A Work In Progress:

Alright everybody, here's your blog update. When you see some of these pictures of the state of our house, you'll wonder exactly what have we been doing the past 2 weeks? (have we really been here 2 weeks?) It does not seem like we closed 2 weeks ago today. We were fortunate enough to get the stuff from our rental house & our storage unit  that next Sunday, so I got all of that put where it needed to go before our BIG shipment from Storage came last Thursday. For the most part, the house looks like this:

There is no decorating going on in the living room. Do not be misled by what you see. It's just a matter of digging through boxes looking for thing A, and finding thing B instead, and then you need somewhere to put Thing B, so Thing B goes on the mantle or the sofa table. Needless to say, we haven't been hanging out in here an awful lot. lol

I'm loving having my bed back, and I have the whole King size all to myself since Carl/Todd has left the marriage bed and relocated to the guest bed because he found while we were in the rental house, that he slept better on the guest mattress. Now this King size mattress hurts his neck. WHATEVER. i've been sleeping like a baby in my doubled up egg crates. I just have to be careful not to break my neck on the junk in the middle of the night.

Somehow, we eat there. I'm trying to ignore this space, as I have a makeover project that needs my attention on the hutch that's been in storage for 4 years. I have enough sense to know I don't have time for that right now, so I might as well load it up with China and wait until after Christmas. All those boxes left in here are decorative stuff that goes in the living room when the living room is passable.

Hannah's doing pretty good on her room considering she's in school all day. She's managed to herd up all her model horses in one bookcase and SOME of her books in the other. The close is done...the bathroom is done, and all we lack is finding her a mirror for above her dresser, hanging curtains and everything that goes on the walls...and there are 6 or 7 boxes still up there that we have no idea what's in them. Carl/Todd found his long underwear in one lastnight.

This is that closet-maid storage cube from Target...I have one for my scrapbook room and hannah got this one for hers. I found the baskets at Kohls on clearnace for $4 apiece. They are a heavy duty nylon with chrome handles and were regularly $12 apiece. They go good with her circle thing she's got going on up there. Funny she won't even wear polka dots but her room is polka dots.

I'm jelous of her reading corner and that big fuzzy chair,but I have a couple of reading corners in mind for myself.

Nothing melts my heart like going upstairs and catching this girl reading her Bible ...probably she's getting ammunition for her Social Studies teacher. :)

From the landing.

Carl made himself useful today and put these cool handles on the toilet tanks. They are $15 at Lowes. These just happen to match the door handles.

I have no control over what happens in this room. This is Carl/Todd's trophy room. He's getting better with the decorating...he's come a long way. He saw a restaurant somewhere,and they had pictures floor to ceiling and that's what he plans to do in here...I was like, WHATEVER.

I was busy today myself. We had to resort to the bedroom for the clubchair that goes with the living room suite. It just won't fit. So I put it in a corner in the master bedroom next to another project...a bookcase that Carl/Todd hates. He begged me to give it to the goodwill. I love this bookcase. It's solid maple! It just has a clear finish and I want to give it a black distressed finish. I'll put that on my to-do list.

Master bath is unpacked and everything is put away, as well as the closet.

Yesterday evening, this is what the island looked like...piled high with all the stuff that goes on my cabinet tops. Yes, people, it's finally time to do my own. I've been SO looking forward to this. I've done everyone elses, and now it's finally time to do my own!  My one in a million friend Lou came to hand stuff up to me on the 10 ft ladder...because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to walk today if she hadn't.

Before...blah!

Yes, they scream "decorate me please!" and Yes, there are 2 Sonic cups in this picture, because Lou never comes over without bringing me a Sonic. She doesn't even ask. :)

Ta Da!

I've always had this metal wheelbarrow on top of my cabinets..for 8 years I have, but these ceilings are so high and the wheelbarrow is so high up that you can only see the bottom of it and you couldnt' even tell it was a wheelbarrow...but I wanted to use it, so i put it on the middle of the island, but these really fake real looking apples in it and put the grapevine wreath around it for now. Still not sure i like the wreath...I need some pussywillow to twist around the wreath I think.

Ok, so I had granite for the first time in Louisiana, when I lived here before I had tumblesd stone, and I didn'tn like the way the granite in  Louisiana looked after 4 years. It was really dull and blah. So i really researched how to care for this granite, especially since it's going to be around as long as I am. So the granite in the laundry room...well I'm trying the Pledge in the orange can like the granite guy suggested. Since there's less of it, if it doesn't turn out so well, it won't matter so much. In here in the kitchen, I've been using just a wet cloth with water...I learned that soapy dishwater is a no-no...and once a day I wipe them down with a granite wipe I found at Lowes, made by Dupont. it comes in a pop up thingy like lysol wipes. Order them here: http://www.amazon.com/Dupont-Granite-Countertop-Cleaner-Protector/dp/B003JOOEZQ/ref=sr_1_20?s=STORE&ie=UTF8&qid=1285309275&sr=8-20

yep, there's that chair I dumpster dove for. I love free stuff. A little pledge and it shined up great.

In it sits that darn rooster that started the collection 10 years ago. I walked off with him for almost nothing at a Belk closeout sale in NC. I've been adding to my flock ever since.

I can't get the hang of this cooktop. It's smarter than me. I keep burning stuff on it.

The outside and flowerbeds have come to a standstill. I can't decide what to finish first. Fall bushes are out, I just need to get to a stopping point inside so I can get to a starting point outside.

It's nice having the horses right in the back & side yard. You can just about see them from every side of the house but 1. I wonder, if they wonder, why we don't go away, why we keep hanging around.

I forgot to add this up with the kitchen pictures, but my cookbook shelf. I've never had a place for my cookbooks...they've been in the file cabinet, on the counter, and most recently in the laundry room. I had a bookcase built in the end of the island facing the oven for my cookbooks. I still need to jimmy with the shelves and move them around to get the most use of space, but I love having my cookbooks handy, but yet out of sight.

Next to the TV in the kitchen, I most love the Sunrises...gorgeous. Every morning out my kitchen window.

Hannah loves just going out in the garage, grabbing the saddle and hopping on Cinch. Lately she's been practicing roping by chasing Star like a cow. It's funny because Star needs the exercise for one, and being so bossy normally, it's funny to see her running from Hannah on horseback. A sample of this antic below: click and watch and try not to feel sorry for Star.

maddie seems to be adjusting fine...she appears to be scared of the horses. We think, she thinks they are large dogs. she hasn't tried to go outside or dart out the doors at all. maybe she's just happy having lots of rooms to roam around in. She still has her attitude...look at that face. She's still in charge.