Our newly painted room

Before:


After:


Thanks to Nate's mom for coming up just to paint our room before Half Pint is born. Then she also let us go on a breakfast date, took us all out for a belated birthday dinner for me, weeded and weed-whacked our front area, and spent time playing with the girls so we could put our room back together. She's a wonderful MIL!

Art area take 2

After almost a month of on and off traveling I come home and what do I do? Not laundry (Nate did that...thanks, honey). Not cleaning (our bathrooms are a bit scary). But rearranging the girls toys and art area.

I have no pictures of the toy area. I mostly rearranged that to put their play kitchen in an area that would accommodate the doll high chair Becca is getting from Mima and Popo. And to free up one of the bookshelves for the art area.

Here is a sort of before picture. You can see the art area in the top left corner behind that white blanket. I had nothing better. Basically, the art supplies were stored on two plastic crates on the floor with a blanket over them to hide it.



After:


I think this looks so much better. Top shelf is misc. art supplies in the basket (glue, feathers, pipe cleaners, stickers, etc). Yarn and fabric scraps in the two plastic bins on the left. Second shelf is all painting supplies (paint, paint holders, brushes). Bottom shelf is drawing supplies: paper in the drawers; coloring books next to the drawers; markers, crayons, and colored pencils and scissors.

It works for now and I used things I had, so it was free. Eventually I want a nice looking cabinet that has three or four shelves and is a little wider. I want to get it used, though, so I'm just keeping my eyes open.

Linen closet

I finally, after living here for over six months, got my linen closet organized.

Ugh

Our upstairs toilet is broken, Nate is sick. No fun.

We tried to fix the toilet and were halfway successful. We got the flush valve out of the toilet, but the new flush valve is too tall, so we need to saw it shorter with our non-existent saw. Good thing we have another toilet, though, if I could choose, the downstairs one would be the broken one. It's cold in that bathroom anyway.

Poor Nate. Please pray he's better by tomorrow morning.

I'm off to get a bit of sleep.

New dining room table

I promised my mom I'd post pictures of our new table tonight.

First, to compare, here is our old table (now up in my sewing studio--aka guest room--as my cutting table) which has served us well since my parents' bought it for us three years ago.



Two views of the new table...you can see the dining room curtains in one of them.



It's seven feet long and three and a half feet wide...huge! The benches are six feet long. We felt like we were missing people at dinner. :) It's made with Red Oak with an English Chestnut colored stain. Our friend's brother and dad custom-made it for us and he did a fabulous job. It's really beautiful work.

Curtains

Last night and this afternoon I turned two white twin sheets into curtains for four of our windows: three in the dining room and one on the stairway. The stairway one looks like a giant's pillowcase, but it works.



The three dining room ones look a little less like pillow cases, but they ended up being just a little too short. Argh. I'm notoriously bad at measuring. I think I'll turn them into cafe curtains sometime in January. I'll have Nate help me measure. :)

I used tension rods on all four windows. On all four windows I spent a total of $33 for curtains and hardware. I got the tension rods at Target ($5 a piece) and one of the twin sheets at Target ($9). I got the other flat twin sheet at Goodwill for $3.

No picture of the dining room curtains yet.

Girl's closet and room

I've been working a little bit on the girl's closet. It's the largest one in the house and even has a window in it. I have a dress up area in there for them. I added a mirror and a shower curtain tension rod to hang tutus and such on to the dress-up area. On the other side I just cleared a bunch of stuff out so it's less cluttered. It's a work in progress, but it works for now.

My attempt at an overview of the dress up area.


Ally looking in the new mirror.


The less exciting other side has Nate and my dress/Sunday clothes, storage tubs with clothes Ally will fit into soon, and Ally's clothes on a bookshelf.


I also hung up a kite that my friend Jen made for a MOPS meeting. It goes well with our current Pooh theme (that's real Pooh, not Disney Pooh). After I hung it up Becca said that she had wanted a kite hung up in her room for so long. It definitely adds some fun and brightness to the room.


The tail


Finally, I hung up the Pooh pictures we bought on eBay. For those who care, the first one is of Pooh doing his stoutness exercises. The second is of Tigger and Roo stuck up in a pine tree just as Piglet and Pooh find them. The two small ones are of Christopher Robin, Piglet, and Pooh playing Pooh Sticks and of Pooh holding onto his blue balloon in order to get to the honey up in the tree. We have some more large ones, but they aren't framed yet.

Girls' room rearranged

Nate moved Becca's bed for me and I finally got the top bunk cleared off and found somewhere to put all those stuffed animals (the smaller stuffed animals are sitting in a basket behind the bigger ones and the dolls are sitting in a plastic tub behind the bear chair).

I like this new set up because it gives the girls lots of room to play in the middle of the room and gives us some more space in front of the bookshelf to read.
(sorry that picture is so grainy)

Next I need to work on their closet (they have the only walk-in closet in the house). I won't be posting a photo. :) It's a little too tiny of a space to photograph. Eventually I'd like to paint their room (a bluish-purple color, leaning more toward blue) and get a rug (or this one or this one). Those probably won't happen until next summer or fall. I also would like to get pictures hung up in there.

Kitchen curtains finished**

Yay, they are done! Or at least up and doing their job. I'm so pleased with them. I decided to go with tabs from fabric I had already purchased rather than buying the clips, so I could avoid having to spend more money and I think they turned out looking really nice. I like the tabs and I learned something new by doing it that way.

Please ignore the dishes on the counter. :)


And a close-up--with flash, so a little washed out.



**I have some minor hand stitching to do on the sides of the facing on the top, but I'm saving that until Nate's mom is hear to instruct me.

Edited to add: The fabric is from the Modern Flora collection by Jessica Jones...called Green Sprig. You can find it here and here (on sale, but only 3/4 yard left). I also like the blue leaflet (also on sale and a lot more yards left--I used this on the top of the cabinet storage bench I'm making).

Landscaping update

We spent a good amount of time outside today working on landscaping. We bought a garden rake from some friends and that helped me rip out a lot of weeds by the roots without getting down there. With Becca's help, I also picked up all the smaller stones in the front two pie shaped areas. We covered the areas that were weeded with newspaper and mulch to smother any weeds that we didn't get. And the mulch really makes it look nicer.



That is pine bark mulch from Lowe's. It's between $3 and $4 a bag. We've used four in the area you see there. I like the color of it, a dark reddish-brown, and it smells so good. I learned a little about mulch in this article. I specifically looked for mulch that used at least 85% bark and I think this one used all bark.

Here's part of the article:

The next time you are selecting bags of mulch, look for a bark content of at least 85 percent. Bark is a legitimate byproduct of the wood industry. If you are not seeing this figure, you might be buying mulch from trees that were felled just to make mulch. Bags labeled “wood mulch” or “hardwood mulch” probably do not have high bark content. The Mulch & Soil Council, a trade group, certifies bag labeling for bark percentages.

Nate also did a lot of work besides spreading mulch. He dug up the roots of two plants and hauled some very heavy rocks to the backyard. Radio Flyer wagons can double as wheel barrows. He and Ally rested too on the porch swing:



In this photo you can see how everything is ripped out:



Which you can compare with this before picture:



And the girls helping with the mulch...they had fun with that:





Tomorrow we'll probably do some more work in the afternoon. We'd like to rest instead, but it has to be done and we don't have next weekend to do it. More rocks need to be hauled, more weeds raked up, and more mulch laid down.

I am sore

Over the past two afternoons I've been working on landscaping while letting the girls play outside. It's only been less than two hours a time, but I'm definitely feeling it, especially in the hamstrings and my upper arms.

Most of the landscaping is ripped out. I need a long-handled pointed end shovel (I'm sure it has an official name, but I don't know it) instead of the square-ended one I have in order to dig up the two shrubs. I cut all the branches off the plants, but need to get them dug up. I also hope to have a rake to get out the masses of weeds and grass.

All that's left in the landscaping are the rock border (which will be dragged to the ground by the garage this weekend) and a mass of weeds and grasses (also will be gone once I get that rake) and two Green Mountain Boxwoods on either side of the front steps that I decided to keep. I like Boxwoods and these are supposed to grow to be three to five feet tall and two to three feet wide. They're about a foot tall right now, but I hope they'll grow soon. I'll probably leave them where they are instead of risking killing them by transplanting.

You can see the boxwood in this photo. It's the small plant to the right of the steps. It's got some dead, dried crabgrass on it.


We're also thinking about a pine tree next to the left side of the porch...maybe a blue spruce, but I'm open to suggestions. Other than those, I have no idea what's going in there come the spring. Whatever it is has to have next to no maintenance and I would prefer it to not attract a lot of stinging insects. :)

The girls had fun playing with rice and beans while I worked.

Our family vacation, late birthday presents, near-finished projects, and phase one of landscaping work

This is going to be a packed update, so stick with me. I'm providing pictures to make it more interesting. :)

Last week Thursday through Saturday we took a little family vacation down to Spring Mill State Park. It was our first trip where the purpose of our trip was not to visit with people. We like visiting our friends and family, but it was nice to take a different sort of trip.
(inside the state park)
Thursday we left during the girls' nap/rest time after lunch and they both slept just about the whole way there. Google maps messed up on the directions, a first for them in my experience, but a cashier at the local Walgreens helped us out.

We stated at the Spring Mill Inn, which is located inside the state park. After arriving and unloading into our room, we took a little walk on some of trails and got to see a tree that had been chewed by a beaver. I stupidly forgot to bring my camera on our walk. It was a nice walk and such a nice evening.

For dinner we went to a local pizza place called Edna's Pizza run by an older couple. The wife made all the pizzas and the husband cleared the tables and delivered the pizzas. I don't know if they have other workers, maybe a few more on the weekends. It was quite good, though.

Becca had a hard time getting to sleep, too excited by the new place and all the things we did. She had requested to have Ally share her double bed, so we shoved the bed into the corner and it worked out quite well. The first night I had Ally join us in bed when she woke up, but that was so uncomfortable in a double bed. The second night was much better, since I only had to replace her paci a couple of times and she stayed in her bed.
(you can see the Inn in the background)
(on the way to the Pioneer Village)
On Friday we had breakfast (at McDonald's) and then took a walk over to the Pioneer Village. My camera died just after we left the inn. With the exception of the yellow jackets being out in full force, it was a nice day. We got back for a late rest time and then ate at the inn's dining room for dinner. After dinner we went on a hay ride and I had charged the batteries, so we got a couple of pictures. Becca liked the hay ride a lot. Ally got kind of antsy with having to sit in the same place for so long.
(hay ride!)
On Saturday we packed up and ate at the inn's dining room. We drove home through Brown County, a much better way to take home. I'd like to stop there sometime when we have more time and older children.
(an attempt at pictures Saturday morning)
It was a nice little trip. Nice to be away from our computers and to spend some focused family time together.

Late birthday presents

Nate and the girls got me a few more late presents. Nate got me a dough scraper and a kitchen scale with a pull-out display, both Oxo brand. I'm just hoping I use them both. I'm excited to have them. The girls got me The Creative Family, which I had out from the library, but I'm so excited to have my own copy. It's inspiring me to get creative with the girls. My sister-in-law Cara provided me with my first ever U2 CD, The Joshua Tree. Just about everyone I know likes U2, so I had to have at least one CD to see what all the fuss is about.

Near-Finished Projects

I actually have one project that is done because it was so simple. We put up inspiration/art wires/ribbons in a few places:

Nate's office (no pic of this one, but it hangs above his head on the wall next to his desk and is mostly used for pictures Becca paints or draws for him. He may also use it for other photos or inspiration later)

The dining room:


This is to keep my fridge clear and provide a place for Becca's art. She likes pulling up a stool or chair to hang up her latest creations.

Above Becca's bed:


This one was meant to be for photos of grandparents or special pictures she wanted to clip up by her bed, but right away she wanted to use it as a doll clothes line for after she "washed" her dolls clothes. I used ribbon on this one instead of wire.

In the girls' closet:



This ribbon is specifically to hang playsilks on. I keep their dress up clothes in their closet, so the playsilks are in their too and I wanted to display them and keep them out in the open to remind the girls they are there.

It's easy to do this project. It took less than a half hour to hang all of them. You need some sort of wire (I used floral wire, because I had it on hand) or ribbon or yarn or string, some clothespins or clips, and screws. We used three inch deck screws because that's what we had. You'll also need a drill to drill them into the wall, and a yard stick, level, and pencil for marking the places to put the screws. Once you have put two screws in the wall take your length of ribbon/wire and attach it to each screw. I tied the wire and ribbon around the screws and wrapped the excess wire. I let the ribbon just hang.

Other projects--the storage bench made from a cabinet is almost done. It's been painted and I have the board, batting, and fabric. I have to attach the fabric and batting to the board, attach the board to the top of the cabinet, and I'd like to make a felt board for the back and then I'm done.

Preschool calendar--I've been making a calendar for Becca. The months, days, and numbers are done. I'm going to make a today sign that she'll move each day and some signs for weather--cloudy, snowy, rainy, sunny to put on the the current day. I hope to finish tonight after I get done with this.

Phase one of landscaping work:

Tonight after dinner we ripped out everything you see in this photo except what I think is a boxwood right next to the steps. There is still some junk to rake out and then we'll cover it with newspaper and wood mulch to kill all the weeds, I hope. I really have no idea what I'm doing, so I hope this is right.


We have much more to do. The stuff you see to the left of the porch is horribly overgrown. I want to put a small tree there that will grow about 12-15 feet tall. I have no idea what we'll do with the rest of the landscaping. We also are going to get the rest of those rocks out from in front of the landscaping. For now it won't have a border. If anyone wants large rocks, let us know.


If anyone has a good site for landscaping info, specifically about low maintenance, simple landscaping, let me know.

Parents' visit

My mom and dad came to visit us this past weekend. We had such a great time enjoying yummy food, watching them play with their grandchildren, and getting some small projects done around the house thanks to my dad.

They arrived Friday night very late, around 11ish. We talked briefly and then went to bed. The girls were already in bed. It's so nice to have the guest room (aka my computer room/craft studio) and the futon for our guests.

Saturday morning we all walked to a nearby restaurant (email me if you want the name, but you can probably guess what is near us if you live here). It was so delicious. The spicy basil cream sauce on my mom's frittata was especially incredible tasting. I had a waffle with strawberries, bananas, toasted pecans and chocolate sauce. We will be going back for sure. I think everybody had something amazing to eat there.

After walking home, Dad and Nate left for Lowe's to pick up supplies, and Mom and I walked with the girls to a nearby park. It took awhile to make the mile long walk over there because Becca wanted to ride the tricycle that Nana and Papa had brought for her (a $3 garage sale find). We also stopped at the produce market on the way to get some heirloom tomatoes and eggs. They held the food for me until we came back by from the park. Being at the park was bit hot. On the way home Becca scraped her knee and Nana mostly pushed her on the trike via the handle on the back.

When we got home we found that the window people had been there to finish up a few things, so that's all done.

My dad installed two extra shelves in our linen closet (we had three, but had huge gaps in between some of them). He also put in a motion sensor light on our house facing our garage (it's on an alley). When you open the door from the garage to the back yard, the flood light comes on and illumines the entire back yard. It's great. Dad also worked on our dimmer switch in our dining room, which was getting a bit hot when it was on.

Nate used Dad's drill to put some screws in the wall in various places for me so I could install some art/inspiration wires/ribbons. It's a fun and easy way to display art and pictures and even play silks. I have pictures that I'll put up in a different post.

Saturday night my parents babysat while Nate and I went to a local Italian restaurant that's only open for dinners. We walked down there and enjoyed a fabulous dinner and first glass of wine in a couple years, I think, and actually had things to talk about. We always wonder if we will when we finally get time to sit down and talk just with each other. We walked back in the dark, taking a different way to be on a busier street. The girls were already ready for bed and had had a great time with Nana and Papa.

Sunday morning we went to church, took some pictures of the girls (wearing my dresses from childhood) on the front steps of the church and then my parents took off. It was a fun weekend.

It wasn't over yet, though. After church and lunch and getting Ally down for a nap, I put Becca in the Burley and biked about ten miles, stopping on the way back to check out some Keen shoes and to pick up a few items at a natural foods store and to play at the park. Ally and Nate walked to meet us at the park. Becca actually fell asleep on the ride.

That's it. I guess that was a bit long, but it's fun to see how much we did. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for visiting.

New windows

We got new windows put in today. Hurrah! They still have to wrap the outsides and finish up, but they are in and we used them already, opening them all to let the cool air flow through our house...finally!

They are beauties, if I could ever call vinyl windows that, but I am. They really do look nice and they are super efficient. Nate says he feels more insulated already. :)

Just to clarify, we had thirteen windows replaced. Two in the kitchen, one one on the stairway, and all the upstairs ones. The downstairs ones were already replaced before we moved in and they will put screens in those tomorrow.

Weekly Schedule

I think I've finally got a current workable schedule down for us for each week:

Monday (Upstairs) Cleaning Day

Tuesday (Downstairs) Cleaning Day

Wednesday Play Day (includes MOPS every 2nd and 4th Wed, play dates, going to zoo or museum, or just taking it easy, do some art or play together at home)

Thursday Baking Day (mostly when I'd like to bake our bread for the week, but I might try baking other things if I have time)

Friday Grocery Day and Friend Day (when we go to Trader Joe's and when we have friends over for dinner)

Saturday ? Day (okay, so nothing on this day--it changes each week)

Sunday Lord's Day

I was trying to clean all on Monday, but it was stressing me out and making me an impatient Mommy. Plus, if I divide it up, then I can get the cleaning done in the morning, allow Becca to help, and maybe even have time to dust too.

And on a side note, we moved our dining room table into our kitchen. It's a little crowded, but so much more convenient for now. Our dining room is a bit empty right in the center, but that will hopefully be solved if we can find a good used farm table with benches sometime in the near future.

Mowing and State fair

Yesterday I mowed the lawn for just about the first time in my life. We have a reel mower that some friends of ours are letting us use. It's actually not too bad to use, but probably needs to be sharpened. I also used our new weed wacker (aka weed eater, trimmer, edger). I had to get pants on to use that. Flying grass and weeds don't feel to good on the bare legs.

The weather has been quite nice for the past two days. I'm mourning our lack of screens in our windows. We have to get someone out here soon to discuss windows and screens. It would be so nice to actually have the windows open.

We biked up to a park tonight about a mile away from our house. The girls had fun playing and it was nice to be outside. When we got back, we all snacked on peaches. It started with cutting up one peach for Becca. She sweetly left the last slice for me and then asked for another peach. We cut up three more! Ally ate a couple slices on her own too and was very sticky afterwards.

Tomorrow is kids day at the fair and I am seriously thinking about biking down there with the girls for a few hours. I think they would really like seeing all the animals. I would too. :) I might be insane for going, but if the weather is nice again, I think it would be a good day. If anyone else is going, give Nate's cell phone a call.

And yet more house stuff done

1. Toys organized (picture to come)

2. Mudroom organized (except the art supplies that will be going in the bottom shelves of the cabinet out there) and counter right inside the door to the kitchen cleaned off.

3. Lawn mowed by Nate with a reel mower for the first time. It looked like hard work. Thanks, honey.

4. Porch swing arrived via FedEx and hung up this evening. It's beautifully made and looks nice on our porch.

5. Dehumidifier bought and basement down to reasonable humidity, we think. The couch we bought from our friends was growing mold on it down there. Ewww. Is there any way to salvage it?

This morning the girls and I visited the library closer to our house while visiting our new friends' house just a little south of us. They have two girls too...an almost three-year-old and a three month old. We had a nice time getting to know each other and will have to have them here to visit sometime soon.

Tomorrow we go to the pool.

Hard Floors

We love the hardwood floors in our house, but they are...well, hard. We don't want carpet throughout, but would like to have some rugs in areas where we play on the floor with the girls, such as by the couch, by their toys in the living room, and in their bedroom.

Nate's parents gave us some leftover carpet from when they re-carpeted a room. We're using it as a rug in the living room and it's working well so far.

For the girls' room, I'm leaning towards Flor modular floor covering---probably buying 12 squares of Toy Poodle in four different colors and making a rug out of it. I like the company and I like the versatility of using a bunch of squares to make a rug. I may also get 6 more squares for in front of their toy area.

The other thing about hard floors we realized...how much dirt and crumbs and junk must have been sitting in our apartment carpet until we vacuumed it each time. We have to sweep here in the dining room and kitchen at least once a day.

Moving forward--more progress on getting settled

Sorry, no pictures on this post. I will take some tomorrow on the progress we've made. In the last two days:

--Nate rearranged his office because in the former arrangement when he tried to scoot his desk chair toward his desk he ended up sliding to the right--gotta love sloping floors in old houses. :)

--Nate installed a new cord on the dryer. We're also hanging lots on the line, but with our wonderful washer that spins at high speeds, clothes take very little time to dry in the dryer, so many go in there too.

--Nate set up my shelves next to the washer for the sorting laundry baskets and my laundry soap.

--I organized the living room. The toy area still needs to be done, but otherwise, it's looking good.

--Nate and I organized our closet. Nearly all our clothes and two suitcases fit in the closet. It looks nice and organized and I'm pleased with it. Our dress clothes for Sunday are in the girls' closet (they have a walk-in closet with an extra rod).

--Cleared stuff off the floor of our room. There's not much in there besides our bed, a set of drawers that doubles as a nightstand and holds our DVDs, a mirror, and our TV. It's in our room because I don't know where else to put it. We watch our movies on the Mac and we want to keep the TV out of the living room, so it's in our room.

--The linen closet and the bathroom are mostly done. The closet needs to have two more shelves installed in it. There are huge gaps between a couple of shelves. The bathroom is pretty much done, which isn't hard cause it's not that big. :)

--Nate and I cleared out the mudroom, putting everything in it's appropriate room. I still have to organize it out there, but it's much less cluttered and I can handle it in the next week or two.

--The girls and I went to Trader Joe's today for groceries. It takes about the same amount of time (20 min) as it did when we lived outside the city. Whole Foods is closer, though--about 10 minutes away. I think I'm going to get our food from TJ's, Whole Foods (for bulk items like oats and flour and dried beans), the farm (beef and chicken and eggs), and the Farmer's Market for produce. I'm hoping to only get out to the farm every 6-8 weeks and Whole Foods about once every 4-6 weeks. Once summer is done we'll probably do Farm Fresh Delivery again for our produce. I'd also like to get back up to pick blueberries and raspberries at the place I went to with Becca a few weeks ago. If anyone local wants to go, let me know and we can go together.

--We went to one of the two libraries close to us tonight. I picked up some cool children's books that I'll write about later. Nate got a library card. I couldn't get one yet because I haven't gotten any mail here yet.

Okay, that's it, I think. I'll post pictures later. Thanks for listening to me process all we've done. It makes me feel like we've been productive.

Tomorrow we get the security system hooked up and we're going to take it a little more easy. Maybe even make it to the pool where everyone from church goes in the afternoon.

Some pictures, as requested

Here is how the girls entertained themselves while our wonderful friends moved us in:

Water in a bucket is all you need for lots of fun on the front porch. Our friends' adorable daughter was playing with them and I have cute pics of her too, but didn't have time to ask them before posting this so you'll just have to miss out. :)

My main goal yesterday, besides watching our daughters, was to get the kitchen the rest of the way unpacked. It was at least 50 percent of the way done before yesterday, but there was still quite a bit to do.
Before, first view:

After, first view:

Before, second view:

After, second view:

Yay, no more boxes and organized countertops.

Dining room before:


No dining room after picture yet. I actually have it most of the way done, thanks to Nate's help. A few more boxes need to be taken off the ledge.

Living room before:


It's behind the couch that looks the worst actually. This picture doesn't look too bad. I should be getting down there soon since the girls are both sleeping right now.

That's all I've got so far in pictures. I'm off to post a quick picture post of Becca's first night in her new bed over at the girls' blog.

Thanks to all who helped us yesterday. It rained and then got so hot and humid. Everyone was so great, never complaining and fun to be around. We have such great friends.

One other fun thing. I met our mailman, Walt, yesterday. It's nice to actually know our mailman and to have him be so friendly. Oh, and we met our elderly neighbor Ms. Berry yesterday too. Becca and I went over to introduce ourselves when we saw her sitting outside. She was very nice too.