Before & After Pictures

This transformation is wild.  It pretty much makes me speechless.

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After:

 

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The night we moved all our furniture back in (it was 1am) I had Jesse come just sit with me in the new space with the new furniture.  It was just unreal.  I felt so very special and spoiled.

We took old wood off of Jesse’s Dad Shop and put it on our stairway (and the beam that runs down the middle of our ceiling).  This is one of my favorite features.  This rustic touch to all the new and shiny.

I hand stained this stair railing – by myself!  One coat of stain – let dry – spray clear coat –let dry – hand sand – spray another layer of clear coat.  Hard Work!!  But it looks so pretty!! 

Its 90% done!  Trim work and paint the doors and that’s it.  I still can’t believe this is my house and I get to actually live here!

Soap Box

I’m sitting in my brand new living room looking in at my brand new kitchen with so much to show and share and catch up my blog on… but I can’t. 

I’m starting to get to know (better) a family near us… Mom, Dad, 18-year old daughter, 15-year old daughter, 7-year old boy.  The Mom asked me to watch her little boy today for an hour this afternoon.  Of course I can.

Mom came to pick up her son and we starting talking and one thing led to another and our conversations got deep and personal in a quick hurry.  We literally stood in my back yard and my eyes filled with tears as she talked to me.  I got goose bumps as she talked.  She was shaking she was so upset and her eyes were filling up with tears.  This Mom was so hurt and so broken!!  It is her 18-year old daughter.  She is having some real big issues with her.  I have no advice, no words of wisdom… my children are 4 and 2.  I just let her talk to me – that’s what she needed.

When she left – I continued to feel her hurt and I can’t shake it.  I almost feel sick to my stomach for her.  I am not sure that I ever seen someone hurt like that.  Not physically hurt – emotionally hurt.  Or maybe I am just more sensitive to it because I have a daughter too so it hits a little closer to the heart.

Then another neighbor came over and he told me all about the trouble he is having with his 18-year old daughter!  It was quickly interrupted by Max smashing his fingers in the patio door… which I was thankful for because my heart was so heavy and broken for this other family I don’t know if I could take another!

I have no idea why both of these families feel safe telling me/us about their family troubles.  I’m glad that they do even though I don’t have advice.  Because I’m learning from them for my own (hopefully not for a very very very very long time) teenage daughter. 

What we can see looking in is in both of these families there is a lack of faith and personal relationships with God.  I can’t stress to you enough that God gave us rules to live by FOR A REASON!!!  Don’t follow the rules and see how tough life can be for you!  It isn’t easy to follow his rules – but if you do it – your rewards are amazing.  You may not see your rewards in this lifetime – but you will someday!!!

That is all I can say about that.  Put faith and church back in your life if you are struggling.  Watch your life turn around.  You can not do this on your own!!  You need God in your life.  Not just in your life but you need that every day relationship with Him.

I’m off to pray really hard for these broken/hurt families and putting homeschooling back on the radar.  ; )

Week 7

Real quick before I head to work… here are some pictures.  I know my girls out there are dying for another update!  Am I right?!  :)

End of Week 6:

The flooring went in and I tell you what – It is the best part of the whole thing!  This picture does not do it justice!  The floor is killer!  It is not like a typical wood looking floor.  It has all kinds of gray tones in it and kind of rustic but classy.  And I got it for a little over a $1 a square foot!  And if you haven’t looked at flooring that is an amazing deal!!!  All the other floorings I liked were $6 to $7 a square foot!!  Crazy good deal!  It is also incredibly dusty in the house right now – and I’m not about to mop that floor until they are done so this picture (above) is showing a lot of dust on that floor too.

My light fixtures went in as well last week!  The first three are above the island.  The one way in the back on the right, is above where the dining room table will go.  I’m totally obsessed with these fixtures!  I spent lots of hours online searching for the perfect ones.  And I spotted these and there were pretty pricey – but my heart was sold.  So then I started searching everywhere and found them on Amazon for so much cheaper!

My sister-in-law can’t believe how much stuff I can buy online before ever seeing it, touching it, smelling it, etc.  But I’ve been a pretty savvy online shopper (since having kids and moving out of the city).  I bought all the appliances with never seeing or touching them – just looking at one picture online.  I bought the flooring from only a tiny sample.  These light fixtures I never saw in person just one picture online.  It has all worked perfectly so far! 

On Sunday we moved back into the house!  The carpenter told us to go ahead and we didn’t hesitate!  He still has flooring and trim and railings and this and that stuff to do – but the kitchen is in and functioning so I went in!

Monday morning I woke up and sat at the counter with my energy drink and looked out the windows at the sunrise.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.  I was feeling so very blessed by everything!

Here is Mallory this morning eating her first breakfast in the new kitchen! 

Yup that is a big saw in the background!  The are still laying flooring so it is needed!

Trying to wrap all this up by next week before we have company arriving.  I’ll try to update you but if I don’t you’ll know I’ll slammed with trying to get everything back into order!  : )