This is My Forties

There are plenty of things to love about owning a home.  It's great and I'm happy we have been able to do it, but sometimes you're reminded that with all the joy of control comes the pain of responsibility.  Home damage... it doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's a huge pain in the butt.  Even with homeowner's insurance it's an inconvenient expense and a hassle.  Especially if you're like most people and have something like a $1000 deductible, which means you have to magically find $1000!  lol  So, here's what happened.  We were chilling out, giving ourselves a day off.  The sun was out and I was working on the garden.  I took a walk around the yard and noticed some water dripping from under the deck, through the overhang ceiling... right above the kitchen.  We traced it up to the refrigerator.  The water line that feeds the ice maker was spraying water like crazy straight into the wall and down through the floor thanks t...

After refinancing the house, we decided to use the mortgage payment we saved on some much anticipated changes to help make our house a home.  We painted... well, I painted the boy's rooms while Josh was out working and I did a damn fine job :)  Noah helped a lot with his room.  He did all the taping and most of the brush work around the trim.  They all picked out their own colors. We painted the whole entire basement and the main hallway and the bathroom as well.  Everything looks fresh and new and inviting.  It has a nice lived-in feel to it now :)   We also finally replaced some light fixtures we've never been fond of (like the chandelier in the dining room).  I have a few more framed photos and wall art to hang in the basement, but other than that I think we're done.  Everything feels amazing.

We've been busy busy bees lately.  While we do tend to have a lot of visitors we decided that the 2% of our total time they spend with us was not worth having a beautiful, large, empty room in the basement.  So... we rearranged.  Noah has taken residence in his very own room with a queen size bed in what used to be the office.  The office is now where the guest room used to be.  Everything in the basement has been rearranged and feels much more inviting.  I didn't take a completely finished picture, apparently, but you get the idea.  The walls shall be painted soon! The office is in a cold place where it belongs (and near where the kids usually are which helps me out).  It's inviting and inspiring.  Josh and I do our painting and crafting in this room now. Noah has his own space where he can escape the unrequited love of his minions.  We still have some painting and decorating to do, but he's already in love with his door (it sh...

After I got back from Ohio I was feeling exceptionally motivated.  I took it upon myself to extend the backyard fence to include more of the woods (and the clubhouse).  The dogs were thrilled!  They use the clubhouse as a dog house now and the boys think that's the coolest thing ever. I also insisted we finally hang the gate on it so we can get in and out, now that the kids have places to play with the dogs. Finally, we bought paint we've been holding off on since we moved in to turn our house into more of a home.  The light green dining room is not a dark slate gray, and the photos I finally hung up really pop on those dark walls. I hung up most of the other photos as well and took on a grand photo project for the guest bedroom.  So far I have 20 black & white photos with a pop of red in black frames (which I had to paint).  They're going to be kind of like a filmstrip in the guest bedroom.  Pretty sure once we get it all...