Child Labor

We have four neighbors we share our fence with. Two are fabulous. Two are not. Three have Trumpet Vine that have eaten through our fence posts and support beams. The fence has fallen over on two of those sides. On one side we had it propped up all summer long. On the other the vine is so immense that the fence is just leaning up against it. Sigh. Since I married into a family that doesn't hire if they can do it themselves, we spent our Spring Break fixing a fence. I grew up as a worker so I love it. And I'm glad my girls are seeing that with a little hard work they can accomplish a lot. I'm sure our neighbors appreciated the fact that 20 minutes before the loud roofers left for good, we started at our fence with hammers and crowbars. We're nice like that. To save money we saved as many pickets as we could to reuse. I messed up plenty of them before I realized by going into the neighbors yard and taking them off from the back, I saved a lot more. It only took me about 15 ruined ones to figure that out. With three hammers and two crow bars the pickets came down pretty quickly.And soon after that the posts and supports were gone. To reuse the pickets we had to remove 6 nails in each one. That probably took longer than anything else. Luckily we had our sweet little slaves. I mean girls. After $500 and a loaded down flat bed cart at Home Depot we were ready to rebuild. Since we know it's nearly impossible to kill Trumpet Vine we used metal posts. And since the bright fence builders before us had put the post 12 feet apart we had to dig new holes. Shawn did the first two and with a tiny bit of his help, I did the next five. We used a hand auger that had been my Grandpa's. I love that. Using something that was his meant so much. I also was sure I was burning some serious calories. The leveling and pouring the concrete mix in took what seemed like forever though.After Shawn put the supports on we started nailing the pickets back on. 700 nails. Hello sore hands. We all took turns. McKinley could not get a nail to go in straight so she decided to get on the roof and start scraping paint off. So now our fence was on its way to looking fabulous and our house looks awful. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Kennedy and I did the pickets until Shawn saw that we were going a little bit wonky. He had to take over. He's all about quality and wanting a straight fence. Whatever.The day the last section was finished was very exciting. Dinner had to be moved so that this momentous event wouldn't be missed. And here it is! We are very proud. And overwhelmed since this is only one of three sections we need to do. Another sigh. And since our girls worked so hard on their Spring Break we've promised them a summer beach vacation. Shawn is thinking Galveston but I'd like to go to Gulf Shores. Anyone have suggestions? We can't go far so Texas or Louisiana. Send suggestions! Oh, and we like to camp in our tent. I hate hotels. Hate. But that's another story that you don't really need to hear:c)

The New Roof!

I could go on and on and on all about the roofing process...but I won't. Okay, let me say a few things. It's loud. It's faster than I would have guessed. It's loud. It's messy. It's loud. It's weird to see what is under shingles. It's loud. It's fun to walk into the attic and see the back yard tree. Oh, and it's loud.

And when it's done?? It's gorgeous!!

But did I mention that it's loud??

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

We've needed a new roof since....2 years before we moved in. I'd always thought I wanted a wood shingle roof until we got here. When we bought the house our insurance said they wouldn't cover the roof unless we replaced the ridge on the pool house. We did and we've had a good relationship ever since. Well, until we tried to get our roof replaced. 5 times over about 3 years. Every roofer that said, "I know I can get your insurance to approve it." Every time, they were wrong. And guess what happened after that fifth try? Our insurance dropped us. What were we to do? We went with a different company. The day we signed the paperwork Shawn called the old company and told them he was planning on switching our car insurance. They asked why? Um, duh. When he told them they asked what they could do to keep us. Well, let me think...how about fix our roof. They agreed! So which of the 5 companies to go with? Easy choice. A friend in Sunday School has a roofing company. When our friend fell off his roof while working on it, Bill sent his crew to finish the job. Free of charge. And the next day in Sunday School, he gave the family $500 of his own money. I didn't consider anyone else. Two days before they were to start I was working on the front bushes and decided some of the front tree branches should be cut to help the roofers. I spent an hour on a wobbly ladder with some hand trimmers and then a small saw. I'm not going to lie, it was ugly. My hair got caught, I scrapped my arms, I couldn't reach what I wanted to. Ugh. Shawn got home from computer tutoring, pulled out the chainsaw, and finished the job in about 10 minutes. What is it about a man and a chainsaw? We did discuss what to cut and what not to cut, but a lot was cut. One we both agreed should be glued back on. You can't do that, just in case you didn't know. The tree looked better though. And my trimming of the bushes looked good. But now we need to paint the house and get new windows. Wish we could break up with our insurance and get those two things done as well.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

About two years ago I asked Shawn for something.

A piece of plywood.

Oh, and also a hinge.

And a latch.

You see, I had a vision. A vision for my 40+ year old laundry room. That would make my life easier in just the smallest way.

He didn't see my vision.

Fast forward to a month ago when the ugly, hideous, atrocious wall desk that has been in our bedroom for way too many years finally came down. It was like the Berlin Wall here people. I have hated that thing since the day it came in the door. But you know what? He finally saw my vision. And a big plus, I didn't need the hinge and the latch.

I give you...the folding shelf.

And please excuse the rest of my laundry room. I could have cleaned it all up to take the pictures, but that would be a lie. The laundry room in our house is where the dog lives, eats, drinks, and uses her litter box, where I do laundry, and where everything that doesn't have a home goes to live.

Please tell me you all have an area in your house like this. I need to know it's not just me. If it is just me, I might start humming, braiding my hair, and drinking vanilla extract straight from the bottle.

Anyone?

Moving on.

See how it just folds up out of the way so my children can stuff clothes down in the sorter?

Think it's time to do the warm load??

It's perfect for folding Shawn's shirts.

Know what we did when we got home from our honeymoon?? Oh get your minds out of the gutters, this is a family blog. Shawn taught me how he wanted his t-shirts folded. That would be the Navy way. Not the Army, the Navy. He was currently serving in the Army. We had a lesson time. I had to show I could do it before we could continue with our lives. But if we're going to be honest here, it's also a good place to put things that are waiting to be folded. I did clean these off tonight. By folding them. Because now there is a sweater air drying there.

It's sad that my life can be made so much better by a piece of wood and a vision....isn't it??

Don't answer that.

Goodbye forever.

Home Alone

*******I apologize for going so long with posting. I have been fighting with blogger 5 days now. Pictures won't load, posts won't save, everything keeps failing. Anyone else having these problems or is it just me? Please say it's not just me.*******

No, we're not going to talk about the movie.

I am home alone until Saturday. Shawn and the girls are at camp.

Not just any camp, this camp. On the last day that we were there with Kennedy the director asked Shawn is he'd come for a week during the summer. He said that our daughter could come for free. When Shawn said he had three daughters, they were still interested.

So there you have it, $2,100 worth of camp, free for my girls. How do you say no to that?

They pulled away Sunday morning and my 23 item to-do list and I were a bit teary.But I dove in head first. Here are a few pictures of what I've done so far. If I told you this took five hours total would you be impressed, or feel sorry for me?You have to work with me here. See the bushes to their left?So here's what I have to show for my 5 hours of work. Four full trash cans. Glad I took a picture because the next day all my hard work was stolen by some men.

Baby Steps

I love my house. Growing up spending almost every day here playing with the 'neighbor boys', I knew every inch of the house before we moved in. We have however made a few changes. Since we don't have unlimited cash just laying around, we do projects here and there when we can. My kitchen is the area that needs the most work. Well, when I say that it sounds like it's hideous. It's not, it's just personal preference. The idiots owners who were in between the family who claimed me as theirs and us didn't change anything. Weird, since they had awful taste...if you can call it taste.

When we moved in I walked into the kitchen and felt like a kid again. I'd sat in a chair in front of the pink counter top and had my hair (that I could almost sit on) cut into the "Dorothy Hamill" after watching her skate. What was I thinking?? But now, the memory is sweet.

The family had made inserts in the cabinet doors and wallpapered the new rectangle. The curtains were the same pattern. It...just wasn't my taste. In '98. In '84? Loved it.

One of the first changes I made was that wallpaper. It used to match this bear.

My mother-in-law made the bear so I could remember the curtains. I'm all about being sentimental.

I love the lilac wallpaper I found. Possibly because we have my mothers lilac bush growing in the backyard. It has been in two different yards, and three different locations, since she planted it 20 years ago.

A few years after I took a sander to the doors and antiqued them in my own special way. I love it! Just makes them look more dimensional. And also helped me discover every possible place that dust can land.

But the knobs...oh the knobs. Because I need 32 I have not replaced them. Years ago I picked out a new one I loved but they were $5.99 each. You do the math. And then tell me, because I stink at math. Oh wait, my phone has a calculator. Almost $200!! I rounded a bit for tax.

Imagine how happy I was when I discovered that Hobby Lobby had iron handles...and they went half price like everything else in the store! I finally found some I liked and asked them to order the other 18 that I needed. I waited patiently until they came in and then waited again for Shawn to have time to replace them.

And that was just a whole lot of words to get to this point.

The before:(This picture makes them look incredibly dirty. Hmmm, maybe they were. I did Magic Erase everything while the handles were off.)

The after: So, one little step at a time I'm making this house mine while still honoring the people that came before. I hope the people after us will do the same:)

Watch out for my new obsession!

I am in love. That seems to happen a lot, doesn't it? Oh well, I usually get a good result.

My front porch light is so ugly that you just have to like it. I am all about keeping things around that the original owners chose. I loved them and knowing they chose it means a lot. But some things can stay but need to be....improved.

Sadly I cannot find a before picture. I was so giddy to start that I guess I forgot. Luckily after I posted this an anonymous reader left a comment that I had a before picture in the previous post. So here it is! A tiny bit of it. But enough to realize why I've done what I've done.Just imagine these yellow circle Plexiglas thingiesin the slots on the body of the light.My lovely assistant took it apart and helped me slip the thingies out and then put it back together.

And re-taped the Braum's bags when they repeatedly fell.And then the paint. Hammered Copper spray paint. I found the idea here. And savagely stole her picture because I was to lazy to get up, go outside, take my own picture, and upload it. It was dark! Anyway. Check out her blog. Her recipes, ideas, and pictures are wonderful.

The finish is amazing!Now here's the problem. There's no way that I'll put those yellow Plexiglas thingies back in. We've tried two different light bulbs and this time might have a winner.What's your honest opinion? Does it need more Plexiglas, or plain glass, or decorative glass? Or leave well enough alone?

Since I'd fallen in love with the spray paint at this time I started looking for other things to do. I didn't have to look far. Yep, ugly house numbers. Let's not talk about the chipped and peeling paint around them. Okay? I can't handle that. I'm still on this natural high you see. And no, it's not from the paint fumes.Over an hour later (yes, it took over an hour to put little tiny pieces of tape in and around the numbers. In some places I had to use tweezers. It's all about quality here.Hello gorgeous!Now, are you ready for the next place I'm painting?

If you said yes, are you sure?

It's unconventional. It's unknown. It's frightening. It's unheard of.

My white tile kitchen back splash.

Stay tuned...