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A Guest House!!!!

2012
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We made it back from Florida.  Always a little bittersweet, especially when my parents are still down there!  And when the kiddos get to the age that they realize we have to leave.  Today Kynlee said I wanna go back to Florida, and Tate said, I never wanted to leave:)  To be perfectly honest, I agreed!!  But, that’s why vacation is so much fun, you don’t get to do it all the time.

Before I left I told you we had a few things in the making.  One of them being a cute little guest house!!  We had this little garage that is close to the house that was quite cute from the outside but more non-functioning than we would have liked.  The tresses came down to about 6 feet so we couldn’t fit our van or truck in it.  The last six months it has stored tools and kids toys.  But…ever since we moved here I had big plans for that cute little shed…and amazingly my hubby agreed to them!!  Miracles do happen:)

My parents come quite a bit to visit…we are spoiled.  I have 2 sisters that live out of state…and I love to entertain!  I have always wanted to have a place where people could stay if they wanted to visit, get refreshed, need a break…any of the above:)  Therefore, we needed a guest house!  Now I must put a disclaimer on it that it will not have a bathroom or kitchen, but it does have a sidewalk with a 10 yard walk to the downstairs bath and kitchen:)

So, lets get started.   Here’s what she looked like when we first started ripping and tearing.  And by we I mean my father-in-law.  He is amazing and has done all of the work so far.  What a sweetie!!

Okay, so I always take pictures too late and realized I don’t have a great “before” so here it is in a snow storm…ahh!!  But, you can see the garage door that was a bit of a death trap and the rest of the garage.

Here’s the view from inside looking out the garage door…

and one from looking in…

That’s the old garage door laying on the ground:)

You can tell here how low the ceiling used to be..

So…what’s happened so far??  Well the biggest change is taking out the garage door and replacing it with a window my parents gave us when they replaced theirs in their house.

I also had to mention that we got the siding for free from a house my brother-in-law was working on.  Good ole’ father-in-law went dumpster diving for us to save us 100 bucks! :)  As for the cement blocks on the sides, I’m gonna paint them white and put planters in front of them.  We are also gonna add shutters and lights on the sides of the window and some day I’d love a window box!

Then we raised the ceiling to 9 feet, high enough for me to have a chandelier…which about created world war three for this family:)

What fun character!!

And the last thing we did was add a window on the east wall.  It really helped to brighten it up and gives a good view of the cute lake in the distance!

Again…another free window from my parents…here’s the view from the outside…

If you’ve noticed..all of our outside toys and junk have now lost their home…we’ll have to figure out where those are going to go:)

We also had to replace these single pane windows and my brother-in-law just happened to have some windows that fit almost perfect!!  Cute little double hungs:)

So, what do we still need to do???

Well, see that door there?? It’s a mini me.  You have to step down and duck to get in it.  We already have a door that’s full glass to let more light in but it’s too big, so the plan is to add a little awning.  When Ry told me this I about kissed him!! I Love it when we have to do things that I love:) I hoping we can do something kinda like this…

Source 

See that cute little roof over the door?? Something like that but we will have wood posts angled back and 45 degrees instead of coming straight down.

I thought I’d give you a better idea of where the little guest house is located.  Pretty soon once we have sheetrock and heating and cooling, and maybe a little landscaping..she’ll be open for business:)

I honestly mean that anyone is welcome!!  So if you are ever in the area…let us know:)

Filed Under: Guest House

Slow Going….

2012
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Okay, I know ever since the move my blog has kinda taken second fiddle.  It’s not even that I don’t have the time to do it….It’s just that I have been kinda burnt out.  But….here’s the good news:)

Well for me…

We are heading to Florida for a week to get some rest, relaxation, sun, burns, good food, yadda yadda.  I am so looking foward to a week away where I can do minimal cooking and cleaning!!  Even though we have been having amazingly gorgeous weather here.

Here’s the other good news….

I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things when we get back.  Like blogging at least twice a week!  We have some fun new things going on that I can’t wait to share with you, one may include turning one of our sheds into a guest house:) and another a fun new venture I’m looking into.  So…..with that being said I hope you stick with me and check back after this next quiet week to see what we are up to!!

Until then we will be dipping our tootsies in the water and laying low!

 

Filed Under: Remodel

30 Days with Jesus…Update:)

2012
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Okay, well the 30 days have come and gone and I just wanted to share with you what I learned over that time period.  There were quite a few things, some pretty, some ugly….it’s amazing what we can learn about ourselves!!

1.)  I learned that I am not a morning person…but that the Lord rewards you for making Him priority.  I know I blogged on this and said that amazingly once I committed to getting myself up at 7:00 Satan attacked and my kiddos started waking up at 7:00 as well.  I must say though, that even if I only got 15 minutes with Jesus, those 15 minutes seemed like a lot more.  He seemed as though He blessed me putting Him as a priority in my life.

2.)  I learned that I am selfish.  Even though I knew my day went better, it was so hard getting my butt out of bed every morning.  I would tell myself…oh I’ll spend time with Jesus at naptime or after the kids go to bed.  And I would….but I just feel like it wasn’t quite the same as making the Lord the first priority of my morning.

3.)  You need both prayer and knowledge.  When I started my journey I wasn’t doing a specific Bible Study so I would start out with 15 minutes of prayer and then read a psalms, a  Proverbs, and a Chapter of John since that was what we were studying in our church.  It’s amazing what 15 minutes of prayer can do to start your day out right!!  I felt like those days I was more aware of God around and in me.   He wasn’t an afterthought.  Half way through my 30 days I started a Beth Moore study and started doing that during my quiet times.  I replaced my prayer with study.  Study which was amazing.  Learning and diving into who Jesus really is, the awesomeness of God, the symbolism and stories that grow our intimacy are priceless.  And I do believe we need this to really understand the nature of God and our relationship with Him.  But when it replaced my own personal time with Jesus it wasn’t good.  I knew more about Jesus and was awed by Him..my mind was expanding, but my heart wasn’t.  My personal relationship wasn’t.  That’s when I realized that we need to grow both our head knowledge and our heart intimacy.  One does not work without the other!

4.)  I realized I was selfish!  Oh, did I mention that one already??  :)  Yep, it’s true.  I still cannot understand why some days it’s so hard for me to give up 20 minutes for Jesus when I can sit and numb my brain with the Today show in the morning for 45 like nothing.  I know what I need to be doing but I don’t always follow through with it!!  The world can so easily suck me into the egocentric attitude it has!!

5.)  I learn that I fail everyday.  And God’s mercies are new every morning.  Praise Jesus!  I fail as a mom, a wife, a friend, and a daughter of Jesus.  I am human.  God is Faithful.  Enough said!

So, on that encouraging note….I pray that your 30 days with Jesus brought you into a deeper intimacy with Him, and taught you a little about yourself.  The journey is not over.  It’s never over.  And this world is only a teeeny tiny part of the rest of our eternity.  So let’s persevere together to do the best job we can with this small amount of time the Lord blessed us with on earth:)

 

Filed Under: Faith

Makeover Madness….The Sitting Room

2012
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I laughed as I wrote the title…I mean who has a sitting room??  Maybe back in the 1900′s they did, but I didn’t quite know what else to call it.  You’ll understand when you see the pictures.  So, today’s makeover is part of the living room/dining room/fireplace room….hence the title….sitting room:)  I’ll show you some before pics of the space we revamped:)

Here’s the before…keep your eyes on those 2 windows, that will help you with see what we did.  We did not change the location of those windows:)

After…

Remember we blew out that wall in the before picture and moved it about 10 feet back to make the dining room.   We also knew that we for surely wanted/needed a fireplace in this house as well.  You make roll your eyes at me when I say needed…but it’s kinda true:)  I love that when that happens!!  Our only source of heat is the in-floor heat and radiator heat.  All of which is electric.  Therefore we needed a back-up in case our electricity ever went out, or our house couldn’t keep up.  And actually, Ry has our our electric on off peak, which means that they can shut it off on us for up to 2-4 hours at a time…and in the winter it can get a bit chilly.  Therefore the gas fireplace is a great option.  We even have it on a thermostat, so if the heat were to go off at night, it would automatically kick on if it got too cold.  I’m pretty sure Ryan did that though for my sake, in case I forgot it on it would run back on the program in 4 hours.  Kinda convenient!

Here’s the view from the kitchen.  We originally were going to move it down the wall and put it in the living room, but there were a couple of reasons we/I opted against that:)  1.)  I have always wanted a mantel.  I did not want a mantel to hang a television on, I wanted a mantel to decorate and make beautiful!  Therefore if the fireplace had been in our living room it would have had a big ole tv sitting on it.  2.)  I love it being central.  You can see it when you walk in the door, I can see it while I’m cooking.  I like that it’s  central!  And it works better to heat as well!

Do these chairs look familiar??  I really want to buy two nice matching chairs for here, that don’t happen to be white.  It’s amazing how often I have to wash these slipcovers when they are near the kitchen and dining:)  But thankfully  they do wash up nice.  We also need a big rug to snuggle up by in front of the fireplace.  Someday.

So here’s the fireplace now.  If you notice we do not actually have a real mantel  yet.  I amazingly had this shelf that is doing a pretty good job of being a mantel until my vision can be fulfilled:)  Way back in October I found my love in my Better Homes and Gardens.  Here she is..

Hi pretty lady:)  Ryan actually did run wire so that I can have two sconces on the wall as well.  Just have to make a trip to Lowes to pick some up…and get some money:)  But that will help warm it up a bit.  And I am in love with the planked wall above the mantel.  And the big Crown…well really the whole thing.  Who knows if it will ever come to fruition, but it’s a good vision:)

So here’s one last before….

and after…

Happy Tuesday:)

Filed Under: Makeovers