The Crafts

These french doors can be found in CJ's room. The insulation is hideous but necessary.  So, I have come up with a super cheap plan to hide the insulation and pretty up the doors. Rome wasn't built in a day and this job won't get done in a day either. So, you'll just have to settle for this sneak peek. I'm changing out the curtains to coordinate with the paper. But no worries. The curtains in this pic set us back about $4 bucks at IKEA. AND I just so happen to have some sage curtains to match just sitting in storage. What luck!

No cute CJ pics to share today. She has been an ENORMOUS grump today. She looks a lot like this kid... In other news, below is a fun photo of my Grandma and Grandpa Smith. They went a Caribbean cruise. Yes, I'm jealous as I sit here with cold, blue toes. Finally, I'm starting a new house project. Actually, I started it a month or two before CJ was born but I haven't touch this room since. Since moving in almost two years ago this cute room has held lots of junk. The windows were hidden by crumbling roller shades and sheers. It has gorgeous built-in cabinets and a built-in, fold down table. I have emptied all of the junk and vacuumed the rug.  Actually there are two rugs...one on top of the other.  Hidden underneath is a pretty wood floor. I'm planning to paint the walls and ceiling and transform it into a room of my own. Hopefully I'll have some great transformation photos in the next few weeks.

Below are a few pics of the house the day we moved in and the house today. Enjoy!

Surprise!! The contractors are done!! I still need to paint the walls and woodwork but it is looking great! I didn't want to build a full wall and break up the bathroom so we had a partial tile wall with glass to the ceiling for the 3rd shower wall. The tile looks amazing and I promise to take more pics after my camera battery charges...

I've received a few emails asking for the status of our bathroom. Well the reason I haven't posted about the project is because nothing is going on. The contractors worked for a day and a half last week and then ran out of work. The next step was to install wall tile however the wall tile we picked out in January has not yet arrived. So here we sit with a torn apart bathroom and no bathtub access. Kate has been bathing at Grandma and Grandpa Craft's house every other day. She loves visiting the farm and it helps us get out of the house but I'd still like to have a functioning bathroom. The wall tile is supposed to arrive next week, however the contractors are busy and don't know when they'll be able to get back here. Also, we were sad to discover our wood floors are not salvageable. Or at least I was sad about it. So I had to pick out floor tile too. Thankfully the floor tile is supposed to arrive with the wall tile. My hope is that the bathroom will be finished...

We currently have a bathtub in our yard. Why?! BECAUSE THE CONTRACTOR CALLED TODAY AND ASKED IF THEY COULD START WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dance, dance, party, dance, boogie, twirl, giggle, leap. This was me after hanging up the phone. Apparently my 'bathroom remodel' dance worked. I figured some people do rain dances to bring on the rain, why not try a 'bathroom remodel' dance. Who knew it would work?! They have been here since noonish and have so far ripped up half the asbestos tile and carpet and removed the bathtub. They just left to pick up the new tub. Whoopie!!!! Here are some goodbye pictures to remember the old bathroom.

Have you heard of the snowball effect? Well it is happening in our house...big time. But the bright side that will hopefully melt this snowball is that we are very quickly accomplishing (or at least starting) many of our various projects. It all began with an electrician. He was changing out the kitchen fuse box for a more modern, and safe, circuit breaker. But to do so he had to punch a 10' x 3' hole in the wall. So I hired some plaster experts to fix the hole. Well the electrician wasn't quite ready to have the hole filed so the plaster girls (as I call them) started patching some of the more severe cracks and breaks throughout the house. They started in the guest bedroom, Kate's room and our bedroom. After a week we now have our bedroom and Kate's room back....dirty, but back. Still not able to patch the hole in the kitchen wall I ask the plaster girls to look at the kitchen ceiling. The ceiling was covered in a badly sagging wall board. So they took off the wall...

What have we done?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A view of our bedroom. The rugs are original to the house - 92 years old! Another view of our bedroom. The upstairs 'hall'. Kitchen view #1 Kitchen view #2 Living room Dining room

We spent a good chunk of Saturday afternoon at our new house. We were 'invited' over as the owners' daughters worked tirelessly to empty out all of the stuff that accumulates over 40 years in one giant, beautiful home. We fall more in love with that house each time we visit. Now that 85% of their personal stuff is out, we are realizing the true size and beauty of our new place. Kate also loves the new house. She ran from bedroom to bedroom inspecting closets and windows with a smile on her face the entire time. Have I mentioned the number of staircases in that place? Kate already tried to venture the steps a number of times. We are going to need so many gates that our house will look like the US / Mexico border. We can't wait to throw our first party!!!