Project Life 1/26- 2/4

Here are this week's photos added to our Project Life album.

::Friday 2/26/2010
Tom and headed out on a little date night. My best friend still after almost 24 years of marriage.


::Saturday 2/27/2010
So excited to get to purchase some running shoes. It's really fun to get to add running to my workout. My knees are unhappy with me if I run every day, but I'm really grateful to add in running once or twice a week. I won't tell you how very sore I was after my first run! I really thought that with all my biking, step aerobics, etc that I would have no problem running, but my muscles thought differently!


::Sunday 2/28/2010
Look what we found in my front garden! The daylillies are determined that spring *will* come! Love seeing green!


::Monday 3/1/2010
I don't think I know anyone who likes to work as much as Jacob does (except perhaps me~ and I can guarantee you that I didn't like to work that much when I was 16!). Today I looked out the window and found him carting some wood that he cut up to our wood pile.


::Tuesday 3/2/2010
Tuesday was a sad day. My dear grandmother, "Nana" fell and broke her pelvis in two places. I was so glad to be able to be with her in the emergency room. Thankfully she is gradually healing and is back with her husband. I really appreciated the many people who prayed~ and I know that my Nana did as well.


:: Wednesday 3/3/2010
I was completely surprised to see the garter snake that the boys found today. It was only 48 degrees out. I don't think I have ever seen one out so early. He must have been as ready for warmer spring weather as I was! Having so many boys is such fun~ they are forever finding interesting animals and bugs to show me.


::Thursday 3/4/2010
This totally cracked me up. I took my camera out to take pictures of the boys working on removing nails from some wood and caught Dan and Tim sitting in the back of the pickup truck with their shirts off! The sun was shining and 56 F. must have felt to them like mid-summer. I kept taking little breaks from my work to sit in the sun as well.


Linking up with...

Thanks Jessica, for hosting!

Enjoying God's blessings in our everyday life here,
susan

Spring creativity

Look what arrived a few days ago!


My new favorite color combination is red/yellow. I purchased these fabrics from Marie Madeline Studio when they put them on clearance. They arrived packaged so sweetly with bows tied around each set of fabric.

If you haven't checked out their blog and web site, you need to. They have the most beautiful fabrics and some really cute and modest patterns. You will find some great tutorials on their blog as well.

I think I feel a spring quilt coming on....

susan

The days are fleeting...

Yesterday afternoon I received a call that my grandmother, who is almost 95 had fallen and was at the ER. Thankfully I could go be with her.

She broke her pelvis in two places. Ladies, this is so sad. My dear, dear Nana has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, and now, quite honestly, she is ready to die. I can totally understand this. As much as I would selfishly like to have her always around to cheer me on, I will be happy for her when she is released from her earthly frame.

It meant so much to me to be able to sit with her and hold her hand all afternoon and evening. I was able to go up to the room she was admitted to and help get her settled there.

Some medical professionals were fabulous with my Nana (she is almost totally deaf and blind), some, quite frankly, weren't. I counted it a privilege to be my Nana's advocate, telling her the things that so many wouldn't take the time or energy to communicate with her.

I spent the day with Nana today as well, explaining to her what the doctors and nurses were saying, praying, and mostly just hand-holding.

My parents, who were out of town are now back. Nana has been transported back to the nursing home where she lives.

Please pray for my dear Nana, for Don, her husband of 26 years, and for our family.


Please forgive my choppy, convoluted post... I'm coveting your prayers.

Thankful that our times are in His hands,
susan

Project Life 2/19-2/25

Another week gone? Incredible!

Still working on Project Life here. This week I missed taking photos two days, but that's totally ok. I'll just add some "bit of life" from those days... perhaps and Aldi receipt or a small picture drawn by one of my little artists, or maybe just some journaling without photo documentation. It's all ok. Still capturing a tiny essence of what life is/was here in a very doable way.

::Friday 2/19/2010

It was snowing yet again! Today the snow flakes were absolutely huge... some larger than silver dollars. Abbie and Jon were completely mesmerized watching the monster flakes drift down.


::Saturday 2/20/2010

I felt so incredibly blessed to be able to purchase a new bed today. My back is very, very grateful. The super-duper pillowtop makes me feel like a princess! Hoping to make this bed frame when it warms up. I'm really excited about that project. Trying to decide if we'll paint it (distressed white or distressed black) or stain to match our furniture. I'm leaning toward staining... but that would require more expensive wood, so we'll see....

::Sunday 2/21/2010

Today I captured this sweet little interaction at a distance. Jon was helping little Timmy carry his sled up the hill. Love seeing (and capturing) little moments like this.

::Monday 2/22/2010

Dear Timmy, I love that you love to look at books. Totally love your tousled little boy hair. Totally love you, little guy. You are a blessing to our whole family.


::Tuesday 2/23/2010

Looked out the kitchen window this morning to see this really amazing honeycomb of ice that had partially fallen off of our deck table, then froze, hanging like that. Wow! We all had to run out in the cold to check it out from all angles. Brrrrr....


:: Wednesday 2/23/2010 and Thursday 2/24/2010

No pictures these days... not sure how that happened... but as I said, totally ok with that. I'll find something to put in those slots in our album.

I'm also planning on putting some occasional 8 1/2" x 11" pages in the album as well... since this is a 3-ring album it's easy to add additional page protectors and include larger items. This could be things like larger artwork or even blog posts that are relevant. Really looking forward to adding in some pages like that.

I'll try to take some pictures of my album with the photos in it to share here in the next week or so.



enjoying the ordinary days here,
susan

Quick draw on the farm

Kathy, over at Regan Family Farm has the funniest header right now! We are not currently bottle feeding any baby goats (our baby goats were born in November this year!), but seeing Kathy's header reminded me of some funny pictures that I took (4 years ago now!) of our oldest son Nate.



He discovered a practical use for his camo shorts! He was demonstrating his "quick draw." Those baby goats can be demanding, don't 'ya know!

Have a great Monday, friends!

susan

Our Kitchen!

W

elcome to our farmhouse kitchen! I'm so glad you could stop by!

If you'd like to see the before pictures you can go here.

I've got some nice warm gluten-free brownies for you (best recipe ever to be posted on my blog soon!), so come on in!

I think my beloved friend the antique farmhouse sink really steals the show... what do you think?

She is a 1920s sink that is 78" long, if you can believe that and those are her original legs too!
You can read more about how I "met" her on my first kitchen blog post here.


When we brought our sink home here and installed her I wondered if I would like washing dishes in such a shallow sink (6" deep!). It hasn't ended up being a problem at all. It is actually really handy for washing large pots. We do wash a lot of large pots here!



We do have two sinks in the kitchen which is really handy for a family our size (12 children). The farmhouse sink has ended up being the one where we wash the dishes. I think that is partially because the dishwashers (two!) are on either side of that sink.

Can't see them? They're hidden!



I am so happy with our cabinets! We found a local company (who sells nationwide) that sells at wholesale prices to local customers. British Traditions was fabulous to work with. I mean really fabulous! (Hi Kathy!) Kathy took the plans that we had drawn up and made them really sing. She translated them into a kitchen that has been and continues to be a total delight to work in. Not only that, but their prices totally beat anything else that I could find locally and I did considerable work getting competitive bids, etc. Kathy knew the budget that we were working with and came up with so many creative options to make it all work for us.


The only walls of cabinets that had to be custom made were the wall that the farmhouse sink is on and the wall that the cooktop is in. The center island and the peninsulas were actually all "islands" that British Traditions already makes, so they were much cheaper, comparatively, than custom.




I was able to choose from lots of color choices and lots and lots of distressing options. Actually an overwhelming amount of options. At first I was sure that I wanted all white cabinets. I am so happy with the color that I chose though. Really happy.

Here's a closeup of some of the distressing on one of the peninsulas. It's perfect for a large family like us... looks like we've already lived here for several years!



We also have two pull-out trash cans that are "hidden" behind cabinet doors. I really like those. Having two is so helpful... one in the cooking area and one in the clean-up area.





Did you notice my pot filler? This was an ebay purchase that I really, really like! This is a super way to fill large pots without having to carry them from the sink to the stove. I think I use it almost every day.



I actually found lots of things for our kitchen on ebay. The aforementioned pot filler, the double oven was a "scratch and dent" Fisher and Paykel oven that came with a manufacturers warranty. Even with shipping it was cheaper than anything I could find around here.

I also purchased the dishwashers (Asko) and the Fisher and Paykel cooktop too from ebay... same deal~ much cheaper than even the Sears outlet or sale prices here and they've done really well for us.

As I mentioned in my first post about our kitchen, we subcontracted some of the work out and we did some ourselves.

We subcontracted:

• foundation digging
• foundation pouring
• framing in of the addition/installing windows
• sheetrock/taping
• roof

We did the following work:

• collecting bids (this took a trememdous amount of time, but saved us so much money.
• insulating the addition
• painting
• installing hardwood floors
• installed granite tile countertops
  
• installed subway tile

I am extra proud of the tile on the countertops and the subway tile behind the cooktop. Why? Because I did those jobs all by my little self! I can't tell you how intimidated I was by the saw that was necessary to cut the granite tile. Scary, scary saw, with a capital S!! Tom had to work the day that we needed to install the tile, so he got me started and I did it! Aren't you proud of me?


By the time we were ready to put countertops on, I was really needing to pinch pennies, so we opted for the granite tile. Do I like the granite tile? Ummmm, yes and no. For the cost ($1.37/sf) I really liked it. I like that we can set things hot from the oven directly on it. The only thing I don't like about it is that it isn't quite as easy to keep clean with the grout and all and it does tend to show smears, etc. pretty easily. But, I don't really have that much countertop that is tile, most is butcherblock (which I really like!), so all in all I'm happy with the countertops.

The butcherblock countertops actually "came with" the center island and the "penninsulas," so I decided to use them, not knowing how I would like them. Butcherblock is really, really nice! I have been very happy with how they have worked for us. I was a little concerned about the stainless steel sink (also an ebay purchase!) that was set into the butcherblock countertop. I worried about the inevetible water that would sit on the countertop there. I do wipe up the water any time I see splashes or drips there, but the wood has held up great and has not discolored at all. I did use mineral oil on the countertops initially, but they have not seemed to need any treatment at all since the time I did it initially.

Here's our "other sink." (yet another ebay purchase!) It is super-deep and I really love the stainless steel insert that is in the deeper part of the sink.

Hey there, Timmy! (my helper!)

A few other things I really like about our kitchen; these cool pull-out cabinets at the ends of each peninsula. These are a nice use of otherwise unused space.



Also this plate drawer that is to the left of the left dishwasher. It enables little guys to get their own plates and bowls and to help unload the dishwashers as well. This has been really useful.

At the far end of our new kitchen is my favorite spot to sit and relax in our home. This bay window/sitting area is so peaceful. My gardens are out back and we feed the birds just outside the bay windows in the winter.




I planned two doors exiting the kitchen~ one leads out onto our deck and back yard to the north and the other leads out toward my herb garden.

My plan was for that "herb garden door" to be the one that would be used when the children are muddy or dirty as it also leads down to my new laundry room. We decided to have a full basement under the kitchen so I could move my laundry area out there. Perhaps I can show that in another post.

Here's the door leading down to the laundry room and our nice south-facing window. I plan to have many more plants there in the future. I'm thinking of overwintering lots of herbs next year there.



Does my idea work, for containing the mud.... um, no. It usually ends up being the other door that is used.

Oh well, it sounded like a good idea! But hardwood floors are easy to mop up, so it's ok!

Now, you may wonder, what happened to the old, original kitchen? Well, we turned it into this really cool walk-in pantry!

Do you like my screen door? I think it is so cute on the pantry! The chalkboard to the left of the pantry is my place to write weekly menus (when I'm good enough to plan them ahead, that is! LOL!) I think I need some sort of painted sign above the pantry... just haven't decided what to put there yet. I'm also planning to put some framed family pictures to the left of the chalkboard. It's always a work in progress.

As you can see, we still need to sand and refinish the hardwood floors in the old kitchen...

Here's the other wall of the old kitchen.

So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed your tour as much as I enjoyed having you over!

There are plenty of brownies, so help yourself to another one before you leave, ok?

Come again soon!

susan

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section of my blog (if you are reading this in a reader or on Facebook, you'll have to come to my blog) and I'll try to answer them in another post, ok?

** I am linking up with Metamorphosis Monday here!

Kitchen tour, part 1

As promised, here is part one of our kitchen addition! I was just going to show you pictures of our kitchen, the way it is now, but as I looked back through our pictures I thought you might like to see some of what went into getting where we are now! Reminiscing made me really happy, especially happy that I am not in the midst of the addition right now!

Here's our kitchen, pre-addition. It was not a terrible kitchen, but we were very crowded in it. At the time all twelve children were still living at home and, it seemed, spending most of their time hanging out in the kitchen with me! I liked having everyone with me in there, but I constantly felt like I needed to "part the waters" of children when I walked anywhere. We did figure out how to bring an extra oven into the room and basically made the kitchen work, but it was really, really a squeeze.







When we decided to add on to the back of our house I began to collect ideas in a "kitchen planning notebook." We had hoped to begin construction in the fall of 2007, but for various reasons that did not happen. In hindsight I am really glad that it didn't happen then. I think I would have rushed into decisions that I hadn't done adequate research on. We ended up breaking ground in April of 2008, so I had all winter to collect ideas, get bids on work and compare prices on items that we would need.


We broke ground on April 1 of that spring... so exciting!


Then it promptly began to rain! Each time it rained, we had a muddy river running through my basement and laundry area. Yuck! We did finally get the foundation poured though~ so exciting to see some progress happening.

Here's what the back of our house looked like before we began the addition. This was back in the "goood ol' days", when I was still sane! Doing a large-scale remodel or addition with lots of little ones around is an incredible challenge. The boys were absolutely glued to the windows to watch all of the work being done. And when they weren't glued to the windows, they were sneaking out the door to play with nail guns and totter around gaping holes in the ground that had rebar sticking up out of them, etc. So much fun! I began to learn about praying that spring.






Here we have walls going up.... During this time we continued to have some pretty impressive spring storms~ tornadoes etc. I vividly remember wondering what would happen to that poor south wall which was left standing all by itself (braced of course by some 2x4s~ but still!) if a bad storm came up that night. It did storm and I did pray!


and more walls going up!

In the meantime, I was busy planning and researching kitchens. My good friend Justine suggested that I check out an old farmhouse sink that she had seen at a plumbing supply store. To my great delight I found our sink!

The picture is terrible, but what we found was a 1920s 78"long farmhouse sink with double drainboards and both original legs! Wow! It was in desperate need of a new coat of porcelain.


After an embarrassing amount of begging and general groveling I talked a local porcelain business into sandblasting my "baby" and putting a new coat of porcelain on it! Yay!

Here's one more "before" pic of the sink (and cute boys!).....



Things continued to progress...


We still hadn't taken the wall out between the old and new kitchen.

Man was that a mess when we took that wall out! Our house is an old 1930s farmhouse with lots of original plaster and lathe in the walls. Even with plastic over the doorways of my old kitchen, we had plaster and dust everywhere on the main floor of our house.

One thing that was really cool about our kitchen addition was that I was able to keep my old kitchen functioning until my new kitchen was ready to move out into. I don't know how we would have done it if I had totally lost the oven, sink, etc in our old kitchen.

Wait, what is that I see? Could it be children horsing around in the rafters? Surely not!



It really was fun for me to see the room with sheetrock up. For some reason that made it seem more "real" to me. Perhaps the end was in sight after all!



Once the sheetrock was all in place and taped, etc. we had lots of painting to do.


I chose a Sherwin Williams yellow, (banana cream # 6673 ) and I was certain that I had made a terrible mistake once I was done. It looked so.... well, yellow! I remember calling my mom and asking her to console me.... now I love the color!

We installed the hardwood floor. It was a prefinished solid oak floor that we got on sale at Home Depot. I have been really happy with how it has held up. I think the finish that they put on the boards in factory is much more durable than polyurethane that is available for homeowners who refinish their own floors.

And finally we had cabinets delivered!


I can't believe how long I've let this post get! Probably more information than anyone wanted, but I sure had fun reminiscing! So there you have April 1 to August 29, 2008.

Next up... the official kitchen tour/open house for you!

susan