Basement Face Lift

In preparation for Blayre, Ryan, Owen, and baby Carter moving into our house for eleven weeks we decided our basement could use a little face lift.  

 It was all kind of a snowball effect with Birch wanting to add recessed lighting and me wanting to paint the guest room and redecorate.  After we both worked ourselves to the bones and realized that there was no way we were going to have time or the energy to finish the basement ourselves we hired some help.

 We hired a terrific and really reasonably priced guy, Robert Gonzolo, to do our dry wall repair on the ceiling, re-texturing the ceiling, and painting both the walls and the ceiling.  We thought we got a killer deal with hiring him for $400 to do all that work.  

 I spent HOURS stressing over the paint color for the walls and ceiling.  I ended up going with  painting the walls (70% strength) and ceiling at (40% strength) and Birch added the recessed lighting   I made new curtains; the cute little bed is for our house guest.

 BIG project -- adding recessed lighting (previously was three shop lights)

 Guest Room make-over -- painted walls, new pillows, lamp, curtains, small dresser

 Thanks Kimberly Greenfield for the awesome picture what I used to make this beautiful HUGE print.

Kitchen:  BEFORE

The kitchen is really the last thing that we had not updated in our house.  It was hard to justify redoing it because we do not use the kitchen at all.  It holds legos, games, movies, and crafts. 

 Birch re-did the plumbing.  Seems like it never goes quiet like it should.

 I Painted the cabinets, took out the oven, new countertop, sink, faucet, tile flooring, and cabinet pulls/knobs, and I made some new artwork.

 Birch tiled the backsplash

 Barney Zauss did the beautiful tile floor work and the wood trimmed laminate counter-top. So impressed!!!

I'm pretty good at copying ideas...saw this somewhere online and redesigned it. It is framed and hung int he basement kitchen

We are pretty darn pleased with the way the whole basement turned out.  We had already updated the boy's room and the bathroom so this was the final touch.

I think we are now ready for our house guests!!!

Memorial Weekend

What a refreshing weekend we just had!  I always look forward to Memorial Weekend -- not only to have the time together as a family but also because of the true meaning of Memorial Day...remembering loved ones that have passed away, especially those that have fought to keep our country free.

We have a tradition of going to a cemetery each year. This year we made it in time for the Memorial Day celebration put on by a group of retired Marines.  It was a WONDERFUL ceremony!! 

 The half an hour was filled with patriotic song, prayer, and poems that reminded me that freedom is NOT FREE.   It was such an uplifting service!

The last couple of years we have gone to West Hills Cemetery which has become more special as our friend's little two year old daughter was buried there last year.  She has a beautiful headstone and we all love looking at it and remembering her.

I am also reminded each year of our little girl that we buried in Missoula, MT.  We have only been back once since we have moved from Montana but it still holds a special place in my heart.

Great discipline technique -- holding hands with your sibling while walking in the public.  They were real good the rest of the day.

Birch and the kids built a "smallish" retaining wall.  Birch hauled over 3060 pounds (each block is 60 pounds) to create that wall.  Really you could times that number by three because he had to first load them in the truck, then unload them, and then load them in the wheel barrow to haul down the hill.  The kids were a good help hauling gravel and sweeping.  Next we get to work on the beautification part of the project.

We finished off the night with a delicious dinner with Emily, Ryan, Sage and Mila.  It was our last meal together while we both live in the same town.  So sad...Emi and Ryan packed their moving truck and drove away this past week.  It has been sad for all of us.  Chloe has called Sage several times in the past day and half since they left.  The kids keep asking why Mila has to move too (she is just such a sweet girl and has us all wrapped around her finger tips).

I truly am so thankful for all those that have fought for my family's freedom!! 

The Beloved Office

For our anniversary I gave Birch this classy resin picture of the Portland temple that we were married in fifteen years ago (Uncle Brent made the frame for me -- isn't he amazing!). That night Birch started ripping down the wallpaper border and by the next evening we had a new office.

Before:

After:

I'm in love with the pebble grey wall color that Birch and Uncle Ryan painted over our American folk colors.

LOVE the vinyl lettering that my friend did for us. I love this scripture!

We framed the beautiful Mark Mabry print to put above our piano. Birch's favorite corner is his ABH "TRADITON" wall. I bought enough frames for twenty-five years worth of ABH's. Think that will be enough??

Alex commented that you wouldn't want to do anything bad with all the Christ-centered decorations -- now that is just the way we want our office to be!!!