For Better or For Worse...

We closed today, hooray! After a trying 90-day process, we finally were able to sign (and sign and sign) the papers on our new (old) house today. Then, even though technically we don't get the keys till tomorrow, we got down and dirty at the house getting the remodel started (we have the code for the lockbox). I thought it would be fun to post some pics of the in-between stage. Here is David atop the pile of carpet and other junk he tore out of all the bedrooms and off the stairs.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that there were indeed hardwood floors under the carpet in the master bedroom. The only hitch is that there are two different sections of wood separated by a line of 2x4's where there used to be a wall before. We were already planning to take part of the room to make a master bath and closet. Now the question is this:
Do we...
1. Divide the room at the line where the old wall used to be, creating a space for a large bathroom and nice-sized closet and enabling us to use and refinish the existing hardwood floors, but cutting the size of the bedroom significantly...OR...
2. Go with the original plan of a smaller bathroom/closet space in order to preserve a larger bedroom space, making refinishing the hardwood floors a non-option??? I would love any opinions on the matter--I am really torn! I know it wouldn't bother ME to have a smaller bedroom and a nice large bathroom, but for resale value down the line...I don't know--what do you think?

This wall used to have an interesting display of wood with a large half-circle mirror. David ripped it all off tonight and decided to also take out the partial wall they had filled in above some of the upper stairs.

Under all of the floors upstairs we found more hardwood floors--score! BUT, unfortunately, they all have paint on them; some are worse than others. We are going to attempt to use paint stripper and then sand and refinish up here as well (as David's dad suggested--thanks, Pa!), but we'll have to see how it goes--has anyone done this? Any advice?

As you can see, the floor in the hallway upstairs was painted completely white.

The playroom floor looks as though someone decided to paint the floor blue but didn't want to bother moving the bed, which was in the middle of the floor--weird...

The floor in Olivia's room is splattered a lot, but it doesn't have an actual coating of paint.

Aubrey's room had the least paint spots--just a TON of dirt under all that carpet, pad, and old old old linoleum.

We were planning on holding off on the back bedroom since it had that column right in the middle of the room which we wanted to take out, but which would be just one more project on top of everything else...David couldn't wait, so now there is the exposed pipe thing that used to vent the boiler heater and now is just used as a vent for the water heater, and around it there is a square hole in the floor leading all the way to the basement. I'm excited to get it all done, but I don't know how we'll ever have enough time...guess we'll just see how it goes. However, I do know that the kids are definitely not stepping foot in this house for a while--there are hazards everywhere!

Almost everything so far was David's handiwork--he also cleaned out literally a truckload of junk from the basement. My big accomplishments included taking shelves off the walls and cabinet doors off the cabinets in the kitchen. WOW--as usual when working with David, I felt inefficient--but then, who doesn't?

Here I am with my trusty screwgun--I felt so handy :)

Well, there we have it! Or progress on DAY ONE--my goal is to keep track of the whole project via blog, and then hopefully later on I can convert our blog posts into a little family journal/book--has anyone done this? I've heard about it but don't know much. Let me know...

Kids Say the Darndest Things

You know how people are always saying, "You should write that down!" ? Well, I'm finally going to try it. I wish I could remember half of the funny things Olivia has done over the last three and a half years, but I can't--only a handful stick out, and I am really sad about that. But, what's done is done. I have been trying to keep track for a couple of weeks now of some of the funny things that come out of this little girl's mouth, so here are a few:

Olivia: Mom, you're hairy!
Mom: Why do you say that? (laughing)
Olivia: Because you have lots of hair on your arm!
Mom: (noticing that the light is hitting the hairs on my arm just right) Oooooh, I see.
Olivia: (looking down) Daddy's hairy too! I'm hairy, too! We're all hairy!

Mom: Olivia, you have a lot of strawberry jam on your face. Careful, you're getting it in your hair.
Olivia: Mom, if I had a tongue on my forehead, I could lick the jam out of my hair!

Scene: Olivia lying straight and stiff on her bed with her eyes closed, but definitely not asleep, wearing her blue and purple dance/tutu outfit.
Mom: Olivia, what are you doing?
Olivia: Shhhh! I'm waiting for true love's first kiss!

Scene: Family together eating a picnic dinner at an old school on the merry-go-round. Olivia is swinging on the bars and going under and over them.
Olivia: I'm a pole dancer!
MomandDad: What?!!!
Olivia: I'm dancing on a pole, so I'm a pole dancer!
(I still have not decided where in the world she picked up this term--she watches Disney movies and PBS--that's it!--maybe it was just a coincidence...)

Ever cringe when you are out in public and see someone/thing that you just know your kid is going to say something rude about and not know she's being rude?
Scene: Our new renters, Mike and Betty, were over working in the garden. (We said we could share the garden this year.) Betty begins to smoke a cigarette (she has tried many times to quit but hasn't been able to yet--but she never smokes inside).
Olivia: Betty, my daddy said you look gross with a cigarette! (Of course David never said this--only that cigarettes are gross and will make us sick.)
Mike: You're right, Olivia, it is gross.
Betty: They are yucky, they make you sick.
Needless to say, when I went out there and Mike told me about their little conversation, I was mortified, but they seemed to understand it was just the way it goes with little kids sometimes. Still, I hope her feelings weren't hurt! They are really the nicest people. Of course we also had the "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" talk with Olivia later.

Olivia's favorite movies right now are the Princess Diary movies and Mary Poppins. I know she has seen all of them far too many times, because she can readily quote all of them, and does, all the time. For instance, whenever she is told she can't do something she wants to do, or is disappointed in some way, she lies down with a sad face and says dramatically, "Maybe I'm not a princess after all..." (big sigh) She walks around the house singing "Gernogia, Gernogia!" (Genovia--the fictional country of which Mia is a princess) or sometimes when I say I have a job for her she starts in on Mary Poppins singing "Spoonful of Sugar."

Olivia's favorite new phrase: "Oh. My. Heavens!"

I hope you get as many laughs as I do out of this little girl and her craziness--either way, at least I finally "wrote that down," right?

Our Fantastic Fourth!

Our 4th of July celebration was lots of fun. We started out at the church for a yummy breakfast put on by the "new and improved" 11th ward (a phrase coined by our new bishop to refer to our ward which was essentially combined with another ward recently.)
Next we met up with Karen and Troy and family to walk down to the parade. It was really hot but still lots of fun! Olivia loved watching all the floats and especially the ones that had music and dancing. She still tells people the we were in the parade rather than watching it. :)
After an afternoon break/nap, we headed out to my Grandma and Grandpa Harmon's house for some dinner and then my Mom and my sister Miranda went to the fireworks downtown with us. Highlight of the event: funnel cake! j/k--it was delish, though. ;) Poor Olivia swore that she had to go potty--really bad!!!--right in the middle of the fireworks show, so I hauled her all the way down to those port-a-potty things (all the while getting glares from the people we were passing as we were temporarily obstructing their views) only to get there and have her say "I don't need to go anymore--those potties are too dark and scary!!" No matter what I tried I could not get her to go in those scary, dark potties, so a very frustrated mommy and a very tired Olivia made thier way back in front of the crowds of people to catch the end of the fireworks. Oh well!
Here's David with his little Ethan-bud and the girls before the parade.

Which is which? I was excited that Aubrey is still little enough to wear the same cute 4th of July dress that Olivia wore for her first 4th, even though Olivia was only 6 months when she wore it and Aubrey is almost a year--little peanut!

Someone walked along during the parade passing out popsicles, and Aubrey had to have one too. She would make a face like she hated it and then dive after it again.

Fun in the Summertime

Even though things have been a little crazy the past month or so, we still have found time to squeeze in a little summer fun. Here are a few of the things we've been up to lately...

Olivia loooooooves her 4-wheeler. I wish I could say she is a natural at driving the thing--I cringe every time she gets near the trampoline or the fence or the flowerbeds...when she gets near something she does the same thing I do when I'm riding a 4-wheeler--panic! It's pretty funny to watch, but it does make me a little nervous. :)
David gets the big 4-wheeler out once in a while to keep it from being idle too long and we ride it up and down the canal bank across the street from our house.

This was Aubrey's first 4-wheeler ride, and as you can see, she found it very relaxing...

Here is Olivia posing in the hat she made at library storytime.

She did a great job on it and was very proud!

I had to get a few pics of Aubrey's first ponytail. You can see it if you squint a little. ;)

This is a shot of the goofy little toothy grin she has when she laughs.

Here she is holding her token cracker--this girl is a cracker fiend!

To Pack or Not to Pack???

That has been the question for the past month or so. We have had many ups and downs through the process of trying to buy this cute little green house. The first mortgage officer we worked with made mistakes and was ultimately...less than competent, so weeks after beginning the whole thing we ended up switching loan officers. The person we are working with now is very on top of things and is getting the job done, which we are thankful for. Right now the loan has been approved, but we are still waiting to hear when we will close. The home was a foreclosure and there are some repairs that have to be done to get it to meet FHA standards before we can close. This means that it could possibly be another couple of weeks before we can close. But, if all goes as we hope it will, we'll be closing before the end of next week. Then the fun really begins! Here are the pics I promised a long time ago, for those of you who are curious. It may not look like much right now, but just wait a while for when we post the "after" pictures!



Here is a view from the street of the front of the house, complete with Olivia playing with a stick and David checking out the lawn--feels like home already! :) FYI There is a great big driveway on the other side of the house that goes back to the fence. Beyond that in the back is where David will eventually build his shop--probably next year.

This is the living room. This view is from the dining area looking toward the front door. You can't see the door very well, but if you could you would see that it has stencils of moose, bears, wolves, pine trees, etc. on it--soooooo cute!!! (I hope you know me well enough to know I'm j/k)
The curtains also have a very nice woodsy print on them--I might try to use them in our camper, which would actually be really cute.

Right when you walk into the house there is a door on your left into the master bedroom. This is the window in the master bedroom that looks out to the street. Note the lovely wood paneling on the wall to your right. We are planning to resheetrock in here and hopefully refinish what we think are hardwood floors under the carpeting.

This is a view of the other end of the master bedroom. Half of this will be turned into a master bath, and the other half will be a walk-in closet. Can't wait for that remodeling project to get done! Two bathrooms will be heavenly!

Here is a view of the dining area looking in from the living room. (It is actually all one big room, with the living area being carpeted and the dining area has a laminate flooring that is made to look like hardwood floors.) The gas stove in the corner is the main heat source for the house. And yes, those are more stencils on the walls--these are leaves and acorns to match the print on the curtains in this part of the room. (Just you wait--it gets better with the paint jobs...)

Left of the dining room is the kitchen, which basically has about the same amount of cabinet space and a little more counter space than the house we're in now. It does have a dishwasher, which I am excited about. We will paint the cabinets and replace the countertops (but probably not right away--we'll see). To the right in the photo you can see the laundry room door complete with three framed holes that apparently were used for family pictures...? Another unique decorating inspiration from the previous owner!

Here is where the washer and dryer go in the laundry room. Exciting.

As you stand in the laundry room, on your left you see this cubby, which we'll use for food storage, and also the door to the basement, which is just a small utility/storage room.

This is the back door of the house in the laundry room. I'm excited to have a place where we can come in if we're dirty/muddy/etc. and take our shoes off without tracking it through the house.

This is a remodel that seems to have gone pretty well. The bathroom is pretty cute, it just needs a little paint. It has a pretty stained glass window and nice tile.

This is the little vanity in the bathroom--we think we'll use this one in the master bath and put a bigger vanity in this bathroom.

Here is the staircase with the funny different colored footprints going up the wall. To each their own, I guess. :) Also, to the left you can see a strange display on the wall that the other people built in--there is wood trim and a large half-circle mirror with an indention into the wall that we think they must have used to put their t.v. in--who knows. That will all come down and the space will go back into the master bedroom where we will put the walk-in closet.

This is what you see as you come up the stairs--straight ahead is the little room at the front of the house--we plan to use it as a playroom for the girls. David wants to build bookshelves across the wall on either side of the window and a window seat that opens up like a toy box under the window. There are also little cubbies in the side walls that we plan to use for toy storage.

When you get to the top of the stairs, on your right is this "pink" room, which will be Olivia's room. Right now it is more of a salmon color with orange trim around the window and dark green carpet--what a combo, eh? Our plan is to paint the bottom half light green and the top half pastel pink with a white chair rail around the middle and white trim/ceiling.

This room is on the left. It has some wallpaper on the upper half of the walls that we'll have to get off before we can paint in there. I plan to do Aubrey's room with green on the bottom and purple on top. Olivia always used to tell us before Aubrey was even born that purple was her favorite color, so we'll go with it for now. :)

This view is of the little hall leading to the back bedroom upstairs. In case you are wondering, the trim around the doorway features moons, stars, and planets.

This is the storage closet in the upstairs hallway. Since the two side bedrooms don't have closets and are really small as it is, David plans to use some of the space from this closet and from the closet in the back bedroom for little closets in the side rooms. He has some fun ideas--can't wait to see how they turn out!

This is a shot of one wall in the back bedroom which we will use as an office/guest room for now. You can see that the walls are made of lathe and plaster and could use some TLC. The holes you see here are the worst in the whole house, however. Most of the rest of the rooms just have a little chip or crack here or there.

This is the funny closet in the back room upstairs. The column you see on the left that goes through the middle of the room used to be a vent for the boiler heating system which is no longer in use, and is now only used to vent the water heater. David plans to revent the water heater and tear out this column thing so the room will be more open and have more usable space.

And here we have the back view of the house...

This is looking at the backyard through the gate on the left side of the house. Around the edges are apple trees and one crabapple tree. On the left is where David plans to build his shop, and the sheds we are bringing from our house now will go in the very back on the left. The garden will be in the back on the right, and we plan to put a fire-pit in back there as well.

Well, do ya think we have our work cut out for us? I'm sure glad David's a handy guy! This will be quite the challenge, but also hopefully a great opportunity. We are very excited and lie awake at night thinking and talking about all the things we want to do once we close on the house. I hope you enjoyed our little tour! Some of this may have been boring--sorry, but I wanted to be detailed so we can compare later on with how it all turns out. Stay tuned!

Happy Father's Day!!!

To our loving Daddy, who makes our lives a whole lot more exciting, fun, and happy!

Our Daddy is our favorite pal,

And we help him every day,

It's plain to see we want to be like him in every way...

He teaches us that honesty is best in all we do,

We're very glad that he's our dad,

And we know he loves us, too!

With love from your honeymama, your motorcycle buddy, and your little peanut, a.k.a. snaggletooth...

We love you Daddy! Happy Father's Day!