A Flood and Other Happenings

Is there anything better than boys in capes?

Blake cut some of his own hair.

Easter Sunday

The other day I came home from running errands and noticed water dripping out of the garage in one small area. "Hmm" I thought, "I must have knocked over something in the garage and not realized it." Then I unlocked the front door and stepped onto water. Now, as bad as it looks in the first pic, that was just the beginning. I promptly ran/splashed to the laundry room and turned the water off. I had started a load when I left, 2 1/2 hours earlier, and the washing machine had jerked away from the wall and the hose fell off. The water had continued to pour out the entire time I was gone. It was over my toes. I promptly threw the kids into the back yard and started dragging furniture into the yard, getting stuff off the floor, and putting bowls under things I could not move. A simple observation: I never realized how much of our stuff touched the floor. I mean besides the obvious furniture: baskets, things stored under other things, etc. The closet had to be cleaned out. All the laundry waiting to be washed was sopping wet. It leaked into the garage and I had to save all my curriculum and teaching files. Good Grief!! The water abatement guy came out and did a fabulous job, arriving only 45 minutes later, but by that time all the carpet was wet and ruined. Blake had a marvelous time sloshing around in his rain boots and actually asked if we could do it again sometime. We are totally bummed to have to buy our landlady new carpet a month before moving out. Such is life. I keep telling myself "It's just money, it's just money...."

I was inspired the other day by a friend's honesty on her blog and I thought I too would share something. My endometriosis is back. For those of you who don't know, I first struggled with this in college, and it has been a long and painful journey that has included 3 surgeries. I am beyond blessed to have my boys, as there was a time I truly didn't think I would have any. I am scheduled for surgery in July to clear it all out and have a partial hysterectomy. At first I was really upset at the prospect of a hysterectomy at 33, but my mom reminded me that I was told I would probably have to have one in my early 2o's, so this is quite a victory. To be candid, for years I thought every month that I was just a wimp, I couldn't handle what other women could, why did I never have energy, etc. Now, after giving birth naturally twice, I can affirm that I am in pain! I would appreciate your prayers in dealing with the pain until July and the recovery afterward. Some days are fine, but most days I am on prescription pain killers and not able to keep up with housework and the boys. As the day grows closer I am actually looking forward to my procedure and am hopeful that this will bring a huge change in my life for the good. It is my fervent prayer that when I recover my body will have the energy and strength that matches my personality. I am so thankful for the blessings of my boys and Kyle, who is wonderfully supportive and picks up a lot of slack.

Dresser Redo

This is how I found the dresser in the cabin. Neglected and even had a mouse nest in one of the drawers. I was going to sell it on Craigslist, but my friend Sarah, whom I usually listen to because she has great counsel, said no, I should keep it and distress it. So I did.

Dark oak, it had a lot of detail that you could hardly see.

They had ruined the top by putting something on it that burned it. This is what it looked like after I sanded it down.

After painting it. I used a gallon of Oops paint I picked up for 5 dollars at Lowes. I really am not a pink girl, I don't know what got into me. I will say that the paint is Valspar, as was the paint for the red chair I did. Hate it! Not easy to work with, even though I added a paint extender, and it didn't cover well. Definitely could have used fewer coats if it had been Behr paint. That's the only comparison I have, however, since I have not had the luxury of actually using nice paint. I splurged on Benjamin Moore for my upcoming front door project, and we'll see how spoiled I get.

After. After I painted it, I distressed it. Look how you can see all that beautiful detail now! Pardon the flash photography and poor lighting. The garage door broke last week so I can't let in any sunlight to get a decent picture, and the lights are flourescent...

Then I rubbed Minwax Dark Walnut Stain on the distressed parts.

Then I glazed the whole thing with a glaze I made from Valspar tintable glaze (which I am a fan of) and Dark Walnut. I purposely left drag marks when I took off the glaze and I'm really pleased. Then I waxed the whole thing with paste wax.

This is how the two top drawers were. Well, actually this is after I pulled out the nasty old green felt that was lining them. I'm sure it was quite nice in the 50's when it was done...

For the drawers, since they were ruined, I mod podged craft paper into them and then put a polycrylic topcoat on them and the inside of the cabinets. I'm going to use this for my dresser up in the loft.

A Warning to Blake

Dear Blake,

Watch out. The competition is warming up.

I do have cabin update pictures on my camera.... but I misplaced it. It's here somewhere...

More Furniture and a Frog

Good day for a little boy, bad day for a frog...

Before: My mom bought this table around the time I was born at a JC Penney sidewalk sale for 10 dollars. This is one stout table. We used it my whole life, then it went to college with my brothers, then me, then on to married life with Kyle and I. Kyle regularly performs adjustments on this table! It deserved some TLC.

After

Kyle brought this chair to the marriage, and it will now be my little office chair. The office is going to be the tiny space under the stairs, so we need to get rid of our big office chair.

I thought a pop of color would be nice, so I chose an antique red. It turned out more like shrimp, though.

So, I put a dark walnut stain on it, which I think helped a lot, and then distressed it. I'm afraid I went overboard on the distressing. What do you think? Good? Or should I repaint and stain with less or no distressing?

Furniture Redo and Cabin Update

Here is one thing I am learning fast: I am not a cabin girl. The experience of living there, yes. Cabin decorating, no. I don't want to decorate with Coca-cola products and sconces with a moose on them. I will not be buying drapes with pine trees and sunsets or pillows that say "gone-fishin". My plan is go for a more cottage look. Kind of Shabby-Chic. When we bought the cabin, it had been abandoned, fully furnished, for 7 years. We have already filled up a 40 yard dumpster and are halfway through another one! Most of the furniture we got rid of, but there were actually a number of salvageable pieces. Along those lines, while I love wood furniture, all that wood against wood is depressing to me. So, for the cabin, I am repainting lots of things. My first project is this sideboard. I am going to refinish and repurpose it for our entertainment center.

I love the way it turned out, and this was my first time to distress and stain something. I loved it! I may have found a new hobby... I was picturing the color a little more blue-green than it turned out, but I still like it.

This is a little better pic of the color

My fabulous husband's first job at the cabin was to build my vegetable garden! I have so missed getting my hands in the dirt.

The fence is now up and he is building me an arbor in front of the gate. In other updates, the pier and beam foundation is fixed, and they are working on rewiring the electric and fixing the roof. Won't be long until I can work on the inside...

Our dear friends Mark and Amy Porter came to see us during spring break. We had a great time, as always. By the way, see my shirt? I'm an idiot. Really. I saw this shirt at Bless Your Heart and thought it was so cute. I bought it to wear to the Tejas Rodeo that night and loved it. My thinking was, "I love red! I like the way I look in brown! I'm a Texas girl!!" So, fast forward to yesterday, when I was hanging it up in my closet, when it hit me: Holy cow, I bought a beer shirt! How did this obvious resemblance escape me? I have no idea, except that I've never drank beer, it smells gross. But I've seen the Lone Star beer logo and it should have rung a bell. Good grief. It's not that I think beer is evil or anything, but I wouldn't wear a Budlight shirt, would I? Now what am I supposed to do with it? You'd think my husband would have told me but he likes to laugh at me to himself and let me figure things out on my own.

This little fuzzywumpled guy was eating his breakfast with his toes the other day.

Our New Project

Why have I not written in so long? Well, besides sheer laziness and procrastination, Kyle and I have a new project. As many of you know, land is quite expensive here, at least compared to Dallas, where we moved from. And we have champagne taste on a beer budget, as my mom has always said (it's true). So, if we are going to get property it has to be a steal. Well, a few weeks ago, some property came up that was crazy cheap. Crazy Cheap! And we got it. Yay!!! We really weren't intending to move any time soon, we have looked at no other properties, but this just came to our attention and it felt like a gift from God. Even though our house in Kaufman is STILL on the market after 3 years (please pray!), when we move in June we will save a ton on rent. We are the proud owners of 6 1/2 acres and a log cabin. But, You might as well know, it would really be putting a positive spin on things to call this cabin a fixer-upper. It is a dump. Let's go over the pros and cons. Cons should always come first so you can end on a good note.

The Cons:

- It has been abandoned for seven years, complete with furniture and clothes in the closet, and everything has gone to pot. Filthy!

-We had to kick out a ringtail cat and a raccoon living inside and clean all the potty mess they made. Truly bad enough to be on a tv show or something.

-It has no central heat or air.

- It has no central heat or air!!!

- We have to fix the roof, foundation, and put in new insulation.

- It has a ton of other weird things wrong with it.

- It is 1500 square feet

- The third bedroom is the biggest, but it is the loft and open to below.

- It is 1 1/2 bath

- It has no dishwasher

The pros:

- this way we don't have to rent while building or move a trailer onto the property for awhile

- It sits up on a hill in a beautiful spot in the hill country

- 15 miles from church and work

-fabulous school district

-even with all the repairs, we have found a fast, good but inexpensive crew, and are still getting this place for a steal.

- My front porch runs the length of the cabin and is 9 feet deep.

- It has beautiful hardwood floors

- 9 foot wide stone fireplace

- clawfoot tub

- It does have 2 wood burning stoves, but we're not sure whether they work or not.

- We will put in window units

- Because of my general awesomeness in moving into a small place with no a/c and not complaining about it, I know my husband is going to put in 2 dishwashers into the humongous kitchen in the dream house :)

-We will get to build our dream house!

-Kyle is almost done building me an enclosed vegetable garden with raised beds!

- I am going to cover this place in roses and flowers. I have deeply missed getting my hands in the dirt.

- I have MAJOR cute plans for the inside of this place.

- I enjoy working on projects and refinishing furniture and finding bargains.

- I already found a dishwasher from craigslist.

- This is the life I want for my boys: room to shoot guns and slingshots, play capture the flag, go on adventures, swim in the creek (sometimes, it's seasonal), and camp without leaving the property!

- When we move into the house we build we are going to have an awesome guest house.

Here is a before picture:

And here is the view from the loft:

I promise to be more regular about blogging as I will have many before/after pics to share along the way.

Life Around Here

Life has been busy as usual and I have not picked up the camera as much as I should have, but here are a few happenings:

I admit I get frustrated trying to lose those last 10 pounds, but Blake did this, not me.

A short but interesting phase: for about 2 weeks you just never knew what you would find in there when you went to change a diaper. He would stuff anything from matchbox cars to cheezits down there. I guess the kid needs some pockets.

So annoying. I had cleaned/made the boys clean their room just the day before. Why do I bother? Sometimes I feel like Sisyphus!