Living room sectional ordered!

Eric and I are sick of our living room furniture. It is uncomfortable and not terribly functional. So we decided in keeping with our house philosophy of doing that which makes our lives better to order a sectional. In 8-12 weeks, we will be comfortable again!

Please note our house does not look like this room! Also we have ordered a different configuration.

A beautiful morning

Our view from the living room this morning

Entry closet done!

In preparation for winter, now we will have all our hats, gloves, coats organized!

My how things have changed...

Some times we forget how far we have come in changing our home.

February 2009

August 2012

Front door painted

We will take a better picture later, but here it is. It looks fantastic! The color is amazing.

Window Up!!

It is beautiful!!!!

Stained glass for master bathroom

We were driving past the stained glass window store, and our window was in their window. It is beautiful. Can't wait to have it installed. Also this will finally give us privacy in our bathroom. That will be a huge improvement!

Ry and Ab turn 10!

Doing their favorite morning activities:

Sleeping in mama's chair

Sleeping on the heated floor in the bathroom (in her bed, which is also in there!).

New bench for the closet

After completing my closet, I realized I need a bench for it to fill up the middle a little bit and to put on my shoes. I have this really cool one made from pine beetle kill wood. See the blue at the edges? That is where the beetle was. It is really pretty (as pictures of course don't really show!).

By the way, dead wood from pine beetles is something that has significantly contributed to the fire outside of Ft. Collins (High Park Fire). Now I feel better about having furniture made from it because it means that wood is not in the forest any more.

I am happy again?

Ha, no question. We are thrilled with air conditioning especially because it is going to be 98 today. Yuck!

Next up at the Marquardt house? Working on the basement. Electrical has to be done first and then drywall. I know this is a bit of an odd choice, but I am sick of looking at wall framing!

Gratuitous cat picture for interest since I have nothing else to post. I suppose a picture of Ryan the cat is close to a picture of Ryan the baby??

 

I feel sad...

That I am sharing a picture of an air conditioner on our blog. But I don't care because I am so happy that it is delightfully cool in my house today!

How hot is it here??

So hot that Eric is blocking the windows with random boards to keep the sun out. This one is my favorite. I am sure it is helping!

Air conditioning is to be installed Wednesday, and we can't wait.

P.S. Our portable swamp cooler died today. Yikes!

Pad for the air conditioner

Such is my life that I am excited about getting a concrete pad for the air conditioner. And such is my life that I actually took pictures of it! We did decide to go for brown color as an experiment. I think it was a good color choice.

Brigid

Mommy is crazy about you too.

Really everyone loves a good cubbyhole.

I was too tired to open my eyes, but not too tired to sit with Mommy. That is always the best spot.

Brick color - try 2

Eric and I were watching Curb Appeal last night, and the host said the most stressful day for homeowners is the day when they paint the brick. It is true because there is no going back.

On the other hand, gutting your house is really not going back. Paint is easy after that!

First try: An improvement to the original brick color but too green.

Second try: Much better...

Thanks!

To Mom and Dad - thanks for helping at the house this weekend, and it was great to see you. We are definitely still in the stages of every completed task making our life much better. So thanks!

Good camera closet pictures

Eric borrowed a work camera. It is better than mine. Sigh.

Jen's Closet

Eric's Closet

New chair covers

My beautiful recovered chairs: Before (left) and after (right) - hopefully you can tell that without me saying!

As I was taking the old covers off, my mother says to me - we recovered those chairs on Vine Ave, which had to be before 1983. No wonder they were a little bit grimy!

Finished front

Less the front door.

I think it is very restful - which is hilarious because there is nothing restful about this house!

Painting update

All the tan is done in front (I heart paint sprayers!), and I am going to do the front brick today. It is just such an improvement. Will post pictures after I have done the brick.

We must address the front of the garage. It is a vast expanse of pure boredom. Eventually there will be a bump out and windows, which will fix the problem. That will be essential in the long term.

Exterior Painting Day 1

Before


After
I know this does not seem like an improvement, but I have always, always hated the dark brown. So I am actually loving the primer. No going back baby.


P.S. Eric, please learn how to say no to me. This is going to be a lot of work!

Jen's closet done

Well, to the casual observer anyway.

When everything is totally put back, I will put up some before and after shots. It is completely amazing. There is so much room in my closet now.

P.S. There are still a few pieces left!

The saga of the door knobs

Like a lot of things in the house, we had selected the door knobs long ago, but we had not purchased them. This will lead to some heartache I fear. In January, I ordered the first two knobs. They are beautiful. Anyway, the website from which I ordered had sent me a sale notification so I thought I would order a few more. And I discover that the door knob that has been made for decades (okay at least years) is no longer being made. We counted what was needed and scoured the Internet and found one place with all the knobs. They came today. And they were definitely worth it.

Jen's closet progress

We are missing at least two critical items in my closet - the covers for the rail that the organizer sits on. So Eric is installing the area by my closet's washer/dryer. We don't have those appliances in there yet, but some day that will keep me from going up and down the stairs with the laundry. Anyway, here is a before picture from yesterday morning and after when Eric stopped last night. Any worries that I had about having enough storage are gone now!

Before

After

Main wall of Eric's closet

Actually we have nearly all of my clothes in there too while Eric starts to work on my closet. Hopefully we won't fight while sharing for a little bit. A word to the wise, having your own separate closets was not on my wish list for house, but it is awesome! I am calming down about the hanging space now that I have seen it. We have not had adequate closet space since we lived in the condo - 3 years ago.

P.S. I think closets are even harder to take pictures of than bathrooms. I did not think that was possible!

There are still a million pieces left over

The main wall in Eric's closet is done. It is so beautiful. BUT there are a million pieces left in Murphy's room. Somehow those all have to go in my closet. Yikes!

Master closets

It has been a long time. Things have been busy here, but sadly not the in the house working way.

Eric is in the air on his way to Phoenix for work, and our master closets have just been delivered. So honey, here are all the pieces we have to put together. Yikes! But at least the drawers are already constructed. I think that it is good!