Trim!

The interior of the house is quickly coming together.  Today I took some new photos.  The carpenters were hard at work on the trim, and I am told all the trim has been stained besides the banister.  A little side note on our trim and banister: we spent a good amount of money upgrading the trim, casings, and banister to a higher quality and more modern style (craftsman).

Here is the living room and the newly-installed banister.  

Looking down the stairs toward the front door and the new octagon window.  You will see the old, fire-damaged front door still attached.  They don't install the new door until the crew is all done banging around everywhere.

The kitchen cabinets are installed and looking awesome!  We also spent some extra money here upgrading to a higher-quality wood and drawers made with actual wood boards instead of particle board.  We wanted a kitchen that could take a beating.  We also added a huge pantry beside the refrigerator.  Oh my gosh, I didn't realize how big it would be!

This is another upgrade: a cabinet area to be used as a charging station for computers and phones and as a place to put our printer.  The top cabinets will be locking cabinets for storing liquor.  With the large pantry and this little upgrade, I'm really not sure if our kitchen table will fit!!  This should be fun...

Here is what the upstairs bathroom looks like.  The cabinet is lighter in the bathroom.

Here is the girls' room.

Here's another shot of the living room.  I can't wait to fill it with furniture!

Yikes.  Every time I look at this door I get the chills.  I know I can't rewind the clock, but I really wish we could've carried our cats out this door with us.  I miss them so much and am devastated that we didn't save them.

Here's the master bedroom.  The trim was salvageable in here, but since we were replacing all the other trim in the entire house, we decided to just keep it uniform and buy new trim here.

Master bedroom closet

Since there is no lighting in the house yet, these photos taken in the garage are sort of funny looking.  This is a shot of our beautiful front door (another upgrade) standing tall amongst the boards and trim.  It's also craftsman style, and this grainy photo doesn't do it any justice.

The garage looks amazing considering this was the center point of the flames.

Here's a photo of the downstairs bathroom which is pretty much still just a shower stall and nothing else.

Hopefully, the next time I post photos you will see paint on the walls.  I have some pretty crazy colors picked out.

Shower Curtain RIng Wreath

Most of you know that I co-lead Girl Scout troops for both of my girls.  I'm mostly writing this post to help my co-leader with this week's craft since I can't be at the meeting.  Plus, since Evelyn won't be at the meeting, I knew she would want to make the craft on her own.  Finally, her trial run making the craft gave me an idea about how long it will take: about 30 minutes.

All you need to make a shower curtain ring wreath ornament is the ring, some yarn, some ribbon, a glue gun or glue, and some little decorations (stickers, buttons, flowers, etc.)  Since the girls are making these as gifts for their teachers, I am also having them decorate a little gift bag.

So, Step 1:
  Cut a looooooong piece of yarn (mine was probably about 5-6 feet, but I had quite a bit leftover) for each wreath.  Make sure the shower curtain ring is latched shut, and then glue the end of the yarn somewhere on the ring.  I used a kid-safe cool temperature glue gun, so Evelyn could do this step on her own.  Hold the yarn onto the ring while the glue dries.  Count to 10!

Now, start looping your wad of yarn over and over through the ring wrapping the yarn as you go. Wrap the yarn nice and tight.  Your wad of yarn might get tangled, so be careful.  If your yarn gets too tangled, you can cut it off and start with a new piece.

Keep going all the way around...

Step 2:
  Once you have the yarn wrapped all the way around the ring, cut off any extra yarn and then glue the end down.  Once again, thanks to the cool temperature glue gun Evelyn could do it herself.

Step 3:
  Cut a piece of ribbon, and tie a knot close to the ring.

Tie another knot at the top of the ribbon making a hanger for your wreath.

Step 3:
  Add little decorations using glue or a glue gun.  This is Evelyn's finished product:

Let each girl decorate a gift bag with some stickers, and there you go!  Easy little craft for my lovely little Girl Scouts.

I will miss seeing my Brownies AGAIN at this week's meeting, but I hope they have fun making the project!

Ceiling!

Last week, our house was given the gift of insulation and walls.  This week... CEILINGS!  Not only are all the walls done, but the ceiling is up and textured.  Whoo hoo!

This is the view from the front door looking up into the living room.

Kitchen

View from the living room down toward the door

That is our vaulted ceiling that is now actually ceiling!!

This is one of my favorite views form the house: looking out the girls' bedroom window at the chicken coop and garden.

Looking down the hallway

Hall closet framed in and ready for paint

Who's that handsome guy?

My favorite yoga sculpture look pretty serene in the snow

The outside of the house still looks like hell.  Sorry, neighbors.

I also want to show off the new chickens.  They are growing so unbelievably fast, and one of my biggest regrets about this whole fire is that I am not at the house with them every day socializing with them.  I miss my babies!

Miss Lindsay, one of our most friendly hens, getting a little love from the fam.

Hello, ladies!

Front and center is Miss Henrietta, better known as our T-Rex.  She loves to attack the other hens and us.

And here's our pretty Pepper.  She looks pretty mean in this photo, but so far she's a good girl.

That's the latest homestead update.  Keep checking back because I think things will be moving right along!

Healthy Body Challenge Update

A few years ago I started a healthy body challenge.  I decided to stop eating so much processed foods and to stop feeding them to my family.  No more Hamburger Helper.  No more store bought bread or tortillas.  No more chemicals in the cleaning products. We saw a big increase in our grocery bill, but we also saw an increase in our energy and our happiness. 

I haven't updated my progress in quite awhile.  Hotel life has brought with it some major changes.  I don't control what cleaning products are used.  We eat hotel food which is all processed and filled with god-knows-what.  And we all started gaining weight and feeling life crap again. 

I started new challenge on December 31: I'm cutting from my diet almost all dairy products (dairy is no longer kind to me), and as soon as we move back into the house I am implementing two meals a week as meatless (vegan or vegetarian).  I will post any successful recipes as soon as I start the new meatless endeavor.  I also started keeping a food journal so I can be more accountable to keeping a healthy diet.  So far I have been a little cranky due to cravings, but I am surviving.  As long as I can have coffee and wine, life is good.

There are a few products I would like to share in an effort to point y'all in the direction of inexpensive but body-friendly products.   I'm not a product pimp, but I do like to pass along any great finds.

This is my new favorite line of shampoo and conditioner, Acure.  Colby and I affectionately call my hair Simba because it is wild and untamed.  However, this stuff leaves my hair soft and smooth without any chemicals.  It's safe for color-treated hair, and it costs under $10 per bottle.  It's on sale right now at Whole Foods for $6.99, so I will probably stock up.  

This is a great, chemical-free body soap for anyone, especially people with sensitive skin.  It doesn't smell the best, but it is really inexpensive and safe.

Since the soap I use is unscented, and in reality actually smells sort of funky, I like to use a body spray that gets its fragrance from essential oils.  This one is my new favorite.  It is safe to use on your skin and to breath into your lungs.  No chemicals.  No artificial fragrance.

Here's to a healthy, happy 2014!

Walls!

I never thought I'd be so excited about walls until the day I walked into our house and saw that some of the rooms had walls!  Whoo hoo!

So, no walls in here yet, but there is insulation. This is where the kitchen and living room meet.

Living room

This is the entryway, and you can see that Brody's room has a wall!!

Upstairs bathroom with shower AND walls!

Brody's room

Girls' room

My handsome hubby checking out Dade's room.

This is a shot of the garage ceiling.  It's insulated!

You can see the new electrical box, and the walls are starting to take shape in the garage.  This photo demonstrates  the epicenter of the fire.

There used to be a washer and dryer here, but for now I am happy to see insulation.

So, this is a shot of the new storage area underneath the steps.  We decided to take advantage of the crawl space under the entryway, and the contractors are going to add drywall.  There was a small closet here before, but now it will be a big storage space.  Not that we really have anything to store anymore...

This photo was taken standing right in front of the door.  Remember in a previous photo that the ceiling was all black?

View from the front door up into the kitchen/dining room.

 So, that's the progress on the house.  Today more walls were finished.  I look forward to picking out new paint for our new walls very soon!