Firewood, Anyone?

Having two fireplaces in our home brought some excitement as cooler weather began rolling in to town.It sent my Lutheran Stud to Craigslist to search for firewood for us to burn in the winter. One ad in particular piqued his interest. A family had a large amount of Ash trees cut down on their property and needed to have them removed. It was a great deal for about 30 or so trees. Little did we know how much work it would be to remove all the trees from their property and moved to ours. It became quite the operation. Every free moment we had was spent moving huge logs.We had friends helping us out and it became a job for our children. At one time we had 3 pick-ups and trailers bringing loads to our house. I was mostly inside watching small children and cooking up a feast for everyone. We even had people from our church volunteer to help us. I think this may have been the largest log in the entire operation. With some of the smaller pieces the children began moving things around and building forts. I'm sure the little bunnies may have enjoyed living in them while they could.

         
While it felt like a never-ending project having so many helpers helped lighten the work load. We had hoped to have all the wood moved over before any snow came. That didn't happen. There was snow here and there and everywhere. Sometimes it melted quickly and sometimes it stuck around. That is to say that when it was all said and done I think we had more wood than we knew what to do with it. Scratch that. We had big plans for all of that firewood. Our fall and winter was spent splitting wood, or rather our children, along with their friends, and their fathers split wood. We couldn't keep the stacks stuck! We posted an ad on Craigslist to sell firewood. These kids worked really hard all winter to split, sell, and stack firewood. It became quite the winter business. Sometimes we had three wood splitters running. We were hoping to get ahead of the game and have a ton of firewood stacked and ready to roll. But, as you can see there's quite a bit of wood. While most of what you see in the background has been sold, but there is still a fair amount of wood sitting around. Guess what my children will be doing this summer? That's right. I think they'll be weeding my garden and splitting wood to sell this winter. If you are in the Denver area and are looking for firewood to burn this winter let us know. Our children will split, deliver, and stack your fire wood for you. 

Moving Day!

Upon returning home from Aspen we had high hopes to close on our new home that very same day since my husband made what seemed like a thousand phone calls while we were hiking trying to make everything come together. It didn't work out the day of our return, but we did end up closing soon after. Not only did we close on our new home we sold and closed on our old home that very same day. That meant we had to get packed and moved ASAP all in-between baseball games. AHHHH! My little mini-me and I decided to switch up our sunglasses to pass the time while we watched a few games. Isn't she the cutest? My Lutheran Stud picked up this U-Haul which we filled up 3 times! I don't know anyone else who can drive and park a truck this close to a house without hitting it. Do you? That is some serious awesomeness right there.  We were spoiled by our friends and church members who came to help us pack up and move big furniture, including a piano that was in our basement. We pretty much moved everything in one day. While the men moved most of our belongings I had some fabulous gals join me in deep cleaning our home. We could not have moved in one day without everyone's help, so thank you to you if you helped us.We even squeezed in one last day at the neighborhood pool. We'll miss our pool time, but now we'll enjoy our new enormous yard!

Our move was quite an adventure, one that I never want to take part in again. Moving 11 people out of one home and into a new one wasn't even the worst part of this move. I think the overall stress of trying to sell our home and dealing with shady realtors, and waiting on a closing date was much worse than the actual move. The actual move went quite smoothly and for that I am thankful. Stay tuned for more adventures from our summer. It's been quite a ride!

Shove It All In Here

The final room on the main floor of our house is the laundry room. It is on the far right in the photo above. It also goes into the garage and that is how we usually enter our home.

Do you have one of those rooms, in your home, where you just stick things you don't want to deal with at the moment or don't know with what to do with them? Besides being a laundry room that is exactly what this room is for us. It's kind of an everything room.

When you walk in you see the washer, dryer, sink, and a bunch of cabinets. Don't ask about the decorating here. I had nothing to do with it. I think the previous owners were going to for a beach theme, hence the sandy, beachy wallpaper border. We don't spend enough time looking at this room for me to do any re-decorating.

Directly across from the photo above is a closet. We took the doors off and Jared added another shelf and it, obviously, houses a mish mash of things.

Standing next to the washing machine, Jared has hung a bunch of hooks to give a little more space and get things off the ground. It works quite well.

Then directly above the door he added another shelf. We have high ceilings in our home. The shelf is great for things we don't use often and it makes use of the extra vertical space that we have.

This is the view from the garage.

That pretty much sums up the tour of our home on the main floor. Maybe someday I'll get around to photographing the rest of our home. For those of you that don't know, we purchased this home after it went into foreclosure and paid roughly $50,000 less than the asking price. We haven't really done much to this home, just a little painting here and there, and of course, Jared has added shelving all over. The one major thing we did was remodel the basement, but I think that's about it. After talking to our neighbor, who knew the original owners of this home, we found out that they lived quite an extravagant lifestyle. The kitchen had been remodeled three times while they were living here. My guess is that the cabinets in the laundry room are the original cabinets from the kitchen. I've seen other homes with our floor plan with those cabinets in the kitchen. They put in all the tile you see around the house. It's been great because they put the tile in all the areas that get the most traffic. They also put in hardwood on the stairs and hallway on the second floor which I love because who likes vacuuming stairs? From what we can tell, the whole house was remodeled except the master bedroom. That room is a disaster. It's also another room where we just stick things. :) I guess I didn't mention how they were able to live such a lavish life, did I? The wife of the household worked as an accountant for a trucking company. Any guesses? Over the course of six years, she had embezzled over $800,000 from her company. They had many flat screen TVs, motorcycles, jet skis, a boat, 5th wheel, you name it and they probably had it. Crazy, isn't it?

Random House

No, not the publishing house, random rooms in my house. :) Standing in the kitchen, facing away form the kitchen, you are able to see four different doors. The door on the left goes to the basement. The middle door houses school supplies, puzzles, and games. Next to that closet is a tiny bathroom and the last door, furthest away is the laundry room, which leads out into the garage.

Here is a look at the bottom of the basement. It basically serves as the children's play room. There is also a guest room and two other storage rooms. I have a lot of canning items, canned foods, and food that like dark dry places in one of the storage rooms. Maybe you'll get the tour down there and maybe not. I rarely go down there. We had a small flood a few years ago and ended up doing a little remodel, so it fit our needs better. HERE and HERE is a link to that.  HERE is another view of the basement, mostly finished.

Now, I believe this closet was meant to be a utility or coat closet. We needed the space for other things. Jared was kind enough to build a bunch of shelves. Then he hung a pantry organizing thing on the door. It works quite well for us. Notice, I keep things at the higher end of the closet in order to keep things out of the reach of tiny people in our home.

On the main floor, we also have a small bathroom. It really just a toilet and sink room. It's super tiny and the ceiling, again, is really high.

I was desparate to hang something in here, so right now there are some photos of the Seattle view in our bathroom. There is still plenty of open wall space.

Next to the sink is another wall calling out to be decorated.

Want To See More House?

Here is our family room. I am in the kitchen shooting this photo. It was feeling a little cramped, so we moved two chairs and the coffee table to the other room. I like this much better. Jared would really like to get a wood burning fireplace, but for now that gas thing will have to do. I want to give it a makeover. I can't stand that gold. Anyone have any cheap ideas? I doubt we'll do anything to it. I'm also not a huge fan of the cut out wall thingy. I wished that it was just a plain wall. I think it limits what we can do with the room.

This is the view from the stairs. Now see those pillows on the couch? I am thinking of giving them a makeover as well. Please share your ideas with me.

So, now I am standing in front of the fireplace. Our house is pretty open. There are pros and cons to that.

The family room has really high ceilings, just like the front room. Up at the top of the photo you can see some railings. Jared calls that the "catwalk." From up there you can see pretty much the whole main floor with the exception of the kitchen.

Standing on the "catwalk" this ledge is directly across from me. Those are toys that the kids have thrown up there. They've been warned several times about throwing things up there. It usually happens when someone gets mad at someone else, so they throw the other person's toy up there, knowing that we won't get it down from there. We usually do a cleaning ever six months or so. I guess when I say "we" I mean Jared. There is now way I would go up there. I'm scared of heights. I also had him get up there and paint that wall gray. Isn't he fabulous? He did a great job. :) So I'm not sure if I should do anything with this wall or not. It's pretty high. Thoughts?

Looking down from the "catwalk." Tempting to drop things isn't it? Yes, it happens often here, even though the kids know they aren't supposed to drop things.

Then we have a massive wall of just windows. It gets a little drafty, but the amount of light that gets let into the house is all worth it to me. That is one thing I love about this house. The windows bring in a ton of natural light. It helps a lot, especially for photography.

The Tour Continued...

Here is where I spend most of my time during the day. This is also the room that sold me on this house. I love my kitchen! The large cabinets and all the counter space sold me! It seems that one can never have too much cabinet or counter space.

From this angle I am standing on a couch in our family room.

Some sweet ladies from church helped me decorate above my cabinets. They actually purchased all the fake food that is showcased in the baskets and bowls. When we have large gatherings, I use a lot of the dishes and baskets that are above the cabinets. One year, for Christmas, Jared bought me a speaker system. We have surround sound in the kitchen. He drilled holes that run through the cabinet and to my computer. It's great. Sometimes the kids and I have dance parties in the kitchen. :) Speaking of Christmas, those are Christmas cards and photos hanging on the wall and cabinet on the edge of the photo. They aren't there year round. In fact, they're gone now, so if you come over it's almost a blank wall. :)

There are two ways into my kitchen. This is the main "door" I guess you could say. It opens up to the family room.

If you know us well, you know that we've moved several times. I am tired of moving, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is not the last house we live in while in Denver. Because my husband likes to track the real estate market and find "deals" on homes and things, I've made ultimatums if we are ever to move again. I first started this while we were still at the seminary. There aren't many requirements, but one of them is a gas stove. I've learned to love cooking with gas and when we lived in an apartment for a few months, I burned everything on that electric stove. So now, I require a home with a gas stove. Our current home did not have gas, so my lovely husband installed a gas line before we moved in. He's a rockstar. Then he spoiled me with this awesome stove. It's got 5 burners and is a double oven. It's also a convection oven. The main oven is pretty large. I can get three racks of cookies in there at one time. It's perfect. The bottom oven has been great for those turkey days and as a warming drawer. I love it!

My other requirement is a decent dishwasher. Before moving to Colorado I did tons of research on dishwashers and we found a used Asko dishwasher on Craigslist. It was their bottom of the line dishwasher and I have to say it was the best dishwasher I ever had. Seriously. When we moved into this house the dishwasher was already here. I was little leary of it, but I've now learned to embrace it. This a two drawer dishwasher, so it's like two separate dishwashers. They run independently. It does a decent job cleaning, but it's still not like my Asko. Each dishwasher holds quite a lot of dishes, more than half of a full size dishwasher. What I love about this Fisher and Paykel dishwasher is that I never have dishes sitting in the sink or on the counter waiting to be washed. Since I can run one dishwasher at time I always have one that's running or clean and one that is empty or dirty. The only exception to this is when we have company. That's when I wish I had another dishwasher. I actually wouldn't mind another dishwasher. I know we'd use it.

Here I'm standing in the corner of my kitchen by my knives and things. You can see the two entrances to the kitchen, that go into the front room and the other goes to a number of places, family room, stairs, etc.

This is my little work station, where I am sitting right now writing this post. See that "Keep Calm and Snap On," it plays a huge part in covering up wires and a phone jack. :)

Welcome!

I'm sitting here in jury duty. Yes, you read that right. I'm serving jury duty. More on that later. :) Since, I've got an hour for lunch, what better thing to do than write a blog post, right? Thank you for wi-fi at the courthouse! Why don't we do a little home tour while I wait? I guess it's my turn since you ladies (Adriane, Lauren, and Erin) have been so kind to share your homes with me, and I need decorating help. :) Here I am standing at our front door. We don't actually use this door much, since we enter our home from the garage, usually.

Directly to my right is where school occurs in our home. We found this massive white board for free, on Craigslist. Craigslist is awesome! We got the chairs and table from our, now closed, preschool. It's perfect.

Now I'm standing directly next to our white board and this is the view. We have bookshelves galore that need to be organized.

Here is another view from the white board. Our front room has an incredibly high ceiling and is pretty wide open. You can pretty much see the rest of the main of the main floor just from here. See that wall? I need something there. It's plain and empty and it's calling out for some decorating help. I mean it. I don't know what to do there. Someone might even have to come and put something there for me. You can give me ideas, but it might just be easier for you to just do it for me or it may never get done. Got that? Start sharing ideas with me please!

So, now I am halfway up our stairway looking down from the landing.

This is the view from the kitchen into the front room.

This is the view from next to the kitchen entrance to the front room. It has pretty much become a multipurpose room. My girls have been wanting to sew, so we recently moved their great grandma's sewing table up here from the basement. I also sew in this room. We have school in this room, and we've recently moved more furniture here to sit and relax. I think where the chairs and coffee table are, was meant for a dining room table. Obviously we don't use it as such. I have a hard time eating over carpet. That would be much too disasterous for our family. There you have part one of our home tour. Hope you enjoyed it. Please help me decorate. I'm open to all suggestions. Until next time...