Tuesday, November 26, 2013

New House Woes

We recently moved from a 1,200 sq. foot home to a 2,500 sq. foot home.

It's like this house was actually built for 6 people!

In our old house, there was one tiny, iddy biddy little linen closet.  I think it was meant for an old man to store his stamp collection.  

Here, we have two HUGE linen closets that I couldn't fill up even if I tried.  No, really.  I put my craft stuff in our linen closet in our gi-gahugic bathroom (that IS a word...in the Kelly Dictionary) and I still have 3 empty shelves.

In our old house, I could tell where the kids were at all times standing anywhere in the house.  

Here, they have closets to hide in, a back yard to play in, neighbors to run away to and their own bedrooms. 

In our old house,  we had 2 kitchen cabinets.  Ok, slight exaggeration.  We had 3.  

Here...I have several that are still going unused.

Now, you would think I would be thrilled, and I am, over the top thrilled.  But, change for most people is tough.  This change has been weird for me.

For example, our bedroom.  The light is all off.  I'm used to our little bed lamp lighting up the entire room that was painted in a soft, light sea-foam green.  We could steam up our tiny bathroom just by washing our hands in hot water.  

Our new room is ginormous.  We could quite literally put our entire living room set in here, along with our bedroom set, and be quite comfortable (ironically, every man that went on the tour of house said as much.  Every MAN, mind you, not woman.  So I guess it's a mans dream to have a living room set in their bedroom.  Who knew?)

Don't get me started on the stairs...actually, the stairs haven't been too bad.  Kians a fast learner and can go up and down those things like a little tiny stair-pro.

We have a play room upstairs now.  An office downstairs.  A separate dining room.  Gone are the days of the formal/living/playroom/office all bundled up in one huge room where we could always be together. 

I guess I just miss the closeness.  It's nice to spread out, to breathe a little.  But...well...my kids are only little for so long, ya know?  And sure our old home was like living in a sardine can, but now I feel like I hardly see the kids, even when we're in the same house.  

I know I'll get used to it.  

And probably wonder how we ever lived without it.

But in the meantime, my kids are just going to have to get used to me sneaking into their beds and night and snuggling them. Fodder for their future therapy sessions.  

Monday, November 25, 2013

Why We Should ALL Be Grateful for Idiots

In today's world, it's not difficult to find things for which to be grateful.

My two walk in closets.

My beautiful home.  My mini-van.

My t.v.  My cell phone.

And of course, the other things I usually take for granted:

My healthy children.  My even tempered, hard working, faith building husband.

My church.  My beliefs.

But there's one very important thing I think we all take further than granted.  We take it to the other end of the scale.  We actually HATE them.

WELL NO MORE!

This season I'm working on my gratitude for all the idiots in the world.

I'm grateful for that idiot in front of me who leaves on his stupid blinker.  Will he turn, won't he?  Who knows!  But I do know one thing, I'm thankful for the reminder to make sure MY stupid blinker isn't on. Where would I be without these idiots?

I'm grateful for the moron who ran the red light and nearly side swiped me and my precious cargo.  I'm grateful to be reminded that no matter how late we're running, our lives and the lives of other drivers are never worth the luxury of being on time.

I'm grateful for the dumb people who over share everything and anything on public social sites like Facebook and Twitter.  I'm grateful that they remind me to hold still, contain my emotions and think through those hurtful and moronic words I'm typing up.  To subdue my passive aggressive tendencies and think to the future and not dwell in the present.  All because of their fine example.

Thanks dumb dumbs.

I'm grateful for all those myopic haters, those bigots, those brainless lemmings who follow blindly any and all wildly provocative ideal.  Because they remind me that one solution does not fit all; except for love.  That's a fabulous daily reminder.

I'm grateful for those stooges who try to shove their philosophy down my throat.  I get to be even more grateful for my own free agency; to know I don't have to follow anything anybody says, that I'm free to follow my conscience.

I'm even free to love the idiots.  What a world.  What a world.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What are YOU grateful for?




Sunday, November 10, 2013

I'm Tired. Here's Why...

Somewhere between "Let's buy us a house," and "We're all settled in our new house," comes...REMODELS!!

And can I just say, because it's my blog and yes I can just say, that I was totally project horny.

In our old house in Utah, we did lots of projects.  It was the best.  It's been a looooong 2 years without any projects.

So without further ado, I give you the last 3 weeks in PICTURES!


Our living room fire place.  I've never understood why Arizona would even have fireplaces.  But there it is.  A fireplace.  In Arizona.  It also happens to be the only place in the entire living room where we could hang our TV.   Therefore, we tore out the "mantel".  It's mid project.


This is the view from the fireplace towards the kitchen and nook.



Same view, just towards the stairs.  If you look real close, you can see a Kian.


The front door.  Through those double doors is the den/office/guest room.  To the left of that is the half bath.


The kitchen nook.


Le kitchen.  The "Before".


Before....


Before....


During....PS, 24 doors and 13 drawers.  Kind of a huge task.


During...


During....


During....


During....


Getting closer!  You know how when you're planning a project, like say, oh, staining the frames for your cabinets.  And you're like, "Oh, this should only take an hour or so."

Well...4 hours later...


We slowly start to make progress....


And then BAM!  24 doors and 13 drawer fronts, waiting to be stained.  It.  Took.  FOREVER!


During...


Not pictured: screwing in all the knobs and handles.  It took quite awhile.  But here is my handsome and amazing husband, hanging up our doors so that I could see a glimpse of what our future kitchen would look like.



TA-DA!  5 down, a million more to go!  Meanwhile, we had some painters come...


(Remember how Brett tore out the mantle?  That's why there's no mantle.  All caught up?  Good, let's move on...)

Picking paint colors was not fun.  It tested our marriage.  Just kidding.  Well, only sort of.  The light colors on the walls are actually a light gray, and the blue you see is really not quite that blue.  In real life, it looks AMAZING.





The light gray and the background color is dark gray.  The dark behind the light really gives dimension to the room.  It was Brett's idea and it looks incredible!!


Still dark gray to the right.  It's hard to tell in the pictures.  It's definitely dark gray ;)


Now brace yourselves...for...


YELLOW!  


The Jury is still out on the yellow.  It's growing on me though.  

So there you have it.  We've owned this lovely huge new house for 3 weeks and yet we still don't live in it.  Alas.  Upstairs features new carpet, fresh coats of paint, and a master bathroom the size of a shopping mall.  Complete with two walk in closets.  HEAVEN!

It's like it's a house MADE for 6 people.  We're so excited and so, so thankful for our new home.  It's still in our ward, which we love, and it's right across the street from the kids school, which they love.

We live about 1 minute (walking distance) from the house we've rented for the last two years. We get to keep all our wonderful friends and get to know all new people at the same time.  

Sometimes I don't know how we got so lucky.

More pictures to come!





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