Evolving ideas

So the electrician came yesterday and started wiring things up. He's not done and we found out that he's kinda working us in when he's not on this really huge job that he's also doing. That's ok with us, it gives us time to ponder things. Like not getting that tankless water heater that we were going to get. We just decided against it, it's not really worth the cost to us so we scrapped the idea. If we had gas piped to the house then it would be a different decision entirely, but we don't so that's that. So back to pondering things. We are somewhat masters of using almost every inch of available space. When you have a relatively small house and a bunch of people and lots of things, you get creative on how to organize and store things. Let's look back at out very first act of creating usable space from "dead" or hard to access space, the coffee bar.

Here's the before and after on that. The cavity for the coffee bar existed before, but it was accessed from inside the pantry. As you can see, (refer to the finished picture or this description will get weird) it's not a terribly deep space, but it's wide. When you put that into perspective with the previous version, that makes it narrow and long so basically you could fit your arm in there but not the rest of your body so it made this really awkward space to say stash a broom, have it fall to the back, then you couldn't reach it without serious effort. We have neighbors who have put shelves in that area and that would have been a great solution except that the idea of a coffee bar was super appealing to us. Also, if you do shelves for that entire area, you still have the issue of not reaching what's in the back and if you didn't make them go all the way back you're wasting space so whatever, we made a coffee bar. This has been a fabulous feature for us as it frees up counter space in the kitchen and we think that it is visually appealing. We still have plans to trick it out a little more but for now this is what it's like. (See Henry there in the corner of that pic? His "desk/office" is right there for now so he's really digging the coffee bar ;) LOL)
So what other space saving/space using plans do we have now?? I have that answer along with a poorly photo shopped proposed "after" shot. When the framing was done upstairs to create the hallway, it created a dead space between two of the walls. We've been racking our brains trying to come up with ideas for that space so that it's not wasted. Henry to the rescue when he said that it would be great to put shelves in, and not only shelves for his office, but shelves for the bathroom. His office shares the wall with the back of the tub (complete with its own toilet! - just overlook that) So anyway, if he has shelves or custom drawers in there, he could put books or cds or photos or all of those random cables and usb sticks and such in there. His office is really small and that little bit of extra space for all of the little things that clutter up everything could make a huge difference. The area between the walls is only like 12" wide, but it's deep so that's when the idea for the bathroom shelves came in so that we could utilize all of the dead space. I didn't photoshop his side, but I did photoshop the bathroom side so in theory it could look something like this----------------------------------------------------------->
It could be a space for towels or wash cloths or makeup or extra toilet paper (in baskets) or something else pretty and decorative. It could also help alleviate that jumbled mess that's under the bathroom sink. By both rooms sharing the space, it ensures that the shelves won't bee too deep to reach things that go to the back of them. So there you have it, our latest brainstorm and plan to utilize all of the extra space that we can. ~Kellie~

No news isn't necessarily good news

Some of you have asked how things with the house are going, and the answer is that they really aren't. The only thing that has been done since my last blog post is that the contractor came out himself and put shingles on the house portion of the addition so that water would stop pouring in when it rained. Apparently there was some issue with the actual roofer and blah blah blah, he couldn't get him to come out and he (the contractor) didn't want to leave us hanging so he and one other guy came out and roofed it. The porch still isn't roofed but Henry and I did get up there and put tar paper on it so it's not raining under the porch anymore. As far as the construction, that's really all that there is to report other than the funny call we got from the permit office but that has all been straightened out. The city didn't want to give him one permit for $50k, but they'd gladly give him two permits for $24,999 for a small fee and he could go on his merry way and carry on with his plans. That's just stupid and another way for the city to make money. I feel bad for him, but welcome to Franklin I suppose.
Sort of related to the renovation, Henry and I finally ordered the new stove and dishwasher that we've been eying for like ten months. We were told that black Friday would be the lowest prices that there would be all year so we patiently waited for that day. The dishwasher was on sale, the stove was not (wth??), but we got $50 off for buying two appliances. That does not equate to a sale price on the stove but at least it's something. They did tell us that if it went on sale during the next thirty days that they'd refund the difference so there's that. To top it off we will get some cheap gas on our next fill up because of that whole rewards program thing so all in all I suppose it's not too bad. Our purchasing experience was overly complicated and drawn out as usual (Home Depot, when will we ever learn??) but we eventually got it paid for and left the store. They will not be installing it because the laminate does not go under the dishwasher and makes a small lip so they won't install. Again, wth?? It's like a quarter of an inch and doesn't interfere with removing the dishwasher. Ask me how I know, go ahead. It's not a big deal because we know how to install it, but it's still ridiculous. It's also ridiculous that they don't charge you sales tax on the dishwasher if you have it installed because it's considered a "service" and therefore not taxable but since we aren't having it installed we had to pay sales tax on it. I guess that makes that fifty dollars off for buying two appliances irrelevant. The install was $69 extra which is basically the same as the sales tax that we paid so whatever.

So, who wants pictures?!?!?!?

This is the dishwasher that we got. The controls are at the top so little fingers don't push all the buttons and melt all my tupperware. The picture on the right? See those little blue things? Those are special bottle/glass cleaner wands that fit up in the container and shoot water into the bottom thus removing the sludge of chocolate milk or whatever else might have been lurking in there.

Below is the stove that we got. It has a smooth top, five burners (do you still call them burners if there is no flame?), and double ovens. Just look at all the pizzas I can cook in there at a time! I have no idea what I will do with all of the pans that used to live in the bottom drawer but I smell another kitchen remodel to figure it out. *Note: We actually do know what to do with them but it really is another project for another day. I'm super glad that when I boil over stuff, it won't go all down in the eyes resulting in a tear down and scrubbing of parts of the stove that normal humans are not meant to see. I've had a smooth top before so I'm aware of the whole no cast iron on them, don't use scrubby pads, etc. so no harping on that in the comments. I'm also super stoked that the elements in the stove are covered so there's no crazy mess around them either. I think that a stove with two ovens is a good choice for us because we have a bunch of kids. We can do two pizzas and breadsticks at the same time, or dinner and dessert, or just use the small one on top when it's just Henry and I. In any case, I'm really excited to have a new stove and dishwasher since I have had the same ones for like thirteen years and they weren't that great to begin with. I know that that's probably not a long time to have (cheap) appliances, but it's two marriages, two houses, and four kids later and I'm thrilled for the change. I'm glad that I got to pick out what I wanted and didn't just choose the cheapest ones in the store because they were functional (and cheap). So there you have it, that's all that's new with us. ~Kellie~

Drying it in

When I last checked in on Day:1 (three days ago), they had ripped off the roof, framed in the new exterior walls, and added one truss. By the end of Day:2, they had turned their attention to how they were going to connect the new space with the old space. Some of these pics probably won't make a whole lot of sense but I'll try to explain the best that I can. Some I made notes on, some I didn't so just bear with me. I've included the "plans" so that you can orient yourself.
So this first photo is taken from the doorway of the original master (which will become a hallway opening and Jonas's room). You can see that they have removed the small closet that was there so that they can frame in the other end of the hall opening.

By the end of Day:2, the outside of the house looked something like this. The roof trusses were up and the sheathing was on it, and they had started adding the sheathing to the the walls. They were also beginning to frame in the new porch extension. I guess that seems like not a whole lot for an entire day's work, but there were many many things that had to be figured out and measured and planned for so that things could go on.

Day: 3 arrived and they started really framing the porch. Now I was out running errands so I missed this part. If I had been home I would have caught a little error that's showing here. I'll explain more about that later.
Some of you have asked how things are going living in the house while all of this is going on, and the answer to that is well, it's interesting. For example, they removed the ceiling and all of that jazz from the downstairs portion of the addition area which meant
that my dryer vent was removed. We have a lot of laundry here,
so after just a few days of construction things were getting pretty tight on the whole clothing thing so being as creative as we are, we engineered a solution to the problem of venting all that hot wet air into the construction area. With just a little well placed duct tape and a partially opened window, we vented the dryer. YAY, now we can have clean clothes again. The lack of laundry did leave me wearing a dress until all of my jeans were washed, but Joy said that I looked festive so I guess it wasn't all bad. :-p

Speaking of Joy, I was out running craft fair errands while they were framing the porch so when I came home and they were almost finished I noticed this glaring error. I guess you can't see it very well in this picture but I noticed it right away and immediately hated it. The porch did not go all the way to the corner of the house. They did it that way on purpose to allow for trim and gutters, but I wasn't having it and when the contractor saw it he was right there with me in the no, no, no, this can't happen, let's do this instead. I felt kinda bad but the guys were really good sports about it and quickly adjusted things
so that it did go all the way to the edge. 

Earlier that morning they had cut open the master and started framing. I had a little bit of a "Money Pit" moment when I was grabbing a few forgotten things from the master bath and I walked out of the door to see that the wall had been removed and I was staring at construction workers first thing in the morning. Hi guys! (Yes, I had clothes on.) So anyway this pic is obviously from later in the day and you can see the framing starting to take shape. The pic on the left is from the hallway in, and the pic on the right is from the new master out. I did think to label that one so that you can see what you're looking at. The door for the bathroom looks really small but it's only the angle, it's the same size as it was before. It's also going to be a pocket door so that changes things as well.

Speaking of the new master, here are some shots from within that area. The first one here is the front of the house which will be the bedroom part. It does look really narrow, but it's the same size as the one that we had before so we're used to it. We only go there to sleep and hide from the kids anyway so we don't need a ton of room. We do gain a little additional room due to the face that we now also get a hallway to the bathroom so I guess there's that. On the other end of this is the area that will be the closet and Henry's new office. If you look really closely you can see the stud that looks thicker than the others, that's where the wall will divide the two spaces. It also looks tiny but it is what it is. Our goal with the addition wasn't to have huge sprawling rooms, it was just to give everyone their own dedicated space. I know that some would say oh you have five bedrooms but they are all small, and that is correct. The master and Kinsley's room are the biggest (I'm sure we'll hear about that later) but even they aren't huge. The simple facts of the matter are that the footprint of the house is only so big and that expanding that footprint (which is an option that we previously considered) would have taken way more money than we wanted to

spend. Other facts about this are that we totally love our location and our neighborhood and even our crazy neighbors, so we didn't want to move. We actually did check into moving and let me tell you that a decent five bedroom house in any kind of decent location in Franklin is waaay more than we wanted to spend or than we will have invested in our house after all of this. Even a really crappy outdated house (like this one was when we bought it) was more to start than we have invested in ours so far so for all those who wondered, that's why we did what we did. Anyway, back to the addition.
By the end of Day: 3, here's where we are. The photo above shows that the hall closet (that little part jutting into the room) and all of the other interior walls up there have been framed. This closet will take the place of the one that we ripped down on the other side. No we couldn't leave it because it was in the way of where the bathroom door needed to be. (Refer back to the "plans" above if you're not sure.) They also added plywood over the hall opening to keep the cold air from rushing in.

There was a little additional framing done downstairs. It's kinda dark, but you can see that they have framed in a new closet for Colin's room as well as new walls on top of the lip left from the cement blocks that formed the garage. Previously there were walls on that lip, but they framed them in such an odd way that you couldn't hand shelves or anything on the wall so we ripped out the old ones and had them add these new ones. This will also allow us to have some hella thick insulation in there so no more temperature fluctuations when the sun goes down. We're also getting a tankless water heater so this closet area will make more sense.
So here we are on Day:4 and the outside of the house looks a little like this. They have boarded up the windows and wrapped the house in plastic to keep it dry. I've also posted a pic of the back of the house but it's not really very exciting. The roofers are due to be here this morning. The dumpster is full and I'm sure the contractor will make a call to have it swapped out because they still have to remove the siding and replace it with vinyl.  I'm not really sure when that's scheduled but I presume that it will not be until after the holidays. Aside from the roofers, I have no idea what's going to go on in the house today. We really liked our framers and were sad to see them go. They did great work, they were very polite, and they were fast. They didn't even mind our random questions and changes and gawking. Henry will be taking the kids to our parents's houses while he and I attend a craft fair this weekend. (That'll be another blog post all to itself I'm sure.) I'm a little nervous about it as I don't want to bring everything back home but I also don't want to sell out on the first day. Given those choices, I'd rather have the latter but in any case I hope that I do well enough to be invited back next year. So if you guys need something awesome to do this weekend, hit us up at the Centennial Craft Fair in Franklin. ~Kellie~

Raise Da Roof! (after you tear it off first)

 Well here it is, the last photo of our house looking structurally the way that it was built. I have to admit that I've been a little nervous about the construction but I've been preoccupied with other things so that's helped. Our construction crew showed up yesterday morning and got to work. I was sort of surprised at the number of work vans and people who filled my driveway, yard and street. The more the merrier I always say. I guess it takes a big crew to raise da roof!!

 Well, I mean first they had to tear it off but anyway. These guys were fast, and within two hours they had the roof off. They took a little lunch break to defrost and regroup from demolition mode to construction mode. We went out to have a look at things so that we didn't seem like we were micro managing things. It really is hard to just sit inside and try to work on what you need to be doing while they rip part of your house apart. Henry said that it was like when you're at the dentist and all numbed up and they are pulling your tooth. You can hear the commotion, but you can't see it or feel it (though it did get a little chilly in here with no roof on there). We both find construction fascinating and honestly I think that we could have just sat out there and watched them all day. We'd have seemed like creepers if we had so I was glad that it was too cold to do that and we both had work to do. Here are the old roof trusses next to the new ones. This struck me as interesting on a deep level. It's like seeing death and birth at the same time. Or maybe like a retiring worker standing next to his younger and newer replacement so that the job can go on. Either way, I got a picture.

Now the fun began. They came back from lunch and slammed through putting the floor trusses on. Those are the part that look like a pallet under the walls. They were pre-built to speed things along as well as because that's how the rest of the house is framed. All of the operating guts of the house like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC live there between the floors. It keeps things tidy but it does mean that if you ever have to work on those systems you have to either remove part of the ceiling or part of the floor to access them. Not my problem, I'll pay someone else to do that. So anyway, I had no idea that they were this far when I hustled out to put a package in the mail so man was I surprised when I turned around to come back and there were walls! By the end of the day, they had all of the walls up and the end roof truss! It makes me laugh to see the house look like shipping containers stacked together with this weird extra piece filling in the gap. It's almost like when people have a trailer and they build on a room. I suppose I think that because the rest of the house is finished and this part isn't I dunno, but it still makes me laugh. Here's another thing that I found amusing while we're on the subject of me being easily entertained. Here are some pics of what the inside of that room looks like.  I didn't realize that they had all of this bracing in there to help support the existing walls and keep them square while they did all of the other work until later after they had all gone. I kept wondering why there were guys down in that room working since they were only supposed to be framing the outside that day. Remember what I said about not wanting to be nosy though, so I just sat at my little desk and ran my little machine and tried to stay out of it. Today they will get the rest of the roof trusses up, get the interior walls up for the

closet and Henry's office, get everything covered in sheathing and maybe even get the shingles on. They have to tear off part of the existing roof in order to tie it all together so that there aren't any big bumps in it that would point out where the new roof started. Meanwhile, we have Thanksgiving meals to eat with the boys at school and another fireplace guy is coming to talk to us about replacing this beast. I'm afraid to see what that's going to cost as it's not in the amount with the contractor but more of an item that we are taking the opportunity to address since everything is torn apart anyway.
So there you have it, that's where we are as of nearly 7 a.m. on day two. We are just waiting on the crews to roll in and get started for the day. Stay tuned tomorrow for another exciting run down of construction at our house. :-p ~Kellie~

Delays and Decisions

So today was supposed to be the day that they started work on the house but the aren't because the trusses, which were supposed to be delivered yesterday, weren't. They did however arrive this morning a little before 8 a.m. Cue the choir of angels! Our contractor has informed us that work will start on Monday morning (11-17). The crew is finishing up some little projects and want to have as many consecutive days as possible to tear down and rebuild ours so that it can be weather ready.

The only other news that I really have to report is that we have chosen the siding and its colors (siding and trim). Here's a little look at that.

The top color is the siding called "coastal sage" and the bottom one is the trim called "linen". The chunk of siding that you see there is the actual width that the siding will be. It's really close to the width of the current siding which is about the only thing about the current siding that we like. We like that this is nice and chunky and had a slight wood grain to it. I know some of you are wondering why we didn't get hardyboard and they answer to that is that we have two different neighbors that got that and their installs did not go well and they had to have second crews come out and fix it. We also don't want to have to maintenance the siding by repainting and re-caulking the joints and all that so we opted for vinyl.
I suppose that I could throw in a little additional information about some other details which aren't very exciting yet but just the same. I know my avid readers (all 2 or 3 of you) are just clammering for all the information you can get. We have decided to get a tankless water heater which should free up some space in the storage area and save us from constantly heating water that we aren't using. We also had a fireplace cleaning company come out (Ash Busters) and give us a quote on cleaning and repairing our fireplace. We have since called another company to come out and give us an estimate to replace it but we are still waiting on their arrival (11-19) to see what they have to say before we choose an option. I personally don't feel that a fireplace is a fabulous feature that I looooove and desire in a house. In fact, my thoughts about it when we looked at the house were something like dang, look at all that space we can't use. I'm slowly (in my older age and increased stress level) coming around to the idea of a nice little fire in the evenings with a glass of wine. I think that this is more spurred by the insane amount of chaos that goes on in this house on a daily basis. Both of the little kids have been squealing and screaming (not in nice cute little ways but more like shrieking out of frustration) the entire time I've been writing this post. I'm thinking that a little shot of tequila or vodka might be in order so that I can make it through the rest of my morning until nap time.
So anyway, that's about all that I have to report. A few decisions, and the fact that I can sleep in my own room in my own bed for a few more nights. ~Kellie~

Remodeling Purgatory

I mentioned the title of this post to a friend this morning while discussing how things are coming along with the remodel. I say that it's like purgatory because we are completely in limbo with things. We've moved things out of most spaces to be redone, but the contractor hasn't actually started yet. They've (he and his framer- that's framer not farmer) worked up their plans, measured some things, given us a contract, and ordered trusses but as of yet that's the extent of their work. We are all sort of on hold until the trusses get here then it's full steam ahead.  They did have this lovely dumpster delivered. It makes parking in the driveway a treat. It also makes it interesting to get in and out of the front door because it's unfortunately right in front of the sidewalk, but that was necessary to ensure that more of the debris got into the dumpster than on the driveway when they rip the roof and part of the side of the house off. *WoopWoop raise da roof!*

 As far as any other work, we rented a storage unit and have started packing it full and Henry has taken the liberty of starting to gut the office area. That's not really part of the contracted renovation on the house, it's more of a no time like the present thing. The ceiling will be removed as part of the renovation anyway and the drywall and insulation in there really sucked as did the fake framing that they put up to hang drywall- seriously, you couldn't find a stud to hang a shelf which is a HUGE thing to me. It all had to go. It smelled funny and it was old and weird and the electrician will need access to put in the million plugs for all my equipment. #BuyAllTheThings!!! That room will have its own dedicated circuit which means that it won't be tied into the exterior GFI circuit. That was a really stupid and cheap move by the previous homeowners. I'm pretty sure that's not to code. Anyway, when we explained to the electrician that we wanted four new circuits with this he was kind of shocked and obviously asked why since that's not really how it would normally be done. We had to explain that we both work from home and have special equipment and that we will each have an office for said equipment so it's a necessary evil. So anyway, here's what the office looks like all naked and such.

 As for the rest of the house, it looks pretty much the same. Here's one last shot of that. It's not really the most current picture but the shape of the house is still like this.

Some of you might wonder what our end goal is with this, so for all you visualists and those with inquiring minds, I've worked up some drawings. Pretend that I'm good with photoshop.

 Here is sort of what the house will look like when we're finished. It will get all new wide plank vinyl siding. We're still looking at samples and trying to choose a color but it will probably be something fairly similar to the current color. If you're more of a technical person, here's a rough (very rough) sketch of what currently exists as well as what will change. The dimensions are all wrong but that's ok. I also just realized that the closet in what will be Jonas's room shows that it juts out into the room but it doesn't, it's actually over the stairs so he will have a little more room than it appears.

We still have to gut Colin's room which is the one downstairs behind the office and off the kitchen, and we still have to move all of our things out of the master bed and bath. Colin and Jonas will be bunking with Kinsley and Henry and I will be bunking downstairs in the living room on an inflatable mattress. Sounds delightful am I right? You guys know you're jealous. My office and Henry's office are/will be in the dining room. I am thankful for super yards to keep babies out of places they shouldn't be. It's cramped living already, but it's gonna get worse before it gets better. As I said before, we are all on hold until the trusses are built and delivered. I am trying to enjoy having my master suite as long as possible to maintain whatever dignity I have until this is all over. They estimate like 3 months before it's all completely finished. So there you have it so far, that's what's going on here. It's a good thing that everyone will have their own space when this is over because we're all going to get sick of each other. If you guys think of it, y'all pray for us!  ~Kellie~

Cutting Slack

When I think of how I want to see my kitchen, I see this:

Sadly, that is not how I saw my kitchen this morning. In fact, it's not how I see my kitchen most mornings. Most mornings, this is how I see my kitchen:

I had already started to clean up a bit when I took this picture, and you can tell that I had to take the trash bag out of the can in order to put more things in it. I had already started to load the dishwasher, and I had already put away some of the things I had gotten out to make the boys lunches for school. I wish that I had some excuse for why it looked this way, like a party or a crazy night of having to shuttle the kids to practices or having had friends over, but none of those things happened, this is just my reality almost every single day. Let me say here and now that I am not whining about it or complaining about it or wanting sympathy in any way, I am merely sharing something with you that I think is important. One would be tempted to say "If you'd clean up after dinner, you wouldn't wake up to that every morning" and that is very very true. I've even said/thought that myself when other people have messes like this. Some might say that if Henry would help, things could be different, and to that I say let me tell you that he helps tremendously with cooking and cleaning and child rearing so that's not it either. Others still might say that I should get the kids to help clean up, and my reply to that is that I'm just glad that they got their homework done, their plates to the sink, and showers. So why don't I clean it up at night? Well, the truth is that after I've dealt with the kids all day in various combinations as well as made an attempt to do some business things and manage other household tasks, there's little energy or desire to deal with this. I spend my evenings after dinner trying to chill out for even a few minutes before bed. I'd rather deal with it in the morning when I'm not fried and the kids are happier.

The "ideal" picture that I posted first was actually the "after two hours of cleaning picture". Two hours seems ridiculous to spend on one room, but here's how that breaks down.

 I really  loaded the dishwasher, and I really (much to everyone's shock because it is known how I loathe hand washing dishes) washed dishes by hand because they wouldn't all fit in the dishwasher.

I then really hand dried them and really put them away. I didn't just shove things somewhere so that I could take a cool "after" pic. 

I also put a bag back in the can much to the delight of my friend Heather, and I finally went through all those school papers that have been hanging out on the counter. 

After I was finished with all that, I took a few minutes to gather the laundry and sort it. This is just one week of laundry folks, I haven't been slacking on that either.

I'm not one to cut people alot of slack, and I am awful about cutting myself slack, but I really think that I need to try to be a little easier on myself. What I did so far today isn't that big of a deal, but when you consider that I have to run full tilt to clean things up before the baby can undo what I just did, I don't think it's that small of a feat. So when people ask what it is that I do all day, I keep aaaall this from being seen. ~Kellie~

Remember that summer?

In ten years, we'll all sit around and say "Remember that summer we...? Good times, goooood times." The summer I speak of is this summer and the thing we did was get a "pool". I use the term pool loosely since Henry and I jokingly call it the "water tarp" because it's one of those cheap pools from Wal-Mart with the metal framework of powder coated tubular steel that supports a large cylindrical glorified vinyl tarp. Although now that I think about it, it's kinda more like a "naked pool" because it's essentially a pool liner without the pretty shell on the outside so I guess it is a real pool. Anyway, I had the idea to get one because the kids always want to go "swimming" in the summer and I only have two hands and four kids, none of which can actually swim. This is further complicated by the fact that the little two need to be in the baby pool and the big two are too big for that and I definitely can't manage two kids with water wings and two kids in floating rings in the big pool because I am not an octopus.
The pool was part of the boys' Christmas gift, an attempt to get them something useful that won't lose pieces all over the house. I figured that a pool was a great thing since we could all use it, and it's outside ergo not a video game, and it requires them to move instead of just sitting. Besides, a little time in the sun is good for them and they might just learn to swim, a useful skill indeed. The pool is only fifteen feet across and three and a half feet deep so they can stand in it to play basketball or if they try to swim and it's not working out they can just stand up. Even Kinsley can stand up in it, so that's a bonus. It's big enough for us to all get in but not so big that it takes up the entire back yard or takes forever to physically clean. It's also a good "starter pool" because I have a healthy fear or water/drowning, and if the kids can't respect the pool/follow the rules, we can just take it down and be done with it. Since I got the pool at a steal on clearance at the end of last year (Regular price: $249, Clearance price: a mere $75! WOOT!) I knew that if things didn't work out the money lost would not be a huge deal. 
Here's what's happened so far:
1. We had to move the back fence to make room for the pool which we had wanted to do anyway so this was a good excuse.
2. We had to borrow a tiller to somewhat level the ground.
3. We had to get a load of sand to protect the bottom of the pool from anything crazy that might work up through the ground. Dirt+ a tarp+sand+another tarp= piece of mind and hopefully protection from rocks, sticks, damage to the pool, damage to feet, etc.
4. I read up on and decided to use a saltwater system instead of just dumping chemicals in it all the time. I ordered a saltwater system.
5. I visited a pool supply store, purchased salt, did the necessary steps, took my water sample back to the pool place for analysis, determined that I needed to add more salt. I also learned that a pool is like a puppy and that you have to train it well in the beginning and keep at it or it will misbehave.
6. I decided that I wanted to switch to a sand filter system instead of a cartridge filter one. I ordered the sand filter. (This hasn't arrived yet)
7. It rained.
8. It rained more, followed by high winds and hail. 
9. We had to drain hundreds of gallons of water from the pool because it kept raining. Had I known this was coming, I could have saved a fair amount of money
10. I temporarily gave up on the saltwater system and got a floating chlorine dispenser to use until it stopped raining.
Remember that summer that we got a pool and the only thing we spent was money and time maintaining it because June decided to pretend to be April and it was too rainy or cold to get in it and mom got those huge biceps from all the sweeping and vacuuming she had to do to keep it clean? It's a great workout I must admit, but it's not the one I had in mind. I'm sure that it won't be this way all summer as the weather will get dry and hot and I'll be able to sort out the chemical levels in the pool and maintain them instead of just hoping for the best until things level out ie. it stops raining so that I can figure out what's going on, fix it, and keep it that way. We have actually been in the pool a few times so it hasn't been a total loss so far, but I look forward to getting a tan while floating in it. ~Kellie~

Fun with laundry and cleaning

A couple weeks ago I stopped telling the boys to pick up the laundry in their room. It's not supposed to be in there and I got tired of asking for it. If they run out of clean clothes, that's their problem and they will learn eventually. I say that it shouldn't be in there because they really shouldn't be changing clothes in there unless it's to take off pajamas. They should be taking off dirty clothes before a bath where there is a hamper right outside the door. If they should need to change during the day they have to walk by the laundry room to leave the house so again, no excuse because there's a basket in there for dirty laundry as well. I also do not fold and put away their clean laundry. I wash it and put it all in a basket for them to sort and put away. Do they fold it? No, but if it were folded they would certainly un-fold it while they were digging through the drawer like a rat so I don't care, it's in the drawer and I'm good. Some will say that my theory on laundry is bad because they are only children, but it is a very simple thing that I ask for them to put that where it goes and I feel that they should be able to comprehend this. Obviously they don't, but I'd like to believe that one day the light will come on regarding this. I did laundry yesterday and today I told them that I hadn't been asking for their laundry for two weeks and that all of that laundry in the floor would now be dirty for another week. I got a shocked look since those were some of their favorite things to wear that they will now have to wait a week for. I had fun with that.
On Monday I started a new thing to get them to clean their room since I am also tired of telling them to do that and if they want to live in filth and get hurt stepping on Legos, that's their problem. I do sometimes make them clean it all up at once so that I can vacuum and such, but in general I just let it roll. My room was a disaster as a kid and now I hate messes. I think it's because I saw that I could find things in the rest of the house which my mother kept immaculate despite what she says, and that I could find nothing in my sty of a room. I'm not sure that was a lesson that she intended to teach, but my sister and I both got it. Eventually she would go in and clean up our messes and I have to say that I really really fight the urge to do the same. It drives me nuts and sometimes I have to do what she did and just close the door and walk away. So what is this new thing that I am trying that is working? Each morning before school and in the evening around dinner, I tell them each to pick up three things and put it away. If they do Legos or something small, one handful= one thing. It's going to take days for it to get cleaned up, but they don't feel threatened or overwhelmed because it's only three things. I laugh to myself because they think they are winning by only having to pick up three things. They don't see the snowball effect that I see, and they also don't realize that I'm having them do it a couple times a day.
I feel like a better parent for these small victories because I'm not nagging them or yelling at them. I have a huge issue with doing that, so anything that helps me not do that is a win in my book. It's saving me from doing it myself, hopefully teaching them to do it themselves, and no one yells or gets yelled at. WOOT!  ~Kellie~

The Finished Master Bedroom

I just realized that I never posted pics of the master bedroom after we finished it. It's been busy here and I've had other things that I've been trying to do , like get ready to register for a craft fair and stuff like that. I was going to start this post with a demo pic from the master bedroom, but then I remembered that I had a pic from waaaay back, like when we bought the house back, so I thought I'd share that just to let you get a sense of where we came from.
So here's what the master bedroom looked like when we bought the house. Green walls and all that floral wallpaper glory. I'll just pause a moment while you take all that in. Go ahead, I'll wait. You good? Great, moving on. So we actually removed that border and left the walls that green for a while. The very first thing I did in the house was to remove wallpaper, even if I didn't do anything else to the room, I just want to put that out there. So our room was probably one of the last to get any attention and when we got to it we decided that we wanted to do something a little different than what we had going on in the rest of the house. That was before we had four kids so a little chaos in the house didn't seem to be a bad thing. Each room was a different color, some of them crazy colors, some had stripes painted on them. We look back at some of that as an "it seemed like a good idea at the time" kind of thing. We kind of feel that way about the faux brick paneling that we put up in the master. We really liked it at the time, it gave sort of an urban loft like vibe that was different from the rest of the house so it made it sort of an escape because the feel of that room was so different. But, as time went on we discovered that the kids provided enough chaos and the house needed to be taken back to a more neutral feel, so we slowly began to go from interesting colors to more soothing ones, and not only that but we let those colors just extend from one room to the next for a calmer feel. We're not back to "builder beige", but we are definitely digging the "coffee and latte" thing we have going on. The best part is that if the paint in the main parts of the house get messed up, we only have to deal with two different paint buckets, winning! So anyway, here's an after shot of the master bedroom. We still sadly haven't made it to IKEA to get our bed (though I did get a new quilt and the shams that I embroidered/monogrammed last year are a nice touch), so there's not much going on on that wall, but there will be eventually. The paint color may seem familiar, and that's because it's the same color from the living room and hallway. We bought a five gallon bucket of that paint because it was cheaper than three one gallon cans and that choice has served us well. Neutral, that's what we're going for these days. Incidentally, the master bath is painted the same color as the kitchen. So  you may notice that we added some upgrades when we repainted. We put in a new ceiling fan that doesn't wobble and flicker and try to kill us in our sleep, and we switched out the outlets and switches to the sleek square ones like we used in the bathroom, and we added crown molding! We had never installed it before, but it meant that we'd get to buy a new toy tool toy that we'd been eying. Say hello to our new friend, the compound miter saw-------------------------->
Nice, huh? We also got that little blue jig thing there on the saw. That's a Kreg Crown Pro and it's supposed to help you cut the crown with less hassle but we found it to generally be a hassle so we just cut the crown without it. We think that when we eventually get to installing the crown in the rest of the house we'll study it a bit more and maybe not have the same issues. Anyway, we think that the crown is a nice upgrade and adds just what the room really needed to finally grow up. A quick word on crown molding: the difference in an ok crown job and a pretty good one isn't perfect cuts, it's caulk! Your wall and ceiling aren't going to be perfect, but once you add a little caulk to hide those little dips, they just disappear like the money in my wallet when I'm in Joann. So anyway, we re-purposed the shelf from the bathroom by using it to hold our t.v., and I solved the issue of the "dirty but still clean" clothing issue by installing hook units beside the closets. One for me, and one for him, though his clothes oddly enough usually end up on the floor beside his side of the bed anyway even though the hook thing is right there!! I think it's a boy thing since the boys also do this.
I just overlook it and hang his clothes up when I go by. These hooks are also great for parking your pajamas so that you can easily find them, and for holding the jacket that you frequently need because the weather here is on crack or something. I like them because they functionally take up wall space. They look cool when they are empty, but honestly I think they are kind of neat even with clothes hanging on them. It's a lot neater than a miscellaneous pile of clothes in the floor, or on the chair, or on the treadmill, or just pitched on the bed. We are really digging the new master suite. It's grown up and upgraded and finished feeling. It really does feel like we're in a hotel every single night, which is pretty awesome. The kids generally aren't allowed in our room but occasionally one will stumble in for something. The other day Colin needed a bandaid so I invited him in while I patched him up. He stood in the doorway between the bedroom and the bathroom with this wide eyed look on his face while looking back and forth between the two rooms. I just kinda watched him to see what fantastic nugget of information would come out of his mouth. Sure enough, after a few times looking back and forth he said "Wow, it's really nice in here! This is really nice, it's like a hotel or something! Did you guys do all this yourselves because it's really nice! It's like we're rich or something!" I just kinda chuckled and told him that we did it all ourselves and that eventually the rest of the house would catch up and for him to try not to destroy it when that happened. Those kids, they say the darndest things, and sometimes it's even true. ~Kellie~