Its snowing!

This is the first time we have seen the house in the snow, I like it very much.

the kids have a snow day and are out having a snowball fight

This is our donkey. The previous owners were kind enough to leave him here for us, note the peg leg in the front.

Green!!

Town Meeting

We're those homeowners now. Yep the ones that go to town meetings. When you get an invitation in the mail that look like this how can you not? The fine print actually reads: You are receiving this open house invitation because your property has been included in the inventory as containing at least a portion of a tree grove. Surely you must believe we felt special, chosen if you will. We decided that since trees are overgrowing our property we should maybe find out what the Tree Grove Preservation Program was all about. You know, making sure if we cut one down we won't be thrown in jail...or maybe a tax incentive to keep the trees. So we headed down to City Hall planning for an entertaining night of arguments between loggers and tree huggers. We were quickly disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm shown by all. Turns out, nobody really seems to care about a tree unless you're subdividing the land. Thankfully we're not in the construction business so our trees are safe for now. They are currently looking pretty ugly... I have been told by the neighbors these are all producing fruit trees. We'll see...otherwise I'm getting out the axe! It's just too bad our town meetings are not more like this one

Jonathan Adler On a Budget

I love Jonathan Adler designs. His clean, modern home accessories makes my heart go pitter patter. Unfortunately, I cannot afford most (if any) of his stuff. Here's a few things I'm pining over currently: This beautiful table setting...at $70 a settingThis mirror...at $395 This adorable soap dish is actually in my price range...at $20I'm really wanting this white, clean lined, yet beautifully curvaceous lamp...at $695 I had resigned myself to only having Jonathan Adler lighting in my dreams, so went to the next best option: Goodwill of course. I wandered in there and found two of these hiding on the shelf for $6.99 a piece. Hmmm, I thought...clean lines, check....curvaceous, check....white, no check. What's a girl to do when she's almost got a Jonathan Adler impersonator in her midst? Spray paint it of course!!! And add a cheap-o IKEA shade for another $6. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Product Spotlight: Electrolux Ergorapido Stick Vac

Sometimes you're walking through a (large big box bed and bath) store and you see an item you just have to have. Sure, you went to said store with all intentions of looking for said item, but didn't really think you'd come across it. Then the most amazing thing happens in said store...you are drawn to a lovely little creature whose sole purpose in life (or so the label says) is to pick up all those stray dog hairs, human hairs (since I shed more than our pooch), dirt, and all those other nasty things that accumulate on hardwood floors. Could it be, you think to yourself that this little device is the answer to all your hardwood floor woes? And then it gets better...you show this little creature to your husband, who is never swayed at all by labels, colors, or any other marketing gimmick that his wife is drawn to...and he also thinks it's the coolest thing he's ever seen (really only because it's orange). The wonderful husband he is agrees to take it home that day. But only if it were that easy. This big box store is all out of stock...others have fallen for this orange creature. Nothing a quick traipse across town can't fix. And what's better? A 20% off coupon of course. Creature gets put back in the back of the car and taken to it's new home, where it turns out, he's not only handsome, but very, very useful. The moral of this story? Electrolux Ergorapido is pretty cool. Okay, okay, a little over the top, but believe me when I say this thing is wonderful. Not only is it a stick vacuum, but you can take the handle off and use it as a dust buster as well. The only problem was where to store this guy. We are lucky to have a cousin who loves us (and is an electrician) who installed an outlet, wait who taught my hubby how to install an outlet in our hall closet. So now this guy is easily accessible and always fully charged. Want one for yourself? Check out this link.

hanging of the door

So here is a before (or rather middle, you see there was a slider, we took it out) and after photo for you.before

after

Here is a short video of Caitlin and I hanging the new closet door that is replacing the old sliding glass door that went between the office and the family room.

My Craft Space

I have a space and it is all mine!! We converted the guest bedroom closet into a space for me to sew and craft.

A blow dryer, a hanger, a turkey baster, and pajamas

Oh yes, they actually do have something in common. Last weekend we noticed that our freezer was collecting a sheet of ice on the bottom of it, which was then causing water to leak into our refrigerator. I wouldn't be that sad about it, but the kitchen demo isn't scheduled for a year and I was not in the mood to drop $1500+ on a refrigerator. Enter Google...I figured out the problem, but knew it was going to take an entire weekend day to thaw the fridge. We started the process, then decided we didn't have the time, (we did have a major laundry room overhaul on our hands) and that the freezer was going to have to stay broken for another week.... ...until we learned that our fridge wasn't cold anymore. Here's where the pajamas come in. Yep, it was 11pm on a Sunday night and I was determined not to loose all the groceries we just bought. Enter Google again, this time for the solution. After a trip to WINCO for a turkey baster (thank you for being open 24 hours), a long run with the blowdryer, and some boiling water we had unthawed the drainpipe to our freezer. Thanks to Google again we have the solution to our problem. Our refrigerator should last until the day next year we kick it to the curb (or sell it on Craigslist) for a nice shiny new one to complement the rest of the new kitchen!Take that Maytag repair man!

The laundry room transformation...well it's just about done

This is what our laundry room looked like on closing day. Yep, pretty much the nastiest room in our house. The previous homeowners had done a semi homemade job of framing out a room off of the garage, but never finished the walls or the floors. This lovely washer/dryer came with the house...lucky us. It actually flooded the first day we tried to do laundry. Our realtor had requested a home warranty on the house prior to us buying it, which amazingly allowed us to get a brand new washer and dryer to replace the rusty, flooding machine. However, the new machines in all their white, water saving, electrical saving, and eco friendly glory sat in the garage for a few weeks while the room was prepped. We demoed out all of the existing shelves and fixtures. We hired plumbers to put all of the plumbing back inside the walls. There was a minor setback having to pump water out of the crawl space before the plumbers would go under the house. Laying the subfloor was the first project. Chris and his dad took this project on and had to get pretty creative working around the crawl space entrance.Hiring sheetrockers was the best $350 we could have spent!! Isn't the room looking pretty? Next came paint (a lovely shade of gray) and laying the peel and stick vinyl tiles. Which were the easiest projects in the room. Caitlin's dad came over to help put in the washer and dryer. What you don't see is the other side of the room with the furnace and water heater, which we had to pull out to finish laying the floor. Thanks dad for the help! Notice the hardly noticeable crawl space entrance. The finished (almost) room!!! We have a few final details to finish. We need a few more shelves, but they're on back order, a rug, finish up some trim, and put the door back. Not bad for our first major reno!