No Carpet!

Today began our adventure with putting new flooring in on our own. We ripped all of the carpet out of the dining and living areas and the hallway leading to the bedrooms. So far, we're pretty proud of ourselves.

I put the star thing over the carpet because it was GROSS. Our puppy, Lily, has had her share of accidents but it wasn't anything compared to what we found underneath so we're assuming the previous owner's dog (which was much larger than ours) had its fair share of accidents as well. After seeing that, we're very glad we're getting rid of the carpet.

The hallway. We left extra carpet in all of the transitional areas (into the bedrooms, etc) so that we didn't realize later that we should have. Better to be safe than sorry.

We're exhausted after half a day's work but we got everything done that we needed to for now. We'll have some friends helping us with the new flooring once they're back in town (BIG thanks in advance Eric and Candace) so it'll be awhile before we have more updates but I'll show you during and after pictures when I can.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Where We Dream

Our bedroom has to be one of my favorite rooms in the house. This is the view from the hallway - the walls are painted in Behr's Harvest Brown. The door goes into the closet and there's another door to the right of the dresser that leads into the master bath.

From the opposite corner. We have a down comforter that matches the blue floral pillows but it's summer and that's the last thing we need on the bed right now so it's in the linen closet. I'm still looking for the right thing to hang over the bed.

That's our room! As always, I can't wait to see everyone else's master rooms and get more ideas! :-)

Furlough: Day 3

I think this Furlough count thing as the headlines of blog entries is going to get old soon. I may stop after today, or at least not do them as often.

Today we:

• went to the dentist (me - and got a clean bill of health, yahoo!)
• organized our storage room in the basement (more Mike than me)
• steamed the dining room side of our living area so that we can reuse the carpet in the storage room when we eventually turn the room into a craft/computer workroom for Mike
• supervised as our new flooring was delivered
• checked on two friend's homes since they're out of town

Since I haven't had any pictures the last few days, here are some pictures of what will soon turn into a complete mess!

The empty dining room being steamed (and notice the lovely blue light coming in thanks to the blue tarp) :

The mess on the living room side (our flooring stacked up on the fireplace!):

The hallway with the boards we pulled out of one box. We wanted to get a better idea of what it was going to look like!

Tomorrow - steaming the living room side and who knows what else...

Furlough: Day 2

Whew! It's hot... I knew there was a reason I wasn't a fan of summer. A lot of what we do during the day is 'scheduled' based on whether or not it requires us to be outside - if it does, we do it earlier in the morning before the lovely Midwestern heat really kicks in.

Today we:

• made cinnamon bites for breakfast (aka, Grands biscuits cut into quarters, dipped in a little butter and then cinnamon and sugar and then bake!)
• took my car in for servicing. Worst experience at the dealership ever. It really wasn't that bad, just annoying. I'm thankful for a husband who knows about car stuff so I don't get "had".
• went to the jeweler and had a new battery put in my watch (and had my rings cleaned - SO shiny now!)
• ran more errands and bout Mike new pants, jeans and a shirt at Eddie Bauer's sale.
• cleaned the basement
• shredded our "shred pile"
• went through old magazines, ripped out inspiration pages and threw the rest out. (We don't have recycling here, bummer)
• and my favorite, I took a two hour nap. I could get used to that...

That's it! Fairly productive. Now, dinner and out to brave this crazy heat for Mike's softball game. I'm just glad it's not until 8...

Furlough: Day 1

So, today began our 4-week furlough from work. So far we have:

• cleaned out and organized the garage. Actually, that was all Mike and I'm so glad he did it because it needed it and it's just in time for the garage portion of Kelly's house tour. Ha ha!
• cleaned and organized master closet and dresser and under the master and bedroom sinks. That was all me.
• wiped down all of the baseboards upstairs. They'll need wiping down again after we install the laminate flooring in a few weeks. Yahoo!
• took old clothes to Goodwill (and almost bought an old school desk that would have been so fun to refinish. Who knows, I may still go back and get it but we don't NEED it right now. Hmmmm.)

Things still to do:

• Install hardwood floors.
• Clean the rest of the house
• Clean & organize the storage room.
• I'm sure there's more but I'll think of them later

On a completely unrelated note. I ran into Hobby Lobby on my way to Goodwill. There was fall decor, think pumpkins and autumn leaves on the second aisle. It was kind of nice because I know summer is going to fly by and autumn is my favorite season - it made me think of cool days because I'm already exhausted of this heat. Then, 10 rows back... wait for it... CHRISTMAS decor! Not kidding, I know people do the whole Christmas in July thing but it's JUNE and as much as I love Christmas, it's JUNE!!!

Thank you for listening. :-)

Happy Father's Day!

God could not have blessed me with a more wonderful Dad. I am so thankful for everything you have done for me, Mom and Andrew & Jordan.

Love you, Daddy!!!

One of my FAVORITE things to do with my Dad - I am my Dad's baseball buddy. GO CARDS!

My Dad and me at my wedding 1.5 years ago.

Bonus Rooms and Laundry Rooms

We're showing off bonus rooms and laundry rooms this week - I've already kinda done this so here's links to the basement (it's after the guest room stuff) and the laundry room when we first moved in - the front loading washer was a big hit with my Mom and me. :-P

The laundry room isn't much different, just fuller. We added a little wire shelf to the left of the washer and there are shelves above the washer and dryer that are now full.

Enjoy!