Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!!

Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!!
Isn't this tank beautiful! Fingers crossed I get picked!

The arch is in!

Check out the pics from today! The arch is in and we had a great surprise with the wood panelling today. Dad found there is sheetrock under it, so down it went!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! We've had a lovely morning, taking it easy and enjoying a little bit of laziness before we get back to the house work. The girls woke up very excited for their egg hunt and their baskets. The Easter Bunny wrote a letter and it actually was listened to! In their baskets they received matching gymnastics outfits (as you can see here).





In house news, my parents arrived yesterday after our trip to the circus (more to come on that). We took them over to the house, gave them the tour and got them to work! Dad and Oscar removed the wall from the kitchen to the library, and it looks amazing! I really can't believe how much it changes the whole house. The wall came down pretty easily. We we're very lucky the tile floor continued under the wall and hadn't been damaged when they closed in the room. They closed in the room in order to rent out the room with the fireplace. The guys got the opening back to the original wall and will be installing the arch in the coming days, along with a new hardwood floor in the library.


I put primer coat number 2 on the girls bedroom, so the sewing room and girls' room are ready for our color choices! Today I'll be finishing the sanding in the master bedroom and priming that room. Hopefully we'll be getting some of our colors in tomorrow! Check out the album of the House Work, I added new pics this morning. Enjoy!

Things I've learned while renovating...

* The "wonderbar" IS a wonder!
* DIF spray on gel wallpaper remover is horrible.
* DIF concentrate with water is awesome (and WAY less expensive)
* Apparently insane amounts of hair can be caught under wallpaper while applying (I have had to wash away a lot of the person's hair who put it up, and yes this grosses me out)
* A radio makes a difference
* Food fixes bad moods

Fixin up the house...

We started our home repairs early Saturday morning and have been at it ever since. Saturday and Sunday we were there all day and got quite a lot accomplished.

On Monday and today I was there from morning till about nap time. Oscar came Monday for lunchtime with a new ladder and removed the molding in the stairwell. Today Oscar worked at the house during the morning while a plumber came to check our leak, which mysteriously stopped leaking...hmmm. We've gotten all of the molding out of the top floor, all of the wallpaper border removed from the house, spackled and sanded the walls in the bedrooms, cleaned the walls in two of the bedrooms, cut the carpet away from the baseboard molding so we can paint it properly before new carpet arrives, sanded and primed some really bad spots on the wall and begun some of the spackling in the hallway and stairs.

The girls have been pretty good during the whole process. I have threatened several times call a sitter and bring them home. They get a bit whiny here and there but for the most part are playing in their makeshift playroom and doing well. They are eager to help but at this point there isn't much they can help with. They really want to paint, so hopefully we'll start that this weekend. We have a great picnic table on the deck that we've been able to eat at for the most part, but when it's rained or been to cold we have a picnic on our blanket in the kitchen.

An album is to the left and it will be updated regularly with new pictures of our progress. Next week should really see some great improvements. My parents are coming down and I'll wait until we have the pictures to show you what happens! It's gonna be great!

It Is Official, We Own a HOME!!!

Man was this a stressful 48 hrs! I really didn't think we'd close on the house today but we did (finally) and we are officially the owners of our very first home! It's been a long process in the making but after over a year of looking, and several offers not making it we finally found one house that met ALL of our needs! We scheduled closing for today at 10am, but that didn't happen and there has been plenty of drama and hoop jumping in the past 48 hrs.

First we got a call at 8am on Wednesday saying the underwriter wouldn't allow closing to occur until the radon remediation was complete. We had planned on doing this after closing. Our realtor scurried to find a company to do it, and it was done. At 1pm on Wednesday we got a call saying the garage door needed to be repaired or we couldn't close. Well there are several electrical loops out in the house, including the garage. So the underwriter said either fix it or remove it. After many attempts at quick fixes my realtor called the loan processor and she got the underwriter on the line to clarify "removal." We had visions of removing the whole damn contraption! Luckily he was fine with just disconnecting, phew!

Thursday I felt like we were smooth sailing. Until around 4pm we kept getting calls saying the settlement company didn't have our loan documents yet. Long story short, closing kept getting pushed back, until we scheduled it for 1pm. At 1pm I show up, and still they were waiting on paperwork...but it arrived 5 min after I did! Phew! One and a half hours later, we are homeowners!

Pan Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I've been more and more intrigued by brussel sprouts. I've seen so many recipes lately and they look so good. Most are for roasting them in some manner. Then a few weeks ago I was at my friend Jenny's for girls night dinner and she made pan roasted veggies, including brussel sprouts. Oh lordy they were good and it just made me want more. I had to cut myself off from eating the veggies at girls night because I was starting to look like a piggy. I've been on the look out for good lookin sprouts at the grocery store but they've been looking sub-par. That is, until yesterday when I found a really lovely looking group of them and snatched them up! I found this recipe for pan roasted brussel sprouts. Not only is this recipe crazy easy, it's ridiculously delicious. I had to make dinner early and rush out the door to school the night I made these. I did eat a small dinner before I left and all I thought about during school were those sprouts! YUMMM, I was hoping Oscar hadn't eaten them all, but I wouldn't have blamed him if he had. So if you're a lover of the brussel sprouts try this recipe, if you're on the fence about the sprouts try them this way, and if you dislike the sprouts oh I urge you to give them one more chance!