Blood, sweat, tears, and a pretty penny

It's taken months to get ready for this sight, and now that it's here, I hope it's not there for long!!! (I've justified hours missed at the gym as I've loaded and unloaded endless bags of bark mulch into and out of our van, and hauled them to the flower beds. I've pulled out many a splinter laying down all that bark mulch, and many hours weeding that bed before laying the mulch!!)
The end of February, beginning of March when we decided it was time to sell our house, we knew we would need to declutter. We began packing boxes. After filling our garage for a month or two, and parking the van in the driveway, we finally got a storage unit in May. That's a 10 by 20 unit.
Jason wanted to try the bed by the window. I was sad when the lady that staged our house said we needed to get new bedding. I love our comforter. In her pamphlet she gave us, she said that in the master bedroom the seller needs to take their imprint out of the bedding, and try to appeal to the broadest audience. Times like this I was sad that we didn't have many stores to choose from here in Grants Pass, and not a lot of selection in each of the stores. I think it looks way better in person, and I like the way it feels to sleep in.


Malia misses her butterfly sheets.

Jason spent coutless hours painting our closet doors and the girls' closet doors white.
Because of the color on our walls, and our accent wall, in addition to our dark floor and furniture, the rooms are darker in pictures. Usually Susan would suggest painting. However she really liked the wall colors. Instead, to brighten and to visually enlarge the space, she suggested white sheers.
Had we not planned on selling, we were going to have the house painted sometime this summer. We knew it needed to be done. I did not realize just how badly our house needed to be painted, until we went through the process of having it repainted. There were times when the painters left to purchase more paint, because it required more than even they anticipated!



We decided to have the corner trim painted the same color as the body of the house, and to have the rain gutters painted to match the body and the trim, to draw less attention to them.


I had no idea what a time consuming thing it is to plant flowers, that will not grow again next year! (Boy, Jason's practicality is really rubbing off on me!!) But, it really is nice to look at. This tree...Jason has spent a great deal of time cutting off low hanging limbs so that you can get a less obstructed view of the house!!
What a sad day it is to have a woman with a BS in Botany say she is so grateful for chemical grass killer. Spray it on one day, rain proof in 10 minutes, visible results in 6 hours, and a day later, after shoveling out the dead grass, it's ready for the mulch. It made this transformation TONS easier!!
I'm so glad that we'll have at least two bathrooms in the near future. Although I love the new look of our bathroom and laundry room, I sometimes miss our previous more obvious Hawaiian theme. It's much more subtle now.




I finally got my way!! I have wanted to get rid of those green railings from day one!!! Naturally, it took a professional to tell Jason that they really should go, and us to be moving away, but they're gone!! It REALLY opens up the place doesn't it?

The burngundy curtains over the sliding doors we were told were too dark. We were encouraged to find tan faux silk curtains.


I spent countless hours searching, and this was the closest I could find that would fit over our curtain rod...but I have found that I'm happy with the results. Definitely made me smile to hear our relator say the texture gives them "punch".

Susan also suggested we update our fireplace by painting our fireplace cover black. We'd been wanting to do something with our fireplace forever as well, but never could decide on exactly what. We found some heat resistant spray paint and despite removing decorations, putting down dropcloths, draping dropcloths over furniture, taping wax paper over the glass, taping up some brown packing paper over the gray parts of the fireplace, we still managed to cover almost everything in our front room in a fine layer of black spray paint dust. My trigger finger and forearm were sore after I took over for Jason, and finished while he was at work. That project took 1 1/2 cans of the "20% more" cans!

After reading Susan's report, wherein she mentions that we want to take the focus away from the parts of the fence that are in tear down condition, Jason decided to replace that section of fence. He replaced the fence posts, the Thursday or Friday before Makayla's friend party, and he and I spent 6 hours of our Memorial Day replacing the fence. The experience from his youth helping his Dad sure came in handy!!

It was suggested that we spray paint our screen door white. After several coats of spray paint, we were not making the progress that we wanted. We ended up applying some primer, and white paint with the roller that Jason used on the closet doors, as well as a small foam brush. We thought we'd spray paint the light fixture white to match the door better. When Jason took the light off the house, and we realized what a pain it would be to prep it for painting, we decided to just purchase a new one.

I like the contrast of the white screen door against the fresh stain that Jason applied to the front door.

Susan also suggested we "freshen up" our benches as well.

It's pretty neat that our picnic table (which we can convert the benches into) ended up getting "freshened up" as well!

I'm so sad to say, that there are still things that need to be done!! Not to mention that as we've been doing all of these home improvement projects, the kids have just as much energy and need as usual, we've still needed to fill callings, go to soccer and t-ball games and practices, help with homework, plan Makayla's party, and all of the other things that a LDS family of six has going on!! Fortunately the spring soccer season is now over, Jared's last t-ball game is Saturday, and the girls' last day of school is the 15th. However it's now time for swim lessons, and all the craziness that comes with summer fun, as well as selling a house, buying a house, and moving!!

Please keep the prayers coming! We have needed and been blessed by, and will continue to need all of the help we can get!! We still have a long way to go!!