Our Home

At the end of February we have been our home for 23 years.  In March we celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. 

Needless to say our home has undergone some changes during that time.  Four years ago we had a big remodel.  I have been seeing pictures on my Memories on Facebook.  On one of my pictures the caption said, new paint for the soon to be guest room.  Little did I know in April that by November my guest room 

would house two little girls.

So Mr. B doesn't want to park on the street any more because, the second night we owned the new to us van someone came and broke his window.  So he has been parking behind me in the drive way. I park in the garage.  So it is a pain, to have to pull out his van if I need to leave before him in the morning.  So he is taking down the side yard and leveling it so he can pull in and park on the side of the garage.  The way he talks this will be a long process. 

So the first steps were to remove the bricks.  Our big boys helped him put them in and Bigger Bit helped him take them down. Our poor mail box is leaning against the wall and is very wobbly. 

Next someone with some kind of machine, (Back Hoe, I just asked Mr. B, what it was.) I had forgotten what kind. I wasn't here when it happened, removed the side wall and leveled off the dirt.  

The third step is a truck full of tree chippings to fill it in. That came yesterday morning and he parked there last night.  

Yes it is a two car garage but with a big son's broken motorcycle in it and four bikes and extra stuff there is no room for two vehicles. 

The street view.  Yes I can get out if I need to.

In the future, he wants to remove and rebuild the wall on the side and fix the mail box, nice like our neighbors and pave the area. Don't hold your breath hubby takes a while to do things.

In November of 2014 we planted a stick of a Palo Verde tree in our front yard.  I received the tree for attending a free class on how to reduce electricity use in our homes by planting shade trees.  I earned two of them, but the one in the back died. 

Here it is in March of 2015.  We were excited it had survived winter and it actually bloomed.  As you can 

see it is still a pit of a twig.

Here it is this year.  We thought we had lost it last summer because Mr. B whacked it with the edge trimmer.  I wasn't sure it was OK until I saw it bloom this year.  I was so happy to see this.  As you can see it is more than a twig.  It is suppose to be full grown in 5 to 6 years.  We have had it about 18 months. 

The only problem with trees that bloom, is the blooms fall off.  Here is one on the ground, it won't be a big problem now but when it is full grown it will be like yellow snow all over the ground. 

It is my second favorite tree in Arizona. 

My favorite is a Jacaranda.

Have a great day!

Remodeling

Yes we have been busy remodeling at our home!


Master Bath Before

The good news is we are almost done!  We removed all the popcorn ceilings from our four bedrooms, painted and had new carpet installed.  We also installed a new tub, tub surround, tile floor and vanity and counter top in the master bath.



New Master Bath

Above look at that old linoleum floor.  We have been in the house 19 years and I am sick of it.  I am thrilled with the results and glad to be getting my home back to normal.  We are down to the putting things away and a little de-junking.  I love the new updated look of the bathroom.



 

Sewing Room Before

One of the funny things that happened is I told Mr. B. to take a couple of boxes to DI (Deseret Industries).  Somehow he didn't follow up with the instruction. This was a few weeks before we started the remodeling.  I think we even asked a son to do this while we were in Miami on vacation.  They ended up in the garage and then back into the house.  Oh well, all is well that ends well.  We will donate them soon. 
 

Sewing Room Before

See the old mauve carpet, also not a favorite color of mine. The new carpet is called Wild Blueberry it is a blue grey and I love it.



Sewing Room Almost Done



Sewing Room Almost Done

We still have some things to do like hang up my design wall.  You can see the insulation sitting on my big board waiting to be hung. 



Basically the big furniture is laid out in the same directions.
I removed the file cabinet and some plastic drawers I had and replaced them with two book cases.  I like them better.  The room feels more open and I have more space for things that weren't fitting in my closet any more.  As you can tell by the top of my cutting table I still have lots of little things to put away.  Also notice the absence of the sewing machine.  I think it will go in tomorrow. 

So know you know why I haven't posted and sewing pictures i haven't been sewing.  I have been working on EQ 7 lessons.  They are kind of hard to post.

A Project is Done!!!

Last year by this time I had all kinds of little projects done but this year I'm working on big ones. So it feels like I'm not making progress but that isn't true I am making progress, it's just not very visible on my done list!

This is the living room valance which is blueish in color.


On Wednesday when I took a day off from work I decided to make my Americana curtains and valances. I have had the fabric for almost a year and I first saw the fabric a year before that. When I finally got around to ordering it they didn't have the colors I wanted or enough of what I wanted so I changed my plan and actually it turned out better. I love it when it works out better than planned.
This is the curtain and valance over my computer desk, this window faces East so the morning sun is bright.


This is the kitchen valance that looks into the hobby room. This was an outside window until we closed in our patio. The valances in both these rooms are red. The curtains are off white & blue plaid.



Now just to give you a chuckle, I must have been off in my math when I ordered my blue plaid fabric. I measured it last night and said oh I have 4 yards that will be enough. So you can imagine my surprise when I finished the first two and went to cut the last two and realized I didn't have enough fabric. So luckily I had some red fabric left and just added the additional 8" I needed on each plaid panel. I forgot to add 4" to each window length for the hanging pocket and hems. All is well that ends well. And as you can tell from the final picture above, no one can tell I didn't have enough fabric. And in case you are wondering why I want my curtains to go all the way to the top of the window, that morning AZ sun is bright and hot in the summer, so we block out as much you can.

My son just asked why did you change the curtains and he doesn't like these. I won't repeat what he did say. Boys they have no taste at all.

Tree Update

When we first purchased our home we had two Eucalyptus trees out front. The were tall and messy always dropping branches and limbs. After we had a new roof placed on the house in 2004 we cut the trees down in 2005. This is the house with the two trees in front as we were getting the new roof. As you can see the one tree is very tall and all we needed was it to drop a limb onto the house, like a hole in the head.


I remember the day well,when I came home from work and pulled into the drive way I thought I was at the wrong house. A friend from church cut them down for us as a service project. I keep thinking my house doesn't look right, this can't be the right house, but the number is right and the street is right. That is how different it looked.



We had to wait 3 to 5 years before we could plant a new tree to allow time for the roots to break up. So last March we planted this little tree. I had decided to mark it's growth each year. Believe me there were times during the summer I wasn't sure it was going to make it. But as you can see a year later it is doing fine. My husband deep waters it like he should.

You might also notice I have a second rose bush also. It's so small next to my white rose bush. I wish I could grow gardenias and Lilies of the Valley. My two favorite flowers more than roses, but roses grow good here in AZ.

Finally Done!

The New Room is Finally Done! It's amazing how many little details there are to putting on the finishing touches.
Richard was able to put up his outside lights for the new room, a spot light to the back yard and a light by the back door. So he is happy. I had him hang my wind chimes which is my finishing touch. I have missed them. Of course there is no breeze tonight, so I can't hear them making happy noises. I have three chimes hanging, two big ones and a small one.


Richard didn't think the picture would turn out at night, but I'm happy with it.

The Painting is Done!

Yes the painting is done! That is on the new addition outside. Later the rest of the house outside will be done. My husband’s idea not mine. I would say get it all done now but it’s his domain. It seems it took a long time to get it finished. A couple of test paints. One day of spray painting and another day of painting with a roller and brush on the details. Richard and Kinsen did a good job!!

I went outside today to take the pictures so the sun would be to my back. In the afternoon it is always in my eyes and it's had to take the pictures then.

It is a lovely morning outside, my weather widget states it is 54 degrees but I think it is warmer than that. Notice the lovely blue sky. I also picked the first orange from our tree. They are not ready yet maybe next month.

Saturday Painting

Richard finally decided to rent a paint sprayer to paint the outside of the new room of the house. He had purchased one but it was of such poor quality that he returned it. The one he rented was great. He painted all the eves and all the sliding.

Here are Richard and Kinsen in their painter's bunny suits.

The goggles had a film in them that can be rolled up to have a clean viewing area and keep his glasses from getting paint spray on them. The things people think of.

I can't wait to have the paper off the windows!! He just has to finish up some of the trim by hand and he will be done.

Sunday Quilting Upate

Well my first project I wanted to finish in 2009 is done!!! It is a late Hanukkah gift, better late than never. I'll take it to work tomorrow to give it to Glenda.
I haven't worked any more on the Mystery Quilt since New Year's Day. Too busy get re-organized after the Holidays and finishing my SW Frog. Jane Wilson is the original designer, but I did make some changes. Don't we always make changes in a pattern.


My husband finish organizing the food storage, boy talk about an improvement in that room. He did a awesome job! Thanks Honey!!! I finished taking down the tree and all the festive Christmas decorations are away for another year. It is time to get back into a normal routine, which is OK with me.

Paint Test 2

Yesterday my husband and I looked at some paint chips and found two colors close to what we have. Today Richard painted it on the house around the new window in the bedroom. It is very close to what we had and we like it. I have always liked the colors of our house and have no imagination on what other colors I would want to use. So we will repaint it the same colors we have. Right now we are just painting the new room and around the new window. Later this year we will paint the rest of the house. We have red brick in front. Richard wants to build his work shop before he paints the whole house.

Look how close this is, the old paint is more than 16 years old. In Febuarary we will be in the house 16 years. You can see the first paint test in a post Our House from Dec 13th.

How we spent Friday & Saturday

We have one bedroom that has our food storage. Most of it has been piled almost to the ceiling in boxes that hold six cans. If I needed anything I would have to have Richard or Kinsen move boxes to get the one can I needed. I do have one can of all frequently used items in the kitchen, but they do run out and need to be replaced. So we found these really neat shelves on line but the price was prohibitive. At thanksgiving I received an add that they are 40% off. So we ordered one. Friday after work we put it together and loaded it up. It looks so nice and it is so easy to use. I have the smaller version of these in my kitchen pantry for small cans. We still have a lot to do to organize our food storage but this has really made me happy. I was able to get a can of flour this morning all by myself.
Here is the before picture.

Here is the after picture. Richard wants to build me some shevles but that might take a while. You know how guys and projects can be. This is the link to the sheves: http://www.shelfreliance.com/
Here are the 17 boxes we emptied.

Here are the boxes we still have to organize, at least they are in piles of wheat, rice, beans and etc.

This is the wheat grinder making flour out of my 6 grain mix: red wheat, white wheat, pinto beans, lentil beans, millet & barley.

The flour is nice and fine.

This is me making my bread.

I didn't want you to think I'm a superwomen!! Thanks Heavens for bread machines. I use it every other week.

Our House

During the last year my husband has built a new room on to our house. Today he started testing some paint for outside. I think he was a little surprised at how off he was in his color matching. We aren't worry for an exact match since the whole house will need to be painted next year. We just wanted something for now. The primer paint has been on for a couple of weeks. You can see lots of pictures of the whole process in my Webshots link, Album Our House atarting page 3. http://community.webshots.com/user/mequilter