Cottage Dreamers

The master bedroom suite is finished!

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:49:00 +0000

Our bedroom and closet are finally done which completes the master suite. (You can see the bathroom here.) This has been a major boost to our morale. We started this house SEVEN years ago and we've come a long way from our original 800 square feet of living space but we still have so far to go. But, THIS IS OUR YEAR, or so we keep telling ourselves. We've got to get it done for so many reasons but especially for our sanity. For those of you who've ever tried living in a house while you're building it or extensively remodeling it, you know what I'm talking about. I don't think I'd recommend it if there's any other way possible.

Enough ranting.

As I mentioned last time, we finally decided on Hickory floors with a satin clear coat and, man, am I loving it! Other than the bathrooms and mud/laundry room, we'll be putting it throughout the whole house including the kitchen, I think. Is it a mistake to put wood floors in the kitchen? Anyone with some insight or opinions on that, please let me know. I've had wood floors in a couple of kitchens in past houses but I've heard horror stories about malfunctioning dishwashers ruining wood floors in the kitchen so maybe I should reconsider. So many rabbit trails, back to the bedroom.

We're not minimalists but we're loving the sparseness of the furnishings we put in this room. Our other bedroom had unintentionally served as a catch all and it felt suffocating. I still need to find some table lamps but I don't want to add anything else, not even art...for now.

In our 18 years of marriage, Jeff and I have never had a real bed with real legs and a real headboard and I felt like it was time. I knew I wanted a wood bed that doesn't require a bed skirt so I picked out a few online and reluctantly showed them to Jeff. Reluctant because not only are they expensive but I knew exactly what his response would be..."I can build that!" I didn't want him to take on one more thing in his already way too busy schedule but I couldn't spend that kind of money on something and not tell him first. I showed him and he immediately said, "I can build that!" and there was no talking him out of it.

Well, long story short, he built us a bed and I couldn't be happier! We both loved this bed but I wanted the headboard to be wood instead of upholstered so not only did we save a bunch of money (we spent roughly $500 to build our own) but I got exactly what I wanted. I might be a little spoiled.

The closet feels really refreshing too. We aren't clothes hogs so this 7' by 8' closet is plenty big with room to spare so we built in a vanity with drawers (which he built because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted).

I still need to hunt down better baskets, lights, and an appropriate mirror for the vanity but I'm enjoying it immensely just how it is.

We've started on the mud/laundry room by tearing out some walls but Jeff cracked a rib a few weeks ago then on Saturday he had three big sneezes and heard a "pop" in that rib and now he's really singing the blues, and moaning a lot, and walking funny so it might be a while before we make anymore headway on it. He spent the past few days resting the best he knows how and I think that was harder on him than the pain he's in so he's back at work today. Oh, to be high strung and full of energy.

Next time I plan to have an update of my parents little house which is coming along nicely!

Oh, and please let me know what your thoughts are on kitchen flooring. Thanks!

The master bathroom is done and we're building Guest House!

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 14:39:00 +0000

It has been forever since my last update and the more time that goes by the more overwhelming it seems to update! I'll try to just cover the highlights to keep it as short as I can.

First up, the master bathroom is finished. Yeee-Haw!!! It's always super exciting to have a room completely done because that's only happened twice so far, lol!

It's been finished for a while now and I still haven't decorated or put anything over the toilet. I'm thinking open shelves there for bath towels and as far as decorating goes it need some color but I kind of hate decorating with knick-knacks so I'll just live with it for a while longer like it is while I think about what I want.

It's practically covered in small white tiles which even though they come in 12" x 12" sheets they're still quite fiddly and I'm pretty sure installing them had Jeff questioning his entire existence. Thankfully, he managed to endure to the end. I tried to pick some classic designs that I won't hate in five or ten years but I think I'll have to quit Pinterest once the house is finished or the house will never be finished, if you know what I mean!

The shower doors were a steal we found in the returns at Lowe's which saved us 50%! There wasn't anything wrong with them so we're thrilled to have gotten such a great deal.

Next up is the master bedroom and closet. The bedroom is finished except for base trim and outlets but it has become our work room for the time being so it's a complete disaster right now. We finally made a wood floor decision that I couldn't be happier with so I'll fill you in on that later.

The closet is a smallish 8' x 7' and will have a vanity in it with a gray granite counter that has little purple/amethyst color flecks all over it. Jeff was surprised by my granite selection but I think it's girly which is perfect for a vanity.

We're almost done building all the shelves and drawers for it so hopefully it won't be long before we move into it.

Last, but definitely not least, we are building a guest house for my parents! Actually, we hired a builder, Jeff Royer, to build it because we don't have time to do it ourselves and my parents are funding the whole project as their kind of retirement home away from home. They'll be keeping their house in town and visiting us more often here and there.

I had so much fun designing this house because it had to be small as it is sitting catty cornered to our house on our property and they had a list of desires that made it pretty challenging, like two bathrooms, a layout to possibly accommodate a baby grand piano, a tall wall of windows with view and all the full sized amenities of home all in under 800 square feet...and it has to be pretty! I actually love design challenges with lots of boundaries and limitations because it requires so much more creativity to make it work than a blank slate where the sky's the limit.

We've been talking about getting them out here for the past few years and now that's it's actually happening we're all really excited. They live less than an hour away (in the same house they've lived in for over 40 years) and they could have built a lake house or bought an RV and traveled the country or so many other really cool things, but the fact that they want to spend more time with us than any of those other things is pretty awesome. They're living proof that people and relationships matter so much more than any other earthly possessions God gives us and it's worth the time and effort to always make the best of those relationships and really enjoy them!

This is such an exciting time for us so I'm going to try to start posting more often to stay on top of things but you can also follow me on Instagram where I post from time to time. Oh, and Jeff started vlogging on Youtube so you can catch up with us there too! (That's a whole other story in itself!) Talk to you all again soon!

Fall 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 22:29:00 +0000

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well. We've been sick off and on since late October or early November, but as of right now, everyone is back on top. I hope and pray we stay that way for a while!

A few months ago we caravaned to Ikea with my family to get a few things including and most importantly a new dining table. The seven of us have been eating around the same little table that Jeff and I bought as newly weds many moons ago. I'll be keeping that table in the same little corner of the house because it works well for crafts and school and has so many great memories etched into its top. Now we gather around a table that seats up to twelve which means each kid gets their very own chair! They're loving that but I kind of miss all of us crowding around the little table, sitting elbow to elbow with them.

We broke it in on Thanksgiving and plan to fill it up again on Christmas so we're already making great memories at this table too.

I've recently been on a crazy crocheting jag where I crocheted chargers for each of our Thanksgiving dinner plates then declared to the children that there shall be only crocheted ornaments allowed on the Christmas tree this year.

I did eventually allow glass bulbs and a few candy canes on the tree, BUT THAT'S IT! Everything else must be crocheted. That's just the kind of mood I'm in.

I made gingerbread houses for everyone to decorate this year and my palms were bruised and sore for a couple of days afterward from rolling out all that dough. This is something my mom has done a lot of for everyone and I had no idea it was so physically demanding, but I could just be wimpy.

Last week Jeff built this breakfast bar out of a huge, solid piece of mahogany that friends gave us years ago. We've been lugging it around with from house to house waiting for just the right project and this was finally it. I couldn't be happier with it. He ran metal pipes into the wall and then into holes he drilled in the back of wood to give it a floating look. He's so creative!

Now for some really exciting news...we have a second bathroom!!!

There's still some work to do but the toilet and sink are functional which are the most important parts to us. We'll be tiling the wall behind the sink and there's trim and the shower to finish.

You have to walk through a small construction zone to get to it which makes it too scary for the little girls to use when it gets dark but I'm okay with that. Less sharing that way.

Oh, and one more very exciting thing is mostly done...the deck has a roof!

Those are all the major updates on the house I can think of so till next time, Merry Christmas!

Hardwood floor dilemas

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 17:58:00 +0000

Summer went by waaaay too fast. This month started my 12th year of homeschooling and now all five of my babies are in school. It breaks my heart. It's the end of another era for me as a mother and I miss having actual babies and toddlers and preschoolers in my house but there are perks to having only kids that can communicate coherently and get their own dadgum snacks. Really, heh-heh, those are the two biggest perks. Mamas with little ones, savor every moment, even the sticky, stinky, exhausting ones because it passes by so quickly whether or not you're enjoying it so you might as well soak it all in and enjoy it.

Besides schooling, we've been eating a lot of veggies lately. Madison loves, loves, loves to garden. It's right up there with painting in her book and every day this summer, and still now, she spends time tending to her huge garden. She has brought in loads and loads of vegetables, a grocery bag full, every day. Everything she has grown this year has been delicious and we really hate seeing the growing season end. Well, except for Sophia, she does not like vegetables.

This is only a portion of the produce that we have at the moment. There's more in the freezer and all over the kitchen counters. Yesterday, she brought in a THIRTY POUND watermelon! The watermelons she grew this year have been fantastic. (The pretty potted flowers in the background are also Madison's doing.)

This month Sophia and Evelyn turned six and eight. Thankfully, that's still young enough that I get to do all the baking for their birthday's. I always combine their birthdays to keep myself from too much baking in one month but I still manage to get a little bit carried away and make more than necessary. I had so much fun decorating sugar cookies for them, especially the ice cream cone cookies.

Okay, now onto the housey stuff. A while back we finished the spare bedroom upstairs and I'll show you the pictures in a second. It's the first room in the house that is completely finished (except for one light switch cover). It makes us feel like there is hope for this place yet; although, we're seeing that it would take a miracle for the house to get finished by the end of the year. Time, energy, and drive are resources that are hard to come by so we continue to plod along slowly.

For the floor we used low odor, water based polyurethane on unstained tavern grade oak flooring and I absolutely LOVE the way it looks. However, the polyurethane caused some pretty bad allergic reactions in a few of us that forced us to come up with a new, safer plan for the future floors. We decided to try pure tung oil mixed with citrus solvent on the next floor we did as our safer alternative and I'm not loving the way it looks...but it's safer. Now I'll show you the two to compare.

This is the tung oiled floor in our upstairs living room/craft room/school room/play room...I don't really know what I'll use this room for yet. It takes a month to fully cure and we're a bit over half way there. The color keeps lightening ever so slightly but it's just too dark and rustic looking for my taste...but it's safer. Behind the door is the finished bed-now-storage-room with lighter, more contemporary and glorious floors that I love, love, love.

You can see the big difference in colors between the two floors and the lighter floor only accentuates the aspects I don't love about the tung oiled floor...that's safer (lest we forget).

If I were more dedicated to my blogging craft I would have taken pictures of the bedroom before we shoved it full of crap but evidently I am not. Below is the only portion of wall that isn't hidden behind piles of stuff (because I moved said stuff for the picture).

And while I'm showing you bad photos of my house, I might as well show you the other side of the room I have yet to purpose. (For the record, I would like it to be a second living room which would be way more fun to decorate than any of the other more reasonable/useful options.)

You and kind of see that this room is in a large dormer which is why it has such an unusual shape. Jeff almost didn't build the dormers which would have meant the upstairs would have been one long, dark, narrow room with one little window at the end. I asked for dormers a few of times in the drawing stages and Jeff always said it would be too much work, time, and money so, no. Then while he was framing the addition with the help of JJ, who must be his very-best-friend-in-the-world-in-all-times-ever!!!, JJ suggested building dormers and Jeff thought it seemed like a pretty good idea so they did. Now every.single.time we're in that room Jeff says, "Can you believe we almost didn't build these dormers?!" Sigh. Thank the Lord for good friends.

So that you can get a feel for what I'm talking about, below is an outside picture of the back of the house. Can you imagine that as one long room with only one little window??? Also, please don't judge us based on the level of redneckedness you see in the picture. Aw, who am I kidding. It's really much worse than what you can see here. You should see an aerial view of our house, it's really sad. If you look closely at the background in the birthday picture you'll get a glimpse of what I'm talking about. Home sweet home, gotta love it!! :)

Project wall

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 17:47:00 +0000

We moved out of the living room and back into the old part of the house. I resisted that move as long as I could, probably too long, but now we're back in a good working grove and we have very defined goals to keep us on track. We have six months left on our construction loan so we made a project board on the living room wall with post its to help us stay focused. We are a list loving couple.

And now my living room looks like this...

Here's a side by side of the transition.

Pretty impressive before and after if I do say so myself.

A few years ago, back when lockers were all the rage, Jeff brought me several including a big set that we never got around to fixing up till just recently. He stripped and repainted them for me and put them in the hall by the back door for us to use as shoe storage.

Jeff wasn't thrilled with the color I chose but I think it's a lot of fun and I know lockers are so 2010 but still, I LOVE them! Kids dirty shoes have been the bane of my existence for years. They were like a terrible infestation and I would continually consoled myself by saying they're just signs of all the precious kids that live here. While that was very soothing and I was usually pretty good at overlooking them EVERYWHERE, I've got to say, I do not miss always seeing the shoes! At some point down the road we may case them in with wood to give them a built in look.

I made a little video the other day, just for fun and one of the clips is of the kids painting mugs for themselves with ceramic paint. I think they turned out so cute!

Right now, between typing sentences, I'm helping Jeff plank the walls in one of the upstairs bedrooms which is just one of the 154 post it notes on the project wall.

I set up a little blogging work area for myself nearby. I like to keep the kids red play phone handy while I work in case I need to make an important pretend phone call. It just makes it feel more official that way.

Here's the video documenting bits of an ordinary day for us if you're interested. Just be sure to take your dramamine first because it's a little rough.

Ta-ta!

Erin's bridal shower

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:31:00 +0000

Erin's shower has already come and gone. :(

But, it was a lot of fun and will hopefully make for some sweet memories for Erin. :)

We ate lots of sweets.

I didn't get a close up of the macarons or the amazing cake Jennifer made...and I can't stop kicking myself! The cake was a lemon bundt with a lavender glaze and sprinkled with lavender buds. It was soooo good and flowery and feminine and perfect for a girly party.

She also made lavender sachet party favors out of vintage style hankies that filled the house with the heavenly scent of lavender. Last night I slept with mine on my bedside table right next to my face and it was divine.

Tanner, Erin's fiance, stopped in before the shower. I'm sure he would have loved to stay but you know the rules...he had to spend the afternoon with the guys and kids...elsewhere.

But not before he got a little snuggle time on Erin's lap. Silly boy. :)

We all spent a few hours together playing silly games and razzing Erin as she open each of her gifts. It was a lingerie shower so all the gifts were really more for Tanner but Erin is a great sport with a good sense of humor. We also loved pouring out an abundance of gratuitous advice. There were a lot of years worth of experiences and successful marriages represented in my living room yesterday and I pray that God preserves and blesses Erin and Tanners marriage just as much.

After the party was over the guys and kids came back and we ended the night with a simple meal of sandwiches and chips while my mom danced in the dining room to bluegrass music with every willing dance partner in the house. Wish I had a picture of that too. Good times. :)

Today is turning out the be the laziest day I've had in a long time. Overnight we got buried in snow and it's still coming down so I declared it a snow day and canceled school. The kids and I are still in our pajamas at noon and we're eating leftover chocolates as I type. Today I'm mom of the year.

I cleaned up and took a few pictures of the living room this morning because, naturally, I forgot to yesterday.

We're taking the next two weeks off from working on the house but after the wedding we plan to move everything back out of the living room, chandelier and all, and get back to work. The living room has been our work room with a table saw as the centerpiece and that's worked out really well, so I only get to enjoy this room like it is for a little while. That's not so bad though because up next will be the new bathroom. Yippee!

Battle of the sexes

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 18:49:00 +0000

Last month Isaiah and I celebrated our birthdays with a camo theme. Jeff gave me a big bouquet of pretty flowers and as bright and colorful as they were they just couldn't balance out the camouflage.

It's every woman's dream is to celebrate her birthday with camouflage.

That really is what you want though when you share your birthday with the sweetest boy on the planet!

Madison tried jumping in at the last second to blow out a few of his candles for him but she was a little too late. So much love!

We bought a wood stove last month too since the house has doubled in size and the pellet stove doesn't quite cut it anymore. It's a dream come true for Jeff. At first I wasn't too excited about having another stove in the house because they always look like they belong on a train or in a man's hunting shack deep in the woods or used for repelling women but I went along with the idea and started looking for a stove I like. Turns out they only exist in Europe and cost an arm and a leg. So we agreed on the simplest looking American made stove we could find and then I went to work trying to figure out a way to pretty it up.

Our first fire.

I figured we needed a visual distraction from the newest train like unit in the house and decided on cement tiles. I've loved them since I first laid eyes on them. They're so unique and beautiful they're more like art! You know how you're not supposed to overwhelm newborns with too much color and light because it overwhelms their senses? That's what happens to me when I'm fabric shopping or hunting for the perfect tiles. I love them ALL...to the point that my head starts spinning and I feel like I'm going to have a stroke or something. Let me tell you, it was one of the hardest decisions of my life. I felt like the bachelorette and I had to eliminate all kinds of gorgeous tiles from the competition.

Wouldn't it be nice if that's really as hard as life ever got? I finally settled on these beauties and Jeff and I got to work installing them. They're a little trickier to work with than normal tiles but easier than we expected them to be.

Ahhh. Now I actually love it! (And so does Jeff. Win, win!)

My sister's bridal shower is coming up this weekend so between coats of paint and chop sawing (I've learned how to use many a power tool lately) I've been baking things like these adorable French macarons. I can't wait for her shower! I told my other sister I'm going to be lost and sad once the shower is over and Jeff wonders if I'm actually doing all this for Erin or for myself. Hmmm...both. It's too much fun not to enjoy the whole process.

This is the current state of the room we're having the shower in in 5 days so I need to get crackin'!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:33:00 +0000

An update is way past due but I'm in the midst of the busiest time of my life...and loving it. Most days we hit the ground running and fall in bed at night exhausted but out of all the houses we've either built or remodeled this one has been my favorite so we're really having a lot of fun. This one really feels like home. It's a little quirky and unusual but I think that's one of the things I love about it most and out of all the houses we've lived in I'm sure this will be the one the kids will have the fondest memories of when they're grown.

It seems like every time I turn around it's someone's birthday or another holiday is upon us. We'll be celebrating Isaiah's 10th birthday and my 40th this weekend and in my blogging absence we celebrated Madison's sweet 16th as well as a slew of holidays.

Madison made a fun cake with sea foam candy that we saw on a cooking show a few years ago.

This is the look of shock and horror that Isaiah would have the nerve to blow out a few of the candles for her! Ha, ha! Oh to have a brother. I wouldn't know what that's like as I only have sisters but I think my girls would say he's mostly fun...except when he blows out your birthday candles for you. He's blown out my birthday candles every year since he was born and I happen to think its pretty sweet that I'll forever be 29.

Over Thanksgiving we had a puny little pup. Chili developed bladder stones and had to wear a catheter, diaper and a the cone of shame as well as take lots of meds for two weeks. We decided to have him neutered too, just to add insult to injury.

We took him to the vet four or five times in just about as many days and his little eyes were so bloodshot from exhaustion. Once all that was over with he slept most of the time for a few weeks and he just now seems to be back to normal...but so much sweeter. That must be why they call neutering getting "fixed".

A couple of days before Christmas Jeff and the kids went out into the woods to hunt down the perfect tree which I guess actually required a gun for some reason.

The kids spent the better part of a day crafting and decorating the tree which only spent four or five days in the house before it had to come down to make way for the new stairs.

You have no idea how excited we all were about this particular part of the project! It's sooo nice to be able to take the stairs instead of the ladder. Stairs are always complicated for us to design and build but they came out perfectly. Jeff's so smart!

As much as we are absolutely loving being able to walk easily up and down the stairs, as opposed to climbing the ladder, I don't think anyone is nearly as excited about it as Chili! He watched Jeff glue and nail down every single tread. It was the funniest thing to see him run up and inspect each one like he knew he would finally be able to get upstairs all by himself once this was done.

Now he runs up and down the stairs all.day.long. checking on everyone. This has been a dream come true for the little guy.

We've been nailing up planks and filling in holes which is a pretty fast process and so gratifying to see.

My goal is to have window trim, paint and lights in the living room before my sister's bridal shower next month and it's starting to look like we're going to make it if we keep hustling.

There goes Chili to check on things upstairs.

And speaking of upstairs, It's mostly wired and insulated but we're putting anymore work up there on hold till after the shower unless we finish the living room early.

As for the exterior, we got a lot done before it turned cold but still have some siding to do and the deck and wrap around roof still aren't done. We've got a lot of work ahead of us still but we've come so far since we started the add on.

Happy 2015 everyone!

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 16:32:00 +0000

Last month we celebrated our two September babies birthdays.

It's so hard to believe they're five and seven. I'm still not quite used to living in a house with no babies, maybe we should go ahead and have another one.

A couple of weeks ago the guys opened up our house to tie the roof to the new addition and to let in a million and one flies. We closed off the house with plastic but they still found there way in over the several days the house was open. We had about a dozen rolls of fly tape out and they were all full in no time. Ahhh, good times.

Thankfully the temperatures were pretty near perfect while this was going on.

In the course of four days they managed to start and finish joining the two sides together as well as get it partially roofed and house wrapped before a few rounds of storms moved through.

The metal store didn't have the piece of metal roofing that goes in the valleys and the tar paper couldn't keep the rain out of the addition OR the old part of the house...where we're ACTUALLY living. It was a really rough week and I may have even cried a little while trying to keep all the water caught in buckets and sopped up out of the rug and chairs and everything else the rain found its way into. At the time, it seemed like there couldn't be anything worse than being continually wet and cold inside your own house day after day...but every evening we'd watch a little bit of the news and remember how blessed we really are, at least until the next storm would roll through.

By Friday the rain was heavier and coming in faster than the kids and I could keep up with and with no heat the cold was making its way into our bones. I called Jeff with that "woman on a ledge" sound in my voice and he headed home with the metal we needed to get the valleys fixed.

So in the cold and drizzle with a lot of huffing and puffing and probably a few choice words, Jeff roofed the dormer, put in the valley and we finally got a handle on the rain.

Somewhere during that mess, Jeff and I managed to get 16 of the 18 new windows in too.

We're looking at a beautiful forecast for the next few days so Jeff's hoping he'll be able to finish the roof.

(A look into the new addition from upstairs.)

In other news...

we bought a bunch of fruit trees for 50% off and planted a small orchard within two or three hours. We planted a variety of apples, pears, peaches, and plums. This is something we've been wanting to do for many years so we're thrilled to have come across so many tress at such a good price!!

And a while back, Jeff put in a new vanity in the bathroom so, while it doesn't usually feel like it, I guess we're actually on a bit of a roll around here.

The walls, knots and nail holes all need to be patched and repainted, I just have to decide if I'm over the stripes or not. Those adorable sea turtles paintings are by Madison.

My sister, Erin, got engaged and asked me to be her matron of honor so I've been having a lot of fun pinning dresses and cakes and shower decor on pinterest lately. She's getting married in February and I have a goal of hosting her bridal shower here so I plan to take advantage of the motivation that's currently running out my ears and really get some things done! Pity those who have to live with me during this time!

That's some of what's been going on around here and I hope all of you are knee deep in things you love too!

September update

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 21:12:00 +0000

Things are still moving along.

Jeff and JJ starting on the second floor and roof assembly.

Little Sophie and her daddy.

Jeff, my dad and JJ are getting close to tying the addition into the main part of the house. So exciting!

I'm feeling a bit soggy in the head lately as I'm trying to readjust to school. It's always hard for me to say goodbye to summer and get back into that routine. It usually seems to take me a few weeks but, sooner or later, the kids and I get a good rhythm going and before I know it another school year is over leaving me trying to adjust to summer and all its busyness. It happens to me year after year and I'm always a little overwhelmed by it.

My mom was over the other day while we were doing school and she mentioned she really misses it (homeschooling). I don't think she knew it, but those few words gave me a dose of perspective that I've been needing. The time I have with my kids is short lived so I need to make the most of it and savor it while I can. :)

August update

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:16:00 +0000

Jeff and JJ have been hard at work in their "spare" time with the add on. I'm so thankful for the work they're doing but I worry they're going to wear themselves plum out!

The kids are still helping out with the deck.

The kids are getting pretty good with power tools and the front deck is almost done. Woohoo!

Madison's been growing lots of vegetables and pretty sunflowers in the garden this year.

She's also been playing around with water colors.

I wish this would happen when I "play around" with water color!

I love them. They're so creative and beautiful!

On a final note, I would appreciate your prayers for Marilyn, one of my sweet mothers-in-law. She'll be having a medical procedure done to repair a hole in her heart next week and just the anticipation itself is a heavy burden, let alone going through the actual surgery. I know many of us can relate so please, please take a minute to pray for her.

♥

Thank you so much!

July update

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:22:00 +0000

The wrap around deck has been started. The girls are going to know an awful lot about construction by the time this is all over with!

They really hustled to get some boards on the deck for the 4th of July. They aren't nailed down, just set in place for now.

This next picture was taken as they're assembling some outdoor tables and chairs with less than a couple of hours before our company was due for the bbq and fireworks.

Everyone was exhausted that evening but it didn't stop us from having a lot of fun. We also celebrated Gracie's 13th birthday on the 4th and somehow she managed to squeeze in a few extra minutes to decorate her own cake.

We enjoyed a visit from our Italian daughter, Madi'soni.

We all enjoyed the fireworks display put on by Isaiah and Tanner and were thankful they didn't seem to mind entertaining a bunch of zombies.

Since then, Jeff and his good friend, JJ, have been working on the addition a couple of days a week.

They got two of the walls up last night which is so exciting.

The double windows will become the opening into the new part of the house.

I can't wait!

DIY Stucco Sprayer

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Wed, 21 May 2014 00:05:00 +0000

Things are moving along slowly but surely around here with lots of interruptions. For example, a while back we got tired of having chickens running loose all over the place pooping everywhere so we fenced them in. Then we decided we still wanted them "foraging" for some of their own food so Jeff took a break from the house to build a mobile chicken coop. We also wanted them in their new, easier to clean coop before bird mite season starts which was a battle we had to fight last summer. Awful!

It took way longer than expected which you kind of expect, but still.

He even gave them a really cool watering system.

The chickens are now happily in their new mobile (pronounced with a long i) home and we're back to working on the house.

The foundation was a pretty big undertaking since the house was already built on piers. Why the switch from piers to block foundation? It gets pretty cold in Missouri in the winter. The piers were originally a quick and cheap way to get the house done enough to live in but we're pretty excited to be on a regular foundation.

We had to dig out around the piers, pour a concrete footer, stack blocks on the footer, then raise the house a few inches on a bunch jacks to get the top layer in there.

We dry stacked the blocks and at this very minute Jeff and the girls are finishing coating them with some kind of stucco that's supposed to result in an overall stronger wall than blocks set with mortar. To make the stuccoing go easier and quicker Jeff made a homemade stucco sprayer that works extremely well. So well that he requested I write this post. I think he should be writing this post because this kind of thing is not my area of expertise but he's a little busy right now so I guess I'll wing it.

He used a garden hose sprayer attached to an air compressor thingy on one end and the other end has some kinda plumbing pipe with a bend (elbow?) for ergonomics. The pipe slides into the scoop made out of a piece of air conditioning duct with a handle made from an old broken shovel and it (the pipe) has a little bitty garden hose sprayer shoved into it.

The scoop has a hole in it for the stucco to spray out of (which he made smaller than pictured here (down to a 1/2")) and it sprays the perfect amount on the wall.

He scoops up the stucco mixture, squeezes the handle and it all spits out the hole in the scoop like so.

The girls follow up the spraying by smoothing it out with hand trowels while Evelyn inspects their work. The whole process is surprisingly quick and smooth.

the end

Eggs. Glorious eggs...

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 12:01:00 +0000

Jeff has been steadily working to switch us out from a pier foundation to a normal concrete foundation. It's been a tough and dirty job but we're getting close to having it done.

My parents come out to help too because what could possibly be more fun to do with your retirement than exhausting yourself helping your kids build a house for what feels like the umpteen millionth time.

Honestly they've put more sweat equity into my homes than I have and even this time around and lately I've been helping less and less because it turns out that someone still has to cook for all these people and do their mounds of dirty laundry. When I ask the kids if they want to work on inside chores or work outside with their daddy they all always pick outside so I get stuck doing everyone's inside work which I honestly prefer anyway.

After they finished pouring the concrete footer they also poured a small pad for the stairs that will come off the deck that, Lord willing, we'll start once the foundation is finished. We used concrete stamps to give it a stone texture.

Isaiah's demonstrating what he's been doing all day which is basically holding an impact gun over his head to take out hundreds of screws to remove sheets of wood under the house. I know from when Jeff and I put that wood up a few years ago that the impact gun gets heavier and heavier as the day goes on but Isaiah kept up the pace from start to finish with no complaints and even had energy to spare when the day was done.

I could use some of that energy.

While Jeff and the kids we're working in the dirt under the house I washed about 20 dozen eggs. We've recently fenced in our chickens so we're getting all the eggs they lay, whereas, when they were completely free range they'd often lay eggs outside the coop in places we couldn't find before the dogs would sniff them out for a snack. It turns out that we probably have more chickens than we really need.

We more or less will be paying my parents for their help in eggs. Who could pass up a deal like that, right? Anyone else want to come work for eggs?

Our smallest and cutest ever egg.

Our low budget kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:11:00 +0000

I'm finally adding photos of our kitchen which we've been enjoying for several months now. We'll do the trim, floors, and ceilings last so it will stay "almost done" for a while still.

We didn't change any of our appliances. They're all still mismatched but working just fine so I can't bear to spend the money on that right now, if ever.

Jeff keeps asking me if I'm ready to get a new stove to the point that I'm starting to wonder if he doesn't like it as much as I do. The burners don't have a truly medium heat setting and it bakes a bit unevenly but that's fine by me since I'm far from the best cook and when things don't turn out that great I can just blame it on the stove.

We bought our cabinets and granite counters, which only come in six foot lengths, from a discount building supply store and it saved us a bundle. Jeff also set every tile himself rather than buying the tiles in sheets. It took a little longer but would have cost so much more otherwise.

Jeff experimented with the under-mount lighting using discs on the right side of the cabinets and went through a huge amount of trouble to hide the cords. Then we decided to use a bar light under the open shelves and he's not happy with it so we just left the cord till we get around to switching it out to the disc style lights. It's been so long since I've been able to see very well while working at the kitchen counters that I forgot just how nice it is to have good lighting, dangling cord and all.

So, we started with appliances which are all second hand (super-duper cheap or free) and then built the kitchen from the ground up for under $3,000. Not as cheap as the kitchen set up we had before but I'm so thankful to have it!

And these flowers have nothing to do with our kitchen but I've recently discovered how much I love having living plants in the house even if I know they'll most likely be dead in a few months. These cyclamen have such unique and colorful blossoms, only cost around $3.00 and they'll far outlast any fresh bouquet...although I still love fresh bouquets from time to time too.

We're adding on

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:57:00 +0000

We're adding on to our little house.

I've loved the coziness of our home, having the kids always in earshot, piling on top of each other in the the living room for movie nights, squeezing the seven of us around our little table for meals and conversations; but I've also learned a few things living in such close quarters that has left us all longing for more space.

We've shared one bathroom for four years and when we first moved in it wasn't such a big deal. All the kids were eleven and under with the youngest two in diapers. The bathroom was a place they all wanted to avoid. Now we have a teenage daughter and another one hot on her tail and often we have to stand in line behind two or three other people waiting...and waiting for our turn. And let's not even discuss the getting ready for bed routine. Ugh.

Onto the sleeping arrangements. Having four girls and one boy and only three bedrooms presents a bit of a logistics problem. The two big girls who are into clothes and hair and reading and painting really aren't to interested in sharing their room with two little girls and their Barbie's and baby dolls and legos (curse those legos!!) They've shared their room in the past but with all their diverse interests and stuff, their bedroom began to overflow chaotically into the rest of the house. The three older kids share one extremely overloaded clothes rod upstairs and all of the little girls clothes are in my closet and armoire and a bunch of Jeff's clothes are on a portable clothes rod upstairs. Everyone's socks are in a basket in my room and coats, shoes, boots and mud are everywhere...you just can't tame that beast on a farm this time of year!

For now Isaiah and Evelyn are sharing a room along with all of the little kid toys while Sophie is in a toddler bed next to me. This arrangement isn't going to work forever. Soon Isaiah's going to need to have a place to get away from all the girls and their dolls, princes dresses, and mountains of play food that they're constantly trying to shove down the poor boys throat; and as much as Jeff and I love snuggling with our four year old "baby" (in our bedroom right next to the busiest bathroom on the planet!) we could use a little more privacy too.

Another issue that has popped its head up more and more lately is entertaining or more importantly, hospitality. Even with all the other issues I've mentioned that support adding on, this is the one that really pushed us to make that decision. When we first moved to a smaller house I was actually glad to have to limit my accessibility to others. I was buried under a pile of small children and babies and was more or less in survival mode. I loved it and I really didn't have the time or energy for anything else but things are shifting now. I haven't been pregnant or nursing a baby for over two years and while I occasionally miss those things, more often than not, I'm secretly giggling on the inside like a kid playing hooky and getting away with it.

Anyway, back to hospitality. The most we've crammed (and I do mean crammed) into our house is 14 or 15 people on a handful of occasions. It's not comfortable. Our kitchen, dining and living room is a little under 20' by 22' so when the house is that full there's barely enough room to turn around, and if you're lucky enough to get a comfortable seat, you'd better not get up from that seat or you'll risk losing it! It will be so nice to have a little more breathing room and a few more people over. I miss having big family get togethers with all my relatives and it won't be too much longer before my own kids start bringing home spousal contestants and before you know it they're all married off and filling my house with grand-babies!! I need room for that. (It might sound a bit premature, but I can't wait to have a house full of grand-babies! Ha!)

So, we're doubling the size of our house which will make it about average sized. We'll be adding a master bedroom and bathroom, a living room (our current living area will become the dining room) as well as a mud/laundry room and a real stairwell, but we'll still keep the ladder too because it's fun! We'll also have a bonus room upstairs that can work as a guest room or play room for the kids.

We've only just begun so we have a long way to go but we're all working on it together, even me! I've always been pregnant during every other major project so this is the most physically involved I've ever been. It's hard work (but easier than being pregnant) and I'm sure it will make for some fun memories for our entire family. As you can see, Madison and Grace are already becoming expert masons!

Galvanized corrugated metal shower surround Q & A

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:32:00 +0000

This post is way past due. I've continued to receive lots of emails and a lot more visits to my piddly blog because of this one thing than I otherwise ever would have. Jeff is no longer surprised when I call him at work for the answers to the questions people have for us and I'm very glad to do it because sometimes a tutorial just isn't enough and goodness knows I'm not the best tutorial maker/writer.

I'll go over the most common questions that people continue to ask about our galvanized corrugated metal shower surround (boy, that was a mouthful!) The most common one is "How's it holding up?"

It's holding up great and we haven't had one single issue with the functionality of it. The metal is galvanized and the screws are stainless steel so there's zero rust and the flashing and channeling are working like they should. And remember, it's been our only shower for over three and a half years and there are seven of us so it gets used more than the average shower.

We have well water that is very hard and leaves mineral deposits on everything it touches if it isn't wiped up before it dries and I'm no Martha so my shower does gather mineral deposits...among other things. The nice thing about the galvanized metal is it already has a mottled finish to it which does help conceal some of my inept housekeeping skills.

When it was brand new it had a very shiny, mirror-like quality to it which is a bit more subtle now. (To see what it looked like over three years ago click here and here.) However, it still looks good in my opinion.

This is what it looks like today. This is the best I can do for a picture right now. I've been crazy sick these last few days and the whole bathroom needs a good cleaning but I'm just too tired to and felt like blogging about it anyway.

That leads me to another common question, "How do you clean it?" Because of the hard water I've used CLR on it several times which is pretty harsh stuff but said to be fine for occasional use on galvanized metal but my favorite cleaner (surprisingly to me) has become a half and half mixture of white vinegar and palm olive. I fill a dish scrubber just like this one with the solution. (Thank you pinterest and whoever came up with this brilliant idea in the first place!)

I have found it's best to clean it just after someone has use the shower, while the surround is still wet, rather than while I'm taking one, because it gives the vinegar more time to work on the mineral deposits before I rinse it off.

And the last question people commonly ask is, "Would you do it again?" The answer is yes. It's a unique look that we don't see everywhere, it would be so extremely easy to change if we ever get tired of it, and it was very affordable and easy to install.

Those are the most common questions I get and thought it was worth sharing. If anyone ever has more questions don't hesitate to leave it in the comments or email me.

Vintage looking pillowcases

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:55:00 +0000

I've been working on some pillowcases that have a colorful vintage flare to them. I saw some recently on pinterest and just had to give them a try.

They're so simple to make using french seams to give them a more professional feel and then adding crochet trim to give them a sweet homemade touch. These are just three of about fifteen (I went a little crazy at the fabric store as usual.) They're fun and add so much cheer to the beds.

I've got enough for more than I need and thought I might sell some on etsy but as each one comes together I decide I can't part with them! Ha, ha! I've always got to fight the hoarder within. All the girls are begging for a stack of them too because one just isn't enough.

The girls are so close to being done redecorating their room. They just need me to help them with bed skirts and I think I've finally come up with an easy plan that will work. Once it's finished and cleaned up I'll try to get some decent pictures to share. One side of the room is a little on the messy side...Madison's an artist and you can tell it by the way her side of the room looks, bless her heart. Grace is a crafter extraordinaire and a seamstress so she has supplies stashes coming out her ears but usually manages to keep her side pretty clean. Growing up, my poor sister had to put up with my messes too while she was always super neat. Sorry, Jen!

Plank wall makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 12:37:00 +0000

The kitchen did not get done over the weekend but we're so close now I can feel it! I ran out of paint yesterday in the home stretch of repainting the walls. The timing couldn't have been better though because I could use a little break. We've been working hard for over three weeks.

The walls look so much better! I love the pine planks walls but the knots showing through the paint were finally starting to bug me. I covered and filled them and the nail holes with sheetrock putty. Jeff prefers it over wood filler. He says it's easier to work with. I then repainted the walls with Valspar's zero voc paint and primer in Garlic Clove (an Olympic color). It's white with a hint of warmness. It's been my go to white for the past eight or nine years and I still love it.

Here are before and after pictures.

I covered literally thousands of nail holes! You can see the yellow knots and knot holes and some of the planks have cracks running through them.

Here it is after filling the holes and knots.

So, so, so much better! It has a crisper, cleaner look now. Next, we need to tackle the ceiling. I'm sure that'll be loads of fun!

One of the nice thing about using sheetrock putty is there's no dusty sanding. If it needs to be sanded after it dries just use a damp sponge or rag and wipe it smooth. No mess!

We're getting into our new fall schedule (even though it's still summer...grrr) which includes getting up at 5:30 every morning to milk the cow. It's not necessary to do it that early but the girls still need Jeff's help at this point and he's got to leave for work around 6:30. Once Bonnie (the cow) learns the routine well enough to get to the stall pretty much on her own they'll push it back to 7am or so. I can't wait. I'm so sleepy all the time!

Yesterday was Evelyn's 6th birthday. Normally I'd cancel school for the day but since it was only the second day and she still looks forward to school I gifted her with a little extra school work. She loved it! She also helped Gracie bake sugar cookies which all the kids had fun decorating.

These are the very best sugar cookies in the world, by the way! Way, way better than store bought. I've had the recipe so long I don't remember where I got it but I think it might be my cousin's grandma Lil's recipe. I hear they were legendary.

Cookies or cupcakes are how we celebrate actual birthday's when the party doesn't fall on the same day and it rarely does. It's a tradition the kids always look forward to since we don't eat a lot of sweets around here.

We also decided at the last minute to pull out Jeff's great aunt Jewel's fine china and wrinkled bunting and fabric scraps and have a "tea" party with milk. As you can see by Evie's face (the one with the heart on her shirt) she's feeling pretty proud. It's fun that it takes so little to make a kids day.

Sugar cookies:
1 c. softened butter (no substitute)
3/4 c. white sugar
1 egg
2 T. milk
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
Cream butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl then beat in the egg, milk and vanilla. In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Chill dough for one hour or until easy to handle. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8th inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes until just slightly beginning to lightly brown. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla or almond extract
1/4 t. salt
1 to 2 T. milk
food coloring, optional

Mix all ingredients well in a medium bowl and frost right away. (It will begin to get dry and crumbly if you wait too long to use it.)

*Update: TODAY is Evie's birthday!!! not yesterday... I guess we'll be making cookies again. Am I a bad mother because I mix up birthday dates? I don't think she'll be disappointed when I tell her. Jeff and I have on more than one occasion celebrated our wedding anniversary on the wrong day. I blame it on the aluminum in my deoderant.

Summer update

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Wow! It's been a long, long time! I've had a few sweet people request an update on the goings on around here so I'll oblige. Like most bloggers who take a break for whatever reason I've really missed blogging so maybe this attempt will get me back in the saddle.

So my last post was about becoming debt free. I wish I had some great insight to share with you guys on how to get there but I haven't found anything new outside of the usual just tighten your belt and stick with it. It's hard. Now, I love a budget and could live the life of a hermit eating nothing but beans but that method does not agree with Jeff at all and our relationship is higher on the priority list than becoming debt free so things aren't going quite like we thought it would. Having said all that, Jeff isn't a big spender either and he likes a budget too, he just isn't nearly as painfully rigid about it as I can be so he works, unwittingly, to (try to) keep me flexible which is also more important because life is full of unexpected changes and being able to roll with life's punches is practically a virtue. I don't have that virtue. (Just ask my poor husband!) And, truth be told, most of my budget abiding-ness is really all in my head anyway. Just dangle something like a new kitchen in front of me and I'll be all over it like a duck on a June bug while yelling budget-smudget! I can't keep it together with an offer like that.

In short, we're still working on it but we have set backs and sometimes parts of the budget get put on hold but Lord willing, we'll get there someday.

Now, on to the fun stuff.

We've been enjoying what feels like the shortest and coolest summer in history after what felt like the longest winter in history. The weather has been strange around here this year.

Gracie and Madison pretty birthday table for Gracie's 12th. It's so nice having older girls that like to bake and decorate for all of our birthday parties. They're like my right and left arms!

We've had a few changes in livestock over the summer. The girls sold all of their goats (which helps explain the 5 foot tall weeds) and now are the proud owners of two cute little duckies. The one in the water is wearing a duck diaper that my seamstress daughter, Gracie, made. Ha, ha!

We now have a milk cow thanks to some of the most self sacrificing friends on the planet who took our cows for the summer to rebreed them and trained one of our mamas into a milker. What a huge blessing!

We didn't really garden this year...the year the weather was pretty much perfect for gardening with all the rain and perfect temperatures. We thought we needed to focus on other things...ppffft. Isn't that how it goes sometimes though?

Madison, who has been obsessed with art her whole life, has recently started painting fo reelz and she's pretty amazing for self taught fourteen year old. She's even sold a couple recently. This one is not for sale...it's MINE! Ha, ha! :) Seriously though, mine. (I love her sense of humor with the cow tongue!)

I've been sewing like crazy. I'm probably addicted. My favorite things to sew are dresses for the little girls and I don't have one single picture of them in any of their dresses I've made this summer. I've got some other sewing/crafting projects up my sleeve that I can.not.wait to dive into but we've been super busy lately building the (real) kitchen.

We developed a good sized mold problem under the sink which couldn't be easily repaired because, and I quote my husband, "That's the part that holds all the cabinets together. I guess it's time for us to build the kitchen." So we gutted the temporary plywood and contact paper kitchen and purchased all new cabinets and counters. We bought them from a discount supplier which means we have had to put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, paint, and silicone into it ourselves which makes it all the more rewarding. I've also been filling every nail hole and covering every knot on our pine plank walls which has been way easier than I ever thought it would be and makes a huge difference in the overall appearance. It's not quite as rustic looking which was a look I was never going for so I'm glad to kiss that look goodbye!

We still have a little ways to go before it's finished but we're so close and it's only taken two weeks so far! I'd like to finish it before school starts for us next week but we'll see what happens.

Speaking of school, my little Evelyn will start kindergarten this year so I'll have four to teach. Say a prayer for me, please! Ha, ha!

I guess that's it for now. I hope to try a little harder to keep up with the blog because I have so much fun going back through old posts every now and then to reminisce.

P.S. Will all of you sweet sisters in Christ out there please pray for one of my father's-in-law, Bob as well as Jeff's mom, Jackie. Bob has been recently diagnosed with stage four liver cancer which is a huge blow to all our hearts. I know in my head that God's grace is always sufficient for all things but sometimes it's hard for my heart trust the Father enough to lay some of life's burdens completely at his feet and this is no exception. Thanks.

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:52:00 +0000

I know summer just officially started not too long ago, but it's already flying by way too fast. It always does. Homeschooling my kids nine months out of the year makes me really enjoy our summer breaks just as much as they do. We've been filling our days with swimming and sewing and swimming and toasting marshmallows and swimming.

I've been having a lot of fun with little housey projects like making these cafe curtains:

I also painted the bathroom door (finally!) and added chalkboard paint to the center of it.

I'm not so crazy about all the chalk dust that's always on the floor now but the kids have been requesting another chalkboard for a while so I obliged. We made a huge one at our last house which you can see here, but we left it behind in our mad moving rush. I wouldn't have a wall big enough for it at this house anyway because we have so many windows.

Some other house projects have screeched to a halt however, like the siding. When we went from average temps in the 70's to an all of a sudden nationwide heat wave with the temperatures averaging 100 plus, it got pushed to the back burner. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but it's hot out there.

I hope you all are staying cool!

Making do

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Living in an unfinished house with a multitude of things that need to be done a.s.a.p. on a limited budget has a way of helping your priorities stay in order. When your showering and you feel a breeze so you look up and at the ceiling, spying between the rafters and the insulation and spot daylight, it's hard to justify buying a new rug whose main purpose is to just sit there and look pretty.  Or how can you justify buying $60 worth of paint just to paint the subfloor which will be covered someday when after storms you have to add a few more staples to your two year old house wrap, hoping it will hold up just a little bit longer?  And when you see that it's time to roll on a new layer of contact paper that serves as your counter top because you've got a few to many knife holes and pasta sauce stains on the current layer, it is again hard to justify buying new living room chairs. Especially when your old, oversized, ugly brown chair is still holding up just fine...but I did it anyway. I caved.

I'm chuckling to myself as I type about the breezes, house wrap and contact paper. While true, I happen to find it humorous. My kids are going to enjoy telling their own children stories of their "impoverished hardships" growing up and laugh to themselves as the little ones gasp in disbelief. Heh, heh. It also helps me keep things in perspective by remembering that we chose to live this way.  I know there are far too many people in the world who are truly impoverished and suffering while I am truly blessed beyond measure.

I didn't buy a lot of new stuff or anything terribly fancy but it was just enough to perk the place up a little for me. And like I always have to preface...it's still unfinished, as if you couldn't tell.

Let's start with a before picture, because if you've ever caught the tail end of a before and after program on HGTV and have been disappointed with the after and thought to yourself, what's so great about that?  And then you think, maybe this is a flash back to the before shot, until you see the homeowners come into the room and start crying and/or laughing and you realize it is, in fact, the after and then you think to yourself, I would be crying and/or laughing too if that was my house. Yes? You know what I'm talking about? Okay, then you know why it's necessary for me to show you this terrible, awful picture.

Brace yourselves for sheer horror because here comes the before (which is actually from shortly after we moved in because it was the ONLY picture out of literally thousands of pictures that I have of what it all once looked like.)

Yes, I'm stalling.

Sorry you noticed.

Okay, here we go. Just take a quick peek then turn away, mkay?

Before

Welp, that was traumatizing.

Okay.

As you can see, all of our living, dining and kitchen space is in one room that's 20' x 22'. Just a mere 440 square feet. That's about the size of a lot of peoples living room alone.

Part of the problem for me (besides all the obvious stuff you can see in the picture) was actually the openness of the living room furniture. The living area is about 14' x 20' which isn't too terribly small. In fact, it was too big, too spread out and not well defined. Because of the open rafters in the ceiling sound doesn't travel very well which makes it hard to have a conversation with someone across the room without yelling, and if we have company and there are multiple conversations going on at once, it turns into a yelling match. On the plus side, it is very quiet in here most of the time which is essential to my staying alive. I must have quiet and lots of it or my brain and nerves absolutely start to fry.

Moving on. Let's start with the kitchen and what it looks like right now. I just can't bring myself to say after because I haven't really done much in there and it's by no means finished and after sounds like it's done, final, finished, but it's not. Sorry. I'm stalling again. I'll try to stop that from happening in the future.

So here's the kitchen currently,

Eventually I'll have real cabinets and counters and a real floor and maybe even matching appliances but this is what I have for now and I'm content...for now. I suppose if it never progressed any farther it wouldn't be the end of the world but I hope that doesn't happen. (The blue between the rafters is foam insulation which will be covered in wood someday.)

My appliances are a hodgepodge of finishes. Black, white, stainless and turquoise, so to bring them together at least a little bit, I bought matching vinyl stickers off etsy for my fridge and dishwasher.

They're a little on the frilly side which I'm not super crazy about, but it does kind of help bring the kitchen together a little bit.

I still have my turquoise blue stove which goes well with the styrofoam insulation. (The small cat-like creature is my little Chili-choo-choo chihuahua, dining at his favorite fast food joint.)

In the dining portion of the room, Jeff added another window not too long ago to give us a little view of the back woods. (Don't look at my highwaters! I'll extend those or replace them someday!)

The table is a little 3' x 5' table that everybody and his brother had fifteen years ago. It seats all seven of us just fine for now, but as the kids get bigger it might become too cozy. Then, of coarse, I'll just have my personal man servant build me a newer, nicer, bigger table. (I love you so much, Shnookums pooh bear!)

And last, but not least, the living room.

I arranged all the furniture on one side of the room for a cozier layout and we can actually have real live conversations with eachother now. It's nice that way. On the far right is our current computer cabinet in the hole where the fireplace was. Jeff and I pulled it out and plan to build in a computer cabinet/entertainment center instead. I've decided I'd rather have the fireplace outside on the back deck.

After I painted the subfloor (which I love better than the unpainted subfloor but hate how it now shows dirt like crazy, by the way) I bought an 8' x 10' jute rug off Amazon for a mere $1,444.00 including $1,200.00 in fraudulent credit card charges. (I should have used paypal, but at least it's been resolved.) I love the rug. It's already been through a violent hazing when all of the kids had a nasty stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. It cleans up nicely. You've gotta be tough to survive around here.

I also bought a couple of matching chairs which the children are forbidden to even look at let alone touch. (I'm so mean.) They came with lumbar pillows that match the green fabric, but I made these blue and white ones for them instead. I can't have things matching too much. That wouldn't go with my home's chaotic theme.

Behind the green chair I have some fancy, shmancy wainscoting made up of a couple of old doors laying on their sides. Nice, huh? I'm still working out in my head what kind of a wall I want separating the kitchen from the living room. I'm currently thinking a half wall behind the stove across to the far right counter that meets a full length wall right next to that counter for a little extra visual separation. That's where the dirty dishes get stacked and I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to see them every waking moment.

I think that about wraps it up for now. If you made to the end of this post, I thank you...and I'm sorry you had to see all that. I'm glad I got this out in the open though, so now maybe I can start lookin' you people in the eye! ☺

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Recently we've been getting back in gear working on different projects around the house. We finally got rid of the clanky metal extension ladder that we were using to get to the second floor. That thing was really loud anytime the kids were shimmying up or down it and it's right in the middle of the house so it was a major eyesore too. Since Jeff knew he would be needing the extension ladder to put the siding on he spent a day building and staining a new wooden ladder.

I also recently painted the front door which was still primer white. I'm so ashamed that I waited so long. There's just no excuse for not painting a door. My bathroom door still hasn't been painted either. Maybe I'll get that done this week if I can decide on a color. There's no sense in rushing these things, you know.

Like everything else in this house, it's pretty snug. There's just enough room to get up or down with the door open.

We still don't have any trim and I just recently painted my subfloors. Trim and flooring are both near or at the very bottom of our very long to do list.

Keeping my glass front door clean is also near the bottom of that list.

The kids helped me out in my recent living room mini makeover by painting some 8" x 10" canvases for us to hang on the wall.

I have six more canvases that I want them to paint and add to the "collection" when we find a spare day with nothing else to do.

I also recently made my very first slip cover following the video tutorial made by Miss Mustard Seed. Jeff brought home this old office chair a while back that is very comfortable (and it rocks, spins and rolls which makes it a fun chair!!)

As you can see, it's kind of gross looking even though I've scrubbed it (and it doesn't smell even though it looks like it could be stinky!) I've had plans of reupholstering it but when I started taking it apart I found that the arms were attached magically and I could not figure out how to get them off without destroying them. That's when I finally conjured up the courage to try making a slip cover, something I've always wanted to try but thought I could never pull off. Oh my goodness! It turned out to be another one of those things that I should have done a long time ago. Slip covering is time consuming but way easier than I imagined. At least it is the way Miss Mustard Seed does it. Her video tutorial is excellent and she didn't leave out any details.

It's by no means perfect but I'm much happier with the chair now. I used cheap canvas drop cloths from Amazon and I even made my own piping! (She includes directions for that too.)

Just a hint about drop clothes that I've "learned" the hard way (more than once): If you buy the long skinny ones that are say, 15' x 4' you'll have fewer seams (if any) to work around as opposed to the larger, wider sizes like 9' x 12' which seem to always be full of seams like a patchwork quilt. That hint is probably really late to the drop cloth party and most people have probably moved on the next thing...whatever that is. I do pinterest, but I still don't always know what's going on in the decorating world outside my own microcosm. ☺

I don't think I've ever shared pictures of my (unfinished) kitchen or living room, but I think I'll post a little of that next time.

Siding

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Jeff has been working on siding these past couple of weeks. We chose ash gray or is it grey? I think it might be both. Anyway, it's going up slowly but surely. I saw a house on pinterest that was all monochromatic grey that I fell in love with. It helped me make decisions on trim/trim color. We're doing minimal trim and painting most of it gray to match.

(before)

(currently)

He has one side, the gables and the dormer still to do and it's harder and slower than he anticipated, but everything always is. He's a very optimistic person. We balance one another out.

This is the inspiration picture of a house done by Ken Pursley found here.

Hall floor

noreply@blogger.com (Cottage Dreamers) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:35:00 +0000

It's been such a long time since I've posted anything about the homestead. Where has the time gone? We've been working mostly on farmish sorts of things like fences, animals, fences, gardening, and fences. I'm learning that on a farm fences are everything, especially if you have goats in your repertoire. Speaking of goats, I recently learned how to milk one. Not too long ago I never, ever would have imagined I would ever learn how to milk a goat or even own goats...or chickens or cows or five kids for that matter.

Anyway, we really haven't done much to the house over the past year, but a couple of weeks ago I got a wild hair and painted the subfloors. I absolutely hated the way it turned out so I painted it again and I'm satisfied with it for now. I rarely get paint right the first time. Once I had Jeff spray and entire house (about a 3,000 square foot house) a color that turned out to look a little pinkish to me in the evening light so the next day he had to respray it all a new color. He's surprisingly patient with me. I once painted a kitchen seven times in one year. SEVEN. And I still wasn't happy with the color, but all the texture on the wall was beginning to disappear so I had to stop.

In the midst of all my most recent painting and repainting I decided to try a little free hand painting on the hall floor. I usually regret the free spirited things I do but I figured it's just the subfloor so it's not our permanent plan and I can always paint over it if I don't like it. Like with everything else I do I went overboard because I apparently live by the motto if a little is good, more is better.

This kind of free for all paint party was right up Madison's alley so I invited her to jump in which she was more than happy to do. She also believes more is better so she's partly to blame for the outcome. She's also why I love it. We worked out a plan together and spent the better part of three days crawling around on the floor in a little 7' by 7' area together only taking breaks occasionally to whine together about the pains and muscle spasms in our hands and backs. My left hand is still crippled from the experience which is making it a little hard to type.

I started by rolling paint on the floor and let it dry for a few hours. Then we picked out some acrylic craft paints and went to town painting. I used a circular foam brush for the dots down the center in a repeating pattern. (I accidentally repeated a row where I shouldn't have and messed up the pattern a little, but I'm not a perfectionist so I just went with it.)

I didn't bother to seal it because I think as the acrylic paint wears it will only add to the look. (The base color is interior wall paint that's zero VOC which I've used in other places like the girls bedroom floor and I'm pleased with how well it holds up over time.)

Now I'm in the middle of giving the living room a little makeover. I've wanted to do it for a long time but always put it off thinking I should at least wait until the house is finished but then Jeff surprised me with this beautiful arrangement he made for me in his car while driving home from work on his birthday. You should never pot plants and drive, by the way, it just isn't safe.

He thought I might like something pretty to look at but this very sweet gesture backfired on him because I'm pretty sure it's what triggered the kick I'm on that's costing him time, energy, and money. I've got him building things for me that require sanding, welding, painting, and staining. I've also become best friends with Amazon, Overstock and Etsy and I'm fixing to tackle my first ever chair upholstery project. (That's always intimidated me!)

Maybe I'll remember to post pictures when I'm done but for now I just wanted to share some of my oldest babies handiwork. Now it's time for school so I've got to run! ☺