Mini-update

Sorry I've been MIA lately! We visited Will's sister Tiffany and her family over Easter, and Will had a job interview with an engineering company there in Littleton, CO. The first thing they said to Will when he applied was "Oh, thanks for your interest, we're not hiring right now though," and that was that. Until about two hours later when they said "Hey, we want a phone interview with you," so he had a phone interview. And then they said "We want to pay for you and your family to come over here and check out the area and company and get to know you a little bit." SO. We did that over Easter (nothing better than a paid vacation!) and had a wonderful time.

As it turns out, he got a job! I guess even though they weren't hiring, they liked him a lot and thought he would be a great addition to the company. They were, however, worried about ME. Apparently they've had a few problems with wives of engineers moving from Utah and changing their mind at the last minute. Like, two days before their husbands were supposed to start, that sort of thing. I wished I could tell them myself that I am not the least bit attached to Utah, and in fact promised myself I would stay there for a year and then leave.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, we're SUPER EXCITED!! Both of us want out of Utah. It's fine, but not forever. When we were first married and talking about areas we would want to end up, we said "Anywhere in the West, except for California and Salt Lake City." We really have nothing against Salt Lake, we just...didn't want to live there! And California is a little too expensive. Or maybe a lot too expensive.

We've been ridiculously busy getting the house ready for sale. Of course we could just put it up as is and someone would no doubt buy it (there are always investors around here looking for houses) for a decent amount of money. However, we figure we'll try to get as much done as we can and make the money for ourselves. :) We had a realtor over a couple of weeks ago and that was very encouraging for us because he gave us a number we were not expecting. It was quite a bit higher than we were even hoping for. We already have a lot of projects done, but still so much to go. We've been working on it non-stop for 2 1/2 weeks and have about 3 weeks go to till the day we want it up on the market. I think we're doing alright. So far we have:

Torn out all the marble flooring (YAY!!!)
Replaced the kitchen, entryway and basement bathroom floors with new tile
Put drywall in the basement bathroom
Tiled the shower in the basement
Replaced the front door
Painted all the cabinets, we just need to put them back up (that's probably going to be the hard part)
Painted the entire basement except for the laundry room. We still need to do some touching up and fixing up ceilings, but it's not too bad.

We've got a concrete company coming to fix our broken out driveway approach (right this minute, actually), carpet is scheduled to be installed in the basement and bedrooms next week, I've got a couple of appointments for quotes for removing the old nasty dead bush out front, and two new windows are being installed in the basement on Tuesday.

That's why I haven't blogged. And I'm so sorry there are no pictures yet. Be patient and you will be blown away!

I love cooking...

It's one of my favorite things to do. I can make amazing Asian food, I can whip up Italian bread in less than two hours, I make the BEST dinner rolls. I've had several people tell me I make the best cookies they've ever had. I recently made up a recipe for a peanut butter chocolate pie that is really easy, really quick, and basically tastes like...heaven...in my mouth. I can take almost any recipe that I want to and make it delicious the very first time, even if I make some changes to it according to our tastes (or if I'm missing an ingredient).

But...I can't make pancakes. Seriously, I stink at it. I make them every week or so to try to get the trick, but it's not working very well so far. They taste fine, but man are they UGLY.

I think I need to fix the butter problem (the recipe I use melts the butter, and when I mix it in, it always hardens so there are chunks of butter all over my batter), and use lower heat. But in using lower heat, I need to be patient. I'm not very good at being patient.

Maybe I'm just too impatient for pancakes.

Our Bedrom: Before and After

We always have several projects going on here, and this is one I've been working on for a while. We got a couple of Lowes giftcards and quite a bit of cash for Christmas, so this is what we decided to do.

My bedroom is very important to me. It's my escape, my "safe" place, my quiet place, and most of all, my place that is only for me and my husband, no kids allowed. I mean, sure, they go in there sometimes, but generally, it's off-limits. Why? Well, because I guess even though I THOUGHT I was going to be a super-attached parent, and breastfeed for two years, and cosleep forever, and all that jazz...I'm not. I'm just not. There's really no other way around it, I suppose. I'm an attached parent in that I listen to my kids, I rock them to sleep, I cuddle them, I give them attention and hugs and kisses...but at bedtime I get selfish, and I want time without children. So naturally I wanted my room to be a sort of "haven" that I can really relax in. Our whole married life we've never had a nice bedroom. I've just never decorated it the way I wanted and made it look really good. I knew I wanted something that was romantic, clean, bright, and simple.

Okay, enough chatting. Here are my pictures.

The first thing I did was paint the walls. I painted them when we first moved in, twice. And I still didn't like the color. It was okay, but it was far too blue (I wanted gray). It actually looks more gray in the "before" pictures than the "after" pictures here, but gray is a very, very deceiving color, as I've found. It never looks the same in pictures, and it also never goes on the wall the way you expect. But I'm really happy with how it is now.

After the walls, I painted the floor a dark, glossy brown. It looks awesome compared to the old, worn floor. I moved the dresser inside the closet and painted the pictures. We made the molding ourselves for $15. YES. I can't believe how expensive molding is, even for really plain, boring stuff. So I much prefer ours. The curtains are made from $5 Walmart sheets and $5 Ikea sheer curtains. In total I think it cost me around $25 for the curtains, plus lots of work. I had to do a lot of sewing and trimming to get them just right. I was worried about doing floor-length curtains in my room, but I actually love how it looks!

 The closet was kind of a big deal - even though it just looks like I put a curtain up. I painted everything (I had never painted the trim there, how sad!) including the inside of the closet and the door. I also removed all the old paint from the clothes rod and the door knob, and put new hinges on. It's amazing what little things like that can do. The people that worked on this house before us didn't do a great job. All the hinges and doorknobs were painted over and everything was just a mess. I'm slowly getting it all cleaned up and looking nice.

I love this room so much!! I'm so glad I was able to do it.

Bathroom Project: 1.2

My last post about this project said I was sad we had no before pictures. But my mom pretty much saved my life, because she had one she took a long time ago. Thank goodness!! It pretty much covers everything! I'll post it again when we're done for comparison, but for now...feast your eyes on this baby:

 Some of the problems:
-Weird ceiling shapes due to vents and pipes, you can see a bit in the top middle.
-Although a medicine cabinet, the mirror is just on the wall, not IN the wall, so it sticks out a good 3 inches. And way too low - I almost couldn't see the top of my head.
-Will would literally hit his head on the ceiling trying to wash his hands.
-TINY vanity. And water damaged.
-The spot between the tub and the wall to get to the toilet is about 18 inches wide. Awkward.
-The shower surround is all rotting away.
-I probably don't need to mention the teal.

This week we:

-Tore out our concrete we first put in (a little tapping did the job) and redid it. We didn't mix it right the first time (apparently you are not supposed to follow the instructions on the bag?? the concrete guy we talked to was just cracking up when he said we needed to add a LOT more water and ignore the instructions) so we did it over to make sure it was good and strong. It was so much easier the second time, and I'm really glad we redid it.

-Built a small wall to cover a duct and fill the gap between the tub and the wall. My husband is amazing, have I ever said that? He just whipped up this plan in his head and we went for it. The tub fit in like a GLOVE, you guys. A flipping glove.

-Attached the tub to the studs with screws. (Oh, and yes, we are leaving the wall behind the tub bright green. In case you were wondering. And yes, it was there when we moved in.)

-Hooked up the whole tub drain. It's not perfect yet, there's a little leak, but it shouldn't be a big deal to fix that. I hope.

 -We tried to get the little plunger thingy to work in the bathtub, you know, where you pull the tab and the tub plugs up for you? Yeah that was a nightmare. We spent FOREVER working on it. Like an hour or something. And we FINALLY got it in. Annnnnd it doesn't work. >:[ Not so fun. We didn't even buy the cheapest kit! Gee!! I don't know if we'll try a different setup or just make it a plain one without a stopper...

It doesn't really sound like a whole lot this week, but...it was. It just was. We are making progress. Next is hooking up the water source and doing some rewiring.


Oh, and we still love each other, a lot. That's big, because this remodeling stuff is not for the faint of heart. ;)

Bathroom Project

What started as a simple caulking job turned into a dramatic bathroom remodel. Unfortunately, I don't have any good before pictures. :( But this is what we've been up to the last few days:

1. Tear out old bathtub. Check.
2. Remove wall, adjust size, and move over 3 feet. Check. (This picture was taken a little later...)

3. Anchor wall. Easier said than done - drilling into concrete is not a party. Check.
4. Dig a 6 foot long hole in the concrete with a sledge hammer for the bathtub and vanity. (My husband is awesome) Check.
5. Remove all drywall from the room including ceiling. Check.

6. Clean up and take to the dump. Check, except for the pile still outside. Another trip is in order.
7. Set up bathtub drain and line up sewer line. Check.

8. Install new sewage plumbing in hole, and set with dirt and rocks. Check.
9. Fill in hole with concrete. Hopefully check. (Hopefully we don't have to dig it out and start over.)

10. Bicker about whether we should have rented a concrete mixer from Home Depot. Check.

All I wanted to do was caulk the bathtub...

Really. That's all I meant to do.

Our cute kids!

I decided it's high time for a "kids" update. They have grown so much lately! I'm thankful that they play together well. Even though they can make the living room look like this in about 5 minutes:

Kaylee just goes into her room and brings out ALL the toys. Then dumps them all over. And Ben crawls around and does whatever damage he possibly can. Yes, that's right, Ben is crawling! Finally! WOOHOO!! A lot of people complain about when their kids start crawling or walking, but I love it. More independence = less whining, with my kids anyway. And anyone that knows me well knows that I do not like whining. So the less whining there is around my house, the better.

Alright, I'm going to start with Kaylee. She'll be 2 1/2 on January 31st. Remember my blog post a while back about how I thought she was going to be a great big sister? I was so right. She is an AMAZING big sister to Ben. She looks out for him like nothing else. She gets really concerned when he falls and gets hurt and if I'm not in the room and he bumps his head, she comes running to tell me right away. It's nice to know she's looking out for him.

Everyone at church loves her. I get complimented all the time on how good she is during meetings. They tell me she is wonderful in Nursery. She plays well with the other kids, she listens, and she participates. The other week one of the leaders told me she seemed ready for Sunbeams (she still has a whole year left) because she listens to the lesson, and she LOVES singing time.

She's started talking so much the last few months. She took her time with talking for sure, but now she's a little mockingbird. I have to admit that I need to be more careful with what I say. I say the word "stupid" far too often. "Ugh, this stupid thing won't work." "Stupid cat! Get outside!!!" You know. Nothing horrible, but I never realized how much I use it until Kaylee started copying me. And one day she said "Stupid Mommy!" when I couldn't get something to work right. That was my 'moment' when I realized I better change that. ;) Her favorite word right now is "Okay." The other day at church, I said "Kaylee, you need to sit down, we're going to say a prayer and then it's time for Nursery." She said "Okay." and sat down. You probably have to hear it to appreciate it, but it's adorable coming from a two-year-old. She's starting to put several words together, and sometimes I can ask her "What happened?" and actually make sense of the answer. YES! I love it.

She recognizes orange and pink (for the most part) and right now everything else, she says, is white. She can almost say the whole alphabet, she just misses a letter here and there. She recognizes the letters B, K, X, Y, W, and maybe a few others that I'm forgetting, and knows several shapes.

She's an awesome eater. She will literally eat anything I give her. Okay, there is one exception: a veggie burger. We went to Costco and there was a veggie burger sample that we got. She took a bite, made a HORRIBLE face and gave it to Will. I must admit, I've had a few veggie burgers in my lifetime, and this was not exactly the epitome of veggie burgers. It kind of tasted like half chewed stir-fry. Eh. Not my favorite.

She is officially potty trained as of about 3 months ago. She's doing great. We have the occasional accident still, but it's usually only when she is playing and forgets.

She HATES bedtime. With a passion. I wish I could get her to calm down, but boy oh boy when she gets going there is no stopping it. The last "big" bedtime tantrum she had, she was running half naked around the house and then peed on the living room rug. All while screaming bloody murder. That's the time when I just said forget it and put her in bed, even though it wasn't even bedtime yet. She was supposed to have a bath (hence the half nakedness). Seriously, it was nuts. On a good note, she usually sleeps really well at night. Once she's asleep, she's out for a good 11-12 hours. Aaaaand I probably just jinxed that.



And now for Ben! He is 8 1/2 months old now. He started crawling last Saturday. He's all over the place now, and I seriously think it's adorable. It's so cute when I go into another room and a few minutes later he comes crawling in. Somehow, it's not so cute once they're walking and won't leave you alone for 1/2 a second, like Kaylee lately, but I'll enjoy it for now.

He is also a great eater so far. I believe he's eaten everything I've given him that was NOT a puree. He hates purees, but I'm not too concerned about that one. I give him a bland/cooked/simple version of whatever we're eating in little pieces, and he does great!

He has two teeth so far. I love his little grins with his little bottom teeth sticking out. I can't get a picture of them. Whenever he smiles, he bounces all over the place. It's seriously impossible to get anything but a blank look on this boy's face because he's SO wiggly if he's doing anything other than...well, staring blankly!

He loves to babble. He sits there and says "Mamamamaamama" or "Dadadadadadada" or sometimes "BAH! BAH! BAH!" I love babbling. It makes me smile every time I hear it.

Lately, sleeping is not going as well as it did for a while. After we put him down for the night, he ALWAYS wakes up again within an hour. Sometimes he wants to eat more, sometimes not. It's a little frustrating because our 'couple time' is always after the kids go to bed at night. I'm kind of selfish I guess, and I really like to have some time without kids, so it's hard for me to deal with that. He also wakes up every night again, and naps are always a struggle. *sigh* I despise this getting kids to sleep stuff.

He learned to clap. I kept trying to teach him but he kept his little hands in tight fists and wouldn't do it. I finally got him to, and now he'll clap back at me when I clap at him.

His hand-eye coordination is getting really good. He can find the tiniest pieces of anything on the floor and get it into his mouth. His favorite is balls of hair. I try to keep the floor clean, but man, he can find anything. The other day he found a lime Skittle that Kaylee left on the floor, and really enjoyed that. At least, I guess that's what happened. All I really know is that I picked him up, he wouldn't eat his bottle (made horrible faces), and then I realized his face was green and he smelled like limes. I can only assume.



And those are our kids. They're great!!