Day 3 of Drywall work....

I am so excited I can hardly stand myself!!  Tomorrow will be the final skim coat plus texturizing of the ceiling which means Friday will be the sanding day (a day I plan to out and about!!)  Do you see that wonderful opening?  It makes it seem so much bigger in here!  I love it.  Now to decide if we paint it white or the same color as the dining room/kitchen.  Any suggestions?  We can have it painted the same color as the kitchen if we want.  I just have to let our contractor know... but the guest/craft/music room will be WHITE!  That way I can do all kinds of crazy stuff in there!!

(current configuration)

Proposed changes to dining room

and kitchen

I know the flooring looks great but we discovered we can't match it!  And as you can tell it will run directly into the addition so we are putting in ALL new flooring.  

The old flooring you ask?  

Well it will be saved to put down in the boys' bedroom or make repairs to the bathrooms.

(I just haven't mentioned this to Chris yet... but I'm sure he will agree!)

Drywall!!! And a question or two

Wow... have it ever been crazy around here lately what with all the end of the school year projects, activities, house projects, and the annual church rummage sale!  I mean seriously has everyone been watching hoarders?!?  Because with the amount of clothes that ended up at our sale I know someone (or a few) did some serious emptying of their closets.  Think a standard size school gymnasium/basketball court
FILLED with stuff... yep you read that STUFF!  And no I did not take any pictures (as she hangs her head in shame...)  I think it would have been too overwhelming.  I had a hard time keeping track of my water bottle and my soda, let alone add a camera to the mix. ha ha!

The renovation is coming along quite nicely.  Today they are doing a little mudding and it looks like they will be ready to sand on Friday which means next MONDAY the new floors will be installed!!!!  Which means no road trip to Zionsville for an awesome yard/antique sale but we will be getting NEW FLOORING!!!  I am so excited!  In fact there is every possibility their work will be done Memorial Day weekend.  So Chris and I had better get a move on!  We still have to decide on a ceiling light for the family room and area rugs plus furniture.  Yes you did read that correct!  Furniture... as in we have none to put in there.  We do have the sofa, Chris' recliner, and the rocking chair in the living room plus a number of bookcases but that not all of it will be moved over!  Oh I almost forgot about the steamer trunk and the hutch which will both be moved into the family room and craft room.

New opening between the dining room and family room.

The family room

The guest/craft/music room

For the time being this is where we will set-up the Bowflex.  In a few years it might become a walk-in closet.

Now for the questions...

Question number 1: What do you think of a faux board and batten treatment with white paint?  Too much white?  Too much of a contrast between rooms?

Question number 2: Ceiling fixture in the family room... something that hangs down a little?  ceiling hugging? Remember the ceiling is slightly lower than normal but higher than the bedrooms.  I think we agreed a ceiling fax would be too low.

Question number 3:  furniture suggestions?  T.V. placement?  It will be mounted on the wall but not sure where... Bookcases? yes? no?  loveseat?  We don't want to overwhelm the room but do want seating for movie watching and video game playing.   The guys seem to prefer sitting on the floor to play video games as they like to be close to the T.V.

I do know that I want silver or brushed nickle in the ceiling fixture.

Thanks for all your suggestions!!

Stone raised bed garden (my mother's day present!)

Do you see this incredibly sweet man?

Do you know what he is doing?

Have you figured it out?

He made me a stone raised bed garden in front of the swimming pool! 

(okay I confess I asked him to make it but still didn't he do a great job!!)

And do you know what??? It didn't cost us a single thing!!  

The whole bed is made from the remains of our old patio.

By the way... the addition sits on the spot of the old patio!

Thank you sweetie!

A BIG THANK YOU!

I want to thank everyone who voted for us in the Epic Room Makeover Giveaway over at Vintage Revivals.  No we did not make it to the next round but I hopefully I will glean some wonderful ideas due to it.

Now the big news.... do you see what I see?

WINDOWS!

All the windows are now in plus our lovely sliding glass door!

See our lovely view as well!  Its an organic farm with sheep and cows and chickens and goats... all for our viewing pleasure.  I love watching the new lambs and calves frolicking!  They are so incredibly cute!

Don't you just love the view of the pool?  Do you see the grass just outside the window?  That area that runs over to the fence.  Well come early summer it is going to be a deck!  Last summer we traded our enclosed trailer for the labor to have it built this spring.  Now we just need to purchase the materials...

And do you see all the lovely morning light we get?  I can hardly wait for them to finish.... This weeks schedule looks like this... plumber to plumb itty bitty powder room.  finish pulling the electric.  finish roof overhang.  start insulating (possibly finish?). 

Yesterday, the drywall was ordered so maybe next week we will see some drywall going up.  

Which reminds me... I wonder when we need to have the flooring??? We still need to order it and were told it will take a 7 days to come in.  I guess we better get on that!

And do you see this area?  Well it is in the spare room.

One day it will be a walk-in closet but for now....

it will contain shelving for craft storage and possibly the bowflex!  

Sorry but there has been absolutely NO crafting going on right now.... I think my brain is on overload as we are attending all of the end of the school year functions.  Plus our eldest has decided he does not want to go to college right out of high school.  He wants to go into the military!  The USMC to be exact... be still my beating heart!  I am so proud of him and my prayer is that he will continue to allow God to lead him in all his decisions.  We can only hold their hand for so long before we start having to let go and watch as they make their own decisions.  Am I ready for this?  NOT in the LEAST!  But he is a young man and we cannot make his decisions concerning his future as an adult!  He has always had a pretty level head and I am so proud of his willingness to try new things!  

I love you and am so proud of you, Ian!!

my crazy boys!

(I still have no idea how he did this one!)

Don't you just love my cousin-children? 

Trust me its a question they get all the time.... 

"You mean HE'S your brother?  But you don't look anything alike!"

Yep meet fair skinned with freckles and straight red hair (coppery strawberry blonde) and mediterranean skin tone with deep brown eyes and curly brown/black hair, brothers... 5 years apart!

Enjoy your week and Cinco de Mayo tomorrow!  

We will!!

Voting is now open!!

Hey there all my lovely friends!  The link is now up and live for the




Please stop by and vote!  I am entry #78, Peggy.  Thank you so very much!  You have no idea how excited we are or how badly we would love to win!!  I figure one way or the other we will come out winners as I've discovered some really wonderful new blogs along the way!  Once again thank you of so very much!

I love me some posies!

Today has been a busy day already and it is just barely passed noon... well in a matter of speaking, ha ha!


Today a dear friend of ours is having a yard sale.  Well really her friends are hosting it for her so that it won't be too painful.  You see our dear Miss "R" recently moved out of her home of over 50 years into a lovely two bedroom apartment in a retirement community.  She is truly an amazing Christian lady!  While living in this home she lovingly raised her family and buried two husbands.  Her home has been a haven of respite as missionaries traveled through our region.  And she is an artist... painter in oils and water colour, seamstress, writer, stained glass artist, needlework, baker and the list goes on.  To this day she makes cards to send out to our missionary ladies!!    Today I bought two pieces of art by Miss "R".

Now we all know I just can't leave things alone.

So I made a change or two to the frame.

I love how the colors really pop now!

In time I plan to do a little trim this picture down a smidge to be this size....

Can you see this with a somewhat chunky brushed nickel frame?

Or maybe chunk antique white frame?

I love it that we are able to own artwork that has meaning to our family!

Epic Room makeover Giveaway! voting open!!!

The link has now gone LIVE for voting... click on the link and vote for us, entry #78 (Peggy)! 
 THANK YOU!!




(This post had to be redone as I accidentally crashed it... don't ask how because even I'm not sure!!)

Okay so I finally took the plunge!  I have been hemming and hawing over whether I should do this or not but decided... NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED!  So I am officially entering our addition for the

As some of you know we moved from Alaska to Indiana just over a year ago.  We  down sized from a two story cedar sided 1850 square foot home with an incredible view of Mt. McKinley visible from our house length covered porch sitting on 10 acres to a 1250 square foot one story home situated on less than 1/2 an acre surrounded by an organic farm (which we love 'cause they have sheep that bound through the pasture in spring!)  Yep you read that correctly 1850 to 1250 square feet!  And we still have the same number of people in our family... FIVE plus a HUGE dog!


So we decided to have an addition added.  You know the story... we didn't want to try and sell our tiny but relatively cute home due to the housing market or should I say lack of selling market!  
So lets build!  We get to make all the choices ourselves, etc, etc, etc.
That was back in December... fast forward 5 months and we are still in the building process due to unforeseen weather issues!
However we are getting close to the end as it is all inside work....

AND I am NOW drawing a blank!

Once the old patio door is removed this will become the opening between the dining room and family room.


  

The sliding patio door was installed Friday... 

Double windows will be installed next week in the opening to the left.

Door to powder room on the left and BIG door to guest/craft/music room on the right.


Did I mention there are updates being made daily? 
And decisions to be made daily? 
And our projected finish date is late May?
I will be possibly updating daily depending on the progress that is made...
(Update: Next week... new windows, plumbing, and possibly electrical!)


HOWEVER DO I DECORATE IT ON A NON-EXISTENT BUDGET?!?
(I'LL EXPLAIN IN A MINUTE...)
I mean I know how to decorate on a budget 
but
MY BRAIN IS FRIED!!
my craftiness is at a all time low...


PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!
I think Mandi has some great ideas and I would be honored to have her assitance!  Okay lets get real here... it would be more like me tagging along cause as I said my brain is fried!


Did I also mention our youngest starts junior high in the fall, our eldest will graduate next year and is toying with joining the USMC instead of going to college first, and our middle son is asking us to take on some leadership positions in the band boosters?  
Oh and my husband is contemplating retiring off active duty next year as well!


And here is the KICKER.... we lost our decorating budget!!!
 
How you ask?


Well this was our first year living in Indiana and we discovered a wicked thing called county taxes!  Who knew that they were NOT taken out with the STATE TAXES.  
Yep the amount was staggering to say the least!  
(if you really want to know the amount feel free to e-mail me)
But it took ALL the money I had saved up to decorate with plus part of our final payment on the addition.
  
Can you see why I am feeling a bit over whelmed?  


Yep I am calling out all the stops and begging for votes!  
In case I didn't mention it the addition will be used as the family room... you know an area to watch movies, play video games.
plus a room off it to do crafts, use as a music practice room (cause we have a marimba player and a soon to be alto saxophonist) and to use as a guest room since ALL our family lives a minimum of 600 miles away!!!


 We would be of so grateful if you found it in your heart to vote for us!!
Thank you!!

P.S.  I almost forgot to add that we have some really cool stuff that can be used to decorate with such as this 1920's steamer trunk which we found at a yard sale a number of years ago

And this hutch that has been in the family since the Civil War.

Thank you for stopping by!!
I REALLY, REally, really appreciate it!


AND WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOUR VOTE!