yucky pit bull attack etc. ugh.

I have been busy trying to redo Ethan's bedroom with what little spare time I have. (Usually none). Between two kids and never having anyone watch them, a project that would take a normal person under a weekend to do has taken me far longer. Sometimes I wish my parents would take BOTH kids for just a few hours so I could accomplish things in a much more timely fashion.

As luck would have it, they don't. And as brutal honesty has it, I made my children, they are my responsibility.

And so it takes forever to do simple things.

FOREVERRRR.

I spent Saturday clearing Ethan's closet, getting things sorted for the children's consignment sale our city has in March. I have decided I just want stuff gone, and so everything will be a buck. Seriously, I just want it gone. If I make money, great, if not, donate it on..I just have no room in the 65 rancher for old baby clothes etc.

As much as the mommy in me wants to be a hoarder. The sensible side of me says, clutter is just trash piling up standing in the way of seeing things. SO TRUE. Pack rat no more!

Well, my clutter fest was cut short Saturday when I heard a dog yelping in the most horrific fashion. I run outside to find out a pitbull had ran up onto my neighbors porch and drug a sleeping beagle off of it mauling it near to death. Normally I wouldn't even dare come near two animals fighting, but i guess that fight of flight response kicked in and my brian said "FIGHT" and i flew out the door to think I was some sort of rescuer and I'd some how grab whatever I saw and beat the ever loving whatever out of this dog to get it off. I noticed my neighbors weren't home and thankfully before i had time to go intervene their other neighbors ran over clobbering the pitbull with metal horseshoes, the dog ran off, the other neighbors went home and there is this little beagle scurring back to his front porch bleeding all over the place unable to lift his head.

I hate confrontation, but lord, if that was my pet I'd want someone to find out whose pet just mauled my dog in my own yard. Mind you ONE we have a leash law in our city and TWO, this beagle was ASLEEP on his own porch WITH an electric fence/collar, so even if the poor thing did get a chance to escape the death grip this pit had on it's neck, it wouldn't be able to run out of it's yard UGH. I have never in my life seen something like this. The damn dog was not even provoked he just straight up attacked this helpless dog.

Anyway I see some kids at the end of the road, my face is flushed and I ask them if it's there dog, the little girl yells back that it is her neighbors, i say "sweetie can youc ome her a minute" I follow her and find where the neighbors live. I see them peeking through the blinds, THEY KNEW their dog mauled something, it has blood all over it when it took off. Rather than knock on the door and start something, since it isn't my own dog, i figure I will leave it up to the police and file a report so my neighbor will know who to go after for vet bills when they get home.

So I call the police, who take a hot minute to show, they get the info, (very nice may i add) and proceed toward the owner of the pits house. I say "can I get a report fo my neighbors" they say "we won't do that animal control will an dthey are on teh way". I head back to my cul de sac and check on teh dog when animal control officer tells me his in enroute. This poor thing is bleeding everywhere and still manages to wag it's tail at me. I walk back to my yard and wait when the police come back and want to look at how bad the dog is injured, so i show them. then they ask me what the animal control officer said. they wait in the cul de sac until he shows, they speak to each other first then the animal control officer comes back to me and we go to the injured dog and he takes his collrs off to look. When he does the whole one side of his neck flops over. This make sme cringe make me infuriated that idiots can own dogs and make them that way and let htem loose! if a dog like that attacks anotehr dog unprovoked, who is to say if my almost 2 year old was out in the yard he wouldn't of charged him. Well, I can tell you that dog would of been dead as well as it's owners if htat were the case!

The animal control officer is teary eyes and leaves to go talk to the owners of hte pit bull. He comes back with teh dog in a cage, and tells me that a report will be rady wednesday for my neighbors and get smy info and leaves.

Don't call me a pit hater either, bc our dog is half pit, and we have owned one. If it were any other breed that attacked my neighbors dog I would of done the same thing. So then 20 minutes after teh animal control officer leaves, my neighbors pull up and I rush over trying to avoid his grandkids from seeing the dog like that..but they still see but seem un phased by it (thankfully) I tell them the dog attacked thers and that I wen ahead and found out who owned it and called the police and their report would be ready wednesday and they go ahead and thank me and rush the dog to the vet.

That whole ordeal took up a good 3 hours on a Saturday. I hope I never see that again. Seriously.

Now if I could just find more time to finish this room I'll be ecstatic:)

A trip to Harris Teeter..

My friends here have been couponing like crazy (Kristina & Regina) and I am so inspired by their deals that if I see something they get on sale I need I find the ocupons and also go. LOVING their posts! Today I learned Johnson & Johnson full size baby products were olny 3 bucks each, and I was able to use a manufacturer coupon for 3 bucks off any 3 and another store coupon as well as another manufacturer coupon..then lysol toilet bowl cleaner (that i use on my counters too, dont laugh it's the same thing and cleans everything) was on sale 2 for 3 bucks, I used a 1 off 2 coupon and a 50 cent off that doubled and go them for 49 cents each:) my total was right at 4 bucks (pre taxes) for all of this that would of cost more retail price:

THANK GOD for coupons!! <3 I think I am set on J&J baby wash for a few, esp. since I bought some last week also on sale and only paid one buck:)

It is a good day when..

It is a good day when, you get all of this for only 4 bucks:

I looooove restores!!! <3 <3 and my friend who told me about it, she is my life saver!
Seriously, they take products that wal mart wont sell because customers opened and sniffed it, and instead of paying 5-8 bucks for a box of Gain dryer sheets? Ya get them for 50 cent to a buck 50.


I LOVE GAIN! Apple mango tango is my fav! You can usually find a restore by searching your local yellow pages, or calling a church and asking if they know of one, as they tend to be non profit organizations run by churches.

Then I come home to a small box in my mailbox. I open it to find these beauties (wrapped in hot pink tissue paper, so cute!):

Oh, Physician's Formula, you are spoiling me!! I can NOT wait to try these out and I will tomorrow. Best FACE makeup in the world. Covers all my horrible acne! Literally! This makeup does wonders for me, it's literally night and day. Remind me to post a before and after picture.

This should be interesting considering I am having a horrendous break out as we speak. (blame my love for the sweets and bad foods, don't believe that bad food doesn't cause acne, BECAUSE it really does). If I eat healthy my skin is clear, but I am a gluton and well, that's my punishment I suppose lol.

Then Doug gave me a $25 gift card to kohl's that he got FREE for cashing in his visa rewards points. Hmm, what to buy? Well, I was tickled that these polos were normally 13 bucks a pop, then they were 2 for 13 (6.50 each), but on sale for 4.55 a piece!! oh my, yes! I bought 3 and got the pants for 9, so I only ended up paying 47 cent out of pocket! :)

And Ethan now has some summer clothes (3t? you are thinking? yes, my son is super tall for his age).

So, I am very tickled to have gotten everything you see on this page and to have only spent 4.47 out of pocket;) It makes my entire day!!

But the icing to the cake?!


Netflix sent in my Season 2 disc 1 of Mad Men!! My faaaaavorite tv show!! I just discovered mad men this summer, and watched random episodes from season 2. I came home to find season 4 was starting and watched it and loved it, so even though I only watched part of season 2 and the whole season 4, it was STILL my favorite show, which speaks VOLUMES! I watched season 1 and finally am starting fresh on season 2 and working my way up to 3. Hopefully between kids and breaks by time I am done with season 3 on netflix, season 5 will start. I CAN'T wait!!

Our bedroom + farmhouse queen bed

I made a post not too long ago about our farmhouse queen bed being completed. The photos weren't too great, and the bed wasn't even made.

I was apparantly just excited that the bed itself was finally done that I didn't care to make it up hehe. That and the queen bedding we had showed the box spring (bleh).

Buying a new bedding set currently is not in the budget.

Then I remembered 3 years ago, I had purchased a california king 8 piece set from LNT online. I know, "california king, WHAT"!? Well, for 30 bucks I couldn't let it go, that's A TON of fabric for cheap! So I bought it.

And it sat in what will be Ethan's room for 3 years. Today I thought, okay let me attempt to wash this at home and give it a try. THANKFULLY my cheap old washer took it and didn't have problems. The fabric is so pretty:





Who knew california king would work on a queen sized bed? It hides the box spring perfectly:) Excuse the coloring, I'll take a better picture when it's daylight to get more accurate colors for the bedding, this was taken at night and in one i used open shutter/no flash so the tint is yellowed (oops) // also disregard that drop cloth lol:

Sneaky-Peeky - Toddler Bedroom Make Over - Sock Monkey Bedroom

I ventured online to find things to do Ethan's toddler room in Sock Monkey theme. Ultimately, I thought it was beyond ridiculous to pay 300+ for toddler bedding at custom places that he would outgrow within the next two years. That and, who has that much to spend on BEDDING? Not me! But if I ever do hit the mega millions jackpot, I will probably be first in line to spend $$ on something like that (no, not even then) hehe.

So, I headed over to an online retailer and purchased this soft chenile bedding. It came with a comforter, chenile, duvet, chenile fitted sheet AND a chenile pillow case (tossed 5 bucks for embroidery) and was ecstatic. The retailer had a facebook code for 15% off on orders ofer 85 bucks, well the bedding alone with shipping would of been 80, so I thought, oh hell I can find something to buy to make my total worth it :) So I threw in a large sock monkey, t shirt, and all the bedding and my total was 90 bucks shipped:) I totaly didn't expect it to be high quality, so when I opened the box, I was absolutely THRILLED at how soft it really was. I AM IN LOVE!!

The toddler comforter

The comforter, chenile duvet, fitted sheet and pillow case with some sock monkeys, his room is going to be SOOO CUTE!

softness UP CLOSE ;)

love this embroidery!


and with his new toddler farmhouse bed Doug built with the plans from knock off wood, once it is stained, it is going to look great!


I will be off to Joann's Fabric later to buy some fabric to do little toss pillows for his bed to complete the look.
Update: Went to JoAnn's and picked out this fabric for the accent pillows:


Sock Monkey room on a budget: I GOT THIS!

Toddler Farmhouse Bed // Ethan's Room Re-do on a budget

So, after Christmas, we are usually in a bit of credit debt, after the kids and family spending. But, we also end up with money or gift cards around this time as well. Every year, I have used it to put towards the house or something for the kids. Last year Ethan's crib was recalled and we took it back to get half of the money back. We used it to purchase wood to make the toddler farm house bed from knock off wood. The lumber was the white pine (cheapest you can get at lowes) and it cost 65 just in lumber, but well worth it for a sturdy SOLID wood bed.

This year, it is Ethan's turn to get a room re do. Ethan never really had a room to be honest, he has just slept in our room all this time. His we meant well and had intentions of him having his own nursery, but it just never worked out. I even have the crib bedding still NEW in the package (oops). So here is the toddler farmhouse bed that Doug built for Ethan. All he has to do is add center slats and the end cap on the foot board, I LOVE IT! I hate to want to stain anything that looks this beautiful naturally but I am thinking it will be a dark finish:



Please ignore our den, it is currently the "multi purpose room". As you can see I still have yet to stain the craigs list dresser. Which may be Ethan's, but since MiMi's just broke and is ratty we may just use it for her and build Ethan a smaller one.

This is Ethan's room before (the clutter room):



And hopefully in two weeks you will see the cute and custom design I am doing for it from scratch :) I promise it is going to be really cute and on a budget:) I ordered his bedding (which has still yet to process), and I just bought his toy storage from target for 59, which I later found out was on sale the following week for 38 :( Don't ya hate that? lol

Mostly, I just want little man to have a room so our bedroom and living room becomes less cluttered :) Can't wait to share later!

One thing though, I am seriously contemplating moving MiMi into his room since it's bigger and him into hers, Ohhh, decisions..

Next Upgrade?

New doors. We could do the door itself, but it will take too much work to line everything up to fit the existing frame work (which is not even level in some cases). In the long run it will actually be more cost efficient to buy pre hung. It's less than 70 bucks per door, with the framework, casing, door, pre drilled and hung. All we have to do is knock out the old doors and framework and measure the rough in and go at buying the new interior doors. We'll need 6 total, and to be honest, even though it's 70 a pop, it sure does look better than the ugly wood slabs I painted white, and the fact it is more modern, comes WITH the nice casing, MUCH less work for me. But until then, since our foyer and pantry doors are odd shaped, I am just replacing the doors on those with bifold paneled doors. I started with buying the foyer door last night at lowes for 45 bucks. It will go here:


When we bought the house in 04 the trim & door were green, I painted both (didn't do the entire casing around this door though) but plan to replace it anyway. Can't wait to get this house to be more and more like the home we want. The rancher really has come a verrrry long way.

The 65 Rancher, A labor of Love, bathroom remodel.

It's hard to believe we bought this old house in 04. November 30th was our 6th year "house-i-versary". Not having a sizable income, we have just taken to remodeling as we could, as money allowed. First the little things, like painting, fixtures, etc. Then there came bigger headaches, like having to nearly gut the bathroom.

When we bought our house, all the baseboards, trim and doors and EVEN windows were this ICKY HUNTER green. The kitchen was salmon pink, and a few rooms were ARMY beige. The former owners probably meant well, and it probably looked good with whatever they had going on in there, but for us..well..it just was not our taste.

When I received my refund on a LARGE electric deposit a year later (300 bucks) I sat on hands and knees and kilz'ed all of the baseboards and doors bright white. I painted our ugly walls from stark white to behr's ripe wheat. The first time I saw it on the walls it looked school bus yellow. Then it dried into a nice historic type golden color. I wish I had done it in satin instead of semi gloss, but as a new home owner with a child I thought semi gloss would be easier to clean.

But the bathroom, My gosh that bad boy was a hot mess. oak built in wall shelving, OAK UGLY vanity, HUNTER GREEN counter, Oak medicine Cabinet, OAK light fixture, OAK towel shelves. Man..yeah, it was probably all true to the year it was built in 65 as well.

Initially I bought an over the toilet cabinet, it was so nice, I bought a new mirror and light fixture, and I was planning to just stain the vanity and buy a new counter top...UNTIL, I noticed the previous owners had hid a dirty little secret (which is why I encourage ANYONE to buy a home inspection, DO NOT TRUST the seller, no matter if they mean well or not) the home inspection protects you! Well, the dirty cover up? An old water leak that was so bad they SPRAY painted over to hide mold. When we ripped the vanity from the wall, the dry wall was not bad, but for safe measure we decided to replace the sections near the vanity as well (never know with the spores being invisible).

So the 65 ranchers only LONELY bathroom went from this:




The Mold we found that ate through the spray paint (haha ew right?)


Demoing the old vanity..


See those textured walls? Yep, replicating it once we replaced the drywall was a pain in my rear, but i did it!



Jason & Doug replaced the Drywall with MOLD resistant one & I replicated the texture etc.

You have NO idea how much joint compound I had to use lol!!

How did I make it match?? joint compound, smacking the wall with a flat hard object and repeat LOL;D


Eventually it was all done and in went the vanity and counter, then I tried to find a nice neutral green..

Beat the old vanity right? (this was all in 07 may I add, we will do the tile floors this year)

I painted the oak built ins bright white semi gloss kilz. The paint was lion by behr, I would of gone one shade lighter if I had to do it again.

because the 65 vanity was an odd size, no one carried that size, so we went smaller but nicer, and as a result had to also move the light receptacle box, which Doug did, and I matched the drywall texture PERFECTLY :)

The paint again..see those ugly old shower tiles? they will get redone this year:) The door used to be hunter green and that entire built in was oak *ick* wish I had a before photo of that.


new light bar and mirror (sorry my camera did not have a wide lens 3 years ago so the angles are odd)

part of the over toilet cabinet


I can't believe I painted when I was 7 months pregnant with Ethan.



ta daaaaa such a nice transformation, right?!


And of course we, like I said, don't have a sizable income, and with 2 kids, we just remodel as we can, we bought the tile to do the bathroom but have to wait till the income tax return to actually hire a friends husband to re tile the shower walls and floor:) I can't wait!!



So, in a few months we are hoping to do the tile work. Considering we did all of this ourselves, we saved money, it wasn't a cheap job, but it wasn't super expensive. The new vanity i was 400, the counter was 190, the mirror I got on sale at LNT for 45 bucks, the light bar was 90 at lowes, and the faucet was probably 200. The drywall was 25 and we had the joint compound, the paint was 30 at home depot. The tile was 120..So 1100 bucks thus far is NOT bad for a near complete remodel. :) After we get the tile and shower done I will be sure to post another update and photo to the blog. And excuse the green, it is very literally my favorite color:)

**update, here are a few w/ the wide lens camera**