Just one more: House

Showing posts with label House. Show all posts

Monday, November 19, 2018

Tender mercy in the kitchen

Organizing has never been my talent. I like things to be clean on the outside, but if it's put away out of sight in a drawer, cupboard, or closet I typically don't think about it until it starts driving me crazy when it gets too full.

I had mentioned this to my friend Susan who is a master organizer. She set up a time with 3 other friends (Monica, Charlotte, and Rachel) to come over and organize my kitchen.

It is something that has been on my list for a long time and I have done it before but never very well. I feel like it goes back to the way it was before after a week.

These ladies came at 9:00 am and didn't leave until 3:00. They pulled every single thing out of my cupboards, drawers and refrigerator, vacuumed and wiped them all out, de junked, and put everything back in places that worked efficiently. If I would have done this on my own it would have taken me a week, not to mention the fact that I probably would have kept everything and had the same problem a week later. We took an entire trunkload of stuff from my kitchen to Goodwill! So many things that I don't use and should have gotten rid of years ago. Charlotte also brought brand new tupperware to replace all of my old stuff.

When they left and it really soaked in what a gift they gave me I sat in my kitchen and just cried. So much so that when Shad walked into the house he thought that one of our children had died (granted I had just gotten off the phone with him because Haken was on the other line.)

I'm a pretty emotional pregnant woman right now but I was just so grateful for good friends who would take an entire day to focus on me and what would be a blessing for me and then just do it. I seriously have the best friends in the world. They are such a blessing and make it feel like I might just make it through having twins with their help.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Front yard complete

It's been baby steps with our yard, but this last month we made a lot of progress.

Luckily our lawn was put in last fall after we moved in by the builder so we didn't have to worry about that. The next project was flowerbeds and trees. We went to a great nursery in Urbana and spent WAY too much on plants, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. Some of what we bought also included three fruit trees for the backyard. We got a peach, a fuji apple, and a pink lady apple. The peach tree already has little peaches on it, so that will be exciting. They also seemed way cheaper than fruit trees we have bought in Utah. I think there is less demand for them here.

I at least had the foresight to get starts from our neighbors when they were offering them last fall, so those were great fillers, they came in great, and saved us from buying more. I also planted tulips and daffodils in November last year (because they were on clearance and it was still so warm). They took a long time to come up, I think I either planted them too deep or it was just too shady for them, but when they did come up they looked amazing. Unfortunately I didn't really get a picture of them in full bloom and now the rain/wind has pretty much destroyed them. I got lots of compliments on them and was glad that I planted them.

I also put edging along all of the flowerbeds, which was quite the job. I had been putting it off for a while because I knew it would be.

Gracie and Benny helped me plant some annuals around the perennials that we bought and in some pots by the garage door (had to have my red begonias, they are my favorite).

Benny thought the containers were the greatest things ever. They made the best noises.

Gracie was outside all day long. She was out with daddy in the morning and with mommy in the afternoon. I noticed she was getting a little burned but I didn't have any sunscreen to put on her, so I made her wear one of my big hats. But it must have been too late. I was sad when we came in and I saw THIS...

She didn't complain and it went away fast, but the next day at church I made her wear a longer sleeve dress to cover up mommy and daddy's mistake. Poor girl.

Another big project this month was the side driveway. When we moved here we discovered that we needed another car since Shad wouldn't be able to drive his work car to church meetings and such, and we needed a place to put it. This is when we really thought we should have found a house with a 3 car garage. But, we decided that the side of the house worked just fine. We put gravel in and called it good. Then, we received an email from the HOA telling us that was against code and it had to be paved....so we left it all winter as rocks and then dug it all out this spring to put in cement.

I agree that it does look nicer, but it definitely wasn't cheaper than the gravel. Shad was smart and rented a skidster to dig it out for the cement. He said that was the best $125 he ever spent. Shad did his own forms, but we had the professionals come and do the cement. That was also a great move as they ended up having to wheelbarrow the entire thing from the truck so they wouldn't crack the existing driveway. They did a great job at finishing it and making it look nice too.

We put our names in the cement, so I guess this house is officially ours.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Summer flowers

One thing that I love about summer is the flowers in my yard. More specifically my front yard since I haven't been able to get much to survive in my hot backyard. This year Shad said that I really "nailed it." I would love to have tons of perennial flowers that come up and look beautiful every year, but I haven't had much luck in keeping them year after year. However, the annuals that I plant every year always do really well.

Shad isn't much of a fan of the "cheap petunias" so I try to mix it up a little with the more expensive flowers. I also treat myself with my favorite begonias to put in my flower pots every year. One of the reasons why I like having my birthday in May :) This year all of my flowers got huge (thanks to a little miracle grow and lots of sun) and they still look great even though we are already into October. I just can't get myself to pull them out when they look so great, but the pumpkins we now have on our porch look a little silly next to the flowers.

Even if no one else notices my pretty flowers, they make me smile every time I pull into my driveway. I will be sad when I have to pull them up and everything gets covered in snow. It won't be too much longer...

My camera doesn't do it justice, I think I like Shad's instagram pictures better

I think next year I will try to add some more light pink and
yellow to the spread.

Note: at the beginning of the summer our front lawn had a huge patch of dirt in the middle since we decided to cover it up, fill in the low spots, and start over after our bug situation last summer. It has filled in so much better than I expected. You can not even tell it was all dirt 4 months ago and now we don't have big trenches in the middle of our yard!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Weeds!

Why is it that everything in my yard has yet to bloom and the weeds are the only thing green right now? Last Friday I decided I couldn't stand looking at the weeds anymore and we ventured out into the yard to make it look a bit nicer. I was surprised to see that there are little buds on everything in my yard so in a few weeks it will be really beautiful. There are also bulbs popping up all over. I love this time of the year! There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your yard come back to life and know that everything didn't really die over the winter.

Haken was a huge help and Jack was just happy to be outside. I think he would live outside if I would let him! We also planted our first round of sugar snap peas, one of our favorite treats from our garden every year.

I think we have another golfer in the family...

This face is so Jack...and yet he reminds me of Haken at this age.

Planting peas

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Bathroom Progression

I got so excited about posting the finished product of our bathroom that I forgot to post the pictures of the construction that I took to post on the blog. I took them so that I could remember just how "barebones" this room was before we started. I didn't get a picture before Shad framed it all, but here they are so that all the pictures I took won't be in vain....