There were a couple of weekends that had to be taken off because of birthday celebrations, but the walls are up and partly mudded. Kameron told Kody that he was a gouper, because he was putting on the goup. :) Kameron actually ended up wearing quite a bit of the mud and his shirt and pants were nice and white when they got done. He was a good little helper, but thought that the mud was actually paint and wanted to cover the whole wall with it. Anyway, it’s coming along nicely and Kody says it might be ready to paint soon! Yay!

When we got back to the house we were all so tired and hungry that I’m afraid not much was accomplished on the bathroom. I know they took out the big pipe that was under the toilet and I’m pretty sure they worked on removing some of the plumbing that was in the wall to our bedroom and ran the old tub water.

On Sunday, the rest of the old plumbing was removed. They also chopped the old black vent pipe in two, twice, and got it out of there. Then cut and screwed the new subfloor down. Last, for the day, they brought the new tub into the house. The salesman at Lowe’s asked us several times if we were sure it would fit through our doors, because he gets people who bring them back all the time because they didn’t fit into the house. We assured him, that yes, our doors were big enough. Well, the front door and the bathroom door were big enough, but our two options of getting it from the front door to the bathroom were too small… So some of the kitchen trim had to be ripped off to accomodate our pretty tub. Oh well, easily replaced!

Now the tub is in the bathroom where it will sit. They are going to build a wall (a thin one) between the end of the shower and the sink. The sink will be where it is only pulled out a little to be more even with the front of the tub. Behind the sink will be a half wall that creates a ledge and then a mirror above it. The ledge will be perfect for holding toothbrush holders and such since we have a pedestal sink. The toilet will sit under the window. We placed the tub and toilet differently because we really wanted to keep that window with the natural light. I know a lot of people cover their bathroom windows so that the room is enclosed, but I like to have the light! The door will open opposite what it does now and will push into the bathroom. There will be four towel hooks about halfway down the wall in a row and then there will be open shelves above them, I think. That stuff will be where the sink used to be and will lie bhind the door when it’s open in it’s new configuration. All the new plumbing still has to be installed and holes drilled, but we are getting there! I’ll update more when I have more to share!

Here is what it looked like when we moved in:

You can see the tile and thin plastic-y yellow bathtub wall here. The floor was stick on tiles and was coming apart everywhere. It was also a tiny room.
This cabinet was taking a big chunk of space out of the room. The door and drawers were in the hallway and while it was a good little storage space, it didn’t work for our needs and we want the space in the bathroom.

A little work was done on it over the past 3 years, mostly when we decided that we would make it bigger and get rid of the closet in our office/school room in 2010. Here are a couple of pictures from that:

This closet wasn’t being used and we wanted that extra space in the bathroom too. I’m telling you, it was tiny!

The real work started on Black Friday though. Kody had asked his dad to come over and help him get started and it was going to be a surprise for me when he showed up, but I found out early. Still a WONDERFUL surprise! So, Friday morning they started tearing everything out (with a lot of help from 3 children. The sink and toilet had to come out first (we’re keeping those), then the ugly old cast iron tub came out. Then they removed all the tile and sheet rock from the walls and cieling. Here are some pictures from all of that:

View from the hallway after the sink and toilet have been removed.
The ceiling.
Kristopher taking tile off the wall.
You can’t do anything without a little help from Kameron. Taking the heavy old bathtub out.
Kody taking off the wall – that big vent pipe was removed on Sunday too. We’re going to put in a smaller one.

Here is what the bathroom looked like on Saturday morning:

I’ll tell you what we did Saturday and show you some more pictures tomorrow. It’s going to be awhile before this project is done, but I am so excited that it is started and excited to think about what the finished product is going to look like!

I really only decorate the living room and kitchen for fall and there are only a couple of things in the kitchen, like my big Cracker Barrel platter (you can kind of see it in one of the pictures below.) So, since I haven’t done a finished living room post for my house remodel I’m going to do that now. Then you can see the before and after shots and my pretty decorations. And, you can tell me if I’ve got too much going on on my shelves!

Here are the before pictures:

These were taken the first day we looked at the house. Unfortunately they are taken from the opposite angles as the ones today.

Here are the whole room views:


We were blessed earlier this year by some friends who gave us a second couch. Now we have enough seats for everyone! I’m sure you’re noticing the hideous curtains…I still need to replace those with something pretty. We’re thinking bamboo blinds, but we’ll see. The shelves and cabinets were built by Kody’s dad. Love them! Before there was a big empty wall and I’ve always wanted to have bookshelves to the ceiling. This is a much better view. :)

Here is my fall mantel:


The lamp is a new addition because we decided we needed a little more light on that side of the room. I didn’t like the plain shade, especially since I couldn’t get an exact match to the larger lamp, so I covered it with some polkadot ruffles. I like it when it isn’t on, but it looks kind of funny with the light shining through the ruffles…

Last, some close ups of the shelves. Are they too busy? I’m not sure what to take out. I kind of like it, but occasionally it looks too cluttered when I look over. What do you think?

So, there you go. I’m pretty happy with my living room and it’s definitely cozy and ready for the next couple of months! Are you decorated for fall?

As you walk in you see, on the right, Kody’s desk and for now the computer the kids use when they need to use it. The white cabinet houses all our current school books, reference books, coloring books, and their supplies. The black shelf is Kody’s and the file cabinet is just that, a file cabinet. :) On the left, is my dresser (won’t fit in our bedroom for now with Kyler in there) which makes a good seperating half wall. Since we’ve had it like this the kids seem to stay put at the table when we’re doing something better. I like it this way!

Once you go around the dresser/wall you are in our “classroom”. We bought this table a few weeks ago and it is fabulous. Everyone needs a table like this if you have children, homeschooling or not! It is wonderful and we spend a lot of time here already, even if we don’t have to be. On the wall beside the table I put up a large map and some art clips. I am happy to have finally found a solution that I like for hanging kids art! I do want to put something above the map. Perhaps, if I have time to make one, a penant garland would be cute?! We always have jars of pencils in the middleof our table. I love mason jars!

Over to the side is my desk and our calendar. I don’t really like having the calendar all the way over there, but that’s really the only place for it. We have 4 fabulous windows that give us light during the day. I’m a big fan of all the natural light. The kitchen is still my favorite room in the house, but this is easily my second favorite now (and not just because I have my computer here.)

We still need to put up baseboards and Kody evetually wants to find a desk that he likes. We’ll probably put up some kind of window coverings eventually too, boo. Other than those few things this room is D-O-N-E and it is a fun place to be! Hope you enjoyed the tour!

*I am a big copycat and most of my inspiration lately comes from Lindsey aka The Pleated Poppy. I want to live in her house!

Here are some pictures of it while it’s nice and neat:

This is the chalkboard I redid last summer. I bought it at a thrift store in town. I try to keep my list updated with what I want to make most, but it sometimes stays the same for a long period of time…

The top drawer on my sewing desk holds lots of binding for blankets and small quilting projects. It also holds a few zippers and other trims.

The second drawer holds my cutting mats, sewing machine needles and thread bobbins and scissors.

This bottom drawer holds all my little metal items and magnets. I have lots of buttons to cover and keychains and hair barretts to make someday!

Large pieces of fabric organized by color – what’s my favorite color?

Flannel, Fleece and other miscellaneous fabrics. The top shelf in this picture holds my largish scraps out of the box, my small scraps in the pink box and a couple of projects on the other side.

The top shelf holds my knits and felt and then the baskets on top of the cabinet hold some long forgotten knitting projects and all of my ribbon.

I moved all my yarn out of the sewing cabinet, to make more room, and I like it better. Now my yarn is in the living room cabinets where it will be much more accessible for actual knitting. I will probably eventually clean out the knitting basket for another sewing room related item, but am not sure if I want to rip all those things out or knit on them. To tell the truth I’m kind of tired of knitting.

I also want to show you my “teacher” desk while it is nice and clean. Hopefully it will actually stay this way. This is where I keep all my office supplies in our office/classroom. We just got a fancy new printer and by putting it on my desk I can maybe keep the piles off it. Don’t be fooled too much, right now they’ve just moved to the floor. I need to get them sorted and put away…once again, the motivation is not there!

Hopefully now that I’ve gotten my fabric and yarn sorted I will feel more compelled to make some things. The children need some new fun things and I definitely need to be making baby items, for our baby and for all the baby showers coming up. Time to get to work!

mustard-y tan walls and vinyl flooring…so not working for us. We actually changed it to light blue first and some of our friends painted it for us right after we moved. We weren’t feeling that either though, so finally we decided on a light gray around the first of this year (after a year and a half of living here.) At first I thought gray would be dull and boring for a sunroom, but I love it. Our floor is laminate that matches our kitchen – I love it too! While I love blue and have it all over my house, I decided that since I’ll be using the sunroom as my “studio” partly I want something fun that is just for me and I’m going with pink accents for now.

The white cabinet holds all of my fabric and ribbons and part of my yarn. The laundry “room” is also in the sunroom and we have folding doors that go on there, but they aren’t up yet. I have blue accents in there because I know I’ll never tire of blue! *Edited to add – I forgot to talk about the blue window! This is a window that was originally in this house and they were all piled up when we moved in. I wanted to do something fun with one, so I scraped it a little to make it rough looking, then spray painted it blue and added a mist of white. In person it looks kind of speckled. I also added 3 hooks at the bottom which will hold small bags for rags and single socks. The words above the window are from Uppercase Living and I bought them long before we bought the house, but they were a perfect fit in there!* Right next to our sliding door we hung the coat racks. We found this winter that these are VERY useful:) Eventually we will have a shoe bench there as well, but someone is going to have to build one! I know what I want to make, just haven’t had the time and supplies.

On the other side of the room is my workspace. My sewing desk, a handme down from a friend is working out great, even if it isn’t white. It had a little round table with it that now has “stuff to get rid of” under it and my Epic 6 cutter on top. Above it you can see the owl family tree that I made. I bought the chair from a local thrift store and painted it white and recovered it with cute fabric (Kokka Trefle Schoolhouse/Playground) that matches my bulletin board that I also made. I realized while redoing this chair that I do not like to redo furniture and I do not like to paint furniture. I don’t mind the recovering part, but the painting and sanding and what-have-you is not fun. The chair has lots of mistakes too, but it will do… We have to replace the ceiling fan with a white one, fix the step up into the kitchen, and paint the trim around the windows, but I am very happy with the way the room has turned out. I like to just go out and sit there and look around. Eventually, it might be nice to have a big chair or loveseat out there for visiting or to accmodate children while I’m working. This room also goes out onto the deck/backyard and I can sit out there crafting while watching the kids play. Perfect!

Next up – hopefully tomorrow – GARDENING!

January – We celebrated Kristopher and Kody’s birthday quietly with dinner and some cake. Kristopher didn’t get to have a party this year. At the end of the month Western KY was hit by a huge ice storm and we were without electricity and water for almost a week. Our gas fireplace kept us warm and we had to find non-electronical things to occupy our time with. The nights were long since it got dark earlier and we sat around playing cards by candlelight and went to bed pretty early. It was nice to spend so much time together, but we were glad when we could take showers again!

February – Kristopher participated in his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He built his car with some help from Kody, to look like a green pickup truck. It won the prize for most realistic vehicle. Unfortunately it didn’t win in the speed category. We still had a lot of fun with it and the whole family was able to be there:)

March – We started working outside a lot in March, trying to clean up and clear some of our property. The first thing to go was this little old shed. There were two of them right behind our house and we decided to only keep the bigger, nicer one.

April – We had a great Easter, but looking back through my pictures these are some of my favorite memories. The first is of our very dear friends. We hung out with them too many times to count over the year, this is just one of them. Kody found many turtles when he was out clearing the yard or mowing and this is one of them. We thought afterward when we found others that we should have tagged him so we could count how many we actually had. A few we were able to tell some differences. I also have to include this picture of Kameron. He was toted to many soccer games in the spring and he enjoyed playing on the blanket and discovering grass!

May – We bought a new refrigerator this month because we were tired of the old one leaking onto our new floor and ruining it. We really like the new one! Taylor played her first season of soccer this spring and she loves it. I hope she continues to like it or some form of physical activity. She really enjoys being outside and running though, so I think she’ll keep it up for awhile. We also finished Taylor’s room this month.

June – The only memorable thing I could see in pictures this month is that we went to Kody’s cousin Amy and her new husband Jim’s wedding reception. We all had a lot of fun there. Oh yeah…I celebrated my birthday this month too, don’t really remember it though…I think I was getting things ready to teach a week of VBS at church:)

July – So many beautiful memories this month, I took hundreds of pictures! We went to the Independence Day parade and Kristopher walked in it and threw candy with his cubscout pack. We made a trip to Louisville and visited with Grandpa and got to do many things. We spent many days at my in law’s house playing oustide in the garden. But my most favorite memories from this month are of my sweet boy and his cute chubby little hands and feet. I want to remember this forever…

August – This month we started a new adventure…Homeschool. We were unsure of ourselves and wondered if we made the right decision, especially with some of the people we had questioning us. After the last few months of living the homeschooling life, even with the hard days, I wouldn’t trade it back for anything. I really am glad we dove in and tried this and I’m so glad that it is working for our family. I am also very thankful for our support network of families doing the same thing!

September – We celebrated Kameron’s first birthday and Taylor’s fourth all in the same week. It was a busy week that dominated the month in time, energy and pictures!

October – Kristopher learned to ride his bike around the end of August and one of our favorite things to do this fall has been to take a walk/bike ride. The kids hop on their bikes (Taylor’s in a tricycle), Kameron is in the stroller and Kody and I walk. Our street is perfect for family time like this and we all enjoy it. I just love looking at this picture of my “big kids” on their “bikes”. It makes me smile inside!

November – Kristopher and Taylor were outside playing so much at the beginning of this month because it was still so warm. This particular day they decided, on their own, to have a picnic. They covered this old stone well with a picnic blanket, got their little chairs set up and then came and ordered some food. It was fun to watch them with their own ideas:) This month I also participated in a Craft Bazaar at my church – I had a table set up with my handmade things and one for the Usborne books I started selling in August. I really like the books and it has been fun selling them.

December – Christmas was lots of fun and I have so many pictures of decorations and presents being unwrapped, but I don’t think those things will be the ones my mind remembers. The homeschool group that I am in had a birthday party for Jesus (I helped a bit with the organization of it) that the kids all enjoyed. We had crafts, food, cake, bible story, games; what more could you want? We also started tearing up our little bathroom (the kids/guest bathroom) so that we can make it bigger and nicer. It will probably be a work in progress for sometime, but at least it got started! Kristopher was in the older kids musical at church this year and he played the part of a man who lost all his belongings in a fire. He didn’t have any lines to remember, so it waas pretty easy. He did a great job singing too! Taylor also sang before the big kids with the preschool choir. She loves to sing, but I’m not so sure about the being in front of people. Her face is fun to watch.

It was a great year and I feel like we got a lot accomplished not only in our “needs work house”, but in our lives. I feel like we all have grown in our walk with Christ this year and that we have grown closer as a family as well. We still have our issues (doesn’t everybody?) but we’re headed in the right direction. I hope 2009 was the same way for you! Happy 2010 everyone!

I have been keeping a list of the furniture items that I find that I think would have a place in our home and I wanted to share. I think it’s fun to see what other people would put in their houses. In fact I think it would be really fun to be a personal shopper and assist people with making their purchases and beautifying their home. Of course, first, I’d like to be my own personal shopper…with an unlimited budget! So, here’s what I would buy to spruce up our house as far as furniture:

First, I would go to Z Gallerie and buy a bedroom suite for our room. I visited the store at Oxmoor Center this summer and fell in love with the Jett Platform bed. I’d get that and the matching dresser and nightstand. Then for the closet that is going to be transformed into a reading nook in our bedroom, I would buy a comfy chair such as this Barrington Chair from JC Penney in the chocolate brown color.

Moving on to the living room, I would first be looking for a sectional couch. We really need seating that can view both the fireplace and television (for movies) without having to strain your neck. I also want to have lots of seating since I host meetings and home parties pretty often and I would like to have friends over more. When people come over they like to have a place to sit down, and while I don’t mind sitting on the floor all the time, I know some people would rather a chair. :) So, I like the Barrington sectional group from JC Penny that matches the chair that would be in the bedroom. I also like this build your own sectional from Pottery Barn that lets you pick exactly what you want. That is the look I’m going for though – inviting and comfortable, but not too overly plush and not so minimalistic that you feel like you’re sitting on boards. Anyway, those two look like what I want. Then in the corner I’d like to have a sleeper chair with a storage ottoman, like this one from JC Penney. I have been eyeing this chair for about 4 years now. Or if that wouldn’t fit well, I would take this Soho chair because I really like it and can’t think of any other place to put it! It only comes in the light blue which would be okay since our living room is khaki and navy, but it wouldn’t be as matchy as I normaly like. So, now that I’ve picked my seating I need some tables! I really want a sofa table, you know the ones that go behind your sofa? But, I could take it or leave it. Since we have several feet of space between the sofa and windows it would be nice to have something there. Either a table for us or a kids play table under the windows. On either side of the windows I currently have mismatched bookshelves that do what they need to, but I have wanted some of the leaning bookshelves for several years like these from Penneys or these from Pottery Barn. A small end table/by the door table would be nice as well, but I don’t currently have one picked out. It would just need to be something simple. The last thing the living room needs is a rug or three. We have a rug now, but it was a $50 rug to hold us over until I could get the one I wanted: The Emma Rug from Pottery Barn. During my search now I found that it is gone. I found a few of the runners and small 3×5 rugs on ebay, but my dream rug is gone! Sad day:( Anyway, I will keep looking and hopefully be able to find it somewhere so that it can live in my house someday…

All Taylor needs in her room is a big girl bed. My personal favorite would be this white daybed with a trundle so she can have friends over to sleep, but really any pretty white bed would do. The rest of her furniture is white so it needs to match:) Kristopher & Kameron will soon be sharing a room and we have decided that they need bunk beds to maximize floor space. We want nice solid wood ones and while these pirate ship themed ones are perfect for the current room plan we’ll probably go with plain ones like these if we can get them! I just rembered that something like this might work too, since basically all they’d need is incorporated into the bed area. If each boy had this the rest of the floor space would be play area…I think. If we do the plain bunk beds the boys would need some toy storage, a book shelf and a matching dresser, although they both have their own dressers now so that isn’t a big deal.

The last two rooms are the sunroom and the office. They are kind of going together in my mind because I am planning to use the sunroom (which also houses the laundry in a side area) for lounging, crafting and a catch all/hang it all up area. Over by the sliding door will be hooks for jackets, backpacks, keys and what I like to call “leaving the house paraphenalia”. There will also possibly be a small shoe rack for a few pairs of boots or outside shoes. Then on the other side of the laundry “closet” I want some kind of tall cabinet/shelf system for many of my crafting supplies. I’ve seen several that I like, but nothing screamed at me yet. Also in this room I would like this desk available at amazon.

And to go with it – my dream chair from Pottery Barn. Kody will probably get to figure out all the office (unless he picks ugly stuff!! haha!), and I already have a desk in there that I like okay. We’ll just need a school desk for the kids that is big enough for more than one child to use. I have the idea in my head of what I want, but haven’t seen it exactly like I like anywhere. I want a big table top with book shelves on either end for their school books. I want them to be able to sit and work comfortably and happily together whether they cooperate with my idea or not it should at least be possible. Also I want a wall cabinet over the desk with art supplies so little hands can’t get them out themselves and color all over the walls. This room divider wants to be in our house too…not sure where though!

Anyway, I could sit and talk about my house decorating ideas and things I want all day. I’m trying to be content, but I just needed to put all this down and get it out of my head. I’m sure the house will slowly turn into what I want, it’s just hard to see some days. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and browsing! Sorry I took you all over the place!!

When we first came to look at the house we took pictures, so we could remember and show the house to people when we talked about it. We really thought this was the one when we first saw it, so we were excited. However Kody was the one taking the pictures so he took more of some things than others… Taylor’s room to be only got this one shot. You can see that it has blue walls and cream trim. The closet door had a deadbolt instead of a doorknob. You can’t see the light, but it was an ugly rectangular flourescent fixture that probably belonged inside a shop more than a bedroom;) There was also a hole cut in the wall behind the door (presumably to get into the attic space), but it wasn’t finished and just sat there open leaking air and bugs.

Her room has been mostly finished for some time, but we just got her dresser and bookshelf last week so I didn’t want to post pictures of all her stuff sitting on the floor looking messy;) Her walls are now lavender with white trim (which she picked out). She has lovely silver doorknobs on the closet and door to the hall (curtousey of Grandpa). The light fixture is now a pretty silver one, which I don’t have in a photo here. The dresser, bookshelf and toy rack are all from Target. We’re thinking that by the time she gets a twin bed she might be done with the kitchen so that will give her more room there. She has my old desk from my aunt and uncle which I loved and Kristopher used, but is really too big for now. I still would like to change the color again, but we’ll see if I get time for that! Some other things you can see in her room are special to me and I hope that they will become special to her someday: cross stitched picture of ballerinas done by my grandmother for my mom when she was little; my mirror from when I was little, a box that I handpainted for her last summer with her name on it; a hat rack made for her when she was born, by my best friend:); a doll cradle given to me by my grandparents when I was young; and a Hairbow holder that I made for her (this morning) using one of our wedding frames.

I guess the room isn’t still totally finished;) Her mirror still needs to be hung. I have the fabric here to make her a twin sized quilt. It is from Moda’s Full Moon Forrest line. When I do that I will also be making white curtains with patchwork trim to match. I am really excited about those things and can’t wait to get started if I get a little time and a clean office to start in! I have enjoyed making her room into a beautiful place and I hope that she enjoys her own space for years to come. She has been spending a lot of time up there since we put her furniture in and got all her toys organized!

Have a great day everybody!