Before & After: Laundry Room

Well, can I really say it? We did it.... ALL the rooms in our home have been touched & redone.  Of course there is still a short list of little things that need touched up or finished but the BIG LIST is done. We stepped out in faith & purchased this home in October of 2012 and God has truly blessed us in giving us this home.

BEFORE - the original utility room

This is part of the addition that the previous owners put on the home.  You have to walk through this area to get to the former hair salon which is now our master suite.

I forgot how bad this area looked.  A lot of drywall missing, nasty stick-on tiles on the floor, pretty gross wooden steps, and the list could go on & on. We should have taken a picture of the ceiling.  It had random drywall, poor lighting and an attic access that didn't quite close.

AFTER - the laundry room

The awesome door Jake snagged at ReStore.  The door used to be a white metal exterior door. I love how you can shut the door but still see down the hallway to the kids bedrooms. And our pallet wall - love that texture!

Jake built a wall around the water heater & added shelving above for my sewing stuff. The pallet door hides all of that mess. The armoire is my linen closet.

I was given one & bought the other Minneapolis - St. Paul tea towels.  With a simple pallet frame they became art.

We painted the brick wall white to give it a fresh clean look.  I absolutely love it.  I also love all the textures in this room.

We picked up this old side to a crib along the road a few years ago when we were on an anniversary get away.  Painted it, hung it & now I use it to line dry clothes.

Jake gave me this wall decal a few years ago for my birthday.  We finally got it up. Some projects (like this room) took a little while longer to get to than we anticipated.

Beautiful wood stairs that Jake extended so we don't fall off the side when opening the door. Another look at the pallet wall with the door for the HVAC. We decided to paint the concrete floor grey (used up paint from the exterior of the house).  We went back & forth with other ideas, but this was the best option for right now.

My IKEA cart that I use for ironing & sewing supplies with a few pretty details.

One last glance. I am thrilled with how it turned out & ecstatic to not be looking at an unfinished space any longer.

So in all of these Before & After posts I give you paint colors.  Not this one.  We mixed paint from our old master with paint from our new master with paint from the toilet room.  We have so much extra paint it seemed silly to buy another color.

Looking for more posts in my Before & After Series?

Before & After - Hall Bathroom

Before & After - Dining Room

Before & After - Ella's Room

Before & After - Kitchen

Before & After - Kitchen Pantry

Before & After - Playroom Bathroom

Before & After - Playroom

Before & After - Master Bedroom

Before & After - Living Room

Before & After - Lily's Room

Before & After - Patio

Before & After - Painting the Exterior

Before & After - Master Suite

Before & After -  Laundry Room

Before & After - Exterior of the House

Before & After - Girls Room

family Christmas pics

Saturday morning we headed over to a friend's house & snapped some family pictures.  

Here we are, a family of SIX!

 These FOUR keep me busy!

#babyB - 15 months

#babyS - 1 week 

My friend took a bunch of pics of  #babyB & #babyS for their parents.  

We gave them an album of pictures, of their two sweet kids, for Christmas.  Would you pray that they would see & experience Christ's love through this?

and then there were FOUR

A sweet little girl joined our family Tuesday late afternoon.  #babyS is #babyB's sister.  We have know since June about this and we said we would care for her too if the need arose.  

#babyS was born on Saturday 12/5/2015. 

A little peanut at 6 lb 2 oz and 17.5"

And just like that we have FOUR kids under 5 years old.

Sibling Love

Our sweet new ride. 

Since #babyB & #babyS are less than 15 months apart, I really needed something I could put them both in when we go out.  Let's be real, if I didn't get one, we weren't going out. Last night, we found this for a steal at a local resale shop.

 

The inspection on Tuesday night after we brought her home.  

Aunt Anna visits

Aunt Anna came to visit & we packed in some fun over a long weekend.

The fun included Wrightsville Beach, Loop's Donuts, Oceanic Pier, Downtown Wilmington, Islands, the Christmas Parade (not super amazing, but the kids loved it. Lily did keep asking where the big balloons were, she was expecting the Macy's Parade). We also fit in rolling out sugar cookies.

Secrets shared

A certain 3 yr old can't keep secrets. We hit some clearance racks at Target this morning while grabbing diapers.  
Tonight after supper, Ella announces, "mommy bought Elsa jammies today."  About 10 seconds later Lily is running circles around the living room shouting, "this is going to be the best Christmas ever!!!"

Looks like I can't throw gifts in the cart anymore. 

14 months

This boy is 14 months today & on the GO!

pumpkin book report

Lily had her first real project for K5 - a pumpkin book report.
Lily needed to pick out a book, choose a character from the book, and turn a pumpkin into the character. Of course, she picked a Frozen book and the character was Olaf.

The only adult help Lily had was with the hot glue gun. Otherwise, she did great!

13 months

I know I say this every month, but time is flying.  #babyB turned 13 months yesterday.  He is walking, running and into everything.  He eats like a champ....any & all food we put in front of him, plus mulch, leaves & dirt.  He is almost always smiling and his giggle is contagious.

employee of the month

Since this blog is also our family photo album, I had to document this.  Today, Jake was awarded Employee of the Month for September 2015.  God gave Jake this job; He clearly dropped the job in Jake's lap, at the perfect time, when we were NOT even looking for a different job.  That's an amazing story for another day of God's sovereignty, impeccable timing, direction & provision. 
Jake started his new job at My Employees on June 15.  July was training, we were gone part of July & August for vacation, so September was really his first full month of work.  We're super proud of him!

family date night

Last night we had a family date night.  Every event was a surprise to the kids, some events a surprise to Jake & me as well.  A great time was had by all!

First off, we headed to the pumpkin patch.  We came home with lots of little & mini pumpkins.  Lily has a book report project due next week where we have to decorate a pumpkin like a character from a book of her choosing.  It should be fun! I"ll have to post that project once it's completed.

We then were heading to Panera for dinner, but saw a bunch of fire trucks parked outside of the mall.  They were letting kids tour the trucks & talk to the firemen. There were a few other emergency reponse vehicles as well.

The firemen let us know that they had more fire safety activities set up inside the mall.  We headed to Panera to eat.  Gotta love feeding a family of 5 for $1.08 thanks to a gift card!  After our bellies were full, we went to the mall.  The girls got to meet Sparky! They also got to sing & dance with him.

I am so thankful for the blessing of family!

ONE

ONE year old
21 pounds 4 ounces
28.5 inches long

I am taking 4-5 steps at a time.  
I can stand on my own for a minute or so.
I say "ut-oh," "mama," "dada," and mimic what I hear.
I have 4 teeth on top, 2 on the bottom, and 2 bottom ones that just poked through.

#babyB is ONE

Today we celebrated THIS BOY turning ONE.   

Today was the party, but tomorrow, September 13, is his actual birthday.  

I have to say it was SO FUN planning a boy party.  

It's no secret, we love Notre Dame Football!

And by some miracle, we remembered a family photo before #babyB dug into his cupcake.

Unfortunately, most of the photos of our friends turned out blurry.  I am also not good at taking pictures.  We are so thankful for our friends here; they are our family! Thanks for celebrating with us & loving our family.

Here are some photos from the party.

Notice the new book from Aunt Anna.

THE concession stand. 

The nacho bar was complete with chips, taco seasoned beef, queso, black beans, tomato, olives, onion, jalapeno, sour cream, guacamole and three kinds of salsa.

Make sure you make it to the End Zone.

#babyB started off pretty meek with his cupcake eating. By the end it was ground between his fingers, all over his face & icing was in his hair.

The 16 kids played, the 20 adults visited, and I am pretty sure a good time was had by all.

Oh and Ella ate A LOT of salt-in-the-shell peanuts!

Happy FIRST Birthday, #babyB! 

We love you and are so glad you are part of our Notre Dame family.