Show and Tell, Updates and Blessings

I am so grateful for friends. It has been such a blessing to have meals sent home from church, men giving up their free time to lay new tile and rip out the old, willing hands (and backs) to help me paint, and a dozen other things.

Today I was blessed by the daughter of a friend who worked hard with me painting the family room. She had to come our way to drop off her brothers to work with another friend, and her mom, remembering that I am "heavy with child" thought I might need some help :) Isn't that the sweetest thing!?!

It is so wonderful to watch the fruit of these godly families who have given their lives to raise godly offspring. The sacrifice and training that went into the lives of these children is so evident in their sweet spirits, generosity, humility, and willingness to serve. Our family has been often blessed by the efforts of "arrows" being sent forth as one was today. I pray that God has mercy upon our humble efforts that they bear good fruit and can bless others in the way that we have been blessed.

And now, since it is Show and Tell Friday over at Raising 4 Godly Men, a few pictures. I've been meaning to participate for a while, and since home improvement is our focus right now, I think this post will work :)

Okay, it's hard to tell that the colors are greens, they look very pale in the pictures. But really, they are greens. The room with the piano in it is the lightest green, the infamous Frosted Kiwi, but now that it isn't competing with the sunshine for a bit of recognition it's letting the frost thaw a little and the kiwi come forth.

The dining room is the darkest, and the family room is between the 2 shades. I didn't prettify anything for you and the family room is obviously not put back together. It only has one coat and the fireplace is only primered, but isn't it going to look great?!? I think I am going to paint the middle section of the fireplace the green that is in the dining room. The rest of it will be white. What do you think?

Do you remember what these rooms used to look like? I have been really bad about taking "before" shots, but you can get an idea from this post, and this one.

On Painting and Passing Out

I got a whole room done today! My friend Tonya came to my rescue and drove and hour and a half each way to help me paint. She was such a blessing. We painted the dining room, which means that all of the sunshine yellow in the house has been banished. It has been replace by two hues of mellow green. The aforementioned Frosted Kiwi (also known as white) and Italiante Villa, which we call pale green. It's amazing how much changing the color changes the whole mood of the room. It really is much more relaxing in there now. Tomorrow I'll put everything back where it goes and try to get a picture or two. I should have taken some "before" shots! I don't seem to be very good at getting before shots.

We had a bit of excitement with Sierra today too. Hailey came tearing into the house screaming that Sierra had passed out. Seems she tried to grab onto Hailey as she took off on the zip line and she fell off onto the ground. On her head. And promptly lost consciousness.

Now, Sierra is my, um, dramatic child. As a toddler she lost consciousness and turned deep shades of purplish/blue with a fair amount of regularity. But it has been a few years. Still, you never know if it is a Huge and Horrible Injury, or if she just needs a little time and space to breathe and a bit of TLC.

So, I dropped my paintbrush and went running out there in my bare feet. When I got there she was semi-conscious. Sort of moaning with unfocused eyes. Then she started crying. Sobbing that her head hurt and she couldn't move. Once I decided she was okay to move, I picked her and and carried her to the house. Picked. her. up. and. carried. her. allll the way to the HOUSE. Did I mention that I am 8 months pregnant? That she is 8 YEARS old? That I am heavy, and awkward, and out of shape? I do believe that barring some adrenaline fueled, God granted, superpower in the face of danger; that I will never carry her again :) We have a wagon for crying out loud!

Anyway, I carried her as far as the dining room table where we cuddled for a few minutes and I wiped her face with a cool cloth while Hailey laid a sheet over the couch. She landed in the mud after all, and it's not like it was a Huge and Horrible Injury. Then Tonya carried her to the couch.

It took her an hour or so to feel better. But her only lingering complaint seems to be a sore jaw. She has forever sworn off the zip line. Bad, bad, zipline that it is, and the accident certainly having nothing to do with her trying to hitch a ride on Hailey's back.

So, that was our excitement for the day. And I went back to painting, where I contemplated throwing myself off the chair so that someone would carry me to the couch and let me take a little nap :)

Moving Forward

Today I got the stairwell and entryway painted. I cut them in yesterday and rolled them today. I know, it doesn't seem like much. But it is forward motion and I could give you a long list of other things I also had to do over the last few days :)

Anyway, the sunshine yellow has been banished from those walls and it has been replaced with a much mellower pale green. I know it is pale green because the can says Frosted Kiwi. And the color swatch is green. Chance insists that due to it's utter lack of color it must be white, but everyone knows a kiwi is green. It's just very frosted, as in completely covered with snow.

Being a color person, it isn't my favorite. But there is something very satisfying about freshly painted walls. You really feel like you are accomplishing something when you see each pass of the roller cover the old with the NEW. And when it is done it all looks so fresh and clean.

I'd paint a lot more often if I didn't hate it so much. There are some things that I forget are really unpleasant. But, much like labor, I never forget that I really don't like to paint. But at the end of labor you have an amazing little baby, and fresh walls just don't compare. In a day or two the walls will have grimy little handprints and scuffs where someone tossed their shoes. So, I guess if I can paint this whole house I can totally go through labor again!

Into The Wild

As we have been working on the interior of the house, the exterior has been sadly neglected. The most obvious result of that neglect is our "lawn". At first I didn't want it mowed because it was full of the most beautiful wildflowers. But now the flowers have all gone to seed, and even if they hadn't they wouldn't be visible over the "grass". I'm sure the chiggers are very happy with the way we have let our yard go, but the children are swallowed by the jungle every time they step out the door, and the man eating bugs are thriving.

So, Chance has begun the task of mowing down our 3 1/2 acres of greenery. I thought you would appreciate a few photos, just in case you thought I was exaggerating :)

First is Eli, raking what Chance mowed yesterday. Notice the attire. Cowboy hat, boots, shorts, and his "cowboy" shirt which has been worn, slept in, and worn again. Oh, and he's wearing it again today. I did order 2 new "cowboy" shirts today, so I am hoping to wash this one soon.

Here is Chance on the mower, entering the abyss. See Eli hiding behind him?

And finally we have the kids acting as chigger bait so that I could go out and snap some pictures.

That's it for now :) Have a great night!

Fireplace Face Lift

Mike was able to get the fireplace done before he left. I just have to fill the nail holes, primer, and paint it. I think it will really make a big difference in the room. We are trying to modernize things a bit and make them more like what we are seeing in model homes, to better compete with the new home market, especially since resale homes are moving so slowly right now.

This is before, except that the mantle has already been taken off.


And after! It looks like it is covered with plywood, but it is actually beadboard. You just can't see the pattern in the picture. Won't it look nice?!?

Update

Things are moving along here. Mike leaves on Thursday. Yep, THURSDAY. As in 2 days from now. The wood floors are done, the kitchen counters are tiled (and waiting for Chance to grout the backsplash), 2 bathrooms have been gutted and redone, ugly ceiling fan in kitchen eating area replaced by pretty chandelier, new kitchen sink, upstairs hall and boys room/game room painted, barn roof and siding replaced, pool liner replaced, and myriad other small projects tackled. It has been BUSY here.

I am so proud of my husbands ability to jump in and tackle what needs to be done, whether or not he has ever done it before. His artistry, skill and attention to detail always yeild great results.

And now, without further ado, some pictures of the latest projects.

This is my new sink. I LOVE the sink. Can you see how deep it is? I can put my roaster right in it, or my whole cutting board. There is a removable basket (you can see it in the 2nd picture) that separates the sink into 2 sides like a traditional sink.

The formica is gone! New tile counters and backsplash. You can't really tell in the photo, but the biege colored diamonds in the backsplash are 4 little stone diamonds formed into a larger diamond, and then bordered by stone.

The picture doesn't do it justice, these walls were really ugly. The entire house, with the exception of bedrooms and bathrooms was done in this brown and biege sponging technique. It made the house REALLY dark, but more than that, they did a terrible job. Painted around things on the walls, lots of drips and smears. We hired a painter to do the downstairs before we moved in, but we have been living with the upstairs. Of course, the new people won't have to :)

Again, you can't tell very well, but the new color is sort of a creamy yellow. I really like it and it makes the house so much lighter!

That's it for now! As you can see, we've gotten a lot done. Lot's more to do, but making really good progress :)

Progress

Doesn't it look great!?! It has been a lot of work for Mike to put down the flooring alone, but he is doing a great job. The living room/playroom is done, the entryway is done, and the dining room is almost done. Then he just has to do the family room and the wood will be complete.

I hope his poor body holds out for the next couple of weeks. He is at the chiropractor right now, and is drinking a daily herbal concoction designed to help alleviate pain and the interal swelling of his tendinitis. It helps a lot, but he really needs to rest his arm to heal it. The pain often keeps him awake at night.

Pray for him, that his pain will be manageable and his efforts will be blessed.

What We've Been Doing

The men have been hard at work here. I don't have any before shots, since being constrained to using actual film made me feel I didn't have a camera :0 Although judging from the length of time it seems to take me to get film developed, I was really better off waiting.

So, those of you who have been here know what the "before" was, and the rest of you will just have to appreciate the current beauty :)

First we have the upstairs bathroom. This project was much bigger than we anticipated. We were originally going to leave the tub and tile in intact, and just replace the floor (it was yucky carpet) and the vanity, countertop, and toilet. But we noticed a tile in the corner by the tub was cracked all the way around, and on further investigation discovered that there had been water leaking behind the tile, across the back of the tub and into the floor. Soggy flooring, soggy drywall and lots of black mold. Long story short, we gutted the entire bathroom.

We are on a very tight time schedule and an even tighter budget, so this was REALLY not good news.

But the new bathroom is much nicer than the old one was. And "they" say bathrooms (and kitchens) sell houses. Hopefully it will help.

Here is the new tile, it goes all the way to the ceiling. Previously it was white 4" squares that stopped just above the showerhead. The tub is shiny and new, and the deepest one I could find. Not the $99 builder special that was there.


This shot shows the tub a little better and some of the flooring. I mentioned it was carpet before right!?! Nasty, beige carpet. It is beyond me why anyone would carpet a bathroom.

New toilet, too.

The vanity that was here before was the standard, plain jane oak that you often see in tract homes.

We got this one at Home Depot. We just put a basic white countertop on it. I would have looked nicer with a more expensive countertop, but there are so many things we need to spend money on that we decided the vanity would have to carry the day.

This is the downstairs bathroom. It had a white pedastal sink, grayish-white floor tile and purple walls.

This shot is to show you the floor tile. It is the first tile we bought and we decided to go with a slightly different tile for the rest of the house. It's pretty though.

Here is the vanity. We got this at Costco and it was a deal, plus it came with the pretty countertop and sink. It REALLY helps the bathroom.

The light fixture and a little bit of the mirror.


On Thursday our friend John Elliott came over to help. Here are he and Mike breaking out the kitchen tile. Right now it is the same as what was in the downstairs bathroom, soon it will be the same as what is in the upstairs bathroom.

I don't know if you have ever broken out floor tile, but it is serious work. And days later I still feel like I am choking on dust.

So, that's is what has been going on here. Mike has about 3 weeks left if things go according to schedule at work. Hopefully the airplane will slide and we will have a bit more time. There is A LOT to do!

And no, nothing is decorated yet :)