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Archive for the ‘house stuff’ Category

vivacious vegetation

18 Aug
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Here is a pic of my three tomato plants. Actually, there’s four, but two of them are planted very close together. The tomatoes pictured here have been eaten days ago, either by me or Silas, who likes to pick them and eat them immediately, before coming back into the house. They are delicious! It’s amazing how much better homegrown tomatoes are than store bought ones.

I never actually made a nice little garden or landscaped around the plants, but I think I’ll do that next year.

I also have a raspberry bush, which is yielding many juicy raspberries, which both Silas and Brianna like to pick and eat. It’s a lot of fun, and I think next year I’ll plant a few more raspberry bushes, and hopefully an apple tree. Above is a pic of an unripe cluster of raspberries from our raspberry bush.

 
 

project paint

24 Jul
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Yesterday I painted our main level half-bath!

When we bought our house, the whole interior was painted with an ivory color, which is okay, but not our first choice. We haven’t painted any walls since we moved in two years ago, so I figured it was time we paint something.

We used the color Stone Hearth by Behr paint.


BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


I thought the lights looked really cool against a dark wall.

That’s it! It was more work than I thought it’d be, because in the bathroom there are so many things to tape and paint around, but it was worth it! Looking forward to our next project, which will probably be Silas’ room.

 
 

more mulch

13 Jun
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We had to get another yard of mulch, because our first delivery didn’t quite cover our playset area. So, on Monday, Brian’s parents came to help us pick up some more mulch with their truck.


Getting the mulch out of the truck.


Brian and Silas mowing the lawn yesterday. Here you can see that the whole playset area is now filled with mulch.

 
 

playset perfection

03 Jun
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My parents recently bought us a playset for our backyard, and my Dad and Brian put it together when they were visiting us. The kids just love it, and like playing on it several times per day. I think it looks great, and is going to be a lot of fun for them. It has three swings, a little clubhouse, a bench & table to sit at or serve drinks from, an upper level, a slide, and monkey bars.

Here are a few pics of the playset being built:


The final product! We need about another yard of mulch, which we are picking up next week.


Here’s the door to the clubhouse, and Silas is sitting at the bench with the table.


Brianna with her new favorite toy!

Thanks Opa & Omsie, we love it!

 

amish country adventure

28 Sep
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On Saturday we went to Amish Country with a few ladies from the church. It was a lot of fun. It’s nice to just be together and have time to talk and stuff. We went shopping at a few different shopping areas, and ate at an Amish restaurant twice.


A pic of one of the areas we were shopping in.
(Picture by Noemi Cannon)


All of us at the Amish restaurant. From left to right: Sis. Noemi, Aunt Norma, me, Brianna, Brandy, Braedon, Sis. Miranda, Sis. Gomez, Sis. Linda, Sis. Browning, Brenda, Mom Holdren, Zacky, Sis. Smith and Kim.


Zacky and Kim at the restaurant.


Brianna’s first Amish Country trip!

It was lots of fun, especially at this one store, which I don’t know the name, which had 3 levels, and lots of awesome home decorations. It was really, really, cool. I bought something for my fireplace mantel from there. :)

 

picture people

12 Sep
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Today we went to Picture People to get the kids pics taken! The last time we went, I think Brianna was only 2 months old, so I thought it was a good time to get them done again.


Silas wasn’t overly cooperative during the pictures of him and Brianna together, so it was difficult getting a pic of them both smiling together. But we thought this one was cute anyway.


We love this one. They did a “retro” effect on it for us.


This one is so Silas!


Little “Goobie”.


We got this one to go above our piano (here it’s on the floor.) The middle pic is an 8×10 and the sides are 5×7′s. The effect is “retro” on this one. I love this frame & matting too.

Hope you liked the pics!

 
 

rug rompers

12 Sep
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We finally got an area rug for our living room! It was much needed, especially with Brianna crawling around now. Also, it makes it much more cozy in the winter!


The kids watching a movie in the living room.


Silas loves the new rug!


Here you can see the texture of the rug.

We all love our new area rug, and we’re so glad we got it. It makes playing downstairs much more comfy for the kids, and it also makes the living room more cozy.

 
 

brian the builder

29 May
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Brian has been quite the handyman around the house lately. He has installed blinds on several of our windows, and he also built a set of stairs for our back sliding doors!


BEFORE: Our living room windows with the temporary blinds on them.


AFTER: Our new blinds! They are a dark stained wood.

Below is a video of Brian building the back stairs, with Silas’ help:

 

cars and birdies

15 May
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I recently got a few things for Silas and Brianna’s rooms that they needed.

For Silas, I got a decorative pillow to go on his bedspread, because his bedspread is just 2 shades of blue, and pretty plain on its own. I also got him a light blue canvas tote bucket thing to go on the piece of his side table that sticks out. Silas is using it to store his books in. See below:


Silas’ bed and side table.


Silas’ new pillow for his bedspread.

I know it’s a little late, but I finally got Brianna a mobile!


Her mobile has different color birds on it.


Brianna checking out her new mobile.


Brianna after seeing the mobile.

 
 

vacuum cleaner go vroom!

09 Mar
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Our old upright, bagless vacuum cleaner bought the farm a few days ago, so we needed to go buy a new one, which I did on Saturday! I wanted the replacement vacuum to be a canister vacuum instead, because they make vacuuming stairs way easier. The new vacuum also uses bags, and has a HEPA filtration system, which will lower the amount of dust in the air.

Click here to read a report comparing upright vacuums to canister vacuums, which will help you decide which style is better for you!

Here is a pic of our new vacuum:


Silas helping me vacuum upstairs! He was quite excited about the new vacuum, and very eager to help.

The stairs were so easy to vacuum, as well as everywhere else, because the part you push around is so light. It’s also way easier to use the attachments and to vacuum corners, etc, than it was with our old vacuum, and the power cord is way longer! Yay for new vacuum cleaner!