REPOST of Our House:Before and After

This was originally published in October of 2008 but because several people have emailed recently asking about my cabinets I thought I would link up to Kimber's DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Get your Craft on at Today's Creative Blog and Tip Junkie. Hope you enjoy it!
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OK peeps, here's what you've all been waiting for - HOUSE PICTURES! Because I am lazy and blogger is acting weird right now, I'm just putting them all on here in no particular order. The "Before's" are first. Also, I didn't edit anything. Again, because I am lazy and it already took me 2 days to get this post ready.

Back of the house

Kitchen looking towards Master Bath

Kitchen looking towards dining room and garage

Kitchen - notice the weird counter top piece hiding the back of the stove

Kitchen

Kitchen

Water heater in Garage




Back of house

Wallpaper in Master Bath

That's all the "before" pictures we have. We started working on the house before it occurred to me that I might want "before" pictures of everything. Oh well.

Here's what it looks like now:

Dining Room

Stone plates from Hobby Lobby

Kitchen - We removed the cabinets from above the stove and replaced the weird counter top piece hiding the stove with a larger piece of wood and shelving

The little shelving unit is from IKEA

New flooring and lighting in the kitchen and dining room

We painted the kitchen cabinets a dark brown. The actual color is Sarasparilla by Olympic. The finish is Gloss. The turtle in the window is from Senegal, West Africa. Zach thought he needed to look out the window and that is where he's staying. :)

New French Door refrigerator. The wall color in the kitchen is Vanilla Brandy.

Living Room - wall color is Martha Stewart Brick Hearth

There will eventually be more things on the walls.

I love our fireplace. The mantle was natural cedar when we bought it - we painted it dark brown.

The window on the mantle is from my paternal grandparents house - the house my dad grew up in. They still live there, but they replaced the windows a while back and DD let me have them.

The djembe (drum) is from Senegal, West Africa too.

Master Bath - I made the curtain. That fabric was $46 a yard at JoAnns and I found it for $5.99 a yard at OHCO in Covington. That was a good day.

We painted the vanity the same color as the kitchen cabinets and bought a new counter top, new sinks, and new faucets. We got new lighting too from Lithonia Lighting.

Justin installed a shower door.

And he did a little landscaping in the backyard.

He and Daddy built a cover for the water heater.

Justin added shelves to the side for shoe storage. Since living in Korea, both of us are in the habit of removing our shoes when we get home.

These are the cabinets that we took out of the kitchen. Now we have excellent storage in the garage.

Well that's it for now folks. We haven't done anything at all to the upstairs yet, and our Master Bedroom is next on the project list.

I want to know what you think so PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE leave me some comments!

woohoo!

SO....for those of you who don't know me in real life...I recently became an Independent Distributor with Premier Designs, a Direct Sales jewelry company. I love my job! I get to wear awesome, quality jewelry, meet and hang out with lots of great ladies, and make money doing it. At this time in my life it is a great fit because I get to work as much or as little as I want - there's no quota to meet and no pressure at all, which is always a plus. ;)

Anyway - back to the WOOHOO. I'm gonna brag on two of my hostesses in February, Shirley Quick and Jennie Oglesby (mom and daughter). They had one of the Top 20 highest retailing Home Shows in the Southeast!

This is a BIG DEAL and I am so excited! I got to give them a ridiculous amount of FREE jewelry (nearly $900!) and we had a blast at their show.

Thank you ladies for all the fun and for making me some SA-WEET moolah. :) Y'all are the best!

I'm filling up my calendar for April and May. Want to hang out with your girlfriends and get some free jewelry? Let's talk! There is a fantastic promotion going on for April. :) Have a Home Show (or catalog show)...it's easy! My email is moon0821(at)gmail(dot)com. (that's a number zero, not a capital O)

Silas (8 months)

Silas turned 8 months old this past Thursday! He is growing and changing everyday and he is so cute that I just can't hardly stand it!

{Just a heads up - there are lots of pictures with this post.}

He is:

*pulling up on everything. Sometimes he is a little ambitious and ends up bumping his noggin, but he is getting really good at catching himself too. He stands in the bathtub now (which has resulted in the discovery that water doesn't feel good when it goes up your nose). He is a brave little toot and even after he gets hurt he will just try again. I LOVE this about him. I love his adventurous spirit.

*talking up a storm. He has added a few consonant sounds to his speech and now we hear d's and b's and y's. He talks to himself in the mirror (especially when he's in the car) and he loves talking to his Daddy.

*down to 4 bottles a day and 3 food meals.

*getting his 4th tooth. Any day now the top left tooth is going to poke through. :)

*"voicing" his opinion. He communicates quite well these days either by screaming or reaching for things or refusing to make eye contact or even pushing things away.

*His favorite things to do:
~climb on the hearth
~play with his car seat and push it around the kitchen (he spends great amounts of time doing this)
~play with his diaper/wipe caddy. He is OBSESSED with this. He takes the diapers out and throws them everywhere. He pulls it over on himself. He chews on it. Really - it's kinda strange how much he loves the caddy...sometimes we have to just put it away.
~go outside. We are soooo ready for spring! Last week we had a couple of warm sunny days in a row so we spent a good bit of time outside. I can't wait til we can play outdoors everyday!
~jumpy jump in his Johnny Jumper
~be naked. But is this really a surprise?

climbing and exploring

sweet toothy grin

so happy with his friend Mr. Carseat

about to make a mess with Mama's clean clothes

He climbed over there by himself. I just held his feet to make sure he didn't go head first in the gap.

This one is kinda blurry, but I love it because this is how I found him one day. He had rolled off of the hearth into his empty toy basket and was stuck.

Oh you know, just getting some fiber (tree bark). And are those shades not the cutest?!

Again, he did this all by himself.

Such a big boy!!

My friend Lindsay came over last week on one of the pretty days and we took Silas to the Monastery to crawl around and take some pictures. These are the doors to the sanctuary.

ickiness

This is what we looked like all of this morning and most of the afternoon:

My sweet Love that is usually all smiles was a sad boy today.

He has had diarrhea since Tuesday night and today he started throwing up and it was just awful. He was lethargic and wouldn't do anything but lay on me. He slept most of the day while we rocked. It was the saddest thing.

I talked to the nurse and she said to get him some Pedialyte so my friend Sandy Jo ran to the store to get that for us so we wouldn't have to get out, and she threw in a bag of Peanut m&ms for the Mama. :) THANKS SANDY!!

Now he looks like this:

He is obviously feeling at least a little better. As I type this he is making a huge mess with his {clean} diapers and talking up a storm.

Also, today he is 8 months old. Check back tomorrow for his Month Day post!

Sunday Song

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee;
   Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.
   Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known;
   Yet how rich is my condition! God and heav’n are still mine own.
2. Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too;
   Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.
   And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might,
   Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.
3. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain!
   In Thy service pain is pleasure; with Thy favor, loss is gain.
   I have called Thee, “Abba, Father”; I have set my heart on Thee:
   Storms may howl, and clouds may gather, all must work for good to me.
4. Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast;
   Life with trials hard may press me; heav’n will bring me sweeter rest.
   Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me, while Thy love is left to me;
   Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.
5. Take, my soul, thy full salvation; rise o’er sin, and fear, and care;
   Joy to find in every station something still to do or bear:
   Think what Spirit dwells within thee; what a Father’s smile is thine;
   What a Savior died to win thee, child of heav’n, shouldst thou repine?
6. Haste then on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer,
   Heav’n’s eternal day’s before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
   Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
   Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Goofiness

Silas (7 months)

Today is Silas' 8 month day!

He is:

*pulling up and climbing on things. He gets on the hearth and scoots from one end to the other and then turns around and does it again and he climbs onto the bottom shelves of the coffee table and end table and plays in there.

*eating 6oz in his bottle 5 times a day and food 3 times. We dropped his late night feeding this week (it was at 10 or 10:30pm) and he did GREAT! Didn't even wake up that first night.

*talking up a storm. He's got dadadada down, but doesn't know what it means yet. At least I don't think he does. He also talk-yells at things when he can't get them. Ex: Yesterday one of his rattles had gotten pushed under the coffee table and he couldn't reach it no matter how hard he tried. He started fussing at it - it was so cute. He was laying on his stomach perpendicular to the coffee table with his chin on the floor looking under it at the rattle and just a fussing. It kinda reminds me of how a squirrel will fuss at you. It made me laugh. That's probable one of those things that you would need to be there for it to be funny. Oh well.

*JUMPING in his Johnny Jumper. He's always liked it, but he used to just kinda bounce and spin in it. Now he JUMPS high and sometimes his little booty hits the ground. He loves it. If he stops jumping and you say, "Silas can you jump-jump?" he will jump as high as he can with a huge grin.

*getting fat. His face is so cute and chubby and his little thighs have some rolls now. I have no idea how much he weighs though.

Climbing on the hearth

Playing at Mamay and Pops' house. I love this face!

Who dat?! Silas is wearing his Drew Brees jersey from his Uncle Benny.

Playing with Pops - he LOVES that red rubber bracelet.

Bath time!

Silas (6 months)

So Silas-boy had his 6 month day a couple of weeks ago, but it's been a bit crazy lately and I never had a chance to blog it. He's just so fun right now - so cute too. :)

Here's what he's up to these days:

*Eating 3 "food" meals a day - The kid loves to eat! Yesterday morning when he woke up I was changing his diaper and I had left his empty bottle from the night before on the bed near where I was changing him. I didn't even see if because it was dark, but he grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth. It was so cute because he was still groggy. His favorite foods are...wait...EVERYTHING is his favorite! Well, maybe not as much the green stuff and others, but he gets that from his momma.

*Playing in his exersaucer that Mamay and Pops got him for Christmas - In addition to all the little toys for him to play with on it, it also has a snack tray so he is...

*Eating Gerber Puffs. He doesn't have the thumb-forefinger pinching skill yet, so he gets them to the palm of his hand and then it takes him a while to get them into his mouth, but once he does he chews and chews. This is funny because they really just dissolve and don't require any chewing, and also because as he chews, the puff just stays in the middle of his tongue so he's really just chewing air. I have to get this on video soon.

*Going EVERYWHERE! He's still doing his little Army crawl/scoot, but he is also getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Sometimes he rocks so hard and pushes off that it almost looks like he is trying to play leap-frog with an imaginary friend. He is all over the house at all times unless he is in his exersaucer. His favorite places are behind the recliner, under the kitchen table, and by the "boing" - the spring door stopper.

*Loving people - He is super friendly and full of personality. Everyone loves him. :)

*He has 2 bottom teeth and they are SHARP! He was in the bed with me this morning and I was trying to get a few more minutes of sleep and he crawled up to my head and BIT my bottom lip. No lie. Owie.

*Weighs 15lbs 11oz and is 27in long. Well, at least he was 2 weeks ago at his dr. appointment.

Here's some pictures in no particular order:

Bath time in his duckie tub - all he wants to do is roll out of it.

Um, hello eyelashes!

Love it, love it, love it.

Booties!!

Behind the recliner

Under the kitchen table

(Photo Shoot) Silas 6 months

Silas had a little photo shoot a couple weeks ago with his Uncle Zach. Fun times. :)

Donate to relief efforts in Haiti

My heart is breaking for the people of Haiti. I cannot imagine the devastation and sheer terror they experienced and are still experiencing as many of them search for loved ones among the rubble.

Every part of me wants to drop everything and load up the family and head straight down there to help. I might not have any medical training, but I can hold babies and hold hands and share Jesus. :) While that clearly isn't feasible, I can help from here. You can too.

There is a plan in the works for a CCC fundraiser to support the relief efforts of Samaritan's Purse, who already has a team on the ground in Haiti. But, if you are like me and can't wait for that, please consider donating now - at least go and read (or listen...there's a field report that was just posted on that site) about what they are doing in Haiti.

DONATE HERE

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve with the gang over at the Cardoza's like we always do, and as usual, great fun was had by all. I had been looking forward to this night for months because we always have a blast playing games and whatnot, and I was not disappointed. This year we played The Newlywed Game. It's just like the TV show. The husbands would ask the wives a question (and vice versa) from the book, the wives would answer it truthfully, and then the guys would try to answer it the same way. That make sense? It was hilarious and revealing and I don't recommend that you play it with people that you don't know well and love -- or -- with your parents. Just sayin'.

These are some pictures from the game - I love pictures of people laughing and having a good time!

My husband provided us with the funniest part of the whole night. The question to the women was along the lines of, "What would your husband say is the one part of his body that doesn't fit with the rest?" I answered "ankles" as you can see in the picture above. I won't tell you what Justin answered, but it is NOT what you are thinking right now. Get your head out of the gutter! BUT - from now on we can say one word to any of the people there that night and it will get a laugh. It was totally random, out of character, and HILARIOUS!
**Edited to add: Apparently I look like a hyena when I laugh. Who knew?!**

It took me a while to recover.

Him too. :)


Ok - this next set is from a question that the girl's asked the guys. Of course, we all (husbands AND wives) compared our answers before we let the spouses answer, and this next picture is of the guys being very amused at all of their answers.

They are out of control. :)

Here's all of their answers: (L to R) Too hard, It's empty when she goes to bed, Too hard, Too big, and Too small

The question was, "What is your wife's complaint about the bed you are currently sleeping in?"

Yeah. They thought it was hilarious.

After the game and ringing in the new year we went outside and played with some fireworks. Justin busted out with some moves while holding a roman candle. Zach took this picture and I just think it is so cool!

Did you do anything fun for New Year's Eve?

Sweetness.

You can just see his tooth sticking up above his lip. :)

Precious boy.