Observations

We've been mostly house-bound this week. Our oldest son hasn't been feeling well and the kitchen is in the middle of being upgraded. This means we need to be here for the contractors, which isn't a problem. We love to cook so we're pretty excited about being the first ones to try everything out!

Being here for the contractors also gives us an opportunity to see how everything is installed and meet the craftspeople. For example, the granite fabrication company who installed the counters is owned and run by a local Jamaican family. They each have their own specialty and watching them all work together was pretty amazing. Just observing their interactions with each other and their employees spoke volumes about how much fun they have together. Their expertise and care shined though in every step and they graciously took time to explain everything. It was a fantastic experience and I loved meeting them. Plus, the counters look beautiful!

Since the scenery hasn't varied much this week, other than in the kitchen, we've been trying to pay attention to things around the house that we haven't seen anywhere else. The first is that every morning we see hot air balloons. Local tour companies offer sunrise champagne flights, which seem to be pretty popular judging from the amount of balloons we see floating by each day.

The bird varieties are different here also. We've seen a lot of birds with long legs and long necks, like Sandhill Cranes and Ibis's. Hawks and turkey vultures also seem to like this area.

Sandhill Cranes on the golf course behind our house.

Ibis

We've also noticed the drivers. Oh, the drivers. (Insert loud sigh here) People from all over the U.S. flock to Florida during the winter months, so you'll see a great variety of license plates. You'll mostly find two types of drivers among them, though- those who drive suuuuuuuper slow, and those who weave in and out of traffic at lightening speed. This brings me to the top two things you should know when driving to/through Florida.
1. Bring change for the many, many tolls or buy a SunPass. Do this before you even leave the airport.
2. Keep your wits about you and pay attention to those driving around you. Trust me.

Other than those things, we've started planning our visit to the Keys. If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

- Jen

Deconstruction and Decongestant

Last weekend we made the decision to remodel the kids' bathroom. It was dated and didn't flow well (the space, not the water ;-)). You know that room you always plan to change but it ends up being the last one you get to. Yeah, it's that room. We discussed our plan of action and visited the tile store. After looking at hundreds of samples, laying them out all over the showroom floor, and finally placing the order, we happily headed home to start prepping the space.

Remember how I told you that my husband can do just about anything? Well, he can. And so he got to work deconstructing the bathroom to get it ready for the new shipment of tile and vanity/sink that are on the way. Existing tile was broken up, the counter/sink/cabinet were removed, and sheetrock was ripped out. It was quite a sight to behold. Dust was flying everywhere in the room, deafening cracks rang out as he broke apart the tile..... and then there was the debris. So. Much. Debris. Luckily, he has a wife who is happy to help. And so I hauled away bucket load after bucket load.

Here is a picture of the bathroom as it stands now. The lighting will be much better when there's something worth seeing. We will be taking out those beams you see in the center of the room to open the space up. One of the past owners separated the toilet/shower area from the vanity/sink area so their kids could get ready for school at the same time. Functional for them, not so much for us. So, the space will become one room again and we can't wait!

Along with demolishing the bathroom, Sunday brought with it that nasty virus that has kept my two oldest kids on the couch all week with fevers, congestion, and general yuck. Doesn't it just figure that the minute we render a bathroom unusable, someone gets sick?!  Apparently there are lots of sick kids at the moment, so teachers have gone easy on the make-up homework assignments (which we are grateful for). We have second winter break next week which should give our kids enough time to get better and catch up. My dear husband came home with the virus last night, so we'll be taking a break from bathroom work.

As a side note, I have a shameless plug. I've also had an online Thirty-One Gifts party over the past week and it ends tomorrow, February 13th. If you are interested in beautiful organization and storage solutions as well as stylish bags and jewelry, let me know and I'll be more than happy to send you the link. My sister in law is a consultant and she's in the process of trying to buy a house, so I'm hosting a party for her to help grow her business. That, plus I have my eye on a few things for our trip and the hostess credits will help me with those. :-)  I love their products and you will too (trust me!) Come on by and check it out!

- Jen

Construction, Landscaping, and The Ladies

My husband can do just about anything he puts his mind to. I'm immensely proud of him and how capable he is. This past week he began renovations on several aspects of our home. Our home was built in the 1980's and, in line with the trends of that time, we have hollow doors. Functional, but nothing to write home about. We want our house to appeal to renters who will most likely take care of it in our absence, and so, we are doing small upgrades like replacing the doors with better quality ones to make it stand out. We would have gotten around to this sooner or later but our trip has given us the push we needed to check this off the list. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it's made in the feel of our home. Like I've said before, it's the little things that make a big difference!

In addition to the doors, our master bedroom closet needed to be refreshed. If you have a closet or other space where you feel like a purge is necessary but don't know how to go about starting, then let me help you. Trust me, it works! The rule is that you need to make a mess to restore order. Pull every single thing out of that closet/drawer/room/whatever (which we did) and then clean the space. In our case, my husband removed all the closet organizers, carpet, and light fixture. Then he and our youngest son painted it a light neutral and installed can lights. This brought a lot more light into the space. He was able to replace the carpet himself and the result made it feel brand new! Then he put the closet organizers back in, which gave us the usable space we needed for organization. This part is the most important. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING BACK THAT YOU DON'T ABSOLUTELY WANT OR NEED! Everything left over is either sold, donated, recycled or thrown away (or in our case, boxed up for storage). When you have a clean space to fill, it's a lot easier to decide what stays and what doesn't.

Also this week, we finally brought in the cavalry (landscaping company) to help us make our yard look as manicured and clean as it did when we moved in. Talk about a breath of fresh air!! Okay, I'm making it sound like we are messy and our home/yard are a wreck. That isn't the case. The reality is that when you have kids and live in your space, sometimes things get overgrown. Sometimes you hang on to things "until the kids are older". It's just a fact of life. Well, now our kids are older and it's time to reset. I love it! There's just something joyful about stopping to look at a well maintained yard and home. If I was a millionaire (or multi-millionaire in this economy), the first thing I would do is hire someone to keep our yard beautiful all the time. I have two black thumbs, so to me, this would be heaven.

Allow me to introduce you to our ladies. We have chickens. Have I ever mentioned that? Yep! Five, in fact. Alice is the sweetest. She follows me around like an adoring dog. They are so easy to care for and there is a marked difference in the quality of eggs they produce as opposed to the average grocery store egg. Sadly, I'm going to have to start buying grocery store eggs again or find a local flock because the time has come to say goodbye to our girls. Three are under a year old and are in their prime laying years. So instead of being processed, the whole flock will be going to live with a family who are in need of some hens. We'll miss them but are pretty excited to be sending them to their new home- which happens to be a castle. Really! With stone, a drawbridge, yaks, pigs, peacocks, and everything! It will be a grand adventure for them and will give us the freedom to plant some flowers and mulch without our curious girls coming along to dig everything up. One less thing to have to deal with as summer approaches. Farewell girls! I'll miss you following me around the yard and the way you congregate at our back door. You've been good to us and one day maybe I'll write a book about you.

- Jen

 

L-R: Count Cluckalah (Welsummer), Fanny Fluffbottom (Plymouth Barred Rock),  Pixie (Bantam Lavender Ameraucana), Carlos Jr. (Black Star and named by neighbor boys), and Alice (Speckled Sussex)