Before and After - Day 3

Today, we're going on a little tour of the bathrooms. It's too bad I don't have any great before pictures because they were really bad. Here is the master bath that should give you a good idea, though.
A close-up of the cabinet which is also exactly like the one in the hall bath.
This is the hall bath on the day we were ripping wallpaper. You can't tell from this picture, but there was carpet in here and once we got that up we discovered the toilet had been leaking and all the subfloor around it had to be replaced.
Here is the after.
Nae and his brother and a friend laid the floor which made a huge difference. We're still missing the mirror in here that goes over the sink - it needs to be painted.
Close-up of the hooks that I found at Hobby Lobby. I'm very happy with them especially since they were half off. Hobby Lobby is a great place to find hooks and knobs if you're needing some.
Here's what the cabinets look like now. This was identical to the one in the photo at the top. Isn't it amazing what a little white paint can do? Knobs are coming for the drawers - there have been 3 trips to Home Depot and still we don't have the right size screws.
This connects the hall bath and the girls bathroom. Nae removed the shower door in here and we also had to strip a wall paper border.

Here is the bathroom in the girl's room. I hate that I don't have any before pictures, but just imagine green and white vertical striped wallpaper and the cabinet was a dark green as well.
Again, a little paint makes a big improvement.

I'm not going to show any after pictures of the master bath yet mostly because we need to install a light in there and it's too dark for me to take any pictures. This is going to be the last before and after day until January because tomorrow the December Photo Project starts. I had a lot of fun doing that last year and I'm looking forward to participating once again.

Before and After - Day 2

Moving on to the kitchen, here is a before shot.
Here is the after. I love the paint color. It took about 4 tries (of sample paint) until I discovered this shade which is exactly what I was looking for. I know it's not for everyone, but I like this fun color; it is bright and happy.
Another before shot.
My Dad did all of the bead board which really lightened the space up and I decided to remove all the cabinet doors on top. So far this has worked out well. My sister Carrie and my Mom did the painting and Carrie and I spent almost a whole day changing out the cabinet hardware. It was not as easy as we had thought it would be!
Here is a before of the other side.
And now, I've turned it into my little office space. The shelves above still need some decorating work but I'm not sure what I'm going to put up there yet. The door straight ahead leads to the dining room/living room which has had no work done to it except the removing of the carpet and partially stripped wallpaper as you can see in the picture. To the right is the master bedroom/bath and stairs which lead to the garage/basement.
This is the other side of the kitchen that leads to the den (please ignore the terrible mess in the den). The lighting in this picture is terrible, but the paint is a mixture of a gray/taupe color. We are planning to one day knock this wall out and have the den/kitchen be more of an open room. I also am on the lookout for a new light to go over the table - not sure what I want there yet.

Tomorrow, we're on to the bathrooms.

Before and After - Day 1

This week, I'm going to attempt to do some before and after posts of our house. We are by no means finished, but when we bought this house we knew it would be an ongoing fixer-upper. We've had a ton of help from friends and family with everything from childcare, to painting, to laying down floors and we certainly couldn't have gotten near this much finished without all the help.

I'm going to start today with the kid's rooms. This is the girl's room before,
and that carpet which was all over the house - it smelled terrible
Here is the after:
I'd still like to get a rug for their room and a new light fixture. There's also a bookshelf that you can't see in these pictures that still needs to be painted.
At some point in the near future, we'll move Eden in here as well. I'll probably slide Mya and Alena's beds towards the walls and put Eden in the center.

Here is a before of the yard sale nightstand right before getting painted:
Here is the after. This was all Grandmama's doing and I so wish I had a before picture of the lamp. It was also a yard sale special. The base was black and the shade had a thin strip of black ribbon. I love how it turned out.
Here is a before of Gabe's room. His room is right beside the girl's room.
Here is the after. The wall decals for his room and the girl's room I won from a blog a couple of years ago. I'm so glad that I saved them to use here.
We only painted two walls blue and the other two are white. I didn't want his room to be to dark. Here's the other side; sorry the color is so terrible. I might also get a rug for his room, but it is much easier to pick up loose Legos without one so I might just hold off on that for a while.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow I'll give a tour of the kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

The First Thanksgiving

Lots of Gabriel posts lately...but today was his Thanksgiving lunch at school. They could choose if they wanted to dress up as a Pilgrim or an Indian. I knew right off which one Gabe would choose.

The lunch was really cute. They worked all morning on making the food - soup, pumpkin pudding, corn cakes, and even butter. Each child had also made their own place card, place mat, and turkey flower pot. They did some reciting for the parents and then ate their yummy lunch.

Gabe thought it was a really fun day.

End of the Birthday

So, this is only a few weeks late, but I finally got Gabe to answer the birthday survey questions. He didn't have a party this year, but instead chose to enjoy an evening out with Daddy eating at Waffle House (his choice) and seeing Secretariat. These two are two of a kind.

How old are you today? seven

What is your favorite color? blue

What is your favorite food? macaroni and cheese (homemade!)

What is your favorite book? The Magic Tree-house books

What do you want to be when you grow up? a scientist

Where is your favorite place to eat out? IHOP and Waffle House

What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? make cards and do projects at home

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? go out and eat

What is the best thing about having Mya for a sister? she plays with me very nicely

What is the best thing about having Alena for a sister? she's always funny

What is the best thing about having Eden for a sister? she's so cute

What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? just play anything

What can't you wait to do when you get bigger? stay up until 10 o'clock

Where is your favorite place to visit? Grandmama and Grandaddy's

What do you love about going to Mathu and Pathu's? we get to try new Laos food

What do you love about going to Grandmama and Grandaddy's? they have woods

What is your favorite thing to play? Legos

What thing do you most dislike doing? clean things up when I'm about to do something special

What is your favorite part of the day? dawn and evening

What would you do if you could stay up all night? watch how animals sleep

Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world? Oregon

What makes you happy? when I get presents

What makes you sad? when I can't go to my friend's house

What do you wish you could do? science experiments at home

What made this the best birthday ever? I got the humongous Kingdom Lego set

I think our favorite 7 year old had a great birthday.

Ballet Time

Friday afternoon was Mya's Parents Observation Day for her ballet class. They do this instead of having a formal recital for the little ones. They also want a parent to dance with their child so today we recruted Aunt Noi to dance so I could take pictures and watch and Nae could watch and keep Eden some what quiet.

Ms. Jamie, Mya's teacher, told me she had never had a child as focused in class as Mya is. I mean she takes this seriously and pays attention the whole time.

I loved watching her do these toe points (and I'm sure there is a real name but I don't know what it is and Mya's asleep so I can't ask her.)

She stood perfectly straight and tall, never once letting her "plie` hat" fall off.

Here they danced around the room on their tiptoes while holding the hula hoop high in the air.

And, another time around the room this time skipping with a jump rope.

Auntie Noi was a good sport and she and Mya made a great team.

Here's a little video. Do try to forgive how out of focus this video is - I couldn't figure out how to get the thing in focus until about half way through.

Seven

I really can't believe it...
Happy birthday, Gabe!

Hope your day is terrific!

Sorry, to be MIA the past 2 weeks. We've been crazy busy around here trying to get this house live-in ready. Also, in the above pictures Gabe is dressed as Waldo from "Where's Waldo?" for his dress as a book character day at school. He hasn't started wearing glasses although these have been a big hit and he will randomly put them on and wear them around.