Enjoying the fireplace

Saturday, December 5, 2015

New Carpet

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

When we moved into our new house, there appeared to be 3 rooms that still had the original carpet from when the home was built - two of the bedrooms upstairs and my office. We knew that we would wanted to replace that carpet when we had the funds and so I was on the lookout for a replacement for it. We really like the carpet that is in our great room - off the kitchen - so I was trying to find something similar to that. It is a super soft carpet that is a neutral beige color, but with multiple colors in it, not a solid color.

One day I was looking at Home Depot and found something that is pretty close to an exact match. Then they had a sale going on with free installation and a percentage off of the total if you opened a Home Depot credit card. So we decided to go forward with it for the two bedrooms. (We are looking at either hardwood or laminate for my office. I don't want carpet in there.)

Someone came out to measure the rooms and then they ordered the carpet and pad and then we set up an installation date. We decided to remove the old carpet and padding ourselves to save some money. So when the installer showed up on Wednesday morning, it was a pretty quick and smooth job for him. Since everything had to be moved out of the rooms, we decided to swap the room that MJ and Kay are sleeping in and setup our old queen bed in the other room for a guest bedroom. (Luke and M&M have their own bedrooms downstairs and Blondie & Kitty share a room downstairs.)

Some before pictures - this one has the carpet removed with the pad still in.

It's hard to tell in this picture but the carpet was pretty worn right around the doorway into the rooms.

Getting ready to pull up the old carpet

The bedroom furniture in the great room!

New padding installed

It doesn't look too different in the pictures but it looks and feels totally different in person!

Office cabinets

Saturday, February 14, 2015

For Valentine's Day, DH installed these cabinets in my office:

Before picture - we moved this desk down to Luke's room.

Valentine Decorations

February 2015

Lights on the house

Saturday, December 6

DH had put most of the lights up the week before but then we wanted to add the icicle lights.  Here are a few pictures of DH, Luke and M&M on the roof - Luke was pretty scared up there (and I had tried going up the week before and was pretty scared myself).  The previous owners had left their Christmas lights because they were cut to length for the house. We didn't like the fact that they were only white and red bulbs though so we bought some green and blue ones to add to the strings. We're not quite sure if we put them up correctly but they didn't look too bad.

Christmas wreath

Thursday, December 4, 2015

I decided to try my hand at making a Christmas wreath for the front door this year. I think it turned out pretty good.

Kay helped me!

50th Anniversary

My parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on August 25. They had an open house celebration at their house on August 30th. All but 2 of my siblings were able to attend. The day after the open house we had a family dinner at our house on Sunday after church. Can I just say that I love this house and the space that it has to be able to have the space for events like this! At one point all of the adults were upstairs talking and the kids were downstairs playing and we couldn't even hear them! My brother and his 2 daughters stayed at our house for a couple of nights and then Kitty and Blondie spent a night at my parents' house with them. They also went to church with us on Sunday.

Picture that my parents took for the invitation.

My mom with her 3 siblings still living.

The girls after church - yes my brother's girls are much taller than mine!

Group picture

Family picture - with 2 siblings missing

My parents with the grandkids that were able to come for the anniversary party.

Making goofy faces!

Kitchen sink upgrades

Saturday, June 15

Our kitchen faucet has been leaking at the joints for a while now and was starting to do some damage to the counter top and under the sink so DH was finally able to take some time out of his schedule to replace the faucet and he decided to do the sink as well so we could have a deeper one.  After a lot of measuring and researching on the internet we decided we would be able to put in a sink that was 2 inches deeper.  It took pretty much all day to get everything out and replaced and running to the stores a couple of times!  It looks really good though!  The faucet has a built-in sprayer that detaches from the base of the faucet and we put in a soap dispenser as well.  Now we can fit in a lot more dirty dishes!  :) Plus it helps with cleaning some of the bigger pots and things and it is much easier now to fill up a pitcher.  There still appears to be a slight leak around the garbage disposal so we think there is not a tight seal and we may need to order a new part for it.

Stucco repair

Friday, May 24

We recently had some stucco repair done on our house.  It has been a problem for quite a while but we just finally got around to getting it taken care of.  I got a referral of a construction company from a neighbor who had some repair done on their stucco last year.  The company came out and gave me an estimate and after the sent it to me and I sent it back in agreeing to it, they sent a worker out to repair it. I was out in the garden when he stopped by - and I didn't even know they would be sending someone out that day.  The front section of our house here did not have any flashing installed when it was built so the water has been dripping down the side of the house and then got in under the stucco and caused cracks all down the side.  When the worker took the stucco off, the plywood underneath was all rotting and wet still from rain several days ago.  Unfortunately that part of the house never sees the sun because it is on the north side of the house.  The worker tore down all of the stucco and plywood on the section of the house and then reinstalled it and added the flashing to the roof.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the before, but this is what it looked like when he left on Friday.  I guess it is a type of stucco primer.

Then with it being Memorial Day weekend, he didn't return to finish the job until Tuesday.  Unfortunately we got some rain over the weekend and it was still dripping down the side.  I asked the worker about that when he came back on Tuesday and he said that that happened because he hadn't sealed the flashing to the side of the stucco yet (maybe he needed to wait until it dried and then painted it).

Here are some pictures of the finished product.  I think he did a good job matching the paint and he even left the leftover paint for us in case we want to do touchup work on the house anywhere.  Overall I was pretty pleased with the work that was done and would call the company again if we needed it.  (Although I'm not sure if it has rained since the work was finished!)

New dishwasher!!

Friday, January 11

We have been searching for a new dishwasher since summertime but we kept putting it off and not really wanting to make a decision on it and actually get one.  Then our old dishwasher finally died on us around Thanksgiving time and then it was a matter of timing and when we could actually get the dishwasher to our house and have the time to install it.  They we decided to send DH to visit his parents for a week right after Christmas and I didn't want to have to deal with one coming in while he was gone and not being able to get it installed so we waited some more.  I actually had finally decided on which model I wanted and when I went to the store to order it I was told that that model has been discontinued!  So it was back to the drawing board again and then I decided to wait until DH came back to actually put the order in.  We decided on a lower model than we initially wanted but it ended up saving us quite a bit of money and there were only a couple of non-essential features that we wanted that the one we bought doesn't have - such as a countdown on the front panel and some fold down tines on the bottom rack.

We opted to pick the dishwasher up ourselves instead of having it delivered and we decided to try installing it ourselves.  We were told that it would be in in a few days and they would call us.  Well a few days passed and no phone call.  So we waited another day or two and then called in and were told that it had arrived just that day so we picked it up in our van that evening.  Then it was a matter of trying to get the thing installed (we had already removed the old dishwasher the previous weekend when we made the purchase).  After working on installing the new dishwasher for some time we discovered that the new water hose that came with the dishwasher was not going to be quite long enough to reach where it needed to.  So we were going to wait until Saturday and see if we could buy something longer at a home improvement store.  Then DH decided to just give it a try and he managed to get it hooked up and we turned the power back on and it worked!

For the most part I am very pleased with the dishwasher.  It is SUPER quiet which was the feature that we were most concerned about.  It also seems to fit a LOT more than our old dishwasher.  The door sits quite a bit closer to the ground when it is open and that gives a lot more room inside to fit taller and oversized items that either wouldn't fit in our old dishwasher or took up way too much room (although it also makes you have to bend down more to load the bottom rack).  It is also quite a bit of a different look when the door is open with the stainless steel tub inside.  It gives it a much darker look.

Crazy day!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursdays are always busy right now with soccer season in full swing (all three of the kids playing soccer usually have practice or a game this day), but this day was even more busy than usual.  My Visiting Teachers came over this morning so I spent some time this morning cleaning.  They came and left and then I took MJ and Kay to a neighbor's house so I could go to the dentist (oh what fun!).  It was just a routine cleaning, but I needed the dentist to take a closer look at my mouth so we can keep an eye on any problems and watch out for osteoneucrosis of the jaw (which is a potential side effect of the Avastin treatment that I am on).   So I had to explain the cancer that I have and the treatments that I am under for that.  After I was through there (and thankfully no problems were seen) I went back and picked up the girls and then we came home for some lunch.

 Just after M&M got home from school the power went out in the house.  I had just been trying to make some reservations online to get the older kids in some swimming lessons when everything went dead. At first M&M thought it might be someone pulling a prank on us (the power switch to the house is pretty easily accessible) so I went outside to check the power and it was still in the on position. I then went downstairs to the storage room and checked the circuit breakers and they were all in the on position as well. We looked around a little outside, but how can you tell if your neighbors have power or not during the middle of a sunny day?  I ended up calling DH at work and had him do some looking online for me.  He found through our power company's website that there were some power outages in our area and the cause was unknown.  The estimated time for the power to return was around 7:30 p.m. - it went off around 3:30.  When the elementary school kids got home they said that the power had been out at school as well.  Around 5:00 I went out to the garage to see if I could figure out how to open the garage door so I could get the car out when the light in there turned on and I realized that the power had finally come back on!  Yea! 

Luke got himself ready for soccer practice and got a ride with a friend.  Then I prepared dinner and just when I was finishing the preparations, DH came home from work just in time to take M&M to practice and then stop on the way home to pick up Luke and a friend from practice and bring them home (Blondie had her practice on Wednesday this week).  While he was gone I fed dinner to the younger kids and then DH and Luke ate when they got home.  I then piled MJ and Kay into the car to go with me to pick up M&M from her practice.  We got there a few minutes before the practice ended so I let them play on the playground while we waited.

 We arrived home just as Luke was finishing up his shower.  M&M sat down to have some dinner and I heard Luke downstairs calling for me.  I made my way down there and was about to walk over to the bathroom when I realized that the laundry room floor was completely covered in water.  Luke was calling to me from the bathroom trying to tell me that his pajamas and clothes that had been on the floor in the bathroom while he showered were now completely wet.  I was just standing there trying to figure out what to do and where the water was coming from. There is a second door from the bathroom that leads into Luke's bedroom so I told him to go through that door to his room to get some dry clothes and I ran upstairs looking for DH.  Well, DH was in the bathroom upstairs so I told him that there was some water flooding downstairs and I needed his help when he was through.  I didn't wait for a response and quickly ran back downstairs to try and figure out what was going on.  I grabbed the mop and started mopping up the water in the laundry room and wringing it out into a bucket. I called Blondie over to come and help me while I grabbed a second mop.  I had M&M run upstairs for some towels to dry off some things that had been sitting on the laundry room floor.  Finally I had mopped up enough water that I could make it to the bathroom and opened the door to see the damage in there. The floor and rugs were completely soaked in there. I then opened up the shower door (it is a shower with no bathtub) and there was several inches of standing water just sitting there in the shower - the water was not draining out of the drain at all... I grabbed the toilet plunger and started plunging where the drain was until I was able to get the water to start slowly draining. I then called to Luke and asked him why he continued showering with the water not draining. His response was that he just figured the shower door would hold the water in... (...and then what happens when you open the door with half a foot of standing water being held in by the door????)   Not one of his more brilliant moments...  So all of the flooding was caused by our son showering and the drain being completely stopped up.  After I got the water drained out of the shower I had Luke bring me a screwdriver and I removed the drain cover so I could clean out the drain.  I also noticed that the sink drain wasn't working too well so I cleaned that out while I was at it. In the meantime Blondie and Kitty were mopping for me and I kept wondering why my husband wasn't coming down to help and see what the problem was.  So I went upstairs and found him laying down on our bed with some pretty severe stomach cramps.  Apparently he told me that after I came and found him in the bathroom, but I must have left the room already because I didn't hear him say that. Luckily the floor there in the bathroom and laundry room is tile and none of the water made it to the bedroom or family room carpet so there wasn't any damage done.  And apparently the low point in those two rooms is the laundry room by the washer and dryer.  While we were trying to clean up the water MJ kept trying to play with the water in the bucket and then once I found her sitting in the middle of the laundry room floor trying to play in the water!  Oh what fun she can be at times!

Out with the old, in with the new!

We decided to try and sell our old couch for a really low price on the online classified ads, but had no takers so we finally listed it in the free section. Unfortunately I had several people call and express interest but then once they started asking questions, it turned out that they were looking for something nicer. I actually had one person call and ask if she could come and look at it. So she drove 20 minutes to get to my house and drove over in a car that she couldn't transport it in and said she would have to see if she could get a truck to borrow. She called back later and said that she couldn't get a truck that day (I don't think she was really interested after seeing i)t. We have owned this couch for over 12 years and it has definitely taken a beating from our kids. I listed all of the problems with it in the classified ad and we were listing it for free so I was frankly surprised with how many people called hoping it would be something that it was not. Finally at the end of the third day that we had it listed someone called up and came and took it away. I was quite surprised at how difficult it would be to give away a couch... (We are currently keeping the matching love seat and it is in our bedroom right now for a little sitting area.

Living room

Our living room is starting to come together piece by piece. The wood floor was our first step, then we finally found and ordered a couch that we liked. Our next step was to find two chairs to put over by the windows. DH and I looked at many, many different types of accent chairs and we would find one that we liked the look of, but wasn't very comfortable so we kept looking. There were two chairs that I found that I thought were comfortable - one was a beautiful accent chair at Bassett Furniture (where we ordered our couch from) and the other was a wingback chair at a smaller furniture store in Salt Lake. The Bassett chair was super expensive and I was having a hard time justifying buying it (and two of them eventually). The wingback chair was nice, but also expensive and we weren't quite sure on the colors that were offered for it. I decided to try looking around at some classified ads on the internet and had found some that would work but I would need to get them reupholstered (which could be quite expensive). One day I came across an ad for some dark blue wingback chairs with some gold and red coloring on the fabric - exactly the same colors as one of the accent pillows that we picked out for the couch. Finally DH and I decided to go and take a look at them and we decided to buy them! We went on a Thursday evening (March 24th) and only took MJ with us - the person selling them lived near downtown Salt Lake and we had to take the back bench out of the van. We paid about half the price of what we would have paid to get the cheaper set of wingback chairs at the furniture store. Then the next day our couch was delivered! Now we need to find an area rug and decide if we want any tables or other furniture in the room. The one thing I really want is some type of small dresser/cabinet to keep music in. (And I have been having a hard time getting any pictures of the furniture without at least one kid in the picture...)The pillows on the chairs are the pillows I made for our old couch. They are not in very good shape and I will be replacing them once we decide on an area rug. They don't look too bad on them for right now though.