Whenever I find my camera cord in all the things I haven't put away yet, I'll post some pics here!
We started by loading all the furniture in our entryway and barricading our front door. It was the only empty space available besides the garage. We didn't get to use our front door for more than 2 weeks! Then we pulled up all the carpet. It took 3 people just to carry it out of the room! Then we painted the living room. I had wanted a light browinsh/pink cream, but I was super afraid to make the walls too dark.
We have a very small house with limited lighting and windows, and I didn't want a dark atmosphere, especially since one wall in our living room is dark brown and gray stones around the fireplace. I erred on the side of caution and chose a lighter creamy color. Definitely not white, though. I thought it would look so pretty. I was disappointed once it got on the wall, however. YOU COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE! It was so close to the original color, and I didn't even know it! Silly, huh? I had already bought two gallons of it, and after all our work I wasn't about to go spend more money on a new color, so we just kept it. Scott likes it. He never wanted color on the walls, he prefers white.
School has pretty much been on hold while we've moved hundreds of books and loads of furniture and junk around. It has been almost as crazy as moving! We had to watch Conference on a bare plywood floor. That was NOT fun. We also had to live 1 1/2 weeks with no kitchen table. That was the WORST. We had to eat on the couch in front of the TV, our outside, or on the floor. My kids began to watch shows with every meal, and soon I was witnessing the destruction of our family solidarity. NO JOKE. I now have an additional testimony of the power of having family meals around the table. It is super important and powerful, there is no substitution for it!
It took 2 weeks, but in his spare time, Scott finally got down all the wood laminate flooring. It looks Soooo nice. We all are loving it. Now that we finally have everything back in place, I've got to go through and declutter. I have piles and piles of stuff to go through. Our rooms look so nice and open, I don't want to put all the desks and paper back into it. So I've got to figure out what we're going to do with school at my house. My kids all have their own desks, but they hardly ever use them. They much prefer doing school around the kitchen table. So I don't know yet what I'm doing with the desks. But now I have to find a spot for all their workbooks and supplies. It's going to be a real pain. I guess once you put half your stuff in storage, you figure you don't need it anymore! I don't want it back in my house!
I went on a huge declutter spree and got rid of tons of stuff in Christopher and Dorathy's room too. I'm about ready to kick all their toys out of the house. I even moved Angel into Julianna's room to open up more space. Everyone is enjoying the changes. I also purged our nortoriously stuffed coat closet. Our house has not grown bigger, but our family sure has, and we've become CHOKED with stuff. Bleh bleh bleh. If you can't have a bigger house, you need less STUFF,
As stressed out and busy as Scott and I have been, our kids have been having a BLAST! It's just a big adventure to them! They loved having a barricade of furniture to climb over and under and hide in. They loved doing school in different rooms of the house. Their favorite hide out was the Entertainment Center. For a long time, it was in the Dining room without the TV, and so the kids would hide inside the spot where the TV used to be, close the doors, and play fort or cave with their flashlights. Everyone wanted a turn in there. Dorathy would sit in there and read.
At first, our kids were upset at the idea of losing the rug. They liked it, and didn't want any change. Now that we have hard flooring in, however, they LOVE it!! They had such a great time playing in the rooms once the flooring was in. They even invented "The Dotson Family Amusement Park" and created 8 different "rides" that they could play on the floor. They discovered it was better for all kinds of things, and they haven't said anything but praise since.
Over the last 5 years, school stuff has pretty much taken over our household. Bookshelves in EVERY room. Paper and projects everywhere. The kids love it, but it drives me a bit crazy. Just like a move, this change gives me the opportunity to alter many things about our household that has been bugging us for years.
I'm so happy with what we decided to do with the books. We totally rearranged our living room, lining two walls with bookshelves. The TV is where the piano used to be. Someday I have to count all of our books, just to see how many we actually have. I have my own library now! My dream has come true! I finally have a room that is mostly books, floor to ceiling. Our new arrangement looks much nicer. Even though there are more books in there than previously, the room is more open and has tons more space in it now. Everyone is enjoying it. If you can see the books, you'll read them.
We changed our dining room, too. We have the kitchen table centered in the middle, which leaves lots more space all around. The piano is where the computer used to be, and we got a nice new computer desk to put in the corner where the book shelf used to be.
Now to finish our remodeling quest we still have to 1.) put tile around the fireplace floor area, 2.) replace an old sliding door with french doors 3.) repaint hallways and entryway, and maybe other areas as well. This has all turned out to be more expensive than we had planned, much to our chagrin, but Scott agrees that it has been worth it. It is a minimal investment that we get to enjoy now, and it will help us sell our house when the time is right.
I know Scott is getting tired of all the indoor work and is anxious to get outside and start work in the garden and yard. I hope we can get it all done in April while it's still a little cool and rainy! Otherwise, I think he'll go bonkers.
I'm planning on us having all summer to improve our yard...I still have hopes of redoing our backyard and making it look nice. Over the past 6 years, between farming and having kids, our backyard has gotten trashier and trashier. It's in severe need of some TLC. I'm at the point now where I'm just embarrassed for people to see it. BUT...it does make a great farm. And I can't complain about the benefit of chickens, rabbits, greenhouse, garden, and misc fruit bearing plants. When we buy our future acreage, I think I'll send out little postcards to all our neighbors with the title "Peace at last! The Dotsons finally got their farm!" and then include a little drawn picture of us leaving the house with a huge trail of animals and clutter trailing behind in our wake.
On the day we were working on our Dining Room, we had a neighbor come over to complain about our bees. It was a very stressful situation, but I hope we have now resolved it. The new hive Scott recently acquired turned out to be TOO active for a neighborhood. The bees stung the neighbors dog a few times, and so the family was afraid to go out and enjoy their own backyard. Scott's other hive is quiet and keeps to itself, so we've kept that one. We moved the agressive bees to someone else's property, and then apologized to our neighbors and gave them a quart of our best honey. We never want to be the cause of difficulty or irritation to others, so we really really appreciate it when people voice their opinions and tell us how they feel to our faces. Then we can DO something about it! It's when people are upset, and don't say anything, that make bad things happen. Thank-you, dear neighbor, for being honest and allowing us the opportunity to fix the situation.
Remodeling has been a journey, and when we're finally finished...I hope we're done for a LOOONG time!
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