No working car

Both our cars do not work and I feel totally trapped inside my house.Why is it instead of enjoying my day and watching my favorite house shows ,I am a nervous wreck and now my stomach hurts!!!!!!!Half the day we waited for my dad to come over with his mechanic friend from Chicago.They have been trying to fix my husbands car and the part they need cannot be found here in Kenosha.They moved on to my car and my husband is trying to buy some part at the auto store. I really have been feeling too stressed out lately!!!!On the bright side,my oldest son is going to grandpa's house for a week!!!! One less teenager to have to deal with!!!!! I hope everyone's weekend is going better than mine!!!! I should have at least one working car by tonight!!!!!!!( I am keeping my fingers crossed)

Cleaning

I can't believe we put all our xmas stuff away!!! I normally wait until after New Year's but some how the house felt really cluttered.My husband has finally agreed that we have outgrown our house.Even with redoing the kitchen ,it seems we have too much STUFF!!!!! I have really stopped all my collecting.I have been cleaning nonstop hoping to Feng Shui our house.I am starting to think about my new goals for 2008 and hoping a clean house will jump start a new life.Clearing the clutter = a clear mind!!!!!!!

Xmas

This year Xmas was very stressful!!!!! We usually start the Xmas rounds the weekend before Xmas.This year we went to my husbands dad's house on Sunday.On our way to the gas station which is about 15 minutes away ,our minivan over heated and steam started coming out of the hood.Sunday was our very first below zero wind chill day.I was freaking out because of how cold it was.Luckily we were able to drive home and switch cars.We took my husbands car (which we barely fit in)and off we went.It took us three hours from our house to dad's.The weather conditions were not ideal ,besides being dangerously cold it was unusually windy and hard to drive.My husband and I drove through a snow blizzard last weekend to pick up a massage chair from Craigslist and he thought the Sunday drive was way worse.Fast forward to Xmas Eve.We woke up to drive my daughter to work and now our second car would not start.Trent was trying to jump start the car for three hours.After pushing it into our garage and placing a space heater by the engine it finally started.The only place we went was the grocery store and to pick up wood.We were supposed to go to Chicago to visit friends and to see my dad but we did not want to get stuck there if our car decided not to start again. Xmas was nice for the little kids but my two teenagers got on my nerves!!!!!
It was probably everything else but I felt really stressed out.WE finally had a nice dinner.Trent and I went to a Chinese restaruant (the only one open)without the kids and I finally felt better!!!!The kids wanted to stay and play with all their stuff so thay were happy as well.I am so glad Xmas is over!!!Hopefully it will be better next year!!!!!1

fun photo

Here is "Scruffy" my big baby!!!!! I have written posts about him before.The other day my sister stopped to get her hair touched up and while we were talking we noticed "Scruffy" .He was sitting in my vintage hair dryer chair!!!!

My house(one day!!!)

I was surfing the web and found this picture of a gorgeous house.I really would love a grand home.This is a photo from country home magazine's website.I couldn't copy the inside photos onto my computer.I just love this house!!!!!It has very unique details inside.One day...........

Inspiration photos

I love collecting photos from magazines of the things that I would like to have. If anyone has seen the movie"The Secret",it is like a vision board.I mostly put mine in notebooks and look them frequently.I love putting a "star" by the things that have materialized.Alot of times I notice I cut out different versions of the same item.I found these photos from the country home website.I love collecting religious art even though I am not a religious person.I like to think of myself as spiritual and somewhat mystical.These are interesting photos from a cool loft .

New Look

Yesterday I decided to cut off all my hair!!!!! I've been feeling like I needed a new look for a while.My husband is a superstar stylist and I wanted him to cut my hair in a trendy short style. I was feeling like I was in a rut.I had been growing out my hair for the last 5 years and I was bored with it.WHEN I styled it ,it looked good but lately I just put it up in a ponytail .I felt very soccer mom-ish!!!! Here are photos -What do you think???? I am training my son Tristan to color my hair since Trent hates coloring it!!! I am a stylist also but I mostly color hair.

Thanksgiving Day

I lost my post about thanksgiving so I am trying again!!!!! We had a mellow day ...for us.Actually we were buying our roaster oven (for the turkey)in the morning.I was surprised stores were open.Walmart was closed and Kmart which is always empty( has become my favorite store for that reason)was packed!!!!! We bought what we needed and went home only to go back to buy another pan.Can you tell I am not much of a cook????
I mostly cleaned the house and Trent did most of the cooking with my daughters help.
We had a really nice time.It was just Trent and the kids.One day when we buy our weekend house I would love to celebrate holidays there.Anyway,I am very grateful for our house that we have.We have done alot of work for only being here 3 yrs.Last year the"big project" was installing the 700lb. woodburning stove.In retrospect we should have hired someone.The chimney pipe fell on my husbands finger and broke it, grazed my sons head and he had to get stitches.Also Trent couldn't work with his finger broken (we are both hair stylists so I filled in at his salon which I didn't even work there.)I am grateful the kitchen ceiling went well with no injuries!!!!!!! Next year we are going to finish our bathroom and who knows what else!!!!!!

Gratitude

One of my favorite holidays is "Thanksgiving Day".I even had a baby on Thanksgiving in 1997 !!!!!! That could be why it is so special!!! Everyone should a baby on Thanksgiving Day(just kidding)! Actually my neighbor had a son born on Thanksgiving Day too.Pretty weird.Anyway, this year we are staying home.We usually go to Chicago to visit with friends but since Trent is working the day before and the day after ,we decided to stay home .I will "try" to cook!!! I will probably be the helper since my husband is the one who likes to cook.Today I had so much running around to do it was ridiculous.We picked up wood for our wood burning stove.Trent,myself ,and the wood guy Larry loaded 175 pieces of wood in the mini van and then we drove home and unloaded 175 pieces of wood.Then I had to do schoolwork with the kids and finally we took the two youngest kids with us grocery shopping.They behaved at the store so I was happy.It wasn't too crowded considering the upcoming holiday.Now it is 8:00 pm and I feel like I am going to pass out.I still have to clean this house and pick up my daughter Paloma from work at 10pm.My life is crazy but I am definitely grateful to be alive!!!!!!

Decluttering

Today I saw about 15 minutes of Oprah and oh my god, it was about decluttering and hoarding . Basically a family had soooo much stuff and they had a team of 100 people that cleaned it up and made it a home.Peter Walsh, a clutter expert helped with the "makeover".I wish I would have seen the whole show.It actually was a two day special.After the show I felt like cleaning my "dressing room" .This is supposed to be my special place that I can go and get ready.Having kids there is no place that is private.I always seem to find toys and other peoples stuff in there.I can always tell when my 5 year old was in there ,he leaves evidence behind usually his hand prints on my dressing table mirror. Anyway,I realized I have a lot of "stuff" and as sick as it is I can see how people could get like that.I like to collect vintage pieces but I love throwing things out as well.(you might have read my post about throwing out the couch!!!)My husband says we keep buying the same stuff over and over again.So I am learning to "edit" my collections.Once again having 4 kids has helped with that.My teacup collection has drastically dwindled in size due to everyone breaking them.If the kids do not ruin it then my two big dogs have helped with breaking,chewing ,etc.
We have gone through two new mattresses(my dog scruffy ate one the week we bought it)So I guess I will never have the hoarding problem nothing lasts that long in our house!!!!!!!! UPDATE: Right after I wrote this post I walked downstairs and another teacup bites the dust!!!!! Scruffy's tail just broke another vintage teacup!!!!!!

Bringing Down The House

Today an abandon house that was directly behind my house was torn down.This house has been empty for years.My kids and I called it the "haunted house".The family that lived there before left without taking any of their belongings.So you would see curtains half off the window and it was really creepy!!!!! My husband and I would talk about buying the property and fixing it up but I really thought I would like to buy the house and tear it down and make the land part of our property since we have no yard.Today as I was in the kitchen I see this house being torn down.It was really exciting to see this
but it was nerve wracking because our house is only a fence away. Here are some pictures. The white house is mine.It was a close call!!!!!

Dr.Trent

This is a funny picture I found of Trent while we were in the demolition stage of the ceiling.

kitchen photos

Here are different views of the kitchen.We painted the walls a sage color and I repainted the lower sink red.We also installed a vintage stove that we had on display for the past six months.It is really great to finally use it!!!!!

These are better pictures

I am still cleaning up the kitchen and finishing with the touch ups.Tomorrow i should have time to post better views!!!!!

after photos

Here are some photos of the ceiling after it was finished.

more before pictures

photos

We have a ceiling!!!!

This has been a very hectic week in our home.Trent's brother John came over to start the ceiling.It was really exciting at first then the reality set in. Stuff all over the house!!!! Working on the kitchen was so disruptive to our schedule but we managed. The guys took everything out of the kitchen so we could put up a scaffel. That included the stove.We cooked out of a crockpot the first night but after a few days even that was getting complicated.I cann't even describe how every room was affected with the overflow.When we thought about opening up our ceiling we really didn't think it would be that complicated and as always it ended up being more expensive and took longer than we thought.

waterproofing

We are once again water proofing a few basement walls.I attempted but it was a joke.Water still came in when it rained heavily.I have been bugging my hubby to do it and he finally did!!!!!! We will probably coat the wall one more time and then I will prime and paint.In the meantime it looks ugly. Oh well,it is better than having a river in the basement.

Dreaming of the vacation house

I am collecting pictures of rooms and styles that inspire me.One day I plan on buying another home that is our weekend/vacation house.I have been thinking about it for the past 2 years.Of course,it will be larger than this house!!!! I also would like acres of land .We live in a urban area and I really would love a country house!!!!! My neighbors are really great but I crave more privacy.I definitely want an older house.Hopefully one with all the details that I love(fireplaces,stained glass,pocket doors,etc.).Here are some great pictures I found.

Halloween

We have been decorating for Halloween.Trying to make our house spooky!!!!!! Also distracting me from the kitchen ,we still haven't started.I am on the verge of an anxiety attack.I have alot of things going on all at once. This is a favorite time of year for me.I just LOVE fall.The weather here in Wisconsin has been really great.

Waiting

I am waiting very patiently for our kitchen to get started.We decided to hire my brother in law (who is a carpenter) to work on our kitchen.He is currently finishing another job in a different state so it will be another week or so.In the mean time I feel very on edge.The house is a disaster and the stress is building up.The other day it rained really hard and guess which room was leaking???? Of course the KITCHEN!!!!!!
So we will have to have him patch the roof or whatever you do.More $$$$$$$$$$$. Other than that I am still here enjoying other peoples blogs!!!!!!

Kitchen Mess

Our kitchen is still a mess!!!! We are in limbo.Trent was thinking he would hire someone to dry wall the ceiling, but now he says he will do it himself.So hopefully this weekend we can start buying the drywall. I can not stand the mess!!!!! It has scattered to other rooms in the house. I also have little time .My kids are homeschooled and we are very busy with school work.Today my oldest attended a job fair and so we did some school work in the car waiting for him.( it took about 2 hours)This is a day in my life.Isn't it fun!!!!!

Why????

Well, I wrote previously how we started demoing the ceiling.This is what we found!!!!!

The sky is falling down!!!!

Ok,so it is not the sky but our kitchen ceiling!!!!!!! We finally started tearing down the ceiling and it is a mess!!!!The plan is to raise the ceiling and leave the exposed beams but it really depends on what we find when we remove the lathes to see what is there.To say we are living in chaos is an understatement,we are starting new schooling,have clients here so this is not ideal.Hopefully it will look great .I'll keep you posted !!!111

Books have taken over!!!!!!

This was the first week of school for us and it was hectic!!!!!!! We are homeschooling
3 of our kids and WOW it is a lot of work!!!! I homeschooled before but we are using a different program so I have to get used to the new system.Anyway,I still have to finish painting my sons' room.It was really humid here so I thought I would wait for the weather to get better!!!! Now I really don't have any free time.I will post pictures when I get a chance.

Getting ready for school

This has been a really busy month for me.I have been getting our house ready for the school year.I have decided to homeschool my fourth grader and my youngest who will just be starting kindergarten. So we had to change things around and try to get organized!!!! I painted the boys room but ran out of paint just as I was almost done with the room.(note to self: pick up more paint!!!!) I made the boys a desk.I changed around the dining room so we can put another computer in there for them to do school work.So far so good now all we have to do is finish the rest of the house!!!!!!

Bathroom plans

The bathroom didn't happen this weekend.I guess we will try to plan a different weekend.I had a very lazy Saturday.I did go to a wine tasting.That is always exciting.The big accomplishment was picking up paint for my younger boys room so sometime this weekend I will start cleaning out the room and tape off molding.

Feeding ducks

Today my dad stopped by.He lives in Chicago but never calls to tell us he is coming over.I am always surprised when he arrives.I should be used to it by now.Well "luckily"
we were home so there was not too much drama!!!!! My dad is the guy who always looks after our cars and it never fails that the day he shows up my car happens to be low on
oil,then I get the riot act!!!! Today was no exception but instead of being low on oil it was coolant so I got a lecture.To "distract" my dad the kids and I took him to the lake to fish.That always makes him happy!!!! I fed the ducks which was really fun and everyone had a great time!!!! We then went out to eat and off to Chicago he went!!!!!

Batrhroom progress

This weekend my husband's brother is coming to do some work on the downstairs bathroom.We think we will have him put in the toilet and the floors.Hopefully that will
help us to finish this project.We only have the upstairs bathroom and let me tell you ,it is not enough!!!!!!!!! I plan on taking some leisurely baths when this is all done.We are putting in a vintage claw foot tub that was my B-day present 2 years ago!!!!! (This year we went on a small vacation to North Carolina on my birthday weekend)So I have patiently waited for my bathroom!!!!!!!

Anniversary

Yesterday was our anniversary. We had a small intimate wedding in LA,California 8 years ago. My husband had to work but managed to get home at a decent hour.I played dress-up and even had a photo shoot.Ok,my daughter Paloma took pictures of me while I waited for hubby to get home.We went out for Sushi and had a fabulous time!!!!!