to change.

the other random thought i just had (and have had often throughout my life)....are kleenexes actually exacerbating my allergy/sinus symptoms? they have so much dust in them...when I grab one to wipe my nose, it creates more dust and makes me sneeze again which causes me to grab another tissue. perhaps i should switch back to the old school hankerchief. seems it would produce less dust. and be "green"...i mean, seriously, everyone is switching back to hand towels, microfiber cloths, and some people even use cloths instead of toilet tissue. and then the other thought i had ...maybe the facial tissue companies add extra dust so that you become "addicted" to their product and keep having to buy it.

Click on the link below. I found it fascinating viewing these photos since I'm living in a time where breastfeeding without a cover in public would be considered totally offensive.

Neat blog that includes historical breastfeeding photos

I think it is interesting how our views as a culture of breastfeeding have been changed/shaped so drastically in the last century. Something that is only natural has become unnatural in the eyes of many people.

I often felt uncomfortable around women breastfeeding before I had a baby. Even when they were covered. And now that I am one of those women, I am constantly concerned that I'm offending someone else. I am realizing that the only reason that I felt uncomfortable before was that I really had not been around that many women who did openly breastfeed. Because they were probably worried they would offend me...So I ask myself why don't we all just stop thinking of breasts as sexual objects and start doing what God designed us to do in public? Why don't we stop the cycle of everyone feeling uncomfortable? It would be so much easier. And I'm thinking also that the breast pump is a nice invention but has only probably been invented so that breastfeeding women can give their babies bottles in public to try to "fit in" with the cultural norms.

Ditto.

That is all I have to say about this...click below:
Post about Hormonal Birth Control
But I will warn you there are some curse words and may be mildly offensive but so, so true.

Someone I'm friends with on Facebook posted this link the other day, I opened it up then walked away from the computer and I just got around to reading it. I wish I could remember who posted it. But anyways. I saw this commercial on TV too. And I must admit at the time of viewing it, it did sound appealing to only have 4 periods a year, but it left me wondering what on earth is that drug really doing to a woman's body??? Guess you know what I'm NOT going to start taking now...

Long Overdue Photo Update

Christmas Eve morning at our house. Way to start our little family's tradition of Sticky Bun and presents, huh? Levi was pretty tired but he did enjoy opening his stocking and getting his wooden blocks. We found them on etsy.com.

We put Levi down for a nap then Dave opened his Saint headlight from me. And he had already gotten his Bosch reciprocating saw a few days before.

It was an awesome Christmas for me. I got a new Bosch mixer, blender, food processor, sausage stuffer and meat grinder from pleasanthillgrain.com. One of our fave websites :) We've been enjoying making all kinds of baked goods with our new tools.

Dave looks like the sticky bun has placed him in  a carb/sugar coma. But he really just blinked...

We drove to Ohio on Christmas Eve and arrived at mom and dad's house in time for the Crabtree Christmas. Here Aunt Sharon and Aunt Connie are saying their goodbyes to Baby Levi.

On Christmas Day we opened presents with my family (mom, dad, Emily, Brian). Levi was pretty good at opening presents.

Here he is with his teething toy. A fawn. We call her Lafawnda (Napoleon Dynamite reference everyone...)

Emily opening her Christmas dishes from us.

Mom & Dad opening their new Garmin from all of us.

Mom & Emily fussing over baby Levi. Pretty typical. He is spoiled...that's for sure.

A family portrait from Christmas day.

Levi opening up some clothes from Gamma & Pappy.

Levi once we got back home playing in his exercauser with his favorite toys from Grandpa & Granny. He loves these things!

See...

And of course this is where I would insert photos from Christmas with Dave's family. We attended 3 different get togethers with them. But apparently neither of us thought to take photos at those gatherings. Actually, I thought of it once but was feeding Levi and then it slipped my mind after wards.

And here are some remodeling photos. Our kitchen with plastic wrap over all the cabinets during the mudding/sanding/painting process. They were like this for a week or so. That's the week when we ate fast food all the time and felt sick.

The sink counter was also covered up with tarps. This is the week I did not wash any breakfast dishes. They were disgusting. We still did not have the dishwasher when we finally got the sink back. Not fun...

The laundry room still looks about like this one month later. But hey, doesn't it look so bright with those doors painted white? Soon...the walls will be grayish blue. Can't wait to do that.

Levi hanging out in his sleeper from Gamma and Pappy on Mommy & Daddy's bed. So cute...he has changed so much since this was taken though.

Levi hanging with his dear friend Aiden while their dads were at a deacon meeting. :)

Dave working on the tile floor in the kitchen. He had a lot of help from Ceo and Jason and a bit from me. It went pretty fast that way.

The great room after a weekend of Jack staining cabinets, Nick mudding drywall, & Dave, me and Ceo laying tile. And to think that I'm supposed to teach piano lessons in this room too. Wow. See the end of the piano there in the bottom right of the photo...hhhhh....constant source of frustration in this household let me tell ya.

Another shot of the great room.

Also that weekend, the appliances were moved out of the kitchen so we could tile. The stove went in the great room (see above) and the fridge went in the front room. Spent many evenings attempting to cook in the front room. Not fun. Gave up. Bought food and brought in from restaurants till Mom brought us food :) Thank you again, Mom!

Also in the midst of the kitchen remodel I decided to try to reorganize our master bedroom and bathroom. My first step was switching dressers with Dave one night while he was at a church meeting. You see, since I've gained weight I actually have fewer clothes than him (and I actually prefer it that way). It makes laundry and choosing what to wear easier, etc. And it fits better in our room/closet. And Dave has somehow acquired a million and a half t-shirts, etc. over the years and will not part with any of them even though he rarely wears civilian clothes (usually wears uniforms or dresses up for church). So that night I switched dressers with him. He had 3 junk drawers and now he can have 8 junk drawers in the other dresser. Great for him. But the problem was that there was an entire drawer leftover from his old dresser of misc. junk that I had no idea what to do with. So it sat there on top of his new dresser for 3 weeks till I gave up on him putting it away and I stashed the stuff in his dresser so I could put my socks away in my new dresser and now...he has no clue where any of his misc. junk is. Hhhhh....

We are realizing that we have somehow traded places. After 8 years of him wishing I were more neat and organized and me wishing he were less neat and organized, we have switched. Now he's the slob and I'm mad at him for making messes all over the house. The great room and the top of his dresser are just 2 examples. It is terrible. Now I know what it's like to live with me! Ahhh! So, anyways, we're working on cleaning up these days.

I also re-organized the medicine cabinets in our bathroom. Here are the before shots.

And here are the afters. I found some containers at HomeGoods and JoAnn Fabrics. I was able to contain and categorize a lot of stuff. I love it! 

I was also very tired of the way our bedroom looked. My night stand was like 6 inches square and I was constantly knocking stuff off ot it and even though I liked our bedding (Dave's ancient threadbare blue blanket and the quilt Margy and Jenny made us for our wedding), I was ready for a change. Dave & I discussed it. We decided that it was not a big deal for us to quit using the quilt for our bed. We have used it almost non-stop since our wedding 8.5 years ago. And we hope to someday use it in a guest room or something. But we were ready for some new bedding.

So I began shopping around online and then one night ran out to HomeGoods. I ended up finding this comforter set and pillows marked down to $50 because the bag was ripped open. I also found the lamp. Then I shopped my own house as recommended by thenester.com and found our game table buried in the great room. I had planned to decorate with it in there but realized it would work fantastically as a night stand. And it matches our bed perfectly. It is a bit more crowded in our room than I want, but for now it works. I've since taken the tag off the lamps, added 2 more pillows and cleaned some more but you get the idea.

Levi likes to turn his bib around. We call it his cape. He's super baby. 

Dave, Steve & Ceo at the FCO bird hunt. Dave was so pleased to have his brother Steve come visit that weekend. They had a great time together.

Jason at the bird hunt.

Steve at the bird hunt shooting clays.

Levi showing up his sitting up skills on the new kitchen floor.

The new kitchen. All the stuff from the drawers is on the counter. New appliances. Love them.

Dave's homemade cinnamon rolls that he made on his snow day from work.

Dave had to go to Chicago in the ice storm/blizzard last week for work. I worried about him on his drive up like crazy. But he made it. Check out the piles of snow there.