An unexpected project

Over the last year of living in our house, every time we need to go to the bathroom, we would squeeze between the vanity and the door. There was definitely not much room as the vanity was much too big for the bathroom space.

Somehow the toilet paper holder had also come off the wall and there was a hole that needed to be patched. For months, we had been thinking we were going to fix the hole and paint the bathroom. That was all. As we got into the project, we were talking with our neighbor who said they had a great vanity from Ikea that worked with the space (their bathroom and house are almost exactly laid out like ours). We saw theirs and thought it fit really well. So we decided to go on a hunt on Craigslist to see if we could find anything.

Boy, was it our lucky day! Not only did we find a similar one, but we also found it for $100 cheaper! Some person had been buying it to remodel, they bought 2 and then only needed 1. It was perfect! Jeff slaved away at painting since the bathroom was too small for both of us to paint at the same time. We also got a new cabinet to go above the toilet so there is more storage. I absolutely love how the bathroom turned out. With a few new fixtures, a new vanity, and some new paint, our bathroom is as new as it was when we moved in.

On to the next project of moving the bar in the basement and getting a couch to sit on!

Molly

School Supplies = greatest time of the year!

As my summer has been dwindling down, I have spent some time with Charlotte and her cone (she had to have emergency surgery because she ate a bone), traveling to Chicago with my family, and getting ready for the school year. I honestly can't believe that I have to go back to work on Monday. It seems like just yesterday that I was saying bye to my kiddos and starting summer.Though I enjoy summer, I am ready to get back to school and I love this time of year!


Last week, the students found out who their teacher was. Kids don't get the excitement of running up to school to see the list posted on the door. Remember those days? I would count down until it was the specific day in August that class lists would be posted. You would get to see who your teacher was, who was in your class, and run into friends at school. Now parents get an email or have to check a website to see who their child's teacher is. It is still exciting but I don't know if kids get the same feeling that I got.

I love walking into Target and seeing all of the school supplies. I didn't love that the supplies were out in July, but it always means school is near. Getting new pencils, picking out folders and notebooks...I still love to do it!

On Thursday, we have our back to school event where kids can come in, see me, find their desk, and get ready for the first day of school. That is the final event that means school is really starting. Because of CP, I already know all of my kiddos in my class and I absolutely love it! I know the families, what kiddos I am going to have to separate, and what friendships I need to support.

Here's to another great start of the school year!

We survived a year!

Wow! What a crazy year it has been! As Jeff and I come up to our 1 year anniversary, I have started to reflect upon the past year. I couldn't have asked for a better husband to be in my life. It's hard to think that 4 years ago, I was hoping that I would find the love of my life. Fast forward to now and I have definitely found him!

Looking back at our first year of marriage, it has been filled with many ups, downs, and hard work. We have put a lot of sweat into our house and backyard (as you all have seen). We also have had some health issues, but to top off our year, we added Charlotte to our family! As much as I say I don't like her, which is quite often, I know she will pay off and be an important part of our family. I am so thankful to have Jeff in my life and couldn't ask for anyone better to spend the rest of my life with. He is one of those guys that is always there, always making me laugh, and put a smile on my face. He challenges me to be a better person, while supporting the choices I make. I look forward to the next 50+ years with this man! We survived our first year, I think we can handle the next 50.

Happy Anniversary to my favorite person in the world!

The work continues.

As summer began, we hit the ground running working on more projects. Though Charlotte has taken up a good amount of our time, we still have been able to complete some projects. I continue to hack away at the list that probably keeps growing.

Some things I can cross off the list...
- Replace the fence by finishing a wood fence around the yard.  - We finally did this and it looks amazing! We are still working on some gates and underneath the fence so Charlotte can't get under to see her friend Mac. She absolutely loves being able to run around the yard and we don't have to worry took much about her getting into the street.

(I know I posted before pictures earlier, but it is always nice to see the before and after together!)

 Before

 After

 

- Put the railings on the deck

- Paint the living room  - Over Father's Day weekend, Jeff went on a fishing trip with my dad, his dad, and Eric, my brother-in-law. While they were away, I tackled painting the living room. It took 2 days and I only did 1 coat, but we are happy with how it turned out. Finally we are taking away the boring cream color that has filled our house.

 Before 

 After

 After

- Finish wedding picture wall in the living room. - After painting the living room, we could finally rehang the picture wall. I still have to find the right picture for the middle, but I was hoping to do our wedding vows or lyrics to our wedding song. Every place I look on etsy is too expensive to have done. Any ideas?

 I wish I were able to cross of more on the list, but we are hoping to tackle more this weekend. It makes it hard when we have a puppy, Twins games, and other things that are taking up our time. 

It is hard to believe that it is already July 10th, that summer school starts on July 21st, and I go back to school August 18th. I thought I had SO much free time this summer, but I guess I really don't. 

My updated project list:

1. Sod the rest of the front yard
2. Sod the backyard
3. Rock around the backyard tree
4. Rock along the back fence
5. Stain the deck
6. Build a fire pit
7. Pump up the cement on the driveway or get a new driveway
8. Pump up the cement in the garage
9. Plant some bushes in the front
10. Plant flowers
11. Clean the outside windows
12. Lower the bar in the basement
13. Paint the bathroom and fix the toilet paper holder
14. Clean out the 2 junk rooms - one upstairs and one downstairs
15. Decorate the house

I promise that my next blog with not be about the house. It gets old reading it, I know. But I do appreciate everyone that does read my blog. Though I haven't blogged religiously, I feel as though I have done a good job of blogging occasionally. Keep on reading and enjoying summer!!

The Life and Times of Charlotte Pool!

What a cutie she is! I love how cute puppies are. The last couple of months, Jeff has been working hard on talking me into getting a dog. I grew up with black labs and was always ok with them, but I never thought I would have a dog. Jeff also grew up with dogs and had a yellow lab. Over the last few months, Jeff showed me pictures of dogs and told me how much he wanted one. We looked online, thought about whether we wanted a rescue dog or a puppy from a breeder. We even took a few trips to the Humae Society. There were a few cute dogs there but we weren't ready for those dogs - 1. Jeff was going on a fishing trip and I didn't want to take care of a dog by myself and 2. I didn't want to get an older dog who didn't know us and we wouldn't know how it would handle a baby in the future - and I mean way in the future. We love our neighbor's dog Morgan who is a bulldog/boxer mix and is the sweetest dog. I also have always loved the looks of bulldogs. After finding out that they are over $1000, we started to look at labs. Knowing that we both grew up with labs, they are loving dogs that are great with kids, we started to look even more. I still wasn't 100% sure I was ready for a dog (I still don't know if I am). But we found a breeder online within our price range that had a female left and I knew how much Jeff wanted a puppy. I told him my feelings about some things so he was aware and we decided that she would be coming home with us!

How can you not love that adorable face! When she sits like that and sleeps all day, I love her. Our first night last night.....yeah not so much. I don't know how I feel about the whole waking up every 1.5hours because she doesn't like her crate. It is going to be a learning experience for both her and us, but I keep trying to tell myself that it will get better. She will start to get the whole going outside to go to the bathroom thing and she will start to get that she needs to spend time in her crate. It will pay off in the long run, right? I guess it is getting us prepared for someday having a kid and having to stay up with a baby. But as I keep saying, that's different. You can take them places and they wear a diaper. Can I put a diaper on Charlotte? Probably not. So far today we have only had one accident in the house (knock on wood). I do love her and know that she will be a great addition to our lives. Here's hoping the next week goes quick and she picks it up! I will definitely have more updates on the life and times of Charlotte Pool!

Finally a finished finished basement!

When Jeff and I moved into our house last April, the basement was finished. We didn't need to do anything with it! We were so excited that we would have a finished basement and that we wouldn't have any work to do.

As the snow began to melt, we quickly learned that our finished basement was soon going to be unfinished. Water was leaking in through the wall and pooling in the middle of the room. We ripped back the carpet and tore down the wall. To fix the water problem, my dad moved dirt in the backyard and we got new gutters, hoping this would fix the problem. Jeff and I could not wait to find out this spring if the gutters fixed the problem so we decided to finish the basement.

Again, with LOTS of help from friends and our awesome neighbor, Ryan, we have finished the basement. We put up more drywall, painted it a new color (one that would look good with the bar Jeff put in the basement), put the carpet back, and cleaned up the dust.

We still have some work to do with decorating and finishing the bar, but at least all of the dust is cleaned and we can at least be in the basement. Yes, Michael Jordan will be living in our basement bar, much to my chagrin. Thanks to a rainy Sunday, we are able to check more items off our list! Maybe by the time we are ready to sell the house in a few years, we will be finished with all of our projects!

We get by with a little help from our friends

Over the last month, we have made some progress on our project list. We still have quite a list but we are making progress. Thank goodness we have my dad to help us out as well as Jeff's friends who are willing to get their hands dirty!

May was filled with lots of projects.
- Take out the wire fence
Jeff and I took out the back fence, it took us a few hours and even longer when he had to pull the poles out. This past weekend, he had a friend and coworker come over and it took them all of 15 minutes. We are so thankful for friends who can do things quickly!

- Remove the lilac bushes
We put the bushes on Craigslist hoping someone would come and do the work. We had someone scheduled but then it was cold and then it rained, and then we said just forget it! My dad came over and pulled out the bushes with the help of Jeff.

- Finish putting rock around the deck
Our rock was delivered Friday afternoon and we finished putting it all around the house. It looks SO much better!! We had 8 tons (I think!) of rock delivered. We were told it would come in the morning so we had one of Jeff's coworkers come over. We waited and waited and waited. Finally about 4, the rock came. With the help of John, a friend in town, and Jared, we were able to move a good part of the rock. Jeff and I then spent our beautiful Saturday afternoon moving rock. If I never have to move rock again in my life, I will be extremely happy!

- Finish painting the basement
Since we had friends coming into town from SD, we had to get this completed. We didn't finish cleaning the basement but at least we are done painting it!

We still have quite a bit of work to do, but it is such a relief to be able to check things off the list.

 

In May 2013 when we found out what was underneath the snow. 

 

May 2014 after we tore down the fence and before the rock came!

May 2014 with the new rock!

 Before (May 2013) and after (May 2014)

We are working hard to create an awesome yard so maybe by year 3 or 4 we can actually have a housewarming party! I love seeing how much the yard has changed. 

I never thought we would buy a house that needed so much outside work. When we were looking for a house last year, we had thought about one that needed inside work (thank goodness we didn't buy one that we had thought about).

It's time to head outside and continue working on that yard in a 70 degree day!