Fit For A Couple Of Princesses

Well the girls shared bedroom is finally starting to come together! It's about 3 months in the making! Since November anyways! Whew!

Okay, this is when we came to see the house.

Facebook post: This room looks okay, but if you look closer there are so many stains in the carpet that weren't visible during our walk thru. AND the smell of this room was horrific! Just like a cat liter box! PIPER IS ALLERGIC TO CATS! She's been sick since we moved in! We had to go buy her a special HEPA filter air cleaner thingy!

The HEPA filter has worked for Piper. She was sick with allergies for about the 1st month and a half that we were here.

Did I mention that when we bought the house, we also bought a carpet cleaner vacuum thingy. Well when we walked in the house, we QUICKLY realized that thing would not have done a bit of good! So we ripped out the carpet to help rid the house oft he smell of cat pee!

By the way...that didn't work. So John started ripping out walls.

And ceilings....the cat pee has to be gone soon!

Okay, time for the new ceiling to go up!

And the insulation is installed!

Sheet rock going up!

John working on the electrical stuff. He rewired and replaced all outlets and switches.

Carl lending a helping hand on the taping and bedding. What a time consuming pain in the butt!

A couple of weeks later we finally got to texturing!

And I thought painting ceilings was horrible....could only imagine what this was like. John said that bucket of wet texture that he's holding over his head was so heavy!

Our new textured wall! YAY!!!! Time for paint!

New Textured Room! Now I have to paint the concrete! Cat pee smell....be gone!

Did I mention that I strongly dislike painting ceilings! What a pain!

John putting up the girls new fan. The room is pink because the girls wanted that fan. I wanted a purple room...but pink is fine. I'm more than use to the color by now.

One more look at that cute fan!

The girls room so far!

We still have a lot to do in there, but until John gets back from Philly, this will more than work for them. They were super happy to have a room! A pretty one! Piper said, last night, that she was going to laugh in her new room and sleep and twirl all over it!

Things we still need in here:

~ carpet

~ crown molding

~ trim

~ chair railing

~ blinds cleaned and some sorta curtain

~ closet doors needed another coat of paint

~ Piper wants a big girl bed like her sister

~ Closet needs a rod

~ and some decorating!

More Painting Done....

Well, I have been a painting fool here lately! I've started making over what use to be the dining room into our fun TV/game room/girl's activity room.

This is what the dining room looked like when we came to view the house. Blah & Boring!

I gave it a little masculine makeover with some granite colored paint.

As soon as we get the rest of the house painted and stuff, we'll work on the decor...

This is the blah & boring foyer (right off the game room)

We tried finding a color that would compliment the granite color. So we decided on a red for the larger wall and a lighter grey for the smaller wall. The picture below was just one coat! It wouldn't go on even and you could see the cream color thru it. I didn't like it at all. I wanted to throw up when I rolled on the 1st section. I felt like I was in a Freddy Krueger nightmare! I wanted a brighter more cheerful red...but this is what John picked out! And it made the other wall glow in a shade of pink!

2nd coat.
It compliments...sorta. But I couldn't handle it. It still needed a 3rd coat.

We found a picture at Ikea that we liked. We are going to take the idea home and create art like this through out the house.

This week, we started adding a wide cream colored stripe in the game room. It's a masculine room that makes people remember that there is a woman that lives here.

And we spent all weekend trying to decide what to do with that red wall. So we came up with splitting colors...just tried figuring out what colors was the hard part.


Monday I got a Kohl's ad in the mail and on front was a picture of a comforter set. It was green, cream, and grey. I showed it to John and said that that ad was talking to us. So I went to our paints and found the green. We bought it about a month ago on the "oops" table. So there you have it...our new foyer after many many days of painting the same walls over and over again!


When I was done painting, I looked down and saw my Wii Fitness box...same colors! I told John it was seriously meant to be! I'm not 100% happy...but it'll do for now until I am ready to paint it again!


Don't mind the door and flooring...those will be swapped out for new stuff in the coming months.

So.....if you were going to paint my foyer, what color would you decide on?

Juliet's 1st Hair Cut!

Juliet has this really long strand of hair that grows from the top of her beautiful little head down past her longest curls. It's her baby hair. The cute little piece of hair that has been growing since she was about 9 months old. She was nearly bald up till then. I have been wanting to cut this strand of hair for a really long time now. It looks like a little duck tail. When I put her hair in pig tails, one is always longer than the other due to that strand of hair. I have been putting off cutting it though, because that's her baby hair....she's my last baby....so I was just trying to keep her that way! Well, when we wash her hair, it's so thing and that strand always tangles horribly bad! So I did it! I finally cut it! I hated doing it too. When I was done, She said, " I have big girl hair now like Tesley." (that's what she calls Presley since she can't pronounce the "P-r" together) I just wanted to sob! But I have that strand forever!!!!!! It now hangs on the side of my fridge so I can see it every day!

I had to give Presley a hair cut to. Just so Piper would know how it is done. I want to get Presley back in my little mommy's hair cutting chair soon. I think it needs to be a bit shorter and I might need to watch some U-tube videos to see how to make her hair curl a little more. Maybe layers.....

Anyways, Presley's hair cut was easy. As always, she was terrific! Piper on the other hand....ewww....everytime I went to snip, she'd turn around and say, "What are you doing Tonga?" "What was that Mommy?" " I am getting big girl hair!" It was trying, if her hair were straight, I am sure it would be REALLY crooked! But it looks healthier now. So does Presley's. And again, Piper's little baby duck tail is gone and hanging on my fridge!

Presley, Before...

Loves getting the "Princess" cut

Presley, After....

Juliet, Before...

I mean Jewels. When I call her Piper, Juliet, Pipes, Pipey, or any name like that, she says, "Call me Jewels!"

The duck tail...see it?????

Jewels, After....

Loving the "big girl" hair cut!

No more baby hair....sniff sniff!

Maggie is in the middle of a yawn in the background....she isn't really trying to bite off Piper's arm. LOL

School (work) is Cool!

I have had Presley doing school work since she was 2 1/2 years old. Prepping her for school I suppose.

When people would ask her, "Are you in school? "

She'd answer back, " yes I do all of my work at home."

I was always so proud of that.

But lately...blame it on the move and that darn pod, I have seriously slacked up on the school work and she'll be starting "real" school this year and poor Piper hasn't even had an ounce of what I have done for Presley. I have some major catching up to do!

So today, I found an old math workbook of Presley's that we bought her when we were living in the hotel. And for Piper, I drew a bunch of shapes for her to practice saying what they are. I sat the girls down at the table for a couple of hours today and that's what they did. Presley did addition and Piper did shapes! It feels really good to slowly but surely be getting back on track!

I also went back to do again what I use to do with the girls. READ a bedtime story to them! It's been a while since I've read them a bedtime story. So I started up our ritual again tonight. I don't know who enjoyed it more, me or them, with all the silly voices and stuff! You have to have a voice for each character and there are alot of characters in Winnie The Pooh.

I am achieving my new year's resolution of being a better mom to my kids. So happy!

Lost and Found

I came across an old memory card stick that had some precious pictures on it.

These are of Presley before Juliet came along. Piper is arguing with me that these are of her and not of her sister. Anyways, thought I'd share...

And my sweet sweet Lucky kitty!

And here are some on the same card of a brand new Juliet. All 8.8 pounds of her.

Juliet's 1st car ride from the hospital to the house.

And Presley's 1st Barbies. I gave her two Barbies out of my collection. Those are about 15 years old. So glad they are getting used now. It took me that long to realize they wouldn't put my kids through college. Wishful thinking I suppose. hahaha

Up Goes The Mirror & Down Come The Lights....

So we have run into a couple of problems with the mirror and lights. The existing light fixtures that are in there are too long for the mirror to go up! AND there is no way to shorten them. So we spent all day yesterday at Ikea and Home Depot and Lowes trying to find an affordable and cheap alternative!

I hadn't ever priced those suckers before. They are quite pricey! Like $50 bucks a light for a cheap one. But we found one at Ikea for $10....BUT it plugs in. So John would have to cut and the cord and wire it into the box in the ceiling. Then we'd have to buy a ceiling kit to go with that. And hope we know what we are doing. So we bought it. Then went to Home Depot and bought everything that we needed to mount it.

While we were at Home Depot we bought the hoses and P-trap for the sink. Got home and it didn't fit! So John had to run up to Lowes and he took the old P-trap with him to show the guys what he needed. Found out that our house isn't filled with residential plumbing stuff! It's commercial plumbing stuff...like that they put in buildings! Why I have no idea. But he was able to find the stuff we needed and make it work. And while he was there he found some adjustable lights for the bathroom that he wouldn't have to cut and make work.

We have so much stuff to return to Ikea and Home Depot!

So, here's our new medicine cabinet with the lights that are too long! We are just going to save them and use them in our bathroom.

And the mirror is up...lights are down. And that light is the new one going up. Can't wait! It'll look really nice!

Goals for tonight:

* put up lights

* fix leak in sink (seal gasket)

* stock medicine cabinet

* measure how much trim is needed in linen closet

* measure how much tiny molding is needed on the ceiling

Pretty profound for a 5 year old..

Last night at dinner Presley asked John and I, "What if every day was the same day?"
She's such a deep thinker! We asked if everyday was the same day, what day would it be? She said, "Christmas."

Day 7...

And we are still working on that bathroom. But I have to say, this is the absolute quickest we've ever worked! Our last master took almost 8 months to finish. That's why are terrified to rip out that tub at the moment! We'll just try hiding it for now. When we start getting our stuff out of storage, I am going to make a long white shower curtain that will go all the way down to the floor and cover every inch of that ivory color. It'll be nice when it is complete.

Oh, we looked into just resurfacing the tub, they sell this 2 part epoxy stuff, but that would end up costing us $70. We can get a standard tub for $100. So we are definitely waiting to get a new tub!

I was up till 5 in the morning working on that wainscoting (I started painting on it about 2 in the morning)! 3 coats of shiny white paint! Whew!!! I nearly went blind starting at that stuff for so long! And I touched up a few other areas on the other wall.

This is our new toilet seat...isn't the best! It has a potty seat built into the lid! I love it! Piper not so much..but I love it! She misses her cushy princess potty seat!

Up...

Down...

John installing the sink!!!!!!!! Yay! It's perfect!

So pretty!

The cutest faucet!

These suckers are coming down in the next few days to get a nice coat of white spray paint then they'll be rehung.

And John's nice new trim he did! He's brilliant!

I'm loving this room! We are beginning to like this house....it's starting to take on a little of our personality. Sweeeeet...........

I painted the girls playroom's concrete floor green tonight. Just to make it feel a little cleaner. After the bathroom, we'll start working in here again. We are texturing and painting it yellow and putting in a new ceiling fan.....oh and putting up crown molding. It's gonna be bright and cheery. And later, John and Meagan are going to come thru and paint a mural or something neat on the walls. Maybe the scene in the end of Astro Boy when Zog appears. I loved those colors!

But for now, the girls can play tic-tac-toe and hop scotch in the playroom.

I painted the ceiling and half the wall (where the texture is ready) the other day. Looks great with that lamp! Another great clearance deal from Home Depot. $12 regular $50!

So, that's what we've done so far. We still have some touching up to do in the bathroom, so I better scram!

BTW, just incase your wondering the cost so far....

Sink $40

Toilet seat $35

Flooring $30

Paint for walls $30 (shared with laundry room)

Paint for wainscot and trim $30

Faucet $25

Wainscot $40

All trim for it $30

Other door trim $20

Toilet paper holder $15

Medicine cabinet $60

This doesn't include nails, plumbing pipes, caulk, and etc.