Paint!

So we did a major update in our dining area. This is what it looked like before, it was tiny looking and the dark wall was just gloomy, we didn't like it at all (please ignore the mess, all of the before pictures are right after we moved in and nothing had a place).

 

Now look: 

 It may still look small to you but in person it is a HUGE difference! The edges aren't finished yet either.

In other news,  I got a new job starting the week of Thanksgiving. So I will probably post a lot in the next couple of weeks and then go back to once in a while again. I really want to do better and I really do have a lot of things to update you on, I just have to take a few hours out of my day to do it.

Thanks for coming by! (and being patient)

MIA

AHHH! I know I have been missing in action. Just when I thought "Oh good, vacations are over, everything's back to normal, I'm getting budgeting done and organizing our home," someone decides to throw a wrench in to my schedule. My boss announced that he is retiring in 3 WEEKS!

That means I am super busy all day at work getting everything ready for retirement. I get home at night just exhausted hearing my pillow calling to me. BUT, I have to spend every free moment searching for a new job. All I want is a part-time office job, it has only been a few days so hopefully I'll be getting calls soon.

I'll try to do a post on one of the binders soon, but be patient with me.

New Accessory

When we got our Puggle, Mera, she often wheezed and coughed. When we started our new cleaning schedule it kept our house a lot cleaner and she stopped doing it. This past Friday I was sweeping and stirring up dust and she did it again, so I thought it must be some type of allergies so I bought our new dining room accessory.

NASA conducted a research study which said that we should have one plant per every 100 square feet of our home. It helps to clean the air and produce oxygen. That means Ryan needs to get me at least 10 more! (yeah right)

Better View

I've been tired of seeing the open closet filled with junk in our office.  (This is a horrible picture)

While shopping at Walmart one day I noticed their value sheets $4.97 for a Full Flat sheet. It combines all of the colors I want in the office. We already had a shower curtain rod so to make it a quick fix I just ripped the side seams open on the top of the sheet and slipped the bar through.

 

It is a little too much for the eyes and too long so eventually I may do 2 white curtains with some of this for a ruffle and use the rest for some other office decor, who knows? But it hides the mess right now! It's good enough in my book!

It's HALLOWEEN time!

Well...not quite, but it feels like it around our place. I had a girls craft night with Sisters, Mom and Grandma, and we made these signs for Halloween. This is the first house we have owned so I never really got into holiday decorations because I didn't want to move big boxes of decorations when we went from place to place, but now we are here and I am so excited! I hope to make some more decorations before it gets here.

PS. Sorry it's a little dark, it is in our hall which gets no natural light and we took the hall light down to replace it. The shadows just make it look more spooky I guess!

PPS. The Hawaii surf board is a gift from some good friends and I didn't feel like taking it down for the picture.

Family Binders

So this really isn't about remodeling, but it does help our house run a lot smoother. I am a BIG fan of I Heart Organizing

One of the many projects Jen tackled was Family Binders, it gave me so many good ideas for our own so these are the ones I created. It was Back to school time when I started so I got good deals. I bought four 1-inch binders about $2 each, one pack of dividers $0.75, and three packs of clear sheet inserts $0.50. We were out of ink for a few weeks so forgive the handwritten stuff, I have horrible handwriting.

First we have our "important Family Information"

This is basically the folder we grab if we ever need to leave the house in a hurry, (in Arizona the most probable cause would be a house fire)

 This contains: 

• Insurance information 
• Any important medical stuff,
• Vehicle information 
• Our latest bills/statements 
• House information 
• Wedding info (license, certificate, etc.) 
• All of our credit cards (we don't use them, they are just for emergencies and they give us a great credit score)
• And any other misc. information that I felt was important 

Next is "Food Storage"

We believe that we need to have a year's worth of storage, it could be if their is some kind of natural disaster, we lose a job, who knows. That includes food, toiletries, water etc. My husband and I discussed everything we can think of and decided how much we need of what. It is obviously only stuff that will last for a year and that we actually use now (no fresh produce, we will start a garden soon). I made charts for each category, the colored boxes is how much we felt we needed to last us a year, and each month I go through everything and mark with a marker how much we have, things that aren't on the list I just hand write and I will make a new sheet later.. (I'll do a longer post later also)

Then we have our "Family Chores"

These work SO WELL for us. We have our daily chores, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. It is just a little bit each day and our house stays SOOO clean. It has everything so we don't even need to do spring and fall cleaning and our house still gets deep cleaned. (I'll do a long post on this also)

The last book is just misc info that didn't fit in anywhere else.

This contains:

• Vehicle maintenance checklists
• All of our passwords (for Ryan)
• Important phone numbers and addresses (Work, family doctor, etc.)
• Important Family dates
• Blog ideas
• Places we want to visit someday

We store all but the chore binder in our office on an open shelf for easy access, the chore book stays in the kitchen because it gets daily use. (yes that is a Spanish book)

Thanks for looking! I'll do a post for each binder soon!

Peg Board

I have fallen in love with pegboard! It is so versatile! It can be used almost anywhere in the house. I put some up in my office a few weeks ago to make it easier to find some common office tools.

I (actually my husband) painted it a lovely blue color to try and bring some color into the very white office. I have other ideas to add color coming soon.

I also painted another piece red to put in the garage.

 Ryan did not like the color or the unevenness of it so we flipped it over when we hung it. It holds most of the smaller tools. We do need to get some more hooks because we ran out in the middle of hanging tools so here is what it looks like as of now.

For the bigger tools that can't be hung on the wall we brought in a filing cabinet and I added some labels.

We also hung a little strip in the garage by the door to the house to hang the dog leashes and equipment.

We will add more hooks here also to hold more gear.


I have so many other ideas running through my head as well. The closet? The bathroom? Can't Wait!

Thanks for viewing!

Changes

Please bear with me as I experiment with different layouts and items. I am trying to decide what works best for this blog.

Flooring

We have had replace almost all of our flooring, The carpet was nasty. We did keep the tile that was in the kitchen and dining area, but everywhere else had to go. We got some laminate wood for the living room, hallway and office, then put more tile into the guest bathroom. We will eventually replace the carpet in our Master bedroom and the guest bedroom, then put new tile in the master bathroom, but we have other things on our priority list first. Here are some pictures of the flooring projects.

Ripping out the flooring, dust was everywhere, you can see it on the lens.

Thanks for viewing!

Landscaping

Our first major project (also the cheapest which is good when you just spent all your money buying the house) was the backyard landscaping. I didn't get one immediately before we started but this is from the listing. It's a big overgrown jungle, but when we started it was a big DEAD overgrown jungle.

We spent weeks pulling out all of the trees and bushes. Then we brought in a Bobcat to clear out all of the rock to one side of the yard.

Ryan was loving it!

We built a retaining wall to separate the rock from the grass and another wall to eventually have a garden.

This is what it looks like now today. We planted grass and some citrus trees. There is also a mess from the monsoon storms we've been having and it is so hot here in Arizona this summer that the grass is having a hard time staying alive but it is green in some parts.

Thanks for looking!