New House Stuff

I haven't posted about our new house in awhile.

Partly because I haven't been in the mood to do much around here lately.

Partly because I was having a hard time making up my mind about what to do.

But, I have made a few decisions and once I make a decision, look out.  I was done in 24 hours!

It helped that there was a deadline for a paint rebate from Lowe's too.

Our house looked very classy on the outside.

Classy.....but, sort of boring.  And, honestly, while I am not exactly "unclassy" or uncouth....I don't really consider myself classy.  It didn't really seem like me.

The house is tan, with black shutters and a black front door.

I did not want to deal with painting the shutters, so I started looking around Pinterest for homes that had dark shutters and painted their front door a different color.

I founds lots and lots of that.....so, I started picking out paint chips.  I had the kids vote, then vote again, when I changed my mind about which direction I wanted to go.

I was thinking yellow because of this door that is next to D-man's school.

(I have a slightly better, less fuzzy, picture of the house, but, since we totally did the....drive reaaaaaallly slow and stalkerish, by their house and take a picture thingie....D-man got me trying to keep my face out of the shot face...which gave me a reaaaaaaalllly bad double chin.....so, you get the slightly fuzzy version and can keep your sugar coated version of what I look like....which is...... that I have no double chin.  Right? Right?)

But, then I started looking at yellow paint chips and A-girl and L-girl reminded me of how much yellow I already have in the new house.  Boring.  So I started looking at raspberry pinks and oranges.  I found some really pretty ones......


(via carolyn morrison on Pinterest)

Or this...


(viahttp://www.warlinepainting.ca/gallery.asp)

Or this....


To be fair, I might have liked the shape of this door and the stone work more than the orange color.  (via Hamilton Building)

But, I kept coming back to yellow.....


(via Bob Vila  )

It is just so happy and sunny, you know?

I was going to go with yellow.

Until, I saw this.....


(via http://www.athomeinlove.com/)

Yes, the house is gray, not tan...but the shutters are black...there are brick stairs...and white is there as an accent.  I like.

So, are you ready for the result?

I went from this:

I know....the reflection is bad....maybe this one will show it better..

To this:

Isn't it fun and happy?

I will admit that once I was done, I had a few days where I thought I had made a huge mistake.  I drove creepy slow whenever I was coming or going and just stared at my door.....and thought.....oh no....I don't love it.

But, now, after I have lived with it for a week or so.....I love it.  It makes me happy.  It truly is more of a reflection of what is really happening behind that front door than the classy black was.

It makes me happy from the inside too...

Our neighbor boys, 5 and 3, love it too.  More, accurately, the  5 year old said, "Hey, did you paint your door blue?  I like it."  And, the 3 year old said, "I wuv your blue door!"

I finally made a decision on my hall bathroom and am still working through possible scenarios for my kitchen island.  I will show you what I have soon.

Keeping It Real....and Perhaps a Little....TMI

This morning, I was standing at our copier making some copies for our school day.  As I waited for the printer to warm up, my eyes wandered to the areas that I could see from my printer.

I started an internal, silent rage.....at my children.

Uggg......

Kids book, bigger kid book, embroidery thread for bracelet making....

Kid book, Ziploc baggie with an unmade craft, plastic golf ball, empty cocoa container, empty plastic bag, and a....knife....

One croc....honestly....the other one was nowhere that I could see....nowhere!

Captain America shield, Guitar Hero guitar (we don't even have any video games), 2 socks....that don't match each other, a pair of broken headphones, 2 box/suitcase thingies....and, well, my shoes.

Body spray/spritzer, the rubbery part of swimming goggles, a Christmas coloring book, a piece of a baby toy and a very old package of baby wipes (seriously...not even sure where those came from....we have been out of diapers for about 2 years now!)


So, you get it, right?  I was silently seething.  I mean, how hard is it to put things back where they belong? Where did they get this idea that you don't need to put things back where they belong?

We finally have a house that has room for us....and our stuff....there are places for just about everything now. Really.

I had worked myself into a really good lather about it.....they were going to get a stern talking to when they got up.

But, then.....I looked at my dining room table.  Those are L-girls' flip flops....ON the table....but that isn't what I saw when I first looked.  I saw the white thingie in front......

Yes, my friends, this is probably a bit of a TMI situation.....but that is my bra neatly folded and left on the dining room table.

No, I hadn't been folding laundry.

I had taken it off last night when we got home from church and wanted that puppy off and soon as I walked in the door....so I did the old Flashdance move and took it off while still fully clothed.....but my room....waaaay down the hall.....seemed too far away.

So, I folded it up and put it there.....just for now....and there it was this morning......saving my children from one of mom's lectures.

I guess I know where they get it from.

Sigh.

Here We Are....In All Our Blue Glory!

Rainman attends a different church than the kids and I do.

The upside of that is that we get 2 family pictures taken for the church directories.

Our last family picture was taken shortly after we moved to Georgia at my church.  I will not post that one here.....I had a migraine on picture day.....it was not a good shot.

But, this year the time came for directory pictures at Rainman's church.  I like this one.  (Mom....we have a copy for you......don't worry.)

Here we are......

(Sorry....I took a picture of a picture...hanging on my wall.....and I couldn't figure out how to crop out all the wall and wasted space!)

L-girl had broken one of the arms off her glasses, so her glasses were always askew on her face....and her new ones hadn't arrived yet.  We told her she didn't have to wear them for the picture, which lead to A-girl asking if she had to wear her glasses.  So, that just left the triangle of glasses wearers as Rainman, D-man, and I!  I am sort of wishing that I took mine off too.....but, now I can remember my cool aqua glasses I had back in 2014, right?!?!

The Big Basement Reveal

Okay.

I know it really isn't that exciting, and honestly, I think you can tell a much bigger difference in person.

But, I don't hate going downstairs like I used to....so there.

To recap, the basement used to have dirty, stinky, smelly beige carpet.  It was pretty bad when we moved in, but I felt bad that the owners had to come down in their price after the appraisal, so we didn't ask for carpet or a carpet allowance.

It was pretty bad when we moved in and my little darlings made it really bad.    Lots of contraband food and drinks were spilled and left to die a horrible death on that carpet.  You see, because mom hated going down there....mom didn't really inspect a lot.  So, they could tell me that it didn't look that bad down there and I believed them.  Foolish, foolish mom.

The basement had sort of an old urine smell.  Not completely sure if that is from the previous owners dogs.....or....my children.  I hope it was the dogs....but I can't honestly say!

It was dark down there.  One side of the basement has no windows and it had one light/fan fixture in the middle of the room with only one working light bulb socket....oh and my kids managed to break the fan so that doesn't work either.

It was just bad....plain bad.  Looked bad.  Smelled bad.  Made me feel bad.

Here are some before shots.

After we got rid of some carpet...and a bit of Rainman's bachelor couch.

The other end of the room....that is Rainman's bachelor T.V. facing the wall back there.  It died about a year ago....and there it has sat waiting for us to get rid of it.  The glass is to the wall because I know my children.

A closer shot of the bachelor couch.   My kid's didn't just destroy this puppy without permission.....well, some of it was done with permission.   I wanted to keep some of the stuffing for craft projects, so, being the coolest mom in the world, I told them to have at it and get me some stuffing!  They obviously had a great time.

Okay....so, I think you get a bit of an idea what it looked like down there when the children were pretty much given free reign. 

It obviously wasn't pretty.

So, we pulled up all the carpeting and I painted the whole thing....we got a few new IKEA desks....rearranged what we had....took a trip to the dump and....here we are today!

Three of our work stations and our reading library.

This is my curriculum shelf.  I have a shelf for math, for science, for history/geography, language arts, religion/theology/apologetics, foreign language, SAT prep....you get the idea....but it is all together in one place....I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.  Since it is all here, I can't forget about what I have, so I am using more of my stuff! 

Here is the whole overview of the school side of the basement.  D-man's work area is the closest on the left side.  S-girl's desk is in the middle of the curriculum shelf (another IKEA purchase from a few years ago).

This is my reference library!  I know....I am a nerd....but it makes me happy.

Here is the other thing that makes me happy.  There was a little closet under the steps and we have stored all of Rainman's VCR movies that he can't bear to get rid of in here.  But, also all my pencils; pens; glue; tape; pencil sharpeners; colored pencils, etc.  Again, all together in one place!

This is the other side of the basement...next to the school room.  We have games and puzzles in the two tall cabinet thingies.  Obviously a T.V.  And the latest addition is one of our twin beds from upstairs that wasn't getting used (remember we have bed hoppers).  And, of course, a big heap of toys in the corner.  We need to do another purge...but I am too exhausted right now!

I kept the floors just plain concrete.  I had wanted to paint them ....but money ran out....so it is fine for now.

We had a great friend who put in some new recessed lighting for us.  I bought them for really cheap at  Habitat for Humanity Restore.  I didn't even have to pay him with money....I just made him some Polish food!  The lighting difference is huge.  It used to be kind of dark, dingy and scary....now it is light and bright......

.....and, apparently good for naps!

Another Quick House Project

We are starting school at our house this week....so, in case I am too busy filling little minds with all sorts of facts and figures....here is another quick house project....

I am trying to lighten up my house, including the kitchen, which has really nice, granite countertops....but, they are black and the cabinets are a dark, cherry stain.

Before....I know I need to clean off that counter....

So, I removed some of the doors and wanted to put something pretty and bright in the back.

I got a partial roll of wrapping paper from the Habitat for Humanity Restore site for $.25.  I carefully measured my space....measured again.....marked up my cardboard....measured once more....cut  the cardboard......carefully placed the cardboard....it wasn't perfect....but it was pretty good.

Then I wrapped my cardboard in my pretty, partial roll of wrapping paper.....put the backs in and then went to put the first shelf in....

Yup.  It ripped.

The shelves were too tight.

So, I started the process all over.....measured my separate shelves....a few times each....cut my cardboard.....re-wrapped my pieces....being very careful not to use too much because I just barely had enough the first way.....and...

It worked!!!

This quick, easy, DIY project took me over 4 hours to complete. 

I know. 

4 hours.

I was pretty crabby by the time I was done....and sore from climbing up and down the ladder.

So, I just put my dishes in and they are going to stay that way for a while.  I am sure I could have arranged them more artfully....but, oh, well....

Really, my new lighter, brighter, fun colors do NOT go with the earth tone backsplash at all....but I have decided I don't care about that right now either!

Oh, here is one more tidbit of a project.

My new colors are a pale yellow, a citrus-y green and aqua.....my living room is yellow, the dining room is the citrus-y green and I was thinking my bathroom would be the aqua.

It is a really little bathroom right next to the front door.  It is a very good thing we don't get much company, because if we did they would get lots of views of little hineys going potty with the door open!

Anyway, it is little and dark....just like lots of parts of my house.  So, my thought was that I would brighten it up with a fun color.

Before....just a blah, tan, bathroom.

Here is what happened....

It sort of glows in the dark.  It really does.

The kids all love it.  I just think that it is just too much.  It is really bright and sort of claustrophobia inducing at the same time.

But, the kids really love it.....so before I totally paint over it, I am going to try a white wash technique to tone it down a bit.  We will see what happens.

But, again, you can see how fancy this house is based on the mirror and the sink stand....so not me....I am really NOT a fancy schmancy person.

So, those are my updates for now.  I will show you what my school portion of the basement turned out like once I get my students in there!

I Might Turn Into One of "Those" Blogs

Long story a wee bit shorter.  We wanted to sell our house and move.....but, times being the way they are.....we are stuck.

So, I am finally (after 3 years in the house) painting and hanging pictures and making this place my own.

Part of making this house work for us is sort of re-purposing how we currently use the space.  If I pull this off, I may even get my dining room back and actually be able to eat in it and not just use it  doing school.

I have just started the projects....but I am already excited about what I see.

The people that lived here before us had no children.  None.  The whole house is painted with flat (read.....non-washable) paint.  So, number one, our walls are digusting.  Number two, the house feels very formal and fancy.

I am not, nor have I ever been formal or fancy.

The drapes that came with the house are really nice....heavy, tapestry type fabric.  Pretty.  Formal.  And, definitely NOT me.

(Ignore the picture of A-girl modeling and wearing make-up.....just focus on the curtains.)

Here is the kitchen....which didn't have the full down to the floor draperies....just the topper thingie.

So, I took them all down.  Boy, did it open up the space and make it seem lighter and brighter!

In some parts of the room, there is a chair rail with kind of a burnt orange-y color underneath.  The trim throughout is sort of a creamy beige.

(Pedicare night at our house...complete with reading material!)

So.....here is what I have done so far....



I have painted the trim white....and done a primer coat on the orange stuff....I think I will keep the bottom white....it looks clean.  I can paint it a high gloss enamel so I can wash all the gross stuff that ends up there right off!

Anybody have an opinions about America's Finest Paint?  I am on a budget....so I went for that option. 

So, just a warning....I might turn into one of those blogs where I post all the pictures of my projects and paint color choices and DIY stuff that goes wrong.

Fair warning.  I am a little obsessed.