holding room...

wanna see one of the "joys" of renovations? living in what can really only be called a "holding room" aka a room to hold everything from the room you are doing updates too. ie this is our living room. full of stuff from the master bedroom.

and this second picture is another view of the living room. this is what we see when watching tv. REALLY relaxing. (yes, that is lifetime's william and kate movie on tv) 

we are getting our floor measured so we can get carpet installed and in order to do so, we had to take the old carpet & padding out (again i say "we" but really its the hubs) we got a bit of a surprise: old hardwood floors. however, since this room was really 2 old rooms joined to make one, theres a giant white area running the width of the room thats patched up so we can't refinish the wood. looks like we are slowly getting closer and closer to a finished room!

happy easter!

happy belated easter! i was somehow lucky enough to have easter weekend off of work so the hubs and i were able to celebrate with my moms side of the family. it was fun to see everyone again and of course there was TONS of delicious food...and my aunt loie even surprised everyone with some dirt cake centerpieces (if we didnt have such a big meal, i probably coulda finished one of those off on my own...but thats probably an entirely different story...)

there was also  an egg contest, some of my cousins decorated eggs to look like others in our family...below is the egg versions of grandma rose, brad, tyler & kenzie. brad was the winner!

easter weekend definitely went by way too quickly but we still had a lot of fun. hope you all had a good easter weekend as well!!!

ps my uncle was teaching the hubs and i about the camera i really really really want. i think he finally realized theres a lot of different things to learn about the camera (lenses, iso, aperture etc) that im hoping the ok to buy this comes sooner rather than later!

our own little pizzeria...

i know its hard to believe but the hubs and i don’t just do new house projects or renovations when we aren’t at work.  we also love to try different recipes. our current love is homemade pizza. now im talkin homemade dough. and fresh mozzarella. and trying different toppings. well i guess i should be honest with you huh? when i say “we” i really mean the hubs does the majority of the work while i supervise :) but i do help cut toppings and i would like to think im a pretty good taste tester if i do say so myself. we have even upgraded (or broken down?!) and got a pizza stone & a pizza peel. the stone definitely helps make the crust more crispy and im told the peel makes it easier to make & transport. check out the hubs in action...

our beloved flagstone

Flagstone, say what? It’s also known as Olympic Flagstone in Satin. Yup, it’s a paint color. The paint color of our master bedroom. I know it hasn’t even been a month, but it kinda already seems like we have been working on the master bedroom for a really long time. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it…but at the same time its fun to see things come together aaaaaaaaaaand I think the hubs is excited the painting is done in there :)

The next steps…well a bit of a break. Theres a bake sale at work that needs baked goods and then an Easter celebration this weekend. After the break, the next steps will be finding carpet…fabric for curtains and then moving everything in.

honey do list

i figured if i had to work nights this weekend...someone should be productive and my vote was for the hubs. looks like he won (or lost i guess depending on how you look at it) but it turns out he was super productive. we now have newly painted & hung address numbers on the outside of our house, new motion detector lights in the garage, and some more logical electrical outlets. (i was going a wee bit crazy using upside down outlets and flip flopped outlets ...ie having the fan switch closest to the door instead of the light switch) he also took out some baseboards so we can start painting the living/dining room. he even took out the tiny laundry chute and patched it up.

dont worry though. he did get some time to relax. he went on a motorcycle ride and found some pretty interesting things on the side of the road. apparently we are now the proud owners of an old sewing machine & table (i hope this isnt his way of hinting that he wants me to start sewing) and some sort of light up christmas yard decoration. (i know you all are jealous)

OH YEAH, i almost forgot. we kinda fell in love with flagstone too. wanna sneak peak?!?

lazy but happy...

yes i admit that i am lazy when it comes to certain things. mainly just concerning physical activities. like lifting heavy items. like a garage door. so since the previous owners took their garage door openers leaving us with none, i just parked out in the driveway and complained to dave about every day :) so this past weekend when my parents came up to help, i became a happy girl. because the hubs and my dad installed garage door openers. heres a great action shot of the hubs

my dad even helped us get a good start on putting together the grill...we cant wait to use it...and with the weather we have been having lately, im sure it wont be long. anyone wanna come for a bbq?

and of course i couldnt wait too long to break in the baking here at the house. so as a thank you to the hubs for all the help so far/all my crazy decorating ideas i constantly throw at him i made some toffee bars for him, one of his favorite (thanks for the recipe kelly) and i guess it helps too that i also like them, so a reward for both of us then?!?

prime time...

this past weekend my parents came up once again to help with projects around the house. my mom and i were able to prime the master bedroom and some of the living/dining room. my shoulders & back are definitely still feeling the burn...

even though the pink walls & red/maroon/whatever color it is carpet dont really go together, i think it looks a lot better without the wallpaper and green drapes. but the white walls (aka just an uneven coat of primer) looks way better. i love seeing the progress!

things i like...

i like doing laundry...well actually i like NOT having to PAY about $3 for each load of laundry. and i like that if i forget the clothes in the dryer, i dont have to worry about others pulling our clothes out and i dont have to pay an extra $1.50 to fluff them up again.

i like having so much light upstairs from all the windows. less need for electricity use. (well you know, besides the computers and tvs and such but still)

i like 3 day weekends.

i like not having floral wallpaper up in the master bedroom anymore. now i just need to find the patience to handle the pink walls until we start to paint.

i like the warmer weather. we dont have any more snow in our yard which means we can actually see what our yard looks like. millions of rocks and all.

i like that the garage doors will be installed soon. (fingers crossed)

sweat equity...

im sure this post will not surprise any of you. considering i have been waiting to move and decorate for what seems like forever...the sweat equity here at the house has already begun. actually it began on sunday. one day after everything had been moved. even with a large majority of our belongings still in boxes and scattered throughout the house. 

but i mean come on...you can only handle crazy wallpaper for so long you know? and living with it for less than 24 hours, it was already too long for me :) so thanks to some vinegar, spray bottles, scrapers, a clothing steamer and some sweat equity from the hubs & both sets of parents, our house is already looking MUCH better (at least in my opinion)

( before and during the sweat equity from the hubs & his parents)

this is the first wall you see when walking up the stairs. they had a giant shelf running the length of the wall with hooks, not sure what they hung on these hooks, but it had to go. no worries, it has since found a new home in the garage. 

(the large wall spanning the living room & dining room before & after)

are any of you asking about that clothing steamer we used? the "beautiful" green wallpaper came off super easy so we didnt need anything but vinegar. but then we started to get ambitious. and attempted to tackle the master bedroom. we were not so lucky with this wallpaper. so we had to steam off the top layer of wallpaper & then go back to the vinegar to get the adhesive off.

for whatever reason, my parents and i decided to start this process in the smallest corner of the room...but we got a really good start on this room. right now, this is the room im most excited about. i cant wait to see the ideas in my mind come to life (ok yes i know that sounds really cheesy but it is what it is...hope you dont disown me! hehe)

host a party

april's resolution was to host a party. i'd say we hosted a moving party. thats right, it was the end of a busy week, why not move to the new house, attend a baby shower and work? well everything went well. some of the hubs' friends and family made the trek over to help us move. from the laughter & stories i heard, the late nights and the amount of cans to be recycled, id guess that despite having to do some hard labor, they all had a fun time at the new place.

unfortunately i was not able to help (i was REALLY heart broken) juuuuuuuuuuuust kidding. so while the guys were moving, i was at my soon-to-be niece's baby shower. it was a lot of fun, and it only reinforced the belief that little girl's clothing is 100x better/cuter/etc than boys. just saying. and since i took the camera to the shower, we dont have any evidence or pictures of the move. but oh well. guess you'll be stuck with a picture from the baby shower.

(My friend April, my sister-in-law Shannon and I)

so maybe we will call this resolution half done? im sure we will be having a party sometime this spring/summer here at the house. guess we will just have to wait and see.