I am grateful

I am so grateful for the wonderful neighborhood we have moved into. We were sad to leave our old neighborhood and it was hard to hope for a great experience like that to happen more than once.

One of the most amazing examples of neighborliness was the day we laid our sod. We started at about 2 or 3 pm on a Friday. The first person to come was our then unknown neighbor, Mike, from down at the end of the street. He had noticed the pallets of sod in the street and thought, "they're going to need some help". He stayed with us to the end, about 5½ hours later! His son came for a while and his wife came down later when she got off work. As the day progressed we had family come and go and we are sooo grateful for their support. As we continued it started to rain. Our wonderful next door neighbor sent out the boys (hers and ours) to knock on neighbors' doors and ask for help. I had no idea until people just started showing up. How busy were their lives that day? What excuses could they have used? Would I have dropped everything and come to lay sod? By 5:30, we had 20-25 neighbors laying sod in the rain. There were men, couples and even quite a few women whose husbands weren't home, so they came alone! These people know how to work! We could never have completed our yard without them. We laid 9,000 sq feet of sod that day and it looks great!

I find that experiences like this fill me with profound gratitude and wonder at being led to such a wonderful place. God's hand is in the details and his angels do exist. I also have to stop and ponder what type of neighbor and friend I am striving to become. I still have a long way to go. It's a good thing our loving Heavenly Father has given us a lifetime to get there.

Need your ideas...

Over at We are THAT Family she is having a backwards WFMW where we put our most pressing, perplexing, mind-numbingly difficult problems, out into cyberspace and people use their great mind powers to solve them for us. Now this isn't one of those questions but has been bugging me none-the-less. What type of window covering should I use for my kitchen window?

All of the other windows have shutters but I wanted to be able to watch the children blissfully playing out my window while I lovingly wash each dish until it sparkles in the sun. Did I mention the window is slightly rose colored? However, in the afternoon, the sun shines in so mercilessly that I can't even see if my dishes are sparkling. Yep, that's my excuse as to why they have spots and small crusted amounts of food still on them. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

The wall space on either side is too narrow to allow side curtains, I'm not too fond of traditional window toppers, so you can see my dilemma. I am thinking some type of roman shade? If I do, how can I get one to match my decor? I would love to have something functional that adds to the pretty of my kitchen and draws the eye from the stack of dirty dishes waiting to be polished to a glorious sheen.

So, for the health and safety of my family and my eyesight, please give me any ideas you may have!

The weirdest thing!

On Saturday, I thought we were being invaded! Thousands of black birds kept circling and landing, circling and landing in the trees, weeds, and on the barbwire fence of the lot next door. As they flew over our house I was reminded of the picture of the locusts that the pioneers fought until the seagulls came to the rescue!




















It seemed choreographed as they took off in groups, some leading, some following. It was amazing! I wondered if it had something to do with the weather change? I don't know what brought them, but I enjoyed watching them. That is until I thought about our plans for a big garden, fruit trees, and berries!

WWEEE ARRE HHERRE!

One million Brooke points if you can name the juvenile novel my title came from? It's my favorite novel!

Anyway, If you can't tell, we have moved in and have officially been here 2 weeks today! Hooray! We are loving our new home and we are settling in nicely. Now, my first wish would be for someone to magically find a place for all this stuff! After having everything in storage for almost 6 months, I forgot how much crap... junk... stuff... meaningful memorabilia we have collected in almost 13 years of marriage! My second wish would be for a builder fairy (is that an oxymoron or what?!) to come and build me some shelves for my storage room cause stacking open boxes on their sides to display food storage is just not working like I planned. Then I would wish for some lawn to decrease the amounts of mud entering onto my beautiful new tile!

All whining aside, I have to say, this is really a dream come true. It was ALMOST worth giving birth in Puerto Rico! Boy, when I think back on all the things we have done to get us to this point... sacrifice is so worth it! But, I'm rambling again. Suffice it to say that we are loving it here. Our neighbors are great and Jordan has his "very best friend" right next door. (He had a hard time finding friends to play with in the old neighborhood.)

We are so grateful to all the people who came to help us move. Some even came twice! I hope your backs have sufficiently recovered. We are touched by the welcome we have received into the ward and neighborhood. And we so appreciate all the help and support we were blessed with during the building process. We are especially grateful to my parents for putting up with us crashing around in their basement for 5 months (minus 1 week). We miss you already.

Updated pictures of our house

I am just so excited to see each stage finished!

I decided that we would not be afraid to put color into this new house and so we painted the family room a beautiful brick red. It seemed a little strong until the rock went on the fireplace but now we really like how warm and bold it is. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the color is perfect for the rock! You can see they are laying the pad for the carpet.

Here is the kitchen minus appliances and a pantry door. I love the granite countertops and the varied height of the cabinets!

The only thing missing on the exterior is the shutters on the front window and they will paint the window box dark brown.

We are loving how the house is shaping up! We have painted the girls' room a sunshine yellow and we want to paint the master bathroom a warm chocolate brown. I am so excited to get moved in and stretch out. Almost every day I find there is something I wish I had from the storage unit! We are 3 weeks away now and counting the days!

What will I do with my new house?

Over at The Inspired Room, a place I visit often for beautiful home ideas and inspiration, Melissa is having a contest to win a $200 gift card to Home Goods. Boy, I could use that in a heartbeat. So in an effort to impress upon her my need I submit this photo:
Can't tell what it is? This is a photo of my soon to be kitchen. I am really excited to get in there and finally make it mine but, have yet to define what "mine" looks like. Generally, I have more expensive taste than my bank account and I have yet to root out my frugal (cheap) side. So in the past I have ended up with a lot of stuff that I don't really love because it was less expensive. I refuse to do that in our new home even if it ends up virtually devoid of personality for years. Which brings me to the point that a gift card would satisfy my frugal side while allowing me to buy some beautiful things that I will love.

I also wanted to throw in the latest picture of our almost finished exterior for anyone who is curious to see how things are progressing.

Summer adventures continued...

I have enough material through this summer for a novel series however, I thought I would condense a little and let some of the experiences speak for themselves.
For example, I think you can imagine the clean up involved in a cracked 42 oz bottle of bubble solution slowly leaking into the carpet. Or a toddler with the stomach flu doing her thing on both the leather couch and upholstered rocker, neither of which actually belong to us!
There is a dent in the wall where the doorknob hits from a particularly enthusiastic entrance, the grass is wearing a little thin as we trample around to the back door and the kids continue to sneak-eat the cherry tomatoes out of the garden.
The fish have somehow survived in spite of their near death experience but we lost our last frog Zippy about a week ago. You will probably not be surprised to know that I miss him more than the kids because I was the one who took care of him. We had a unique bond. I have a habit of going in to see my sleeping children before I go to bed. At the end of each day I need the reminder of their innocence, beauty, and my love for them. Anyway, frogs are nocturnal and Zippy was at his most active about midnight. I would silently greet him and watch as he perched on the edge of his water bowl after a refreshing dip. I miss watching him watch me and pondering what he might be thinking. I know, you are astounded at the depth of my ponderings at that time of night.
This is also another superglue testimonial! Emma was chasing Jordan across the street, tripped and fell, and gouged 2 holes in her forehead. We pulled out the superglue again and things seem to be healing well!
And finally (for now) we had the fun adventure of taking down the entire clothes rod and upper shelf in our bedroom. I guess maybe we didn't thin our wardrobes enough when we moved :) The screws pulled right out of the wall.
There are also a few more stories which demand more detail in the telling. I will leave these for a future date when I am more emotionally prepared to relive them. Let's just say one involves a babysitter who didn't know how to say no to science experiments, and the other involves a defrosted freezer that still makes me cringe in horror. Another will recount the beginning of the vomit story which happened to take place in our trailer... on vacation... from the top bunk.
Needless to say, we will have some spackling, painting, and a whole lot of cleaning to do when we move out of here. We are determined to leave this basement in the best shape we can (I mumble with bowed head and a look of penitent chagrin on my face).

Newest update on the house

They are getting ready to stucco and shingle next week! We have the plumbing, electrical, and heating in and the sheetrock is leaning against completed framing. Woo, Hoo!!

Update on the update: the sheetrock and first layer of stucco is done now too! 8/19/09

Memories

We were sitting around on Sunday thinking about all the memories we have from the old house. I thought I would get them written down in a semi-permanent place. Since I spend much more time here than in my journal, here it is:


Paul

• throwing kids into the Love Sac
• kids jumping from the basement stairs landing into the Love Sac
• storing all our Christmas decorations in the basement shower
• kids racing from the fridge to the couch with Jordan yelling "Look out guys, I'm gonna go speed!"
• how beautiful our Christmas tree looked in the front window
• games of HyperDash in the back yard
• process of landscaping the backyard including the kids playing in the thatch, tipping over the bobcat, laying railroad ties (Brooke being 5 months pregnant), laying sod, building the playset, digging out the old sandbox, planting the garden and the apple tree that we never got an apple from
• golfing with whiffle balls
• how the kids would get up on the wall and spin around the fence posts before the fence was put up
• kids deciding the pantry was the romantic place when they caught Mom and Dad kissing in there and would shove us in there any chance they got
• playing hide and go seek - we would list the places we looked aloud "not in the closet" Jordan would yell "no" from his hiding place as we said each place we looked

Brooke

• how much the kids loved jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath
• themed birthday parties: pirates, frog, shark, princess
• kids playing on the fake rock in the front yard no matter how many times we asked them not to
• our Jumanji garden
• Jordan spending the majority of his outside time in the raspberry patch eating. Once I sent out a bowl of raspberries for him to pick more, the bowl came back empty, he accused "You know I love raspberries too much!"
• the sandbox provided many pockets full of sand to dump on my bed as I sorted laundry
• building snowmen in the front yard
• watching the kids blast off to the moon on the rocket rider
• how proud I was about putting up the chain link fence (with my Dad's help)
• Paul hurting his back multiple times shoveling snow because we didn't have room to store a snowblower in the garage

Christian

• my favorite place to hide was under the table between the couches
• unwrapping Christmas presents under the Christmas tree in the living room
• cutting down the quakie in the front yard

Jordan

• having a Christmas tree for a night light
• counting lights on the tree until I fall asleep
• doing flips into the love sac
• Christmas quilt tradition in the living room
• raking leaves and jumping into them

Emma

• sliding down slide into the leaves
• boys pulling Emma around the yard in the little blue sled

Update on the house

Things are really coming along! I walk through the house and imagine walls just the color we chose, with the wide open staircase just there. My room, my refuge, there. The big open family room in the basement for watching movies or entertaining. My big kitchen where everything will find a place and I just might be inspired to cook those meals I plan but never seem to get around to. Where there is a countertop for homework, after school snacks, talk and laughter. And of course the deck will be right here. A perfect place to watch the kids, BBQ, watch our big garden and fruit trees grow, play a game, or read a book.
Can you tell I am excited and impatient! It's time to get started on a landscaping plan.

Our basement has walls!

I know this borders on obsessive enthusiasm, but I just can't help myself. I've never seen a house being built and considering that it is our dream home, I'm a little excited!!! Expect more random construction photos over the next couple of months!

BIG Trucks

The status of our hopes, dreams, and obsession:

Before

Just so you know... we're still alive

We are still alive, though a few of us have had some close calls. We have moved into my parents basement which, despite the fact that there are only 2 bedrooms, is really quite roomy! We are so grateful that they are willing to let us intrude on their well ordered lives and turn them into chaos. I am on their computer right now while they are away. We haven't quite figured out how to hitch a ride on their internet yet but hope to be up and running next week. Tune in next week for some great moving/6 people in a small apt. stories! Until then, wish us luck in surviving the rain until we can run, jump, and scream OUTSIDE again!

What's new at our house...

Thought I would post some of the projects we have done in preparing our house to sell. I wish we had done these things 5 years ago! Our realtor is a trained house stager and I have been watching a couple of shows on HGTV for ideas. In other words, there have been more projects than time! You should be able to enlarge photos by clicking on them.

If you are interested or know anyone who might be, check out the professional photos and our official listing here!

I especially love my room. I feel like I have a Master bedroom and a Master bath instead of just a plain old bed and bath.

BTW, the moulding is velcroed onto the mirror! Yep, the self adhesive stuff! Cool huh?

We have lived here for almost 8 years and it takes moving to get us to actually furnish the living room. It just hasn't been a priority. This cushy loveseat will find a new home in our bedroom in the new house.

Above the computer desk in the dining room.

Basement:

Basement Bedroom

Basement Bathroom

You can read about some of these projects and others we have done here, here, here, and here.

And be sure to check out what's happening at other people's houses at WFMW and Remodeling Guy!