Curtains

Dresser, Curtains and Paint

I bought, painted and waxed this dresser when Ben was on swing shift. I like it. Now Autumn has her own dresser- apposed to a laundry basket. :)

I also finished these curtains about a month and a half ago.

And I painted Autumn's room gray. I LOVE it! I had to literally hold myself back from painting the whole house gray after that.

Our New Entry

This is our entry...

I have been coveting THIS idea for a while. Finally after seeing a similar thing at my friend Kate's home I decided to go for it. I am super glad I did. I LOVE it!

 I also decided to redo the entry table.

The entry table is actually an old sewing table that my mom let me steal have. It used to be a boring brown color. I added the birch top, sanded the heck out of everything, stained and painted it. It took SO much longer than I wanted. I am happy with the result. Actually I can't stop looking at it. I think I might stain the pulls though... we'll see if that happens. :)

It also has a little secret drawer. Melanie LOVES it. She loves the secretiveness of the drawer. But of course now it's not a secret, oh well. :) I find interesting stuff in there. No food yet, but if it starts stinking around here, this is the first place I'm going to look. 

 Here it is all together...

Bedroom makeover

Melanie's Room:

I decided to let Melanie help me paint her room... I don't know if it will happen again, but it was fun... for her. :)

After:

Notice the bent curtain rod, yeah, Melanie loves to open the curtains herself. There isn't much she doesn't want to do herself. :)

My Wonderful Craft Room!

Before:

Yikes! Apparently the teenage girl was exerting independence. (Even though it was a rental)

After:

 I love it! It's bright and well lite, but best of all I can stash my junk in the walk in closet. It's great. :)

Painting...

Family Room

Before:

 (Ben was not on board with the idea of painting the house. Since then he has changed this mind and actually likes it. This was a subtle tactic I used to change his opinion.)

Dinning Room:

*Eventually I want to add colorful curtains.

Laundry Room:

I love the color in this room! :)

Of course there is a lot of touch up to do but... that will just have to wait. :)

Furry Friend

Melanie and I were just finishing breakfast this morning when we heard the scarecrow (an automatic sprinkler that protects our garden from animals) turn on. We looked outside and saw a deer scurrying away from the garden. He must be used to these scarecrows though because he came back and ate from the blackberry bushes around the perimeter of the garden. Sly little thing.

Ben has been anxiously waiting to see this scarecrow in real action. Though watching it startle the neighborhood kids is funny to watch too. :) 

Here are some pictures of our backyard. Once we get more settled into the house I will post pictures of the inside.

Craigslist is my friend

I have to admit, I have been spending a lot of time on craigslist. I love a good deal. When I found this sectional I tried to look the other way but couldn't. 

So Ben and I ditched the kid (thanks Ben and Elise), drove to a nearby city, handed over some cash (we got $100 off for the "stains"), stuffed this into our van and s l o w l y drove home (after dropping by Collin's 2 year birthday party). We looked a little ghetto... but what's new.

 

I really wish we would've got a outside picture. You can't truly appreciate the ghetto-ness of it all without.

We now have a place to sit! Come visit!

Full days

So a lot has happened in the last little while. Here goes...

Wednesday was moving day!
The night before we moved the anticipation was too much and I could hardly sleep. I was so excited (and nervous. and worried. and overjoyed)

After taking Ben to the foot ferry at 5:45am, Melanie and I made sure the rental home was ready for the moving men (EQ and friends) and then rushed to the new house to clean. I cleaned like crazy, picked up the Uhaul, (Thanks Elise!) and then returned to the new house to clean some more. Melanie was really great. She played volleyball by herself, ate snacks, took care of her babies and read her books.

Here are some pictures for the not so faint of heart:

After cleaning for several hours I noticed the time was drawing near for me to pick up Ben from the foot ferry. I dashed out of the house with Melanie in tow. After buckling her up and starting the car I looked at the house and a sinking feeling hit... I forgot to grab the key to the house before locking the door. I was locked out of my own home. I searched everywhere for a way to get in. Nope, not happening. With the EQ scheduled to come in an hour and a half. I swallowed some good old fashioned pride and called a locksmith. Thanks Mom! Locksmiths make a lot of money for the amount of time they spend on a job-yuck! Since then we have bought a keyless entry lock for the door. Given my record (shrug) I think that was a smart choice.

After using a lot of persuasive power I finally convinced Ben to let the elder's quorum and friends help us with the move and I was so glad they did. It took a load off my shoulders (literally) and was quick and easy (from my seat on the porch). The whole move took about 2 hours. Thank you for your help guys!

Thursday we spent cleaning both the new home and the rental home.

Friday morning I returned to the rental home to finish cleaning. Cleaning didn't take very long and yet again Melanie was amazing. In the garage we had several large boxes that needed to be dropped off at a recycle center. The plan was to haul them off after Ben got home from work but I decided to tackle the job myself. It was a tricky job. After I shoved them all in, I asked Melanie if she would like to ride in a cave. She said "yes?" and I proceeded to stuff her into her car seat. She was okay with it for about 30 seconds and then changed her mind. For the next 2 or so minutes until I got her out of "the cave" all I heard was, "I said no. I said no. I said no mom!" Every child needs a "you would never believe what my mom put me through as a child" story right? Melanie has several. :)

Friday Ben's brother, Jon, came down to help out in taming our wild land and plant a garden. The boys worked like crazy both Friday and Saturday and were able to plant a good sized garden with a variety of plants. Come harvest time we are going to be eat'n good! Jon was a life saver in coming because while the boys "worked the land", as Ben likes to say, I was able to do more cleaning and unpacking. After a lot of the work was done we all took a much needed break and went out to eat with Ben, Elise and Lucy. Yum! Melanie throughly enjoyed having Jon over. Every minute she could she was with Jon, watching the snails, talking on the phone to Megan, video chatting and playing games. Thanks Jon for coming to help out!

Sunday we went to our new ward and then visited Gary, a guy Ben used to home teach.

Today, Monday, we did a final walk through of the rental home and then turned in the keys. :) That was a good feeling.

Getting closer

11 days till we close on the house! Woot woot! Since I am so excited I thought I would share a few pictures of the house. These pictures were taken before the renter started living there, so you are seeing a clean house in these pictures. It will take us a few day of cleaning after we close to get it to this point again. A little elbow grease and a creative eye and we'll get it back into ship shape. :)

The kitchen

View of kitchen from family room

Entry way

Bathroom