Getting to look a lot like Christmas!

 

So it's the first year that our boys are big enough not to do something silly with any holiday decorations so we decided we can go ahead and decorate!
....and then the problems began.

"Look mom it's Christmas!"

You can't really tell from this picture but the Christmas tree that we purchased on clearance last year ended up being a half tree. Here is how it came out the box to our surprise!

Half tree=sad kid

 

 

 

Since we purchased it on clearance last year, there really wasn't any way to return the thing.  We have it push in the corner, the boys seem to like it better now then when it came out the box.

Oh the joys, Oh the joys...and it's still November.

Goodbye Couch

So do you remember our posts about our special couch?

Nope well here's the link: http://n43rd.blogspot.com/2012/02/stuffing.html

Its been a long time and the cheap couch has had a very nice long life but after years of wear and tear by young kids, and neglect by busy parents(us) our couch started to look a lot like this:



Poor couch

It had stains that won't come out, the zipper is separating from the seams from repeated washings, the stuffing is flat is most of the arm cushions...all in all it's had its hey day in our home.  This week we posted a craiglist ad and within a few hour our precious couch had a new home.

Update

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to give a general update.

1.  The garden has turned out to be wonderful.  We produced a number of pumpkins, cantaloupes,  bell peppers, spicy peppers, broccoli, and tomatoes.  The strawberries only had a very short production and the watermelons were being attacked so much it was never able to fully produce.(By squash bugs.)  We are still getting some late fall produce but pretty much we are done for this year. 
~~As a side note our garden was so great now we have a mole problem.  Great big piles of dirt (signs of their passage) now litters the nice front yard.  We'll have to start making plans to rid the critters.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bats&biw=1600&bih=775&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NXcrVKjYJIanyQTu0oGYCw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgdii=_
2.  The bathroom in the master is fully gutted and after an eventful week of flying bats coming thru the nonfunctioning air vent, we are proud to say it is also pest free.  The mold resistant drywall is partially up and we have began looking at some of the finishing touches that we would like to install.
~~As a side note a new IKEA has just opened less than 20 miles from us.  We like some of their selections and may find ourselves purchasing some of their styling choices.
3.  It has been a bit hectic lately as both Phillip and I have decided to continue our education with Master's degrees in our chosen fields.  Though we are both going to school part-time its been hard to find the time necessary to do more of the D.I.Y. things that we both desire to do.

What is next?
I have decided to take the first week in December off work and do some of the design projects in the house that has been on my to-do list for a little too long.  Mainly I'm going to finally paint and decorate both on my son's bedrooms and the main hallway.  Neither room had been painted in years and it shows.  It will be fun to change the feel of the rooms and allow them to pick out their favorite colors and characters to really make the room special for them.

I have also asked my husband for the very nice Christmas present of a working and functional master-bathroom.  When will he have time to do this?  I have no idea, but it's my only Christmas wish so I'm hoping to go into 2015 with a master bathroom.

Keep checking back with us as we will update periodically about our adventures.

DayDreaming

Just day dreaming about what if we added a 2nd floor to our house. It could look like this

The upstairs could be laid out like this which would give us 3 bedrooms upstairs

The downstairs could be changed to the following which would really help the kitchen

We could also build a garage like this and place it on the side somewhere

Or we can just keep the $150,000 in our pocket and retire earlier .... 

Guest House Dilemma

So this year we replaced the roof to the guest house to stop any damage that may be occuring but we still haven't decided what to do with it ...

clean out the trash and replace the flooring with some nice hardwood

maybe something like this

we could bust this out .... not sure what it was maybe an old gas fire or heater?

We could mount a T.V. here

We could replace this with a new A/C unit

And how about an electric fireplace for heat?

A little stove here

and a small fridge here ... or maybe we could swap them and place the stove here

we could end up with something like this except no upper cabinets

not certain what to do with the back door ...

not shown but we could add a shower just to the left of this sink and redo the floor in the bathroom.

Garden Update

the vines are taking over the sidewalk

something keeps eating everything

we got peppers!

broccoli is broccoli

I still don't know what this is 

a picture of a green tomatoe

to help reclaim some of our sidewalk we put up a trellis of sorts for the watermelon?  

looks like the wire is already cutting into the produce

we really should've spread these out

mMMmmMMm Strawberries however Gloria keeps eating them and not sharing.

however she will leave me the bad ones ...

4th of July

New Bathub

while walking through lowes we stumbled across a special order that was returned with 20% off. It was a single piece tub/shower combo. I really liked it so I wouldn't have to work about caulk. So we brought it... however on the the tub it said make sure you measure. Well I can't get it into our bathroom ... Thankfully I was planning to install a new door so now at least I know how big I need to make the door.

some random pictures of moving the tub.

 Also bringing this thing home was an adventure. We live in  Tornado Alley and on the day we brought this home it was windy. And this tub is really light I mean I can carry it myself. Driving it home I just knew it was going to fly away like some scene in the Wizard of Oz.

Thankfully nothing of the sort happened and it is sitting in my bedroom waiting till we open up the wall so we can put it in the bathroom

Garden update

Since our last update we had a few things die/get destroyed so now we have added broccoli and strawberries

Strawberries

no idea what this is

no idea what this is

I really hope this isn't a weed

it has pretty flowers?

Okay so my neighbor told me that this is cantaloupe

and the cantaloupe is thriving near the down spout! And because of it's flowers we now have butterflies and other visitors

the tomatoes are coming in nicely

still have no idea what this is

maybe these are the bell peppers ... i don't really know

It has little white flowers?

The broccoli is doing great

too bad the insects are eating more than me LOL