Our 2016 Project List

We are already thinking about our project list for 2016.  Honestly, we were thinking about it last fall when the 2015 funds dried up.  Before revealing our project list for 2016, here is a look back at our list from 2015!

 

In February, I painted the kitchen while Andrew was out of town for work.  

We went from tan to gray.  

 Kitchen when we moved in.  No, there isn't much difference. 

The gray didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to.

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Early in the spring, we began our renovation on the master bathroom.  

It took about four months, but we love the result! 

 After

 After

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 While progress was stalled on the bathroom, I re-painted my office.  

The photo above was from my first round of paint when we moved in. 

 I went with a light pink and a navy accent wall. 

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 In July, I painted the garage a darker gray to hide the dirt that accumulates.

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When the bulbs all went out on our kitchen light, we 

decided it was time to replace the one that had been cracked 

since we moved in with this new one.  

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 In late August, I repainted our bedroom.  Previously, we had a dark brown 

accent wall behind our bed and the rest of the walls were a cream color.  

Someone had patch painted with the wrong color paint, so there were 

actually multiple ivory colors on the walls.  I painted a the accent 

wall a dark gray and the other walls a light gray.  

In addition to all of these projects, we also had to replace the sump pump and the garbage disposal during the year. Our final major project for 2015 was to replace the air conditioner and furnace as well as have the vents cleaned.  In 2016, we hope to turn our attention outside and work on the yard.  Our front landscaping project fell a little short of my vision, so we are going to work on that in the spring.  

First up on the list is to remove the birch tree in the front yard.  When we moved in, I loved the shade the tree gave.  However, we have discovered that the other tree in the front yard is taking over and slowly killing the birch tree.  Take note people, when you plant things, they do eventually get larger. I have lost track of the number of things we have had to tear out of the yard because they weren't planted with the mature size in mind.  While something may look small initially, it's a lot of fun watching it grow over time! 

We are also planning to take out all the rock in the front landscape.  Mulch is the way to go if you want good weed control.  It's going to be a total pain to take all the rock out, and we aren't sure what we are going to do with it once it is pulled up, but it has to go.  We also need to look at possibly moving some of the edging around as it hasn't stood up well this past season.  We have edgers falling over and shifting all over the place. 

We have intentions of working on the backyard as well this season.  We would love to put a shed in this spring so we can get the lawn equipment out of the garage and free up space for Andrew's workshop.  

 

We hope to put the shed out by the lilac bushes. 

We also want to pull up the black plastic edging all along the deck and redo the landscaping between the fence and the deck.  We did have a landscape company come out and give us an estimate on doing some of the work. 

 Maya is eyeballing the area we hope to re-landscape in the spring. 

First up on the list, as soon as it turns warm, is finishing the cabinet doors for the built ins down in the basement.  Andrew got his new saw on Black Friday which should make finishing the doors a snap!

Beyond the yard and beyond 2016, we have a long list of things we would like to do to the house: 

Replace the front door and screen door 

Replace the patio slider door

Replace the garage door

Redo the flooring on the main level 

Redo the kitchen cabinets 

Refinish the deck 

Redo the half bathroom on the main level

Redo the guest bathroom on the 2nd floor 

Redo the master closet 

Replace lighting in the entry way 

Replace lights on the front of the house

Replace light on the back deck.  Ideally, we would add more lighting out back.  

Additional storage/shelving in the laundry room 

12 Years Of Buddy

Today, we celebrate Buddy's 12th birthday.  Next month, we celebrate four years of having him in our family.  We knew when we adopted him that he was a senior and each year we get with him is a blessing.  We like to think that his life is a little better now than it was prior to joining our family.  He was previously owned by a breeder.  His life in our house is filled with hours of sleeping, plenty of warm places to curl up, a yard to patrol and good food in his tummy.  Most importantly, his life is filled with lots of love!  We hope to spend many more wonderful years with our adorable senior citizen!

 This is where we found him... at the Animal Rescue League! 

 An injured nail he wouldn't stop licking

 Warm spots are great!

 He is safe from the storm in the fort daddy built!

 Are you done working, mom?

 Fireworks are bad, guys...

 This is soft...

Hello There 2016

Well, here we are in 2016.  I'm not sure where the end of 2015 went.  Personally, I would prefer to cut December off the calendar most years anyway.  No, I don't hate Christmas.  But, when you have a spouse who works for UPS, December turns into something totally different than "the season of joy". 

We kicked off the month of December thinking we might dodge a bullet with Andrew not being on the go team this year.  However, I told myself not to get too comfortable with the idea; I'm glad I didn't.  Three days into December, he was called up to Sioux City to help out since they were hit with a snow storm.  The promise was that he would be back on Monday... I have learned not to put much faith in those kind of promises.  He actually returned a day early, on Sunday.  He came home around 11:00 AM and by 6:00 PM he was getting the call to leave for Austin, TX the following day.  My only response, "glad I started laundry".  With a one way ticket in hand and no idea when he might return, I dropped him off at the airport at 4:30 the next morning.  In true December fashion, Maya took it upon herself to kill a rabbit while he was gone.  I'm eternally grateful for neighbors who helped me take care of said rabbit at 10:30 at night.  Luckily, I caught this one before she was able to do any damage to it, so we avoided a late night trip to the vet.  I didn't avoid a vet trip all together though; I did have to go get some anti nausea meds for her to make it through the rest of Andrew's trip.  We have decided any time he is going to be out of town for more than a week, I'm just going to preemptively get meds for Maya.

Andrew came home from Texas long enough for us to catch Star Wars on opening night!  A week before Christmas he was headed down to Cedar Rapids for work.  The dogs and I packed up shop and headed down for a couple of days as well.  Dogs in a hotel room aren't the best thing in the world, but it was nice to just get out of the house. 

In addition to Maya's rabbit hunt, I also had the pleasure of bailing water out of our window well twice in December.  Bailing freezing cold water out of a window well at 11:30 at night and then again at 8:00 in the morning wasn't exactly my idea of a good time.  Several times over the course of four months, our outdoor faucet turned on.  We aren't sure if it was the faucet turning itself on, or if some crazy neighbor kid thought it sounded funny to turn it on.  The first time it happened was in September, when we were gone for a few days.  Needless to say, I wasn't pleased to see an $80 water bill the next month. We ended up getting the faucet fixed and currently have the handle taken off of it so no one can walk buy and turn it on.  At multiple points in December I accused Andrew of always perfectly timing his departure from Iowa.  I know he doesn't plan it that way, but it always seems things go haywire when he is gone. 

We managed through and now are on the other side of the new year!  The last two years I have done an extra happy dance when we can turn the page on the new year.  I continue to pass my free time at Kirkland's.  It served as a good distraction during December.  However, I'm reminded just how rude people get as the holidays approach.  Seriously people, can't we all just get along and be nice to each other?   

Before my holiday spirit was completely squashed, I did manage to get some baking done as well as get a few Christmas decorations put up.  Our big tree didn't get put up this year, it just sat in the middle of the living room floor in the box.  I did put up a smaller Christmas tree, however. 

 Nom, nom, cookies!

 I may not have put any ornaments on it, but at least it was up!

 The dining room was the most decorated room of the house this Christmas.

 Just a few things up.

This was the only time I actually had the garland plugged in.

Here's to a new year filled with new and exciting adventures!

Holiday Spirit

Guys, I have to be honest, I'm pretty excited about the holidays this year.  Maybe it's because I have been surrounded by holiday stuff at Kirkland's for months.  Perhaps it's because 2014 had a rough ending beginning with Thanksgiving, and I'm optimistic 2015 will end on a happier note.  

So far, Andrew hasn't been called out of the state for work and Maya has remained healthy for the most part.  We are still dealing with her crazy stomach sensitivities, but I think we might have finally figured that out as well.  Now, if we can just keep the rabbits out of our yard this winter, I think we might be able to avoid another midnight trip to the emergency vet.  We did put lattice up under the deck to keep the rabbits from creating a home under there this winter.  We also picked up all the stick piles in the yard so they couldn't make their home in those either.  Once we were done cleaning up outside, I turned my attention inside.  One of the downsides of working from home is when your house is a mess, it is really hard to ignore.   

Christmas came early in our house in the form of a new "toy"!  I wanted to get the carpets cleaned in the house for a while.  Between Maya's vomiting issues, and Buddy's scooting on the floor, there was no telling how many germs were in the carpets.  Many times when we spot treated, I could tell the carpet was disgusting.  I debated hiring the floors cleaned, renting a carpet cleaner, or buying one.  I ruled out paying to have the carpets cleaned because I didn't want to move all the furniture out of every room. After reading reviews of several carpet cleaners, I settled on buying one as it seemed the rented ones weren't that great.  I figured we have dogs, they make messes, it would be nice to have one on hand so I can clean the carpets on a regular basis.  My hope is that we don't always have carpets; laminate floor is much easier to clean! 

I went with the Bissell ProHeat 2x Premier Pet carpet cleaner, which I bought at Lowe's.  Luckily, I caught it on sale.  It was pretty easy to put together, so with a little help from Andrew, I was up and running in no time.  The cleaner came with a small bottle of cleaning solution, but I opted to purchase a bottle of Bissell Deep Clean +Antibacterial Formula.  I started out cleaning our living room carpet, which I knew was pretty dirty.

 All set up and ready to go

 I'm not normally a germaphobe, but this was seriously grossing me out.  

This was the dirty water I was pouring out of the machine.  

  A few hours later, I was able to put the room back together.  

The carpets look and feel so much better. 

I also cleaned our dining room, the second floor hallway, and our bedroom.  I was able to get up several set in stains.  The house smells so much better, and I felt better knowing the carpets are sanitized.  I was pleased with the overall performance of the cleaner.  I was slightly annoyed that I had to stop so often to empty the dirty water and add in clean water, but I realize having a larger tank on the cleaner would have weighted the machine done.  I don't think I could have tolerated a heavier machine.  This one is 25 lbs, and my shoulders were sore by the time I was done for the day.  

In addition to cleaning the carpets, we are also getting the vents and ductwork cleaned out in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to getting rid of some allergens floating around in the house; I'm guessing the ductwork hasn't been cleaned out since the house was built!       

Crazy October

I can't believe we are about to turn the page on the calendar into November next week.  I don't know where October went.  In late September, after coming back from Chicago, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe it has been four years already.  We have done so much in those few years!  We celebrated the way we usually do with a cake!  The first couple of years after we were married, we got our anniversary cake from the baker who did our wedding cake.  However, last year, we found out that he moved out of the state.  For the last two years, we have been trying to find a new favorite baker for our anniversary cake.  We haven't quite hit the mark yet. 

A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated another wedding with some friends of ours.  I was honored to be part of their wedding, and stand up with the wedding party.  I also got the chance to do their wedding flowers.  It was great to have the opportunity again.  I have to say, I miss being able to do wedding flowers on a regular basis.  The weddings colors were yellow and blue with sunflowers as the theme.  I think the flowers turned out awesome, and we had beautiful weather the day of the wedding. 

 I used medium sunflowers, viking mums, blue delphinium and variegated pit. 

Attendants Bouquet

 Attendants Bouquet 

 

Bridal Bouquet

 

 

 A couple boutonnieres

It was an outdoor wedding, and the sun was not cooperating during this photo. 

The rest of October has been filled with work, work, and more work.  Andrew took off for a week for work, and I seem to be filling my weeks with my regular full time job as well as my part time gig at Kirkland's.  With the holidays right around the corner, and the likelihood Andrew will get pulled to another state to help with peak season, I will be spending my spare hours at Kirkland's.