E 'finito!

Ashley is beyond excited at how awesome her room turned out! My sister in law is a creative genius when it comes to stenciling! She left work at 2pm today to come over and finish up the second coat on the stencils. Then we ran to a few places to get curtains and some other finishing touches and pulled it all together tonight. I am so happy with how it all turned out!

Ready? Here is a before picture...

...and POOF! Here is after!

I am now off to try and put back together my poor neglected house.

Sneak Peak

It has been quite a day today. We had one of the worst storms ever roll through here at 4am this morning. All day yesterday it had been in the upper 90's and the humidity was so bad that you could barely breathe outdoors. Taking all this into account, we knew that any storms that reached us would be really bad. And they were.

Every single thing on our deck had blown over to the railing right in front of our patio door. Our only saving grace was that we had just stained the deck, so the floor of it was still pretty slippery which I believe helped our new patio set glide across instead of being hurled across. Our neighbors weren't so lucky. There table flipped over and shattered into a million little pieces. Our other neighbors had it even worse. Their children's brand new wooden play system blew over and broke. All throughout our neighborhood, the effects of this morning's storm could be seen.

With the outdoor clean up taken care of, I moved on to Ashley's room. I ended up removing all of the tape from around the brown wall and was upset when the tape took off quite a bit of the original blue paint. Guess what that meant I ended up doing today? With the help of Ashley and my sister in law, we repainted all of the three walls with the same color.

After getting the blue walls painted, we moved on to the stenciling. My sister in law is quite talented and did an incredible job. Ashley is beyond excited, but the squares still need one more coat of paint tomorrow and then we can move everything back in and put her new bedding on.

I still need to find window treatments for both kids' rooms, but need to look around and decide if I want to make them myself or just buy them. We'll see.

Check back tomorrow...hopefully I'll have her room all put together and final pictures posted. For now, I'm off to go collapse in bed.

Painters For Hire

We got just a little bit sidetracked today.

Don't worry - we did eventually get two coats of brown paint up on that wall. Now we're just waiting to see if we need a third coat. Then the stenciling nightmare will begin tomorrow.

Oh, don't you worry, Daisy. You're days of boredom are soon to be over. Luke arrives in less than 2 weeks.

Here We Go Again

With the upcoming addition to our family coming in less than two weeks, I thought I had better get Ashley's room done since Ryan's has been done for quite some time now. There were a few things that kept me from getting it done, such as our vacation to Florida, the carpal tunnel in my wrist (which still hurts if I do too much, but it's managable for now) and more summer ball games than one can count.

Here we are before:

(The blue and brown bins in her closet are new.)

Now I'm working on the after. It's all taped and ready to go. I just need to go pick up Ashley from softball and get the paint - then she and I can get to work.

More later...

Updates...

After 4 days of squeezing in time to work on Ryan's room, it's finished. Here's a before picture from earlier in the year...

Here's a now picture, minus his new bed. I ran into a problem with his new bedding last night. I tried to wash the comfortor and the darn thing ripped so now I need to return it and determine if I want to replace it with something else or chance it happening again. That's just fitting seeing as I decorated the room around his bedding. Regardless, I'm happy with the way it turned out and he loves it.

Father's Day was spent at Bret's brother's house with good food and family.

Ryan is doing very well in baseball. It's his favorite sport and he's working hard at it.

Speaking of working hard - Ryan started his Lose The Training Wheels class today. It's an adaptive bike riding class where the bike teaches the child how to ride. He rode that thing for the whole hour and fifteen minutes! He goes everyday this week and they guarantee that he'll be riding on two wheels by Thursday or Friday.

And the best part of the whole class? I don't have to run along side him!

Room Renovation Update

The following is a free tip on how to know when you can no longer put off washing that kitchen floor. Sadly, I was more upset at losing my large diet coke from McD's than I was about the mess.



Tomorrow is the big day! Ryan's room is empty, the trim is all taped and the paint is purchased.

But first we have to make time for a little mattress surfing. What? Don't tell me you would have passed on an opportunity like this!

Two hours later and he's still at it!

Honestly? I knew these colors were a mistake before we were even out of the store 5 years ago. Ryan had insisted on blue and green - the super dark kind. This was our way of compromising and keeping his room from looking like the bat cave and scaring the hell out of him at 3am!

His new bedding is again sport's themed in a navy/dark red/tan color scheme. Tomorrow the walls will become tan. Next the shelves and his toy box (not pictured) will be painted navy and dark red.

For the time being, Ryan's room has currently moved into our room and he's taken over my half of the bed. He's tossed my pillows out into the hallway and replaced them with his own! Guess I'm sleeping elsewhere for the next couple of nights.

Legos - 3, Lynda - 1

May I present to you, the unfinished Lego Room. It's still a work in progress - needs more shelves added and the bed switched out, but Ryan loves it.

Unfortunately, this isn't even all of his legos. There are more that we had to put back into the boxes due to lack of room in his bedroom. Hence, the need for more shelving.

This bed will be swapped out with Ryan's twin bed. We're going to set it up as a daybed so that Ryan will have more space to play.

This was just the first phase. Next I have to deal with their messy bedrooms.

Scorecard: Legos - 3, Me - 0

I've got a new project here at home. After breaking it to my mom that she is losing her "bedroom" downstairs to her Grandson's Legos, I've decided to redo both kids' bedrooms.

Ryan has had this bad habit of climbing into bed with us at night and you would think the three of us would fit in a king size bed, but no, we don't thanks to a certain 7 year old that seems to think he requires 2/3 of said king size bed.

You'd also think that we'd come to our senses and put him back in his own bed, but no, we don't thanks to a total lack of any functional brain cells at 3am. Instead I end up in his little twin size bed because it's easier than trying to get my husband to carry the kid back to his bed.

So my solution? Give me a bigger bed to escape to the kid the bigger bed (Ashley already has a bigger bed) from the bedroom downstairs and move the nightmare Lego mess to it's own room downstairs. My mom can take one of the kids' beds when she visits and we'll just move whatever kid is left me downstairs to the twin bed.

I did manage to find new bedding for both kids today. As soon as I get cracking I'll take before and after pictures. It's going to take awhile since painting is going to be called for and time is already at a minimum. I must have a screw lose in my brain to be adding more to the month of June, however the Lego situation has been driving me to the brink of insanity!

And hey! Guess who passed the six month mark of nonsmoking and didn't even realize it until she looked at the ticker to the left?

Wanted

Wanted:

Someone to clean my 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom ranch style house because apparantely a calf injury makes that a wee bit hard to do. Please be advised - a 7 year old can't hit the bowl for the life of him little boy resides here.

Spring Cleaning Series

Hosted by Sarcastic Mom

Hi. My name is Lynda and I'm obsessive about having a clean and clutter free home - unless it comes to my closets and other places of storage. Some have said they'd never believe it unless they were to see it. Once upon a time I use to have the time to put things away properly. Now it seems that the basic rule has become, "If you can't see it, it doesn't count."

Yesterday our focus was on the Master Bedroom closet. It's an out of control mess.

Oh, that's where I put the sewing machine! A friend of mine dropped off a pair of pants that needed a new hem - back in January - or was it December? - and I still haven't gotten to it.

Here you have the bulk of the mess. Oh, and did you not believe that I was obsessive? Note that I have a pair of every day gym shoes and a pair of "gym only" gym shoes.

Not cold enough outside for hats and gloves anymore? No problem, we'll just shove them in some gift bags and store them in our bedroom closet for now.

There's that walk in closet that we thought would be big enough for both of us to share! Maybe now he'll get more than one wall.

Crap. There's what was in the closet.

Four hours of organizing, fighting dust bunnies and child labor super nice helpful children carrying crap downstairs later, we have a clean and organized closet. Except that I want you to know that it is KILLING me that all of the hangers are NOT white. Can someone please send me some new hangers, please?

Hubby has been instructed that the order is now work out pants, office pants, jeans, short sleeve office, short sleeve casual, long sleeve casual, long sleeve office, and then jackets - and to stay to the left my robe please. If this doesn't work, we may have to resort to duct tape down the center.

Maybe next time I have to clean out the closet, we'll swap sides to screw with our heads. The things I do for entertainment! It sure is nice to be able to walk into the walk in closet.

My sanctuary.

Now I have to clean out the basement today where the kids and I dumped all of the crap at.

The Decorating Saga Continues

Remember those darn wires and the end table?

*

When I came home from Chicago with the kids yesterday, I learned that Bret had gone out and bought an audio pier with a cabinet to put the cable box and DVD Recorder on. We had been looking into getting one, but couldn't decide on which one we wanted. Well, he tried to surprise me by getting one while I was gone.

I'm not sure what I think of it. It's a bit darker, redder and taller than I would have picked out myself. On one hand, I'm glad it's done, but on the other hand I'm not sure if I like how it looks. It's probably too late to take it back now that it's all put together anyway. I'm going to have to stare at it some more. Feel free to join me.

Hiding Out

It seems that everytime I check my email these days, I end up sitting at the computer for an hour. My inbox has now turned into my "To Do" box. I've also got these lists following me everywhere I go. The sad part is that they just keep getting longer because they are on going things that need to be constantly followed up on for this carnival.

So I've decided to be super duper productive today. I closed my binder, set aside my written out to do list and put the lap top away for a bit. (I hear the confusion in your heads.)

I needed a break and Chloe was still napping, so I got to work recovering our kitchen chairs. It's been a project long past due. Proudly, both of my kids have come home from school and noticed them right away. Ten bucks says it takes my husband a lot longer. Ha.

If I had known how easy of a project this would be, I would have done it a long time go. I like the way the lighter color looks better, but it was just impossible to keep clean with how many kids go through my house in the course of a day. So here you have it - as good as new.

And then I looked out the window and noticed that I had failed to notice it had been snowing for some time now. I guess we're in for 4-6 inches tonight and tomorrow. Oh Joy!

It's funny the things that you don't notice anymore when you're not outside smoking all the time.

Dilemma

I spent most of the afternoon dealing with The Lego Situation and feel like I made a good dent in it. I'll work more on it tomorrow while Chloe is napping and pray that I get closer to getting the overflow of Ryan's Lego's out of my living room.

While I worked, Ryan played. I'd hate to be on this flight. It looks as if the battle droid hijacked the plane. You can't see them, but there were 4 or 5 regular minifigs sitting in the seats while this droid guarded the cockpit. Quite an imagination my dear little boy has.

Bret and Scott worked all day today on the wiring for the new TV. (Thank you for letting us steal your husband this weekend, Teri.) They spent the first half of today at nine different stores trying to find all of the supplies needed to do the wiring. When they got back, they climbed up into the attic to check out where everything is at and found that it's going to be a lot harder than they thought to run the wires behind the wall. The wall where they need to put the outlet is an outside wall and is extremely hard to get to because of the fireplace and the way it's framed in.

They did get the electrical and cable outlets in behind the TV, but may have to rethink how they're going to get the rest of the wiring that goes to the cable box, DVD player and Wii, which are all sitting on top of one of our end tables next to the fireplace right now, done.

I did get to rearrange my furniture yesterday. (Anyone who knows me well, knows how excited this makes me.) I get bored quickly and end up doing this at least every couple of months. So now everything is angled around the fireplace/TV. The extra coffee table in front of the half wall that is holding Ryan's Lego's from Christmas will hopefully be put away soon.

Here's our dilemma, though. We may not be able to run the rest of the wiring behind the wall, which leaves us unsure as to what to do with the wires coming from the TV and the boxes sitting on the end table. We've thought of maybe putting a bookshelf or some kind of cabinet thingy there to put everything on and hide the wires behind, but I'm just not sure. I was really looking forward to having that wall open after 4 1/2 years of having a big black piece of furniture sitting there.

You guys were great the last time I needed help. Care to help again? I'd love to hear your suggestions! While you're at it - anyone need a messy, noisy love bird?