brian made me take a picture in this ridiculous hat

the empty gravel flower bed has intimidated me for two years. but no more! we planted fourty-seven pretty, (mostly)native, (mostly)drought-resistant somethings in the front (number nine). our dependence on home depot no-interest financing is to blame for shortcoming my environmentally friendly goal.

i wanted something simple and natural that would look at home in our rocky desert area. we placed some medium sized rocks we already had and one big fake one from the hardware store at the front of the bed to form a gentle border. around the rocks we planted mounding flowering plants and various grasses- my favorite. between the plants is a stepping stone walkway leading to nowhere, our very own winchester mystery house. eventually, it will lead to a backyard gate.

the growth in front makes me smile each time i enter or exit the house. it's the only project we've done that looks consistently better in person. mother nature'll trump the camera every time. hands down. no questions asked.

it looked like this before

dining room before & after

(let's pretend that i didn't fill the previous post with dining room pictures)

this room was used by the previous owners for television viewing. this room is used by the current owners for about everything but television viewing. it seems like our giant dining room table (housewarming gift from crazy grandma- thank you!) is never without craft supplies, homework packets, or laptop computers.

this room, like the rest of the house, was a family effort. tiff helped place the photo wall frames (which was a lot more work than it sounds like, or should have been-sorry). katrice helped me paint. but, as usual, brian did the bulk of the work. he installed flooring, baseboards, & the light fixture. and made my red bench long enough to sit the monkeys and all their crazy cousins.

chalkboard by brian, tree painting by mia, misspelling of 'origami' by me.

a more accurate depiction.

to toil

before

during

toil (noun)
1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.
2. how brian spends his spare time.

please direct your attention away from the patchy/weedy lawn and toward the beautiful fence/rv gate that brian just finished. we still have a lot of planting to do in the front, but it will have to wait until spring. the winds are a commin! i noticed that this space has been unusually void of cute little kid pictures. i'll have to do something about that soon.

not now though. must................................read.............................beowulf.

front porch before & after

a front porch was on my 'wish list' when we started looking at houses. a swing has been on my wish list for as long as i could remember. i told brian about my desire to swing. he responded with an uncharacteristic amount of complaints. apparently, hanging a porch swing is more complicated than the couple of concrete anchors i'd envisioned. it takes reinforcements, mathematics, two able bodied men, and a few hours spent in the oven-like crawl space of the attic. the swing has, arguably, been the most valuable upgrade we've done to the house. we're all spending so much more time outside. the front porch is the official home of after school otter pops, bike ride supervising, and sleepy time stories.

the pillow was handmade with materials i had around the house: an old set of canvas drapes, leftover paint from the front door, and some needle and thread. i really need to get over my fear of the sewing machine- it took longer than i care to admit.

big thanks to the able bodied men in my life!

early morning magic

we sent brian off with his usual diet coke and kisses wednesday morning, only for him to return seconds later with big news. news that sent me running camera-in-hand through the front door. a fine dusting of green had sprung up while we were sleeping. thin blades of grass were reaching for the morning sun all across our yard.

we have a yard. we have a yard with growing grass. it's almost too good to be true.

toy room before & after

when we purchased our house there were three separate living room type areas. one we use as a living room, one a dining room, and last but not least is the toy room. besides the kitchen, it's my favorite room in the house. like our other home improvements, this room was a family effort.

the credit goes to:
bookshelves- brian & levi
rug- $10 ikea find
toy organizer- ikea (assembly by tiff)
dress up coat rack- home depot
millions of toys- lovely friends & family
paint brush & pallet- brian & marisa
art work- mia & miley

the brush and pallet were inspired by this pricey set from pottery barn kids (by 'inspired', i mean totally ripped off). brian is super handy. all i have to do is explain what i'd like and he cuts, sands, and nails it to life. he put 350 pipe cleaners together to make paint brush bristles- genius.

the girls artwork could be my favorite possession. when they come home from school with a new project it feels like getting an unexpected package in the mail. the monkeys are also proud of their display, constantly dragging unsuspecting guests into the room to showoff their work. the clips allow me to easily change projects out as new construction paper pretties come home.

to answer your burning question: yes, of course the toy room is always this strait.

come on and shine

it feels like it's gone from a thankful giving, to a merry christmas, to a happy new year in a few short days. i enjoyed being thankful, i wasn't prepared to be merry, but i am so ready to be happy. the more effort i put into planning my 2009, the more my mind wants to re-walk the journey of 2008. so please, take a walk with me.

this year started with a surgery. a surgery that fixed my kidney, put me on my back for a month, and led me to rediscover the wonderful man i married. a surgery quickly followed by a 1st birthday, a 5th, and a 3rd. another sudden move. a few days to pack our lives into boxes to be stored for an undetermined duration of time. we then tucked our 5 member family into a small space in my in-laws house- an unexpected necessity that i will be forever grateful for.

one delayed, complicated, and emotional escrow later we were handed the keys. the keys that made us jump, cry, and shake our heads in disbelief. we put those keys in the deadbolt and unlocked the overwhelming generosity of our friends and family. we ground, grouted, planted, painted, scrapped, and spackled a home for our family in the quiet low desert of southern california.

meanwhile, a blog was born. mia matured, made us laugh, and taught me about myself. miley started pre-school and then quickly stopped. tragedy was avoided, and i was given the gift of time with my swirly haired beautiful girl. levi made us all fall in love and showed us what life is like when raising a boy. autumn classes started, work quickened, while home construction slowed.

the whirlwind year ended with overwhelming finals, unforeseen obstacles, and fabulous holiday festivities. the suddenness of everything left me swimming, but i've reached the surface. i'm breathing easy. i've purged the last piece of christmas from the house, and i'm ready for 2009.

thank you for walking with me last year-

i hope this one shines for ya!

sunny so-cal

a few years ago we were debating whether buying a house in utah was the right move for our family. for me, there were many complicated factors involved. for brian, the problem was simple and solitary: it snows there.

our home 12/2008

pan to the week before christmas when our house looked like this. when we purchased in the foothills we were given fair warning about the wind, but snow! i have been assured by neighbors that this only happens once a year. phew- i thought we were going to have to move again. i do realize that my family in utah and my cousin karen in iowa (who went caroling in -4 degree temperatures) are totally laughing at me right now.

the snow fell just before we left for our early morning drive to utah. the white stretched from our door step to vegas. we stopped for a potty break and the girls couldn't resist a little play time in the cold fluffy whiteness.

the babies, who don't like being cold, opted to wait in the car.

i like him!

a family kitchen

before

after

it's still missing a few things (baseboards, quarter rounds, a bar stool, & some paint), but for blogging purposes lets call the fully functional kitchen complete. as you may recall our fabulous friends hung the cabinets and the resident stud did pretty much everything else. my pictures don't due it justice.

when we bought the house this space was being used as a combo kitchen/dining room and there were 3 separate living areas. now we have a kitchen, a dining room, a toy room, and a living room with dark laminate wood flooring running throughout.

we added an island. yeah storage!

brian cashed in a favor for the back splash. stinky came up one sunday morning to lay the tile, and drove back monday morning to grout it. thanks stink!

one of the problems we faced when doing the kitchen was that it had never been wired for a garbage disposal. there was no switch. brian mounted and wired a switch under the sink that can be accessed through the tilt shelf- clever clever.

pantry pull-outs- the greatest thing since sliced bread.

trash anyone? the process was exhausting, but so worth it. the kitchen is open, bright, and easy to clean. thanks to everyone who had a hand in it- we love it and you!

finally, a photo wall

 

i got this awesome photo wall idea from a talented stranger whose blog i find inspiring. as you already know, i have a fabulous photographer friend that takes our bi-annual family photos, like the ones featured above. sorry about the bad picture, i had to stand at a weird angle to keep the flash from obscuring the images.

 

tierd me trying to give you a feel for their massive scale. they're the first thing you see when you walk in my front door. i had been stocking the ikea by my house for months in pursuit of these clip frames. jan (mother to the fabulous photographer friend) ended up finding them for me at the ikea by her place, thanks jan!

thanks chelz for figuring out how to develop the monsters!

thanks brian for hanging them at 1am because your giddy wife couldn't contain her excitement!

bruce almighty

before

during

this picture holds a lot of meaning for me. together, brian and dan are removing the last trace of graffiti from our home.

after

jim, brian, bruce, and dan almighty! a better group of guys, you will never meet. our already overworked friends rang our doorbell at 6:45 saturday morning bringing with them a truck full of power tools, an amazing work ethic, and a bottomless supply of not so female friendly jokes. never in my life have i met people as talented at twisting innocent verbiage into nonstop rip roaring man humor.

they worked while they laughed, demolishing the existing kitchen in less then an hour and hanging these beautiful white cabinets in it's place. they worked into the afternoon never complaining about the terrible heat that had set in, stopping only once to refuel on some cheeseburgers and frosties. while it wasn't easy, i successfully went the entire day without telling jim to shut up.

bruce, thank you so much for generously offering us your expertise, we could not have leveled a single cabinet without you!

to tish, sandy, and cindy- thank you for sharing what little time you have with your wonderful husbands!

the counter tops, sink, & flooring are only a few short weeks away...

drum roll please

 

if you remember,this weekends goals were as follows-
1.  finish baseboards in the toy room.    [check]
2.  build the island half wall in the kitchen.   [check]
3.  mount the island cabinets to the half wall.   [check]
4.  lay the flooring in the dinning room.   [check]
5.  don't completely neglect the children.    [okay, about #5, there was a small incident involving levi, some antacids he thought were candy, & a quick call to poison control, otherwise,it was fine]

 

 
brian had this awesome idea, to make a sort of time capsule on the inside of the wall before he enclosed it.  the kids got to write their names, draw a picture, and pick a little toy that they were okay parting with.  we thought they understood they weren't going to get the toy back, but mia keeps tearing up saying that she misses her pony.  my goodness that child is emotional.  where does she get that from?

and what of my dear katrice while all this is going on?  she went about her business happily going from one of her favorite activities to the next:  playing solitary UNO, typing on the computer, doing her word search, coloring, & watching movies.  to make myself feel better i promised her that monday would bring a trip to the library and some dr. pepper.  

i don't want to post the after pictures until the kitchen is complete, about another 6 weeks.  and the beat goes on...

livingroom before & after

before

during

the resident handyman installing baseboards with his new favorite toy (courtesy of grandpa- thank you!). nothing says brian quite like a loud air powered machine that shoots nails.

after

this room, like the rest of the house, has been a community effort. the pretty picture was a house warming gift from my friend kim, thank you. brian re-tiled the fireplace & installed new baseboards, love you! tiff spent her summer break moving boxes, unpacking boxes, assembling ikea furniture, hanging curtain rods, painting, and keeping her little sister sane, thank you. jim drove up after putting in his twelve hours on the job and laid flooring with brian, thank you.

before & during (still working on the after)

before

this was our little house when we bought it. it had been sitting empty for so long without any love, that i wanted a dramatic change. and that's what i got.

after

the conversation went something like this-

albert: timmy, when are we gonna help brian work on his house?
timmy: i'm not doing anything sunday. brian, we'll be there sunday to paint.
brian: ok.
chino: i'm in.

and just like that these four beautiful boys spent their only day off slaving from sun-up to sun-down painting our house. a special thanks to cameron for looking so pretty while he worked. its an awesome thing when your boss and co-workers feel like family. we love you guys.

i have a thing for green. more specifically, "martini olive". a special thanks to kim for picking the perfect color, painting, and admiring the fabulous front door.