School has started...

Sorry for the delay in posting, but this is a CRAZY time of year. If you know a teacher, get up and go give them a hug! (and then a stiff drink!!) School starting is a nutty time of year. For starters, you have to reset your body clock to get back up at an insane hour and then prep your feet to stand on them for the next 8 hours, save when you escape to the potty, if you're lucky enough!! Then be ready to be "on" for a solid 8 hours, watching every movement made by 22 children that you don't know the names of yet! Thankfully, I'm usually okay with names, so I get those down relatively quickly. After a crazy, but good week I'm pooped and slowly starting to realize that I have to go back to work tomorrow.

(Disclaimer: For those of you who think I'm one of those "complaining teachers" who lazes away the 3 months of summer vacation, I worked all but 3 days that I was home this summer... Somehow this "work" is different than summer school, CIA, kid-sitting, house-sitting and various other summer jobs.)
After sleeping a nutty number of hours on Friday night, I've been working on cleaning my house. If you've ever lived in the middle of a remodel, you will understand my frustrations in trying to clean up a workzone. Yuck! I'm persevering though and have almost finished the living room. Eventually I'm headed to the office/kitchen storage.

While I busy cleaning, I thought you might like to see the rest of the before and afters from the house. Enjoy!


Please note the different color of the walls and the ceiling. No, that is not a fluke of your computer. That is NASTY disgusting nicotine stains from years of smoking. Seriously, after cleaning that ceiling, I wonder why anyone would ever smoke. Hmm, maybe all smokers trying to quit should be subjected to ceiling scrubbing...

Now my room is my sancutary. A sane place away from the crazy world!




Note the lovely, original carpet and stained walls. It's a shame this isn't smell-a-blog because you would be gagging from the stench.


I LOVE this color. While a bunch of people thought I had lost my mind, I am thrilled with how the color looks and can't wait to get the crap-moulding, I mean crown-moulding up.



Check out the fabu scallop trim! Can you say country kitch?? Note the small doorway which has now been blown open to allow for a more open concept.

My living room is now one of my favorite places to hang. I love the open feeling the room has while being cozy and comfortable at the same time. My bookshelves display items representing my most treasured memories. From my Mimi's candy jar, (yes, it has the caramels, butterscothch discs and peppermints, just like Mimi) to pictures of family and friends, to my great-great grandparent's books, to just a bit of bling, my tastes run the gamut.

One Year Ago

After one year I've managed to make a large dent in the house, but still not a big enough one. If I had a limitless budget, time and energy, the house would be finished. In trying to think positively, I using the time to research and shop for the perfect _________. (Feel free to fill in the blank with basically anything involving a house! Knob, appliance, flooring, insulation, window, plant, etc.) Enjoy the following before and current pics. I know it's not all of the rooms, but it's several and I'm working on posting the rest of the house.

Here is the scary original laundry room. To the left of the washing machine is the dryer and behind that was the insanely scary corner. When I first went to clean it out, I raked out several skeletons, yes, skeletons and it was at that point that I cried and seriously wondered what I had done. Thankfully now the laundry room looks like this. With fresh drywall, paint and baseboards, the entire room now has a clean feeling, no pun intended. The newest feature is a sink. It's a great help and I can't wait to use it for only laundry!


Ugh, the F.I.L.T.H.Y. kitchen. It was a tiny mess and that made me want to scrub in bleach after being in it. With some extreme banging by the boys, the kitchen was demolished and currently looks like this. Not really conducive to much more than cereal and spaghetti, which is fine because spaghetti is my ALL TIME fave. It also works really well to store tools.

The great news is that in 10 short years, my kitchen will look more like this than that! I cannot wait. I really want to be able to use this room for cooking and eating only, not also painting, staining, stripping (not the pole kind,) and storage!



I have no idea what the previous owners were into, but it is quite possible that it was illegal. Multiple lighters, bobby pins and alcohol wipes. Anyway, now ALL of the urine stains, illegal/legal items and pretty much any trace of male are GONE! Now my bathroom with a new potty (one thing I wasn't budging on!) is blissfully clean and really cute!



I discovered when getting ready for this, I had not a single picture of the room before I attacked it removing the NASTY carpet and scarred walls. So, enjoy this shot with no painted trim and bare walls hosting the garage sale stuff! Now it's a great room for launching airplanes, playing dollies and dress-up, and grabbing a nap from time-to-time. (Check out the fabu window treatments!) Marc & Sara often crash here during the day after working all night and the cardboard blocks 95% of the light. I have yet to fuss since the windows are old and the cardboard helps to insulate it more...


Enjoy these and keep an eye out for the next post.

One Year!!

Guess what?? It's officially been one year since I bought my house and it has been a crazy ride. I would love to claim that I have a fabulously witty post, but reality has set in and I'm sleepy!! I'm pooped from spending over 30+ days since the beginning of July touring the country, visiting family and friends, and starting what seems like 20 different projects and finishing not a darn one! So, tomorrow, the day after the anniversary, (isn't my future husband going to love my theory of anniversaries?) I'll post current before and after pictures showing just what a difference a year can make.

The really exciting part is that I am e-mailing you from my very own couch from my completely legal wireless internet which was hooked up on today of all days!! Wahoo!! Thanks to a combination effort of Terry and Jon, I have my own wireless network set up for cruising the world wide web. YES!!! (insert fist pump here...)

Now, going back up to the reason for my poor anniversary post in the first place, I'm headed to bed. Night!

New Favorite Website...

Okay, for those who know me personally, I have a slightly sarcastic sense of humor. As VJ says, "Is that sarcasm, Sissi???" Anyway, I get a kick out of humor that makes you think. Puns, plays on words etc. In accordance with this, I've found a new website that I love. www.somuchpun.com

Now, as a disclaimer, I haven't scanned everything on the site, so you might want to not look at work, but so far I've found such gems as:

Comic Books fans:
For the Tech Fans:

For the Star Wars Fans:

In honor of the 4th Grade Teacher Addictions:

Swimmingly good fun:


Get it? (Maybe I need to seek professional help, but these are the things that make me laugh!) Enjoy surfing the site. It's pretty funny and good laugh. In fact, I'm currently "borrowing" internet from a classroom and trying to stifle my laughs because of a meeting going on in the room. I'm not wanting to attract attention for the wrong reasons, but it's not working so well. Oops!!

Guess who's getting a kitchen????

Okay, after a whirlwind July, which included 2 weeks in Colorado and one week in Florida, I'm now back home. I had a blast traveling, but am glad to be back home.

While I was in Florida, I lucky enough to meet Jennifer Kight, who is a friend of my aunt and uncle. She also happens to be a FABU kitchen designer. Not long ago Casey & I took measurements of my kitchen. Those along with a letter describing what I wanted and what my dreams were winged their way over the internet to her computer. While I was in Florida, I got to meet the kitchen genius and see how her thoughts became my kitchen. It was incredible! She was able to put onto paper what I've seen in my head all along. This is what she came up with!







Since all of these fabulous improvements are going to be on a cash basis, you'll have to wait to enjoy the real thing, but I've milked 3 weeks off of the pictures alone!!

While I've been dreaming, Marc & Sara have been working toward securing the shed as easily and cheaply as possible given the current temp around here. It's been over 100 for 4 days! Yikes! As soon as the shed is cleared and ready we're going to move the tools and supplies out there and call in the crew for drywalling! That is going to make a huge improvement on the overall look of the room. From there I want to put the dining room wall in first so I can use all of the storage it provides to gain more space in the rest of the house. I promise I'll send pictures of my "storage room" and current kitchen soon. That way you too can enjoy the process.

On a side note, my home internet is due to connect today. Yup, that's right, I've been surviving without internet since I moved in last December. For those of you who know me, you'll know what a huge sacrifice this was. I would like to put out a big thank you to all of those who have let me borrow their connection. I would also like to thank VJ & M4 for playing at McDonald's so sweetly so Sissi could get her fix! I am super excited about it and can't wait to post from my own house! It's the little things right??