So...whats a month really. I mean who really gives a big deal right. It's only 30 days or 4 weeks or 720 hours or...
Alright, so seriously, if we were to sit down together with a wonderful cup of something warm (whatever your fancy might be), I would only imagine the conversation to go something like this:
{friend} "So tell me, what's new with you?}
{me} "First off, it's not hard to look around and notice a lot of 'new' here. But probably the most important of all is that I (we) are back in our home!!!"
That about sums it up!!! Oh sure I could tell you how incredibly hard it was to trade our home where we were very comfortable, for a week long stay at a local hotel ~ close to dining and shopping!
Then I could tell you how totally, well umm, ahh... really words cannot describe... apartment living! Let's just say I am not interested in going back to that for sure!
And we should not forget the crud that got passed around like a winning football during a SuperBowl game! Let's just say that the gift of this delightfully unpleasant crud that my husband passed onto me is not the gift that I was hoping or even asking for for my birthday ~ diamonds, perfume, a really nice sweater are all better options in my mind!!! Nonetheless, last Friday I did receive one of the greatest "bday" gifts when the boys and I packed up the apartment and headed for home...for good. And then I received the sweetest gift when I followed Dalton to work for my "bday soy Chai" and saw one of my friends there having coffee with another gal. Upon hearing my poor sad story {of flooding, being sick, packing and moving alone... you get the picture}
She said to me, "Can you use an extra set of hands to help unpack? I was just going to go home and trim my Christmas tree but I can do that anytime." Now usually in this situation when asked if I need help my normal "martyr" response is, "Oh no, I've got it all handled", but lo and behold out of my mouth came, "you know, I could really use another set of hands - thank you!" It was like one of those out of body experiences where you see yourself talking but you don't have any control of what is going on. Let me say that I am so glad that my mouth spoke before my brain had a chance to stop it, cause what a blessing I received. She went into each bedroom and managed to move whatever needed to be moved to get to the beds to change the sheets/bedding on each and every bed so we at least had a place to sleep even if we did not have all the boxes unpacked. Isn't God's timing so perfect!!!
And do you ever have one of those days where it takes you allllllll day to do just one thing??? Today has been that day as I began this post about 9:00 this morning and here at 9:14pm this evening I am finally getting to finish what I started. So I guess after this long-winded post I owe some pictures. I tried to find pictures of the house before so I could do a comparitive, but no luck, so here goes:
Living room - almost put back together (I managed to keep the boxes out of the photo :-) Through the settlement we were able to upgrade our furniture to a new leather couch, chair and ottoman~ my dream for new furniture. Notice Little Missy is using her computer.
Yes, we even managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated all in the weekend we moved back. Thanks to the boys, Abigail and hubby while I was unpacking other boxes :-)
Atlas, my new kitchen. We were able to put in solid oak floors with a medium brown swedish finish. Our kitchen cabinets are hickory wood (I love the inconsistencies in them with large dark natural 'eye' spots). We went with a 'Corian' like countertop (just the cheaper version right under it) in a cocoa brown which totally accents between the cabinets and floor. We also made the choice to upgrade to a new stainless steel stove and side-by-side refrigerator with the ice/water feature on the door, my favorite as the boys don't understand the difference between putting back the Brita empty or not! Now we don't have to worry about it, as they never have to open the door to get water/ice again :-)
Alright, so seriously, if we were to sit down together with a wonderful cup of something warm (whatever your fancy might be), I would only imagine the conversation to go something like this:
{friend} "So tell me, what's new with you?}
{me} "First off, it's not hard to look around and notice a lot of 'new' here. But probably the most important of all is that I (we) are back in our home!!!"
That about sums it up!!! Oh sure I could tell you how incredibly hard it was to trade our home where we were very comfortable, for a week long stay at a local hotel ~ close to dining and shopping!
Then I could tell you how totally, well umm, ahh... really words cannot describe... apartment living! Let's just say I am not interested in going back to that for sure!
And we should not forget the crud that got passed around like a winning football during a SuperBowl game! Let's just say that the gift of this delightfully unpleasant crud that my husband passed onto me is not the gift that I was hoping or even asking for for my birthday ~ diamonds, perfume, a really nice sweater are all better options in my mind!!! Nonetheless, last Friday I did receive one of the greatest "bday" gifts when the boys and I packed up the apartment and headed for home...for good. And then I received the sweetest gift when I followed Dalton to work for my "bday soy Chai" and saw one of my friends there having coffee with another gal. Upon hearing my poor sad story {of flooding, being sick, packing and moving alone... you get the picture}
She said to me, "Can you use an extra set of hands to help unpack? I was just going to go home and trim my Christmas tree but I can do that anytime." Now usually in this situation when asked if I need help my normal "martyr" response is, "Oh no, I've got it all handled", but lo and behold out of my mouth came, "you know, I could really use another set of hands - thank you!" It was like one of those out of body experiences where you see yourself talking but you don't have any control of what is going on. Let me say that I am so glad that my mouth spoke before my brain had a chance to stop it, cause what a blessing I received. She went into each bedroom and managed to move whatever needed to be moved to get to the beds to change the sheets/bedding on each and every bed so we at least had a place to sleep even if we did not have all the boxes unpacked. Isn't God's timing so perfect!!!
And do you ever have one of those days where it takes you allllllll day to do just one thing??? Today has been that day as I began this post about 9:00 this morning and here at 9:14pm this evening I am finally getting to finish what I started. So I guess after this long-winded post I owe some pictures. I tried to find pictures of the house before so I could do a comparitive, but no luck, so here goes:
Living room - almost put back together (I managed to keep the boxes out of the photo :-) Through the settlement we were able to upgrade our furniture to a new leather couch, chair and ottoman~ my dream for new furniture. Notice Little Missy is using her computer.
Yes, we even managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated all in the weekend we moved back. Thanks to the boys, Abigail and hubby while I was unpacking other boxes :-)
Atlas, my new kitchen. We were able to put in solid oak floors with a medium brown swedish finish. Our kitchen cabinets are hickory wood (I love the inconsistencies in them with large dark natural 'eye' spots). We went with a 'Corian' like countertop (just the cheaper version right under it) in a cocoa brown which totally accents between the cabinets and floor. We also made the choice to upgrade to a new stainless steel stove and side-by-side refrigerator with the ice/water feature on the door, my favorite as the boys don't understand the difference between putting back the Brita empty or not! Now we don't have to worry about it, as they never have to open the door to get water/ice again :-)
Other side of the kitchen. We made the decision to eliminate the L-shape we had in the kitchen and straighten it out along the wall, opening up the kitchen a ton!!! We also switched the dishwasher to the right side as all of us, except Abigail are right handed. And we changed the lighting to can lights in the ceiling giving off so much more light than we ever had.
I tried to get a whole shot as best I could of the kitchen.
The new and improved hall bathroom. Looking at this photo our toilet used to be where the sink on the left was. We chose to swing the toilet along a different wall and re-plumb to add an additional sink considering having 3 teenage boys and a daughter, the whole double sink thing is a good choice.
In this picture, the tub/shower run along the left next to the toilet.More pictures to follow as I haven't gotten around to taking them yet. Okay so the real truth of the matter is I haven't gotten around to cleaning/clearing the room so a decent picture can be taken. I'm just too tired from this crud, oh well, maybe later!
