Good-bye totem pole. . .

We had considered carving the faces of our family into the old, dead tree but we didn't think that the neighbors would go for that.

So, the ugly old tree had to go(our next door neighbor gladly volunteered to help pull it down)

Dale is happy to have a new hazard in our yard to play on!

Square Foot Garden

Once again the only nice looking thing about our yard is our garden.

Progress

30 Weeks

27 Weeks

23 weeks and growing bigger by the minute!

Not only is our house getting a make-over but so is Mindy.

20 weeks...

19weeks...

Since we moved upstairs our house feels bigger. So does Mindy. 18 weeks...

Someday this will be our "Laundry Room. . ."

For now it is the Deep Dark Laundry Dungeon. But we can get our clothes clean and that is what matters!

The eclectic exercise room. . .

Complete with carpet from Rustin, books from Oakley, TV from our dentist, chair from Cuz Jess, shower chair TV stand from old man home owner and yoga mats from mama Mumford.

Mirror mirror on the wall to help our house look not so small

Moving into the love nest..complete with cardboard window coverings

The start of Dale's room

Yes, Dale chose this color of blue all by himself...

So sad to move out of the orange cave...or not...

Bathroom ready for launch...or other stuff like showering

Birthday crown & THRONE

We are so happy to announce the newest addition to our home. . .a potty! For my 31st birthday (November 6) last week I got a toilet! My loving & thoughtful hubby installed it Thursday morning and sent me a text that as the B-day girl I got to be the first one to use it. So, when I got home from work that is exactly what I did. I put on my birthday crown and sat on my birthday throne. Bryce gives me royal treatment for the princess that I am :) I was so haPEE!

Grout news!!!

We are so groutful to have a toilet now!!!

Doesn't that tile job look grout?

Mindy does a grout job cleaning!

Grout Scott! Be careful on the tub, Bryce!

Bring on the baking!!!

No more doing dishes in the bathroom sink!

But the sink was happier in the hole. And Bryce & Mindy were also happy with a sink in the hole.

And Bryce was happy in the hole.

Then a bigger hole that sucked Bryce right in...

That turned into a bigger hole...

It all started with one little hole...

We could eat on the floor...

You gotta love the table in a box.

Tile by Bryce

Not too shabby for his very first tile job!?

Updates

Anyone game for tickling the ivory? All you need to get your own is $100 at a local garage sale. P.S. thanks to All A Dollar for the Halloween decor :)

Ta-da! I am just a few projects away from baking!

A too dark picture of our 2 best helpers.

One wall down (or up rather), a few more to go!

Getting ready to put the kitchen in. THANKS Uncle Clair!!!

Wait, that's not a monster in the kitchen, it's our humongous fridge!

Pre-grouted bathroom. And pre-toilet, pre-sink, pre-shower fixtures, pre-towels, pre-etc.

This is how excited we are about having furniture in the living room!!!

As you can see, we are just cutting 1/2 of the wood out. That is because our new sliding door is 1/2 an inch wider than the old one. Grrrr......(Thanks Drew!)

We have plenty of kindling for all your fire-making needs.

This is just a sampling of my dear friend, Sara. Oh, and all the many wonderful veggies that come from our garden. Please note the beautiful eggplant on the left :)

Our very first watermelon from OUR own garden. If only our children will turn out so precious. (That is NOT an announcement)

Good news, no more boarded up window on the back door. Bad news, now people can see us runnin' around naked.

Bryce had to wash our dishes in the rain because our bathroom sink is too small to fit these pans and believe it or not our bathroom (the nasty original across from the orange cave) doesn't have a disposal!

Our first dinner party. Please note the paper plates, not enough chairs, sauce with veggies from our garden and pouring rain. The orange cave was too cramped to fit us all. We still have no kitchen. And yes, that is our piano ($100 @ garage sale) and fridge on the patio.

Drew coming out of the closet.

House Poem by Mindy

The lights are in but we have no sink,
The red carpet stairs still really stink.

There's plastic covering all the floors,
We bought the wrong size for the doors.

Our kitchen cabinets are still in storage,
I'm getting tired of eating porridge.

I don't want to be misunderstood,
I love our house, as I should.

Our "Orange Cave" is really great,
No dishes to do with paper plates :)

And with bedroom & dining all in one,
There's less rooms that need cleaning done.

The bathroom is old and falling apart,
But it's still a place for my day to start.

Though water won't go down the drain,
I really don't want to complain.

But how the dream lives in my head,
Of our own room with just our bed.

And a kitchen where I can cook a meal,
With a place for veggies I can peel.

And a room where friends can come and sit,
To relax & visit for a bit.

But for all good things we have to wait,
And when it's all done it will sure be GREAT!

PAINT!!!

Creamy painted bedrooms...
Green living room
Bay window

Little bit of Red Neck in the veins

Since Bryce got laid off from his job (his company cut all sales/marketing from all their U.S. locations-with no warning) I started working full-time at Brevis and Bryce has become Dale-watching- home-maker-house-fixer-upper-man. Our income is now cut so we have found some great ways to save money... 1. Instead of recycling your plastic gallon milk cartons the "normal" way just cut the top off and use it as a trash can in your bathroom. 2. Go to Time-Share presentations (DO NOT BUY THE TIME-SHARE) and get the free gift towards free food. (For 1 1/2 hours of our time we got $70 to Cheesecake Factory. If we share an entree every time we can get 4 hearty meals for free!) P.S. call in your order and carry out so you don't have to tip :) 3. Donate plasma. We researched like 5 places in SLC and found one that gives $40 a pop!!! We have dubbed next week "Plasma Week". Bryce will give twice and I will give once for a grand total of $120! 4. Bike. I rode to work for the first time last week. As long as your co-workers can handle a little stink, go for it.

Living in Style

So Bryce's bro commented on how "Martha Stewart" we are for having our table cloth match our bedding. I just wanted to let everyone know that it is so easy to do. All you need is a very kind mother who will lend you her spare sheets and comforter along with a pretty bed skirt. Keep your bed on the floor so that a bed skirt isn't really necessary and then just put the skirt on the card table that you are using for your kitchen table. It looks especially nice if you put the table right close to the bed so that you can see the matchy-matchingness.

One Room Living

Yes, the title is correct. This is not a post about our living room. We have finally moved into our house---at lease one room of our house. With gas prices shooting through the roof it was getting way to expensive to commute between our new house and old house in Oakley (40 miles through the canyon). The only half way decent place in our little home was the big nasty orange room. I scrubbed it up and we bought a super cheap carpet remnant and wah-lah! Just add a bed for us, a bed for Dale, a card table to eat on, a microwave & a mini fridge and it is a cozy bedroom/living room/kitchen/playroom, etc. I can literally say that our family has never been so close (or eaten so much chili-it is so easy when all you have is a microwave).

A business man in the making. . .

I wonder sometimes if Dale is just getting absolutely sick of working on our house all the time? Then he pitches his 4 new business proposals to me and I understand that he is using this time to find ways to make money. This last week he offered me organ lessons at $20 a pop. He also told me about the pet store he is going to build himself, "Awesome Animals." When the pet store is open he will start selling CD's of accordion music. He got his Grandma Laura, my Aunt Caree and myself to each pay a dollar for one of his "home decorations" (a pile of grass, a stick and a dandelion on a rock). In fact, I got the special deal where you get one decoration, 2 cheese sandwiches and something free all for $2! He told me about the special he was having where you pay $5 now and then everything else you buy the rest of the year is only 75 cents. A good deal really, but I didn't have the cash on me :)

Dale's best recipe

Our next door neighbors (the Hinckley's) are SO nice and have brought us fresh baked cookies like 3 times while we've been working on our house. Well, Dale decided that he wanted to do something nice in return so he asked Bryce to accompany him over while he delivered a present. When Audra (the mom) opened the door Dale presented her with little wrapped gift that said "To You." He had wrapped up a Ritz cracker with shredded cheese on top folded into a piece of bread and when Audra opened it Dale said, "It's my best recipe."

6 year old blogger

In case you are wondering about some of the titles and descriptions of our pictures, I will just say that Dale has found a new hobby. He likes to do work on the blog all by himself. This whole blog thing is turning into quite the family project. . .I guess that is the theme for us right now so it works.

Not your ordinary pet

So this has nothing to do with our house but I just had to write that our next door neighbor here in Oakley just bought a baby buffalo. Ha! There is a bunch of land not far from here where a guy keeps a bunch of animals and last year he added a few buffalo. Well, a baby was born and my neighbor was driving by and asked the guy if he could buy it. He said he just always wanted a buffalo. We just hope he fixes his fence! Oh, how I will miss the Oakley life. . .

Clarification of smoking

Ok, so i realized after I posted about the smoke/color stuff that I may have offended people who smoke. This was totally NOT my intention as everyone has their free will to chose what they do. The reason that this was such a big deal in our house is because it was HEAVILY smoked in for DECADES and NEVER cleaned. Between the smoke on the walls and the dirt & filth that accumulated it made a for a big dirty mess and added to the discoloration. I hope that this helps clarify what I was saying.

Alternative method to paint

Okay, so I guess I am supposed to write stuff on a blog too. It's way more fun to post pictures but I guess if I am entering the world of "Blogging" I might as well try to do it with flying colors. Speaking of colors, did you notice the walls in our photos? Who needs to paint when you got cigarettes? Seriously, the previous owners must have gotten bored with their white walls and who really wants to paint anyway....You gotta go to the paint store, buy materials, tape off areas and then work your arms. They were clever to just smoke like chimneys cause their walls changed from white to a yellowish/brownish dirt color. So easy. Plus, then when you take a picture frame off the wall to change the photo you know EXACTLY where to rehang it. Genius really, but not our color scheme...

Um, ok...how do you blog? So, we bought a house. It is a piece of junk. It has great potential. This is our journey. . .