Setting in

We are finally moved in  and everyone is getting settled. Everyone is sleeping very good at night, matter of fact, the baby even slept through the night last night. We are enjoying the extra room, closet space (we didn't have closets in the old house), bathrooms (we went from one to three), and just the convinces that this house has that the other one didn't.

I'm still waiting for my washer and dryer to be hooked up then my laundry will all be upstairs where the bedrooms are. I have always been very spoiled with my laundry at the other house my laundry room was off the living room and right by the bathroom so when the clothes came off they went to the laundry room, cleaned then back up to the bedrooms. Here I have been bringing them downstairs from the bathrooms and bedrooms, cleaning them, then caring them back upstairs. I am not enjoying this. I was very spoiled before.

Tayler is still in respite. I hope to have time to blog more about that later. She is having a good time. She is doing well and holding it all together. She was even able to go on a mini vacation with them. Imagine that, and she didn't even give them any trouble in the car.

Next week at this time I will be visiting with some of my soul sisters. One that I have really gotten to know and the rest I don't know that I even met in Orlando, but am anxious to get to know them. I am looking forward to this time away. My mom is going with me and I am taking Bunny and the four littles. This is a much needed trip for all of us.

I'm hoping to be able to blog more now that we're moved. There is so much I want to say. I'm hoping with school starting soon things will be more structured and I will have more alone time. (but I won't bet on it) I will post more pictures of the house as we get things finished up.

Have a great weekend friends.

work weekend

Last weekend we all worked very hard at the house
trying to get it ready so we can move in.
We are just about there. All that's left is things like
putting up fence around the pool, hooking up the dishwasher,
clothes washer, dryer, and putting up shelving in some of the closets.

When they moved they left us this sectional, so Bubbas was

hard at work cleaning it up.

Some of us just cried because we weren't allowed to

get into everything.

We had a lot of trouble getting the all paper off the

walls in the little boys bedroom. When we tried to get it

off the drywall was coming off with it. So Shawn tore

the drywall off and re drywalled. So mom was priming it

so we could paint it.

Buster just enjoyed digging a hole.

Buc thought he was telling Duckie what to do.

Shawn worked on making me a platform to put my washer
and dryer on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Countertop is on!!!

Our countertop has been on for awhile now.
I just realized I forgot to publish these pictures.

house updates

We decided to take down the wallpaper and
border in the little boys room.

Tile is down and will be grouted this week.

Painted around the kitchen windows.

Had railings and spindles put on the stairway, 

they only had railings before.

The little area under the steps had a mattress on it.

Shawn used to take naps under there when he was little.

I plan to put another mattress on there as well.



Painted the hallway upstairs and am ordering new carpet today.

 

We're getting closer and closer.

 

 

 

 

finally....a house update

Living room before paint.

After paint.

After the fireplace had been painted.

Kitchen

Lights and cupboards in.

This is one of my favorite things. We cut a hole in

the wall so we could stock my pantry/cupboard from the

back. These doors are in my hallway behind the kitchen.



Bunny looking through.

My upstairs hallway.

 I took this picture from in the end room, which will be a big rec room. The first doorway to the right is a library. Then going down that side of the hallway is the steps going downstairs, Sissy and Coco's room, our bathroom, our bedroom. At the end of the hall is the big boys room. Shawn and Bunny are standing in the doorway, but I don't think you can see them.

Then across from the library is Bunny's room, then little boys, then kids bathroom, then Tator's room, then laundry room.

It is starting to become a reality. We will be living there soon.

house updates

A lot is going on at the house. Most of what happened last week

you can't really tell. They put in all the duct work for the heat and they ran a lot of new pipes

for the water. These pics are not really that good because I didn't have a lot of room to

take them. But I know I have a lot of family who have been in the house before that look at this

so you can probably visualize it.

Where Tator is standing we are putting a closet.

To the right of this picture will be my kitchen. Behind my mom is

 the hallway. The opening beside where she is standing is going to be the doorway.

We didn't move it. Where mom is standing there will be a cabinet with pull outs

and we took the wall out and are going to put doors on the back so I can open it and stock

it from the back.

This will be our downstairs bathroom. It goes from Tator to Buster.

Bunny is standing in the door way.

I am most excited about this room. My pantry.

Tator is standing at one end and Bunny is at the other.

Bubbas is in the doorway. It's going to be so big. I'm so excited

My current pantry is my laundry room/closet/pantry all in one.

It is a very small room.

Some updates and a really good recipe

Buster had a follow-up appointment with his ENT Dr. yesterday. He said everything looked good.

We're so relieved his speech has returned to normal.

Duckie told us tonight that he has all A's on all his first college midterms. We're so proud of him. He's been working full time and going to school full time.

Tator also had a very good evening tonight. Which means everyone has a good evening.

We realized we are in way over our head with the house. It is way more work then we can do on our own. We had a contractor come and give us a price on finishing it up for us, but it was way more than we could afford. We have no idea what were going to do now.

We do have someone working on the upstairs (the downstairs is what needs most of the work). These pictures are of a bedroom that we knocked the walls out on both ends. The top picture we knocked the wall out between the bedroom and bathroom. We are putting up a new one that will  make the bathroom about 3 feet bigger.

The bottom picture (I realize its not a very good picture) we knocked out the wall between the bedroom and a huge walk in closet. We are putting up another wall and making the walk in closet a laundry room. So I can have my laundry on the same floor as all the bedrooms. I'm really excited about that.

...................................................................................................................................

I tried a new recipe tonight that someone my dad works with gave him. It was for Italian Cheese Bread. I cut it up and we ate them like they were bread sticks with our Upside down pizza. They were awesome! Everyone loved them.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour                    

1 tsp. salt                                                 

1 tsp. sugar                                              

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 cup warm water

1 Tbsp. veg. oil

topping

1/3 cup Italian dressing 

1/2 tsp. salt                                                                          

1/4 tsp. garlic powder 

1 tsp. oregano 

dash of pepper                                    

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 Tbsp. Parmesan chesse

1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Combine first four ingredients. Add warm water and oil, mix well. On floured surface knead for 1-2 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise in greased bowl for 20 minutes. Punch down dough and pat into 12" round greased pizza pan. Brush with Italian dressing. Combine seasonings and cheeses and sprinkle over Italian dressings.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. This makes excellent bread sticks served with warm pizza sauce.



One Muddy Mess

Things are moving right along at the house. Last weekend we found this big bee hive in a bush in the front yard.

I started washing down the walls in this room. We had already painted the ceiling and revarnished two out of the three windows in it. The other window had broken glass in it. So it is being repaired. We are also going to do something different with the lights. It's a really big room that we're making into the kids hang out room, so we're thinking about putting in a couple ceiling fans with a disco ball between them.  I'm hoping to finish the walls next weekend so we can move some things into it for the kids to play with while we're working on the other rooms.

I repainted around the mural in the library again. I had to get rid of the smurf blue. This looks much better.

My husband tore out the wall to the greenhouse and dug this huge hole, so we could repair a water leak.

Ok, not really, a local basement company brought in a big machine thing (I have no idea what it's called) and dug out the whole backside of the house to reseal the back wall where water was leaking in. The downstairs, which is the main living area, is built in the side of a bank so the water was coming in and causing problems in the whole downstairs.
 I'd say they left us with one huge mess, but that's nothing compared to the mess the water was making in the house.

Tearing down walls

We made some progress on the house this weekend. Shawn tore down a closet and ripped down some walls. There is a bathroom back here that we plan to move and remodel.

This is now one big room. Where we plan to rebuild the bathroom, closet and a big pantry. We just didn't tear the bathroom apart yet because it's the only one that works.

I also repainted around this mural in the library and totally hate the color. So I will be repainting it. It looks like someone smashed a bunch of Smurfs on the wall.

My cousin came out and helped us with some of the drywall, so we should be able to paint the closets by the weekend.

We also have someone remodeling one of the upstairs bathrooms.

We're not moving as fast as I'd like, but we are making progress.

Snakes!!!!!

So what do you do when you buy a house that is two and a half times the size of your current house and is so run down you don't know where to begin?

You start with the pool.

Last night we spent time cleaning out the pool. Well I guess I should say Buc, Bunny, Tator and Bubbas started out by trying to save all the frogs and tadpoles that have been living in it for a few years so they could put them in the pond.

 While Shawn tried to get a hose in it to pump the water out.

Buc killed this snake that was living in it

with his foot.

He also killed one just like it with a broomstick that, they said was ready to bite Bunny. Then he caught 2 baby snakes that were slithering around the side of the pool.

Tator and Bubbas had fun playing in the bucket of tadpoles they rescued.

I thought I'd start blogging about our progress as we remodel the house. I know some of my readers are family and would enjoy that.

To my fellow trauma mamas, sorry I haven't been very consistent with my blogging. I'm having a hard time processing everything that's been going on this summer with Tator.