Saying Goodbye IV

Bathroom renovations

I refer to the original downstairs bathroom as the ketchup and mustard bathroom, you can guess why.

Before

After

I painted the cabinet and walls, Chris put new countertop and faucet in, new mirror and new lighting.




The upstairs bathroom was interesting but not my style or functional, there was no shower and keep in mind this is also the master bathroom.

After

Chris tiled in the bath tub area so we could take a shower with out having to go down stairs and we painted. Sorry there is not much to see but it is a really small bathroom. I will not miss this part of the house.

Saying Goodbye III

The master bedroom has two small closets and a bonus room. The family before us used the bonus room as a nursery. This was kinda weird to me considering there is no heat or air in this room. So Chris made the bonus room much more functional by making it a wonderful closet.

Before

After

It is so nice having a walk in closet with a window. Another part of our house I am going to miss.

I am also going to throw in the pictures of our master bedroom. There wasn't much that needed to be done in this room but a new coat of paint.

You are not going to believe this but my friend made the bed frame! I love it! He also made our coffea table, he is so amazing. If you ever want some custom work done at your house he can do about anything, let me know and I will pass you along to him.

Saying Goodbye II

The very first project we started when we moved into our house was taking out the drop ceiling in the "4th bedroom". Chris ripped it out and put up a new ceiling, crown molding, and painted.

Before

Why would any one ever put a drop ceiling in a room and please note that this is not in the basement.

After

We use the room as an office now.

But, before Gates we used the room as a living room.

I love this wall! The piano was Chris' Grandmothers and the pictures over the piano are from our wedding. The top right is a painting my best friend did of the Crane Cottage, the place we got married. I love the painting, it is so special and wonderful.

The paint color is a Restoration Hardware color that I am obsessed with. We also painted the guest bath the same color but they don't look the same because of the lighting. I could of painted a couple more rooms this color but Chris wouldn't let me. I am not sure of the exact name but I will need to figure it out for my next house because I will definitely use it again.

In some of the "After" pictures you might notice round circles on the ceiling, those are speakers. Chris wired speakers in the kitchen, family room, office and back porch. They are connected to the computer and the tv. This is a great bonus when you are having a party or just enjoying a romantic evening on the back porch.

Saying Goodbye

I am very sad and emotional. This is our last week in our house. We are trying to move out by this weekend even though we don't close till next Friday. This was our first home together, the home that we came to after our honeymoon, the home that we brought our first child home to, the home that we put a LOT of hard work into and will always have many happy memories of. It has been a very special place and a wonderful first house. But, it is time for us to move on. In honor of our wonderful 3 years in this house I am going to recap some of our projects. First and by far the biggest and best project was the kitchen and dining room remodel.

BEFORE: This is a picture before we even moved in to the house of the family room and the small dining room space.

BEFORE: The dining room and the doorway to the kitchen

BEFORE: This is the little kitchen. The house was built 1940 and I am pretty sure that these are the original cabinets.

BEFORE: This is the old one car garage. It was a drive thru garage so the view is looking into the back yard.

Now for the AFTER. I am going to try and list the pictures in the same order as the before pictures to try and help you understand what was what before. We opened the wall between the old garage and the dining room and made the front side of the garage the new dining room. We also took out the wall between the old dining room and kitchen and put a new wall up on the other side of the back door which split the old kitchen in half. One half of the old kitchen is now a laundry room. Before the new laundry room I would have to go down to the dirt wall basement and do laundry, it was terrible. The other half of the old kitchen is just an open space for the back door. Hmmm, does that make sense? Probably not but as you can see it made a big differnce and we did not add onto the original footprint of the house.

To help you orient yourself with the space, the little window over the sink use to be the window in the old dining room.

The laundry room

The new dining room. This used to be the old garage.

After uploading all these pictures I realized that they are not that great. It is kinda hard to see all the details. The countertop is black granite and the island is honed carrara marble.

These changes made the house seem so much bigger and so much more functional.

Campmeeting wrap-up

Remember how I mentioned the cutest cabin at campmeeting. Well here is the cute inside.

And then to wrap it up, why aren't all men such gentlemen?

10 Months

Gates is 10 months today. I didn't think he could get much crazier but he has. This was the hardest month to take a picture yet. I even had Chris helping me but we couldn't get Gates to sit still long enough for me to get a good picture. These are the changes in Gates' life at 10 months.

• He is walking but he hasn't gotten it completely figured out. He takes a couple steps and then crashes.
  
• He has his top two center teeth coming in.
• He says momma and dadda randomly.
• He will put his arms up in the air when you say arms up.
• He tries to do the motions to the itsy bitsy spider when you sing it to him.
  

Campmeeting now

We spent our whole weekend at Campmeeting this weekend. I took a ton of pictures so I am sorry for the picture overload but I couldn't help myself from sharing some of them.

When given the option of a snow cone or cotton candy I would also choose both! The goofy face is because he was hiding behind a tree hoping his mom didn't catch him with the ball of cotton candy.

Chris was poking an animal of some sort and stirring up the water in the spring. "There was always some kid that would stir up the water so you couldn't see." Missy

The Old School house

This is the cutest cabin at camp meeting. The inside is even cuter! This reminds me that Saturday there will be a tour of cabins if you would like to see for yourself. For info about campmeeting and the activities going on this week check it out at http://mariettacampmeeting.com/
The public is welcome!

We had a great weekend and this was only the beginning, we still have the whole week ahead of us. I am so thankful for this wonderful time with family.

Psalms 5:11 "But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for

joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you."