Progress, we have cabinets!

When I assigned myself the task of redecorating the dark dark little hole of a kitchen, I had high hopes and dreams. They involved wall removing, island building, floor tiling, etc... Well 1 out of 3 isn't bad. After checking the attic for beam placement, we soon discovered that knocking out the kitchen wall to create more open space would be pretty much impossible. So what was I to do with my tiny kitchen of which I am sure to spend most of my time? Make it feel more open! With paint. The walls in the kitchen were wood paneling (eek.). The cabinets were a similar color as the walls. The whole thing was a little suffocating. I felt like I was in a tiny wooden box. After finding my inspiration here. (Scroll halfway down the page!) I was set on painting the cabinets white. After priming, sanding, and painting, they turned out beautifully! I can't wait to share a picture... soon. I admit, I have forgotten my camera everytime I've gone by. But you can watch Joe's video of the progress here. He briefly shows the cabinets, our cement floor den, and the ah-MAZING looking wood floors. The video also shows the brand new countertops we put in (yay Ikea!). They turned out wonderfully! There is a slight overhang that isn't usual with countertops, because for some reason the cabinets aren't standard size. The depth is an inch or so off, so when you put standard countertops on, it has an overhang. Kind of weird, but I'm not worried about it. I plan on having white subway tile as a backsplash the whole length of the countertop and a dark gray tile on the floor.

Can I just say my husband is awesome?!! He has been working his tail off trying to get this place ready for us, and I am so thankful that I can take care of my babies while he takes care of the new house. Love him.

I've been packing away at the old house. It's a little bittersweet. This is the house that Joe and I moved to when we got married. We've had 2 babies while living here and have already created so many memories. While I can't wait to have a space to actually stretch out in, I am going to miss this place. I'm also going to miss my quiet little street. Though it's downtown, I feel super safe home alone. I hope and pray that it will be the same at the new house! I've also become very close with my neighbor Alisha. It was unfortunate timing for them to be moving in and getting settled while we're getting unsettled and moving out. God knows what He's doing, though, and I know that we'll remain good friends, despite moving across town.

I'm done packing for the night so I'm going to curl up and rest until Joe makes his way home. He's been working so hard. It's all he can do to shower and collapse into bed. I can't wait until we're all in the new house and get back to our regular routine!

Can't wait to show pictures of how things are going!! I promise I'll remember my camera next time...

Ikea adventures

Let me just say, I LOVE Ikea. They have figured out the perfect set-up for a business. They set up a whole room with price tags on everything in the room, telling you where to find that item later on in the store. You follow the arrows on the floor taking you through everything, with the restaurant in the middle. It's perfect!!!

Joe and I knew we wanted to go to Ikea to get some stuff for the new house. The problem was when?? He decided to take off early on a Wednesday. I dropped Emmy off at my cousin Jessica's, loaded up in her Jeep, hitched the trailer and took off. Well, sort of. Jessica and I hooked up the trailer in what we thought was the proper way and I started driving. I got about 10 feet before I heard bu-BUMP and then a dragging noise. I stopped as slowly as I could, but it wasn't slow enough apparently. I got out and looked at the back. The trailer had come unhitched, obviously. But it gets worse. When I stopped (slowly, I promise!!), the trailer hitch came forward suddenly, coming underneath the car. It got stuck under the car. I tried pulling the trailer out myself. Nothing. No movement. It was STUCK. I called Jessica back outside and we tried together. Again, quite stuck. Jess went and knocked on her neighbor's door. He was home, and after scoping out our situation, enlisted the help of his linebacker sized roommate. They lifted the car while Jessica and I pulled the trailer. After the third yank, we pulled it out from under the car, tearing the bumper in the process. We all celebrated and then the guys hooked it up properly. I finally drove off... super super slowly. I can't tell you how happy I was to pull up to my house. That was the most nerve-wracking drive! Joe came out and double checked the trailer and off to Ikea we went!

We had a blast shopping! We bought way too much! We got countertops, a kitchen table, chairs, and a bunch of random house stuff. They started to announce that Ikea was closing so we had to hurry up and check out. We checked out and looked outside. It was POURING rain. Let me tell you, loading in the rain is NO fun. I had to feed Archer before we took off so poor Joe had to load everything up and tie it down. He was a trooper.

I can't wait to show you all of the things we bought! I'll take pictures of everything as we set it up.

Joe, with the help of Poppy (his grandfather), finished the floors this morning! I'm SO excited. That was the main thing that HAD to be done before we moved in. We also have to tile the kitchen, paint the floor in the den, install the water heater, fix the broken shower.... all before Saturday. Whew....

Back again!!

And we bought a HOUSE. So I'll attempt to keep this blog updated to keep you lovely people updated.

We just bought a brand-new house. Well, brand new to us. Not so much to anyone else. In fact, it's pretty not brand-new... it was/is quite a mess. But it has such potential to be an adorable little starter home for us. So I don't have a picture of the front of it.. yet. For some reason in my documentation of our re-hab, I keep forgetting to take one. It will be done

. No worries.

I have to be honest, my first impression of this house was not great. I thought t

he outside was weird, and that despite the work, it would be an odd little house. But after some prayer and pondering and reading tons of back issues of Atomic Ranch, I'm on board. Plus, I'm completely enamored with the DIY lifestyle, and this house is like one big DIY project. The previous owners were foreclosed on so they decided to trash the place. Fun, I know. So this is what we MUST do to the place to get it live-able: refinish all floors (I mean ALL except bathrooms), replace hot water heater (or just water heater if you're being PC), paint everything with Kilz primer and then paint, fix some dangerous electrical issues, and get a new HVAC system.

Those are "musts". We also have a lot of "not entirely necessary but it would be nice" ideas. We don't plan on being in this house long, so we want to make it appealing to a possible buyer. This means I have to tone down on my paint choices (sob!), and keep everything pretty neutral. We've already painted. Let's get onto some pics and I'll explain along the way!

This is the living room:

At the time this pic was taken, it had been primed, painted, and half the carpet ripped up. Check out our hardwood! Awesome!! I absolutely love the big window and how much natural light it lets in. It's not exactly energy efficient, but my gracious friend gave me some lined curtains that should block some of the more powerful rays during the day to keep it relatively cool. If you look on the walls, you can see the color Joe picked. It's called Mint Frost by Valspar. I was leery of anything with "mint" or "frost" in the title.. so leery in fact that I believe I hung up when Joe told me the color that he had just purchased. But apologies were made, because it's not too bad. It's a great neutral color for the space. We may paint it later... but we'll see:-)

To the right is the view from the living room to the hallway. Check out that carpet. No, that's not a trick of the shadows. That is disgusting stains all the way down the hallway. After ripping up the carpet here, this is going to be the main trouble spot in the hardwood, since it bled through. We're praying most of it comes up! If it doesn't, we'll get a carpet runner so it's all good. Notice our taped up intake vent on the bottom right. So 3 days after closing, our AC unit decides it's th

rough with life and putters out. We planned on replacing it eventually. So eventually turned into immediately. The HVAC guys are coming out on Tuesday to put in a Gaspack. We decided on gas heat because if we went with a heat pump, we would have had to update the electrical system to 200amps from 100. After discussing it with the electrician and comparing prices, getting a heat pump would be cost prohibitive. Plus, we can do everything we need to do with 100amps. So natural gas it is!

Let's take a look at the kitchen.

Tada! Yeah, it's nothing special right now. This is a view of the right side where the wall oven, cooktop, and fridge will be. We took off the cabinet doors and are in the process of painting them white. They were a golden red maple-y color that when combined with wood paneling walls completely overwhelmed the space. There's only one window and it's overlooking the enclosed garage, so not a lot of natural light gets in. We painted the walls a cheery yellow and are getting light gray countertops from Ikea to try and brighten things up. Speaking of the yellow, what do you think? What about from this angle?

Holy mess, it's bright. Definitely didn't see that coming when I was picking paint chips out. (I'm really, REALLY bad that btw... someone should give me a tutorial on picking out paint). This is the wall to your left as you walk into the kitchen. Unfortunately, only a small table will fit here and as there is no dining room, we'll have to make it fit our (now) family of 4. We'll update later on that. The ugly linoleum is on full display here. We plan on tiling over that with a delightful dark gray porcelain tile. I'm so stinking excited about that. I think it will make the kitchen look so much more modern and cool.

So we started sanding tonight. Let's check on how that's going:

Great!! I think it's going to look really good. Joe is taking charge of the sander while Joe's dad and I did a lot of the edging today. My dad will pick back up with edging tomorrow since I have you know, babies to feed and bathe and love on. But although sanding is hard work, when you do it yourself you save a TON of money. Like, we're going to save about $1k. I'm okay getting my hands a little dirty to save that much. If you're not very handy, or you're not a fan of sawdust on and in every pore of your being, then it might not be in your best interest to sand floors yourself. We're using a drum sander and apparently if you hover in one spot for too long, you can create a serious dent in the floor. Since my husband is amazing at most things handy, he is doing a fabulous job at keeping it all even and looking great. I can't wait to see the finished product!

That's all for now. Next time, I'll hopefully be posting about the finished hardwood. We're going to try and get the kitchen cabinets done while we wait for the polyurethane to dry on the hardwood. So look forward to seeing the finished product of that too!

Lazy bums

SO lazy here.

Lazy lazy lazy.... I still haven't walked the dog. It is almost 2 in the afternoon. It's been such a yucky day outside, who would want to walk? That seems to happen with me. My mood waking up is entirely dependent on the weather. If it's rainy and/or dreary, I feel dreary and blah. If it's sunny, I hop up in anticipation of the day. What is up with that? Is that a learned behavior? Interesting...

A bunch of my family just drove up to Niagara Falls yesterday. I feel bad (sometimes) about not going. But (HUGE but) I have a baby. She's really difficult when she gets off schedule. I don't want to deal with a difficult baby while simultaneously driving for 2 days. Nope, not me. So then I guess I don't feel too bad.

A good thing about it being rainy and dreary? I don't have to water my flowers! God took care of that for me today. I have a bale of hay that I want to try gardening with, but I need to research it just a little more. I'd love to grow some veggies, or spices.. anything really! It's so neat to grow things. My dad and grandfather have super green thumbs and it never appealed to me until recently. How cool would it be to grow all of your vegetables?? Maybe one day,... when we get a yard. Until then, I have my hay bale.. that is just sitting there until I figure it out.

Stream of consciousness post... very random. I suppose I should hop up and get the baby as I hear her on the monitor. Maybe we'll actually walk the dog... maybe.

Not Me! Monday

In the spirit of McMama, let's have a Not Me! Monday.

Because I certainly DID NOT just now cook pancakes for lunch with lots of syrup, because there was "nothing else to eat". To add insult to injury, I would not dare add chocolate chips to my last pancake, because even a lunch of pancakes needs "dessert".

I would absolutely not spray the dog down with smell good spray and give him a good brushing to give my husband the illusion that he had a bath.

Speaking of things I would not do to my poor pups, there is no way that I haven't walked them yet today, and it is 1:30pm. I would never think that letting them outside for a quick tinkle would satisfy them until it got warmer outside.

When my baby needed a bath the other day, I would never clean her extra good with baby wipes and forgo the bath because I was too exhausted. Not me!

I couldn't fathom sneaking and painting my husband's beloved black desk yellow before he got home from work because it would match my color scheme better.

Not I!

Try and write your own Not Me! Monday... it's a little exciting saying all of the things you would never do!

NaNoWriMo

That's what I'm talking about.

National November Writing Month.

You can check it out for yourself here. I am by no means a "writer". But I decided that I need to do something that challenges myself. Hence, writing 50,000 words in a month. The ultimate goal is to write a novel. I have no such aspirations. My ultimate goal is write about myself, my life, my thoughts, my goals, etc. Basically this is going to be a big, therapeutic, hard, enlightening, challenging activity. Starting right here with this blog. Well, most of it probably won't be written in my blog. I intend to get down and dirty and deeper than I have ever thought. Kind of like an extended diary. Probably NOT blog material. So Microsoft Word will become my new pal, and you guys can have some updates along the way.

I realize that this is going to be amazingly hard with a baby. But the effort is the most important part of a challenge. So let's do this.

But first, an update.

Emerson is officially crawling and pulling up. She now knows how to let herself down without completely bonking her head on whatever hard objects may be nearby. Apparently this whole diaper thing is pretty awesome. She has some cushion to land on. There's not really a problem with this.... unless I have to walk away for a minute and... oh wait. I can never walk away for a minute anymore. If I walk away, I have about 30 seconds before she realizes I am gone and tries to follow, or dives into something that I told her not to do earlier, i.e. pull ALL of the books off the second and/or bottom row on the bookshelf. She just loves when they fall and FWAT! on the ground. I suppose this is a good thing. I mean, she likes to knock down books right? That will definitely translate into her reading them, right??? I can only hope. I've read* that if babies see their parents reading, they are much more likely to want to read themselves. Joe and I read quite often, so she's probably going to LOVE it. We'll see. Babies are weird little creatures. They don't exactly go by your intended life plan for their lives.

*I now have a complex. I read. Often. I like to be an informed person. If a doctor or someone else smart says something they believe to be true, I almost always research it for myself to see if their opinion is the safest, most helpful. My parents do not. They believe the doctor. Always. So when I say "I read this and..." around them, I always get a look. Or a smirk. Or an eye-roll. This is a bit of a touchy subject for us. We're working on it.

Completely off subject, but: Let me just say Joe's laptop was NOT well designed aesthetically. Okay, maybe I'm using that word wrong but this darn laptop has little tabs that stick up right where your wrists rest as your typing. I have little painful indentions in my arm. Who the heck didn't test drive the laptop for comfort before they marketed and sold this thing? OR, is the blame with the consumer (i.e. JOE), who did not go to a store and test the laptop himself? My husband purchases almost everything online. No one spoke of this design flaw in reviews. I feel it is my civic duty to go to all review boards and post that this joker is a pain. Literally. Unfortunately, I don't know the name nor brand of the laptop... Okay now I know it's a Lenovo from looking at the front. That's all I have. Apparently all owners of this laptop felt the same way and were just like me. Saying "eh... I'm sure SOMEONE will review it." Now I feel guilty. Eh.

I'm already a little weary from writing right now. I think it's because I'm looking around at all of the stuff that I have to do. Staying at home is hard. You can't go to work and come home and chill. The home is your job. Chore-wise, I'm looking at mainly laundry. There's a few dishes to be done. The big job is Emerson's room. Yes, I know. I'm a terrible person who STILL has not cleaned out her daughter's room. To be clear, it was MOSTLY clean. Until Joe needed a transcript for an application, and unloaded the file cabinets onto the desk. And left them there. Bless him, he's the worst cleaner upper EVER. His idea of "cleaning up" is to hide. Or my personal favorite, to make an even bigger mess. Our conversations almost always go something like this:

Him: "Ashley, I cleaned out the closet."

Me: "Awesome. But why is all of this stuff on the floor?"

Him:"Oh. That needs to be put up somewhere since it doesn't go in the closet."

Me:"So... You made more of mess than when you started."

Him:"Um, the closet's clean?"

Me: "argh."

So at some point, I need to get in there and get on it. For now, laundry seems safe.

With that last sentence, I'm at 854 words. 854 out of 50,000. I think I've got this. Maybe.

Rants & Raves

In the spirit of the Free Times Rants & Raves, I'll be posting my own personal opinions of random things in my life on the blog every now and then, starting today:

Rave:

Dear Publix, like your motto, shopping with you truly is a pleasure! The general atmosphere and experience of shopping at Publix is always super awesome. The stores are always clean, the produce is always fresh, the employees are always very friendly and helpful. They actually seem to like their job, and when you like your job, it is reflected in your attitude. They also help you carry your groceries to your car without you having to ask. No tips, please.

I know what you're thinking, Publix is the expensive supermarket. Well, I have come to the conclusion that the expensive supermarket is nothing but a rumor. No, they don't have an "Most Valued Shopper Ever" card, BUT they accept competitors coupons, and have amazing BOGO sales all of the time.

All of those things I already knew and loved about Publix, but in an effort to find even greater deals, I logged on to their website and checked out their circular for the week. Get this, you can click on items in the circular that you want to buy and it will create a shopping list for you. Not only will it make the list, it organizes it by what section of the supermarket it is in! This may not throw you into a state of giddiness like it did me, but I am the person who already writes down my shopping list by what section each item is in. Love it!! So all of these things combined just makes me happy to go grocery shopping. I love grocery shopping when I go to a store that puts as much effort into it's business as Publix does.

Rant:

Dear Pedestrians, I would like to introduce you to the crosswalk. The crosswalk was designed so that you can safely navigate the city on foot, without having the misfortune of being hit by a large moving vehicle. They have distinct lines for you to walk between and even (gasp) a Light system that tells you when to go, when to hurry up, and when not to walk because you will, in fact, be hit.

What is UP with people not using the crosswalk??? I understand if it's not a busy street, you just need to pop across and the next crosswalk is 3 blocks away. But c'mon people. If I am driving down Elmwood, a SIX lane road, I really would prefer that you not weave in and out of cars, or make me brake for you to casually stroll through traffic when you could have waited just another second for the light to change. Also, do NOT get offended when I hit the automatic lock on my car doors when you are walking beside my car at a stop light. The cross walk is 6 feet away, and by ignoring that fact and still walking through stopped cars at a light, you're being creepy. Think about it.