Thursday, July 7, 2011

Overlooked in the recent overview were.....

The $1 table (recently re-painted) with the $3 pitcher and bowl set. This is in a corner of our room. The blue "towel" is the pillow case for the sheet set I mentioned in the previous post.
Kammy's room. How could I forget this? She had so much fun decorating in here with all her horses!Kalli's room. She is our sentimental collector so LOVES the window seat for treasures!The laundry room. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my washer and dryer. I've had them about 4 years now and they make laundry a breeze!Oh, and the kitchen! So nice and spacious! Love my chickens, roosters, hens, chicks...whatever.Also love the old window my friend gave me. I just gussied it up with a tiny bit of paint, a little curtain and some wall words!Plenty of room! Soooo different from the house we came from. We are getting used to it, but at first we felt like we would get lost around the table.Okay, that's all for now. Gotta go tend those kids and make some dinner!
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Overview

I decided to post a "brief" overview of our new place. All of it. Last time I did it room by room, but since that was so recent and you have seen all of my junk, I am doing it this way this time. Who knows...I may post more of the individual rooms later. There is roughly 3200 sf to keep clean~ by far the most space I've ever had and you don't hear me complaining. We have 5 bedrooms and 4 baths here in addition to the other living space.
So...here is walking up to my place. It's been all washed and snazzied up with flowers, a freshly painted bench and some patriotic decor. Some of my piccys are a little out of order here. This is actually in one side of my kitchen. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this space, and then I remembered Rick's little desk that has been in storage (aka Mom and Dad's basement). It really needing some "chic-ing up" so I painted the top black to match my barstools that I just re-did and my mom found an old chair for $6 at the thrift store. I painted it the same black and distressed them both! L.O.V.E. This is my little menu-making, shopping list writing, sometimes blogging spot. I'm still loving my barnwood tea-towels from here: http://rickarennkids.blogspot.com/2010/07/remember-my-vintage-tea-towels-from.html.Kayla and Kaite share a room and a bathroom. Kayla chose blue and white. It's sort of still a work in progress, but this gives you and idea. Bathrooms are so hard to photograph.And here is their room. Kayla is a great big sister~ although mommy does usually come through if Kaite cries in the night. :) I was able to bring all my wall words and stickers from the other house. I just peeled them off and put them on waxed paper to move them, then back on the walls here. Worked great!Now we are back in the living room. This is what you should have seen when you first walked in. I love how my colors look with the paint colors in this room.A little muted, but very warm and cozy~ This is a little sitting room area behind my dining room. I love the idea that when I have large amounts of people, I can use this space for dining as well. In the meantime, I'm not sure what all to do with it. Ideas? Suggestions? Cheap ones, please. I already had the chair on the right and found the awesome glider to the left on craigslist for $12! The girls have a "Little House" doll collection as well as the books, so I am looking for some shelving for that. I thought they would go good with my antique shadow boxes, old picture plates and go a ways to fill the room up.Here we have Kammy and Kalli's bathroom. When Kalli was a baby, she had Raggedy Ann in her nursery. I had saved the figurines and we decided to put them in here. It really looks quite cute. The shower curtain is eyelet. Very cheery.The master bedroom is huge! Here is a corner of it. I am trying to decide of my chair needs dyed, and if so...what color? I just made the little ruffled pillow on it. The ruffles match the curtains I did and are from the same sheet set I used to make the curtains. :)Oops! Just realized the window is not even in this picture. Anyway...they were super easy and they match the lampshade. I got the shade and the sheets at Target. The lamp is from Goodwill and I spray painted it white.As you can see, I tend to choose a them and stick to it for a LONG time. Still loving the pink and black bathroom, here! I made the shower curtain and although this is a walki-in shower and doesn't really need a curtain, I put it up just for pretty.The tour of the downstairs will have to wait a bit. I am currently on the hunt for some old schooldesks, but here is the stairway going down.The bathroom downstairs is finished. I decided on a "beachy" theme after our time at the coast this summer. I got lucky and found 99% of the stuff in here at Goodwill. I also used a real awesome lighthouse piccy from our recent trip. Can you see the life ring reflected in the mirror? Made that. Super easy and cheap.Outside we have a huge yard with no rear or side neighbors. It's a very country feel which helps to make up for missing "the ranch".We have a great patio complete with cool water misters and an outdoor fan to cool it off on hot days.We also have raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb. There is garden space, but we were to late for anything but a cucumber and a couple of tomatoes. The back is all fenced, so the kids can play out. There is a nice storage shed with a loft above it that the older kids are using for a playhouse.
There was a laundry room picture here and now it is gone. Mysterious, huh? I will have to show that one to you later because right now I need to go do some laundry. :)

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

What I've been doing...

Having made the decision to rent for a while, we began "the search" when the home we were currently renting was sold. We looked at a few real winners. Now, I understand that renters have an overall bad reputation--but, I am finding that landlords are not the funnest folks to deal with either! Or maybe I should say, the cleanest folks. Anyway...we were blessed to find (in our price range) this sweet "little" 3200 sqft house. There is only one problem...the same problem ALL rentals seem to have. D.I.R.T.
On one of our many cleaning escapades prior to move in, Kammy fell and split her lip with her teeth. She was very concerned about her newest big girl tooth, but it survived just fine. Little sister Kaite was very compassionate, and Kammy enjoyed the sympathy.We had asked for cleaning to be done prior to our move--or compensation for doing it ourselves. They considered it and them came back with the reply that "he" (Mr. Landlord) had done the cleaning himself. HA! Verrrrry funny! One of the things he had done was wash windows. Really??? Have I mentioned that I have a very real problem with liars? This was INSIDE the windows, and believe me--the outside was worse!Blinds. Hhmm....the picture doesn't even do justice to the horrible filth! They were NASTY!Floor vents. Can you say "GAG?"It's actually a very pretty house--under the dirt. I'd say it's about 20 years old and the light fixtures and fans have NEVER been cleaned. Okay...not entirely sure anything has ever been cleaned. I about laughed out loud when they told us that the previous renters were exceptional housekeepers. We asked for paint touch up throughbout the house as there are MANY scuffs and nail/anchor holes. Well....I think they just walked in and threw some spackle in a few of the more obvious places and called it good. Not good. Someone has canned in the kitchen. A noble cause, don't get me wrong--but ladies---PLEASE clean up after yourselves! Scrubbing starchy corn off 10 years later is NOT easy! These are really just a few of the dirty highlights. We have been busy! I would seriously be so embarrased if I were the person saying I had cleaned this place. I wonder what they would think if they saw it now...would they even notice...or do people like that even recognize clean? (And yes...I am sort of hoping they accidently run across this blog and feel terrible!) Smile.

Next up: Settling In

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The 4th!

Our 4th included the Greenleaf parade, a good old-fashioned cook out at my parent's house, some yardwork and finally...the FIREWORKS display!
Life has been just a little crazy lately. Lately, being like the past 7-8 months. In November, we moved, and as you might know--that is a challenge. We were pretty much settled by Thanksgiving though and the kids loved living on "the ranch". Then there was the Spain trip, company from out of town and the 2 month work/vaca in California. Barely got home and they told us the rental we were in had sold (nevermind that we were in a year-long contract. There was loophole in the contract, so I began packing and on July 1st, we moved! I'll be posting pictures soon. We are fairly settled. Just about 12 things remaining on the project list.
The 4th is too special not to celebrate though, so we took some "free time".
Kammy was thrilled to be asked to ride Lisa's horse Annie in the Greenleaf parade! She has the princess wave down just right!

Sweet Cowgirl Kam!We had to get her a new pair of boots since her others were too small. We searched every store in Nampa and Caldwell. Including all the 2nd hand stores and finally found some at Target!Here is Kaite celebrating with a pout! It was a little fake--I see the smile peeking through--but she has a reputation to live up to!I found that I needed something festive, so grabbed some ribbon and a glag button from my sewing box and crafted a flower pin.Kammy and Kaite. Sisters. They have declared the right to love one moment and hate the next.I was so proud of Kammy's guys! I guess it is proof that they are growing up--they never showed a moment's jealousy about Kammy getting to ride in the parade. They were very happy for her and after the parade, they got to take a ride as well!Brandon seemed to enjoy helping Kayla~ and they even got to trotting on Jake!The kids collected THREE hatful's of candy! Enough to last until next year--at least until Halloween!

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...and underneath are the everlasting arms...Duet. 33:27