Fun with Cousins!

Saturday we had lots of cousins in town! We had fun going to the rides with all of them!

Getting a drink from the lion

Everybody! Half of the group looking at me at the same time wasn't to bad for the craziness of the day!

Matthew happy to be on the "horsey ride"

Grandma Blomstedt, Tori, Ashlee, and Axel

JJ, Braxton, Jackson

 It was great to see everybody!

Matthew's Room

The first project after moving and getting settled in was Matthew's room. It took about 3 weeks to make it to the point of actually doing his room. Once, we started it wasn't so bad, the wallpaper was pretty easy to get off (or we learned tricks from the dining room :)). We just had to find time in the evening and I had to be creative with the kids during the day. Here is the room before we started:

Here is the room after we finished (well mostly finished, I will still be adding touches to it here and there, decor, etc.): 

The room diffidently went from a very feminine room to a boy's room. We really like how it turned out, even if it did take a little to get used to because the paint actually dried a couple of shades darker than it was suppose to. But, I think the white helps balance it out. Matthew has been rather excited to have his room. He loves it and has been a good sleeper in his own room. We couldn't be happier!

Project # 3: Re-surfacing hardwood floors!

The living room, both kids rooms, hallway, and office have hard wood floors. Some were in good shape others were not. The ones we chose to redo were the living room, and two bed rooms. The rest looked good.

Lindsay's Room. Wear in high traffic areas. 

The Living Room. Obvious wear in high traffic areas. 

Matthew's room. Some body had redone his floor very nice, but when they did it , they did it around a computer desk!

Here is the sander which Joe moved about the floor, back and forth, back and forth. It really was not the quickest project!

I didn't take anymore pictures during the process because we were just trying to get it done. After sanding, cleaning up dust, staining and varnishing we were set to go. Well, that is after the floor dried for three days!

After pics coming soon, I guess I was really bad at taking the after pics!

Project # 2: Dining Room

Our next project was the dining room. In this room we had to remove A LOT of wall paper! Here are some examples of the different types:

 The first couple of layers came off pretty nicely and were not to bad to just pick a corner and pull.

Lindsay very much enjoyed pulling the wall paper down!

But, when we got down to the bottom layer it seemed to not want to come off at all. At this point Joe was plenty frustrated and was ready to re-drywall the whole room. Not really wanting to go that route, I was able to recruit help from Joe's mom and Sister JoLynn. Thank you again! They came ready to help with good ideas. And after another day of peeling, the wall paper was off! 

 We were then on to texture, priming and painting! It was a tiring project and everyone was happy when it was done! After Pictures coming soon, I guess I haven't taken any yet!

Project #1 : Master Bedroom

Before we moved in to our new home we wanted to complete three big projects. Our first project was the master bedroom. This bedroom needed a new coat of paint and new carpeting. This is the only room in the house with carpet and it was diffidently filled with pet stains, hence why it was the first to go. 

Closet Before

Before

The walls were a light green and the carpet was green as well. The closet was a light pink.

Closet After

After

We decided to go with nice neutral tones. The walls are called "fluffy biscuit" and the carpet is called "toasted wheat".  This first project took us a day and a half to complete. It is nice to have a freshly redone room and to start with a blank slate! Since we finished this on a Saturday night, we were up and ready for the next project Monday morning!

Home Sweet Home!

It has now been one month since we moved into our new (to us) house! We are doing pretty well and getting settled in. We have come to realize that with owning a home comes lots of projects. We have started to fell like we are in a constant project, that from here on out there will always be something to start, finish or improve!

Front of the house before we moved in.

Here is our house now. We are working on the landscaping to try and get it the way we want. Do you see the statue to the right? It is made of wood and is the shape of a Golden Eagle. We really like it. The funny thing is that it has been here the whole time. It was under/behind the over grown bush and cactus. Which, Cactus make a horrible plant for a flower bed! It was a lot to remove with out getting poked to tears and now we are still finding stickers from it! To us the stickers were not worth the pretty flowers that come from it once a year! I am still not sure of my feelings toward the yucca plant. It may go or stay, or maybe just stay until I find something better to go in its place. I am sure everything will change over time. That is just how it seems to go!