Show us where you live

This week's edition of "Show us where you live" features the kids rooms. Which in my case, is half the house. If I was nice, I would take the time to photograph each kid's room. But I'm not. So, I didn't. Sorry.

Moving on.

Lillian's room is my favorite, not because it's pink I don't really like pink, but it's not all about me, unfortunately but because I just big pink red puffy heart her round crib.


Lillian's round, cherrywood crib with pink and gold bedding. She used to have a really pretty bumper pad and a beautiful matching mobile until I'd had enough of her using the bumper as a stepping stool so she could rip the mobile down.

All of the beautiful bows that I made her that she won't keep on her head.

My uncle made the beautiful cheery wood furniture for this room. The bookshelf I use for shoe overflow, babylegs overflow and the boxes I purchased at Michaels Crafts contain babylegs, tights, and hats.

Thanks for stopping by Lillian's crib!

Show Us Where You Live aka Just Keeping It Real

This week's edition of Show Us Where You Live focuses on the dining room. I'm sure that lots of people will be putting up pictures of their beautiful, put together dining room.

Not me.

Remember way back when we started our home remodel? I can't as I have locked those unpleasant memories far, far away

We, as in ALL of us, lived in 1000 square feet for nine very long months of total H E double hockey sticks. I am proud to say that when the dust cleared, we were all still alive.

The builders kept warning us, over and over, that adding on to the house to the degree that we were doing would cause most ordinary couples to divorce. I'm pretty sure that we did okay. We welcomed our daughter, Lillian nine months later. ahem...

However, since we are still suffering from PTSD so busy, we have yet to remodel the rest of the house.

Therefore, my dining room is still in it's before state. We will be removing the old hutch, all the sheet rock and the popcorn ceiling. We already have the travertine flooring purchased and the windows are installed. So, getting there... very, very slow

In the meantime, please enjoy the original aqua walls (over plaster and lathe), linoleum flooring (that I have painted over), and sheer curtains that are stapled to the wall. I've moved the table over to the side just in case you would like to run through the room with your toy car. I'm nice like that.

Just keeping it real and not afraid of it.



P.S. Yes...the highchairs are for real.

No...they aren't all for my kids.

Yes...I do daycare. Even the very part-timers have their own chair.

No...I don't need all of them at the present time.

Yes...I am an anal germaphobe and the problem is?.

Show us where you live

I've been drooling looking over all the kitchens and living rooms from the last couple of weeks over at Kelly's Korner and was really jealous impressed! This week, since the room of choice is the guest bedroom and ours are presentable I thought it would be fun to participate. Plus Corey is out of town and I'm going stir crazy

We actually have two spare bedrooms.

Corey comes from a really large family, (bigger than ours even!) so it is nice to have a couple of rooms already set up for the guests. On the other side of the bed is a window seat, where the kids like to sit and hide from mom when she is mad play games. They also like to lounge on the bed which is why the comforter is always wrinkled.

The walk-in closet for this room is used for all the kids extra clothes and their memory boxes. There is also a crib on the other side of the room.

This is the second spare bedroom. It's set up with a kid-friendly feel as most of Corey's siblings have kids. The last time his family all came to visit we housed 30 people, besides our 11. Talk about a houseful!

Another spare crib for another spare kid.

I love the bedding in this room, from the good ol' Tar-J. Other favorites are the red curtains and nappy brown rug!

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress!

Here is my version of laundry heaven!
The fireplace in the Master bedroom. We still have lots to do both inside and out but we feel satisfied with what we have been able to get done.

Update on construction

The new second story.

More Construction

Gone...
Going...
Going...

More construction

Corey got up on the existing roof (which will be cut off within the next week or so) to take this pix of the trusses.

It was really cool to watch the crane lift up the trusses. The framers (there is one on the left side) would walk on the top of the walls which was EXTREMELY hard to watch!

2nd floor

The second story went up really fast!
Here is the view from the old part of the house, 2nd story. The framing is for the master bedroom, bathroom and closet.

More construction

Here you can see where holes have been cut in the side of the house on the second floor so debris could be thrown directly into the dumpster.
The entire upstairs has been gutted. There is nothing left but the studs.
The new family room. Two windows will be going in on this side and on the other side will be french doors.
The garage is looking really good. There in the back corner will be my food storage area which will be fully enclosed with a door.
Corey took this picture this morning. He is standing at what was once the bathroom on the second floor. Here you can see the floor for the new second level that is going in on top of the garage.

More construction

Foundation is done and gravel has been brought in so the slab can be poured.
Here is the slab floor in the garage being poured.
It is still such a shock to see the entire family room is gone.
Walls have started going up in the garage.
Each day the framers make so much progress that I have to take a picture so we can remember all the steps. The garage is starting to look like a garage! Corey has ordered all the windows, trusses and garage doors! This is so exciting!

More construction

Corey borrowed Dad's backhoe and dug out for the foundation. Here you can see the forms that have put in before the concrete was poured.
Michael really had fun ripping down the back porch. I went out there and said "Michael! What have you done?" He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Construction

Here is the existing house. You can see where the house has been added onto over the years and for some weird reason, the previous owners put on flat roofs. In our part of the country that is not going to work!

We were going to add a garage off the back and then peak the roof in the back, adding a second story above the family room. But.....then somehow this project took on a life of it's own. Now we are adding on a three car garage, cutting off the ENTIRE roof and adding on over 2500 sq ft. While the work is being done were are ALL living in about 1000 sq ft in the front of the house. Did I mention that we are down to one bathroom? YIKES!!!!!