New & Improved

Benjamin is not the only addition to our home. Finally, all the construction is complete!

Remember this?


After several months of and several mini-strokes accompanied by nervous breakdowns, we have this.....


We call this room the "playroom" but it functions as a family room. We are thrilled to have such a large beautiful space where we can hang out together!




The playroom has a new bathroom with a shower so our guests will have more space.


Remember this?


Now look!!! Originally, this space was going to stay unfinished and we were going to use it as storage, but after we saw how big it was we decided to go ahead and finish it out. I am so glad we did! Now baby Benjamin has his own room :)


I would love to share my wealth of wisdom about home improvements, general contractors, sub-contractors, drywall mud, the sound of construction of 6:59 a.m., and cost of your sanity that accompanies a project like this, along with any other bits of little known trivia from the world of building.....but rather than bore you with the sordid details I will leave you with one more picture.....

The tiny little baby who wore this itty bitty bracelet is three weeks old today!

Project....the homeschool bookcase

We took a very beat-up well-loved television armoire and after nearly taking it to the dump thoughtfully considering its value....we decided to make it work. Here she is before her makeover:

What I wanted was this lovely piece from Pottery Barn Kids. Of course it not only cost an arm, a leg and an ear lobe, it also cost 9-trillion bucks for shipping. It comes in every color of the rainbow but I love the white or red.

I needed a middle shelf, a paint job, some bead board and a magician.....

Ta-Da!

Chris did the carpentry and heavy lifting. Great job Daddy-O! He was a bit disturbed over the distressing part. That whole, "why'd ya have to go and mess it up?" mentality.

I painted it and I suppose because it was humid or because I am an idiot, something didn't go quite right. It looked a bit like I used Elmer's glue and Q-tips and I was in tears the first night.

Seriously. I had oversprayed the whole garage and our neighborhood and then nearly walked into the dentist office with white nose hair. I won't even visit that memory.

I had made such a horrific mess and spent the whole day doing it and now had nothing to show for it.

Insert crying jag and several bowls of Chocolate Lucky Charms.

I called our pastor's wife (aka: the pushy strong-arm who made me do this project) who sweetly surrendered the better part of the following day to come and counsel me through my ordeal......and she repainted the whole stinkin' thing.....and she distressed it.....cause she is some kind of woman.

She says she would do that for anybody, but I think I am extra-special.

Anyhoo, she did a superb job and I think it looks pretty darn good myself :)