Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
extreme make-over...before...middle...and after!
13 years ago i was pregnant with rochelle and had a SEVERE case of nesting. it began when we were trying to figure out how to make room for #3. problem was, our 3rd bedroom was our office/den. and if you know us, then you know we can't be without a computer room in our home.
as a result of 'making room for baby', nesting 1997 included: converting our garage into an office and raising the floor to match the level of the rest of the house, adding a laundry room out there as well, recarpeting the new baby's room, falling in love with new carpet in room, deciding to recarpet whole house, discovering that old bedroom doors no longer fit over new carpet, replacing all interior doors, and door frame trim, and baseboards, oh...and then prepping a cute nursery. a really cute nursery!
i loved this room...a LOT!
then rochelle grew up, and cole was born, and we just kind of stacked kids in this room.
then, we just acquired more and more 'stuff'. kids stuff. boy stuff. everywhere. and because the room was so small, it almost seemed counter-productive to even attempt bringing order to it. so i turned my back, and acted like it didn't drive me absolutely CRAZY!
(disclaimer: yes, they had their own beds. cole's was the top bunk. his 'stuff' filled the space beneath rochelle's bed)
when brittany left for byu last year, rochelle and cole each got their own room. well, rochelle inherited a darling room brittany had fixed up so cute. and cole got this room to himself. and continued to collect more 'stuff'! after christmas cole got his aunt d's bed. we thought it could serve as a guest room when needed as well. but really? an 80's oak bed, with baby patchwork quilt wallpaper? not to mention the girly dresser. poor kid.
brittany had in her mind a plan for transforming this room into a true blue boys room! so less than a week after coming home from school we boxed everything up, moved it out, and she began stripping wallpaper. (what a dreadful job!)
the walls had to be textured and sealed against mildew. then the fun began! the painting!
she painted much more than the walls. (ace paint; color-june lake). she painted the bed, bookshelf and dresser as well.
well. it all started looking pretty darn cute, if you ask me!
here's what the dresser looked like before (just look at the dresser - not the remodel-induced messy state it was in)
here's what we did with the dresser (you can see one heart still needs to be covered. just wanted to show how well we did changing a cute girls dresser into a true boy piece of furniture).
and finally...here is the whole room. voila!
i especially love how the ceiling color spills over to the top of the walls, and how the black wood trim makes it all tie together & look so sharp!
couldn't love this room more!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
motherhood
i sometimes wish i were more articulate than i am about the things that matter the very most to me. some people have that gift in its most polished form. yesterday i learned that melissa beck has that gift in abundance. she stood to bear her testimony - two weeks after giving birth to her 4th son. she bore a powerful testimony of the blessing of being a mother. i wish i knew how to say the things she said - because i sure feel the things she feels.
motherhood is the greatest and most powerful influence on earth. there is nothing i ever wanted more in my life than to be a mother. nothing. it is the most important thing i do each and every day. i am overwhelmed by the joy it brings me - and the weight i feel in bearing the responsibility that goes with it. it is my purpose and my fulfillment.
melissa told the young women that they are preparing today for the kind of mother they will one day be by the daily choices they make now, and then i loved when she told them to prepare to love their children the way they were loved, or WISHED they were loved.
s. michael wilcox once gave a talk where he shared that his father had abandoned his family when he was very young. years later he was asked to speak in stake conference on fathers. he just kept thinking that he couldn't do that. there was still too much bitterness in his heart. he couldn't understand why heavenly father would deny him such a vital blessing - that of having his father present in his life. the night before he was to speak he was having one of those special moments with his sons. is was sweet, tender and bonding. his heart filled to overflowing with love for his boys. and then the thought came to his mind 'would you rather have been the son with no father, or the father with no sons?' at which point he broke down and wept.
i can't imagine life without my children. my mother, who left when i was five, surely has had the greater loss in her life. and my life is rich...because i am a mother.
motherhood is the greatest and most powerful influence on earth. there is nothing i ever wanted more in my life than to be a mother. nothing. it is the most important thing i do each and every day. i am overwhelmed by the joy it brings me - and the weight i feel in bearing the responsibility that goes with it. it is my purpose and my fulfillment.
melissa told the young women that they are preparing today for the kind of mother they will one day be by the daily choices they make now, and then i loved when she told them to prepare to love their children the way they were loved, or WISHED they were loved.
s. michael wilcox once gave a talk where he shared that his father had abandoned his family when he was very young. years later he was asked to speak in stake conference on fathers. he just kept thinking that he couldn't do that. there was still too much bitterness in his heart. he couldn't understand why heavenly father would deny him such a vital blessing - that of having his father present in his life. the night before he was to speak he was having one of those special moments with his sons. is was sweet, tender and bonding. his heart filled to overflowing with love for his boys. and then the thought came to his mind 'would you rather have been the son with no father, or the father with no sons?' at which point he broke down and wept.
i can't imagine life without my children. my mother, who left when i was five, surely has had the greater loss in her life. and my life is rich...because i am a mother.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
let the remodel begin!
wow! a LOT has been accomplished in the past 4 days. as i mentioned back in jan or feb, it's high time that cole got a room that was meant for a boy, rather than a baby. so this week brittany and i (90% britt, 10% me) started removing old nursery wallpaper that was hung when i was pregnant with rochelle. what a pain! first moral of the story... NEVER hang wallpaper in your house!
anyway, the room is now empty - but the rest of the house is a jumbled mess of everything taken out of it (and i mean EVERYthing). in four days we've managed to remove all belongings, remove all the wallpaper, remove the chair molding, retexture the walls, prime the mildew prone walls, prime and paint his ceiling to floor bookcase, queen bed frame and under-bed drawers, and his dresser. oh yes ... AND his room! we also painted accent trim molding for the walls, and shampooed the carpets. am i ever ready for a day of rest!
monday we should be able to put the furniture back in and then start the lovely task of unloading the boxes back into his room (a great time to sort and purge). then, of course, brittany will begin to 'accessorize' (the fun part). actually, painting was pretty fun, too, because that's when the new look began to materialize. the room went from patchwork pastels, to a deep and bright almost aqua-blue! it is such a vibrant great color. the ceiling and upper nine inches of the walls are white and there's a thin black wood trim separating the white and blue. the furniture is also all black now. we'll be throwing in some red accents as well - as that was cole's only request.
it's fun how updating a single room can update a whole house! (well, i'm trusting that's how it will be once cole's stuff is no longer spread thru every room in the house!) good thing brittany doesn't start work for another week!
p.s. yes...before and after pictures will be posted...soon
anyway, the room is now empty - but the rest of the house is a jumbled mess of everything taken out of it (and i mean EVERYthing). in four days we've managed to remove all belongings, remove all the wallpaper, remove the chair molding, retexture the walls, prime the mildew prone walls, prime and paint his ceiling to floor bookcase, queen bed frame and under-bed drawers, and his dresser. oh yes ... AND his room! we also painted accent trim molding for the walls, and shampooed the carpets. am i ever ready for a day of rest!
monday we should be able to put the furniture back in and then start the lovely task of unloading the boxes back into his room (a great time to sort and purge). then, of course, brittany will begin to 'accessorize' (the fun part). actually, painting was pretty fun, too, because that's when the new look began to materialize. the room went from patchwork pastels, to a deep and bright almost aqua-blue! it is such a vibrant great color. the ceiling and upper nine inches of the walls are white and there's a thin black wood trim separating the white and blue. the furniture is also all black now. we'll be throwing in some red accents as well - as that was cole's only request.
it's fun how updating a single room can update a whole house! (well, i'm trusting that's how it will be once cole's stuff is no longer spread thru every room in the house!) good thing brittany doesn't start work for another week!
p.s. yes...before and after pictures will be posted...soon
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