same family...new house

whew

We have had a couple busy busy days. In the end, though, we can say that we have accomplished something. To keep it short and sweet, me and Mama painted all the ceilings in the house last night and today. Well, actually, there are two that aren't painted. The computer room ceiling may not need to be painted and the playroom ceiling is a drop ceiling. Anyway, we worked really hard and long, but we feel like we have a lot to show for it. Next weekend...the trim. We'll see how that goes. I can't wait to get to the wall color. I know that it will be much easier than the ceilings and much more rewarding.

I wasn't all that excited feeling when we closed, but now that we've gotten started on the house, I am feeling much more excited. I can't wait to get everything done!

Oh yeah...Matt and Daddy pulled up the carpet today. The hardwoods in the living room, hall, and bedrooms, all seem to be in pretty good shape. There is one area of the hall right near the dining room that has some damage. We'll see what needs to be done to fix that. The dining room has some sort of tile...like vinyl, I guess. So, that means that the kitchen and dining room will probably both end up some sort of ceramic tile.

I think that's all the major updates. I may get some pictures of the mess up tomorrow or Monday, so check back.

what do they see...

As a mom, I often wonder what my kids are seeing, hearing, and learning when they are around me. I see things in Nathan all the time that I know he learned from me and Matt. He says phrases and words that we use. It really makes me think about how important it is for me to think about what I do/say/etc. I want my kids to learn great things from me. I don't want them to pick up my faults. Most importantly, I want them to learn how to be the people that God wants them to be. And I know that their learning starts at home...and is most greatly affected by what they see there. Since I am with them most of the time, I really have to watch myself. I have to continue to grow myself so that I can show them the way they should go. I know this is a little deeper than I usually go, but maybe it's about time. :) Anyway, here is a picture that represents what I'm thinking in a very small way.

flowers

We have some wildflowers in our backyard that have come up from seed that we threw out last year. I didn't know if anything would be back this year, but several types are. Here are a couple pictures.

more on Nathan's room

Well, I have once again gone a different direction on Nathan's room (before long we'll start painting and I won't get to change my mind anymore). I have had this picture for a while, but I think I have now decided to go this direction:



Now, this is a surfing room, but I think I could get by with the same sort of stripes (with a little deeper red color). This way, I could get in the blue and red that Nathan wants in his room. In addition, I bought a new quilt for Nathan's upper bunk tonight. I still need to look at it in his room, but I think it will be staying. It is mostly red with tiny blue and yellow stitching at regular intervals (you wouldn't even notice them much unless you look close). Anyway, that's where I am. This may (may) be a final decision.

I never knew

that I could sympathize with a rabbit.

Yes, it's another post about the rabbits.

I thought that the babies might have left their nest, but a couple days ago, I saw them again. (and took more video of them nursing) Well, last night the Mommy Rabbit came up as usual (about 8:45). She cautiously entered the flower bed and proceeded to move around and smell things. She also kept a good eye on me. Well, after sniffing around for a while, she left the flower bed and sat on the sidewalk. Every once in a while, I would check to see if she was still there...and she was always looking at me. Well, she sat...and sat...and sat. I thought that she was just waiting for me to go away, so I eventually quit looking (around 10:00). I figured that she fed her babies after it got dark and I was good and gone.

Well, tonight when I got home from shopping around 10:00, there she was...sitting on the sidewalk. She moved a little before I got out the car, but she never left. I checked a little while ago and she was still sitting in the same place. Now, nobody was looking at her tonight...nobody to make her extra cautious. It makes me think that her babies are gone. I don't know how babies usually leave their nest...if they just leave when they're ready or if they somehow tell their Mommy or if they leave with her. But her just sitting there gives me the idea that they're gone and she doesn't know where they are. It makes me sad. It's like she's missing her babies. I sure hope that, if they are gone, they're ok. I hope they weren't found by some not so nice animal. :(

So...here I sit...sad for a Mommy bunny.

selling rabbits?

Ok...so maybe not...

Here's the "Sale Pending" sign at our (soon to be) house:



We've had some baby rabbits living in the flower bed outside our front window. When we looked out last night, the Mama rabbit was nursing the two babies (who are getting very big). How cool! I tried to take a picture, but accidentally took a video. If you'd like to see it, just click here. You'll notice a set of legs on the right of the Mama. There is also a set on the left very close to the Mama. Here is a (blurry) picture of one of the babies with the Mama:

closing and decorating

We have a closing date! We are set to close on the 22nd. We are ready to get there and get started on the house so we can move in! At the moment, we are planning to move the last weekend in July, so we'll have several weeks to get things done.

On the decorating front, I am now leaning toward going all hardwood if they can be refinished. Every time I go over and look at the wood floors (I was there yesterday), I think "I just hate to cover this up with carpet." So...as of right now, I'm in the market for rugs. :)

Also, I am still debating about Nathan's room and our room. Below is a picture I found online (HGTV's Rate a Room). I'm thinking about going with something like this in Nathan's room. However, I don't know that I want to put up chair rail, so I'd have to do something different there. I could put up a wallpaper border, but I'm not sure if that's what I really want. I want it to look nice, though. What do all you decorating divas think?



Oh yeah...and what would you recommend for the ceilings? They're all painted ceilings. I'm thinking of just painting them all white, but I don't know if I want to go with the same color white as all the trim or something different for a little contrast. (There is currently no crown moulding.)

master bedroom indecision

I really just cannot decide about the master bedroom, so I need some help. Here is a picture of the quilt that is currently on our bed (ok, so it's part of the quilt...the bed wasn't made and there was laundry sitting on the rest of it). I hope to one day get new furniture and bedding, but this is what we have to work with right now. Anyway, I had thought about going with a mid-tone blue, but the more I think about it, the less excited I am about blue. So...what would you recommend?

paint colors

Here is what I am thinking at the moment (all thoughts appreciated - especially from those of you who are gifted in this area...I'm not):

Living Room - a non-pastel golden yellow, to make the room bright and coordinate with the couch/chair fabric

Dining Room / Kitchen - a sage green, I'm a fan of this color in general

Hall - a neutral beige

Nathan's Room - a lightish denim-y/smokey blue (Erin, you made a very good point, but I think it may be ok with other colors around the room...like red accessories.)

Caroline's Room - butter yellow, I'm trying to find a color here that has a chance of going with whatever she gets when she gets a big girl bed one of these days...so maybe we won't need to paint again

Our Room - blue, a deeper shade than Nathan's but maybe the same color...this is the one that I am most unsure of at the moment

Bathrooms - same as the hall, a neutral beige

Playroom - no paint yet (it's currently old fake wood paneling)

Computer Room - current white wood siding walls stay white, old fake wood paneling to get a deep navy-ish blue or maybe a burgundy-red (Matt really wants a dark color somewhere in the house)

All Trim and Ceilings - some kind of white, I need to see what color is currently in the computer room and see if I like it enough to use in the whole house, otherwise, a warm slightly beige-ish white

the latest on the house

We are in a holding pattern on the house. There are a few things that need to be cleared up with the title, so we're waiting on that to set a closing date. Basically, the lady died about a year before the man and her estate was never quite settled. So...they have to get that all straightened out so we can get a clear title. The current guess is that it is going to take about a month to do that.

We had our main inspection, and everything looked pretty good...well...as you would expect for a 47 year old house. There are a few things that need to be done/fixed, but not too much. We also wanted to get an electrician in to give us a price on updating the electrical. We have done that. It's not something that is necessary, but would be good to do. We had planned to do some sort of work on the electrical when we made the offer. Also, as a result of the general inspection, we wanted to have somebody look at the HVAC. That happened Wednesday and we're still waiting on the estimates for what needs to be done. It looks like it's in a little worse shape than we had expected. Depending on the estimate, we may look to add an addendum to the contract to compensate. We'll see.

So...the short and sweet of it is that we're looking at closing at the end of the month if everything can be worked out and moving at the end of July. (Erin, I'm feeling a bit jealous of how smoothly things went for you!) We still think everything is going to work out...just not as quickly as we had hoped.

The good part of this, though, is that I have a little more time to pick out paint colors and make some other general decisions. Well, we'll let you know more when there's more to know.