Natural Air Conditioning

Some progress has been made on out family room!  We now have 2 wooden doors up, fully insulated and drywall being put up as we speak.  My brother is doing a steller job.

Remember when I said we had an air leak around our sliding door?  Well it was a little worse than we imagined.  As my brother pulled off all the paneling, we found this.

That is the top of the door and and good quarter of an inch of nothing! I don't know who installed this door but they must have stock in our electric company.  Unreal.  Good news is we put a stop to the constant air flow with some Great Stuff.  Hopefully this $4.95 item will save us a huge chunk on our electric bill.  Instantly we could feel a difference.

I'll keep you posted on the updates! More to come soon!  Oh and I'm also working on my St. Patricks Day Wreath, I know you are excited!

High Home Hopes

We have some High Home Hopes for the upcoming year.  Looking back at the last year and a half we have done some major renovating, making our home ours.  Of course we could not have done it without the help from our family. So far we have repainted and carpeted 4 bedrooms/office.  Repainted the hallways and living room.  Dismantled the dark wood paneling and painted the foyer.  Replaced 2 outside lights and 3 inside lights.  Had the downstairs bathroom completely gutted and rebuilt and finally tiled and painted the laundry room.  Did you miss those posts? Click on the 'home' tag on the left.  So what could we possibly have left?  Well the downstairs family room, the dining room, full bathroom and of course the ever so expensive kitchen.
This year we hope to accomplish the full bathroom, downstairs family room and reorganization of the garage.  We have started, well I should say my brother has started the downstairs family room.  Due to our un-handyness and his need for a few extra bucks it's a win-win.

Another dose of paneling downstairs. Luckily this is thin, and luckily we are taking it down since there is no drywall or or insulation behind it. Surprise!!!! (I use sarcasm to hid my tears...)


you are so jealous of that light in the corner aren't you? it's yours for 1 million blog bucks.



Here we are in the midst of demo work and you see the sliding glass door on the right? yes that is why my electric bill is $500 and I am sitting here wearing layers. When I look at the edge of the door I can see right to the outside. Perhaps the people who put it in thought it would be good for ventilation?

So we start the year with more projects.
We'll see how much time and money we have left to see if we can touch the kitchen.  Believe it or not these fake red bricks still are not growing on me.

Grey and black swirlies

Excuse me while I finish my frozen dark chocolate chip cookie...mmmm something about a cookie being frozen makes it so much better.  On that topic...if you are jumping on the frozen cookie bandwagon, fig newtons frozen are pretty darn good.

I was sitting here eating my cookie and tending to my pretend farm on facebook, yes I had a very eventful night, I'm reminded I've never given you all a full updated look of our grey and yellow office.  I made some finishing touches in the past week.  While it is not fully complete, I will share.  Pardon the random things on the floor and desk.

You get the idea :-)  What's that?  You want to know who did the lovely art on the wall?  Oh that was silly ol' me!  How did I do it you ask?  Well, simple really.  I took two same sized frames and took the glass out.  Then I went to my friendly Joann's Fabric Store and picked out a lovely swirly black and grey designed fabric that was just waiting for me in the discounted remnant pile, while there I also picked up a role of cork board.  It all came together by layering the fabric then the cork board then the backing to the frame and voila! You have your very own personalized cork boards!

We got the desk, chairs and middle drawer from Ikea, the nice yellow mini table perfect for our ginormous printer, on the right at Target on what? on clearance! what what! And the bookcase was from the upstairs bedroom which we are clearing out so we can fit a bed and dresser.

Woo hoo! Slowly but surely we will get this house in tip top shape! Just in time to start all over again :-)

Lo Siento mis amigos.
I have been MIA for awhile now, I have missed you.  Some things have been keepin me busy, the volleyball season kicking into full swing and the ever continuous remodel of our home.  I hope you are doing well and excited for a turkey, shopping and family filled week.
While I have almost had to call in reinforcements to advertise my coaching abilities to some prospective players after 2 weeks my Dad and I ALMOST have a team.  I have found that tryouts are not only for the girls but for the coaches.  I almost feel as if it is a personal attack if they do not choose to be on my team. I mean, come on, am I not the best coach ever?  Seriously I'm kidding best coach ever thing, I try my best.  I Hate this time of the season, and I don't just toss that word around lightly, and every year it seems to get a little more ridiculous.  I do however love that first practice, you know the one that they actually all listen at.
Anyway, Our downstairs is slowly getting transformed and we will soon be able to use our entire house!  Our bathroom has gone from this...

To this in 2 weeks time.

To say that I love it, doesn't even cover my excitement.  It's amazing.  Even more amazing because we didn't have to do anything but pick out the appliances/paint/tile.  Of course we still need to find a mirror, but then it will be a full functionin bathroom, woo hoo!

Ahhhhhh...carpet

Hello!

I'm writing you from a new location, one that smells of fresh carpet and paint.  A project we have been working on for probably the past month.  Well today my friends was the day the computer made the move to the downstair, while the whole reveal is not ready, I was too excited to not tell you.
We chose the color palate of grey and yellow.  I love it!

Today my Mom and I went to Ikea to pick up a few finishing touches for the room.  Mainly the desk and chairs.



Ikea



Ikea



I can't wait to finish the room, we really haven't ventured down here till recently.  Next up will be to redo the powder room and laundry room, then the family room.  We can't wait to have more living space, hopefully it will alleviate the spare bedroom/storage room syndrome.

Sangria!

Hello my peeps, what's up?  Sorry I've been MIA, with the holiday and long weekend I've been a little busy.
I had a very productive weekend, and I'm quite proud with my accomplishments.
When we first moved in a little over a year ago it was a whirlwind, we successfully got the 3 upstairs bedrooms, washed, spackled, primed, painted and carpeted in about a week.  We would not have been able to do it with all the help we had from our family, lots of man hours were put in.  Since that first crazy week we painted and redecorated the living room, hallway and foyer.  We have just recently started tackling the downstairs, so far we have paint color picked out for the downstairs office, the walls are all ready to be painted and carpet will be picked out any day. 

In the mean time I thought I would start a little project of my own.  A spot that has been neglected but seen on a daily basis. The downstairs landing/hallway.It's not completed, just needs some trimwork done and the doors painted to match the trim, but you get the idea. I painted the walls and ceiling, and get this...put down new vinyl tiles. I'm so proud, all in a weekend.

Right after replacing the door into the garage.

Hallway/landing painted

Hallway/landing painted and new flooring!

Here is a better look at the tile

Woo hoo! Go me!

To celebrate the update and Labor Day, Sangria was just what my sore muscles ordered.  Don't worry...it's healthy, I mean look at all the fruit

Here's my fav recipe. Yum.

So....
What did the Red Tomato say to

The Green Tomato?

Hey why don't you Ketchup!

I love my Dad's cheesy Dad jokes. Hah and this is one of his recent ones when I told him only one of my tomato's was red and the others are slacking.  Put a smile on my face and gave me a little chuckle and hope it did for you too.

While our garden is not too extensive and confined to individual pots, it has brought me joy to watch it all grow.  Last night the hubs used some of our rosemary to make oven potatoes yum! And I cut up some grape tomato's for a tomato and mozzarella salad.  There is something so satisfying and peaceful about gardening.  I will have to remember for next year to have a little more selection.

One thing I can't live without

For my wedding shower about a year ago I got one of my favorite gifts of all time.

Keurig

This is awesome!  Working different shifts, it's pointless to make a whole pot of coffee.  Plus if I make a whole pot, I will usually drink a whole pot and that's not necessarily a good thing.  Wasteful and usually results in me shaking and talking uncontrollably.  While the K-cups can be pricey.  I think the convenience and non-wastefulness (pretty sure I just made up a word) outweighs the price.  Plus it beats stopping at Starbucks or Dunkin, which I would resort do on lazy days.
Here is the Deal of the Week.  While it's not like most of my DOTW's where I barely spend any money, still it's something that I WANT to spend money on.  I purchase my K-cups at Bed Bath and Beyond, and use my 20% off coupons (which you can use in one order 1 for every item you have, and they expire even if they have an expiration date).  I came across some $5 off of $15 purchase.  This is a better deal for the coffee.  With 2 20% off coupons for 2- $9.99 2 K-cups would be $15.98.  With a $5 off $15 2 K-cups are $15!  Only $1 in savings but that extra $1 bought me an icecream cone from Micky D's :-) 
It's the simple things in life people!  Oh and what's my Fav flavor you ask?  Butter Toffee...Yum!

I'm too sexy for my laundry soap...

Our house is filled with the fresh clean scent of Fels Naptha.

Remember that laundry soap I made back in February? I am almost out.  One batch lasted us almost 6 months. 

I highly recommend making your own.  It takes 15minutes at most to make a batch and it is so easy!  Faster than getting in your car and buying some at the store, or even better faster than clipping coupons and waiting for it to go on sale to get the best bang for your buck.  Ingredients are cheap, it is about a penny a load.

Here is todays batch, each laundry load takes about 1/4 cup of soap.  You are jealous of my olive green sink aren't you?  If you like that then you will loooove my faux brick back splash ;-)

How sexy!
Another tip, this one found in this months All You magazine (which is an awesome source for coupons!)...to clean your washer fill basin with water and add 2 cups of white vinigar, let sit for an hour then run through a cycle.  Nice and fresh washer!

Who needs a makeover?

Definitely not this bathroom...

I mean look at it, not an imperfection to it.

We had a contractor over to give us an estimate on this bad boy.  Still waiting to hear back.  I will be a complete remodel, new drywall and all.  It's one of the first steps to tackling "The Downstairs" (cue in the psycho killer screech).

I'm thinking the transformation will be pretty drastic, what do you think?