Re SEEING and a little SEWING

Years ago, before Oma went to live in Heaven with Jesus

she taught Princess 

How to SEW

when Oma passed away

Princess.. stopped sewing.

Last Year, as a part of her American Heritage Girls troop,

she went to a local sewing shop 

and took a class

and sewed the COOLEST overnight bag EVER..

I am so jealous of it,

I (throat clear) borrow it ..

quite often..

BUT!!!!

enough confession time..

Princess and I dreamed up a dream 

to DEAL with 

one of my nightmares

I have this laundry HALLWAY

but I have 6 people living here.

FOUR are of the MALE persuasion…

that = a LOT of laundry!

perhaps because of the kind of males they are..

messy, hiking,

gear head

hunting

diy

kind of guys

which means I am dreaming

that my SOME day dream home will have a laundry ROOM…

not a laundry closet.

I have done EVERYTHING to organize it..

EVERYTHING to clean it.

DE CLUTTER IT

but

I am old enough to know NOW

what I didn't know in my 20's and 30's..

IT IS

WHAT IT IS

you can change YOU,

but you can't change other people.

They are, who THEY are.

Part of loving them, is studying them, getting to know them,

and preparing a home around them,

that works for them, and you.

NOT forcing them into a box of what YOU think a home should be.

SO

Welcome sewing class

we took some long drapes with a lovely pattern

found matching concept patterned floor mat

and 

a spring rod that extend and fits in showers or spots like this..

it WAS a closet..

but with my new washer dryer set

the doors don't fit..

Princess Measured

and cut

to make THIS!

Tadah!

It's still semi-organized behind there..

but it still looks awful BEHIND there in my opinion..

but now it ALWAYS looks good when I walk by..

I don't feel stressed..

I just have to keep CLOSING the curtains

because messy men

boys

keep OPENING It…

oi vey

try to save them..

and still

they just don't reach for that life preserver do they?

LOVE My guys !

and 

LOVE

LOVE 

LOVE 

my 

Princess

and her beautiful work!

Primed and ready for Machine Man!

We primed and painted the LL Guest Room 

patched that which needed repair...

and got it DONE! 

see how PINK it was?

it's not Pink anymore...

up next

Machine Man will repair..

but first..

I need to show him 

something that I forgot to even mention to YOU..

(all that excitement when Mrs. J was here

see.. it came when SHE was here !)

soo excited!

demolition guest room

This is the closet in the guest room

take a good long look

at how it hides the super cool chimney

and has hardly ANY storage 

take a good LONG look at that creeeepy space

on the far left of the closet

and just think

of what could live there

and then crawl into my clothing..

and just KNOW

it's coming DOWN!

we hope to whack it into oblivian

perhaps this weekend..

bliss!

beneath my feet

tearing up that fluffy stuff beneath our feet

means protecting hands

using hardy tools

protecting lungs

and it's really hardy work

Machine Man is up for the job too

after finishing the staircase

and leaving me a mess to clean up

they had to find this

the original flooring was 

HIDING

beneath these boards

and awful carpet

removing the carpet totally stressed the guys out

but they started pulling and found wide planks

(**smiling**)

Machine man also found concrete something or other smeared over the boards..

??

LOVE wide plank boards

but these big gaps???

what's a girl to do?

in some spots we can SEE through 

DOWN to the basement

(think "PSYCHO" scary when you think of our basement)

This big change in flooring might be causing some tripping..

must consider WHAT to do

Big mess

all cleaned up

next?

not sure..

we need to block those gaps to the basement..

perhaps we should put some boards beneath these

sort of on the basement ceiling

...

?

I am 

NOT 

volunteering for 

THAT

The Littlest Room - part 2

PROGRESS!!!!

Talk about 

SWEAT EQUITY

This is some seriously difficult work

check out Princess laboring away :)

she IS learning what it IS to restore a home

FIRST hand

what it costs in time, in talent and in resources

how to do it on a budget

and how to do it 

with nearly NO budget

(thanks to RESTORE & good will)

FEAR NOT

No child labor laws are being broken.. 

Princess is not doing this room alone :)

she just looks a LOT better on this side of the camera!

IS the student

&

isn't taking photography classes! (YET)

(certainly NOT on my new camera )

(yet)

we are working together on this room

so much opportunity to learn, to teach....

sometimes boyz come in and help

and learn

but..

 they all end up leaving after a while ...

she stays laboring along side me.. 

Anyhooo

~

that glamorous wallpaper was hiding

VERY fancy cracks

of VARIOUS

lengths and widths

equal opportunity at our place 

:)

check out that doooozy

YOWZA!

One wall just about done.. more to go ...

and.. a ceiling..

ugh...

Kitchen Remodeling Part 1

 Here are some pictures of the Kitchen BEFORE we began the remodeling

 not too bad of space, but the ... everything is about to GO

 here is a sneak peek at the dining room/breakfast area..

THAT is the front door.. 

YES the walls are Yellow Striped... Vertical Stripes matte / gloss yellow... 

YES those are very UGLY par cay floors.. 

there are plans in the works for those... 

 YES that is PURPLE

this time striped horizontally

matte/gloss/matte/gloss

oh MY that'll need some primer

 Machine Man has begun the demo! 

OUT cabinets, OUT you go!

more ick

 and still more ick

 and OH NO!  mice WERE living under my cabinets.. 

JUST as I had feared..

those are HOLE into the crawl space, which has a "door" that is icky letting MICE dwell in my house.. with me..

eeeeeeeeeeek

 here is the "makeshift" kitchen... 

no sink, for washing dishes, we are using the bathroom sink..

no stove but a cook stove my dad brought,

YES that is a microwave/convection thing my Dad brought up, 

we have also 

a crock pot, hot plate, electric skillet, vitamix, and the most essential

my NEW Ikea refrigerator!

LOVE this..

I blocked the whole thing off with the baby corral.. which you can not see in the photo..

BUT it saves me some sanity,

even if I have to climb over it constantly..

We spent 10 days working on the remodel

much of which Machine Man had to be back in Suburbia for..

he has this job...

and they really like him to BE THERE, so he can earn that pay check

to help pay for ALLL this

 Here is a shot of C.S. helping me tile :)

C.S. is 15, and just ABOUT the neatest lad I have EVER known!

What an incredible blessing he is!

 Starting to shape up.. don't you think?

those are Menards Subway tile, on sale for $0.19 each.. 

we got EVERYTHING for the tile job at Menards, and were thrilled with the help that they were in figuring out everything we needed..

THIS is my first tile job..

C.S. and I laid some plywood over all those holes, or we'd have fallen through....

Machine Man, aka Papa, would come in a few days and FIX the floor...

till then, it's wabbly walking and mouse traps laid out at night

we were able to pry the sill away from the window, JUST enough to get these under, ~phew

trying to slice off JUST that little bit was impossible

as we DON'T have a nice wet saw,

but that other kind... that you score, and snap..

well.. a LOT of tile was "snapped" incorrectly trying to figure out this..

and we stopped,

prayed,

had a snack break

and THIS came to us.

looks good too!

 with NO internet on the farm, I couldn't just google what to do about these

so..

after prayer and a nap, I got the great idea to frame out the tile..

it turned out ok, EVEN if it wasn't what I was supposed to do...

oh well

 what do you think?  

I think it's looking good

 I LOVE the way this looks.. just NOT sure if we want all those switches there...

Machine man is deciding if he wants to knock those through the other side of the wall.. till then.. 

a hole not tiled in

 freshly painted!

 I have something special planned for that yellow wall.. something different :)

but for now.. someone is HUNGRY 

and I must go :)