Fireplace Update

After $5 and 30 minutes of effort and I was able to get rid of another striking gold place in our house that I don't like.  Like I said in my last post I'm loving paint.  The first couple of pictures show the gold trim on the fireplace.  Also, as you can see in the first picture the doors had to be held closed by a child safety lock.  When I took the handles off to paint I realized no handles works even better than a lock.  So, eventually I'll put black handles on but for now (until we actually get the fireplace chimney swept and use it - maybe next winter) we don't need handles.

Yucky gold and an ugly child safety lock.

Much better.

Half-Bath Update

I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of our half-bath update.  We had a leaky faucet and an ugly, rusty, and paint covered light fixture.  So, Matt has changed both of those out in the last couple of weeks.  I also hated the gold trim on the mirror.  Originally I wanted a new mirror with a beautiful wood frame around it.  For, now that is too much work and money.  So, as a temporary and much better fix for a mere $5 I painted over the gold.  I'm beginning to realize paint might be my new best friend in getting rid of little gold accents in the house.

Original light fixture with gold trim taped and ready to be painted.

Original leaky faucet.

New faucet with white painted over the gold.

New much better light fixture.

Ahhh...Much more satisfying to look at.
Next to go are the gold hinges and  doorknobs.

The Learning Tower

So happy to be standing at counter level.

Not so sure about the face but you can
see it from the other side.  Yes, it's big!

Have you heard of The Learning Tower?  Click on the link so see what it is all about and how awesome it looks.  Ever since I heard of one of these I've been intrigued but never planned on buying one for two reason.  The first reason is it's $200.  I just have other things I'd rather spend $200 on.  The second reason is it looks huge and some people in this family aren't fans of huge things sitting around.

But as you're probably figured out based on the pictures there is more to this story.  For some reason that I can't even remember I was looking at them again and just thinking how cool they would be.  Then it dawned on me that maybe someone, namely my dad, could build one.  So, I found some plans online and sent him the link.  Long story short one was built for us and I decided I wanted it to be orange.

Grace loves it!  She can stand at the counter and cook with me without me worrying she's going to fall off.  It's big enough so when Caleb is bigger he can stand with her.  There are so many fun ideas for other things to do with it too (puppet show theater, art easel, etc...).

I'm glad we didn't have to spend $200 on it but I can see why people do.  It's such a neat thing to have that really has already facilitated some learning in our kitchen.

House Tour - Entry Hall

It's been a long time since I posted a house tour post.  I'm hoping to finish the tour before the year is over.  We don't have much left but today I want to introduce you to the first thing you'll see if you walk into our house.   The Entry Hall.  I have been putting all of my money and focus into the entry hall lately and it is finally finished!

Purpose: To welcome friends and family.  I want the entry hall to be a place that guests can pile high with shoes, coats, bags, and whatever they bring into the house.  I love the size of our entry hall.  It's practically a room.  We've already spent hours in there just saying long goodbyes to friends and family. I want our entry hall to be a place where people don't feel rushed out of but feel like they can hang out for just a few more minutes.

Furniture: The entry hall only has one piece of furnite and it is the console table.  I knew I wanted a table for people to put things on so I put in an order with my dad and he whipped this one up.  It is made from cherry wood so it is beautiful.

Decorations: The main decoration in this room is the large area rug.  It's a big space and I knew we needed a big rug to fill the space.  I found this great rug online at Home Decorators Outlet.  It was kind of scary buying a rug without seeing it but I was really pleased.

I also hung a cool Audubon picture of birds, a mirror, a crochet piece with our last name that my Grandma made, and a quotation that we love printed on canvas.  I had my sister design and print the quotation.  Thanks to my friend Tasha for introducing me to this quotation for the first time.

Future Plans: This might be the only room in the house that doesn't have any future plans.  Well I have a dream of getting all hardwood floors someday but I don't know if that can be considered a future plan for this room.

2 New Gadgets

I got a couple of new gadgets this week that I am enjoying immensly.

First, I ventured into the realm of coffee makers and decided to buy a percolator.  When we moved into our house in January my coffee pot met it's demise during unpacking.  Thankfully, it was cheap and we don't drink coffee.  Well now it is 8 months later, fall and winter are coming and I've had a few requests for coffee.  In my attempt to be an accommodating host (especially for overnight guests) I started reviewing my options.  After ruling out the super cool single cup makers like Keurigs and Boschs I moved on to percolators.  I find them retro and funny (long story that I'm not even going to bother to tell).  So, I ordered one from Amazon and love it.  I've even had about 1/3 of a cup of coffee in the last few days.  The coffee is good, it takes up less space than a traditional coffee pot, keeps coffee hot, makes a cool noise, and is all stainless steel (no plastic for those who care).

Second, I got a steam mop.  I've been struggling with mopping our kitchen floor with a classic Swiffer.  I found myself changing the cleaning pad multiple times in one mopping.  Since our floor is white and we have a toddler it needs to be mopped often.  So I was going through the cleaning pads like crazy.  Yeah, I know it's a 1st world problem (1WP). I stated doing my research and discovered the steam mop.  They are AWESOME!  You buy it once and the cleaning pads are reusable.  The best part was I got it for 40% off plus an additional 30% off with a gift card at Kohl's.

PIANO

We got a new piano! I'm so excited! A piano has been on my wish list ever since I moved out of my parents' house but I/we either haven't felt like we had the money or space for it. After moving into our new house we decided it was time to start looking into pianos. I took lessons for 11 years (Matt took lessons for a few years too) and started teaching lessons when I was 16 years old. For the last several years I've taught a handful of students (currently I only have 1) and have had to travel to them to teach. It's great to think about having students come to me in the future.

I always thought that I would want an acoustic piano but after talking to Matt's Aunt Karen about digital ones we decided digital was the best bet for us. The advantages are it never needs tuned, it's transportable, it's cheaper than the quality of acoustic one I would want and they sound great. I can tell the difference (it doesn't vibrate like an acoustic piano) but it is still fun to play and feels great. If you're curious the specific kind we got is a Yamaha Clavinova CLP 440. I am very pleased with our purchase.

Weekend at Grandpa and Grandma's

Last weekend we sent Grace to my parent's house for 2 nights. At first I wasn't that excited about doing it but I'm glad that we did. We really needed to get some stuff done around the house and we know it's good for Grace to get used to (and she LOVES it) spending time around her family even if we aren't there. I just don't really like to give Grace up for the night or even much time at all.

The weekend started out with my dad picking her up on Friday. Then she went home with him, ate dinner, rode the lawn mower and went to bed. Saturday was a busy day helping my parents clean at their church, giving animals (toy ones) baths, playing outside, doing crafts, and squeezing in a nap. Sunday, Grace went to church with my parents and stayed for brunch at the church and then they brought her back to our house. Apparently she told them she didn't want to come home and just wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

While she was gone we did some painting. Remember the hole in the wall? We finally painted that hallway. The unfortunate part was we used the wrong kind of paint. Just so you know there is a difference between flat paint and semi-glossy paint. So, my dad ended up repainting the hall for us on Sunday after dropping Grace off (I'll spare you the story about why my dad painted because it is long and boring. But, we were appreciative of his help.) We also installed a few handles on cabinets that the previous owners never installed. And finally we went out to eat. O yeah and we managed to take care of Caleb during this whole process:)

Tree Down

When we moved into our house we were so excited to have 2 big (15 year old) trees in the backyard. Unfortunately this spring only one of them got a full leaves. So, we called a local arborist and had them come out to look at our dying tree. The tree was diagnosed as terminal so we had to get it cut down:(

Apparently, we have 2 Ash trees (well now one) in our backyard and the one that had to get cut down was attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer. It is killing many Ash trees and costing many people a lot of money. We decided to treat our other tree in hopes that it won't get attacked! It would be so sad to lose both of our trees.

Below are some pictures of the tree going down. The bonus is we have more space in our yard because of the tree going down. Just less potential shade.

Things I Like

I'm always looking for new ideas and cute things to introduce into my home especially now that we've moved. There is still a lot of decorating left to do so I'm always on the prowl. I don't plan on buying any of these things anytime soon (although I would accept them as birthday gifts:) ), but here are some (expensive) things I'm loving these days.

• I really want a big rug for our entry hall. This one from Pier 1 Imports has grabbed my heart.
• Who doesn't love a picture of beautiful birds. This would be a beauty in the entry hall with the beautiful rug.
• How about a bedroom set? Someday we'll have more than just mattress and boxspring and this is my current favorite.
• I'd love to check my email and read blogs on a small handheld device. We can't have iphones with our current provider but an ipod touch would be acceptable (and it would look cute on the counter when not in use).
• We just might actually get one of these someday soon. I could spend naptime working out my fingers on this keyboard instead of the computer keyboard.
• To decorate the garage how about this? I love my Ford Escape and Matt is doing well with the car (which hopefully has at least 2 years or more left in it) but a girl can dream right.
• And one last little piece for the yard. I guess this is not so little but it would be tons of fun.

This post is in no way expressing discontent with what I have. I am so blessed and would be totally fine without these things. They just are fun to look at and consider. Well I might not be fine without the piano. I'm getting the itch to own our own.

House Tour - Bonus Room/Playroom

One of the best rooms in our house is the room above the garage. When we saw this room we fell in love with the house even more.

Purpose: A place to keep toys:) That's what it feels like somedays but actually this room has a little more purpose than that. This room is great for playing, hosting little friends, hiding the mess that toddlers make, and having a separate place to hang out from the family room. We don't have a basement in our house but this serves the same purpose as a basement.

Furniture: We have a couch and a cheap chair that one of us probably had in college for adults to sit on. There is also lots of little kid furniture! We bought a bookshelf for all of Grace's books and got a TV and TV stand as hand-me down's.

Decorations: Right now the only decoration is the random poster on the wall. I guess you could call the organizational unit on one wall decoration if you're into organizing.

Future Plans: This room is very very functional but I do have some dreams for this room. Someday we might buy and Internet TV for the family room so we could move the TV from downstairs up to the room. An extra chair or two for adults would be nice too. I'd also love to put some educational type posters on the wall that are also interesting to look at and not tacky. I think this is a room that will evolve as the age of our family evolves but for now a playroom is the perfect name for it.

I did make sure to include at least one messy picture so you can see the state it is in most of the time! Although, I do try to make Grace help clean up at least once a day.

House Tour - Backyard

I love our backyard. I love that it is fenced in and I can just sit on the deck and watch Grace. I love that we have a huge deck and lots of green grass. And I love that we have some mature trees.

Purpose: To play, grill, enjoy fresh air and have lawn parties. We haven't had any lawn parties yet but we're really hoping to!

Furniture: The deck has a few pieces of furniture. We have some chairs from the patio at our old house and a bench that got left behind by the previous owners.

Decorations: God's creation, several houses, and fences:)

Future plans: I would love to get a nice swingset but that will probably be next year. Also a table and chairs set for the deck would be great. Then we can enjoy some meals out there.

House Tour - Caleb's Room

Now that Grace has passed the crib down to her little brother I can finally post about his room. Until last weekend it was an empty room with a changing table and a few decorations on the wall. It was kind of weird not having a nursery all set up for Caleb like we did for Grace but it's all set up now!

Purpose: A place for Caleb to sleep, be rocked, changed, and play.

Furniture: The highlight of the room is Caleb's crib. If you weren't around for my pregnancy with Grace or just don't remember my dad made her crib. So we wanted to pass it on to the next child. We also have the dresser/changing table, Closetmaid cube shelves (which are awesome) and glider in the room.

Decorations: Most of the decorations in the nursery are from Grace's room at the old house. I went neutral when Grace was born so we could reuse them if we ever had a boy. I'm glad I did that. The only thing I added are a few pictures from Little Golden Books above the dresser/changing table. I was thrilled that the curtains were perfect for the two windows because they were on a big double window at our old house.

Future Plans: I feel pretty content with the room because it really was a transplant of Grace's nursery. I guess when Caleb grows up it will change but for now I don't plan on doing anything to it.

The first picture is a little dark but if you look closely you can see Caleb napping in the crib:)

House Tour - Office

Another room that we love at our new house is the office which is located in one of the bedrooms. And it is the 2nd stop on our tour.

Purpose: A place for the computer, our books, my sewing machine and where Matt can close the door if he needs to work from home. Also the closet can hold games, office supplies and other random things that need a place.

Furniture: We have 2 desks that reside in the office and 2 bookshelves flanking the windows. We also bought a chair and ottoman from Ikea so we'd have a place to sit if we didn't want to sit at a desk.

Decorations: So far the only decoration in the room is a black and white picture from our wedding of the wedding party.

Future Plans: After Caleb is born I want to get a black and white family photo (taken by my sister of course) to hang above the other bookshelf. My sister also has a great black and white photo of an old sewing machine and is planning on taking one of a cool old typewriter. When that happens I can frame those pictures and hang them on the wall above the sewing machine. I'm also thinking about curtains. I don't know if I want some interesting black and white fabric or to add some fun color?

Packers Win!

We had a great Superbowl Sunday at our house. Not only was it awesome that the Packers won but we were able to host a big party for the first time in our new place. Long before we knew who was going to be in the Superbowl we decided that we wanted to have a Superbowl party for our church home group and really anyone else we happened to talk to about the fact that we were having a party.

Since the Packers ended up making it to the Superbowl we decided to decorate in green and gold and have a Packers party. Granted no one else was really a Packers fan and several people (Bears fans) probably were rooting against the Packers. They just were really nice to Matt and held it in during the game.

The party was great. We ended up with tons of awesome food. Italian beef, nacho dip, BBQ meatballs, chili-mac, spinach dip, fruit, deviled eggs, cornbread, banana bread, chips, homemade cookies, and much more filled our bellies. I counted that we had 22 adults and 7 kids in the house. This would be impossible at the old house. Even half of that would have been impossible at the old house so we just felt very blessed to have the ability to host this party. Here's to the next party. And here's to the Packers winning the Superbowl again next year.

There's a Hole in the Wall

Upon moving to the new house an unavoidable hole was put in our wall. Ok, maybe it could have been avoided had I decided to keep the giant sleeper sofa downstairs instead of putting it in the bonus room above the garage upstairs. Or maybe if the people who built our house several years ago had made wider hallways it could have been avoided.

Anyway, a hole and several dents got put in the hallway and has now been patched. Next we need to repaint the hallway and replace the door frame that also go ripped up a little. And by we I mean Matt and someone else. At least it seemed easy and is a very cheap thing to fix.

There is the big dent.

There is the hole.

Looking much better. It still needed several coats of white stuff (no idea what it is called or why it was needed) at this point but it looks so much better.

Moving Day

Last Saturday was our big moving day into the new house. I've been waiting to post about it until I got my camera out and got some pictures off of it. Overall, the day was a great success. Everything got moved and we had lots of help which we really appreciate.

Only one piece of furniture had a little damage which is totally fixable. The said piece of furniture got back at us for damaging her by putting a couple of holes in the wall. We realized if you can't put a square peg in a round hole (aka big couch in a small door) then just make the hole bigger. The hole in the wall will be fixed soon but the memory and impression it left on some of our friends will probably take a while to fade. Thanks guys for spending 45 minutes getting my couch upstairs:)

We are feeling very settled now. It really helped that I was able to take my time packing and everything came to the house organized. BTW, even though I continuously purge at my house we still gave away 13 bags/medium boxes of stuff in the move. It feels great to lose that weight. That and my organization made unpacking a breeze. Besides stuff for the babies room I have all but one box unpacked. Most things have a place but some organizational systems still need to be bought and installed in the playroom so that will be a little while.

Finally, I want to leave you with this quotation I read on a friend's blog today. While I LOVE our new house I want to remember this house is not what life is all about. This is a place we can serve God and other people but we have a much better home waiting for us in heaven.

"Our father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home." ~C.S. Lewis

1st Week of New House

We celebrated closing on our new house by ordering Jimmy John's to be delivered for lunch. It was a perfect way to celebrate!

We closed on our new house on Monday morning and even though it is only Friday night it seems like it was ages ago. Thankfully the house is in great shape and didn't need a lot to be done before we could move in. But we still managed to create quite a long list to get ready for the big move tomorrow.

We had the house cleaned, carpets cleaned, Matt's uncle put up a tile backsplash for us in the kitchen, we moved a few things, got some furniture from a friend, got some furniture delivered, endured some snow and shoveling of two driveways (Matt did that), rented a U-Haul and got it stuck in one of the two driveways tonight, ordered a lot of pizza, cooked food for this weekend, packed and packed and packed some more. We did all this while taking care of Grace who has had a cold all week. I can't wait until tomorrow night when the move is over. Unpacking just doesn't seem as daunting as packing.

I think I have 98% of the house packed but all that I can do right now is look at empty boxes and not finish. It might get done in the morning or it might not. That is the beauty of not having to be out of our old house tomorrow. It is hard for my organized personality to leave some things undone but it is not hard for my 7 months pregnant body to decide I'm just going to lay on the couch and watch Netflix streaming while stealing internet from the neighbors since all of our technology is packed.

Here's to a great move tomorrow!

Furniture

Less than one month until we close on our new house. Yay! The only thing that we have done in preparation for moving is buy some furniture. We have more rooms to fill (and some that will remain empty) so we bought a couple things.

We are inheriting some bedroom furniture for both Grace and the guest room from friends or family which is great. But we did have to buy a new mattress if we wanted to have a guest room and that was high on our priority list. We decided to hand our mattress down to the guests and buy ourselves a king size mattress. Woo hoo! Can't wait for that. Hopefully my dad will build us a headboard and footboard someday but we've never had one so we'll just sleep on the mattress with a metal frame for now like we are used to.

The other two pieces of furniture we bought are a sectional for the family room and a dining table for the dining room. Here are some pictures. FYI, the dining table expands to fit 8 chairs (we are getting 6 for now).

House Update

It's time for our quarterly house update. So, our current house has been on the market for just over 6 months now. In the last quarterly update I posted that we weren't seeing a lot of interest in the house and I would say it is still the same. A few people have looked at it but not very many.

Over the last month or so we have been faced with the decision of what to do about our house. With Baby Caleb due in March we know we'd have to take the house off the market for several months. I cannot imagine keeping my house clean and being able to get out for showings with a toddler and a brand new baby. We'd also have to take it off the market a couple months before Caleb is due because we wouldn't be able to accept any offers that would involve closing in February or March because we don't want to move that close to my due date.

So, after much prayer, wise counsel and consideration we decided to buy a house before ours sold. We looked at every house in town in our price range and found a great choice that we can totally picture our family in. After a great negotiation process we accepted a counter offer last week. We had a good inspection today and are set to move in January. I'm so excited.

As far as our current home we will keep it on the market through the spring and early summer in hopes that someone will buy it. If not, we will look for a renter. While our house might not be what buyers are looking for right now we're pretty sure renters would love it.

Selling a Home...

...is not very much fun right now. Our house has officially been on the market for over 3 months. So, it is time for a quarterly update. I know when I first posted about putting the house on the market I had a positive attitude and said I didn't care if the house sold soon or not. And ultimately I can usually get to the point of not caring. I would be lying if I didn't say it has been a little bit frustrating.

The reality is the market in America has a 9 month inventory of homes and in our town it is 8.5 months so not that much behind. There are also several homes just like ours for sale in our area. We have aggressively priced and have kept our home nice and have no issues with it at all. So if a house was to sell I'd hope ours would be on the shorter list. But houses aren't selling. If houses aren't selling it doesn't matter what list you are on.

We have only had a few showings in 3 months. Yes, I know it only takes one buyer but if that one isn't even shopping for a home then you are out of luck. I think the hardest part has been I have kept my eye on the market and have found some homes I think would be a good fit for our family. However, I have to remember that we have a nice home and there will always be homes that I think are a good fit for us.

One blessing about this whole process is I'm learning more about money and how to honor God with what he's given us. We've been able to really think through the budget that we set for our next home and really evaluate whether we want to stick with it or not. In thinking about all of this I've learned more about what it means when I say I believe that our money is really God's money. It's not just about giving away X% but about using 100% of our money in a way that we feel is ordained by God.

With all that said it would be really nice to sell our house by the end of 2010 so we can have a bedroom when the new baby comes. But I'd take new baby over an extra bedroom any day. So in the scheme of things Grace can share a bedroom with her brother or sister and I'd feel very blessed.