re-finishing. . . again

Last week we found a dining room set on Craigslist that we could not pass up. It extends to 9.5 feet long and has 8 chairs. There were some scratches on the top, and the seats needed new fabric, but that is nothing we haven't done before. So we picked it up, and Thad had to have the neighbor help him bring it in the house. I know you aren't supposed to lift heavy things when you are pregnant, but I'm not very good at obeying that rule. This time though, I literally could not lift my end of it at all. This sucker is heavy, so neighbor to the rescue. I didn't take a before of the whole set, but this is our new addition with it's 6 new coats of stain and poly. My right arm is a bit sore.

I may have sanded inside the house and then spent 2 hours vacuuming and sweeping and dusting and scrubbing to get rid of the mess. Oops. But this thing is so heavy I couldn't help him lift if to get it outside! Anyway, it's done and It's lovely. We do have a before and after of the chairs. I love the green fabric. I went to Joanns with an entirely different fabric in mind. The one that's on the drapes in the front room, but it was not on sale, and that stuff is way too expensive otherwise. So I found this on sale, and had a coupon, and I like it so much more than my original idea.

Much better, right? I also started bringing some color to the walls and painted the kitchen. Here is a reminder of what it looked like before.

And the new color.

Now it feels like me in there. We actually scored twice on Craigslist last week and I found a dresser for Sammy's room that I am going to tackle today. Two of the drawers were falling apart, but it was only $20 and I knew Thad could fix them. Luckily it landed in the garage, so I can sand outside this time ;) And since we had a garage sale on Saturday there is room in the garage to work on it! We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff, and what we didn't is in the back of my car waiting to be dropped off at goodwill. Yay for spring purging.

Disneyland 2012

After several weeks of mostly patient waiting, we took the kids to Disneyland yesterday. We used it as a bribe to get Sammy potty trained, and it worked like magic. . . the week before we moved. So the trip had to wait a few weeks till we got settled. But it was the perfect day to go. The weather was sunny and warm, and we practically walked on to the rides the first half of the day. The second half we waited about 15 minutes per ride, but that is still pretty amazing. Here is the traditional park entry picture, and my pregnant self stayed out of pictures the rest of the day.

We started with the jungle cruise, which they both loved. It was so funny to watch Sammy though because you could tell he thought the animals were real.

Then we headed to pirates which we used as the measurement for how he would do on the rest of the rides. It's dark, and it has drops, neither of which bothered him, so we decided to brave splash mountain next. The last trip Andi was hysterical after the ride, but she was the one asking to go on it this time, so we gave it a try and it was such a different experience.  Here they are all smiles after getting soaked.

But here is what their faces actually looked like during the drop. Let's just ignore me screaming behind them.

Before we got off the ride I asked Sammy if that was fun or scary and he said, "That was fun, it's time to go home now."  So he didn't love it, but it didn't seem to bother him too much either. As we came off splash mountain Tigger and Pooh were just heading to their picture spots, so we were almost first in line to meet them. Sammy liked to look at them, but would not go anywhere near them for a picture. Andi on the other hand was all over it.

She got so wet!

We spent the rest of the day in Fantasy Land with one stop in to toon town. We decided we do not like toon town. I've never really been in there, but we went on one ride, which had the longest line of the day and Andi came off it saying, "We should not have waited in line for that." So we headed right back out to fantasy land.

With Daddy on the tea cups. Of course he had to spin it as fast as he could till it looked like Sammy was either going to pass out or puke before he slowed it down.

On the carousel.

Waiting to fly with Dumbo.

They loved getting their faces painted.

In front of the castle.

Casey Juniors Railroad.

Going into Buzz's astro blaster ride. Sammy was just staring at Buzz, I got him to turn his head for this picture, but only for a second, and not long enough to actually focus on the camera.

I love this face on our second round on the carousel.

They both got to pick a souvenir, and Sammy had been asking for one of these all day. He loves it, and fell asleep with it on, and woke me up asking for it this morning.

Andi chose a Snow White purse with gloves. She just loves Snow White.

By 5 o'clock we had been on every ride the kids could go on, and were getting to the point where Sammy wanted to be carried everywhere because he was just worn out. So we grabbed the souvenirs and headed out of the park to get some dinner and go home. I almost felt like we were jipping them because we didn't stay till it was dark, but the place was so not crowded that we really had done everything we could think of.  So after dinner we headed out and got home by 9. It was a lovely day, and I loved watching the kids take it all in. Now to try and explain to Sammy why we can't go to Disneyland everyday.

Progress

We are moving right along with projects around here. Last friday morning these bad boys were delivered.

A few hours later, thanks to some help from his Dad and friend Steve, Thad had them in the ground. Here is what that side of the yard looked like before we did anything.

And here are the new additions. This is by no means an after shot because there is still a bit of clean up to be done, but we'll call it a progress shot.

The best part is that once these fill in at the tops we won't be able to see that derrick behind them!

While Thad has been busy outside, I've been painting away on the inside. I even have a couple new callouses from the dumb roller. The lame thing is that most of what I have been painting leaves no before/after shots because it's the exact same color. The people who painted used plain old flat, and every time I have wiped grubby kid prints from the walls the paint came with it, so I have now repainted the staircase and hallways in flat enamel, which should hold up much better.
I did get Andi's room painted last weekend in her color of choice, turquoise. We even got a new cube organizer for her things and some cute purple drapes that have just been waiting for Thad to get back into town so they could be hung. Here is the before and after of her room. The after looks really dark, but it's not, as you can imagine that color makes the room very bright.

I have been trying to let Andi express her creativity in her room which is why the walls are turquoise and why every flat surface looks like a cluttered mess. To her it's not mess, she styled it all that way on purpose, I think she is trying to display every little nick knack she has. For now I am going to let it be and take deep breaths whenever in the room.
Sammy's bookcase got a new paint job as well in two shades of blue, but he's not sold on it yet. He told me it needs to be all rainbowed. We also painted Andi's old bike for him. The little trike was getting a bit small and this will allow him to transition to two wheels soon, but it was pink and covered in disney princesses. We just could not have him riding that. He loves the new look, and the "faster" wheels.

Sammy is still adjusting to the new house and we have been struggling with him staying in bed. A few nights ago we went upstairs ourselves for bed and found him asleep in the hall. I don't know how long he stayed awake watching tv through the banister, but now there is a lock on the outside of his door again.

 

Next on our list, put the yard back together in time for Easter dinner at our house, and hopefully get the kitchen and dining room painted, the dining room wainscoting up, and wood floors ordered. Can't wait!

Drum Roll Please

The verdict is in, and it's a boy. Sammy doesn't seem to care. Andi's reaction, "Why does it have to be a boy?!" and Thad laughed and told me I was in for trouble. I'm a little worried about having another boy after the WWF action that was going on here yesterday. Sammy threw a small folding chair at Andi's head. After I calmed her down and put ice on her gash I asked him why he did it. "Andi was mad at me and yelling." Okay, so instead of coming to get me or just yelling back, he picked up a chair and threw it at her. Logical little boy sense I guess. Maybe Thad's right, maybe I am in for some serious trouble.
Until then we have to come up with a name, and decorate, and now I can get rid of several buckets of baby/little girl clothes, so if any of you are in the market let me know!

It Begins

Now that the house is livable and the mountain of boxes has been removed, Thad turned his attention to his number one project on the list. Trees in the backyard to hide the oil derrick. Of course we couldn't buy decent size trees and let them grow to hide, he needed coverage now. So her ordered the 18 ft sequoias that will be here next weekend, and then realized how big the holes needed to be for those trees, and what else had to be moved before they got there. Enter Thad's toy for the weekend.

It made quick work of the things that had to be torn out or transplanted, and the kids enjoyed it too.

By the end of the day the yard was a mess, but in a good way. There are seven of these massive holes.

The picture doesn't do them justice. They are 4x4x3.5 ft. Basically Sammy could jump down in one and be hidden and not be able to get out. Tempting idea sometimes. And there are piles of stuff like this lying around needing to be disposed of.

But by next weekend we should have a wall of trees along the back wall. We also noticed that this has become a habit for us. Every house we've lived in we've had a backhoe in the backyard doing something major. Does anyone else do that or just us? We also made some major progress on hanging pictures and I came up with this little arrangement for the dining room that I just love. I've seen those gallery walls everywhere, and I wanted to do one, but I'm a little too ocd and it had to be uniform, so this is my, much smaller version.

And then I worked on this cute board for Andi's room. Kelsie made it for her for Christmas, but it no longer matched what we have in mind for Andi's room, so we just changed up the color and now it's perfect.

Today we will be replacing the ridiculous dishwasher that sounds like there's a growling animal in the kitchen, and buying paint for me to get started with!