Construction Zone

Part of the craziness going on at our house the past several weeks has been because of our house. We’ve hit our one-year mark with our builder (which means we’ve been in our house a year! Yay!), and that means it’s time for warranty repairs on several minor things.

Well, it’s all minor until it disrupts your life.

We had our original home inspector come back out and do another inspection. I am so thankful we did. He found several things (especially on the exterior) that we might not have seen, and gave me some confidence in some other things that I had already seen and wondered if they should be addressed.

So, our builder sent their warranty guy out, and we got rolling on the list. For the past month, we’ve had contractors in and out. One day, I had four contractors here at the same time. Another day, three different flooring crews were here, followed by the plumber. It’s been a little crazy. Not to mention the two who have had to come back to fix what they broke while trying to do their repairs in the first place.

We’re still waiting on a couple of things, but here’s an idea of what’s been going on at our house the past few weeks.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful all of these things are covered under warranty, and that our builder has (at least, so far) fixed everything we’ve turned in for service. It’s just kind of a pain. And it solidifies the feeling that I never want to renovate a house while I live in it. These repairs have been plenty.

I have worked on a few projects and have been waiting to hang them until all the work was done. Hopefully I can get them up and show them to you soon. After, that is, I do some deep cleaning. One thing about having repairs done is that it makes a big mess!

Master Closet Makeover

We love our house. But like any place, there are things we’d prefer had been done differently. And the Master Closet was one.

It’s not the smallest closet we’ve ever had, but it was poorly outfitted and didn’t hold all of our stuff. And it’s not like we have a ton of clothes. Since we moved in this past February, there’s been a wardrobe box sitting in our bedroom, simply because there wasn’t enough room for our clothes in the closet. And organized? No. It was impossible to keep picked up, simply because there was no place for things to go.

It’s about to get real, y’all. I’m showing you the gruesomeness that is this awful closet. At least, that was this awful closet.

Before:

It’s horrifying, right? It’s a jumbled mess. And honestly, this is exactly how it looked last Thursday night before I dove in. I mean, come on. There’s just no way to make this look a whole lot better – and it stay that way. Those towers of T-shirts on the top shelf continue to topple, no matter how nicely they’re folded and stacked.

The first thing I did was take the door off, hinges and all. When you have a small space (and the door stays open most of the time anyway), the door just gets in the way.

Also? Let me just pause a moment to tell you how much I loathe, despise, and detest wire shelving racks. They’re awful. And my hatred for them grew as I removed them and there was no way to get them down without leaving giant holes in the wall. Look at the size of these holes.

And don’t tell me they’re meant to be up there permanently. Sunday afternoon, one of my neighbors posted on Facebook that they’d come home from church to discover theirs had completely fallen off the wall and ripped giant gashes in the sheetrock. I’d like to say this stuff is gone from my life forever, but it’s not true. Maybe one day.

I finished emptying the closet completely and ripped out the offending wire shelving (and patched the holes) on Friday afternoon. That evening while Husband was watching the kids, it was time to paint.

I decided to use my closet as an experiment before I start on the rest of the house. I figured it’s the perfect place to try out something new. If I don’t like it, it’s just a closet. And if I didn’t repaint this closet now, it was likely to happen approximately a quarter past never.

The ceilings in our house are all painted the same color as the wall – a beige. It’s not awful by any means, but I think it makes the ceilings feel short and dark. I tested my theory by painting half the ceiling in the closet and stepping back to look at and “feel” it.

It’s hard to tell in this picture (it’s a phone picture taken at night), but there was a huge difference from one side of the room to the other. I made Husband come in and “feel” how much taller the ceiling was, and he thought I was crazy. I’m not. At least, not about this.

After the ceiling was painted, I started on the walls.

The gray I’d chosen was looking really blue next to the beige. But once I finished and removed all the tape and plastic, it magically turned gray. I love how paint does that.

Also? Successful experiment. I love this paint color. I didn’t really have any doubts, but seeing it on the walls and loving it always makes me feel better about the choice.

After the painting was finished on Friday night, I went to bed. Saturday morning, I started installing the new storage system!

For the right side of the closet, I used a ClosetMaid unit. I reinforced the wall anchors (Because who thinks it’s a good idea to hang a butt load of clothes on something that’s just stuck into sheetrock?), and re-installed the wire shelf over the top of it. This ClosetMaid system didn’t come with a shelf over the top, and I knew I needed the storage space. I thought about putting something completely new up there (that I actually like), but I thought saving money was a good idea, too.

On the left side, I built double-hanging rods with shelves. This side of the closet is a weird shape and size, so no pre-fab unit would fit. It was pretty easy (and not that expensive) to buy the materials and cut them down to the size I needed.

I hung a curtain rod over the door, and put a curtain on it to use instead of the in-the-way door. These are both items that we’ve used before in other places. I’ll probably replace the curtain when I re-do our bathroom, but it’s fine for now.

I finished all of this (and the touch-up painting) around dinner time on Saturday. I took a little break to let the touch-up paint dry, and started re-loading the closet after the kids were in bed.

It took a little time to figure out the best way to put things. And I may, at some point, be able to take a few things out of here. But for now, what’s in there has to be in there. Including the laundry hamper. It makes the floor a little crowded, but if we don’t keep the hamper where we change clothes, they don’t get to the hamper. And that’s just the truth.

Behold, the After:

(There’s a little extra space here because, um, someone was building a closet instead of doing laundry.)

I may, at some point, install a few more shelves or a storage unit of some sort on the back wall and to the left of the door, over the black shelf unit. But for now? It’s wonderful.

I’ve caught myself walking in there and just standing in the middle of the closet, soaking in all the fresh, organized-ness of it.

So there it is, our new Master Closet! What closet (or room) do you wish you could re-do?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I decided I wanted a garden this year. And with the expanse of backyard we have now, it wasn’t hard to find a spot!

Here’s the deal, though. I want a garden. I don’t want to pull weeds. Or fight bugs or critters. Or, you know, do all the work. So, I got Caedmon in on this idea of a garden. And then I utilized the wonderful Internet to figure out how to grow the most things in the least amount of space (and work). I’m not sure any of this is going to turn out, but at least we’ve given it a shot!

First, I built a box. Mainly to keep things hemmed up. I didn’t want to exactly build a raised bed, but I didn’t want things going all willy-nilly, either. After a little research, I decided to use cedar fence planks. That meant our box is approximately 3’ x 6’.

After the box was built, I pulled up the grass and did my best to work the soil that was already there.

We’d already bought some plants, but I wanted to see what all we’d need to add before we went back to the store. So I created a grid with some tacks and string and set out our plants.

Let me just say, if plants need love to thrive, our garden should be a jungle. Honor carried those plants around, pulled them in the wagon, and even lovingly pet them.

We added some garden soil, put the grid back up, and got to planting.

Along the back, left to right, we have Roma tomatoes, green bell peppers, and Roma tomatoes (surrounded by marigolds.)

In the middle, left to right, we have cucumbers, jalapenos, red onions, and stevia.

And in the front, left to right, more cucumbers, zucchini, strawberries, and watermelon.

I chose things that a) I think we will eat, and b) seem to be easy to grow.

I used a guide I found somewhere online (I have no idea where, sorry!) about square-foot gardening and how many plants to put in each square foot. I put the cucumbers, zucchini, and watermelon at the edges so they could spill over the sides of the box and not take up valuable inside-the-box real estate. I also put the tomatoes at the back (north side), so they won’t shade the other plants when they get taller. Also? I have the (probably quite realistic) expectation that not every plant will survive.

Then, I added a thick layer of cedar mulch.

I tried a few “tricks” I found on Pinterest. I used the 4/1 Epsom Salt/sugar mix sprinkled in the planting holes. I also buried water bottles with holes poked in them next to the tomato plants to deliver extra water to their roots. We’ll see how they work. I also crushed up egg shells and put them in the bottom of the tomato plant holes.

Since we planted, we’ve had a TON of rain and a frost scare. Everything seems to be ok so far, but I do have some yellowing leaves on the zucchini and cucumber. I’m hoping it’s just too much water from all the rain we’ve had.  Hopefully, as things dry out a bit and begin to regulate, they’ll green up again.

When I was digging the garden up, I found not one earthworm. Not a single one. So I am seriously considering going to a bait shop and buying some nightcrawlers. I’m sure that’s completely bizarre. But if it helps the garden grow, it’ll be worth it.

Hopefully, things will continue to grow and we’ll get some yummy food from the garden in a few weeks!

The Kitchen

I thought it was about time to put some pictures of the new house on here. And I decided to start with the kitchen because, besides the kids’ rooms, it’s the most “done.” And it happened to be clean-ish enough for me to decide I could finish cleaning and take some pictures. This may be as good as it gets for a long time.

I do love the new kitchen. It’s not perfect. But it’s great, really. And we have a ton of cabinets. I actually unpacked our China – for the first time in two years! I have a cabinet for my baking supplies, and one with spices and stuff I want handy while I’m cooking. Also? A drawer just for knives. Do you hear angels singing? Because I do. No more shifting this and that to get my knives out.

This is what you see as you walk in from the entry.

A different angle of that wall. On the right, you can see where it leads to the office/school room. It was originally a formal dining room, but there’s nothing formal about us. So that room is better served in a different way.

And just to the right of the office entry is this little spot. It’s my command center, of sorts (To the right is the hall/entry.). I have my laptop and planner, notebook for lists, etc., and a junk/office supply drawer. Above are my bill-pay notebooks and things I use on an almost daily basis. I don’t have to go dig them out of the cabinet in the office – they’re right here at my fingertips. And I love it.

This is the view standing next to the pantry, leading to the office/school room. The picture is dim because of all the windows on the other side.

Here’s a better shot of that side of the kitchen. (I have plans for a “Woo Pig Sooie” canvas to go next to the Razorback Fight Song over there.)

I have all the kids’ plastics (cups, bowls, plates, etc.) next to the dishwasher, and it’s come in super handy since Caedmon has started helping empty the dishwasher and put dishes away. To say I’m loving that is an understatement.

This is the view standing at the kitchen sink. The living room is currently our picture/décor storage area, so it’s all piled in the corner over there. It’ll all find a place…eventually. And I can stand at the kitchen sink and look out onto the back yard…where my children will be playing very soon.

This is standing in the living room, looking into the kitchen. I love that it’s open.

Yes, those are still boxes to the left of the cabinets. As you can see, there’s still quite a bit of “stuff” in the dining area that needs to be put away. But since I need it a lot right now (and the garage isn’t finished yet), there it stays. For now.

I’m trying to decide what to do with the windows in the dining area. I have curtains that were in our other houses that I could hang. But with it open to the living room, where we’re changing the color scheme a bit, I’m really not sure if I want those there. Decisions, decisions.

I am really loving the hardwoods, even though they’re dark. Grass and dust does show up a lot, but we have an unusually high amount of that stuff right now since the garage is still covered in construction dust and the grass is newly-laid sod. It doesn’t take long to clean it, though, and I really hope it holds up well!

So there it is, the kitchen. I’ll post more of the house as I can. Since I’ve finally located my camera cable, it might not take as long as the kitchen did!

House Update: We’re In!

The past couple of weeks have been crazy. We said goodbye to the townhouse (ants and squirrels included), moved everything from the townhouse and storage into the new house. And unpacked almost everything. Not that it’s all put away. Because that might take a while.

We almost didn’t get to close on time. That morning, I called to check on some things and discovered that some paperwork wasn’t finished yet. So we continued on with our final walk-thru and waited to find out if the paperwork would get done. We literally found out an hour and a half before closing (20 minutes before we had to leave to make it on time) that we were actually going to get to sign on the house that day. It was a whirlwind of a day, for sure. The kids spent half the day in the car, and Honor had just a few minutes of nap. Car nap. We ended up at Cracker Barrel for dinner, and then dropped of a few things at the house. It was a long, but good day.

The rest of that week, the kids and I took loads of stuff to the house in the Xterra. I also cleaned the entire house, hung blinds (11 sets of blinds), and the curtains in the kids’ rooms.

Friday, I moved and unpacked the kitchen. The kitchen stuff that was supposed to go to storage ended up at the apartment, but we left it in boxes because we didn’t have room to unpack it. So, I was able to get all of it unpacked and put away. I felt so much better, having the kitchen done.

Caedmon enjoyed the paper pile from all the stuff in storage.

And when Honor got up from her nap, she had to join in.

Last Saturday, we had basketball, then moved all the big stuff over to the house. I’m so thankful for the guys who came to help. We couldn’t have done it without them!

But at the end of Saturday, there was still some stuff at the apartment. This kind of stuff.

I literally wanted to just rake it all into a box.

But on Monday, reinforcements arrived. Mom got here Monday afternoon, and we worked all week. Hard enough to burn up the drill. It literally started smoking in my hand. We managed to get every room unpacked and (mostly) put away and organized. I am so thankful for her help. I couldn’t have gotten all that stuff done without her. The kids enjoyed having Mom here, and she even got to see Caedmon’s basketball game before heading home. I would post a picture, but I am not sure where my camera cable is right now (the others were on my phone).

There’s still a lot to be done, but we’ll get it done a bit at a time. We still have the garage to organize, but there currently is room for one car. And I have decided I just need someone to come tell me where to hang all our pictures and how to decorate. Since it’s all been in storage since October, I haven’t thought about where I want any of it to go! Any takers?

Also, the guest room is officially open. We’ve now had two overnight guests (M3 came to visit too!), and it should be good and broken in.

We are loving our new house and are so thankful for it.

House Update #9: Getting Close!

Things are rolling along and we’re getting ever closer to getting to close on our house!

Last Friday, the wood floors went in.

They’re covered in construction dust and a layer of cardboard, but I already love them.

The yard is finished!

Appliances have been installed (this was before the range/oven went in…we were there when they arrived!).

I am so thankful for our new house and the new appliances, but it does hurt my cooking heart just a little that I’m not able to have a gas range/oven.

The carpet was almost ready to go down when we were there yesterday.

Caedmon and Honor were excited about getting to climb on the rolls of carpet.

We’re on the home stretch! I probably won’t update again until after everything is finished – maybe before we move in, maybe not. Things are fixing to get busy!

House Update #8: Details

Things are starting to look like a real house around here!

The landscaping is going in:

And gutters are done, too. The columns just need to be painted.

The plumbing is getting finished out:

(We didn’t get to choose things like sinks and faucets. They’re fine, but not what I would pick if I could just…pick. But there will be no complaints from me. A faucet is easy enough to switch out one of these days.)

As is the electric:

Husband was by the house last night and said they’re getting ready to start flooring. Hopefully they’ll start that today! We’re less than a month from closing and I’m getting more excited by the day!

House Update #7: So Many Things!

A lot has happened since my last update! The house is rolling and we have a closing date set. To say I’m nearly giddy would be an understatement.

We have sheetrock:

Kitchen cabinets (Eeeep!):

This is just one side of the kitchen and is about the same amount of counter space we have right now:

Kitchen countertops:

Driveway, sidewalk, and mailbox:

Trim is done and paint has started:

Things seem to crawl along at this stage. Stuff is getting done, but it takes time and doesn’t always look dramatic.

To say we’re excited would be putting it mildly. I can’t wait to get settled and more importantly, get the kids settled.

The sharing a room thing has been a nightmare for them (and us), and I’m ready to sleep again. I think they are too, though they’re never going to admit it. And if they don’t sleep after we move, I’m giving up on ever sleeping again.

Counting the days to closing, and making a list of things to do. It’s getting closer, and things are going to get busy!

House Update #6: Siding & Shutters

As of Wednesday afternoon, we have siding and shutters.

We also have electrical and HVAC roughed-in.

I noticed they’ve moved some of the air ducts from where they were before. I’m really interested to know why they did that, but I may never know.

I wrote another scripture, this one on the stairs. It was recommended by a reader, and I’m super glad she brought it to my attention.

Romans 16:20 “The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”

I’m sure we’ll keep writing others as we come up with them until the sheetrock is up. I’d really like to put the entirety of Psalm 91 around the house, but I will have to figure out how to make that happen.