Concrete Evidence

We really are working over here and here is the evidence.  Granted these pics were taken last September….

Making steps to go out onto our patio.  There was just a wooden step before and it wasn’t sturdy.  We had a nephew fall there in the summer so we definitely needed to fix it.

Aedan was in HEAVEN.  A cement mixer at his house!  A cool looking one too.  I took him to school late that day because he really wanted to watch everything. 

Neal and his dad worked hard and fast.  They made a sidewalk go around the side of our house leading up to the door that opens from our garage.  They also fixed our front porch which was sloping towards the house and I think that solved a good portion of our basement moisture issues.  I’ll take pictures of the finished product someday when it gets warmer outside…

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

Bathroom #1 adding light fixture, removed mirror/medicine cabinet (was the size of the white unpainted wall section in the pic).

Mirror #1 up, wow the kids can see themselves in the mirror now.

Bathroom #2 before, puny mirror + puny bathroom = a place I avoided

Mirror#2 up, big mirror + puny bathroom = the illusion of twice the space, enough to trick the mind into liking it better. Neal got creative with the braces.

Mirror #2 coming down, big broken mirror + puny bathroom = oh crap.

We are getting these mirrors free off of craigslist and I have some crown moulding to frame them, also free from craigslist. So free fancy mirrors aside from cost of mounting material and paint.  There are two ways we could mount these mirrors, hanging up with hardware or glueing to the wall with mirror mastic.  Since I will be putting a frame around/over it, it made more sense to glue it so the hardware wouldn’t interfere with the frame.  But glueing has drytime and so we had to brace the mirror up for a few days.  Mirror #1 went up great.  Mirror #2 did too but a combination of a few factors (probably all avoidable, bummer) caused this mirror to break. 

Taking down a glued mirror is A PAIN.  I was so scared for Neal and the floor and there was glass everywhere.  We got mirror #3 also from Craigslist but had to cut down to size. Cutting a mirror is also A PAIN and even though it isn’t a straight cut, it is fine as the frame will cover it. It’ll be nicer as it is bigger than the one we originally put up.  Will update on that as we get Mirror #3 up….

Seven years bad luck here we go :(

Oh and Lily’s cute mirror, purchased at garage sale last summer and I spray painted white.

Snow Days

Last week was a crazy weather week.  I think we had temperature lows in the –20 range.  We had a fair amount of snow but I think what made it worse at our house was the wind.  We literally had snow dunes going on.

Just so you know, we don’t have hills in our backyard,  that is all snow.  When things died down a bit outside we peeked and were excited to still see patches of our driveway.  Little did we realize all of the snow was piled up against our garage.

See you can even see some street in the background.  But really there were so many drifts, several of them chest deep, that EVEN IF we could get our cars out of the garage we wouldn’t have been able to get out of our cul de sac.  Crummy weather.

Here is a better pick of what the end of our driveway looked like. That is a bobcat plowing us out.

It was freezing outside so we didn’t get to play in the snow. It took Neal probably over 4 hours to get to the end of our driveway.  He of course didn’t have work that day but I’m sure he didn’t relish the work at home. 

Well, maybe he had a little fun.

House Before and During (still waiting on the After)

In order of start date:

Tiling bathrooms and fireplace with my Craigslist marble tile purchase (Craigslist, seriously, it rocked).  Tiling floors was not entirely necessary.  Fireplace tiles were literally falling off so they had to be replaced.  Got the tile and had enough for two bathrooms and fireplace:

Lily’s room with my choice in paint color (the Pottery barn baby pink, funny it looks different in all of these pics)and the new flooring that we are putting down through the house (Tiger Wood – Brazilian Koa not the golfer):

Still have to nail in baseboards (they are cut and placed) and paint them and sew curtain (it’s gonna be awesome you’ll see).

Aedan’s room with his choice in paint color, not mine.

Painting bathrooms.  They are actually more done than this but I need to take an updated pic:

Items added to home (mostly from Craigslist):

Mirror to be framed and go in bathroom (free plus free crown moulding for framing) and brown leather couch (1 in set of 4) for living room. Lamp from good friend and no end tables yet (still hunting down the perfect one for the perfect price…)

Pier 1 mirror with Mexican Pine over fireplace

Cabinet thingy also made out of mexican pine although not purchased with above mirror.  Currently using it as media cabinet.  This was a hybrid craigslist and garage sale purchase.  I won’t bore you with the details…

Love the grommet curtains, got them at ikea in the summer and still have hemming to do for some of them:

Light fixture in kitchen and got a new-to-us table. And the micro suede just wasn’t working for two little kids so I recovered the seats with a leather looking vinyl.

We put in some closet organizers, now just need nice looking hangers.

And that is just inside! There is more but you get the idea!