Deja Vu...But Worse

Remember when this happened?
Here we are now. This was the sight today when I looked out my kitchen window...we have a back hoe, a bull dozer and a dump truck all working on our private drive.

As a result of all of the problems that we and our neighbors had this past winter, we have decided to replace the old copper pipes that lead from the main road down our drive to our houses.

The private drive is a tenth of a mile long before you get to our individual driveways...not that long except when you have to drag the trash cans up to the main road or when you have to dig up the length of the drive.

Isn't this great? Only 3 more days until they're done.

I so wish I was getting new garage doors instead of new pipes.

When You Play, You Have To Pay

Four of my five children are sick with strep throat. The twins had it yesterday and Tristan and Allie have it today. Oh and the dog tested positive for lymes disease. Yeah. You should see the prescription bottles all over my kitchen!

Lest you think we have no fun when kids are home sick, check out the photos below. Ammy keeps me running to Michaels for all of the things she wants to make/build. This is her latest creation... a guitar. And she put together this lovely hippy outfit. (When I was looking at these pictures, I realized that she stole her brother's white t-shirt and drew peace signs all over it! If nothing else, she's resourceful!)

She changed shortly after these pictures and came back as a gangsta...I didn't get any pictures of the outfit that she put together for that.

On another note, I've been spray painting everything in sight. The kids need to go back to school or who knows, what will be painted next. I am in search of black and white cushions so if anyone has an idea where I can find them, please let me know.

Welcome To My Living Room

Welcome to my living room.  This is one room that we rarely use except when we entertain at Christmas time.  This is the first room that we did when we moved in and was a bit of a stretch as far as colors for us. We've come a long way in  the last 5 years!  The walls and the built-ins are a gold color.  The backs of the shelves are painted a burnt orange to match the orange in the rug that we got from Pottery Barn.
This is the view if you are sitting on the couch.  The fireplace has an ugly marble surrounding it and you can see that I still have some Christmas decorations up!  It's high time the gold trees get put away! You will also notice that I have two door ways into my living room.  The one on the left is from the main hall and the one on the right leads into my dining room.   
There are two closets in each doorway...plenty of storage.  It's amazing how we've managed to fill them all with junk!
This is one side of the room opposite the built ins.  The only one who plays the piano is my husband and it's been years since he's touched it.  I would love to have a baby grand player piano in this room.
This table is next to the piano.  We bought it for another spot in our house and it was too big.  Now it holds some of my scrapbooks and some of the games we enjoy playing.  You can see that I have a ton of pictures.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE photos.  It's a real problem!
This is the view from one of the doorways.  The entire back of the room is glass.  I would like to replace the sliders with french doors and build a slate patio outside the room.  Any suggestions on window treatments?  We've been trying to decide what to do with these windows and can't come up with anything that we love.
Check out all the other living rooms here.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

I have been following Kelly's blog since the birth of her daughter, three months ago. She has started "Show Us Where You Live Friday" as an opportunity to share design and decorating ideas as well as to share a little bit of information about yourself with the blogging world. I am a BIG HGTV watcher and love decorating shows; therefore I thought I'd participate. You don't have to participate to peer into the houses of other bloggers out there. Just go here and click on the name of a person to bring up a blog. Enjoy! Welcome to my kitchen.
We renovated our kitchen two years ago...what was once four rooms became one large room with the kitchen in the front and a family room in the back.

I love to cook and before the renovation, I had a small double oven and a gas cooktop. It made cooking for 50 (some of our family gatherings are that large) a difficult task. I love, love, love my Wolf range.

This is the worst part of my new kitchen...the pantry. It is not nearly large enough for all of the junk I have to buy to feed 7 people on a daily basis. Prior to the renovation, I had a walk-in pantry. Miss that in a big way.

The best thing about this kitchen is the two dishwashers. I run both of them every day (and sometimes twice each on a weekend day.)

I love my bar stools. They are a combination of red, brown, and yellow leather.
I have an old farmhouse table with a bench and a built-in bench. We can seat a bunch of people around the table when necessary!

The built-in bench with the pillows that end up all over the place.This is the fireplace in the room. It used to be UGLY white brick. My husband had the idea to use the stone and it totally transformed the fireplace. We use it all the time in the winter.

This is the view from the working side of the kitchen. The sliding doors lead to the back yard and a covered porch.
This is a painting that my friend, Kelli Nemer, painted for me. I gave this to my husband as a Christmas gift the day the kitchen renovation was completed. The painting is personalized for our family... there are five kids in the painting, they are playing sports, the dog looks like Bosley and the places represented (Hawaii and New York) are places that we have traveled as a family.I love the bright colors and have several other paintings in my house that Kelli has done.

This is the sign that hangs above the door from my kitchen to my mudroom. In light of the fact that all 7 of us hang out in this space all the time, it is appropriate.

This is a sign that my best friend, Alden gave me for my birthday. It has become my motto!

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now go and see the others ...

In Full Bloom

Spring is my favorite time of year. I love all the bright flowers,green grass, longer days and warmer temperatures (although I could do without the 93 degree days that we've had recently) I have cherry trees in my yard and this year, it seems like they have taken FOREVER to bloom.

April 19th

April 21st

April 27...FINALLY!

Mostly Done

So, I am mostly done with the room...FINALLY! The twins love their new space. This is their bunk bed. I found the quilts at Target. They each have a bulletin board next to their beds-it is my hope that they will stick things on the boards instead of on the furniture and the walls. It didn't work the last time, but I have put the fear of God in them if they mess up the paint job!
The dust ruffle on the bed is very wrinkled-I am hoping that the wrinkles will fall out the longer it is on. Did I mention that I hate ironing? The dust ruffle is hiding the mattress under the bunk bed that we pull out for sleepovers.

I made the cornice boards out of wood. I painted them white and then I added vinyl sticker dots that I also found at Target. The shades will be painted this weekend.

Their closet is a chalk board. I have already had to erase everything once because the big kids were writing all over it. Then we had to have a discussion about what is and is not appropriate for the chalk board. Duke is Puke not acceptable. Kellen is a dork, not acceptable. Mom Rocks!, acceptable.

This is a 6 foot round white rug that I found. It looks like a giant polka dot. Ammy has been rolling around on it since I brought it home. Apparently, it is very soft. It is not my favorite, but they love it.

And the thing that they are most excited about...they have a door knob that locks!

They're Back

I seem to have angered the plumbing gods. The plumber was here on Wednesday fixing the leak in the road. He was here on Friday fixing the leak in my powder room faucet and a clogged sink in the bathroom upstairs. Today he was back. (Yes, on a Sunday!)

I went downstairs to get the shade that Ammy painted yesterday and found water everywhere...including on top of the painted shade. It turns out that the seal on the toilet is no longer working and water was pouring out from the bottom of the toilet. We got all of the water cleaned up and then Tony went to take a shower. Water started pouring out again! Apparently, we had a clog in the line leading out to the septic tank and all of the water exiting the house was coming back in via the basement toilet. Can I tell you how happy that makes me?

After several hours, the clog was cleared. They are coming back tomorrow to replace the toilet (It's so old that it actually has parts made out of china) That is, if the snow storm that is coming doesn't postpone their trip. Ammy will have to repaint the shade for her room. Thankfully, we have a picture of what she had started doing yesterday!

A Blank Canvas

Still working on finishing the room...

Who Knew

One little hole could cause so much damage. Yes, it's my pipe that is leaking and it's all because of this.

And yes, the plumbers thought that I was crazy for taking pictures!

Progress

The Twins are Moving

The twins are moving into a new bedroom. They decided they wanted to switch rooms with Tyler, so when I returned from California, I started working on their new room. They wanted a green and blue room with a stripe. What a pain in the rear the stripe was to do!

I still have one more coat of the blue to finish. I couldn't resist peeling some of the tape though. This gives you an idea of what the end result will be.

I am off to paint again. I am the queen of the unfinished project, so I have a bet with my husband that I will finish this one! Pictures of the COMPLETED project will be coming soon!