Where did July go? And Home Remodeling Overload...

July just flew right by. I gravely underestimated the amount of activities I would need to invent to keep the little lady content while at the same time appeasing the little man. Aside from our family vacay to the beach we had lots of days and hours to fill.

We were inspired by the Olympics and went to open gym at a local gymnastics place. Here is little lady showing off her balance beam skills.

We also made a few trips to Monkey Joe's to bounce out some energy.

Fortunately the neighbors granddaughter has been available for lots of play dates.

We have also been slightly overwhelmed by the amount of random but exciting house and remodeling projects we have had going on.

One morning hubby calls and tells me that he is on his way with a few framers to build a playhouse. What playhouse? I did not remember that being on our immediate to do list.

5 hours later we have a large playhouse framed and covered with roofing paper and house wrap. just what I never knew I needed. :)

Now we just have to find the time to finish it...

The front outdoor planter got a make over. When we arrived home from our vacay the weeds had overtaken all the plants and it was a total mess. We decided that this space would be better utilized as a patio.

Little lady was so excited about the cement mixer.

For some reason walking in the deep wet cement seemed like so much fun to me. To the guys actually doing the work, not so much especially since it was literally hotter than hell that day.

Little lady supervised from the shade of the tree.

About a week after it was poured our friendly concrete finisher came back and did a really cool acid finish. I think it works really well with the color of the brick. 

I also decided on a color for the front door and the shutters. It is naval from Sherwin Williams. I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled that we have only gotten around to painting the front door and one shutter...

We removed the age old flimsy storm door and unearthed an ugly brown color which may be the original house color. Now we need to decide what would be the perfect thing to put on our new patio.

For a good portion of the month we had all the furniture out of the den moved into the living room. It was quite the disaster area. Why were we living like hoarders you may ask?

Because I had the bright idea to start sanding walls in the den. My initial thinking was it would take me a few days from start to finish...

As with most of bright ideas, hubby stepped in to get the job done. After I did not manage to get it done after 2 weeks.

It was definitely time to rid the wall of this antique. Anyone in need of a 1961 Nutone intercom? 

Halfway through the prepping of the den we realized that the sun room roof had sprung a leak. So for several days of rain this was the scene, mixing bowls and mop bucket catching the drips. A new rubber roof has now been installed so I am now back to using the mixing bowls in the kitchen only. The joys of a 50 year old house. Nice.

Back to the den project, we removed a door that was between the front foyer and the den. It surprisingly lets in quite a bit of light.

Den with new trim installed ~ pre paint.

Fireplace and built in entertainment center before paint.

Hubby replaced all of the brown outlets and switches, updated with pure white ones.

At the last minute we decided to remove the gigantic sliding glass door between the den and the sun room. It had gotten to the point where I could barely open it. It was so heavy and really quite a hazard to have that much glass with two small children. It was most definitely not tempered glass. 

Den~ After

I love, love, love it! The color is Oatmeal by Ralph Lauren. It is so bright and cheery now. What a difference.

We are also making good progress on the master bath downstairs. Here little lady does a dance of joy that sheet rock has been hung and the finishing is well under way.

This is the current state of the master bedroom...

who wouldn't just love having 2 toilets in the bedroom?! Not to mention piles of tile and sheet rock. We have company coming in 2 weekends so the goal for this weekend is to get this mess cleaned up so we can move our bed in. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Last but most certainly not the least little man has hit a major milestone. He can now sit in seat of the grocery buggy! So much easier than the heavy car seat, now I can actually fit the groceries in the cart.

He will go for his 6 month well check the beginning of Sept. I can't wait to see how much he has grown.

Little lady is now back in school so hopefully I can get around to posting more often.

:) 

I have been working on this post since mid month so it is a little random because I sort of forgot what I was going to say about the pictures I had already uploaded. So bear with me if this post jumps all over the place.

I'm not sure why she thought this was a good idea, do you?

We had 8 yards af mulch delivered about 2 days before my back went out. So needless to say it sat in the driveway for over a week untouched. Nice.

Because my back was hurting hubby resorted to child labor.

Hmmmm, what is this thing for again?

Hubby and little miss did manage to get her custom swing (made by daddy) hung, which she has thoroughly enjoyed.

Front landscape bed of house before.

After.
Hubby and I let some professionals handle the beds. He hired 2 of the hardest working guys I have ever seen from who used to work with a friend of ours. They accomplished more in 8 hours than hubby and I could have done in a month. Well worth every penny!

Before.
Hideous dying dogwood tree.

After.
I need to take better after photos but you get the jist of it. I love that now the japanese maple is the focal point when you walk around the back of the house now.

Before.
Since we removed a tree in the back we added one in the front. Here hubby uses the truck to pull it into the hole. It was a big tree for us to wrangle on and off the trailer. I was a little doubtful it could be done but hubby managed.

It is a large crepe myrtle, we have no idea what color flowers it will have as it was a free tree. So it will be a surprise when it blooms.

Totally off topic but just had to throw this one in. Had a playdate at a local park this week and little man tried the swing for the first time. I think he liked it.
:)

I know you all are waiting on bathroom pics but hubby has requested that none be taken until it is truly finished. Hubby has now started the downstairs master bath and brought home a truckload of sheetrock last night to hang on the walls in there this weekend.  Pics to come eventually.
Have a great weekend, we are planning indoor projects to try to beat the heat. We will finish the landscaping when it it isn't 100+ degrees outside.

A little flashback...

I had a flashback to my childhood today while watching little miss out in the backyard. I let her use my ipod to listen to some music with headphones on. She was ecstatic because she figured out how to rewind and listen to her favorite Foster the People song over and over and over again, Pumped Up Kicks anyone? Any how it just made me remember how cool it was when I got my first Walkman. It looked a lot like this one.

Oh how awesome it was to be able to listen to my cool mix tapes I had made by taping songs off the radio. Totally!

So if you have a spare 42 seconds ...

Cracked me up!

We are still continuing to work on the house, that is never ending. We have several projects in the works but I have not have a chance to take updated pictures. We have been doing a little yard work, taking advantage of the nice but not yet brutally hot weather. Pics to come soon.

:) 

A little catching up

It's been a while since posting, I just have not had a moment in the last few weeks distraction free to sit in front of the computer and organize my thoughts. This is the third day in a row I have worked on this single post. I'm not sure if it was mine or hubby's bright idea to move, have a baby, buy a house, remodel and move again but seriously, what were we thinking?!

We finally got the new/old house in working order enough to move in so we have been slowly getting settled as the renovations continue.

Two days after we moved in hubby had the luxury of going to the Bahamas for "work."

This was his view for 5 days.

This was mine. I was just a little jealous.

Whoever invented shelf paper that sticks should be shot. This stuff took me several evenings to peel off the wood in the kitchen cabinets. I never want to see cutesy flower shelf paper again!

The kiddos are settling in. Little lady loves playing with little man, who much to her dismay has started rolling all the way over. He no longer makes a good snack bowl holder for her.

At some point I need to take updated pictures of the kids bathroom upstairs. The last pictures I took we were still waiting on the counter tops to be installed. Now I need to clean so you don't see the mess of four people sharing a bathroom before I do the big reveal.  :)



Making Progress

With our move out date of our rental house coming up quickly hubby has been working his tail off to get the house livable enough that we can move in.  The pressure is really on now that the owners of the rental house are moving back in, now there is no chance of extending our stay. On the upside however we no longer will have to pay the break lease fee. Whoohoo!

  

Hubby broke down and paid a carpenter to come and hang the bead board in the laundry room. Hell didn't freeze over like I think he thought it would. Hubby hates to pay someone to do something he can do but when you're in a time crunch...

Hubby installed the cabinets and the counter tops are being made this week.

I am excited about all the storage space these additional cabinets are going to give us.

The electrician will be coming this week to hang the light fixtures  and hubby will be madly installing tile in the shower this weekend. If all goes according to plan we should be able to have the bathroom up and running by the end of the month. 

Birthday Fun

Over the weekend we celebrated little lady's 4th birthday. We decide to celebrate with a day packed full of kid fun. 

Little lady was thrilled when she woke up and found this massive princess castle balloon floating in her room.

In her birthday dress and special princess party hat.

Little lady had requested an Ariel cake. We are all still wondering what she wished for though, she was so serious and really sat and thought it over before blowing out the candle. I am dying to ask her but then that would be breaking the cardinal rule of wish making, never reveal your wish.

Can't you just see the sugar rush kicking in from the butter cream frosting?

After getting her all jacked up on sugar we decided to take her to the indoor playground at Jungle Rapids. What better way to burn off some energy.

One of her favorite schoolmates happened to be there so the two of them had a great time playing together.

Bounce, Bounce

Aunt K tested out the kid sized chairs, I won't show the pic where it was stuck on her rear end!

A little clowning around with their mascot.

I have to admit that little lady had a great time there but I had to really suppress my want to completely wrap her in a germ free bubble. Especially when I saw her in the BALL PIT, AAAHHHHH! THE GERMS!

 All in all, I think we managed to spoil her rotten on her special day, so mission accomplished!

Monday, little man turned 2 months. What a difference 4 weeks makes. We will go for his check up early next week, it will be interesting to see what the official weigh in is.

One month old.

2 months old.