There have been projects.
(Oh have there ever.)
And now they are finished.
This, not my living room's finest hour. The obvious truths here are that my black cat hides from my gaggle of children and their playmates behind our living room couch. And also, I encouraged our flooring installers to imagine what the long work days in our home could be like should they unplug that shiny silver cable television box in the back of the room. They kissed it gently as they passed by it over those days, and offered it gifts as to Athena from the Greeks. With love.
So as I said previously, new floors were on the long term to-do list since we bought the place three and a half years ago. I was so glad that the time had finally come, and listened well to everyone who suggested that Laminate was to be the choice over Hardwood, for three kids, a dog and a cat. Durability is key. We went with a darker, wider-planked laminate that reminded me of my true beautiful hardwoods from our little old house.
The Mans, as Marin affectionately called them, worked amazingly fast. I thanked my lucky stars that we didn't tempt divorce try this ourselves, and that my climb onto the kitchen counter to retrieve lunch for the children, from a fridge that could open a mere three inches, was my most strenuous task in these days.
Putting the rooms back together was therapeutic. I had made a trip to Ikea for a few fun little items (lantern with latching door has served as home for Little People and Zhu Zhu Pets eight twelve forty-six times already,)
and I possibly spent one evening shelving our favorite books by color.
(Happiest Project Ever.)
The kitchen finished something like this, plus, you know, all of the furniture and a good dust mopping later on.
and the living room like this. Little girl kicking back on the couch, included.
We decided to reintroduce a coffee table for the first time in eight years, now that we have no crawling babies, though I am still at a loss for what to put in the middle of it, save the Legos, sippy cups and half eaten apples that the children have been decorating it with. We'll get there.
Also during this time I re-worked our downstairs family room fireplace mantel with a few favorite photographs, a favorite poem and a little tree I painted late one night, on a canvas I had purchased and tossed in the closet should I ever be trapped in the family room with three wild children and two extra rooms' worth of furniture, shelving and decor, and have the sudden urge to re-work the mantel.
I also rearranged furniture in my boys' room. And painted their walls.
And after long conversations with my girlfriend Bree about baby's bedroom wall art I decided it was high time I take Jack's nursery wall art down give Marin something new to look at.
Being trapped downstairs offered me the time to whip up a neat string of bunting flags, and I framed the words "Everything is Beautiful" for her, because indeed, my sweet girl excitedly refers to so many things as BEEE-UTEEE-FUL! So I celebrate this sweet time in her life, on a wall.
Then I got all carried away and gave all of my children haircuts. All of them. Including my daughter, her first haircut, wherein I aged her a solid four or six years. And have been weeping ever since. The end.
**
Of course, that isn't the end. The end of this Extreme Home Makeover will come in the next two days, when the Lowe's truck shows up in my driveway just one more time to install a new dishwasher. After mentioning to my flooring guys how our beaten-down dishwasher has this tendency to pour water all over the floor during every cycle, they suggested we might want to do something about that because things would get ugly fast if water began making its way beneath our new flooring planks. Not that our dishwasher has been actually getting the dishes clean in the last few months anyway...(oh you've been here for dinner? Sorry, pal.) Nothing like stretching the old tax check just as far as it could go, yes?
I feel like we are living in a whole new house this week. I didn't really plan everything this way, but it has been great fun to bring it all together.




























































