Archive for July, 2010

Guess what happens in 16 hours?! (1:30pm Friday)

CLOSING on our house!!!!!!!!

Woo Hoo!

In 16 hours, this is all going to be m-i-n-e.

bawahahahahaha

(Well, er, the kids and van are already mine, but now I get the house too!)

And in addition to these two very adorable kids, this will also be mine!

I will officially be a slave to the bank. Yippie???!!

After we sign our life away we can finally be a slave to the man also to earn enough money to decorate this place.

We already ordered a black french-door freezer-on-the-bottom refrigerator but unforch it won’t be delivered until next week some time. Looks like pop-tarts for the kids until we can buy some milk.

The house doesn’t need much work at all, but that shallow sink and basic faucet are two of the first things to GO.

And of course the New Mexico orange paint (no offense to all you New Mexicans…) has gots-ta-go.

But oh, I just can hardly wait to have this all be mine (okay, okay, hubby’s too).

Nothing against my parents (love them to death!) but I’ve been “living” at their house for the past month and I’m not sure who’s more ready for the kids and me to leave – them or me!

Between their two Boston Terriers and my Yorkie, AND my 9 year old sister and my two kids, it’s been quite a LOUD CRAZY ride.

Their dogs taught my dog what vocal cords are. In return my dog taught them how to chase cars and poop in the house. Oy vei.

My mom is a great cook. But she’s an even better BAKER. Yup, she bakes. A lot. And when I’m here, I tend to start baking too. Let’s just say that in a month, all my shorts will hardly button anymore, I’ve got a tire tube hanging over the top of them, AND my shirts need to be “stretched” for them to not cling to aforementioned tire tube. Hmpft.

I’m scared to stand on a scale. Terrified. Once I’m in my own place, I’m going to have to hit the gym and get myself back to my regular routine.

‘Cause this tire tube bidness just ain’t gonna work for me.

So anyway, Friday is the day. Friday I sign my life away. Friday I’ll finally have a place to call

HOME.

Wish us luck on our super exciting and even more busy weekend!

I probably wont post again until at least Monday, but please know in the midst of all the moving mayhem, I’ll be thinking about you.

xoxo

I tend to get focused on one thing and then obsess about it non-stop. It’s all I can think about all day and night until I finally tackle whatever it is I’m obsessing about.

Right now, it’s THE STAIRS.

I know I won’t get around to this HUGE project any time soon, but it’s fun to dream! Here’s my big dream that one day I’ll get around to doing…

Here are the stairs at my new house:

(They are nice and have absolutely nothing wrong with them. I just like other stairs better.)

And here is what I want to do to my stairs…

Absah-freaking-lootly beautiful.

I found these stairs at a model home in the area that I fell head-over-heels in love with. The decor and upgrades are just amazing and I plan to copy as much of this house as humanly possible.

(I already took my trusty Sherwin Williams paint chip thing-a-ma-bobby with me and color-matched all the paint colors in the house so I can paint my house the same way.)

Now honestly, this little project won’t cost much. I just need to change out the railings….

…It’s the other stuff I want to do that’s going to add up quickly.

Upstairs off the game room there are 2 half-walls that I want to tear down and add the iron railing to…

Here’s a current picture of the staircase looking from the ground floor up the staircase:

And here’s a picture of the game room and the two sections of half-wall I want to tear out…

My goal is to have it look like this:

I love this!

From this:

To this:

When you are upstairs I want to be able to see the front door through the rails.

It just makes it feel so much more open. Plus, I’ve got two monkeys for children and I’m kind of afraid they are going to try to climb that half wall to see over it. If I’ve got a railing there then they can see through the railing instead of needing to look over it.

Here’s a current view of the foyer looking up:

I want it to look like this:

I need to price it out still, but for now there are things far more important in our budget than replacing railings and half-walls (like, oh, lets say… a fridge, washer, and dryer!)

Also, I’d LOVE to go from this:

To THIS:
Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick ripped her carpet off her stairs and stained them. Gorgeous.)

As if my STAIRS list isn’t ambitious enough, I’d absolutely LURVE to rip out the little side wall at the bottom that the railing attaches to…

And then have it stair-step with the stairs like this:

And a nice thick scroll railing wouldn’t be too bad either.

But I’m afraid we are probably talking mucho $$$$ to do that (though I’m no expert I’m assuming we’d have to rip out those stairs and insert new planks that are longer).

And while I’m on a fantasy roll here, let’s just remove that little miniature wall on the bottom completely and go from this

To completely flush with the ground level like so…

Yes, obviously I have some serious issues. We still haven’t closed on this new house (we close this Friday HOPEFULLY!) and I’m already day-dreaming about a very expensive renovation.

But honestly, I really do love this house just as it is, and if I never get to redo these stairs and half-walls, I’ll still love this house regardless.

But in a perfect world, I’d change the railing to iron, tear out two half-walls and change them to iron, rip out the carpet on the stairs and stain it, make the railing on the stairs stair-step instead of a little angled wall, and make the bottom railing flush with the ground.

I’m adding this to my list, and maybe with next years tax return I’ll redo the staircase. Or we’ll add the hand-scraped hardwood floor to the downstairs that I’ve been oogling over…

Sssshhhhh, don’t tell my hubby. I see dreams and daydreaming, he sees dollar signs flying through the air. $$$$$$$$$$

xoxo, Allison

Tags : before and After, dreaming out loud, favorite things, ideas, power tools needed, stairs

Apple Pie, low-cal style

xoxo, Allison

Tags : apple pie, Biggest Loser, recipe