Maranell Moments and More

Looking for Ideas...

2009-02-24T11:36:00.001-06:00

What do you do for exercise in the winter when it's too cold to do anything outside? I need some ideas and motivation...

I know it's been years since the last post...

2009-02-05T14:10:00.002-06:00

I'm so sorry that I am a terrible blogger! I do have an excuse at the moment though. I can't stand being at the computer for very long because of the extreme nausea I have. And the reason I am nauseous is because Maranell baby #3 is on the way! I am 12 weeks pregnant currently and due on August 17. Although the baby will probably be delivered a week or two before that since this will be my 3rd c-section. So sitting at the computer typing a blog entry has not been high on my to-do list lately. But I've decided it's time to post SOMETHING at least, so you don't think we've fallen off the face of the earth.
Our house was completed in early December and we have been thoroughly enjoying our new kitchen and bathroom. And this week I have again taken up some painting (with a respirator mask on of course, Dad). I am working on the living room and dining room. We'll see how long it takes to finish it.
Here are some pictures of the kids as of yesterday!

Eden-isms

2008-11-13T10:59:00.003-06:00

In our house, with a growing 4-year-old, we have lots of funny conversations. Well, they're funny to Mark and I, but Eden is completely serious through the whole thing. This morning, we went into Eden and Carter's room to get them dressed. When we flipped the light switch up, the light didn't go on, and I remembered the light blew out last night.
Here's how the conversation went:

Mommy: "Oh yeah, the light bulb blew out last night. That's why it didn't go on!"
Eden: "But Mommy, I NEED THE LIGHT ONNNNN!"
Mommy: "There's plenty of light coming in the window. You're just fine."
Eden: "I better tell Grandma and have her fix it. She's a GOOD lightbulber!"

Yes, Grandma does seem to be a good lightbulber. She always comes to the rescue when Eden is trying to use the bathroom and a light bulb goes out. Eden really dislikes that! And she makes sure Grandma knows the bulb has gone out.

Until the next Eden-ism...

House Update and Much More!

2008-11-09T11:09:00.009-06:00

Okay, I know it's been WAY too long since I last posted pictures of the house. The reason why is because we've been over there every extra minute that we have working on the place. We usually don't get home until 11:30pm or midnight and fall into bed. Then Mark is up at 5am to get ready for work and it's go, go, go all day, and then run over there as soon as we get the kids in bed each night. The days have been flying by.
I have, however, taken many pictures, so I will post the progression that has taken place. We have been busy painting, painting, sanding, painting, staining, going to Menards, painting, going to Menards...you get the idea. I think we are some of Menard's best customers right now!

Follow along as we go through the house!

We'll start with Carter's room...
Carter's room is painted "Summer Fun Blue" with a "Victory Red" Stripe. We are painting all the trim white, but of course, that is not finished yet, so that is why the blue tape on the window.

Now we'll move on to Eden's room...prepare yourself...it's bright, but SHE LOVES IT!

Room fit for a pink princess! This is a VERY pink room. But most everything she owns is some shade of pink...every time she goes in it she says..."Thank you Mommy, Thank you Daddy!" I love it! Also, you'll see the sanded floors...more on that later.

As far as the third bedroom goes, we haven't done anything to that room yet. It has been tool storage, and a "catch-all" so far. We'll get to that next week maybe.

The bathroom is coming along nicely. This is what it looked like this past week...

and here it is now... it's hard to tell from the picture, but it is painted "skyline" which is a light blue/grayish color.

And last but not least is the kitchen (nothing to show in the living room and dining room yet).

Here is the kitchen at the beginning of this past week. Here you'll see the left part is painted. It's a light beige color...hard to see in the pictures.

Here is our new back entryway. The refrigerator also goes just after that wall sticking out on the left side of the picture.

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Our cabinets were delivered this past week, so they have begun installing them. We may do a little switching around with some of them, but here's a start. This is the wall the sink and dishwasher go on.

And here's down the long wall on the right side of the kitchen. That's the back entryway in the background.

Okay, that's all the pictures I have for now. We're off to do the polyurethane on the bedroom floors now (and probably more painting too).

Wanted: Walls

2008-10-17T16:14:00.008-05:00

Older home seeks white walls to spend lots of quality time with. Must be available immediately and like small children.

(hee hee okay enough of that)

Anyway, as you can see, the kitchen and bath continues to be demolished and rebuilt.

These are our "happy workers" who have taken on the project of not only removing some wall to extend the kitchen for the refrigerator, but also are creating a back hallway area. It is a great idea, however, it is more work for them. But I am told they like pie...

And this picture above is the gutted bathroom. Well except for the ugly flooring that hasn't been ripped up yet.

And here is a picture of our "new" basement. We had to have some steel posts put along one wall so it doesn't lean any more than it is. Isn't that a lovely fashion statement?

And here are our cherubs delighting in the old cabinets that have been cast aside in the living room for the time being. A really fun game is opening all the doors and then "sneaking" through since there's no back side to them. If we can squeeze them down the basement steps, we are going to try to salvage some of these for storage and laundry stuff in the basement. We'll see if we still have energy by the time we get to that step.

And finally, I had to post this picture since I got one of Carterbud actually SMILING!!! and HIS EYES OPEN AT THE SAME TIME!! He is really a fan of brooms, dust pans, and vacuum cleaners right now. He LOVES to push those things around. And since there is lots of stuff to sweep with all the demolition going on, what better play area could there be?

Our crazy new house

2008-10-07T15:45:00.006-05:00

Okay, I've been getting lots of questions about the house...so here goes! I have a bunch of pictures downloaded here so you can see what it looks like now. I'll be posting lots of pics of the changes taking place, mostly inside. Then of course, there will be "after" pictures. Not sure when we'll be moving in...depends on when our cabinets and countertops come in. Supposed to take 3-4 weeks. But that's okay because we have a lot of priming, painting, and floor sanding to do inside. And with football still going on, our time to work over there consists solely of the weekends.

As you can see from the picture, the outside is yellow and it has a one-car garage.

This picture is standing just inside the front door looking from the living room to the dining room.

This picture is looking from the dining room into the kitchen. The kitchen and bathroom are being all torn out and redone. The kitchen right now is down to the studs at the moment. I just keep forgetting to take my camera over. I have to go back later today so I'll try to take some pictures of what it looks like today. Our contractor was getting the cabinets and countertops ordered today. Yippee!

We bought a house!!

2008-09-23T16:10:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't heard...we finally found a house to buy!!! It's perfect! And we are getting some remodeling costs built in with our mortgage, so we're getting a new kitchen and bath out of the deal too. Mark and I have been spending a LOT of time at Menards lately picking out cabinets, countertops, faucets, etc. etc. etc. It's exhausting. We'd pick out something and then try to match it with something else. But that something else would be way on the other side of the store, so we did a lot of running back and forth across the store. We were, of course, on a Grandma/Grandpa babysitter time crunch since they had to get to a meeting at a certain time. That was good though, I suppose, because that made us decide. Otherwise, we might still be standing there staring at the row of faucets. Man, why do they need to have 300 different kinds of faucets. Seriously! Makes you go cross-eyed when you turn down the row.
Tonight we meet with the guy who's going to be doing the majority of the remodeling work for us. We have to see his proposal and mix it with our selected items and come up with a price for the bank. Should make for a long, but exciting, evening.
Now on to paint colors...

Ok We've Arrived!

2008-09-14T21:57:00.003-05:00

I've finally decided to keep a blog for us and our happenings and anything else I feel like putting up here. We're busy these days working on buying a house, I'm starting a photography business, and I'm trying to keep up with an almost-4-year-old and a 16-month-old. With all that going on, I should have plenty to talk about!