Our New House!

Okay, so I have promised long enough. I will try and walk you through the pictures of our new house, but as always...the pictures just don't do the house justice. Just a reminder that the house when finished will be 6 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths and over 3600 square feet! Now, remember that all of these are the BEFORE photos. I will explain the remodeling as we go but as a general rule all the walls will have the wallpaper removed and plaster patch so the walls will be ready for paint. The floors on the first floor will have the carpets removed and the hardwood floors will be refinshed. The floors upstairs will get new carpet. Also all the ceilings will be re -drywalled/plastered where needed. Also not pictured is the walk-up attic. We will be adding a master bedroom suit in it with a bedroom, bath, walk-in closet, and nursery with french doors of our bedroom. So...here it is!

BACK PORCH

This room will just have the floors replaced with tile and the ceilings will be re-drywalled. This will become my mud-room where we have shelves for shoes and hooks for coats.

KITCHEN

So the first photo is of the entry way into the kitchen and looking in the back of the photo is another small back porch. The next photo is of the enrty into the kitchen form this entry way/porch. The rest of the photos show the kitchen. The 2 doors shown are of the butler's stairs both to the upstairs and to the basement. Since the kitchen is really small we will be taking the wall out between that entryway and the kitchen to enlarge it. The kitchen will get new floors and paint as well. This is one of the large projects.

SCRAPBOOKING ROOM

This is originally the Library of the house. Notice the wall with complete build-in's (second photo.) Wont those be great for all my scrapbooking supplies? This will also serve as our school room for the girls. Depending on how it all sets up we might end up putting the school room upstairs in an extra bedroom? This room just needs the wallpaper off and new paint. The floors in here are a beautiful in-layed wood with a pattern along the edges.

DOWNSTAIRS HALF BATH

This room was recently re-done so we will not be doing any work in here.

This is the swinging stained glass door between the breakfast room/kitchen and the dining room.

BREAKFAST ROOM

This room will just need the wall paper off and new paint.

FORMAL DINING ROOM

This room is one of the main rooms of the first floor which all have beautiful woodwork. The beams that you see on the ceiling go through out these rooms. You can see the Breakfast Room beyond. In this room of course those lovely green carpets will be coming up and the hardwood floors underneath will be refinished. The wallpaper will be removed and new paint will be done.

The chandelier you see pictured here has a story behind it. The homeowner said that when he bought the hose 30 years ago the prior owner said that the light was designed by one of the students of Tiffany's and the lights were worth let's just say a pretty penny. Nathan and I were laughing because we both thought the chandelier and the 4 matching lamps around it were as ugly as can be and would be a definite change out during the remodel. Hmmm..... guess not! Well, at least until we get them appraised. If they are worth that much, ebay here we come!

FRONT ENTRY

This is one of the 2 sides of the front entry. The front has the cast iron clothes hooks on the wall, built-in wood bench, mirror, and umbrella basket. Each side looks like the photo below.

LIVING ROOM/FOYER

Basically these 2 rooms run the length of the house. I tried to picture it here but it doesn't really show. They are 2 separate rooms but are all still very open. Once again these rooms have tons of beautiful woodwork. The walls will have the wallpaper removed and new paint and the carpets will be removed and the hardwoods refinished.

The funny thing about this piano is that each time we tour the house Nathan remarks that someday we'll have our own baby grand in that same spot. Well the other day while touring the house again the homeowner said to Nathan "See that piano there?" Nathan said o course and commented about it being an antique. The man said "Well you can have it, it saves me from moving it!" Nathan was like a kid on Christmas morning!
BOTTOM OF UP STAIRCASE/STAIRS INTO BASEMENT

HALLWAY AT TOP OF STAIRS

ENTRANCE TO BUTLER STAIRS ( at top of stairway) MADDELYN/EMMA'S ROOM

Even though we have extra bedrooms I would like them to still share a room with their bunk beds. This room will get the wall paper removed, new paint, and new carpet.

Doorway to Caroline's room from the girls' room.

CAROLINE'S ROOM

This room of course adjoins with the girls' but it also has an entrance from the hallway. The extra little room/space int he back will have curtains hung form it making it more private. It will then either have hooks around the bottom of it for dress-up clothes and racks for dress up shoes with a mirror...... or..... bookshelves, books, and comfy lounge chairs. So it will either be a dress-up room or reading room for all three girls. This room also gets paper removed, paint, and carpet. GUEST ROOM (old master bedroom)

Since we will be adding a master bedroom suit on the 3rd floor (walk-up attic) we will be using this as a guest room. this room will get the paper of, paint, and carpet.

HALLWAY LINEN CLOSET BOY ROOM

This room will eventually be the baby's when he is a bit older. While he is still nursing I will have him in a small nursery off of our master in the attic. this room gets paper off, carpet, and paint. As you can see this room has an entry to the 2nd story back porch. this porch as to have some major drywalling and new windows and in that process we will be turning it to my laundry room.

EXTRA BEDROOM

We're not for sure what this room will be yet. It could be more of a playroom, school room, ??? This room obviously gets the paper off, paint, and carpet, but it also gets the ceiling repaired. This room also has a n entrance to that back porch. This half of that porch will be made into a playroom while that other half is the laundry room. it will be 2 separate rooms. this room also has a closet with just a sink in it? Weird, so it's coming out and making another closet.

2ND STORY BACK PORCH

This is the porch that is having a major re-haul done to it. As you can see where the two rooms will be devided. Besides the drywall, ceilings, paint and new windows (not as many), the playroom will have carpet and the laundry room tile floors.

UPSTIARS FULL BATH

This is the only room at this time not being remodeled. the girls are so excited to be sharing a PINK bathroom...even thoguh mommy thinks it is as ugly as can be! The bath does have a seperate shower and tub.

BASEMENT

When you come down the basement steps this is what you see. There is a landing type room with a closet and a full bath. the bath below photoed will of course need a new sink and stand-up shower as well as paint and tile removed form the walls. The whole "finished" basement will get new plaster/paint and a GOOD scrubing!

After the landing there is about 4 more steps that leads down into this huge room! This room Nathan calls the ballroom and I call the speakeasy! You'd never guess this was in the basement! So this room also needs new drywall, paint, and a good scrubbing.

The girls were entertaining themselves in a toy basket that the home owner was so kind enough to let them play with while we toured the house. There is a driveway between the back of the house/garae and the yard. It will need a good touch with a green thumb next spring. You can see some pretty landscaping but it is all grown over. There is also a old free standing brick grill outback.

GARAGE

The garage is a 2-car and it also has an extra space along the side to store yard equipmnet. There is a skylight in the garage as well.

BACK OF HOUSE

I know...I know!!

Okay...Okay...I know that several of my friends and family have been expecting pictures of our house all weekend. I'm so sorry that I haven't got them up yet but we just haven't stopped. Yesterday was spent catching up on some school work (because of the crazy week we had) and we had our first outing with our young couples group that Nathan and I are leading from church. Today I spent about 5 hours at the church re-organizing/sorting/labeling all the items in our church nursery. Well, while on vacation I got a phone call form our church saying that the lady who was running the nursery would no longer be able to and they were in a bind... you guessed it...I no can add Nursery Coordinator to my resume! I must have a sign on my forehead that says "Ask Mandi! She never has enough on her plate!" So the OCD person in me had to do a huge sort/clean day on the nursery to see what I was working with. I think their were diapers in the cupboard there that were older than me? Anyways, I got all the photos downloaded onto my computer tonight but seeing as how it's already midnight I'm off to bed. I have to be up early to do school with the girls and then start right in to my hair bow orders......yes they've really picked up after we got home from Vacation. Thanks you Jesus! :D I will hopefully have a few minutes to spare to post house pictures tomorrow afternoon, well I guess that would now be later THIS afternoon!

ADORABLE SEATS!!!

Okay...so anyone how was around with Caroline knows how I am totally sold out for the Bumbo seat for babies. Not the greatest picture but the best one I had of her sitting in her Bumbo. She is riding on a luggage cart with Daddy in the picture. Anyways....

We of course had onefor her and being like anyother item we purchased for our girls, it was 100% girl! Well, now the new baby bow will be inheriting a PURPLE Bumbo from his big sister. I know it's not life or death to be in purple as a boy, but why should he when I found these......

Yeah I fell in love! These amazing Bumbo Seat Covers are not only great that they cover the non-breathable plastic foam that the seats are made of, but they also have two loops for toys to clip onto and a pocket in the back for binki's and such. Definiely a great find and for only $29.99! They even have an adorable sock monkey cover! Too cute! You can check them out on their etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5592925 or website http://www.bumbocover.com/

More Pictures

So here are a few more photos from Disney. It's been a crazy past few days trying to get back into the swing of things. I feel like we are playing catch-up but getting more behind each day! We also started school with Maddelyn and Emma today. It went pretty well but it is going to take some time to get used to doing both of their school work at the same time as well as keeping Caroline occupied.

You can obviously tell that Caroline LOVED the rides at Disney!!!

My three little wet fish at the Waterpark Blizzard Beach.

Proof that Caroline really could care less about the characters. The only pictures I have of her with them is either like this where she is running away of with Nathan holding her.

Here are some new bows that I will be putting up on my website. Our girls will definitely be getting a set of these to wear for themselves this year!

Home At Last!

Well, we are home form Disney! We are proud to say that not only did we survive the 8 days there but the 18 hour drive home with a van full of preschoolers! AHHH! The kids had a blast at Disney and I think Nathan and I might have enjoyed it just as much as they did. It was so fun to see the pure excitement of experiencing this huge park for the first time. They loved getting all the character's autographs and riding all the rides. There wasn't much that the older 2 girls couldn't ride. We were pretty proud of Maddelyn and her trying new rides this week. She is the one who never rides anything that even has the slightest chance of being too fast/high/whatever. She rode just about everything we offered her! Of course our daredevil Emma was up for anything Daddy would take her on. Caroline loved the rides as well. Her favorites were Flying Dumbo and the Teacups. She got to the point where she couldn't handle waiting the like 5 minutes in line for the ride and would just say "on....on...on...on!!!!" We also had her riding the rides with her hands in the air and saying weeeeeee! So cute! So here are a few of the pictures from the trip. I hope to get more uploaded tomorrow or as I can. Now that we are back form our trip the world has started spinning again and there is a ton to catch up with. I will be starting the girls' homeschool this week (Maddelyn kindergarten and Emma preschool.) We also are ow going to be busy packing for the move and I have hair bow orders to fill and will be adding new bows to my website. We have all of this as well as just trying to unpack from the trip and get back into the swing of things! So I probably should finish this and get to bed!


These were the adorable dresses that my mom and Aunt Donna worked on for the girls'. Aren't they too cute! We had SOOOOOO many people asking where they could get one! I think they need to start a business!

A girl with all her dreams coming true!!! Three princesses all to yourself!

Caroline would only pose with the princesses by offering to share her juice cup with them! At least she stood still long enough for me to click the camera!

This photo is the whole reason Emma made the trip trip Disney. Belle is her all time favorite!

These photos are from our breakfast with the princesses. It was so neat to have them just stop by your table one by one and spend time just chatting with the kids. They loved it!

Seeing Mouse Ears!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have not forgotten about my blog. We have been on the road and unfortunately our hotel here at Disney does not have wireless in the room. We also have very poor cell phone coverage on the resort, so the way I am checking the net now is from Nathan's Blackberry. We arrived here at Disney on Saturday afternoon to children just about to burst with excitement. Caroline I'm sure has no clue why we are here but by the way she is acting you'd never know. She is just wiggling and giggling with pure excitement. I think she's feeding off the girls. We started the trip with a visit to downtown Disney. The girls had fun looking around all the shops, but they just did not get the concept that we are going to be here all week and if you spend all your hard earned vacation money here tonight...that's it for the trip. Needless to say we left with Emma sobbing....... "But I wanted dress-up", and Maddelyn saying..."But Mom, you said it had to be really spacial and all of those things were!" Oh my! So to try and help some of that begging we did something special this trip. I stocked up at the Disney store and such on clearance princess and Mikey items and brought them with us. When the girls arrived there was magically a special Minnie Mouse stuffed animal waiting on each of their pillows with a note that said if they could behave each day there might be another surprise waiting for them when they returned to their rooms, and signed by Mickey Mouse himself! This has cut down on the begging for stuff some, but it's like insane trying to wheel the stroller through a store where everything is aimed at kids begging their parents and the items being way over priced! That's Disney though!

Last night Emma rode Splash Mountain with Nathan. She just made the height limit and Maddelyn of course was not getting anywhere near it! This ride is basically a boat ride that drops down a steep hill, splashing water everywhere. She told everyone in line that she was tall enough to ride and her big sister wasn't! We are getting ready to head into Hollywood Studios now and and I believe that little daredevil is going to be riding the Tower of Terror (basically a ride like the Demon Drop at Cedar Point but it does several smaller drops instead.) Yep, she's brave at 3!

Yesterday at Magic Kingdom we got in line for a princess autograph signing and to our surprise it was Belle, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty! Oh my! Emma's only mission to come to Disney was to see Beauty and the Beast! It was so neat because we were the last ones in the room before they took a break so we had all the time we wanted to visit with them and get pictures. Caroline was much more interested in their princess chairs than them. The only way we got her to get near them for a picture was that we had her show them her sippy cup. Too funny! Last night was the special night at the park where certain on property resorts get late stay passes into the park, so our little troopers didn't get back to the room until 2:30am!!! They did take about a 3 hour nap yesterday afternoon but for being 5, 3, and 1, that's not bad! Yep.... they were on the flying Dumbo ride at about 1:30 am!!!

Well, we have another full day ahead of us so I need to head off of here. Just letting you all know that we're having fun and so far...saying a prayer...avoiding the rain! Say a prayer with us though because I guess Hurricane Hannah might just come and visit this week!

Great News!

So we had a very exciting day today! We accepted a counter offer on a house! So...we are quickly on the way to owning our first home. I only have the photo from the reality website to share with you...but will add more after we another walk though after Disney. The house is a beautiful Victorian on a grand boulevard in a small town here in Ohio. The house needs some remodeling/updating before we move in but nothing too major. After the remodel I am told that the house will be about 36oo square feet, 6 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bath. There will be a master suit on the 3rd floor where the walk up attic is and the basement is partially finished with a rec room. The 1st floor of the house has beautiful hardwood floors and tons of gorgeous woodwork through out. There are 5 or 6 fireplaces and I think 3 of them are working? There are butler stairs from the kitchen to basement and kitchen to the upstairs! Yes...that would total 5 staircases in the house! The total # of rooms will be 14 rooms not including the bathrooms. Uh... yeah! I can definitely loose my kids in it! Hmmm????? Ohhh! I forgot to mention that the house has a Den AND a Study off the main living room so Nathan get's his office and I get my SCRAPROOM!!!!! :D So we're pretty excited about it. We definitely know that God was involved in the purchase in this home. It was an amazing find and we got a really good deal on it. So....like I told Nathan... I won't have enough furniture to fill it! We'll have the new house, but we'll be sitting and eating on the floor! LOL!