New House ~ Dining Room, Living Room

On to the next piece of the house tour. Here is the formal dining room in May. You see a bulb out in the chandelier. There were bulbs out *all over* the house! There were incandescent and fluorescent bulbs; sometimes in the same light fixture. There were different light types: daylight, incandescent, bright white, etc. It drove me batty seeing orange-ier lights w/ pink-ier lights and whiter lights in the *same* bathroom light fixture! One day I went to Home Depot with a list, and came home with enough matching light-type bulbs for each fixture. :D


Here is the dining room when the PO's visitor took this picture in 2008. They took the double curtain rod and curtains. This is a good-sized room--they have their table, china cabinet and a piano in there...

I think I will put up some sheer curtains and some charcoal gray panels w/ a double rod over the window. There aren't any blinds. Privacy isn't a huge issue, as the house sits pretty far back from the street, and there are trees in the front flower bed blocking most of the view in. You can see we painted the room. Brian did all the wall and ceiling painting that is done. I did all the baseboards, trim, and touch-up. He said he doesn't have the patience for the work I did, and I don't care to roll paint--makes my arm tired! ;) We're a good team. The walls are Sherwin Williams Watery, and all the trim and doors are Home Depot's Behr, Ultra Pure White. I also painted the inside of the front door.

Since the POs took the breakfast nook chandelier, we had to buy a new one. We decided to put the "old" white formal dining room chandelier in the breakfast nook, and put the new one in the formal dining room. Our realtor's husband did the switching of the fixtures (and actually, she helped him!). We put my two scrapbook cabinets in this room. When we first saw the house, I originally thought the formal dining room would make a good office/computer area. It still might, some day, but plans changed. ;)

We have our old, very first table we used in our very first apartment, in the formal dining room! It has been such a handy table through the years, obviously, for eating, but also for kids playing toys, for playing games, doing crafts, a sewing table... When we get an oval table for the breakfast nook (also that will seat all of us), I want to put our dining table in here. We never eat in the formal dining room, and I don't know that we ever will! Maybe with guests on Thanksgiving?! But, this room is totally not wasted space. Julia uses it to do homework; Caroline does puzzles in here, and the kids play games/small toys in here. Plus, if I ever get around to scrapbooking, this room will work well for that too. Julia was working the puzzle in this picture.

Looking from living room to dining room and entry.

Living room as POs had it. I blurred out their daughter.

Living room in May, before we made our offer. You can see arch to kitchen, and arch to nook. Something we've never had before, in this living room: a light switch that connects to a plugged-in lamp, to turn it off/on from the hall! Handy! Also, the carpet was pretty dirty in the whole house, when we bought it. The family room and hall were the worst, but there were spots everywhere! Spots on carpet = my own pet peeve. :D I used to scrub them by hand with a homemade spot cleaner and rag, until we bought our SteamVac! Kids, cats, life = lots of spots!

Anyway. We had the carpets professionally cleaned before we moved in. He did an amazing job, and they looked terrific! I was surprised they cleaned up so nicely, as I didn't have much hope!! He said the carpet is very high quality, which we've also never had before! We've only had builder-grade carpet in the last two houses. It was fine, but got "fuzzy" and trampled-looking fast. It was also never really soft to walk on. The flooring company told us it was "two-year carpet" in our last house. Yikes! The carpet-cleaner man didn't think the carpet is original to the house, and the tile man (who did our master bath), said there is no way that it is from 1998. He thinks the last POs replaced it in 2004 when they bought the house. No one knows for sure, of course, but interesting to hear what they had to say.

Living room in September. The albums are now in the cabinet. We had to screw the two side cabinets to the middle one first, which is a pain! Once that was done, I put books, albums, etc., in the cabinets. The wall color is Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige. I saw the color in a Family Circle home article and liked it. Then discovered the color is part of a Sherwin Williams HGTV pallette (they have several) called Coastal Cool. The dining room color is also part of the same pallette.

Another angled arch to the hall... You see the tile "path" to the kitchen. There's quite a bit of tile, and the floors were a mess when we bought the house. We had one carpet cleaner give us a bid on doing the tile and grout (including master shower) also, but it was more $$ than we wanted to spend. I scrubbed every inch of the tile and grout on my hands and knees. I used a scrub brush for the floor, a grout brush for the grout, a rag, and a bucket (changed several times!!) of water with a bit of Pine Sol. I first sprayed EdFred cleaner on the grout, and I'd just watch the grime bubble up. Disgusting!! The floors were the last part of the house I cleaned before moving day. To maintain I just use vinegar water, sometimes Pine Sol water in the bathrooms.

I really like, how you walk in the front door, and you *don't* see the kitchen or family room right away. It seems there is always some sort of mess in those rooms, so I like having them somewhat "hidden". I also like, how the floor plan is fairly open, but there are still walls to put furniture against, to hang pictures on, to add some definition of rooms, rather than just a big, open space.

Slightly different view down hall...

Picture 1: Looking down hall. Door is coat closet, oak built ins are on the other side. Picture 2: In hall looking to kitchen. Pictures taken in May; notice big spot on carpet!

Built in cabinets, hall/linen closet. When looking at houses, I was very concerned *where* we were going to put all the miscellaneous "stuff" we stored in the closet of our 4th bedroom, since we were going to put a kid in the 4th bedroom in the new house. The closet wasn't packed full, but just housed random "stuff": wrapping paper, filing cabinet, computer printer, puzzles, stationery, kids' baby mementos, etc. These built ins and hall closet are just what we needed!

First picture is from May; you can (kind of) see there are shelves on one half, and a hanging rod with big open space on the other half. Perfect for miscellaneous 4th bedroom closet stuff!!

I keep saying how the house was so dirty, and it *was*! There was normal family dirt, for sure no one cleaned when they left. Then, the house sat vacant for 7? 8? months. It was extremely dusty. There were cobwebs and spiders everywhere: in the recessed light fixtures where fluorescent bulbs had been put in (smaller bulb, good spider web spot!), under kitchen and bath cabinet "overhang", in tons of corners, closets, along baseboard trim... Eeeek!! We had our exterminator spray before we moved in, and there were sooooo many dead bugs when he left! He said there were bat droppings in our front porch entry way. Thankfully we haven't noticed any more since we've been here.

Even after the carpet cleaner finished, and he really did do a thorough job, I found several beads along the baseboards. We'd found beads when we first looked at the house, too. :) For several weeks after we'd moved in, every time I vaccuumed, the vaccuum canister was *full* of dust and "junk", much more than normal! It finally seems like we've gotten the upper hand. Ha ha!

There were also dog hair fluffs under the cabinet overhang edges. My friend said we better be careful walking around the yard outside, you never know what kind of people were here before. There might be needles and syringes laying around. Thankfully we haven't seen anything like that. The worst was a small pile of beer cans in the very back corner of the property. Our kids have found a lot of evidence of the POs' kids, like sand toys, balls, a cup, mini pail, different interesting "treasures". :)

August

We got home from our vacation to WA on August 1. Brian went back to work the 2nd. The girls all ate breakfast on the patio that morning, like they'd done with Grandpa and Grandma in WA. Caroline and Lauren stayed out there blowing bubbles.


The youngest 3 kids have gotten more injuries at this house than ever before!! They're playing outside more, riding bikes on the patio, scootering on the patio, running around, climbing trees, etc. They've needed lots of Band Aids since we've been here. Fake pout and you can hardly see the Band Aid. Ha ha...but she wanted me to get a picture of her owie. :(

Pongo was freaked out about our moving and our new house! When we went to clean the last house, the last day we "had" it, we tried to find Pongo. We thought he ran outside when the movers came. My friend said to buy canned cat food; it gets them every time. Well...it didn't work. While I was cleaning the kitchen cupboards in our old house, I saw Pongo hiding behind the RO tank in the very back corner of my corner cupboard. I got him out of there, and he jumped up to the top of the upper cabinets, and made himself all flat. It was crazy! He is so big and strong, that I don't like trying to catch him. He bites and kicks and puts holes in my shirts! Grrr!

Anyway, before we left the house, Brian got a towel and grabbed Pongo. We stuck him in a cardboard box and brought him to the new house. He stayed in the laundry room for days and days. Even after we left the door open and let him be free. He'd hide out in his covered litter box, like it was his own little hut! As he got braver, he'd come out at night. Now he's king of the castle again--or so he thinks--and roams and lounges all over the house. :D Here he is hiding out in the master bedroom closet. Silly cat!

Julia helped with her 4-H club's rummage sale on August 6. The owner of a local storage unit lets a non-profit group have all the stuff people leave behind when they leave their units, to have a rummage sale. Then the group gets the $$ from the sale. I think the 4-H club made $400. (?) Lauren wanted the pink exercise ball, so I bought that for $1. All the kids have fun with it and fight over who gets to sit on it at bedtime prayer and song time! LOL

One afternoon I was weeding and pruning in our front flower bed. An older man, one of our new neighbors, stopped his truck and talked to me for awhile, saying they were so glad we moved there, how he and his wife had had 5 kids, he liked hearing we have 4. :) Things like that. I kept working, and later he stopped by again with a bag of fruit for us. He gave us oranges, lemons, peaches, and plums. He said he was sure we'd enjoy them all (we did) with all those kids! Ha ha! Julia and Lauren made lemon bars with with some of the lemons one day.

Julia is quite the baker these days. She likes baking cookies the best. It's so nice that she is pretty much capable of doing everything herself. Sometimes she still asks for help, but she knows quite a lot. I should have her help make dinner! That's harder, since she's usually doing homework at that time, during the school year.

Bailey adjusted much fast to the new house than Pongo. We didn't want him peeing in the corners of the new house (as he has been known to do!!), so stuck him in the storage shed the first night. I thought he was probably just baking in there, as it's metal, and there's no window. No light either. I took pity on him and brought him in the laundry room with Pongo. They were actually glad to see each other! They're not typically too friendly to each other; well, Pongo tries to play with Bailey, but Bailey wants nothing to do with Pongo!

I think they were just glad to have "someone" familiar to be with. They each had their own litter box, and Bailey used his...thankfully!! After about 3 days, Bailey had enough of being locked in the laundry room, and we put him outside. He loves it out there! He stays out there all the time now. Sometimes he sneaks in to eat, but back out he goes. He's the one who ended up with the canned cat food Pongo wouldn't eat, and now spoiled old Bailey gets canned cat food every day.

One day, Julia and Lauren had their friends, sisters Keeley and Gracie, come over to play. Lauren and Gracie played Barbies and set up the Barbie pool on the patio. Look who else wanted to swim...

Julia and Keeley built a teepee on the putting green. All the girls played Indians for awhile.

The 3 younger kids have spent hours and hours riding bikes round and round on the patio.

And then August 18 school started. The kids love time off, but they all were excited for the first day back! They all got *great* teachers this year, which is an answer to prayer. I couldn't be happier! We were most concerned with who Julia would end up with, since the 6th grade teacher we hoped for moved to the middle school. Her teacher is a sweet, young teacher, and I think this is her 6th year teaching, but first time teaching 6th grade. I asked Julia if she knows how to keep those wild boys in line--Julia had a whole group of them in her class last year, which this year has been broken up! Julia said her teacher does, keep them in line, that is. :) Austin has the same teacher Julia had in 3rd grade, and Lauren has a teacher that is friend's w/ Austin's. They are both Christian ladies, which we are glad about.

I didn't think to bring my camera to school this year. The first day, Lauren saw other kids' moms taking their pictures at their desks, and she wanted her picture at her desk also. So this picture is on the 2nd day.

Caroline in bed before a Sunday afternoon nap...She wanted all her stuffed friends around her pillow. She has slept in the bottom bunk since we moved here, and has done great! She's stayed in bed every night and nap. She did fall out, but only once. Our baby crib is unassmebled in the garage! It's the first time since Fall 1999 we haven't had a crib set up in our house.

Lauren has to take a nap on one day of the weekend. Saturday is best, otherwise she has a hard time getting to sleep early, Sunday night. But she *needs* that one nap. It makes a world of difference in her crabbiness/cheerfulness level!!

Same Sunday afternoon: Austin watching TV with Daddy. Notice the lamp on the floor! Ha ha! We still hadn't *exactly* placed all our furniture. :)

Later that afternoon, riding around the patio again.

Picture 1: Little girls in their cute daisy dresses. Yet another Band Aid on Lauren...

Picture 2: I was working in the yard and Caroline was playing, catching Roly Poly bugs (pill bugs). She tried to catch as many as she could in her snack bowl.

Later we were discussing the Roly Poly bugs, and I asked Caroline if she left them under her bowl all day to bake in the sun. She replied, "I didn't bake them in the sun! They baked themselves in the sun!" Riiiiiiight....like they had any choice! Poor bugs.

Back to school = back to homework in the afternoons. The kids get home frome school about 3:35. They have a snack and do homework right away. Julia has to read for 30 minutes and Austin has to read for 20 minutes, Mon. through Thurs. They don't mind this, as they both like reading, and can choose the books they want to read. Austin has about 20 minutes of homework on top of that, and Julia has anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours of homework on top of her reading! Some of the 6th graders are starting band this year, so when they go to band, the other kids get to start on their homework. Julia is always glad when it is band practice day! Ha ha!

The kids are busy during the week. Monday, Austin has Karate 5 - 5:45. I bring him, Brian picks him up, usually. Tuesday, Austin and Lauren both have soccer practice 5 - 6 pm. Austin's is at the park, Lauren's is at the school, and Brian helps coach her team. Thankfully, the park and school are close to each other! Then we all have Awana at 6:15. I've been taking Julia and Caroline. Brian takes the two soccer players, who eat their dinners from metal pie plates in the car on the way to Awana! Wednesday, Austin has Karate again, 5 - 5:45. Thursday is soccer practice for both kids, 5 - 6 pm. Whew! We are all glad for a break on Friday night! :) Then, Saturday, we have two soccer games. Soccer season ends just before Thanksgiving, so just a few more weeks of that. Julia has 4-H meetings the 2nd Monday of every month, then individual project meetings here and there throughout the month.

Picture 1: More playing on the patio...tying up Baby Sister. Don't worry, she was laughing and having fun!

Picture 2: Caroline is very into playing with the toy kitchen and toy food. She makes meals for each of us. She makes meals for her dolls and stuffed animals. This day she served Pongo some food! LOL I saw this when I went to use the bathroom in there...

Austin had his soccer game first, this Saturday. He was taking a nice break, eating his snack, sitting with Caroline during Lauren's game.

Lauren has several very agressive players on her team. Their first few games were blow outs, with her team winning with a ton of goals. I was actually surprised when her team lost 2 games! Guess there are other good players out there too. :)

Brian was barbecuing on the patio and joined the kids in riding round and round the center "posts".

Lauren still loves to play Barbies!

She and Caroline also play dress up frequently.

This day they were both fairies. In the first picture they were looking at baby plants sprouting. They'd planted seeds from an alstromeria growing in another planter box, and said they were growing! Maybe they were? Maybe the sprouts were weeds? I guess time will tell! In the 2nd picture you can see the alstromeria from which they took the seeds.

This is what they did when I told them to show me their wings. Silly!

Austin wanted to try on the wings too...

One morning at breakfast, Austin made a face on his toast, using his fruit.

Picture 1: Little girls wearing their cute turtle outfits.

Picture 2: This is what I got when I asked Caroline to stand by the tomato plant! Goofball! She liked picking the tomatoes that grew. I thought the plant was done and told Brian to dump it in the compost, but last week I noticed more baby green tomatoes growing on it!

I started potty-training Caroline the last week of August. She "got it" that first week and has done so, so well. Bless you, Fourth Child who wants to be big like your brother and sisters and thinks going potty on the toilet is what you're supposed to do!!! We started out having her use the thick training underwear. She'd only had like 2 accidents, and wanted to wear her pretty underwear, so didn't wear the thick pairs much. She does all her potty on the potty, willingly and often on her own. Unlike a couple siblings who would wait till they had a nap or bedtime diaper on to poop, Caroline goes on the potty! I hate potty-training, and am so glad she is done with diapers! She wears undies at nap, but a diaper at night, which is usually dry in the morning. Yippee!!!

The 2nd picture is her after being "hosed off" with the faucet after one of her accidents early on. Another thing the laundry sink was handy for. Ha ha ha!!

The house tour will continue in the next post!