New House

Well, we have officially begun renovation on our new home. We are blessed to be moving out into my Gramma's house in the country. She is going to Arizona, where the winters aren't so awful. So while we shovel mountains of snow this winter, she will be sunning herself by the pool, reading a favorite book. Of course we will plan on visiting often, as the kids adore their Great Gramma.

The house is very big! Two floors, five bedrooms, one office, two living rooms, two kitchens, a front room and a laundry/utility room. There are about 20 acres with the house, with plenty of room for the horses, chickens, dogs, cats and other animals that you seem to accumulate as a vet. The basement is largely unfinished, although my Gramma lived exclusively downstairs for years and years. The floor is a commercial grade green linoleum, and the walls are mostly wood paneling, with occasional areas paneled in some kind of a print. Wallpaper abounds, unfortunately, throughout the whole home. Those of you that remember my battle with a particularly ugly forest mural in our current home will appreciate that I had to remove a mural of a barn and cattle from an entire basement wall. What was waiting for me below the cow mural? Only another mural...the exact same one that I had painstakingly removed from Lola's current room when we first moved in here.

We are currently in the throws of remodeling the basement. So far Lola's room has been painted a light pink, with a Lola-chosen bright pink accent wall.


Rowan's room has been finished in a grey/blue with light trim, and the living room is "sandstone" with an "acorn" accent wall. So, the paint has really lightened up the basement. I wish I had pictures of it when we very first started, but you can see it is still very dark with minimal lighting and the green floors and brown ceiling.


This week we are putting in some flooring, a pretty hardwood lookalike in harvest oak, and next week the carpet guys will carpet the kids' rooms in a nice thick warm carpet. We will also be finishing my craft room, which as of now has half painted walls with the exception of the olive green shag carpet that for some reason my Gramma felt the need to hang on one of the walls. This carpet is stuck to the wall so hard that NASA technology would be needed to strip it off. So, we are covering that wall with corkboard, a nice way to finish the craftroom!


Eventually, we will tackle the pink rose bathroom, and the kitchen cabinets which need some serious TLC. Then, we will likely move in this October. Over the winter we may get started on the upstairs, which is lovely, but not really our style. Here are some pictures so you can see what I mean.


The bathroom, especially, is a bit too...ummm...glittery for me. I think I see a clawfoot tub and relaxing space in my future!!!


All kidding aside, the house is absolutely beautiful, and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to move there. Just look at the livingroom! So bright and big! The kids will have so much room to run around and play. I have a lot of great memories in this house, and I know the kids will too.




Anyway, the kids are doing well. Lola knows we are moving, and is a bit upset about it, but she is excited about her new room. It has a whole mirrored wall that makes her feel like a ballerina. She loved being able to choose her own color. Rowan, as usual, doesn't really care either way. He just enjoys walking through the paint tray and running his hands down freshly painted walls. I am never able to find babysitting when I work on the new house, so the kids come with me and wreak havoc while I paint and floor. This week Wil is off of work a lot, so we can work together, which means another pair of eyes on the kids! Remodeling with two little ones adds a whole new dimension to the chore! We are also lucky to have Wil's dad helping us this week, so we should get some serious work done!

Last week Wil stepped on Ivy and broke her leg and pelvis. Ouch! They were out on a walk, and she went one way, he tripped over the leash and lost his balance...180 lb man vs 4 lb dog....well....you can see how she broke. The break was in a bad place, and I couldn't fix it at our clinic. I needed an expert. So, I went to WSU to see Dr. Martinez, who kindly fixed the break last Friday. She has been doing great since then, but hates her "lampshade" which I had to upgrade to a rather large size due to her still being able to reach her leg to lick it. We have to do physical therapy on her leg three times a day, which has added a bit to the already full schedule around her. Oh well!


Well, it is off to the science center with Mom's Group, and then back to the building supply store AGAIN, and back home to get dinner ready for the guys. Crazy! Maybe I will slow down someday...or maybe not!