Big black Ants

What lives in your walls I dont mean between your walls where the people belong I mean INSIDE your walls? If you are lucky NOTHING lives behind the drywall....if you are the Smith's one billion trillion ANTS live there....sometimes peaking out but mostly just living there in darkness....totally creepy. Get ready you little buggers...you do not belong here, you are NOT making the payment....you are going to die...every last one.

It is full of live creatures and stink and its all ours!!!

Its official we purchased the house of nobodies dreams! That's right a home that sat vacant for over two years....just waiting for the perfect family to dig it out and revive it!!
Why this house? Not sure...in some ways as lame as they seem I feel it picked us (or me all Sean feels/sees is a LOT of work!).We drove by this house during the holidays and as I looked at it I was disappointed to see that people lived there (I didn't want to have to see it with other people's things in it...)But I knew I liked the warmth I saw seeping out the windows. It had such a good feeling I could sense there were lots of people celebrating right inside. I later learned that PEOPLE did NOT live there (just creatures) and it was FAR from warm below 40 next to a heater to be exact. None the less it is now ours!

I like to think the only living things here are now the Smith family.....and after four weeks of torture in the cold it has the warmth I saw that first night we drove by. I still feel like we are supposed to be here and although I wont take off my shoes and walk barefoot on the floor and refuse to let my little O crawl around on the floor its home! Doesn't it sound wonderful? I know!

So....this little house was born in 1945 and was a commercial plumbing storehouse...I don't even know what that means OR where plumbing stuff was kept...I do know this place is UGLY and that doesn't even do it justice! I was considering doing a photo tour of the whole house but maybe I'll just show before and after pictures as we go along and make our changes!



There is a lot of work to be done and by a lot I mean a freaking butt load. We started with the kids rooms and they are almost complete as well as the family room! The kids are sleeping right now so you wont get pictures of those today but I just snapped a couple of the almost finished family room.....
The BEFORE:


I know what you are thinking you can't decide what you like more the wood paneling or the light fixtures (they dim for romance and are available if you would like them! The mantle is also super awesome Sean may have burned it the first night for warmth!).
The fireplace was (currently still is) freaking ugly the little door to the right of the fireplace was at one time a "pass through" for the firewood, kind of cool its gone now.

SO FAR:


Paneling GONE most of light fixtures GONE...strange unhelpful built in GONE! YAY! We also made the window bigger to let in more sunshine! Painted the walls a nice grey (Silver Drop) and put in new baseboard and a new sliding glass door (oppisite the window). Its clearly not complete but getting there!

I can say that this home has all of the things we were looking for and a few things we weren't. We are happy here and can't wait for it to not be so ugly so we can tell people where we live! :)

Bathroom

We do not have a home yet. We looked at one today that is quite retro and I love it.We just might make an offer today!
Homes inspire me this one has my head popping with ideas.....it has two hideous bathrooms that are in serious need of attention. I'm confident when I say hideous I am DEAD on I've not see such craziness in my life. So I've rounded up some fun ideas for bathrooms and started my WHAT IF wheels spinning.....
I am in love with white...and gray with sprinkles of other colors but mostly white and grey with loads of shiny tile.




These bathrooms are so big...I'm doubting I will purcahse a house with bathrooms of such great size!



These next two are some of my favorites that I think are masculine enough for even my husband! Not sure how he would feel about the pink accents in some of the others.


This last one I think is a little more playful for kiddos...don't ya think?

Something about the white makes all of these bathrooms look so beautiful and CLEAN nothing beats a clean bathroom right?

And so the SEARCH begins.

As it turns out we have sold our beautiful home. I loved this house but its time to move on and in a dead market if someone wants it....well ya sell it. So we have started out search for a hoopty. Someone elses delapadated piece of crap. So far that has been the hard part. Looking at these houses that have been neglected and run down and trying to picture living there with my babies....letting them run and play. Its hard to see past ceiling leaks, stained smelly old carpet and dirty walls. At times my mind cant even picture it.

This will be my place I put all of those pictures the place that will help me to see past the stink and dirt to a home I will love!

The easiest place to start for me is the kitchen. It is after the heart of the home and for some reason a place I spend WAY too much time. Dont get me wrong I love to bake its probably the dishes and chores I spend the time in there doing. So it has to be beautiful.....right?

I'm thinking all things WHITE this time around.....what do you think......



Check out how the inside of these cabinets are painted....I so love that.