My House Before it was a Home...

(PLEASE DISREGARD THE DATES ON THE PHOTOS, IT WAS REALLY SEPTEMBER, 2007)

While decluttering my laundry room, I found my first

digital camera.  It is a Kodak EasyShare.

I had to plug it into the computer to charge on a special

docking station.  Over time, the thing quit working...the

docking station that is.

 I decided to see what was in it.

To my surprise, it has an SD card.

I don't know if I even knew it had a card in it

back when I used the camera.

 Now, I have a Targus Media Reader, which means

I can just plug the little thing into my computer

and pop my card into it....I used to use

a cord and plug camera to the computer.

I could HUG whomever invented this little $20 thing.

 Here is our patio....we got the staining and scoring for FREE

because the cement had a crack in it...a cosmetic crack.

The company did this as a disguise, so I could enjoy

my patio and not focus on the CRACK.

It isn't in the picture, but right in the middle of the patio

is an Oklahoma Centennial Coin....it was the year we

built the house as well as our 20th year of marriage.

 Here is the livingroom.

You can see Regan's bedroom.

 Panning to the right, here is our woodstove.

The wall to the right is a chocolate brown and

the wall to the left is a lighter tan.

The window looks out to the patio.

 This is Regan's room.

She has a huge room.

Her room can eventually be a den and/or

large office.

Her angled closet door was David's idea.

He wanted it to reflect her entrance door, which

is also angled.

Great idea sweetie!

 Looking down the hallway.

Regan's room on the left.

Carly and Sydni shared a large room on the right.

The other doors are storage closets.

At the far end, is the powder room.

 Carly and Sydni's room.

Yah, blinders are needed.

After three year, I've come to enjoy this sunshiny

yellow.

 This is their dressing room.

To the left is the private bath/toilet area.

To the right is a large walk-in closet.

 Here is the powder room at the end of the hallway.

 Walking back into the livingroom, you can see the kitchen.

For whatever reason, I didn't take pictures of the office.

That is the room I am currently renovating.

It was just an empty room, with no closet or built-in

shelving.

 Now we are looking into the kitchen from the dining area.

You can see the laundry room to the back.

The door goes to the garage.

 Here is our bedroom...technically, our house has two

master bedrooms.

This bedroom is off the dining room.

 Here is our HUGE closet...I mean larger than

my office closet.  I think it is 12 x 12, but not sure.

I am still trying to decide exactly how I want to work this

space.

 When walking out of my bedroom, you look at

the pantry.  In the original plan, this is an extra

closet in our bedroom.  I changed it to a

pantry and am I ever glad I did.  It now

has a red screen door!  It slams....I. Love. It.

 A better look at the hall doors.

All of our bedrooms have doors from our old farmhouse.

Five generations on my husband's side have touched those doors.

I was afraid we weren't going to get them for the new house.

Praise God, we were able to get them.

I happened to go to Mill Creek for something and found

NEW doors with the same pattern as the OLD doors.

Guess what?  They were cheaper than the standard six panel

doors found in most homes.  To say I was tickled would be an

understatement!  I just might have "squeed" a bit.

Here is our entrance.

Regan's room is there to the right.

The old farmhouse did not have an entrance...you would just

walk straight into the livingroom.

Most people entered through the mud porch and the

front door was never used.

One of our "splurges" was for the door....

I wanted LIGHT to enter.

I love art deco, and I think this door reflects that era.

For some odd reason, I didn't take a picture of the outside....

it is just a simple rectangle home.

I had pipe dreams of a HUGE wrap around porch which was

quickly squashed when I found out it added 20% to the cost of the house.

We contracted out to build this house which meant we were the

builders.

We did all the flooring ourselves.  My step-dad, Paul, did the

amazing tile work.  He worked so hard at it and I feel I still

haven't thanked him enough.

We also did the painting....All. The. Painting.

I still get a little nauseous when I smell paint.

The average builder cost was around $110/sq. ft.

We built this for $47.50/sq. ft.

It has been 3 years, and I am finally feeling like it is a home.....sigh.....

A Special Senior Photo Shoot....Mom & Son

I never expected to actually have tears when

looking at pictures for the first time.

Meet Bryan and his mom, Nita.

 Bryan is Nita's only son....

 Bryan will be graduating from high school

in the spring.

 Bryan realizes that no matter what, his

mom is still going to love him, hug him and KISS him...

even in public.

 Nita will have an empty nest after Bryan heads

out into the world.

Can't you just see the love in her face?

 Bryan can still make his mom laugh.....

 Not just laugh, a true belly laugh....

I'm not sure Nita realizes how poignant this photograph is....

Bryan is ready to move on....

Bryan needs to know that no matter where he goes...

he can turn and mom will be just steps away....

Nita needs to know that that little boy will always be

her little boy even if he can pick her up.

(Bryan did say in a very shocked tone, "Mom,

you are really light.")

Bryan and Nita, thanks for letting me be the one

who got to capture some really special moments with you.

Pie Making Class 101

 Our cooking class is still going full force.

These classes are held on Wednesday evenings along

with numerous other classes.

The skill for this class was pre-determined due to

our annual spaghetti dinner.

We serve homemade pies for dessert.

 This girl, whipped her crust out so fast!

These pictures are taken in order....and as

you can see, I hadn't even got started.

 We were too busy talking and not multi-tasking.

That lady in the gray shirt...well, this is her very

first experience with making a pie crust.

JUST.LIKE.ME.

 Here is my jagged crust!

 This is the other 1/2 of the crust...our recipe made 2 crusts.

 This is my friend, Chelle.

She was not liking pie baking 101 one bit!

This girl can do just about anything.

She is our GREEN QUEEN.

She can recycle anything.

She even takes her own plates, etc. if she

knows there is going to be "throw away" dishes.

She will be famous some day with her own GREEN QUEEN

show....just wait and see.

 You are looking at 3 generations working

on pie crusts.

The one in the brown is our teacher, Missy.

She is HOMESTEAD QUEEN.

She even processes her own chickens....ewwwww.

She laughs when I gag.

 Here is my first crust.  SWEET.

 I am pretty sure this Pooh's first pie also.

 So, flour on the booty....hmmm...

 Here is the bottom crust ready to get the high fructose filling

added to it.

Yes, I popped open a can and poured!!

That stuff was EXPENSIVE.  It took 2 cans at $3.00 a pop.

 Here is Steph all proud and such.

 Look!  She even made a lattice top!

 Just call me Betty, Betty Crocker!

 See, because I used the high fructose filling

I was able to spend more time being

creative on the top crust!

 Gotta love the large church ovens......

 The pies are starting to come out of the oven......

 My crust wasn't golden because I didn't have

any egg to brush on it....but it still turned

out BEAUTIFUL!

I want to thank Lea Bevins for helping with the

creativity on it.

The crust was FLAKY!!

This is a pumpkin pie I made for the spaghetti dinner...

which ended up being so pretty I kept it to show off.

I did make another one plus 2 Oreo pies to take to

the spaghetti dinner.

I want to thank MsTimmy and Juanita for

helping when I was realllllly stressing

about making a COMPLETE homemade pie.

The people you meet on the Internet are AMAZING!!

15 Minutes (Days 35 - 46) Office/Studio Makeover

 Well, I can finally see the the light at the end of the tunnel.

I had a free day, so I spent it doing 15 minutes at a time.

I would work for 15 minutes, then I would take a 15 minute break

and either do something else like work with daughter on

her schoolwork or chat in the Flylady Chatroom.

 I had a tiny small annoying urge to paint the upper

cabinets a buttery yellow.  Most people agreed with

me and thought it would look great.

Being the budget-type, I just couldn't justify

buying another gallon of pain when I already

had the turquoise.....2 gallons to be exact.

These cabinets on took 1/2 a gallon.....WOW,

did I overestimate on that one.

Lowe's VALSPAR Gentle Wave is the color.

I still might eventually make the upper cabinet

doors into blackboards....still thinking though.

Remember that the days are really 15 minute time slots.

So,  from beginning of this project to this exact moment,

I've spent a total of 11 1/2 hours!

This would have been a bear to try to accomplish in even one

weekend.  I would have become depressed and decided to

not even touch this junk room.

By taking it in short spurts, I was able to stop and think about it

and just do SOMETHING for 15 minutes.

It is now an enjoyable room and I can still spend 15 minutes

filling the cabinets with USABLE things instead

of creating piles all over the room.

I got the table desk from Craigslist for $50.00.

I originally thought it would replace the current dining

table I have, but when I got there and saw

that it is a wee bit tiny for our dining area,

I decided it would make an awesome desk.

I've been waiting more than a year to use the grapefruit

bowls in this office....before, I couldn't even see the

top of my desk much less find ROOM on the desk

for this bowls.

Please make sure you look to the right of my blog and click the

15 Minutes link to see all my posts related to this

project.  I am not done and will continue to update as

I do more organizing and decorating.

Please let this be a motivator for you if you, too, have a JUNK ROOM.