SUNDAY!! A DAY OF REST!

Holy Smoke! Jeff and I had to have a nap today. Of course I woke up to my darling daughter playing with my face. I guess she was ready for me to get up. She has been like a tick all day. I just told her she HAD to get off of me, she was killing my back. The little Turkey Trot said, "Yeah, this is kinda hurting mine,too." What? Then why were you laying on me? TURD.

We got up this morning and went to church. I am SO glad we did. We went to the same church for the last 14 years. Jeff and I LOVE it there and I'm sure we will probably never find something we love that much again. BUT, it's in Cordova, it takes 45 minutes to get there, and the kids have NO friends there that they see or interact with except at church. SO, the time has come to find a NEW home. The kids love the new place we have been visiting, but Jeff and I don't. It's not terrible, but...ya know....I don't know how to explain it because I don't even understand it. We are going to give it more time, but I'm glad we went today and it warmed my heart when my kids asked afterwards if we could go back next week.

So apparently, today SPIKE was having some sort of Jesse James is a Dead Man marathon. Jeff and Dalton discovered it and that is all that has been on my television since. I wish I shared their passion. Jesse James is a pretty cool dude, but he sort of has the personality of my baby toenail. I just can't get into it.

Jeff and I made a trip out to the "new" house this evening. The whole house needs new light fixtures and I've been online bidding on Bidtopia and looking on Craigslist. Bidtopia is pretty cool. I bid $5.50 on a cool painting that would look smashing in my new cozy abode. I have to say, you guys are building this up to be MUCH more than it is, but here we go. (I even had a "lurker" comment.....I didn't even know I had lurkers, Renee. Thanks for coming out, and thanks for the compliment.)

OK, a couple of things to keep in mind....We WANTED to considerably downsize (and that, we are doing.) This was a foreclosure and we only paid about $5000 more than the land was worth. An investor bought it first and intended to fix it up and rent it. When he got in, he decided the job was bigger than he was and put it on the market. This was the house we found and when we got ready to make an offer, the guy had second thoughts and pulled it from the market. Then he came back a week later and told us if we were still interested, he would sell. Anyway, that explains why some things have been done and others haven't. MY HUSBAND IS A LICENSED CONTRACTOR AND I LOVE A GOOD PROJECT. So, here we are...

These are our baseline pictures and I'll explain what we are going to do and I'll be updating with some BEFORE and AFTER shots over the next couple of weeks.

We have some MAJOR landscaping that needs work. We are going to add to that front porch and change the entry and add another "layer" of brick flower beds. The storm door is coming down and a new front door with windows. We are going to replace ALL of the windows in the house and paint the brick. We will work on landscaping once we get in but the rest of the exterior work probably won't happen until Spring. We are focusing on the inside right now. AND, lord knows, WE NEED TO.

Check out my fine kitchen...or lack thereof!

This is all coming out and we are starting over. We are taking out that back wall, the one where the sink is (far left.) That will be a bar when it is all said and done and open up into this room....

That will all become one big room. That is the back door and the one that will get used most. There is actually a third window in this room and I LOVE THEM. They overlook the entire lot which is just over an acre.

This is the living/dining room which is already pretty open to the kitchen. It is all hardwood and the carpet is coming up and the whole house is having the hardwood redone. I HATE CARPET. It grosses me out. I have been known to get up at 4 a.m. and have all of the carpet in the house on the curb by 6 a.m. Jeff would always tell me we couldn't have new carpet or that we didn't need it. Well, when it's on the curb it creates a necessity. NOW, we just don't do carpet. My cuz, Ashley, learned that little trick. Sorry Shane.

A dining room is useless for us. With that carpet line gone the room will sort of blend together. We are going to use that off set space as an "office". We are having built in bookshelves and a desk built on that back far wall in that area. I am going to put an oversized chair back there for reading by the window. Of course, the new front door with 3/4 windows will help open all of this up too.

That is my triple window in the living area. I LOVE IT. Jeff informed me tonight that it may have to go when we replace windows. I told him to just get over that. I don't know what you have to pay for a window like that, but I'm NOT losing it. I've already started my window treatments and I really like them. There are just some things he has NO say in. I think I'm really being easy going about buying a foreclosure and doing a lot of work. Keep in mind, there are new homes in the area that have never been lived in that we could have just moved right into. I don't think just every woman out there would be up to this, Jeff. I'm keeping my window. Sorry Babe, pick your battles.

This is my new "craft" room. That new carpet in the living room is coming up and going back down in here. AND PAINT (there isn't an inch of this house that we aren't painting). This room was added on, obviously, but I really like the brick wall. We will also use this room for some storage. This old house does not have a coat closet. Since it's off the new "breakfast room", I'm pretty sure this is where coats and stuff will go. I've been so busy with the actual living space in the house, I haven't given this room much thought. I guess I'll start thinking about it. It needs to be inspiring. I'm open to suggestions.

This is the kids bathroom. It has the coolest dirty clothes hamper built into a cabinet behind the door. The kids are excited about that and so am I. All the dirty clothes in ONE spot!!?? Just imagine. The kids will HAVE to use this bathroom. We have 6 full baths now and we only use one of them. We TT in the bath off the den, but we all bathe in my bathroom and get ready in there. I bet the kids haven't bathed in their bathrooms more than half a dozen times ever and I had to make them do it then. This bathroom is going black and white with some bright color accents. That's a new sink and vanity and the cabinet is black so I'm going with it. It's gonna be cool!

Here you have SavyG. She is going with blues and browns. Jeff is building her a loft bed with a desk under it. There rooms are small. It's the only thing I just don't like about this place, but we are going to deal for now. We are going dorm room for Savannah to maximize her space.

Here is Dalt's room. (Who paints hardwood pink? What were they thinking?) He doesn't want much change. We are going back blue in here the same as his room now. He loves his bed and doesn't want to change a thing so we are going to cram him in. It'll fit, but if he farts it might blast the windows out. He spends a lot of time in his room and likes things cozy. Cozy he shall have.

Here is where all the action will take place. Sleeping that is. Here is the Grand Master, HA. Our room was another addition and has a ton of room. Again, this is a room I haven't given much thought to. I think I'm gonna paint it the same color as my room now and I guess I'll start thinking about it.

This is the only picture I took of our bathroom. I only took it because I was trying to tell Jeff that this was just not going to work for me. You have to remember that we bought this house without looking at it together. Pictures and emails were how we communicated about it. We looked at vanities this weekend but didn't measure until our trip out there this afternoon. I have no idea what I'm doing in here, but there you have a glimpse of the throne.

That's about it, except for the lot which is the whole reason (other than the school) that we are even going down this path. The lot definitely needs some work, but it has great potential. Whomever was here before, had some bizarre taste.

I've never had a cactus before. I doubt I'll have this one for long. This one may not make it until move in day. It will be one of the first things to go.

And, what is this thing? I think they were going for a tropical theme. That is a huge patio area. I want Jeff to build me a big arbor type thing there, just another project for the Spring.

I love the big crepe myrtles.

This one needs a little taming, but I still love it.

Alright, if you know me and you are seeing this picture, pick yourself up off the floor and STOP laughing. For those of you that don't know, I DO NOT LIKE MAGNOLIA TREES. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. Yes, I do know that is our state tree and all of that good stuff. I don't care. I'm entitled to my opinion and my opinion is that I don't like them. I have been known to dig them up and pour gasoline on them. I already asked for forgiveness. I am taking a lot of heat over this one. It is right at the end of the drive. I want it to go!!! Jeff doesn't. I may TRY to keep it and just trim it up. I don't know yet. EVERYTIME I pull into my drive I'll have to look at it. It's days may be numbered. We'll see on this one.

LOVE IT.

Dalton is having a really deep conversation for 11:30 p.m. with the part of my brain that isn't blogging. He is asking if I had my pick would I rather be a Jedi or a Clone? I better get off of here and concentrate on what he is saying before I give him some nutty answer. I always get scared when they talk to me and I'm preoccupied. There is no telling what they could slip up on me and I may or may not be paying attention and just say, "yeah". KIDS.

Have a great week.

Peace,
Kacy