Starting the Kitchen

I know, I know! It's been a long time since my last post! Life is crazy around here! My new goal is to update my blog at least once a month!
So we have finally started on our kitchen renovation! Woohoo! This is going to be a big project but we are super excited about it! I had 4 contractors come out last Thursday for different things and the electrician is scheduled to come out this Thursday to put new lights in. So far, we have taken out the soffits and most of the upper cabinets. We also have taken out most of the wall between the kitchen and family room. It's so nice having that wall gone! We have ripped out a lot of the sheetrock on the ceiling. (And boy, my abs hurt today from doing it!) There was going to be a lot of patchwork so we talked with the sheetrock guy and he thought it would be easier to just replace it. Maybe he just wanted our money, not sure! HA!
In the process of our demo, so far I have almost had a heart attack from a toy snake that was on top of the fridge; found a wasps nest in the ceiling - luckily they were all dead; found lots of mouse turds - gross; and cut the phone line disconnecting our internet - oops!

Here are a few pics:



Before - I clearly didn't bother cleaning for the photo

The wall being removed



 

 

We also found this piece of linoleum flooring up here in the ceiling, interesting...

We did all this demo on Sunday, then Monday my cousin and I made applesauce with 130 pounds of apples! I'm pooped! You can't find anything in my house because we have stuff everywhere from what was in the cabinets, and floor won't stay clean because of all the dust, but at least we have home made applesauce! Yummy! Next up, new lighting!

Back to school for the Crazy!

This boy woke up at 6:30 this morning exclaiming that he was "Sooooo excited to start 1st grade!". As you can clearly see in his expression, he is quite excited, or maybe slightly crazed. One of the two, I haven't quite decided. Little brother, Anders wanted to be in the picture too, in his mismatched pajamas, none the less, which are hiding big boy underwear! No more diapers at night! Hooray!

As the good mom that I am, I got Bjorn to school just seconds before his teacher wanted to start. She did let me snap a quick picture at his new desk before I gathered the other two and ran out of the classroom. 

Looking at this sweet boy makes me so happy. Wavering between melancholy moments of holding back tears that he is so big and holding back tears of joy that school has started again! The house is once again somewhat quiet, I am not having to constantly break up fights (until after school of course), and I don't feel like, at any moment, I might snap and end up at the mental hospital. Just less stress all around, except for mornings.

I had great aspirations of showering before taking Bjorn to school, however, I was lucky to get a little makeup on. Most of you know how hectic school mornings are when you have several kids. Now that Boden is eating solid foods too, that just adds to the chaos. I run around frantically trying to get the kids food, pulling shoes out of Autzen's mouth, making coffee before Jonas goes to work, giving Boden bites of food here and there, and getting clothes on and diapers changed. Then surprise, on the way out to the car, I find out that Auzten had a nice pile of diarrhea which he left for me in the garage. Thank goodness it was in the garage!

So, now that we are back home, it's almost 11 and I still haven't showered, but I did do 30 minutes of cardio. Some of you know that Jonas and I are doing our own form of The Biggest Loser. We are competing to see who can get to their weight loss goal first. He has to lose 12 pounds and I need to lose 10. Yes, a nice sum of money is involved! He thinks I have an advantage but he will totally just starve himself which I cannot since I am breastfeeding. Ha! So, we'll see. Cheer me on because I'M SOOOOO HUNGRY!

What's in that carpet?

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now. Our living room is starting to come together. We have most of the actual renovation done and what's left is the decorating and a few other tidbits! I still have more caulking and painting on the trim, and we are planning on building a built in bookshelf/cabinet to the right of the fireplace, but that will be later on.

I got these chairs last week and I'm super excited about them. They are navy with a burlap backing and distressed legs. They can be found online here at Pier One. They are nice chairs, not great quality but good enough for now. With 3 little boys, I am not wanting to buy really expensive furniture at this point. (The color of the carpet is a little off in this picture).

I just need to get some end tables, coffee table, lamps, etc. and will likely put some roman shades up as well on the windows. We have such a nice view that I don't want to cover the windows up with big drapes.

Here's one more before picture:

Now before I show you the after pictures, let me just tell you what we've done in this room. We started off by scraping the popcorn ceilings, which we actually did last summer in nearly the whole upstairs. Then we had someone come in and texture them. We painted the ceilings and the walls Dorian Gray by Sherwin Williams. However, because we have no Sherwin Williams stores here, I had our local Ace Hardware do a match and used Valspar Optimus paint. This paint is AMAZING! Our walls are quite textured and I only had to do one coat with some touch ups. It is so thick, it's like painting pudding on your walls! It is expensive but worth it since I didn't have to do two coats.

I painted this room and ceiling while being about 7 months pregnant. It was a little nerve racking, to say the least, standing on the 4th rung of the ladder with my then, 5 year old and 2 year old running around me. Trying to remain calm while they were jumping off the stairs I would tell them, "Don't run into the ladder or mommy will fall"! Probably not a very good "safety first" example.           

So as I was painting the wall over that middle window, I looked down and saw something on the ground. At first, I thought it was some pasta that our dog had eaten and threw up, but the closer I looked, I realized that wasn't what it was at all. "Jonas"! I yelled. "Get in here and look at this!" It was a FUNGUS! Growing through the orange carpet in my living room! AHHH! Oh. My. Word. So gross! At this point we decided we had to get our windows changed out, so I called my Uncle over and he got everything ordered for us. Apparently, the condensation from the window had been building up for so many years that it was the perfect environment for fungi to grow. My Uncle was able to get the new windows in and now we have nice, new windows and no more fungi!

Next we had the carpet installed by someone local and Jonas put up the chandelier. The carpet is Taza Tuftex in Windsor Gray by Shaw, you can find more details here.
The fireplace was painted twice since the first coat of paint didn't match the carpet, and then we put the trim up. You can read about those projects here and here.

So here's the progress so far. We are currently using this room for some of the toys since Jonas took over the space in the family room for the workout equipment. Just until the basement is done.

With the sun streaming in

The sofa's are from Joss and Main and so is the chandelier. If you haven't discovered Joss and Main yet, it's a flash sale site that is super awesome! Even though it's a flash sale site, you can still return almost everything. They have great stuff and great prices! But watch out, you might get addicted! Now off to the cabin for a long weekend!

Family Photo Session

I can't believe Boden is 6 months old already! He is getting so big and is such a precious boy! He is the happiest baby, always smiling!
I talked to my Aunt Charlotte who has been taking his pictures for me and we planned on doing a photo session Monday. She is awesome and I highly recommend her if you are in the Hermiston/Tri-Cities area. Her website is http://engelhartphotography.com.
Well, Jonas ended up working until 4 am in the hospital Sunday night and requested his Monday morning patients be rescheduled at the office and they ended up rescheduling his whole day. Lucky him, he got an extra day off! Since he was home I thought it would be the perfect time to get a few family pictures too! I'm sure this thrilled the whole family! Ha! Anyway, here are a couple of the pictures that she got which I think turned out great! Boden was getting tired since we did his pictures at the end, so I'm hoping we can get a few more of him.          

Where did the week go?

Oh my goodness! It's been over a week since I've written anything on here! Yikes! Not sure where the time went! I tried to do the least I could on our house this week because I needed a break. Pretty sure, Jonas noticed. Ha! I spent my time elsewhere. So now, I'm trying to get motivated to dive back into it tomorrow.

Yesterday, the hospital called and they were in dire need of a hospitalist to work nights Friday through Sunday. Jonas agreed to it since he was on already on call for the office. It's only the second night and I'm beginning to feel like he's in residency again. And thus, the reason for my late night blogging. We did have a wonderful relaxing day today though, and Jonas didn't get many calls which is nice because so far, the nights have been busy.

It was the church campout this weekend so a lot of people were gone and church was cancelled. My Aunt Linda and Uncle Jerry were here however, and we had a nice lunch over at their house. They happen to be our neighbors so we didn't have far to walk. Having them as neighbors sure is nice. It's also quite convenient for nap-time as I was able to put Boden down in his crib and set up the monitor.

What a delicious and healthy meal we had! My aunt made a quinoa salad and black bean salad, and I made one of my favorite recipes, gnocchi with zucchini ribbons. I altered it a bit because my uncle is vegan and I wanted him to be able to have some (sometimes I'm nice like that). I have no idea where I got this recipe, though, since I found it before the days of Pinterest, but let me know if you've seen it somewhere so I can give due credit. It's a great summer recipe, especially if you've planted zucchini and have it coming out your ears!

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons

1 pound gnocchi
2 Tablespoons butter
2 medium shallots, chopped
1 pound zucchini, thinly slice lengthwise
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1) Cook gnocchi, set aside
2) Melt butter in skillet over med-high heat, cook until butter is beginning to brown.
3) Add shallots and zucchini, cook until soft
4) Add tomatoes, salt, nutmeg, and pepper, stirring often, until tomatoes start to break open
5) Stir in Parmesan and parsley
6) Add gnocchi, toss to coat

Serves: 4,  425 calories/serving

If anybody does not know what gnocchi is, it is amazing! It's similar to a pasta but it's made out of potato. You should try it! So yummy! I added waaaay more parsley than this recipe calls for, mostly because I love it. I also used onions instead of shallots.

The rest of our day consisted of swimming, getting ice cream (because we needed to make up for that healthy lunch), and napping. But even with my nap, I'm tired, so it's off to bed for me. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Fireplace Perfection

I love fireplaces! Warm and cozy. Cup of tea in hand with a good book to read (although those moments are rare!) So glad to have this one thing totally finished! It took me a while playing with the decor to get it right but I love how it turned out in the end. Thank you sis (momdigity.wordpress.com) for helping!

Amidst the all the chaos of life, dirty dishes in the sink, piles of laundry on the couch, and tools cluttering the floor, there is now a place of tranquility in my house! I can sit on my couch and relax and let go of everything weighing down on me. Quick reminder of before:

And after:

My amazing Uncle Jerry put that awesome beam up for us and I love it! Thank you to him! Oh, and because of my less than professional photography skills, I can't get the lighting right with our giant windows on the other side. Hence, the differing colors of the rock from top to bottom.

  

6 year olds with nail guns

We may get some criticism for this one but Jonas let Bjorn try the nail gun out this weekend. We were working on the living room trim and Bjorn was sooooo bored. Mostly because I'm such a mean mom and wouldn't let him watch tv and play video games all day long! Mean right?

Bjorn using the nail gun

So he wanted to help daddy. I had no idea this was going on until I looked over and saw him with the nail gun. Let me just say he was completely supervised the WHOLE time! He shot a few nails in the baseboard and did really well!



It was short-lived however because he "forgot" that he had to wait for daddy to be there and picked the nail gun up when Jonas was doing something else. So he quickly lost that privilege which he didn't like and decided to sit on the couch and pout. Boy this boy! I thought girls were supposed to be the dramatic ones!
On to the trim. Jonas and I both like very simple trim with straight lines and not a lot of fancy details. Some people might call it boring but hey, it's our house. So we (I actually helped with this project) framed around the windows and I started caulking the windows while he finished up with the baseboards.

Add caption

We had great plans of getting further along with this project but my dear Uncle Andy called and invited us to go out on his boat with him at 4pm. So we decided to have a little fun and leave the project for another day. There's always another day right? It was quite a bit more fun and it was nice to get out of the house!

Faucet Update

Well, Jonas decided he better just buy a new faucet because he thought there may have been something missing from original one. He had taken it apart when he was doing the tiling and thought some of the pieces may have gotten lost (or thrown away, taken by one of the kids, etc. ) He was right! Two parts were missing! Crazy! He got the faucets switched out and the new one works like a charm! We are just so thankful that this happened when we were home!

Too Optimistic?

Do I dare say I may have been a little too optimistic? I really thought we were in the clear with this bathroom reno? Oh my, oh my! So, these little turkeys were enjoying their bath tonight. Anders having fun drinking from the faucet, and Bjorn, upset because Anders is in his way! Typical brotherly love here! Bjorn decided he needed to take a shower so I quickly got Anders out and turned the water on for the shower when, all of a sudden, water starts spewing out from the handle. Not just a trickle people, like gallons! Next thing, I'm screaming at Jonas, "Turn the water off!" and thinking to myself while trying not to cry, "Please not another flood!" Apparently, we need MORE drama in our life! Deep Breath! Deep Breath! My anxiety level was slightly elevated by this point.

So, after coming home from work completely exhausted and seeing over 20, very difficult, energy zapping patients, this guy gets to work on the bathroom! AGAIN! He, however, stays calm, while I try not to completely lose it. Trying to be a "good" mom, I get the kiddo's in their jammies and read them a few stories. By this time It is nearly 8 o'clock and I get the kids tucked into bed while Jonas decides he has to get a new part for the faucet so he runs to Home Depot. The next hour consists of us going back and forth, turning the water on and off. Yelling/screaming down the hall "Turn the water on!" and "Turn it off!" And let me just say, we were yelling! Our bathroom is on one side of the house and the water valve is on the other side of the house in the basement! Amazingly, the kids all fell asleep within minutes despite all of the chaos!

On a side note, in the midst of all this, Autzen (the puppy), decided he needed to pee on a rug in the laundry room even though he just went outside. I threw the rug in the washer and like a complete idiot, put soap on my hands to wash them. Oh. My. Word. Did I seriously just put soap on my hands? Good thing for baby wipes! Ahhh, super frustrated here! At least the puppy is cute or he may have ended up at the pound! (Joking!)

Well, Jonas thought he had everything fixed and then tried to turn the shower on and the pressure was just too much! Again, gallons of water spewing from the faucet. So, because sometimes you just don't care, we are taking a break for the night. No water 'til the morning.

Progress

Another long day! Apparently, I am a horrible painter because I can't seem to paint without getting it all over me. The bathroom ceiling is what I was blessed with painting today and I am glad it's done. Not too fun looking up, hours on end, with your neck and arm cramping, but hey, what can you do? So, Friday evening we had these tough guys come help us (us meaning Jonas) get the vanity into the bathroom.

Tight squeeze!

Thank you guys! Glad I didn't have to throw my back out trying to do it. Anyway, we did make quite a bit of progress on the reno today. Here's a rundown of what we accomplished:

• bathroom ceiling painted white
• tile grout sealed
• faucet installed (it even works!)
• vanity light installed
• outlets switched from the 70's cream color to white
• fan light cover spray painted (didn't want to buy a new one)
• door put back on (had to take it off to get the vanity in)
• 2 loads of laundry
• 4 feedings for the baby
• groceries
• and other motherly duties

And here's the man hard at work!

Working on the plumbing

Hanging the mirror

And here is the progress we've made so far:

    

So, we still need to do quite a bit:

• caulk all the trim
• paint all the trim
• paint the doors
• touch up paint
• and decorate, the fun part!

Hopefully, I can get it all done in a couple weeks. No more pictures until then! In the meantime, Jonas is going to start the living room trim and then start on the dungeon, a.k.a. basement.

Sneak Peak

I am super excited because I have been working on our fireplace this week and it is almost done! Woo hoo! The job is a tedious one as the rock has a lot of nooks and crannies and edges to paint. And...this was the second time we painted it! The first time we had painted it before our carpet was installed. Since we didn't actually have a carpet sample in hand, the colors were off and I'm too OCD to overlook it. So, I bit the bullet and did it again. I actually had done most of the painting a couple months ago but was procrastinating on doing all of the edges. I finally got up the energy to do it and now we are just about ready to show you the finished product! Just a reminder, here is the before picture (sorry I don't have a close up):

And here is a sneak peak of the transformation:

Can't wait to show you it all finished! I'll give all the details at that time!

On another exciting note, this dandy came today:

That right there is our vanity for the main bathroom! It's only 300 pounds so it will be super fun getting it from our driveway, down our long hallway, and into the bathroom! Jonas thought I could help him (he thinks so highly of me!), but he will be getting some guy to help him move it on Sunday. I may have to coerce them with pizza! Stay tuned! Exciting things are to come!

An "Oodle" Bit

It was time to take a break from our house renovation for a weekend. While we don't work every weekend on our house, most are filled with multiple tasks on our never ending to-do list. This weekend though, we were heading to our cabin with the family to celebrate the 4th of July. It had been over 100 degrees for a week or so where we live and we were looking forward to an escape from the heat. Jonas, myself, and the kids got up to the cabin early Friday afternoon before his parents and brothers and families came up. Ahhh, it was so peaceful hearing the birds chirp, swinging in a hammock with my boys, and looking out onto the lake.

 

Anders and mommy

Then, the phone rang. We had literally been there about 5 minutes when Jonas' phone rang and it was the hospital. Surprise! He was on call this weekend! Since he had just been on call the weekend before, he was caught off guard. Newbie! Got stuck with the holiday and didn't bother checking his schedule since it's always the same. We held our breath and hoped for the best. Saturday was filled up with kayaks, paddle boards, canoes, bikes, motorcycles, and lots of cousin time for the kiddos. Then midnight hit and that dreaded call came! Lucky for Jonas, he didn't have to go in until the morning which let us get a full nights sleep, however it did cut our weekend short.

Now, getting home by 8:30 in the morning may seem like a bad thing when you are supposed to be playing on the water, but we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and get some more work done around the house. We have a linen closet in the main bath that has been staring at me since we moved in, saying "Paint me!". So, after procrastinating for nearly a year, I did it. I will spare you the picture. It's painted white and looks so fresh from the gross 1970's dark brown wood which was apparently very popular back then. Jonas also made himself useful, (even without me nagging!). Woo hoo! He finished the bathroom floor tile and trim which makes it look so polished. I see numerous hours, however, filling nail holes, caulking, and painting the trim, which is a little daunting to me as it will be my job! We still haven't gotten our vanity or vanity lighting but it already is looking so much different. Once we get lighting in the first part of the bathroom it will be much brighter and I will get more detailed pictures up.

             

I'm so glad that it's almost a fully functional bathroom again! While the circumstances of this weekend were not ideal, in the words of my 3 year old Anders, we had an "oodle" (little) bit of fun this weekend and we got an "oodle" bit of work done. The best of both worlds I suppose!

What a handyman!

This hunk is a super dad/husband. Not only does he work full time, play with the kids, work on the yard, and a million other things, but he comes home from work and works on our house too! Today is his birthday and our 9 year anniversary (didn't want him to forget).

. 

Jonas is really great at just about everything. He recently finished tiling the bathroom tub/shower. It was his first time tiling and he did an awesome job! I love it!

Mosaic

I'm not going to write a tile how-to because they are all over the internet. You Tube has great tutorials. We got a basic white subway tile from Home Depot and got the mosaic from Cost Less Carpet. The mosaic is Rhino Organica Sugar in the Raw.

Toothpaste, toilets, and two year olds

We woke up one Sunday morning not too long ago with two inches of water in our main bathroom and down the hallway. Frantically trying to salvage what we could, we started ripping up the hardwood floor that Jonas had JUST finished laying the week before. We were quite regretting our house purchase at this point and wondering what else would go wrong while renovating this house.  Immediately, we called in O So Clean and they showed up within 30 minutes. This was somewhat nice, actually, because O So Clean did the floor demolition of the bathroom for us. They ripped out that pretty orange carpet which had even prettier linoleum under it. Boo, I didn't take a picture of that!

 

So after we had fixed the flood problem, I was scraping the wallpaper border off (click here for how-to) and Jonas came in to tell me there was sewage coming up in the unfinished part of the basement! Gross! Well, we then had our septic system pumped and they found a lovely tube of Tom's of Maine kids Strawberry toothpaste blocking the pipe. Apparently, this cute little kiddo thought it needed to be flushed down the toilet! Kids seem to cost a lot of money these days!

We somewhat breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it was our kid who caused the flood and not a major undetected house problem missed during inspection.

Home at Last

After 8 years and 4 states, it's good to be in one place for a while. Knowing we would be moving to Oregon after my husband, Jonas, finished his medical residency, we went ahead and bought a nice half acre lot to build on. We were pretty excited about building, especially since we were designing the house ourselves! 

Our plans changed, however, when my aunt called me one day asking if we would be interested in buying Grandma J's house. Grandma J was my uncle's mom, (other side of the family), and she had just passed away. Her house had a lot of memories for both Jonas and I, as we had grown up coming over and even had our wedding shower here! Yes, the house was a little dated, about 30 years or so, but it came with an acre and a half, fruit trees, and huge shade trees! Oh so rare in Northeastern Oregon! 

So when this opportunity came around, we thought it must be meant to be! Both Jonas and I like doing projects and thought it would be a fun thing to do together. So, after selling our land and getting over the idea of building new, we jumped in head first! With work, kids, and everything else, we MAY have bit off a little more than we can chew! Join us as we embark on a new journey! First stop, the main bathroom!