Construction Update!! I keep telling myself I will be happy when its over, but right now...

OK... as most of you know we have decided to do some remodeling. It started out so simply... clean up the place that since we have done nothing upon buying this house back in 2005 because "we weren't going to be here long..." well, we have been living here for the past 5 1/2 years now and its time for an update!

A warning... the house is a complete disaster... don't judge me! There are several colors on the walls and dirt everywhere! Here are some pics of our work in progress.

One of my favorite additions.... Dressing up the kitchen. We added a bit of crown on the cabinets.

And a computer station where the cupboards used to be. It was open here with no top cabinets. We added those and the wall (obviously) and the bottom desk area.

My idea ;) I painted magnetic paint on the inside of the top cabinets so I could hide our calendar and school stuff.

The other side... If you know me at all.... you know I love these small organizational extras!

Stairs and floor Before.....

After...

Flooring Before.... Again... disregard mess. Most of these pictures were taken as we were taking everything out of the house to make room for them to tile.

In this pic you can see the floor and carpet that we ripped out.

TILE!

New baseboards.

Engineered Hardwoods in the living room.

Before.

After.

Master Bedroom.

This is before... please excuse the mess... we have been living in a complete disaster while construction is going on. But, this is the bedroom with old carpet and green faux paint.

Tile to new carpet in bedroom.

New colors on the wall.

Good-Bye Built Ins!

This is what they looked like before....

This is what they looked like AFTER the sledge hammer...

During the drywall process.

French Doors! Before...

Here they are just 2 windows....

viola... doors!

And from the outside.

Still lots more pics to put up. The drywall, baseboards and doors are being finished today and the new patio will be installed Thursday and Friday! Granite will be coming in next week and paint after that. I will post more soon.

A Few Extra Things I Wanted to Share.

A few odds and ends from the past month.

I have several posts from today... This one, a Performing Arts one and one for each Karate, Baseball and Wrestling. Make sure you check them all out! They are all a little piece of what we have been doing the past month... Of course that is on the side of being sick with ear infections, bronchitis, pink eye, and last but not least the throw up bug.... That may have something to do with the lapse of time between posts?

This may possibly be the BEST video I have ever captured.

Eli is obsessed with the song, "Boom, Boom, Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas. It all started a few weeks ago when I was singing it (it was in my head, because it is also a fav of the boys) and I said, "Gotta Get that..." and He responded, "Boom Boom Boom" I looked at him... looked at Matt and said, "Did he just say what I think he said?!" Matt agreed and so I tried it again and he did it again! So I have been trying to capture it on video to have proof and I finally did it....

Another Eli video...

He loves anything sports... football, basketball, baseball. If his brothers do it, so does he! Well, he has taking to hitting off the Tee. We had to get it on video. If you listen, you will hear him say..."Ready, Set, Go"

The other day, JT informed me that it was his birthday and he was now 5.

A few of his friends had or are having birthdays so I think he is a little anxious to turn 5. In any case, he asked that we get a cake to celebrate his 5th birthday... here it is. That boy is too much!

Flat Cole.

Our cousin is doing a school project based on the book Flat Stanley. In the book, Stanley is flattened so he can cheaply visit his relatives by being mailed! Wouldn't that be nice? So, Cole "mailed" himself to us.

We have been having so much fun with Flat Cole that we haven't given him back yet! We promise, he is on his way! But the boys even took him to enjoy some AZ sun at the park the other day...

Anyone who knows us, knows the boys LOVE a camp fire!

Here they are cooking their hot dogs on it.

And of course, SMORES! (with Flat Cole)

Sweet Murphy... the old guy has been around for 14 years. We are sad to say his days are numbered but we are enjoying him while he lasts.

Spring Break = Crafts apparently!

The boys and I made volcanos that erupted... They really got a kick out of that.

Flat Cole helped with this too!

The erupting volcanoes

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

This year the boys decided to try to trap that tricky Leprechaun! They made this trap.

That little guy there, is Flat Cole that has been visiting here for a while. He is on his way back to NY soon, but not before some craft projects and fun!

We didn't catch anyone, but the little guy left some "Gold" for the kids to enjoy.

He certainly was tricky too... changed our milk green, our water green, our butter green... even our Toilet Water Green! The kids had fun the next day finding it all!

I will be posting soon about all the home improvements I have before and we will have after pics soon!! It is a very exciting, messy and crazy time! Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.