Every Day Is A Spa Day... For My Toes!

Last Monday was the day.  The carpet guy came to our house!  He laid all the pad in the basement.

Red... Pretty!

I thought about leaving the pretty red forever.  But I was overruled.

Tuesday the carpet guy brought his grandson to help.  Here is half the basement with carpet ready to be permanent.  It smelled so good.

The grandson ripped out the living room carpet first thing Tuesday and put the new carpet in. 

Isn't it yummy?!

Tuesday night was our big move the furniture day.  Our bedroom ended up in the living room.  We even have our headboard.

Have you ever slept in your living room on your own bed with your headboard? 

It's weird. Trust me!

Much of the stuff from our room that didn't fit in the living room or bathroom, was put in the family room.  Ruthie's stuff was in the family room, too.  We lived in crowded confusion for a night and a day.

Wednesday the old and nasty and yucky and rotten and gross and and and carpet was ripped out.  15 years in the waiting.  The pad was gross and falling apart underneath it.

But Thursday morning and every day there after, we put our house back together.  The basement is a large playroom and we got out some game shelves and book shelves and a table for game playing.

Sam's blue room was a room taking shape.  He was so excited to finally have his own space to do whatever he wants.

Isaac's green room has been in set up mode for months.  He has posters on the walls and being able to put a real bed in was super exciting.

I have a living room.  Did you hear me??  I have a living room.  We still need a couch, a table, a floor lamp and to put the pictures on the walls, but that will come soon enough.  15 years has given me the patience of Job.  Well, not really, but close. 

We will be working on the boys' old room's walls and painting them for Ruthie to move in there.  Then I'll re-do her room and have an office/craft/sewing room!! Can I get a Hip Hip Hooray!

And can I just share how much I love love love my new carpet?  It's like a spa day for my toes.  Everyday!  It's like walking on butter.  Yummy butter.  Come on over and give your toes a spa day.  They'll love you forever.

The Basement Updated

Let's head to the basement. 

Daniel painted the floor so that we can put the freezer on it and eventually add shelves.  The carpet will go up to that paint.

It's a yellow bathroom!  Oh My!  I was painting the furniture for the basement and was finished and had extra paint in the pan.  So I painted the bathroom.  It's a really nice shade of yellow.

And now onto the finishing work.  See that near the floor??  Baseboards.  Oh my life never felt so complete.  But wait...

Do you see that around yonder door?  Oh my.  It's.. it's.. it's.., door framing!  All the doors are on and the boards are up around them.  We still need to take the doors down to paint.  But that's easy!

And now let's go back upstairs.  Yes, the living room walls are the same color as the walls in the basement family room.  But I've got something else to show ya.  See those chairs??  Those are my first official furniture pieces for the living room.  I am in love with them.  And what are those things on those chairs, you ask?  CARPET SAMPLES!!! 

Oh, yes, my darling ones.  We are getting carpet.  The carpet measuring guy is coming today and will measure the basement and all the carpeted rooms upstairs. 

 

My life is just about complete.

Wait.  I need chocolate...

A Day Of Labor.

So the basement goal was to have carpet in by Labor day.  Aaaaaaaaaah.  Think vibrato, Angels are singing. 

But things change.  Plans change.  The Angels were on vacation.

The microwave stopped working.  One microwavable dish at a time.  When a simple quesadilla just wouldn't melt, we called it.

So long microwave which has gotten us through 14 and a half years of food warming and all around delightful nuking.

Daniel and I headed to Lowe's and got a new one on Monday.  We're staying with white to match the other appliances, then when we re-do the kitchen, (read:knock out the wall and give me a bigger kitchen) we'll replace all the appliances.  With another color.  Like black.  Or, if finances allow, that silver expensive stuff.

Here's the guy who's gonna put that baby in.  While he does that, I thought you might like to see what IS finished in the eternally unfinished basement...

All the window sills got painted on Monday.  The curtains had to come down for a day, but now they're finished. Yay window sills! Obviously we didn't pull weeds on Monday.  We need something to do another day.

I took the rest of that white paint and painted this door to the food storage.  It's already on it's hinges, so I did it carefully. Becuase we still have 4 more basement doors, all the basement baseboards to get done, and then 7 upstairs doors and many more baseboards to re-do, I suggested we invest in one of those paint sprayers.  Also, I have a trigger finger starting again.  Different hand and finger, but I can feel it growing.  I need a sprayer.

Daniel finished the bathroom tile.  Well, not the grout. But we purchased the grout.  So now he needs to grout.  Then I'll paint.  Then we'll get the vanity.  Then we'll call Steve to come put all the necessaries in so we have a functioning bathroom.  Except they can't shower til I get a shower curtain.  Details, details.

Oh!  Why look at that.  Tile in the entry way. Daniel stopped here, with 6 full tiles, but we can add another row to make it 9.  How clever is that!  And it needs to be grouted. 

Let's head back up and see what's happening with the microwave, shall we?  Let's shall.

What the WHAT??  A black microwave.  But.. But..  it's like 3-5 years early. 

What happened? 

Um.  They gave us the wrong one.  But we're Labored out.  Let's keep it.

And there you have it. One of these appliances is not like the others.  But it gives us hope that one day all the kitchen appliances will match.  And.. I guess we're going with black.

That was our Labor day.  We're labored out.  

Trees.

A couple of years ago a windstorm took out one of our front yard trees.  And we've been treeless on that side since.  Plus we live where we live, and trees and other items just don't always grow well.  So last weekend Daniel got some trees.  One for the front, one for the back and one for the pasture.

He started planting...this is the front yard, and then decided that giving a nice tree to the goats would be disgraceful.  They already ate one in the pasture and one in the yard.  Darn goats.

So the third one is now one of two in the backyard.  Let the tree growing begin.

Speaking of goats, last night at goat club we learned how to trim goat hooves.  Yay.  We'll be trimming the older goats soon.

And the tree planter extraordinaire! 

This morning Marsha the eyebrow lady was on channel 2 news.  She's participating in the Mrs. Utah pageant this weekend and her platform is working with the American Cancer Society.  She's a cancer survivor and works with women with cancer to make them beautiful during a very difficult disease.

Have a fantabulous Tuesday!

A Living Room At Last.

Well.  Almost.  I still need furniture.  But at least the toys are gone.

So much damage.  Those darn kids.  Throwing blocks and trucks and other such things at my walls.

 Daniel and I spackled and sanded and washed walls. 

 Then I put the primer on.  This is just one coat.  I needed 3 coats.  Those white stripes were a doozy. 

 

 Then the actual paint.  Oh. My. Goodness.  It looks so nice.  You can still see the outline of

the white lines.  But I won't point that out to you when you come over.

    

I am now priming that hutch there, as well as the frames, shelves, bookcase and a sofa table.  Those will all be yellow and go to the basement.
I love fresh paint!

My Unhealthy Relationship.

It's been going on for so long.  I have become numb to it over the years.  I look the other way.  I cover it up.  Sometimes I do let it just show.  I'm not proud.  Maybe I need help.  But I think I have learned to just live with it.  And even enjoy it a little.  I wonder if I need help.  In fact, it may seem that I'm asking for help because I'm blogging about it.  I'm not.  Not intentionally anyway.  I just thought I should be honest.  With myself.  With all of you.  So here it is.  My unhealthy relationship with...

 

Dust.

It's everywhere.  I have sent it on its way on so many mornings.  I've tried afternoons.  Heck!  I even brought my kids into the relationship.  But to no avail.  It always comes back.  With a vengeance even. 

It's just no use.  It keeps coming back and I keep letting it lie.  I don't dust as much as I used to.  It's an impossible relationship to break.  It's come to this.  Dust is here and I am letting it stay.

Don't try to help me.  I will be ok.  I'm sure of it.  I am even allowing my children to become immune to its powers.  We will all go on with our lives while the dust just sits there.  Because even if I dusted with the best of the products on the market, it will just be back in a day or two.  I have met my match.

Dust.

Just let it be.

A Tour.

I was down painting Sam's room this morning and realized I haven't done an update on the basement in a while.  So here it is...

 

When you first get down there and turn the corner, this is what you see.  I put a beige on the wall. The table and chairs is from when my family came for dinner last Sunday. 

Then you walk into the main family room area.  I was calling this color cinnamon.  But it's really more a cinnamon-y terra cotta color.  I like it.  The door to outside is also this color.  You may notice the air mattress on the floor.  The boys have taken to sleeping down there on the weekend.

Then you go to the hallway.  It's that same beige. 

Let's turn left to the bathroom.  Daniel has gotten the floor and wall tile up.  Isn't it nice?  He's working on the tub tile now.  Then we'll get grout and then we'll buy a vanity and paint and get the water hooked up!

Then let's go across the hall to the spare room.  I painted it a color I thought would be neutral and nice.  I hate it.  I absolutely hate it.  I made some curtains that I love.  We began moving items from the storage unit back in.  This is our storage room.  Ugly color that it is.

Then across the hall again to Isaac's room.  Still no paint.  But some toys and stuff.  I will paint his room next.  Think green.

And lastly, down the hall to Sam's room.  I painted as much as I could go with the paint I poured into the paint pan.  I got pretty far.  Saturday I'll finish and his room will be done.  But Wait!

He has one small wall that sticks out.  He wanted it dark blue with some white circles on it.  So it's dark blue and then the circles will go up last.

Aahhh.  I feel much better now that that's done. 

 

On another note.  Did you watch Downton Abbey Sunday?  Are you as apathetic now about the whole shebang as I am?  Highly disappointing.  At least he left the estate in good shape and a male heir.  Die scum.  Go on to Broadway and leave Mary all alone to raise the child and not have a soul in the world know what a nice woman she really is.

 

Aaahhh.  Much much better.

Just In Case...

This is a just in case post.  Just in case you were wondering.  So, with that in mind, I thought I'd update us.  You know, just in case you wanted to know.  We are back to school, work, life and health.  Back on Christmas Eve we went to Abbie and Poppy's for festivities.  The kids all got jammies from Abbie and Poppy.  Here are all the cousins.  Ruthie is holding David.  He looks like an elf and Daniel and I had a ton o' fun playing with him. 

For the Nativity this year, Ruthie played Mary.  That's Zac playing Joseph, just in case you wondered.  That baby is our cousin James who was born in July but not due til October.  He wanted to get here fast!  He's so tiny and so fun to hold.

Christmas morning brought gifts from Santa, AKA mom and dad.  Yep.  They all know and they aren't ashamed.  Ruthie had a swell Christmas.  She is newly into Legos and now has a sweet collection. 

Sammy loved his Lego set and used the whole day to put it together.  He also loved his new jammy bottoms and the blanket.

Isaac got the gift of his dreams.  A Lego Technic car.  I don't have any more of a title than that.  He built it, drove it around and uses other Technic pieces to do other things with it. 

Just in case you wanted to know, this is what the Christmas day table looked like. 

See that picture in the back?  It's called "Behold He Cometh" and my dad gave that to Daniel and me.  It's for our living room.  Yep!  I'll have a real honest to goodness living room soon.  See that snake in the front?  Sam set that up and uses it as a character from one of his many monster movies.  I don't know his name, but he's out quite a bit. 

And just in case you were wondering, here is the basement bathroom.  Daniel put the floor tile in and is now working on the wall tile.  Why wall tile you ask?  If you have boys, well, you already know why.  If you don't have boys, well, your walls are safe, and you probably don't have tile on your bathroom walls.  And as for the painting, just in case you wondered, I have come to a complete stand still.  I painted with one color and then did the extra bedroom so we can clear out the storage unit.  It's not done and I just haven't gotten back down to finish it.  I'm tired.  I also lost the hurry up about it because the family party is over and done.  I suppose if I want carpet I'd better get back to painting!  But not today.

For new year's eve, we stayed up late, I threw up and everyone slept until 9:30 the next morning. 

Since Wednesday we have been back to regular life and such.  And there you have it, just in case you wanted to know.