I love our little home. I fell in love with the yard before I even saw the inside. Which was probably good cause the inside needed lots of love.  And we've done so much work on the inside since we moved in. In fact the only thing that hasn't been painted is the kitchen cabinets, bathroom walls, and the exterior doors. But we haven't done much outside. About this time last year, Gary yanked out all the overgrown shrubbery that was planted way too close to the house, and the girls to took their money to make themselves a faerie garden and a butterfly garden, in their own little areas.  And they made pretty little areas even if there have been times I have had to go out and pulled foot tall weeds because they let it go for about a month.






 Gary started painting the house for me back in December. I think the blue makes the white brick look so pretty. He has got to finish the cutting in still around the faerie garden and the AC unit, but it looks great from the front. We still haven't settled on a trim color. I am thinking black shutters (we still need to replace one from the Hurricane) and black on the metalwork under the carport to cover the confederate blue. Then maybe white up around the eaves. Still no consensus on the front door. I'd like to replace it with one with a big piece of glass to let in more light, but Gary isn't going for the price tag. Anyway, he has hung some pictures and things for me this week, such as moving my flag holder to the front porch, so my next flag won't fade in the sun so fast, or get beat to death in the constant wind. Beautiful day, with my beautiful helpers.

 Britt's room was my first project. I decided to drag his bed out from against the wall for him to clean all the trash, toys, and clothes from that bottomless pit, when he asked if we could move the bed so that he could get to stuff without asking me to move it. So after thinking about it. I told him we could try moving it to the other wall to see if it fit. So we swapped his Chester drawers and bed, then, cleaned out his closet. Short couple hour project back on Feb. 28th.










 On Tuesday all I did for Rebecca was reassemble the bunk bed with alot of help from Ruth. All day Wednesday and the part of Thursday that I was home I worked on Rebecca and Kate's room. I even put up the wall clings that came with Kate's bedding that I had never decided what to do with them. Oddly enough Rebecca's favorite part is the closet. She has all her breakable stuff from her bookcase on the dresser in there. She is also using it as her "changing room."  She has been most excited about taking baths with Kate and getting to keep all their bathstuff in there, and not get it out for Ruth. She also likes picking out Kate's clothes when she gets hers out. I have to really insist if I want to do it. Rebecca also got some baby doll stuff from our T-ball mom which she has played with almost constantly and has been trying to teach Kate how to play with them. Rebecca decided the twin babies are for Kate and she's given her the kissy doll that she doesn't play with anymore.

All in all everyone seems happy with the new arrangements.

For almost a year now, I've been coloring in a coloring book that Joan Ellen found for me.  It has the words to "It is Well, With My Soul" in them.  Each phrase has an accompanying picture.  Most of them have been nature pictures, which are always my favorite.  I have trouble just sitting still.  I have always wanted to have a book to read, or sit and crochet in the car.  Even just sitting with Gary in the evenings when he is watching tv, I feel like I need to keep my hands occupied.  Lately I've been doing that by coloring.

Now, that we are starting to think about setting up Kate's crib in the guest room, I realized, that we never posted pictures of the guest room.  It's been done since the end of January.  My parents came down there for Ruth's baptism.  And we were blessed to have a homeschool family from PA stay over night with us one night, while they were doing their vacation at Disney in February.  We've also had Mom and Dad here a few times, when they were bringing the kids back or watching them here for us during a doctor's appointment.

Before

After

We are thinking about putting the crib where the chester drawers are currently sitting.  I have just enough room to put the drawers in the closet.  The space is just right for that.  It may make the space between the foot of the bed and the crib a little narrow for walk space.  And of course we aren't sure at when we will move her out of the cradle in our room, and into the crib, or how long she will stay in there.  But I think this space works well for company, and Kate.  I have at least already washed up the baby clothes, and put them away in the dresser, which will double as a changing table.



For this room we went with a sage green color from the same color palette as the other colors in the house.  I like green, it's calm and soothing.  We also repainted the wrought iron bed white.  It's not in great shape, and if we end up keeping it long term, it really needs a little work done on it.   We did take the wore out 15+ year old mattress off and give it to Britt, because he can't tell the difference.  And we put the good Tempurpedic mattress on this bed with my old box springs.  I knew I wanted to put the chair that we got from Bro. Chris and Sis. Lydia in this room.  Plus, when we found out we were having a girl I thought we might go with green and pink colors, since they are popular right now.  So I just put the girls pink sheets back on the bed.  Of course I ended up going with bedding that was more coral than pink but with the greens and turquoise in it.  The only thing about this room, that I'm not sure I'm satisfied about, is that it's a bit eclectic for me.  The shelf holds all those things that Gary and I don't really know what to do with, but don't want to get rid of either.  Mostly from college but some other knick knacks too.

After

Before

Because this room originally was the Master bedroom, before the old carport was converted into what is our bedroom and bath, there is also a vanity, with a small walk in closet to the left and a bathroom to the right.  The closet is home to alot of storage items that we want to be able to get to, but don't need on a daily basis, but things that shouldn't go out in the shed either.  Which is another reason that this space is so good for company.

This space has turned out to be my favorite in the house.  Have a look.

After

Before

The blue grey in here was the first thing we painted.  I worried a little at first that it would be too dark, and then I was surprised that it was more blue and less grey than I expected it to be, but I absolutely loved it.  With the white trim it has such a classic feel to it.  It's so neat and clean.  I love the back of our front door.  It's got this beautiful red-oak finish, and all this carving.  For some reason though, no one carved the front and they painted it this flat confederate blue.  So sad.  I'd kinda like to move it to our room at some point, and repaint the outside, since the door at the office opens to the outside on the side of the house.  And get a door with a big glass piece in it, to let more light into the living room area.  Again down the road.  The only other thing I would change about the space is at some point, we do want to change the tile floor out for wood, and we can't decide if we'd prefer the red oak finish or the dark wood finish.

After

Before

When it came to setting up the room though, it took me a little longer to figure out what to do here.  Since we weren't able to pull down the wall before we moved in due to the delay in closing, it left me scrambling to try to figure out where things would go.  Dad and Gary have this move things once policy.  And since I was trying to do the bare minimum of lifting this pregnancy, I needed to make decisions as much as possible while Gary had help there.  Turns out the furniture fits the space even better than I had thought it might.

After

Before

With the front door and screened porch lined up with the french doors and the back porch (which is also screened in), I can get a great cross breeze during the day, and even with the porches we are getting a surprising amount of light.  The front of the house faces almost due South, a little Southwest-ish maybe, and of course all the white trim helps brighten up the room.


I have all of our favorite pictures hung up in here.  Nearly everything in this room has been a gift.  there is the Bible verse from the Mizells that Sis. Lori Gowens made.  There is another Bible verse from my Secret Sister, Sis. Carol Rowel.  There is the verse from Be Still My Soul that Sis. Lydia Crouse got for us.  And the three pictures on the other side of the tv, were all gifts when we got married.  One of them Sis. Kelly Spezzano made for me.  Right by the door is a small plaque about family that Old Carrol gave us (I believe Sis. Wanda picked it out).  There is also the bird picture that use to hang above my parents couch when I was small, a picture I learned to count with.  This is where all the pottery Aunt Cindy made for me sits.  And during Christmas I had my manger scene out here.  Everything just feels so comfy about the space.


It's also more in the middle of our floor plan.  The kids rooms to one side, the dining and kitchen to the other, guest room sort off the side of it along with the big screened in back porch.  I can have the kids doing school at the dining room table while I work.  I can read in my big chair while they play on the back porch.  They can watch Netflix while I work in the kitchen.  It's just a really great spot.  I have mentioned several times now, but I absolutely love how the layout works for us in this house.


The living room is currently L shaped as long as the wall remains in place.  I was at a real loss what to do with the smaller leg of the L.  For Christmas at least I decided I wanted to keep the fireplace.  It was a real eyesore before, several different color schemes going on - pink inside, the greys and browns on the outside stone, that off white/pale cream on the top and the hearth.  Alot of places where the finish was completely knocked off, dingy, and full of cat fur.  Memaw even accidentally vacuumed up a dead mouse out of the fireplace.  It seemed to fit really well on the smaller wall, so Dad and Gary with alot of effort and some piano rollers moved it across the room for me.  I decided if it was going to sit there for Christmas pictures that I at least wanted to try to clean it up and touch up the paint.  After I was finished, it looked so much better that I've decided to keep it.  That wall is where we are hanging all of the really nice family pictures we had made back in the fall.  And I even have a frame set aside and saved for Kate.


On the opposite wall for now, I have the last two book cases.  One has some fun books as the kids get older, and the board books for Kate.  The rest of their school stuff that didn't fit in the big cabinet is in the other bookshelf.  I had school stuff at the last house on the two small shelves that Britt has in his room, and they were really too cramped.  So, this works better.  I also have the rockers in here, and have spent alot of time reading to Rebecca since the move.  The others like for me to read, but she can't get enough of it.  She often wakes me up in the morning with a book in her hand.  She reminds me of myself more and more each day, and not only in the worst way.




This wall, currently has the tiniest good for nothing closet, and the AC thermostat, so taking it out will be a little more work.  But again, this will do for now.