Cheap and Easy

Well, it was a long fun weekend:) I'll hopefully post pictures and stories later in the week if I don't get distracted by newer, awesome(er) stuff.

FOR NOW

2 easy things that have made my life simpler and cheaper:

Castile soap!! Just fill your foaming soap dispenser 1/4 the way with castile soap, then fill the rest with water. VIOLA!!! Exciting foamy soap!! And castile soap costs about $6-7 a bottle!!! When you only use 3-4 tablespoons for each soap dispenser refill, this is a cheap and easy soap source that is natural and happy!! And foamy!!! The bad thing about this is that there aren't any pretty and affordable foamy soap dispensers out there. Sad:( My bathrooms are all brought to you by Wal-Mart or Meijer brand soap bottles.



Why is that a kid would rather play with household objects, kitchen utensils, and random unedible things THAN THEIR TOYS???? Here's what I do when C gets bored with me and life:

1. run around and grab anything that is not tiny,
   
2. throw it in a container,
   
3. and set in front of baby.
   

In this situation, my baby recently loves opening drawers. So that's where his special toys are "hidden" instead of being in a container. Containers are sooooo for 8 month olds. C is 9 WHOLE MONTHS NOW. He's TOTALLY beyond containers.

Other toys hidden in the open: our shoes (specifically the soles), onions, wine bottles in the now unused wine rack, the indoor compost trash can, the regular kitchen trash can, a giant seed we found in C's mouth that we have NOOOO idea where he got it, the remote control, drywall clumps (without trim covering it) (at floor level) that can be easily eaten. FUN!!!

Also, Our Art Art Hour and The Rural Juror are awesome things.

Link Love:)

I've got a few tabs open in Chrome that I thought I would share!


I want to make one of these! I've always thought an emergency container would be a good idea so I've started collecting water and food for it. I'll add a jump bag to my list too (or instead?).

A few different ways to have a nice lawn without using chemicals.

Until we save enough moola for granite countertops, I wonder if we could make these?

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter and oatmeal? And they taste so yummmm too:)

Check out what these parents are doing. I understand the concept but ~wow~.....


That's all for now. Watching Panyo with the nephews, husband, and brother in law after working all day. Relaxing tomorrow!!

Weekend Goals

While C was contentedly napping on our flight home Tuesday, J and I revisited our home schedule (or lack thereof). Like I've mentioned before, we really don't know how to stop when it comes to working on our house. It's seriously going to take us YEARS to get this place looking like we want it. Yep, years.... Coming from someone who throws herself into a project 150% (possible?) until it is done, this is hard for me to accept. Take it slow? Take our time? REALLY??? Can't we just bury ourselves in house fixin' for 5 years and then bask in the glowing beauty for 30 years? WHY NOT???

Oh, because there's a baby here now. And he's generally more demanding than the house. And he's pretty loud and insistent. And dang cute and appealing to play with:)

And then there's that tension that creeps in if hubby and I don't relax, go on occasional date afternoons, or cuddle on the couch with a movie once in a while.

And our extended family wants to see us once in a while;)

And reading books, playing games, and watching high quality TV shows like 30 Rock, Community, and Modern Family are very important;)

Yeah, lots of things are more important than perfecting our Estate THIS VERY MINUTE. We need to be slackers. Our vacation proved that. While vacationing, I was surfing the Interwebs one night and looked over to see my hubby playing a computer game. I haven't seen him doing that since last fall and that's pretty sad. J loves independent and well made games as much as I love reading books but neither of us have been "indulging" in those hobbies much lately.

Long story short: New Schedule says:

1. We will NOT do housework in the evening (other than cooking and cleaning up dinner).
   
2. We will only work on the house for 4-5 hours each weekend day. 8-10 hours the whole weekend sounds good!
   
3. We'll loan our kid to grandparents every other weekend to go on a date.
   
4. I will focus more on playing/teaching my kid when he's awake since that is MY JOB. Oddly, not painting/weeding/constantly working makes me feel guilty and I HATE that. It's like I don't value my child. I value my house more?
5. We're going to try to let things go, i.e. cleanliness standards. I'll have to work on this since J is already pretty good at overlooking messes;)

So our goals for this weekend are:

1. Plant strawberry and raspberry plants. Somewhere. Probably involves prepping said area.
   
2. Weed the front flowerbed! Oh it's soo big:( (That's what she said).
   
3. Pressure wash the deck and gross exterior parts of the house.
4. Buy sealant and begin sealing the deck.
   

We can DOOOOOO it!!!

The Guest Room

I searched high and low for pictures of our guest room before we tore out the built in shelving. I guess it was so awful to look at that we never actually photographed it?!?!? Kinda sad because now you won't appreciate the true hideousness of it:(

Let's just say one big corner was covered in very bizarre, oddly shaped, oddly painted shelving, complete with tiny drawers that would have held maybe 6 pairs of socks each. Yep. So: I GIVE YOU: THE GUEST ROOM.

MARCH

My dad ripped down the shelving for us. Very nice of him:) Such ugliness was left on the walls!


Ick.


Pile of debris.


Pile was moved outside.


Pile of debris was reused as raised beds (built by J and our nephew Chris) (Chris earned $18 that weekend helping us).


Raised beds that now have soil and seeds in them:)

APRIL

In April we found out J's brother, who was moving back home in search of a new job, was moving back sooner than we thought. And he was going to stay with us until he procured a job and an apartment. Thus began 2 weeks of WORK VERY HARD ALL THE TIME during which we worked evenings AND weekends. Got the room tip top, put 2 (3?) coats of drywall mud (thanks to my dad!) on the walls to patch up the shelving area. Sanded. Primed the walls. Painted. Painted another coat. Hired some guys to install carpet. Moved in furniture that my grandmother gave us when her condo sold. Moved up other furniture. Set up furniture. Hung curtains given by a friend. Put on lovely bedspread swiped from sister's garage sale.

TAH DAH!!!!!

Sadie is so proud of her contribution to the room: barking.


Bed. Duh:) Ps- that lamp does NOT work....


Dormer.... A long place to pace???


Closet #1.


NO SHELVING!!!!


Ah sigh:)


The day we celebrated the room being done:)

I really like our guest room now. Maybe better than my own bedroom??? Oh well:)


PS- I just found out from a neighbor that the people who built our house still live in our town! The other day I was driving through our town on a road I hadn't ever gone on and I saw another English Tudor. I wondered about it (as I do with all English Tudors now!) but didn't pay it much attention. IN FACT IT WAS BUILT BY THE SAME PEOPLE THAT BUILT OUR HOUSE!!!!! And they still live there!! Hmmmm.... Wonder why they abandoned my house? Was it the wasps? The millipedes? Spiders? Tiny ants? The multitude of work that comes with a 2.76 acre Estate such as ours?

House and Diapers

First: I am happy to report that THIS:
Is finally happening to our pond. Our excavator filling it in in February but since he's fitting us in between jobs, we got pushed aside until now. Or maybe he returned to us because I started calling/texting him and bugging him too much;) Hopefully it will be finished on Monday? Seems too good so I'll tell myself that by Wednesday it will be done. Because then we must away to North Carolina (isn't that how they said it in all the Jane Austin books? I must away?) for a vacation.


And then THIS:
mound of rocks/concrete/stuff/unuseable water feature in my front yard will also be gone. Yay!! Stay tuned for what we are going to do with our giant rocks. Cause I haven't 100% decided yet either! Ideas?


Also: I think having a few vases of dead flowers around gives any house a decidedly "Miss Havisham" look. Don't you? And isn't that what we ALL want for our homes???

So, while I work on my disorganized photos (that's what the current naptime has been reserved for), here's some cloth diaper pictures and info from The Jarvis Estate.

DIAPERS

C uses Bum Genius 3.0 during the day. We have 12 of these diapers and all except 2 or 3 were bought used. We used to use GMD prefolds and Thirsties covers during the day too but those are too cumbersome to take on and off when C uses the toilet. Alas. This means they've been bagged up for the next baby or loaned out to friends.


This is our current nighttime diaper: Thirsties cover, Mother Ease one size, and a small GMD prefold. C NEVER leaks out of these!! His behind is kinda big in them though.... We used to add an extra liner to the combo but nowadays he seems to be peeing less at night so we don't really need it anymore.


So, those diapers go on this boy's butt. He mostly wears just a diaper and a shirt or onesie when we're at home. This way I can squeeze, kiss, and tickle his chunky legs all the time!!! And plop him on his toilet quicker:)


Diapers go from butt to diaper pail in tiny laundry room. Then every 2 days I wash them: one cold wash with tiny bit of Charlie's Soap and 1/4 cup Bac-Out, one hot wash with tiny bit of Charlie's Soap, and an extra rinse. PS- if C poops in his diaper (maybe 1 out of 7 days) we spray it with the diaper sprayer in the downstairs bathroom THEN stick it in the pail. Ah sweet breastmilk-only baby poop, how I miss you. Eating-solid-foods baby poop, GROSS, I'm glad you go in the toilet!!!


The diaper covers go on my drying rack (AKA dining room chairs) to dry (no clothesline at the new house yet, too busy!!) and the liners and cloth wipes go in the dryer.


Finally all diapers, covers, liners, and wipes go in the laundry basket to sit in the living room for a couple of days. And if we're lucky, they get put in the diaper bin in the playroom. But did I take a picture of that final step? NOOOO. Because I wanted to leave you hanging in suspense. There's no way I'll get anyone to read a word I write unless I keep dangling that DIAPER BIN IN THE PLAYROOM photo in front of them.

Maybe later?

The Playroom

The playroom will conclude our EXCITING tour of The Estate. Perhaps next week will have the UPSTAIRS in store??? We can only hope. Fingers crossed. Countdown begins now. On the edge of your seat fun at my blog!!!!

PS- those of you with kids: were you amazed by how fast your baby became mobile? And how amazingly adept they were at exploring every centimeter of your house? Life is fascinating to an 8 month old and more so now to this 30 year old:)

DECEMBER- JANUARY

I knew right away I wanted to make the farthest room in this photo a playroom. Took a little discussion with J for us to get on the same page (in this case it was more like him turning to MY page).


We replaced the light fixture and painted the walls a light turquoise. That door is one of !!3!! that lead to the back deck so we don't use it. In fact, I don't know that we've ever even opened it? It will get replaced with a window or wall one day. In The Hopeful Far Off Future.


It was so chilly and snowy!! Now our view out this window is happy green:)

FEBRUARY

Back when C could only roll. Sigh.
I love this room. Did I mention that the living room and this playroom are my favorite in the house? Also, that rug was in our last house; I bought it at HomeGoods. I think it looks marvelous in this room!


Here's what we do in the playroom, clockwise: occasionally eat on the floor with C (look how tiny!!), ignore dead flies on the floor (not anymore since everyone in the house now has good fine motor skills), learn how to crawl, and most recent, freak out Mommy when holding on things with only ONE hand.

APRIL-MAY

Since C's new favorite games are: PULL EVERYTHING OFF THE SHELVES!! PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF THE BINS!!! STAND ON THE BINS!!!! this is how the room generally looks. I'm fine with that:)


This is how the room looks on Vacuum the House Day (Tuesdays if you are wondering when you should visit).


View while my lazy butt sits on the floor. Looking in the kitchen.


And around. Hey, there's that daring kid starting to make a mess!!!


C's old favorite thing: the mirror. Looking at himself isn't so awesome anymore.


His other old favorite thing: cousin Charlotte's Exersaucer. Another not so cool piece of C's past. We keep it around for desperate situations that call for trapping a baby:)


Toy box bought by his Gee'ma. Painted by his mom.

And just for fun:

Happy baby.


Cousin Lilly making a silly face:)

Living Room

So what do you call it? A living room or front room? Or family room? Or even den? What is the distinction? Guess I never learned.

We call ours a living room.

And here it is!!!!!

DECEMBER

Sometimes I don't know what made us buy this crazy house to begin with. Sure, it's pretty now but dang it was a mess. Then I think: Oh yeah, that fireplace! THAT'S what made us (really me) want this house so much!
Wow, I love my big stone fireplace:) Maybe as much as my baby? Hmmmm. I guess not quite. ;)
Also- that missing piece of flooring is still missing now only it's covered by a rug. We'll get to it one day!

Turning around from the last shot you see this. Or rather SAW this. It's prettier now.


This window still needs to be replaced since one of the double panes is broken and the window sash outside is rotted. We'll do that when it is warmer. Until then, my dad pulled out the broken layer of glass so it doesn't look jagged and I blow dried that plastic wrap stuff over the remaining window pane to keep the cold air out. So now we have one normal window and one single pane window and that works for now! Don't tell the robbers about this window though.... Wowo I said window so much here.


The foyer with more of my favorite features: stone-ish floor leading to the wood staircase:) The rest of the downstairs is wood laminate but the staircase is real wood!


These were the light fixtures we started with in here and in the connecting playroom (playroom will be another post another day). Yep, that's a light on the fireplace stone. So classy!!!! Hard to believe that the remaining hole (after the offending light was removed) is even CLASSIER!!!!

JANUARY

This is how C spent about 3 weeks of his life: swinging, grinning, whining, sleeping, crying, playing, and generally being a little ignored in the chilly house while we worked. Then we moved in (yay!!!) and only the being ignored changed. Though yeah, he still gets that sometimes.


Painting the living room! We used Dutch Boy Zero VOC for all the walls so they took 2 coats. Okayish paint. At least we didn't breathe in any icky chemicals while painting for HOURS. C is actually playing on the floor there. Back then he didn't move. You'd set him down and he'd maybe roll over and that was IT. Not so much now....


Looking toward the playroom. We painted this wall a nice brown:) Later I used that brown, mixed it with white, and painted our master bathroom. I tend to do a lot of my own paint mixing with leftover paints. 3 rooms in our Estate are a SARAH COLOR. Yes, that's my brand name.


We have moved in!!! We are relaxing more. Well, not really. We are still working every evening and all weekend. We are getting tired. There may be occasional snapping and bickering happening due to this overworking.

February

J took down the foyer light and I spray painted it. Used to be gold. Yup, that's a small triangle of spray paint on the glass. SO WHAT?????
I still need to paint two lights in the living room and we replaced the one in the playroom. I also still need to work on my camera's settings when photographing lights. I was in a hurry is my excuse. Otherwise these pictures would have been A WORK OF ART. ART I TELL YOU!!!

MAY

I love this umbrella holder thingie. I was going to toss it at our old house since we didn't have room for it. J thought we should keep it so we did and it looks so nice here. You should come over and see it!!


I'm painting the foyer trim white but we decided to keep the living room trim brown since it contrasts so nicely with the turquoise walls.


This living room is really making me hone my camera skills too, just like the lights. Here's the best of the bad shots.


Here's a better shot from another day.


Here's what we do in the living room. Party. Watch the Superbowl. Vacuum. PS- I love my $50 Craigslist rug soooo much:) I might rescue it in a fire if I had enough time. It's cheery, soft, high quality, and wonderful.


The living room is my favorite room in the house:) And btw, we aren't working all evening and every weekend anymore:) We only work 1-2 evenings a week and 1-2 weekend days. And we are taking a vacation in 2 weeks!!! Bickering has greatly subsided for J but recently increased for me due to baby C's sleep habits. Disappointing that my boss demands I keep very weird hours... Wish he'd come to his senses one day. Good thing I love him beyond measure!!