The master bedroom...

closet finally has a door!! YAY! The Pilot installed a bi-fold door & moulding. It really changes the look of things. Finishes it off. The inside still needs some finishing touches.

He also stained the vanity, the mirror trim & the medicine cabinet a chocolate brown. Oh & he moved the temporary flooring from the kitchen up to the bathroom area.

Installing hardwood floors

The Pilot has been busy installing hardwood floor down stairs. He's about half way done. It's quit the process. Two pictures below. 1) The floor he is installing. It's hand carved. 2) The surprise we discovered under the original hard wood in the entry way- ugly linoleum.

2 more rooms & a small hall to go & he'll be done.

Update

The Pilot has been back for just under a week now & the projects are back on in full force. I have pictures, but still need to load them. For now you all will just have to deal with a list.

1) The patio - is almost complete. One of my projects had an unforeseen malfunction. On of the wardrobe kind. ;) lol Since I put a lot of time into an alternative use has been thought of. I was originally making a 6x6 place mat hanging divider (total of 36 place mats). I painstakingly stenciled all 36 mats & linked them together with metal loops. Since we live in a valley we tend to have a constant breeze. The week I hung it it was a pretty heavy breeze. So mats were coming disconnected. The Pilot is going to help me rehang them against the house where the wind won't cause issues. As soon as it is totally complete I will post pictures.

2) Veggie/herb box - The corn has a new home!! So does the pepper plant (we have 4 peppers growing) & the mint. It's pretty cool looking. Again, pictures to come later.

3) Master bathroom - we've come up with a really cool spa like design. I'm so excited to get started on this project, but I think it will probably be a few more months. See #4 for why...

4) Downstairs - we talked & talked about replacing the rather worn carpets (thanks to the 2 & 4 legged children) with hard wood. Today we finally purchased the materials. Who knew just picking out flooring could be so exhausting! We went to 2 stores earlier this week & got samples to bring home to view in the different rooms in different lighting. Then today we went to another store & back to 1 of the earlier ones. After hours of debating what to do we became happy owners of new wood flooring. It's hand scraped & brown (no hints of red).

That's about all for major projects at the moment. The Pilot might become an expert plumber sooner than he thought he would be. One of the toilets is screeching & hissing.

Patio, part 1

I've been wanting to fix up the patio for some time now. I finally had some inspiration a few weeks ago. Mom called me to tell me about some show she was watching on HGTV. It was a patio make over & the patio was very similar to ours. Turned out the show was Myles for Styles. Click on the link for the specific episode. My goal was to do this budget make over my way & on a smaller budget. I'm almost done, just a few things left to do. Here are a few pictures to hold you over. I'll write more about it later. I recovered the cushions, btw. :)

Anyone else ready for fall?!

Here is a corn update. I think it's time to find an area to replant. I need some where it will get watered but also where the dogs won't trample the corn.

Mother-in-law was up yesterday. I had dentist appointment so she watched the kids for me. While I was gone Tootie & her picked some apples off our over-producing apple tree. I really wish you all could smell how fragrant they are. I really should start picking them off the tree. I'm sure the gardeners are tired of picking them off the ground. I know I am tired of the dogs dragging half-eaten apples into the house. I have a few ideas in mind on what I will do with the apples.

Not too much longer!

The Pilot will be back soon. We're weeks away. So this site should be picking up the pace shortly. Lots planned... finish the master bathroom, closet, finish off the extra room downstairs, hard wood floors downstairs - just a few things off the top of my head.

We have corn!!

Tootie & I planted corn (at his request) about a week and a half ago. I was surprised to see that we have sprouts!! I need to find some where out back to replant them once they out grow that pot. I wanted to start them off in a pot so they had a chance to live with out getting mowed down by a kid or dog.

What to do...

Drawing a blank, but I am sure an idea will come to me during the night. Today Tootie & I moved all the toys out of the living room & put them in the den. Ideally that is where we would like the toys to stay. I also took apart the baby swing. Princess hasn't used it in a while & it just became a toy collector. So now I am left with this good size space that is pretty empty. To give you an idea of it's size you can fit a love seat there. We rearranged the living room so the love seat wouldn't go back there anyways. It's not a good place to put seating of any sort for various reasons. We have a big fluffy chair that we moved into the den so the dogs would stop jumping on it to look out the window. So that's one reason not to place seating there. For those of you who haven't seen our dogs, they are petite humans... 70lbers. It's also not a good area to view the tv from. What ever goes in the corner needs to be dog & child friendly. I'm just not feeling motivated but it's really empty in that room now.

Attempting to have a green thumb

I didn't think I would be updating this blog while the Pilot is off playing in the sun & sand, but here I am...

I received a nice gift certificate to a plant nursery along with a lavender plant for my birthday. This insanely inspired me to get working on our yard. Something I hadn't planned on doing any time soon. I stumbled across the following picture while researching plants & different pictures of garden set up.

I don't necessarily want to copy that look, but it's the "feel" I want.... path way, bench, hardy flower look (versus fru-fru). Plus the area I am working on takes a beating from the sun & not a lot of water makes it back there.



I trotted off to the local nursery with kids in tough. I went plant crazy.



So I spent close to 3 hours this morning out there working on this project. Princess was napping, but I had help from a certain 2 year old. Turns out that the sprinkler head back there has been capped off & the ground is harder then a rock. I don't even think I got a 1/3 of the plants planted. Tootie & I stopped to have lunch & it was time for Princess to awake from her beauty sleep. So we went in & washed up. While we were enjoying some fine dining of left overs (AGAIN! lol) the younger of the two 4 legged family members was un-doing some of my work. He was fine the whole time we were out there... ARG!!!! He tore out 2 plants. Damaged one of them pretty well but I think it might be ok (just no where near as full). Also tore apart a bag of compost & another bag with cactus mix. So off to Home Depot the kids & I went to buy chicken wire to build a fence around my work. So far it's deterred him. I've decided to pot all the plants until the ground becomes soft enough to dig holes. We have a ton of empty pots laying around here & I also posted a want add for more on freecycle. I'll update you all with a picture once get everything potted. I want to put the fountain back together & plant some stuff in it. I'm also going to get various sizes & types of rock to put around that area, but that will be later this summer.

The closet to this point

It's not totally complete, but it is in a usable condition. The Pilot is stopping for now since he will be on a long business trip. Final touches will be completed when he gets back. A few shelves & drawers

need to be put in place, finishing strips need to be put on & staining needs to be done. Here are a few pictures for you all to drool over. The shoe cubbies are my personal fav.! I'll post updated room pictures once I get everything put back together & add a few of my own personal womanly touches. ;)

Progress update on master bathroom/closet/bedroom

Click to view previous update.

It was hard getting a good picture of the layout, so I drew a before & after. They are not to scale.

We've paint the bathroom, closet & master bedroom. We also added new lighting fixtures above the sink. Also installed lighting inside the closet & vanity area. The bedroom & bathroom have been partially opened up to each other. New base boards are being put in & window & door casing. Here are a few up to date pictures. Oh the Pilot also raised the ceiling in the bathroom & closet. Popcorn was scraped from all the areas, too.


Wall 1. The squares are painted with the bathroom colors.

The Pilot extended the over hang slightly & added moulding.

Walls 2-4 are painted this color. The outside of the squares on wall 1 are also painted that color.

Sanded, just waiting to be stained.

Wall was knocked in half to create a pony wall.

New lights!!

Showing bathroom colors.


Vanity area

Lighting inside closet.

View from bedroom into bathroom. This was the part that was opened up.