The craft half of the laundry room in all it's glory!

Here's another room almost all the way done - the basement is coming together! Yay us!

The curtains are done!

These are (again) in the craft/laundry room in our basement. I just love them. And the tan fabric is burlap! You can either glue these together or sew them. I chose to sew - and surprisingly the burlap worked well! I was worried since the weave was so loose, but I didn't have any problems (well, not any problems that didn't involve a brain malfunction on my part - it's a rare project that I don't end up using the seam ripper!). I found my inspiration here and still plan on doing something similar in my living room. I haven't had window treatments in that room in the 6 years we've lived here. I was just waiting for something to strike me and now it has! Yay!

Behold.... the Shed

(listing pic from 2018)

Thanks to Harbor Freight we have a roofing nailer. And thanks to Glen and RC - I have a super-talented Jack-of-All-Trades to use it and dangle perilously from great heights for the good of mankind - or mostly my cluttered garage and basement.

The latest project...

A Patio!

On to brighter things...

Lauren is actually now wearing outfits that I remember Ashlyn wearing (except Ashlyn walked in them and Lauren scoots in them.)


Nathan is showing you the wall where we will soon have coat/backpack hooks! Yay! We have some in the kids' room but it is much easier with school in session to have something right by the door. And, they seem to fill the pegs in their bedroom very quickly with many, many hang-able things. The things on the wall are Post-It flags to mark the studs so we know where we're headed!


The hook dealy isn't put together yet, I just painted and sealed it last night, but it's being assembled (hopefully) today! The hooks were just $2.50 in the Dollar Spot at Target - the board is just a 1"x4" from Home Depot cut to 24". Rick was going to run it through the router but I think plain looks lovely so that is what we're doing. Oh, and after finally finding out how boards can look so beautiful and rough around the edge - please add belt sander to my covet list.

Just one more reason...

...why I have a Label for my blog entitled "I Love Rick". It is for posts when I just want to remind myself of why I am so lucky. Or if I want to brag him up a little. It can also stand for "Why Rick is So Cool - but Sorry He is Taken".

Here is our water storage. I found some water containers that someone was selling in another stake and was happy to pick some up and add some longer term water storage to our supply. Rick has set it up in our food storage room on a rack. That in itself is kinda cool, but wait until you see the other side!

Yes, there are spigots to easily get to our water. But wait there's more! He has rigged this up to our sprinkler system so that each time the sprinkler is run our water storage is aerated and rotated! No wasting a huge vat of water each year when you need to rotate your water! He is a genius and I'm so grateful his crazy little mind works in ways I could never imagine.

"Whatcha doin' Skyler?"

Howdy folks! A lot has been going on - and then again it's nothing new. :) I am really hating life with no camera. It's seriously peeing on my blogging groove I'm telling ya. (nice visual, eh?) But really! I keep wanting to take pictures and I can't! But you are here to catch up with TheOnesInColorado so I will do my part!

1. I'm envious if you just bought a house this year. People are snatching up homes 2 and 3 times the size of mine for less than our max price (or what I think would be our max price if we were looking) and 30K or more less than the asking price. I know that's not much of an update but I've been stewing about it. Do I just seem really whiny lately? What do you mean not just lately! ;P I just keep taking deep breaths and visualizing my house DONE. Will that ever really happen? Do we have any rich relatives close to release from this mortal veil who have no greater wish than to make us their sole heirs? Nah - I didn't think so. But who has a mortgage well under 200K - no one I know so that should be what I focus on. In a similar vein, countertops and sinks are 20% off at Home Depot until tomorrow. We are pondering finishing up the laundry room. And I think we are going with a concrete patio (less work than our brick plan) in back. That means I REALLY need a way to get into the backyard besides through my garage, don't ya think? Will a door fit in my tiny kitchen/living/dining room?

2. Can anyone here in the midst of our economic funtimes tell me it's OK for me to stop my E-fund at 4 months' worth and start saving for our next car? Six months' expenses is a LOT! I know, I talk about money a lot. It's to make up for all the people who are too scared/embarassed/cool to do so and perpetuate this culture of not having a clue how to save our money and live within our means. And losing many, many percentiles in our 401K is really just buying low, right?

3. Sorry for all the negative posts/conversations lately. That's just how I'm feeling. There's nothing to show you just how little you can control your life like a kid with a problem you can't seem to fix. Sorry for crying when you ask about Lauren. It'll stop when she's about one or so and we can hook her up to an Oreo filling IV (cuz she'll be old enough for DAIRY!!! Is there dairy in there?). I'll be back to my chipper self when my house is done and I can put away all of our junk treasured possessions.

4. This has been the first week of CAR POOL!!! I'm so glad that I've finally found someone willing to do this. This has been fantastical (all two days of it). I do the mornings this week and then I don't have to mess with our delicate nap schedule in the PM. I'm all for co-op preschool, trading babysitting nights, carpooling, etc. but you can't do it alone! No one has ever taken us up on the offer to share the load before. I think people must just like to spend a lot of money here? Or else my kidlets are staggered at the wrong ages? Or we smell funny?

5. I have started really being diligent about prayer and scriptures - making sure it's done and with some good intent. I used to be much better but I've done some sliding. We usually rock FHE so I think I'm doing my part to lock the Lord in to some blessings. :) JK. I just figure every little tally mark on my board helps!

6. I have been really uplifted by reconnecting to some WSU (Anne and Lanita) blogs lately - and by clicking on some random blog links from those pages. It's amazing how much strangers can do for you. I love those "tender mercies". Cuz really - how could life with the BEST husband, THREE amazing and beautiful children, a roof over our heads, a yard (even if the green lawn is mowed weeds) to play in, a trampoline to bounce on, tons of food to eat, a stable job and enough money to live and play on be that terrible? We are alive and we have the most love I have EVER seen in a family. We are healthy (I'm counting Lauren, doctors are dorks) and have all we need. IN ABUNDANCE. I need to just put up a fence so I quit looking at the grass on the other side. Total character flaw of mine. But you know this by now.

7. $250 for a new camera or $90 plus maybe more for our camera to be fixed?

8. I made more mixes! We now have our own Bisquick and Buckwheat pancakes. I'm hoping that the latter will be like I remember my grandma making us when we visited. Love the Hillbilly Housewife!

9. Nathan must be the most forgiving, easy-going kid ever. After a full afternoon of cranky mommy getting on his case for not listening, a bum swat, time outs, sitting in the garage for a bit, sitting on the steps, fighting over naps and putting him back to bed at least 4 times... I asked him after his bath, "Nathan, are you mad at mommy for being upset with you today?" He smiled and said ,
"No!
I'm happy!
Well, I'm a little sad cuz Daddy spanked my bum
But I'm a little happy too.
So I guess I'm a little sad (cock head to left) and a little happy (cock head to right).
I love you."
All this with the most endearing smile as he's cuddling into my chest. Man, you just can't stay mad at him. He's just full of love.

10. We had Ashlyn's parent teacher conferences. She's doing great and is in the highest reading and math groups. Yay! She spaces out and doesn't listen to directions but her smarts are getting her by anyway. Hope she does better with that than I did. Question: When we get her week's schoolwork back how do I go over her mistakes with her without seeming to be disappointed in her and critical? Should I not do it? Maybe I should make up similar problems and not even bring her attention to any mistakes?

Signing off!
Mommy

Something on the wall!

I bought this vinyl back in November when I made the turkey Gobble blocks for Thanksgiving. It has taken us until now to get it up on the wall. Pretty sad. We haven't put any decorations up in our house for the most part - I'm just not good at it and I haven't found any great ideas to copy... Until this one. I saw it on Ebay and changed the quote a little then had a vinyl gal print it up for me. So up it goes and now we have something on our blank walls! Slowly but surely we'll get this place looking nice. Probably just in time to move, huh! That would be ironic. Anyway - we are here for now and I hope I can get some inspiration for the rest of the house. Oh, in case you can't read it the vinyl says, "Together We make a family". Cute, huh? And that pic of Lauren is just one we printed out on the computer. I still haven't taken any pictures that look all that professional and "wall worthy" of her. But we do have lots of candids! No fear family, your yearly pics are due soon and I'll have to get out and take some shots of the kids for you. I'll probably head back out to the same area as last year (the one where all of the pics except Lauren were shot) since it was so beautiful.

More than dirt

Now we have more than dirt in the front yard! We haven't had anything (plant-wise) since we pulled out the huge junipers that were in front of the house when we bought it. Love the Home Depot BOGO shrub coupon. Those trees count as shrubs!

Here is a close up of one of those sides.

We moved all of the iris into a row along the back of the bed. The light green shrubs are Gold Mound Spirea. The darker one is McKay's Potentilla. But both of the Potentillas have since died. All of the ones we saw at the store were also dead so there must have been a funky shipment. Oh well. So now there is a hole there. I'm thinking about "Wine & Roses" Weigela for that spot (but then all of my shrubs would have pink flowers) or maybe Korean Spice Viburnum. They say these smell great - but "Korean Spice" doesn't really connote "smells great" to me. Any of you smelled it?

I also have some Sweet Woodruff scattered around. That's all for perennials. We have the pansies and lavender still, and some yellow daisy thing for our annuals. Rick put in an irrigation system so I think that these will grow and thrive! Remembering to water plants is not my forte.

We have also ripped up the front lawn again in preparation for the sprinkler system and some new plants. We are decreasing the lawn size in hopes of increasing its chance to live. Maybe we'll do better after it gets watered automatically instead of at our whim. :) We are also going to put a bit more time into soil prep this time so hopefully we can grow some grass in our clay!

More housework

Well, it took a while for our household budget to recover from the bathroom and all of that drywall but we finally have built it back up to the point where we can do some more work.
Rick rented a rotohammer (little jackhammer thing with different bits) to bust up some more walls.

You may recognize this wall - most of you reading have stayed in this room at one point! Here's the hole he made for the water to come through to the outside sprinkler box. The 2nd pic is a close up of the hole since the flash washed it out in the first pic. He drilled it bigger to fit not just the copper pipe but also some electrical wire. Only after he returned the tool did he try and fit them both through the hole and discover it wasn't big enough. Oops! Tony (our independent contractor friend) came to the rescue and let Rick borrow his hammer to finish up the job.

The other item we needed to take care of with the rental was this chunk of concrete next to our steel beam. This is the beam that will need to be reinforced in order for us to take out the lally column (those silly columns in the basement that hold up the house). So we need to make room for our new addition in the concrete.
Here's what Nathan thought of it:
:) Actually he was just trying to avoid the camera. He thought the tools were cool.

We went with the flowers...

Thanks for you support! :) They look lovely!

Rick has a good day

A 10 hour day - but lots accomplished! And the tree - do you remember when it was cut down? And when Rick carved it? Finally it has been felled completely!

Egress

So there you see our window well for the basement bedroom. It's in and attached to our concrete so I guess it's here to stay. Now we just need to attach the ladder, add some gravel and then fill in the hole. Progress!

Other stuff...

If you came to our house - you saw this guy! We hunted this group of 3 elk over the course of a week to make sure our guests caught a glimpse of our wild Colorado.


And here, bankrolled by Tante Brigitte and courtesy of Rick's construction prowess - we have lights! Now you can see after noon while you're in the front room!

Downstairs bathroom

Well, I've had numerous requests for updated pictures of the downstairs bathroom. Given, they were all from the same person, but as that person is the chief architect and laborer in this project his desires get priority!

So here is the (almost) finished project! It looks beautiful! Rick (with a ton of drywall/cement board help from his Papa) did a fabulous job. There are lots of soffits (I think - I'm talking about the boxes in the ceiling) to cover up the plumbing necessary for the upstairs bathroom which is directly above this. My very favorite part of this part of the room is the light over the tub!

What a difference that will make for baths (the ones I have to administer)! You'd be surprised how dim it seems with the light off compared to the illumination we now have.

Here we have the adjacent wall that you see when you walk in.

It looks so plain! The paint we picked out for the walls looks white and it was supposed to be a light beige, but oh well.

There will be something lovely going in above the toilet. I was thinking a square iron scrollwork piece when Hobby Lobby puts them at 50% off. Maybe with tealights, maybe not.

We also have a few prints that we are still debating about. They are all based on the red color that you see in the shower curtain.

Here's the whole group that we are trying to decide between. We have the two frames in a nice rich brown. And then we'll either do the tree/landscapes pics in them or the flowers. I have to admit that I'm incredibly partial to the flowers. Both because they are a bigger print so I think it looks better in the small room and because I just like flowers.

But I think that since this is kind of a guest bathroom, or at least not our main bathroom, that I should go with the trees since they're more neutral. I think most of you are going to the say the trees too. They just seem to look better in the pictures.

Here are the two flower pictures. I also like them because they bring more of my favorite olive tone into the room.

Do you think you should be looking at a beautiful picture when you walk in and when you are sitting on the toilet? We have two pictures so one could go in each spot. The other option is to have them on the wall to the right when you walk in. Then you could look at them as you were stepping out of the shower. If we don't do pictures there what will we do? It has to be flat (not like a shelf or cabinet) because the door opens into that wall to give us more space.

I like the warmth of red and brown. I was thinking about going with the blue/brown color scheme that is popular, but I think I'd rather have something that isn't a fad and that I will love each time I see it. I tend to love olives, burgandies/reds/purples and browns so that's pretty much what you'll see in the whole house. But I never tire of looking at them!

My Christmas Break

Before the new year we each wanted to get cracking on projects. Rick busted his tail on the bathroom and I spent a day making all the birthday cards (and a few Thank You cards) that I'll need this year. Curse Glen and RC for having 9 children! (Just kidding - we love all of them! But it's kind of like a math lesson in exponential functions to make cards for the whole clan!)

Lots and lots of work. With the combo of tile saw, the smell of sealant and the nonstop hum of the fan Rick worked his way into a migraine followed by a week-long headache followed by another migraine. I had him go to the doctor and now we are the proud owners of prescription migraine medicine! His wifey was a little concerned that he might be incapacitated at a critical time (say the end of March) and be unable to drive - now she feels much better! And even better - we hope that this will make it so that Rick doesn't have to suffer any more!

Here we have a picture of the whole lot.

If you look closely you'll see yours! See how much I love you?

Moving right along

Here's a "work in progress" update of the only almost-finished room in the basement!

The Bathroom!

As soon as Rick came home we dug into Chicken Enchiladas and left to go to pick out tile about 20 minutes away in a store that was having a Vet Day sale. We spent an hour there and left with many $$ worth of floor and wall tile for the bathroom downstairs.

Here is the floor tile...

And the wall tile... I know it doesn't look like they match but I promise they do. The floor is similar to the light colored tile. The light colored tile is more beige than yellow. The shower surround will be the darker brown on all three walls with a strip of diagonal tiles running horizontally in the middle. That will be the light tile in the center and then one dark tile above and one below. Sorry if that's hard to picture.

Then we left to go to Lowe's, which was 20 min. away and closing in less than an hour to pick up our tub and as much other stuff that we could buy in $50 increments. I found out just yesterday afternoon that yesterday was the last day of an awesome promo at Lowe's where you got a $10 coupon for every $50 spent. So we bought the following in separate trips:

1. tub

2. grout and pedestal sink

3. backerboard and sand. And then it was after 9 and our kids were dying and so were we and so we went home.

Rick wanted to have a lot for his dad to do when he comes to help out with the basement this weekend. He has even NOT been working on the basement for fear he'll get too much accomplished and his dad will be sitting on his duff. :) I thought that Grandpa might want to visit, see the grandkids, etc. but Rick is sure he will be devastated if we don't have a full array of projects for him to tackle. Well, after last night I'm sure he'll be fine!

Our garden - early July

So here we have the overview of our little garden patch.

You can see we have corn... and up the front and to your left are a few strawberries.

and we have some sugar snap peas

this is our 1st pumpkin (we have 3 now)

Here are some tomatoes. Still not red - can that be normal?

This is cantaloupe on the left and cukes on the right. (Way at the top middle of the picture are a few leaves of basil).

Next we have some carrots.

This is zucchini (we've eaten 3 so far) on the left and watermelon on the right.

We missed the cauliflower and broccoli cuz we don't read directions/don't know what we're doing so they went to seed. :( But they used to be in the bare patch.