I did it. I achieved bad blogger status. My sister called me out on it and now I feel bad. I don’t live by my family and I know they look at this blog to catch up on out comings and goings. Last entry was titled “sick” and now everyone thinks we might be dead. But we’re not. We are here, healthy and b u s y! Here is some of the stuff currently on our plate:
Kids’ Bathroom- OK, this project was going full steam ahead. The new tub was installed. The whole room was demo’d and the floors were tiled and grouted. The wallpaper/paint has been stripped. The mirror was taken down in one piece (yay!) and now we are ready to plank the vanity wall. I have pictures but they’re all on the camera right now. I promise I will load them soon!
Wood trim- This is the never ending residual project from hardwooding the floors last year. We traded out the 4 in baseboards for 5 inchers. They look much better with just that little added inch. Unfortunately, once you change it in one room, you have to do all the others or you break up the continuity. So currently Husband is tackling the pantry hallway. There are lots of nooks and crannies there, so it have been taking awhile to get it perfect.
Living room- A while back, I made a slipcover for my sadly deteriorated couch in the living room. I won’t go into the story about how Husband had to work two jobs to pay for these couches 12 years ago…but seriously, we were taken. Bought them from the local family-owned furniture store with a 300% mark-up (probably). I was expecting to be buried with one of these couches. The sales person talked up the quality and durability like he had just made the couch with his own two hands. Well, I sure wish I would have done my homework back then. After a little investigating, I found out that these couches were designed to last 6-8 years. Great. Of course they were.- which would explain why mine look the way they do now. So this year, after doing my homework ALL last year, I will be purchasing our “forever” living room seating. I listened to Husband and the kids to see what their wishes were, and I am trying to accommodate everyone. Husband wants something that still fits the lodge look and is super comfy, the kids want something huge to build forts on, and I want something a little more streamlined and modern that is made really well on the insides. When you put that list together, you get $$$$. I knew it would be though, so no surprises here. This is what we are looking at getting.
This is the sectional that we want. I am waiting on fabric swatches, but it will either be flax duck fabric or flax velvet. I should mention that the top seller here is that the couch is SOOOO deep- approximately 46 inches. So, yes, my oldest sister's legs would probably not come close to touching the floor when sitting. ha.
Although I LOVE my antique french fireside chairs- they are not kid friendly at all. They must evoke the look of a jungle gym, because #3 climbs them twice a day and for some reason, #1 (about 70lbs), likes to sit on the arms. So before they are completely destroyed, I will probably sell or give them away to someone who can preserve their beauty. I will be getting this leather club instead. Again, large scale and deep. Indestructable.
Over Christmas, we got the kids a flatscreen tv/blue ray player for the living room so that we could all watch movies together. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a real home yet. It sits on our coffee table which has been shoved in the corner by the window. This is not ideal since we like having the coffee table in front of the couch to prop up our feet or set drinks on. So my plan is to try to build this media console. I won't buy it because it only comes in this horrid red finish or white- neither would go with our living room. I found the building plans online, and I was thinking I would try to build it and give it my own finish. Most likely I would give it a rustic dark stained finish or an antiqued weathered grey finish. I haven't decided for sure. Anyway, I would move our IKEA shelves into the front formal living room, since that will soon be a showroom for my calligraphy business.
At home calligraphy business- BOOMING! Every year I worry that I will wake up from the dream and realize that no one wants to pay for handwriting, but apparently they DO! I am enrolled in a letterpress printing course and I love it. I hope to be able to get into printing my own designs. Husband is very excited about this possibility too, because it would drastically increase my income. The downside is that the equipment for letterpress is heavy and hard to find. We would lose one side of the garage to house all the stuff. Big deal, you might say, but we have SO much crap in our garage…
Kids and school- Everyone is having a great year so far! Homeschooling is going well. However, if I do this next year, I will make sure to better look through curriculums before making a decision. We ditched our reading program because it was stupid, and the math program is mostly review. Next year, I would choose much more challenging textbooks. I have had to do enrichment to compensate for the things that aren’t in the book that aren’t. Gosh, I sound like a big snob…
Husband’s job- Husband did not take the job offer 15 minutes north of our home. It was a real downer for him, but he has moved on and is focusing on the good things about his current job. He is really working hard on relationships within his group of guys. That’s a big deal for him!
Gardening- Spring will be here before we know it! I picked up a bunch of organic seed packets last time I went by the Farmers Market. As soon as I get a few other projects completed arounf here, I will start making my plans and strategies for gardening. I will say that for the first time in awhile, I bought some flower seeds too. So this year we will infuse lots of color in our garden as well as edibles. I hope to talk to all the neighbors about getting them to grow edible too! I would love to see everyone on our street with a veggie/fruit garden. I am thinking about holding some sort of neighborhood get-together at our house to get the ball rolling. We’ll see!
Carpet- Last but not least, I have been slowly peeling up the carpet in our upstairs rooms. When the bank took the house from the former owners, they sent their workers in to ‘fix” stuff which included all the flooring. So they put down the worst apartment grade carpet in light beige throughout the house. Seriously, we ruined it the first month we lived in the house. Right now, I am concentrating on getting up all the carpet and random floor staples from each room. Then I will go through and screw in all the squeaks- and trust me, there are tons of them. Once all the rooms are cleaned, de-stapled and de-squeaked, we can go carpet shopping. I am thinking that this will probably happen in the fall since the living room furniture will drain my account. We like the Martha Stewart carpet line offered at Home Depot and the stain warranty it carries. We also like that there are so many darker color choices that would mesh with the colors in our house.
So there you have it, a complete run-down of ideas and happenings. At some point, I will download all the pictures in my camera and share all the progress with you. But in my spare moments it is hard to motivate myself to do that, since all I want to do is sleep and recover from long nights of calligraphy. But I promise I will do it for you. I hope everyone is well out in blogland and making plans for their “homesteads.” What about you? What plans are you making this year?
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