Month: November 2012

Cute Cousins

 My siblings and I are all spread out all over the country, so when we get together we have to get a picture of the kids all together.  As you might imagine, getting 3 kids age 3 and under to sit still and pose is nearly impossible.  Sweet Luke hadn’t quite mastered the whole sitting up thing, which made it even trickier.  There was a small scuffle over the little blue fish in the middle, but we persevered.  Two more cute cousins will be added to this side of the family in April and June.

How do you get kids to sit still for a photo?

Duck Creek Ranch: The Before Pictures, A Celebration of 80s Home Decorating

 Here are some of our before pictures, complete with the previous owner’s furnishings.  We took these during a walk through before she moved out.  I’ll have more later.  We plan to ditch the grape wallpaper and paint the cabinets white.  I’d love new counter tops, but that is a long range project.

 We will paint all the trim and wainscoting white, as well as the cool built in to the left.  I’m looking for inspiration to replace that light fixture on pinterest.

 Here’s the half bath off the kitchen, the scene of plumbing nightmare #1.  Eventually we’ll paint the wood and the walls, and replace the light fixture.  I’m thinking I’ll paint the mirror’s frame a fun color.

 The kitchen opens up to the living room.  Let’s play count the grapes on the wall.

 Here’s the living room complete with nightmare popcorn ceiling and so much wood paneling.  We ripped out the carpet and took down the popcorn.  We’ve painted the paneling and are almost done with the trim.  I can’t wait to show you the after pics!

 You still can’t see the popcorn very well, but trust me when I say it was awful.  Popcorn ceilings have never really urked me, probably because I grew up in the 80s.  These were a whole other level of popcorn, big nasty kernels everywhere.  Gross.

 This is the front door and entryway.  We plan to rip off the wallpaper and make this a fun focal wall with family pics.

 The dining room was otherwise known as the previous owner’s cat’s litter box.  Thanks to advice from some of my cat loving friends we are battling the cat pee destruction day by day.  We’ve ripped out the carpet and are hitting the pee daily with Nature’s Miracle Enzyme cleaner.  Jed said it is the nastiest job he’s ever had to do.  He ripped out the base boards and is fighting with the concrete below.  We plan to put in wood laminate flooring and take down the wallpaper as soon as we get the cat pee under control.  We haven’t decided on a paint color yet, but I’m leaning toward an aquamarine.

 Our master bedroom feels so big, and we have fallen in love with the parquet flooring though we hated it at first.  We’ve already painted in here and I’ll have after pics up soon.

 The master bath is the scene of plumbing nightmares #2-5.  Eventually we want to gut the whole dang thing. Don’t you love the magnolia trim and gold flaked wallpaper?  You don’t?  I HATE it.  Please note the teeny tiny bathtub.  Who fits in that?  It was not made for a full grown human.

This will be the Bear’s bedroom eventually, and the almost identical bedroom will be Mini Bear’s.  We’ve set up Bear’s stuff in the other room so that we can paint this one without all his furniture in the way.  
Take away all the previous owner’s furniture, add in new carpet, tons of boxes, and the odor of cat pee, and you’ve got a great picture of our Duck Creek Ranch.  We know we will make it into a beautiful home for our family eventually, but the getting there is going to take a while.
How long did it take you to feel at home in your house? 

We’re Having A…

Will Mini Bear be a brother or sister for our little Bear?
Will it be a bow or tie in our Christmas box?
Can you guess?
 Mini Bear’s tiny little foot

Still don’t know?
I’ll let Bear show you…

He approaches the box…
opens it up..
 and we see a hint of pink…

We’re having a precious little girl, and we couldn’t be more excited.  She should arrive near the end of April.  As you can see, I’ve already started her accessory collection.  The majority of y’all guessed correctly, so congrats on your good instincts.  You should probably go buy a powerball ticket.  🙂  Now we just have to figure out a name…

A New House, a Move, and a Baby

So, a few things have been happening around here lately.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (which you definitely should) you know that we bought our first house, moved in, and have baby #2 on the way.  You know, just a few small things.  It has been crazy, exciting, stressful, and great, all at the same time.

At least this guy is the sweetest little Bear ever.  

The house is 1970s one story cutie that backs up to a creek and needs a LOT of work.  I’ll post before and after pics of each of our projects as we check them off our list, but it is going to be a looong process.  So far we have dealt with major plumbing issues, residual cat dander and pee, and some serious wood paneling.  We’ve asked ourselves many times, “Why did we buy a house again? and have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer.  We know deep down it will all be worth it eventually, but on most days I feel like we will be surrounded by boxes FOR-EV-ER.  We are doing most of the work ourselves, and let me just tell you that HGTV makes it look way too easy.  This junk is hard.  Crazy hard.  If you’re interested in coming over to remove wallpaper, I’ll love you forever.  I’ve decided to affectionately call the house the Duck Creek Ranch, so that it will grow on me a little faster.  Why Duck Creek Ranch? We live on a super cute creek filled with ducks, it is a ranch style house, and everyone in Texas loves a ranch.

For the first time ever, we hired movers.  I’m a bit of a gypsy and have moved at least once per year since the age of eighteen.  I’m now 33.  That’s a lot of moves, people.  I once could move all my worldy possessions in the back of my car.  Alas, those days are gone.  It took weeks of packing, 3 guys + us, a BIG moving truck, and many hours to get all of our crap into the new house.  I was pretty much useless because of my first trimester sickness and generally being pregnant, plus herding a toddler.  Poor Jed worked all day at his teaching job and then came to DCR every day after school to work until 9 or 10 pm.  He is the best, that man of mine.

I can’t believe I’m already almost half way through this pregnancy.  We found out the gender last week and have been slowly revealing it to family and friends.  I’ll share it on the blog tomorrow, so vote now in the gender poll.  After all, you have a 50% chance of being right.  Mini Bear is growing well, and I’m feeling so much better now that I’m firmly in the 2nd trimester.

How many times have you moved?  Share your craziest moving story in the comments.