Life Lately

Rich and his beautiful built-ins.  He.  Is.  Amazing.

 

Here are some progress photos...

 

 

 

And the finished product. The middle is being reserved for a large flat screen, but it will take a while to save up for that:)  We plan to put one of Rich's pallet creations up there in the meantime so it doesn't look so bare, but even bare it's still so lovely.  And it's incredible how much taller and wider the whole thing makes the room seem.  Love it.  Love Rich.  Love his mad skills.

Night out with my girls.

 

A peaceful day at home...

Our last days volunteering with Westerville Area Resource Ministry (WARM).

 

 

 

 

Quick road trip down to see my Jen.  Here we are at the very surreal and very cool Buddhist monastery nestled in the middle of nowhere in the tiny South Carolina town where Jen lives.  

Ever dutiful, Jen had to work one day I was there due to the crazy amount of rain that had fallen.  Stormwater and erosion inspections rest for no man.

Why is it so difficult to decorate a hutch with anything other than plates (not my style) or books (my style, but they've been relocated to our amazing new built-ins)...here's my first attempt (of what I assume will be many).

Daddy dance party!

Mom vs. The Laundry: An Imaginary Appliance Revolt

This has been a familiar scene at my house over the past week or so. 

That's me...surrounded by piles of housework...paying no attention to it. 

Only I haven't been sucked into a soap opera on TV.  I've been absorbed in a book.  The Giver series has given my mind a much appreciated respite from household chores (though not from my kids...I always choose them over a book...well, 85% of the time anyway).  I've been lost in the pages of The Giver series' beautiful and tragic dystopia and didn't want to pull myself out of it, especially for chores. 

Sigh. 

I love this series.  I love reading.  I love books.  And I hate laundry.

Anyway, since my loving and gifted husband has been busy constructing our built-ins in the living room (progress photos are coming) and the kids have been busy, well, being kids; a few things have gone unattended in the Cole household lately.  Namely the laundry.

Ugh.  The mountain of laundry. 

So I declared yesterday to be Laundry Day. 

Our washer and dryer laundered a lot of dirty clothes in one day.  Nine loads to be exact. 

That's A LOT of laundry.

I fear their retribution as they finish the last two loads for me tonight... 

They'll look normal as I approach.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Just two metal machines sitting in our basement.  But their presence will take on a quiet menace as I approach.  Then, BAM, the washer will attack, its hoses lashing and spitting and flailing, challenging me, daring me to shove one more dirty shirt or stinky sock into it. 

But I will fight it.  And I will prevail! 

Because I am Mom.  And even though I may go on chore hiatus for a week, my appliances don't.  I mean just think if I gave into the washer's protests.  How long before the news would travel to the other appliances?  How long before they would all rise up against me?  It would be anarchy.

Blue Doors, Stolen Chairs, and Gooey Kids...

Blue doors, stolen chairs and gooey kids...just another week at our house. 

We're trying to finish up our front porch.  After many, so very many paint swatches, texting consultations with Jen (my color expert), in-person consultations with Lori (who wisely geared me toward the lighter hues), and going back and forth between several shades of turquoise; Rich and I settled on this beautiful, warmer shade of light turquoise.  And we love it. (I promise to post a better photo very soon.)

We used the same color to paint the loveseat Rich made. (Again, updated/better photos to come.)

I believe (though I'm not certain yet) that I'm going to use the same color to paint this rocking chair, which I will be adding to the front porch...and which I pulled from someone's garbage this week.  Before you say anything, yes, I am aware that this is the second rocking chair I have saved from the junkyard.  And yes, Rich has a little more repair work to do on this one than the last. And yes, my son told his neighborhood friends,

"It's so crazy.  I don't know why my mom keeps stealing chairs..."

(I tried explaining that it isn't stealing if someone's throwing the thing away, but he still eyed me with suspicion.) 

Regardless of all that, I'm still elated with my find and you can bet your bottom dollar that if I see another cute rocking chair on somebody's curb on trash day, I'll be stuffing it my hatchback faster than you can say dumpster diver. 

Our sad little planters on the front porch got a facelift this weekend when I painted them to match our outside trim.  The white here is just primer, but I was so astounded how much better they looked just with primer that I had to take a photo. 

 

Our trim is this beautiful butter cream color, so I painted the planters to match and plan to put boxwoods in them, inspired by this photo.

In addition to reshaping, edging, mowing and mulching our flower beds and yard, and stripping and priming some bubbling trim on our house; my work horse of a husband also cut down our very, very dead out front.  Well, he didn't so much cut as he pushed it down (it was so light and dry and dead that it just kind of fell on its own).  He transplanted in its place a little Japanese maple that was overcrowded in the backyard and we're hoping the transplant takes.  According to our neighbors, this was the second tree to die in that same spot, so...yikes!

In honor of the very, very dead tree, we used some of its branches for an impromptu s'mores party for some neighbor kids.  They were all gooey and full and smiley by the time the pile of branches was gone, which I took to mean "Thanks.  We'll be back."  And I hope they are...I like having them all around.   

 

Wait for it...wait.......I crafted yesterday.  BAM! 

In honor of teacher appreciation week, and because I don't have money to buy gift cards worth anything for the very deserving teachers my kids have had this year, I was kind of forced to craft.  But I did it and think the crafted presents turned out terribly cute.  I wrote the notes on Lena's teachers' scissors and she signed her name.  Sam wrote the whole thing for his teacher.  They are both very excited to give them to their teachers tomorrow...and so am I!

I Love a Parade!

On Saturday while Rich and I were busy painting and assembling furniture, our kids put on a mini parade with some of their neighborhood friends.  They used our little truck as the float, taped signs to it identifying the different princesses on the float, who were dressed in their finest costumes and coronated after the parade.  This priceless pretty princess parade was escorted by my handsome son, who was nominated to be the "Awesome Police" and rode security patrol along beside them on a scooter.  

Rich had run to the store and unfortunately missed the whole spectacle.  But the kids made me stop painting and walk down to the end of the street to join some other parents, who were sitting in lawn chairs on the sidewalk waiting for the parade to begin.

After the coronation of princesses, during which Lena was crowned "The Princess of Sparkles", they sang selections from Frozen for all of us. 

In the immortal words of Corey Feldman in The Burbs..."God, I love this street."

And here is what Rich and I were busy doing while our kids were parading about.  This is my parents' old console stereo.  They have had it since they were married and have used it as a buffet table for many of those years.  But I have fond memories of playing Olivia Newton John and Solid Gold records on its turntable and dancing around like a crazy child.   

Anyway after 45 years, they finally bought themselves an actual buffet table to replace this old stereo and, as is the practice of any respectable parent, handed down their unwanted furniture to their kids.  Lori passed on this beauty, so we gratefully snatched it up. 

The stereo equipment this console held was mostly inoperable, so Rich gutted it, built shelves and new front panels and we painted it this weekend. 

And here is the end product.  It turned out great!  

Third Time's a Charm...and Dining Room Update!

Yep.

We painted the hutch. 

Again. 

I know, I know.  Don't be so judgy.  :)

The distressed green looked good with our old boring tan and cream walls.  But my awesome husband has nearly finished his upgrades to our dining room and, with the updated gray walls and amazing white wainscoting, well, the green hutch just wasn't cutting it. 

But this time is the last, I swear.  Because now I LOVE this hutch!

And guess whose idea it was to paint it gray? 

That's right.  My sister. 

She's so smart.  Seriously.  She needs to have her own decorating show.  She's so much better than me at knowing what will work, judging color and patterns, at making a room make sense and look perfect and fresh.  I just kind of go with what I'm drawn to and, while sometimes that works, sometimes (like with the hutch the first two and a half times) it doesn't.

Oh well.  Lesson learned. 

Me being me, I still wanted to keep color in there somewhere.  What can I say.  I'm just a colorful gal.  After trying a few (...or maybe five...feel free to judge at this point...) other colors we had laying around the house, I ended up just flip flopping what was already on there - green to the inside and gray to the outside. 

What a difference that flip flop made! 

So, to recap the long journey (and several inches of layered paint) that my poor hutch has endured over the past month, a photo dump:

Beginning:

 Terrible mistake:

Not quite right:

Sanded/distressed:

Gray Love:

And can we talk about the awesomeness of my husband for a minute?  Just look at this room!

I mean, dear lord in heaven.  Rich did an amazing job with this with his good taste, sense of knowing what will work, mad carpentry skills, motivation to do it right instead of just quick and/or cheap, crazy work ethic...and he looked good doing it. :)

...I can't help lovin that man of mine...

Before (tan and cream walls, brown chair rail):

 

During (trimming out entry ways, figuring out paint):

 Building wainscoting:

After (light gray walls, white wainscoting and entryway trim work):

 

And gray hutch:

The room looks so much brighter and bigger and taller now, not to mention updated, fresh and finished.  Love!

Rich, thank you so much for your diabolical levels of awesomeness!