Those who wait...

It's ours...the house is all ours and I love it more than I thought I would. So does Stephen. It's perfect. And here I am without Internet on Stephen's iPad tryingto connect to the outside world.. Not thAt I have time, our moving pod ( that has been who knows where for 11 months) is almost unpacked, thanks to my awesome in laws who came over yesterday with their truck so we could take 500 Lbs of the previous owners left over crap out of the shed, so I could have a place for all my saws, strollers... Maybe I should rename my blog "Saws and strollers", hehe.

Anyway, made some awesome changes to the master and office... That's about it. Decided that I will NOT be doing any major renovations ( more than $1,000) until our credit cards and car are paid off. So, next summer I will be having a ball, no debt payments and tons of money saved up for remodeling.

But first since summer is here, the backyard needs serious help, the boys don't even like to play on it because it's so pokey. Then that's it.

Then come next May? 2011( as soon as everything is paid off and I have $10,000 saved up) I'll be completely overhauling the backyard to build Stephen a detached office and two storage sheds to be our fence to the back. And paving the alley back driveway and building a carport.... Pretty ambition for $10k, I know.

Then another $10k to rearrange the bathroom and kitchen in July?..

If I have learned anything, it's patience. Good things come to those who wait and as much as I want to dive head first into an extensive remodel, I need to do it right, with licensed contractors, and with cash. We haven't used a credit card in a year and a half and have been chipping away at paying them off. I'm not about to loose all the ground we just gained because I can't be patient...

So free craigslist... I'm looking for a kitchen faucet that doesn't drip, lol.

Tomorrow we sign

The day has come... well, it actually came 2 weeks ago then USDA ran out of money, so here we are again with down payment in our hand and ready to spend an hour signing our life away.  

Then we should close by Friday...  hopefully.  Pray everything goes though and we can move this weekend.

 I've have thought we were finished so many times before and they kept needing addition  paperwork, to verify income etc, that I really won't believe it til we have the key in our hand.  I haven't even started packing... probably should have some faith.

PRAISE THE LORD we will have a Rhyne Embassy

The FREE Desk Facelift

I am a "FREE" craigslist stalker.  Anyway, this desk was for free and it was just down the road.

I had hubs pick it up for me and a coat of primer, 3 coats of paint and new hardware and wa-law.

A lady is coming to pick it up for $40 tomorrow.  Probably could have got $60 for it but we are moving in a week (fingers crossed) and I wanted it gone. Hubs would kill me if I made him  pack this into the moving van. It's laminate and heavy!

White paint fixes EVERYTHING

Even UGLY faux wood laminate desks.

And new hardware makes it 10x's better. 

Can't wait to finish my retro-fitted redesigned computer desk.  I'm hoping to finish tomorrow, if it ever stops raining (dang Seattle), so I can fnish cutting the shelves.

Father's Day Present

Shhhh, it's a secret....   look what I made my hubby.  Since we are moving and he is going to FINALLY have his own office, I wanted to make him something for it.  He really likes the coastal / beach style, but he is in love with Mac and is a program application engineer ( or something like that).  So this is what I came up with to combine the two worlds...

What he does is WAY over my head, seriously, it's in a different language, like 8 differnt languages, json, um.. ok, I can't remember the rest. Just give me a blade and some paint.

So I got this oar from craigslist for $10.  It's pine (I think). Not the best carving wood.  I had been searching high and low for a chisel set and never found one cheap enough.. so I carved the whole thing with my Exacto  knive (don't laugh).

It seriously took me at least 20 hours to finish over the course of a month and a half. But I finished it.. and early, at that. Wahoo...

I hope you like it, and more importantly, I hope he likes it. Check out his website, that he never had time to work on because he's too busy working, LOL http://stephenrhyne.com/

 I'm so blessed  to have such a great man to be the FATHER of my children. He is the smartest,  hottest, hardest working man I know.

Mickey Mouse Toddler Bunk bed.. Good-bye

It's a bittersweet day.. .I have listed my custom made Mickey Mouse Clubhouse toddler bunk bed on Craigslist for $500.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/bab/1775226333.html

Seems like a reasonable price to me, comes with slide and a mattress.  The windows are real, everythign is hand painted.  My boys have loved this slide. (Picture from Christmas 2008 when we gave it to Carter).

But I will be building a twin size one, so might as well pass this one on.

Quite honestly, I have no idea how I am going to get this out of their room without a total meltdown from both of them.

Glass Block Diversion

I wish this post were a Before / After of these not-so stylish glass blocks in the master bathroom.  But since we are currently living in my mother in law's house (bless them for hosting us for almost a year now) this is their bathroom.  If we had the money, I just might remodel this bathroom for her because I think she agrees, it needs some revamp.

Anyway, apparently my 2 year old agrees that the glass blocks are not so cool so he decided that he would jazz them up with some RED crayon in the grout line.

But the not so funny thing is, this happened because I took a shower while the kids were still awake. (Usually I shower at nap time).  But I wanted to get some work done on the desk during nap time.  

JOKES on ME

Like most mothers, there is no such thing as privacy, so Auggy was playing peek a boo with me around the glass blocks while I was showering. Little did I know that it was just a diversion and he had a crayon in the other hand and was hard at work with one hand, while distracting me with his cute "Bek-a-poo" (as he calls it).

So needless to say, I spend their naptime scrubbing grout with a hair dryer and some Ka-Boom.  It's clean now but wow, I hate grout.