My Alder Door Makeover

It only took me a month (eesh!) but my door is finally finished.  I started with this:

First I sanded the original stain off, which I'm estimating took me 7-8 hours total.  Then using a stain called American Walnut, I stained the door, door casing, door jam, and hand railing for our stairs.  That was followed by one clear gloss coat, one coat of a glaze called Santa Fe, then 2 more clear coats.  I have to thank the guys at Jones Paint and Glass in Provo.  Not only did I walk in one minute before closing, but I had all these questions because I had no idea what I was doing.  They helped me figure everything out and were great.

Here is the end result, I'm quite pleased.  It's not perfect (and if you visit, I may ask you not to look too closely), but it's better than what we had before.

Things are still moving along with the house, however, we've had a major hiccup with kitchen cabinets.  It currently looks like this:

Yeah.  I know.  Long story short, the cabinets went in, weren't the color I thought they'd be and the cabinet guy had to get some guys to come in and paint.  Let's hope it all ends up well or I'll be majorly disappointed.

We're off to a family party today.  I made these little candy corn rice krispie treats.  They are good but on the verge of killing you with sugar overload.

Our Halloween Costumes

Last week I took my two little ones, and my niece and nephew out for a little photo shoot in their Halloween costumes.  I didn't have high hopes because...well it's best not to get my hopes up when taking pictures of little ones. :)  I'm not professional by any means but I think we got some great shots.

Here's my little Tinkerbell:

And my little police man:

And here is my darling niece in her Mary Poppins costume, and her brother as the chimney sweep.  My sister in-law did such an amazing job putting this together.  She made Mary's hat, bow tie, skirt, and the bird on the end of the umbrella.  The chimney sweep was pretty easy, she spray painted a new toilet brush and then put black all over his face.

Happy Halloween!

Do you Pin?

After hearing about this addictive site for months, I finally joined Pinterest....at least I tried to.  I was all excited to join and then I get an email saying "you're on the waiting list".  It felt a little anti-climactic.  I have been browsing a little bit anyway, and wow there are some amazing images on there.  I can see why it is so addicting.

I wish I had taken this photo. Via Pinterest.

Side note: is it just me or is there a lot of nudity on Pinterest?  I entered one totally innocent search and got back at least 10 nudy pics--not really my thing.

Most Embarrassing

I stayed up way too late the night before my brother’s wedding.  My hubby, my two brothers, my dad, and I just had to have one last game night before J got married.  We are quite fanatical about our game playing.  Bonanza, Ticket to Ride, and Wanker are our current favorites (“trade you a green bean for 3 wax beans” = awesomeness!).  We played one last game and then said good night.  As soon as my head hit the pillow something was wrong.  Seriously wrong.  I writhed in pain all night long and made too many trips to the bathroom to count.  My hubby is such a deep sleeper he didn't even know I had been getting up all night until he heard the deafening dry heaving.  “Oh babe, you’re sick?”  Uh, HELLO!! Where have you been all night?

So, I was up the entire night feeling horribly, then had to get out of bed, get our little family ready, and attend a freaking wedding.  In my mind, it was not an option to stay home.

We headed to the temple where the ceremony was going to take place.  We walked up to the front doors and my mom had a wheel chair waiting for me.

“What is that for?”

“It’s for you, get in” she said, driving over to me.

“Uh, heck no it is not.  I’ll be fine.”

We’re sitting in the ceremony, and I’m no dummy so I sit right by the door.  Just in case.

My brother and his fiancé come into the room.  They look amazing.  Happy.  The ceremony begins and basically so does the sweating.  And the light headedness.  And the nausea.  If only I could put my head between my legs, or better yet just lie right down on the floor.  But I worry everyone will think I’ve gone mad.  I did forget to eat now that I think about it.  I look over at my mom.  She mouths to me, do you need to go?  Wow, I looked THAT bad.  I nod.  Two seconds later, I’m out the door and on the floor on my hands and knees.  Everything goes white and I am thisclose to passing out.

I wish this was the end of the story but sadly, the embarrassment continues.  After the sweet temple workers help me up, let me lie in an empty room and bring me juice and crackers (I’m feeling so much better at this point!), my hubby and others come to find me.  They all think it is a good idea that I go out in a wheel chair.  A wheel chair people!  What am I, 80?  It was beyond the most embarrassing moment of my life to come out of the temple just prior to the bride and groom and have everyone staring at me going, what’s with her? I know some people knew I was sick but others, perhaps, had no idea what was going on with this crazy sister.

I kept thinking my new sister in-law hates me.  Probably thinks I couldn’t handle someone else getting all of the attention.  But she was so sweet.  Everyone was very sweet.  It really sucked to be miserable on such a joyful day. Even though I was so happy for my brother,  I honestly could not wait for the day to end.

At the reception I’m telling my cousin, who I love to death, this whole story and she says “Awww, did anyone get a picture?”  :)

Yes.  Yes they did.

**Side note, both my hubby and parents got this little stomach flu after I did.  Every time each person got it, and they had been up sick all night puking, I would annoyingly say to them, "Ok, now get up and go to a wedding all day!"  

Moving along

Our last house took an entire year to build.  An entire year.  So the fact that we broke ground July 7 and are now almost done blows. my. mind.  And of course makes me happy.  Here's the recent progress:

Stucco!

And stone!

Finish work is done.  Mark worked his tail off doing the entire house by himself, among other things.  

We had seen this door casing at a lot of entries in the Parade of Homes, and in Mark's brother's house, so he replicated it. I love it!  Before paint:

And after:

For some reason I decided to paint the laundry room a different color (momentary insanity?), but our painter was going to charge $100 bucks just to change color in his sprayer.  I was cursing myself almost the whole time, mostly when I peeled back the painter's tape and there went the ceiling color with it.  ARG!  But I like the way it turned out.  I straight copied Shelley at House of Smith's laundry room color. :)

Sami's room.  I found this chandelier at Home Depot for $26 so I could not pass it up.  The board and batten wall turned out so cute and I love the color of the wall (it's a bit off in this photo but it's basically a bright pinky purple).

Just a few more touches and then electrical is finished.  This is the breakfast nook with my most favorite light in the house.

And finally, this mother.  We got this puppy for free (that's an $800 door folks) but weren't crazy about the color.  So again, my momentary insanity helps me to decide to sand and stain it.  Yesterday I sanded for over FIVE HOURS--with a power sander-- and I am still not finished.  The end result better be gorgeous or I'm going to be very bitter.  I'll post the final look when I am finished.

Kitchen cabinets are delivered tomorrow and Mark will finish the hard wood and tile in the next couple of weeks, so look for more updates!

Lowe's Much?

I went a little hog wild with our lighting and did practically all of it in one day.  Here's hoping I don't have to go to Home Depot or Lowe's for at least a week (oh the joys of building!).
I can't wait to see these installed. My favorite is this one from Lowe's, it's going over the breakfast nook.

Also.  This man....is the shiz.