Updates (and pictures)

I know, I know....

I've been terrible about blogging lately. I can't even begin to tell you how crazy life has been lately. Between moving, starting school, working at the church during the day, unpacking, events, dinner, homework....yikes, it gets crazy. It feels good to have a purpose though. I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be right now, and that God is using me in his church again. I decided that I'd give my September to focus on church work (cleaning/re-organizing office area, clean up and renovate youth house, help Steve plan Children's ministry program, church Rummage sale, and head up Trunk-or-treat) and we've gotten a lot accomplished! And, I'm exhausted :)

Now, I am splitting my time between church and our home which we officially own as of yesterday! In celebration, we went to Sherwin Williams to pick out paint for our living room, which is currently wood paneling and just icky and dark. I can FINALLY start taking down wallpaper and paint rooms and make this house a home. Just wait, people...I am gonna rock this place!

Oh yea....and somewhere in there I AM HAVING A BABY! sheesh - we are unprepared for that! We have nothing really ready for baby, but as long as this little bundle of joy doesn't come too early, we will devote some time to getting ready for that. We spent some time last night just before bedtime with all the kids just watching my belly move and shake....what a special time with our children to watch them bond over become brothers and sisters again and together. This baby will be well loved.

Okay, I will do my best to catch everyone up date. I wanted to start with our home in Michigan (which sold in 3 days BTW!!!) Since this house was so special to me and our family, it was definitely hard to leave behind. Unexpected tears took over when we pulled away from the house to move in. But, I worked very hard on the house and we put a lot of love and care into the house, so I wanted to share with everyone the before and afters of our home.

 The front of our house before (with white shutters, broken garage door, and no landscaping...)

And, the front of our house after we replaced the garage door, painted the door, post and shutters black, replaced light fixtures, added landscaping and took a picture in the summer so the grass looks green and pretty...hehe)

My mom came over one day to help me put some pretty black mulch and a few flowers in the front yard...

Walking into the front of the house, here is the living room before:

And the living room after:

Walls went from green to gray, trim painted white,  and floors stained walnut)

Oh yeah, and our beloved wood pallet wall, which was hard to part with, since we just put it up!

Our kitchen BEFORE:

We named the paint color in this room "Baby poop yellow."

And the beautiful AFTER:

Painted walls (thank goodness!), trim and cabinets, stained floor, and new appliances)

Before and after of the main floor hallway to bathroom and laundry room (not too much to report):

For some reason, I don't have a before picture of the main floor bathroom...this is when I painted it the first time (which ended up being way too dark for my taste) and what you can't see is the nasty floor, oak counter and marble green counter top:

Steve and I replaced the floor, vanity, lighting, mirror...pretty much everything. I wish you could see it all!

The laundry room before and after is also not too exciting...but we did paint it the same bright color as the kitchen. 

Now onto the upstairs....again, I don't have a before photo of the girls' room, but it was yellow with red carpet (think ketchup and mustard). It also did not have a closet. We were lucky enough to be able to build one into the attic of the garage. And here is the result:

Eventually, I WILL paint those beds white to match the monogramed headboards I painted. You know, when I have a bunch of free time.

Apparently, I did not take pictures of the kids rooms upstairs. Or, I just can't find them. This room was brown and smelled severely of animal urine...I think it was a tan color. This was the only picture I could find of it, because the first night we spent in the home was on Caleb's birthday so I wanted his room to be finished first. You can't see much of the room, since he slept in his birthday bed tent lol:

Then, we transformed it into one of our favorite rooms when Zada moved in - a zebra and pink, perfect for an almost teenager, and surprised her with it!

You can't see in the picture, but the inside of the closet is painted Zebra as well :)

What started off as Carter's nursery eventually became the boy's shared room. It was the most decent room in its BEFORE, just gray. We painted and replaced the carpet in the whole upstairs.

I promise they both had their own beds! We took one out for showing so it didn't look so cluttered.

I did take BEFORE pics the master bedroom. Not bad to begin with:

After paint and staining the floors, this is the AFTER:

And the last room upstairs...the master bath. BEFORE:

This was mid-project, I remembered to snap a pic. You can see the same green counter tops that were also in the main floor bathroom.

And the AFTER. If we had lived here longer, it would have been much more dramatic, but we just painted the countertops and cabinets and added a tile border on the mirror. Made a big difference though.

And finally...the basement. When I bought the house, the basement was completely unfinished. To my blessing, a group of amazing men traveled from Indiana after raising money to refinish my basement and transformed the space...

This is walking down the stairs....

A living space and craft area. We never got to completely finish this space, but it sure came a long way!

What you can't see in this next picture is to the left is the utility room, closet space under the stairs, and a bathroom we never got to finish. 

I never got to get it 100% to where I wanted it to be...but who ever does?! In just over 2 years, I came pretty close, and I can't believe how much we were able to do. God is Good. I will forever treasured this home in my heart as the place I started over, the place Steve and I became a family, the place that Jeremy blessed with his approval and presence, and the place I really started to figure out who I was. 

Next, I will give you the tour of our new home in West Virginia. Stay tuned...