Peaceful {and Reading}

I just love fall colours. I really do. I would wear them, and actually - I do wear them...year round. They are just so perfect. To my eye, anyway. My new yard (and the "screamed in" porch, as Grey calls it), provide us with so much beauty. It's just so peaceful here. If I'm having a harried moment -

{I'm telling you all the honest truth - teaching people how to read is the worst! It's gotta be the most patience-inducing thing of.all.time. You just want to fall on your pencil and end it all. No. Start at the first sound. No, the first sound. Is that the first sound you see? Then start at.the.first.sound. So you're telling me that th makes the "ch" sound? Start over. I can't tell you, it's something kindergarteners know. Well we'll be sitting here until you figure it out, so look at the page and concentrate... If you've ever taught a child how to read, you know what I mean. Sometimes they are so absolutely dumb it almost seems unreal. Like they're faking it. Because no one is really that dense. Are they? And these particular idiots are -presumably- related to me. I often wonder if they were switched at birth. Because certainly, I have never been so difficult:-) }...

So anyway, if I'm having a harried moment - which as you can see by the above example - I have often occasion to have...I like to look at the trees. And the water. And the colours. It's really so just peaceful, interesting and calming, all at the same time.

Brian says the ivy will kill the tree. But it's just so pretty!

Leaves falling into the water

The tree in our front yard is so vibrant!

Some roses are still hanging in there! It's hasn't gotten too cold yet, so we've got a good mix of summer and fall

We have lots of raking to do! But the kids love it!

Speaking of kids...:-) My little readers. They are actually good little readers...when they want to be

Vibrant yellows in the backyard.

...Speaking of reading, in order to encourage more of it (and perhaps because I am a glutton for punishment) I instituted a new house-hold rule a few weeks ago. Read me one story, out loud, to earn 1 tv show/episode/movie. If you want a show, you have to read a book first. I believe I've really put a damper on their tv watching excitement:-) Tonight while I was making dinner, they read me a story (altering pages between them), so they could watch something after dinner. After dinner and that show, they said to watch another one, and I said "for another story" and they decided they'd rather not watch tv after all. Haha!

Chesapeake

This is a bit of an exaggeration of the facts - but it feels true. Norfolk is the city and Chesapeake is the country.

There are certain things about Norfolk that I really miss, and can't be beat - like the location. Norfolk is awesomely centrally located. Living there, the only time I had to drive more than 2 miles from my house was to go to church, or Trader Joe's. We had multiple malls, 3 super walmarts to chose from, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, restaurants galore - all within 2.5 miles of the house. We could walk to 2 different redbox's...even the Woodard Group is conveniently only 2 miles from the house, and hospital, the dr's and the dentist, Ocean view beach... and the airport? Well, that's 3 miles. Soooo far away:-) It's just super duper convenient to live in Norfolk. LOVE that.

Chesapeake has it's advantages too - but nearness to anything is not one of them. Right now we live about 20-25 minutes from Hugo house in normal traffic. We live actually, only a few exits from North Carolina - we're basically "right on the border". There is not a single redbox closer than 1.5 miles to my house...The "everything is within 2 miles" standard in Norfolk is gone...long gone. "Everything is within 15 miles" might be the new slogan. There is 1 Walmart near, it's about 5 miles away (right on the NC border). It's an adjustment to the gas budget, and the timeline. On the plus side, we are about 10 mins from church, which is nice, since we are there often enough. It actually reminds me of where I grew up - close enough to the conveniences of the city, yet in the country.

Anyway, getting used to all this country living has us smelling "things burning" every night - every one lights their fire places, and it gives an aroma to the air that the kids find very alarming:-) And there's all the...snow. Haha. It's colder out here! And this week - it "snowed". I use the term loosely, but the kids were beyond thrilled. It was technically sleet. And I drove in it...as I headed into downtown Norfolk, wouldn't you know it...not snowing/sleeting at all there:-)

It didn't last longer than a quick trip to Walmart, but sleet/snow/slushy rain was falling!

This morning - frost! Something we didn't experience much in the city because a) we had no grass b)it's warmer there.

Our grass this morning. The kids were screaming in praise and rejoicing. It was a little over the top, given it was frost, and not real snow...but I guess these southern babies just have really low standards when it comes to these things:-)

Across the street, in the sun, if there wasn't a chill to the air, you might think it was still summer...

Our neighbor directly across the street - not a stitch of frost anywhere...

But we had tons of frost! Funny how that works. It was all for the kids. They loved it!

Driving. As my Dad put it, "everywhere you go here is a major highway" ;-) Not always the case...but yah. Choices...am I headed toward Richmond...nope. Off to my new home town, Chesapeake! As an aside - why do cities do that...I mean, Richmond? Shouldn't you put the next destination on the sign, and not the last one? It's Norfolk, Newport News, Williamsburg THEN Richmond. Confusing.


This is Hampton Roads - home sweet home! It's surrounded by the ocean - the "real ocean" and "the bay". We simply adore this place. It's a great spot on the map:-)

 

 

This is a breakdown of where the cities are - if you are not familiar...all of these cities (listed below) make up the Hampton Roads area. All of these cities are within very close approximation to each other. Our church is literally on the Va Bch/Ches line, and it's only a few miles down the road. So while I complain about being "far away" the road systems here do a pretty good job of integrating these individual cities into an easily accessed larger "city area".

 

Bathroom Ideas - Help?

Decisions, decisions!

First - I am trying to come up with a whole-house colour scheme. Neutral, but not boring. Greys? Greens? I've read that choosing 3 to 5 colours is best, and those colours are in every room - Trying to establish my main choices - from my accents etc. If any of you know of any helpful sites in this regard, pass them along!! I don't want to settle on something for the bathroom, until we've come up with the overall "theme" and "feel" of the interior space.

We've kind of decided on one thing, so far: White trim with black doors - on the inside of the house. Yup, we're gonna do it!

This would be similar to how our hallway would look.

BATHROOM: Help? Great ideas or pics? There are so many ways we can go with this thing...

Things we definitely want to achieve in the master bath: A "Cool"/trendy space. But not so trendy that it screams "2013" in 15 years. So trendy that it's still freaking amazing in 15 years. That kind of trendy. For as cheap as humanly possible;-) There will be body sprays. There will probably be rainshowers. There may be a steam shower. Or there may be absolutely no doors at all (gasp!). What to do...what to do...If you were BUYING a house, what would be a super cool factor you'd love to have, just for the small luxury of it? This is what I would like to do with this house - appeal to the masses with some fun and luxury.

Doing an accent wall with glass doors could definitely work

In the name of all things completely awesome. This is so happening.

This is exactly the layout of our bathroom. Other than, we have a window where the upper towel rack hangs in this pic. It's clean and fresh. Not overly interesting, but works.

Ok, we don't have room for two, so picture this only one sided. Sweetness. Hardwood looking tile floors. Hmmm. Inspiration!

Well, it has all the elements I want, but its not nearly pretty enough. Better tile choices would fix that.

Organizing

Well, we're unpacked and moved in. But not entirely neatly:-) I've been working on organizing over the past few days, and made some happy headway...

The shirts that made the cut

Brian's closet - he just had too many clothes and was in desperate need of "thinning out". All the old stuff, all the stained stuff...there was a HUGE pile to throw away. I weighed the big trash bag full of reject clothes - it was 25 *pounds* yikes. Like I said. He had too many clothes.

Now it's sooo much neater and a much more manageable amount of clothing. All his clothes fit in here. I get the dresser for my stuff, he gets baskets in the closet:-)

I wish I had a before pic of the closet, it was such a disaster!

Pantry area in garage - the kitchen is not huge, and doesn't have a ton of storage but, this pantry makes it all work out! My kitchen cupboards are no where near crowded, thanks to having this space.

When we first unpacked, I just put things where-ever they fit. No rhyme or reason. Now we have a little order established. Feels good to have a specific place/area for everything!

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After
 

I have a box full of recipes...

things I clipped from magazines, print outs from the internet...so many recipes! I was struck with a moment of brilliance (I think?!). I've had it on my to do list forever to input these on my recipe site. But it's kinda boring. Idea - post PICS of them. So much faster and easier. Check out a bunch I did today here: http://kennedyfamilycookbook.blogspot.com/. So soon those recipes will be in the trash and online, yay!

Willow Reno #1

We've started our very first "major" renovation at the Willow House - the master bathroom. I'm super bad at "before" pics. Usually, when Brian says "I'm going to do this..." It's on the phone to me, and I'm at Walmart. By the time I get home. It's done. Haha!

So this is my best shot at a before pic...

But the shower had issues, and was basically not useable - due to things like this:

The fiberglass surround was damaged in places, and rusted in places...and we never used it because we didn't want it to leak through.

Here the surround is gone! We will not reconfigure the bathroom at all, just replace everything.

What we found. It's amazing what people leave in the walls instead of cleaning it up!

The tile that was above the surround is still there - need to pull it down...

That really didn't take too long at all!

Now for the hard part - in my opinion - the design of this whole house hinges on the shower choices...what should I pick? I need to start pinning ideas and posting for opinions!!

Hugo Goodbyes...

Here is the progress on the Hugo house...and a little trip down memory lane...(this one is going to be long, sorry!)

Check out this video, from the 2:27 mark - to the end. This house has come a LONG way, by way of projects and improvements. Wow. (Video from May 2005, we bought the house in Feb 2005)



So...

Driving away from my little Hugo house, today.

I actually have missed this little house quite a bit. I'm not complaining about my new yard, or the much larger house and CLOSET SPACE...but Hugo holds a really special place in my heart...

 

It was our first house. We bought it because of the rental space upstairs (the yellow door beside garage leads to a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, full kitchen apartment). We schemed that one day, we'd move away, but we'd never sell it. It will be good rental income, we thought. It was a scheme, I'd say, or a dream...but it didn't really seem like much of that dream would ever kiss reality.

 

So many memories made here.

 

We've been working hard and doing the best we can - but I feel like on top of that, we've been dealt with very graciously by many. Basically, through no fault of our own...we've got 3 houses. It sounds outrageous, and it is. It's a crazy ride, let me tell you.

 

Well, we moved. And we needed to find a renter for Hugo - for December. That is when the house would be rent-ready, we thought. Well, we found a renter kind of by accident (did not advertise)...but they needed it...now. They just moved here from Seattle and were staying in a hotel ($$) while looking for a place to rent. Enter us, with the bleeding hearts. Of course you can rent it now so you can save money on the hotel...This was 3 days ago.

 

It's been a busy three days.

 

Obviously, it is really not rental ready, yet! But they came to see it in all it's glory and said it would be fine as is for now. They will rent it and we will finish up things we need to do over the course of the month.

 

So we got to work! All we really want left to deal with is kitchen cabinet doors (make & install), garage (move things out and clean), and some outdoor stuff too (trim painting, new shutters etc). That left us with A LOT to do before they moved in today...

 

A short list:

paint green room wall & trim

paint our room

install and paint trim in our room

stain & poly quarter round, and install it throughout entire house

re-work ducting for HVAC system under the house

re adjust upper cabinets

install counter tops

install backsplash

re-work/move certain electrical boxes/light switches

re-caulk tub

Clean everything from top to bottom (fridges - both of them, oven, floors etc)

 

Looking at the list...doesn't seem too bad. In reality? Our estimation of a month was accurate. On the plus side, we squeezed about a months worth of work into three days.

 

Not looking so good

I got to paint the green room. That was a little sad! The last time it was painted...we painted it green. And my mom was here and did it with me. I picked the colours, and made that "chair rail" myself. Well, I bought the wood, came up with the concept and all that, Brian hung it on the wall:-)

 

My babies room - getting un-personalized

Work is happening!!

Still so much to do!

This room needing washing and quarter round installed. Officially the easiest room in the house! They have a little girl, and like the room as is:-)

Ahhh...we're almost done here!

It's almost ready to go! - just have to hook up the sink under the counter

A picture to show the counter, the sink and the backsplash all together. It looks great. All the colours blend so well.

We need to purchase and install a range hood microwave this month. When I took this pic, Brian still had to pin up the under counter lighting cords

There will be a cabinet above the fridge too

Our bedroom - painted, and with trim around the doors and floor. yay!

The green room - not so much anymore. Now it's just another beige room:-) We painted this room, and the other room in Baked Scone, which is the same colour the great room is...we had lots of the paint left, so we used it!

Old green room

It seems like the renters want these for their little girl, so we've leaving them

My crafts used to hide back here

Buh bye bathroom!

Floors, washed by me :-)

This lower cabinet must be installed

And then I left! This was the pile of tools used over the past few days. I leave them with Brian to put in his truck after he tinkers around (sink, lighting)...and I say farewell to Hugo!

  I don't really know if I'll be back anytime soon...or inside the house anyway. Brian will be, as he is building and installing cabinets/doors over the next month, but that has nothing to do with me...I'd only be in the way, so I doubt I'll get to lay eyes on it. I'll force him to take a pic or two I hope! I can't wait to see those doors on the cabinets!!! It's going to look amazing!

A HUGE thank you to our wonderful friends and neighbours! We literally could not have done it without you letting us sleep and nap kids at your house(s). Lauren & Dale, Tiffany, and Chae - Thank you!

*Small tip - if you value your sanity, don't allow 5 small children to speak, even in a whisper, in an empty, echo-y house. After about 5 minutes, you'll want to die. I believe I genuinely wished I was deaf, for a moment there. Drive. Me. Crazy. -- So glad it's OVER!

Now on to "easy stuff" like out door trim, shutters, wrapping the posts...oh yah. Easy! Grateful for renters who seem happy to live cabinet-door-less for a little while!

Good bye Hugo. Maybe we'll be back again someday...but probably we won't, and that makes us a little sad. We will always remember you, because so far, all of our best days were seen by you. We'll go on to make many new memories in many other great places. But none of those places will be exactly there. And for one brief time in history, we belonged together. This was home. You housed so many of our firsts...those are things that can't be repeated in life. You will always be our First House. We will always be grateful we found you.

Brag time!

Time to brag on my kids a little bit. I know this note is written to me...but really, it's all them. Proper training does go a long way, but in the end, its up to the kids to behave in the ways they know they should. Even when no one is around to encourage them along...

Last night I received this email from a Mom in our co-op - I don't recognize her name, so I don't think I know her, although I may know her if I saw her - lots of new faces there! Anyway, I was so thankful she took the time to write to a "stranger". Absolutely made my heart melt! (I can't be in class with my kids, as I work in the preschool program)

"Darla, I sat in close proximity to your 2 kids in the K-3rd grade science class today.  I was VERY impressed with how well they worked together!  They did not argue, they really worked as a team, and they were so quiet and well behaved!  The teacher for today's lesson had the parents helping the kids because it was one of those activities that just needed some adult hands on deck.  I was more than able and ready to help yours but they really carried themselves beautifully!
I know my kids love each other, but I saw genuine love and care for one another today as your kiddos worked side by side.
I just wanted to let you know, and to pat you on the back... job well done, Mama!"

Good job Kenna and Brooks! Daddy and I love you both so much and are so glad that you are choosing to make decisions that honour each other and show love.