Update on Home Improvements

I continue to enjoy stretching the right side of my brain, which has always been predominantly left leaning.   A friend says exercising the right side of the brain wards off dementia.  I'll be happy if I can just overcome some of my crafting fears.  We've made a lot of costly mistakes during our attempts to perform an extreme makeover on a home we purchased bare bones with minimal upgrades, but we've gotten other things right!

The house is looking better from the outside now that spring is here.  The Bermuda sod (we're used to having Fescue which stays green all year) finally began turning green and flowers we did not realize had been planted by the builder's landscaping crew began blooming for a much more colorful scene.

I took the following pics on May 20 as "updated spring pics" for a scrapbook I printed which chronicled our long 6 year journey to this house and all the spiritual lessons we learned along the way, but we just transformed the side of the house, so I guess I need to take pics again.

The hanging flower and flower pots were gifts from Mom!

This side looks different now and will change again when we add the privacy hedge.

I usually come up with an idea and then ask my husband to implement it since I'm so inept in all things crafty or handy.  I can make BEAUTIFUL spreadsheets, but that's about it.   Some may say my flow charts are pretty or my analytical reports are nicely constructed, but I can't draw, paint, or do anything creative or crafty other than amateur scrapbooking (preferably digital). I even broke out into nervous sweats during the craft time at MOPs meetings. So, as proof that God still works miracles, I have been refinishing decorative items in the house all by myself and without smelling salts or medication. It may not be pretty, but I'm celebrating the fact that I actually made an attempt.  When we updated our last house, we converted all the brass fixtures to oil rubbed bronze.  This house came with satin nickel fixtures, so now I'm trying to salvage some of my old decorative items (frames, vases, wall decor) by polishing them silver. Breakfast nook progress pictured below. 

Our most successful makeover in my opinion has been our dining room, but we did get help from my brother-in-law and my mom, so we can't take all the credit.   The general design, however, was ours.  All I did in that room was shop for hours and hours for just the right furniture, fixtures, paint, rug,  mirrors, artwork, and such.  I did paint a frame and flower pot/vase silver.  Big whoop, I know, but gals like me have to celebrate the small things.  I did take and select photos, do sampling, format, and order the triptych collage from our trip to Ireland for the side wall.  Mom helped tremendously with the table decor and made the "to use for now" curtains (still looking for the right style in a color that matches) while my husband assembled all the furniture and the chandelier with "a million" pieces, painted the accent wall and installed the molding, medallion, and light fixture with help from his brother.  It was a group effort indeed, and I am so pleased with the first glimpse guests see when they enter our home.  I just replaced the crystal sconces I had in there before with framed mirrors, so now I am finally calling this room complete.

 

I've shown pictures of our ever evolving kitchen before.  Our latest update has been changing out the pendant lighting over the island because my husband wanted a pop of color in there and changing out the bulbs from fluorescent to LED. I'm learning that bulb temperature and color make a big difference.  My next kitchen project will be updating the island. I got lots of ideas from our new custom carpenter today, but I think we're going to go a simpler DIY route.  U-hoh..not again!

The master bedroom improvements continue.  My husband finally installed the ceiling fan, but that opened up another can of worms because the light fixture had not been removed when the ceiling was initially painted, and the touch up paint did not match for whatever reason. So now we have to repaint the entire ceiling, and we're going to go with a more aqua greenish hue to match the new curtains.  I found a wall decor piece I love for over the bed, though the details are hard to see in these photos.  Mom and Dad told me to go pick out a floor lamp for my prayer chair as an anniversary gift, so we added that to the corner as well.  We're using old brass lamps my aunt gave me for now on the marble top nightstands which I painted oil rubbed bronze to match the bed frame.   We had planned on painting that back wall behind the headboard, but two decorators advised me to leave it so as not to take away from the ceiling.  Once we get that ceiling painted (not an easy project) this room will be mostly done.

One of my husband's first priorities was to pave an extra parking pad for guests and eventually our future drivers but mostly for basketball.  He wanted a flat place where the kids (and hopefully the neighbors' kids as well) could play ball or ride their scooters, skates, and wiggle racers.  After getting multiple quotes and choosing a provider, we submitted the long application with signatures from the neighbors for homeowner's association approval.  Then when we were ready to go, the contractor went MIA. I'm guessing our small job was not a priority when big builders wanted to utilize his company.  All other quotes were between $1500 and $4000 higher, so I was ready to give up. Finally a neighbor referred us to a new company whose quote came in right in line with the first one.  Icing on the cake was that this contractor's native language was English making communication easier, and he got the job done the following week.  YEA!  Our son loved watching them work and helped me document their progress.

The front view of the house shows how much we need a privacy hedge to block the neighbor's shed. 

The storage building we've been wanting for the past three years (yes, even when we lived in our old house) for storing lawn equipment and misc other items (since new building codes for green homes do not allow storage in attic spaces) is mostly complete.  All we need to add now are steps and a hideaway ramp.  Although some day I would like to convert half of it into a playhouse for the kids like I had as a child.

I documented the progress with that building as well.  First, our lumberjack friend Chad came over with his chainsaw to help us clear a spot for it.  Miraculously, no one lost an arm or a leg in the process.  Then the construction crew came and built the entire thing in one day.  Our neighbor's storage building took over a week of daily labor to build.  Hum... The my husband caulked and began painting it too many weeks later when he had a few hours of time between the kids' many activities. When we realized it may be months before he had time to finish the job, I noticed painters painting the neighbors house next door and talked them into painting ours next.  !Yo hablo espanol! Viola!  It's painted.  I'm sure those who are more aesthetically inclined than I am would have gotten a chuckle watching me try to select flowers (I went to two different stores on opposite sides of town and then had to return some of them) and arrange them for the flower box.  It may not be pretty, but I got her done!

Great Wolf Lodge

We've been wanting to take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge for years, but it took the simple plea of our daughter to take her there as her 10th birthday present to actually get us to book the reservation.  Of course, we ended up rescheduling that reservation a few times so that we did not finally go until 12 weeks after her birthday, but at least we finally went.  And it may take another 10 years for us to save up enough to go again!  But when you hear the kids say, "This was the best day ever!" you know it was worth it.  And the owners of these kid attractions like the Disney family know we will think it's worth it, so they figure out a way to turn every square inch of their facility into a revenue stream.  I'm jesting of course, for we would do it again.  The kids had a blast!

I forgot to take pictures of the kids using the magic want to solve clues and complete various quests, but that was a very clever way to entertain the kids while giving their skin a break from all the water.  They wand was a take home souvenir that the girls can use at other kid attractions.

Road Trip to Lazy 5 Ranch

Our daughter asked for a trip to Great Wolf Lodge for her 10th birthday present, and she asked to bring a friend.  We had to postpone the trip due to conflicts with her gymnastics meet and rehearsals for the church musical, but we were finally able to take her the week after school ended.  She chose a friend from her Y Princess tribe whom she doesn't get to see much anymore.  And it seems that her selection was a God thing, for we found out later that our daughter's invitation was a direct and immediate answer to a specific prayer by this young friend and her parents. We decided to add in a trip to Lazy 5 Ranch as a last minute surprise for the girls.

We had planned to take the wagon ride since my husband is particularabout his new luxury car he bought for business as well as pleasure (though not enough business purpose to write it off).  However, they put our reservation down for the wrong time, so we ended up having to drive through the ranch in his nice car.  Oops!  We felt like we had just driven into Africa with all the animals coming right up to us to beg for food.  Some refused to get out of the road as if to say, "I dare you to drive one inch closer!"  Don't dare my husband like that.  He will win.

Here are some pics from our amazing time at the ranch:

Note to self:  Check daughter's attire before arriving at your destination.  Those riding boots and Daisy Duke's (She has outgrown those shorts and should NOT have taken them out of the consignment box.) were something else and not a combination I would have allowed.

 

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

Memorial Day 2014 was one of many mixed emotions.  There was the combination of excitement and nerves as our daughter adjusted to her first season on a swim team. 

Her dive sure is pretty for a beginner (she's in the back entering the water)

As an aside, we are enjoying finally having a pool membership after so many years of trying to move closer to a nice pool with a swim team.  The following pics were taken the day the pool opened this year. 

 I do a lot of tutoring prep work while the kids enjoy the pool.

We spent much of the weekend working on more home improvement projects.  With the help of a some painters I hired to finish the job we started, we finally finished the storage building (except for the steps and lawnmower ramp) and cleared out the garage for parking at least one vehicle until we complete all our furniture refinishing projects to make room for another vehicle. My husband installed ceiling fans (9 down, 1 to go), new light fixtures in the bathrooms & new drawer pulls in the master bathroom while I took the kids shopping and attempted to sell old light fixtures via Craig's List. Our front door is 8 feet tall and did not come with glass insets or glass side panels or over the door glass panels as promised initially by the builder due to a last minute change in plans (ugh!), so until we can save up another $4K for a new 8' door with glass insets, I thought a huge wreath would at least give it a pop of color.  I also found some shiny decorative items for our master bedroom.  It's so fun to see the house coming together.

New shed, wall decor, ceiling fans, 4 light fixtures, and a wreath

We took time to remember our veterans who gave their lives for our freedom and protection, and I always feel a bit of pride for my husband's and his brother's military service.

After experiencing my first crazy school uniform consignment sale at a nearby church where I loaded up on school clothes for next year, I took the kids shopping for swimming clothes and fun summer clothes.  After wearing uniforms all year, they really enjoy picking out their own non-school clothes.   Our son selected this festive freedom outfit for Memorial Day.

Photo bomber who usually dresses like a tomboy

Our daughter, the tomboy, surprised me by picking out a fancy dress during our shopping trip. It came with a large aquamarine necklace (that was turned around wrong in this pic) which is her birthstone.

I loathe shopping in general, so I wanted to post these smiles as a reminder that the kids so enjoy shopping with me when I'm on a mission to buy them clothes (or toys).

Some neighbors won free use of the pool gazebo on Memorial Day and invited us to join in on the fun, so we headed to the pool for a short swim.   Our son spent most of his time on the slide and diving boards.

 

The pool was too crowded for our preference so we returned home to find our beloved bunny dead in his pen.  What?  My first thought was that maybe he had a heat stroke, but the temperature was only in the low 80s, and my childhood bunny endured seven years of summers with temperatures reaching the high 90s.  Could he have had a heart attack?  What in the world? We had treated that bunny like a prince compared to the bunny I had as a kid who never came inside, ate only pellets (big no-no now that we know more about proper bunny care), and that bunny lived to be 7 years old!  Cody was only 15 months old. How could he be dead already?  The kids were devastated, especially our daughter.  She wants to be a vet, so I wondered how she would handle her first experience with an animal dying (since vets see animal death every day), but she was really strong and was not bothered by the bunny corpse at all.  She's the one who first found him dead.  She was just sad...so very sad.  There were lots of tears shed that afternoon.

Digging a grave for our kids' first pet was not how my husband had planned to spend his Memorial Day afternoon. 

I had grown very attached to that rascally rabbit as well, so I found myself crying too after wiping all the tears from my kids' eyes and heart and wondering what in the world we did wrong.  Biking to the lake helped a lot, though. There is just something so therapeutic about this view for me.

We had invited some close friends over for dinner that evening, so having their three girls here helped our daughter forget her sadness and actually enjoy herself while they were here.

I spoke with the breeder, and she had lost Cody's mother in the heat as well, so she thinks maybe because it got warmer so quickly (and perhaps because we brought him inside every time any bad weather came or a large temperature change occurred) that he didn't have time to shed and adapt to the heat well enough to tolerate it that day.  He certainly did pant a lot whenever he stayed outside, so maybe his internal temperature controls were weak.

I'm working on a scrapbook keepsake as a memorial to Cody.  I make tons of scrapbooks, and my daughter has spent hours pouring over every single one, so she is excited about me making one for Cody.  Here are a few of our last photos of him.

Last Week of the 2013/2014 School Year

With all the year end testing completed, the last week of school was mostly filled with fun and parties.  Field Day was held on Tuesday of that week followed by a party at an exclusive country club pool.  It was a special treat to experience this pool, but I would not want to have to keep track of my kids at that massive pool complex on a regular basis.  Our new pool and tennis club are more than enough luxury for me.  I spent much of my time there looking for my children...except when I rode down the enormous water slide (getting stuck a few times was a bit embarrassing, though).

When the first grade girls who were in my son's class realized I was up there with them in line, they were shocked.  I think they were talking about my boy (the girls tend to swoon over him already), so they were embarrassed that I may have overheard.  They said I was the only mother they had ever seen up there.  Now I guess I know where I need to hang out and try to blend in when I want to hear the latest school gossip.

The views from the top of the water slide were really nice!

I did get a chance to talk with the other mothers and felt like I made some new friends.  My son wanted me to meet his best friend Paul's mom so we could schedule play dates this summer, and his best girl's mom.  I spent time chatting with some of the teachers and left feeling better about our school choice as I found like minded mothers there.  I also realized how much our kids have been transplanted from being big fish in a small pond to tiny fish in an enormous pond.  The number of ivy league degrees represented in the parent population at that school would be intimidating if we did not share the same worldview and Biblical values.  Despite the strict rules at this school, the atmosphere is so loving, and the priorities are definitely more on training the heart than on training the mind although the mental training is rigorous, too. (Gift #620)

Technically, the party was for the 4th graders, but since so many of the 4th graders had siblings in first grade, it ended up being a party for both classes.  Our daughter made so many great friends this year.  Even though she still begs to be home schooled (and homeschooling may become a necessity if she continues to advance in gymnastics), I think she would really miss all her friends from school.

Awards assemblies were held on the last day of school. My husband took off from work that day so he could attend, but it was rather boring in a selfish sense because our son did not qualify for any of the awards since he had only been there half a school year.  And our daughter, who is so accustomed to winning everything, had a humbling year of making C's in penmanship, so even though she aced her other subjects, she did not qualify for honor roll.   Still, she grew leaps and bounds in her character, and her penmanship improved tremendously, so even though she did not receive an award on stage that day, I think she received a crown in Heaven for the way she rejoiced over her friends' accomplishments instead of coveting that recognition for herself.  I am so proud of her for the way she has grown spiritually, emotionally, physically, and academically this year.  (Gift #621) She did make the A/B honor roll the last quarter, and I have a feeling she'll make A honor roll all next year now that she understands how high the standard is set at this school.  She set a goal for herself of achieving A honor roll, and I know she can do it.  At this honor's school, I'm discovering that a B or perhaps even a C is like an A in typical schools, so the bar is high, but she has seen God equip her to do all things through Christ who gives her strength as she was a newcomer to competitive gymnastics this past year, so she is trusting Him to help her with this next goal.

After the awards celebrations, we all went to Preston Village Playground. It's the largest playground I have ever seen, and it was all funded solely by community homeowners!  The kids enjoyed a nice lunch, cake, jump rope, playground fun, and feeding the animals in or by the lake.   It was a great time for everyone and another wonderful opportunity for me to meet the other moms.  I met another engineering mom who had a hugely successful career with IBM managing employees in several continents who recently gave up her career to stay home with the kids.  Having been where she is now over ten years ago myself, though not as far along in my career, I was able to encourage her a little.  It's nice to keep meetings moms at this school who I can connect with in a way that I have not been able to connect with other moms at previous schools.  More and more I am being convinced that we are finally in the right place and especially as ministry opportunities continue to present themselves.  Thank you, Lord, for finally leading us here. (Gift #622)

 

 

Our daughter did not want to tag along for this party, but I think she enjoyed herself.