So, it’s been a long time since I blogged. Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged and actually posted what I’ve written. It seems to be one of those times in life when everything is moving at lightening speed, but each day is so much the same that it’s not worth writing about. Although that’s not actually true. I have things to write about. Maybe I just haven’t had the motivation to write.
At any rate, I’ll clue you all in to what has been going on around here. One of these days I’m going to start a remodeling series on my blog. We have a slew of pictures that our realtor took when we bought our house to serve as ‘before’ pictures (and some of our own). I’ve been wanting to do this for various projects that have been done around the house, but I’ve noticed a trend. We finish the big main part of the project, but invariably move on to the next big project before we really get all the ‘finishing’ work done. And then I never quite feel like we’ve finished the project enough to take pictures…plus it seems like we’re in a constant state of changing things…However, I do want to document all the work we’ve done. The reason I bring this up is because we’re about ready to start another HUGE undertaking in our house. And let me tell you, this is going to (I think) be the biggest one yet…except for maybe moving the water heater…that was a pretty big job that I did not really participate in. Although, to be fair, the main reason it turned into such a large project was because my dad talked Josh into replacing all the hot water pipes while they were at it…I mean, why not, right? But I digress. We have a room in our house that we believe maybe used to be a garage…it’s hard to tell. If it did used to be a garage, it was a small one. But the second bathroom was added on to the back of it and the front of it remains to be concrete walls, concrete floors exposed floor boards from the one upstairs room over head…not to mention that nothing is square and nothing is level…you get the idea. This room is where the former owners grew the marijuana. This room is where we have put everything in the last year and a half that we didn’t have room for elsewhere and/or didn’t know what to do with. Aka: a junk room. At any rate, I have spent the last week and a half working diligently to cleaning out this room. Some stuff went upstairs to the attic, some stuff went out the outbuilding aka, photo studio. And some stuff went away in some form or another, never to return again. It’s actually been a huge sense of relief that has surprised me to get this done…it’s like a weight has been removed that I didn’t even recognize was there til it was gone.
At any rate, the reason that we’re working on this is because my 18 year old cousin Lea, who lives in Kansas is coming to live with us for at the very least the summer. I’m hoping it will be longer. We’ve talked about this for years and it is finally happening. We want to turn the room into a bedroom so that Josh and I can take that room and we can move the boys upstairs and then Lea can have the boys’ room…I know, a lot of moving around and repainting…but it’ll be so worth it. In ‘payment’ for her room and board, she will be helping me with the kids, housework, etc…and I desperately need the help! She is going to be finding a job here as well to save up for college because she can make more money here than in Kansas. Anyway, I’m super excited. I don’t know for sure when she’ll be here…but it should be soon.
I’ve also been doing a lot of yard work this week when the sun is shining. I just can’t help it. When the sun comes out, I must be in it. I’ve done a lot of cleaning up from the various windstorms that have struck over the winter…lots of leaves, tree bits etc, etc. I’ve also replanted my flower bed in front of our front porch. The things I put in last year were mostly sun plants…and once the tree in the front of our house gets all it’s leaves there is NO sun there…so they all died. But I found a really nice variety of shade plants that I’ve put in there…so hopefully those will be a little happier. It really does something to my soul to plant flowers. I’ve noticed that in my house, I like to have things kind of symmetrical and balanced…and I guess I do in the garden too…but I don’t like to have things matching…I like to just have a big variety of different things to look at. Hopefully when they start growing and maturing and fill in, it will look very natural and unplanned. That’s me. Natural and unplanned. =) The downside to all these flowers and yard work is that it puts an intense desire in me to have grass. Again. If you’ve been to our house, you’ll notice that our yard is really…um…crap. In the front section there is not grass or greenery whatsoever. It needs to much work. I so desire to have our kids be able to run barefoot outside in the soft grass. Someday I guess. All our ‘extra’ money is going into our new room for now. But man, grass would be so nice.
