A few works in progress

Our current project is installing laminate floor throughout the hallways, entryway, kitchen/dining and family rooms. Basically anywhere where there isn't carpet. It is a HUGE job! But it looks fantastic. We have the kitchen and dining done and Matt has almost done the entryway.

Here is the dining before
Here is the after:I just love how the floor brightens the room. A few disclaimers: we have a fourth chair, but it is in our garage serving as a stool. Our garage has been temporarily turned into a wood chopping and sawing haven. Sawdust everywhere. We will eventually have our garage back when these floors are done! Disclaimer 2: I only have 1 set of blinds on the back door thing because I wanted Matt's opinion before I installed both. It is a yes. And I am realizing that I don't have a shot of the light fixture in the after photo. My mom wanted to see it, sorry mom I will take another shot and post it. Again, no wall art, no window treatments, etc. It is a work in progress :)

This is a before (with owners stuff) of the family room.

This is what it looked like tonight. Because we will be doing the laminate floors in here as well, I wanted to paint it. So I did that yesterday and today. We will get new blinds for the 2 windows and patio door. Our new couches are arriving this week! The fireplace is still ug, but I think I am going to try and make it work. I don't think we can handle another huge project right now and removing or refacing that thing will do us in. Don't you love the green though?

Reagan's Room

You can call this room whatever you want, but Reagan refers to it as Tinkerbell room. We just call it Reagan's room. Our realtor saw it and called it the Snot room. So whatever. It is green, we know. But you know what, I think it looks great!! It is hard to tell in the pics, but it is two walls of a darker more intense green and two walls of lighter green. The darker green is Benjamin Moore's Stem Green and I got it from Pottery Barn Kids. They paired it with pink and it looked fab. The lighter green is Hibiscus or something like that, just a few hues lighter. We still haven't finished decorating yet. There is not a single room in our house that has a picture hung or wall art or whatever. I just haven't done it yet, but I will! We also will be updating all baseboards too eventually. That is a couple of projects down the line.

The Yard Saga

We have gone and done it (or rather, had it done): we cleared out all the weird stuff from the yard. This picture below is a photo of the backyard when we moved in. Roomy, but so not practical and actually unsafe we found out. There was some pond back there that the previous owner was all proud of, but we hated it. There was an old old shed. Lots of lava and river rock. Randomly placed bushes and trees and brick pathways completed this ensemble. We saw the potential and some work, but we were do wrong: it was a LOT of work.One morning a couple of weeks ago, I headed out there with my rake and shovel in hand. About 10 minutes into stacking those cement stones, I uncovered these bad boys.Oh yeah, I don't THINK so!! I grabbed my children and ran inside, locked the doors and we didn't go out after that! These snakes were yuck, like overgrown earthworms. And they were hiding out under all those lava rock and cement stones. Oh my. I called Matt and pleasantly told him that unless he wanted to spend the next couple of years doing this every weekend, we were going to hire someone. So we did hire someone, thank you husband so so much!! A guy in our new ward brought some people out (translation: he made a trip over the Home Depot and came home with some dudes) and in 2-3 days cleared out the front and back completely. They must have taken over a dozen trips to the dump. They hauled away all our trash from indoor remodel as well. The trimmed out trees, transplanted some of the bushes and plants, stacked all the leftover brick on the side of the house so that we could use it for our landscaping plans. They took down a two story juniper tree that we shared with our neighbors and cut it up for firewood for us. They hauled it all out. It was a handful of cash I tell you, but sooooo worth it! That was months and months of work for Matt and I. I think the best part was seeing his face when he saw that back cleared out for the first time. He came home from work that first day and I just see this immense relief cross it and I thought it was worth every penny to see that look.

This is what it looks like now. We are still deciding on how exactly we want it designed, but mostly it will be sod, with a garden area and possibly a brick perimeter and sidewalk. We sure have tons of brick! That back corner is the only shade so Matt wants a few strategically placed trees. We might put in a swingset. I want to eventually have a garden. We aren't sure if we are going to do this ourselves or hire the same guy to do it all. He gave us an estimate, but we are still deciding.So this is what the front of the house looked like when we moved in. Lots of yucky plants and that juniper tree peeking out on the right hand side. It now looks like this. Dirt, I know, but I cannot tell you how many neighbors have commented how much better it looks. We are still deciding on the landscaping here. I will take ANY suggestions gladly!!

Here is our street...isn't it pretty? I will take a moment here and tell you about some of the people we have met. Our neighbors to our right are a young couple with two kids just like us and he loves the Dodgers. Matt has talked with them a few times and they sure are nice, he says. One day when I get a minute I will meet them myself :) On the eve before our big backyard haul-out, we headed over to the neighbors on our left to see if they didn't mind us getting rid of the big juniper tree we shared. Well, they invited us in and we talked and chatted for about an hour. They are an older couple, he is a retired FBI agent (shout out LANCE!) and she is an interior designer. They are from Texas and just the sweetest people ever. He has a houseful of western collections and memorabilia, including Texas horns everywhere, John Wayne memorabilia, western art--cowboys and indians. It is like a museum from the wild wild west. The whole time I was like, my dad would LOVE this place and afterwards that was the first thing Matt said to me. We have seen them a few times, and they sure love our kids. They have three daughters they raised and one lives with them. She studies birds for a living and has bird sanctuaries in the backyard. Across the street from us is a wonderful couple and she brought over roses and huge cookies for us when we moved in. Very sweet. I have met several people that live on other streets in the neighborhood. It has such a fun atmostphere. In the afternoons I see all the kids out riding their bikes and playing in the cul-de-sacs. In the evenings I see families and couples out walking dogs and pushing kids in strollers. Reagan's new thing is going for bike rides. It is a great peaceful neighborhood and I think we will really enjoy it.

Stay tuned for more on the yard!

Backyard Baseball

Our back patio is actually a really large "indoor" patio that is enclosed by a screen and covered. I think the actual term is a Florida room. I have a love/hate relationship with this area. It has great functionality. My kids love to play in it, it has that indoor/outdoor carpet and so it is soft and not cement. The doors keep them "inside" and the kitchen and living and family rooms all look out into it. There are two patio doors that lead out. It really is the perfect play area, especially for winter during rain and mud season.

But it has its drawbacks: it is UGLY! I cannot help but wince when I see it. I really resist the urge to tear up and toss all that blue carpet, get rid of those rain roofs, tear out the screen and make it a large outdoor patio to grill on and write with sidewalk chalk on. But I think for now it is staying just because my kids love it so much.

The other night for family nite, we went out and played baseball. The kids had a great time and it seemed to be the perfect arena for it, at least until we get our yard finished.

A Few Firsts

This is definitely not Reagan's "first" time falling asleep in the car, but it is the first time she fell asleep looking this way. I was CRACKING up! We drove into Oakland to pick my mom up from the airport and it was around 5pm, so naturally she fell asleep on the drive. Luckily I had my camera in my bag, so I was able to grab a few pics.

This is Nolan's "first" cross-dressing experience. Again lucky me, he hated it! He tried putting Reagan's swimsuit on, and Matt helped him get his arms and legs through the holes. Then he grabbed at it and cried till we took it off.

Here is a BIG "first": Reagan's first haircut. She is almost 4, but has never even had a single hair on her head trimmed. She has always had these beautiful curls and I wanted to keep them forever. But lately those baby curls have turned into a mess that is really hard to brush. So we went and trimmed it all off. I kept that little pony tail that our hairdresser trimmed.

Her hair sure looks darling and so much healthier! It is easier to brush, easier to style and she just looks cute. The other day she asked when she could go get her hair cut again.

Clayton Valley Preschool Class of 2010

Last Friday Reagan graduated from preschool! It was one of the cutest and most creative graduations I have ever been to, LOL! The kids gowns were made from plastic tablecloths, blue for boys and red for girls (CVHS school colors). The students hummed the graduation march song since the tape player broke. My mom was able to be here for it, BONUS! Reagan really enjoyed preschool this year and it has been fun to watch her become so interested in learning. She is always practicing writing her letters, asking me how to spell things. She has just about every letter down (upper case). In the car, she points to all the street signs and says "R!!! Mom, there is an R! Just like in my name!" She also sometimes sees lower case letters and says, "What is that?" I tell her that is an "e" to which she vehemently responds, "NO! That is not an E!"

Reagan walking out with some of her classmates.
Sitting down. The tablecloth lasted about 30 seconds.

Receiving her diploma.

Reagan and Grandma Roundy

Katie and Reagan won "Best Buds" award. They really did enjoy being in class together. I am glad that they will be together for preschool next year, too.

Dad and kids

After her graduation, we headed over to Costco for shopping and ran into Katie! What a treat--they ate hot dogs and pizza together.

I can't believe I have a preschool graduate, oh MY!! *Just kidding* I am sure proud of Reagan and the strides she has made. She is truly a great gal and I love her to bits.

Tired, going to bed

I will post more tomorrow!

Dining Room, still a work in progress

This is a room I am dying to get done, but cannot decide on. It is yucky, started out with wallpaper (remember this pic has previous owners stuff).

We tore that ancient stuff down and it took a REALLY long time. My mom was here for most of it and she helped a ton. Matt took an insane amount off too. It was brutal. Once down, my mom and I washed the walls with TSP, patched them up and we painted.Like I say, still working on this one, but it will be BLONDE on top, with a chair rail and white beadboard eventually underneath the chair rail. We have a new light fixture to replace the fan and it is WAY cute! My mom and I hummed and hawed at Lamps Plus before finally deciding. We will be putting drapes over that door/window thing too for more privacy.

The floors will eventually be replaced with wood, but not for a bit I think. That pantry is yucky inside, we tore it out and will be putting new shelving in.

Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is one of my favorites. It is the first room I painted, I did it all by myself and I call is my Laura room, because my dear friend watched my kids for like 5 hours while I painted one afternoon. I used Sherwin Williams Macadamia and it is the warmest color I have ever seen. Here are some before and after photos. We are still working on pretty much everything, so there are no baseboards up, no pictures hung or anything, but this may give you an idea of what we are working on. We took the before photos at inspection.

Master bedroom before:

Mast after:

That door there leads to the backyard. We have a new light fixture, but it just needs to be put up. The bathroom will eventually be updated, but not for a short while. I would post a pic, but just know that it is small, has blue wallpaper and Matt has to duck down to fit under the showerhead. But it works!

'Net's up!

So the internet is hooked up. We are in the new house. It is insane!!

I promise to post more detail and pictures soon, but here is the short version:

-Closing day came, got the keys
-Started working on the house
-Amazing friends watched my kids
-Lacy had a mild breakdown ;)
-Mom flew into town a day later to help for 10 days
-Mom saved my hide!
-Painted, scraped wallpaper, painted, scrubbed 30 years of grease and grime off cabinets, painted more, ordered and installed blinds, ordered carpet, finished painting, carpet installed and old man smell went away almost 100%
-We moved in yesterday morning. 10 foot van was WAAAAYYYYYY too small.
-Boxes, boxes everywhere. Takes an hour to find something

We are really tired and this house business is a load of work, especially fixing things up, but it has been worth it to see end results. We have such great friends out here. Not even kidding.

I will post more soon! LOVE TO ALL.

Long Time, No Post?

It seems that time is escaping us lately and I haven't taken much time to sit and blog. Usually when I am on the computer I am looking up home renovation. Oh yeah, we bought a house!!! Well, not quite yet, but everything is pretty much set for a mid-May closing. We are very excited and a little anxious about this big step in our lives, but there have been numerous confirmations in the last month that tell us this is what is best right now. A little bit about our home: it needs cosmetic work! It is an eyesore like no other. Wallpaper, brown linoleum, blue carpet. I have hundreds of pics (I took a million at the inspection), but I will save those for another post, like maybe a before and after. But regardless of the interior decorating, the home is wonderful. We love the neighborhood and street. The bones of the home are in excellent shape and it was well cared for by the seller. We have a yard to put in as well. I really think we are going to learn a lot in this process and wear ourselves to death, but oh well.

The kids are really keeping us busy. Nolan is into everything and makes the biggest messes. While I shower, he will open the shower door and throw things in. Mostly it is just toys and stuff, but today he threw in our remote. And the other day he threw in a bunch of trash from the can next to the tub. He loves to go into the kitchen and pull all my dish towels out of the cupboard and the pans. He also takes the dish soap out and it spilled all over the floor the other day (it is liquid). Tonight we made peach and blueberry cobbler and I set a plate out for Reagan and he threw it on the ground. AHH!! He can now reach the tabletop if he stands on his tippie toes so I have to scoot everything back. He pulls hair and hits. And he thinks it is funny. But despite all this, Nolan is just as cute as can be. He has the most infectious laugh and smile ever. It doesn't take much to get those out of him. Sometimes just making funny faces at him sends him into fits of laughter. He loves to dance and spin around in the center of the room with all of us watching. We just love this guy to pieces and watching him grow is a true treasure.

Reagan is the little girly in our house. She is always asking me to paint her nails, if she can do my hair, and changes clothes like 20 times a day. She doesn't like to wear pants, so mostly she wears skirts and dresses with leggings or something underneath. The other day I bought her some really cute bermuda shorts at Old Navy and brought them home. She tried them on and they were DARLING on her! But she didn't like them. I might have to try some bribery or else they will be going back. I miss the days when I could just dress her however I wanted!!! :):) Reagan loves school and is making friends with her classmates and teachers. They do many fun things in the class. One day they came home with a potted plant that they did in class. She loved this plant until it fell and broke into pieces and mom threw it out. On Earth day, they made t-shirts and all the kids came out wearing them. Next friday is all about Transportation and they get to take their bikes to school. She has been learning how to write all her letters and works so hard on them. She almost has down REA in her name. It is amazing to see how hard she tries over and over to get the letter right on paper and how she concentrates. I really enjoy seeing my kids learn.

I think it is a blessing that our house closes right around season enders for tv shows. I am glad to have The Office back and I thought this last one was hilarious! Especially all the impersonations. But I wish they would stop ruining some of my favorite characters. They did it with David Wallace (making him turn all crazy) and now with Erin. Hopefully they can bring her back the way that Andy was. I still loves Vampire Diaries and boy, it is getting good!! I love seeing the good side of Damon coming out, I can't help but hope that he and Elena get together :) I am rooting for the cowboys in Amazing Race. Other fun shows: Modern Family and Parenthood. Phil really steals the show on Modern Family and I am LOVING Parenthood. The characters in it are so fun and true to life. Plus it takes place in Berkeley and I love all the references they make to places because I know them! I find myself laughing and tearing up in each episode. Good good show. I think that is it. I can't allow more shows in my life.

I am still training for that half marathon. I ran 8 miles on Saturday! It was insane. I headed to REI later that day to get some of the gu and shot blocks stuff because I think I need that and some good old gatorade. The loss of electrolytes is giving me a serious headache. I am really excited for this race, but I will be glad when it is over. I really don't have the time to run 1-2 hours every Saturday morning and I feel pressure not to miss a single run because it will throw me back. Having a strict schedule has been tough that way. I look forward to just being able to run however much I can fit in.

Today was a beautiful day in the Bay Area. We had stake conference on Temple Hill and along with several other families, packed lunches to enjoy afterwards. It was such a great atmosphere. We couldn't resist some pictures!
Reagan and Addie.

By the "rosetta" flowers.

The kids weren't all that happy in this shot. Nolan hadn't slept much and was hungry and Reagan simply didn't want to be in the picture. Plus my eyes were all red and I had to wear my smart glasses.

Nolan doing the "heisman."

Thats all for now, folks. Love to you all.

The Kids in Crabbie

Addie was over the other day and the girls wanted so badly to get in the crab and play in the water. It wasn't a hot day by any means, but I guess it was warm in the sunlight :) So we disinfected it, wiped it out and I brought buckets of lukewarm water out for them. They certainly had a great time. Nolan splashed next to them and he thought he was such a big boy!