When It Rains It Pours... In my house

I had been working on a couple things in between the day to day stress of having all three kids at home and some money issues going on when it comes to Jonathan's job.  So I have been super stressed and a little here and there over the last month, but on Monday night my work load was overloaded with a rainstorm. 

I had been watching my nephew all day and was waiting for the hubs to get home so we could go get a new vacuum (and dinner) since mine had went psycho a couple days before and my carpet was getting filled with dirt... and food from roaming eaters. Soon as we left the house it started to rain, a pouring rain that you could verily see to drive. I was desperate to get out of the house though and the weather radar said it was a cloud right over our area so we pushed on and the rain ended within a couple miles of our house. It was a great night, we ate dinner and we spent a little while in the vacuum isle at Target just trying to figure out which vacuum we wanted. 

When we got home there was a hole in a cement block in our basement where a wire came through the wall and a window had been busted out from the flying concrete block. We really had no idea what was happening and then when we found water in the basement we were freaking out even more. The water was coming from the top floor out of our bathroom, through the ceiling and the walls in the living room, and then puddling in the basement. We cut the water off and called the insurance company immediately. We had a lightning strike and it messed up our PS3, Roku, Directv recievers, Wiis, garage door opener, and the pool pump to our Intex Pool.

It was great since they sent ServPro over as soon as they could. They came in and pulled our carpets up and removed the padding underneath since they are basically "sponges." Then they put 2 fans and a dehumidifier in each of the affected rooms. The living room...

And the bathroom...

It was kind of annoying since they were very loud, but so worth not having mold growing in our walls. 

They also cut holes in the popcorn ceilings to make sure everything dried in between the floors. 

We were lucky that it only took about 48 hours to dry the whole house out, but the ServPro guy didn't think that lightning could have caused the water to leak. So my husband took a day off work to do his man stuff... or hulk stuff because he would get angry and stuff would break.

First he broke the counter top while trying to pry it off, then he ignored everything I tried to tell him to do (I know everything about this since I watch hours of DIY Network) and then he had to remove the vanity.

SOOOO after prying out 30 or so giant nails he ended up breaking the vanity... and then this happened. It's still outside I believe, there has been more people at our house in the last week then in the last couple months and there is a busted vanity in the front yard. (Alaya is always photobombing my pics)

The vanity was not very happy with what was happening to him... I believe it's a him.

I made this face a lot that day too...

So why was our water leaking after a lightning strike??? Well we turned on the water to find the leak and it was in this piece of wood :(

Then after once again ignoring me Jonathan cut through the flooring instead of going in the ceiling and he found the leak...

You see that black marking around the hole? It was near an electrical line and it scorched the line and put a nice little hole in the pipe. 

So here I am, minus one counter top, one vanity, and a couple of electronics, and plus two holes in the ceiling, one hole in the garage, one busted window, and one hole in my bathroom floor... and I'm not sure what our next step is.  I am just happy we have home owners insurance to help us with our next step.

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Step Into the Light

My living room is depressing and sad. My dad thinks it is perfect with it's old paneling but he doesn't spend most of his relaxing time in the dungeon. 

 

So I finally gave in and started to paint the living room, surrounded by 3 kids and a little help from my 14 year old niece. I started with trim and made it sparkling white, well after about 3 coats.

It was crazy how much of a difference just he trim made, so I was so excited about painting the rest. Not to mention, I got lucky... like really lucky! I found 2 gallons of Valspar Gravity paint at Lowe's in the oops paint section! I snatched those suckers ups so quick! 

I had no idea how long it was going to take to paint the paneling. Just to give you a description, it was fuzzy. You could feel the wood and it had a fuzzy/splintery texture. I also had to use a brush to paint all the knots and the very deep lines between the boards. I was still cooking dinner, getting kids to take naps, and referring fights.

But it was so worth it! Alaya is my personal model to show how much more livable the living room is after an airy paint job!

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Let There Be End Tables!

It seems that after all the items I have built, that I would be some sort of professional, but I'm not. I am a procrastinator and a little really lazy. I always have all these plans and things I need to do, but I rather just sit around and play with the kids or watch some Netflix. I try to get up and do things that make me feel complete, so I needed some end tables to put my glass of sweet tea so I asked for lumber for Mother's Day. My husband, Jonathan, has refused lumber as a gift for a year or two now, but he has finally given in and let me have what I want.  So I started on some Truss End Tables, with a couple of changes I made along the way.

I was so proud of these two, they were simple and so pretty. It took me a couple hours to put them together.

The Rustoleum Kona stain made them even better and the poly made them shine. I was so excited that soon as they were dry I ran one, well slowly waddled because it was heavy, to the house to see what it looked like!

Then I remembered the thing called a measuring tape. I had measured how long I wanted the table to be but forgot about the height and how short my couch was. Enter the mind cursing one more time! I am always distracted and in a rush to get something done that I screw it all up! So, I put them back in my shed and let them set there for an hour while I cooled off.

 I later went to the shed, ripped them apart (the glue destroyed them a bit) and then started cutting down and redoing everything! And BAM! I got it to fit perfectly. I didn't put the trusses back on because I couldn't get them to work right, but I love it like this. Alaya and Shila are known to hide under there and at some point I want to put trays under there as a shelf. Do you like my walls? I'll post on those also.

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The Coffee Table

When we bought our first house one of our first purchases was a sectional that did not hold up well to my jumping kids. They ripped the cushions at the seams by sliding down them onto the seats. Mason was known to walk across the back and then use the "slide" in certain spots, so the ripping happened in two different locations. Luckily the warranty covered it and we were able to pick out a new sectional. I don't know why I went with a new sectional, because I didn't like the sectional in our small living room anyways. This time I decided to get an OTTOMAN! I guess I wasn't thinking about all the jumping and bucking that happens in our house, because I would have known to not get an ottoman with my kids in the house. So our new couch was destroyed, it began to sag in a couple years due to the newly added trampoline. It was also stained and just plain icky. I hated when people sat down and seemed to just fall into the couch.

So we got a new one, one with a sofa bed so when our family comes down we have an extra place for guests.

The bed also makes up for the fact that Mimi and Pawpaw live with us when they are not in Illinois, so sleepovers happen via the living room! They bed to sleep there nightly.

 With a new couch, I needed a new coffee table and I'm not known to buy anything that I can make. So like any normal diy-er wanting to build a coffee table, I went to Ana-white.com and found  The Rustic X Coffee Table. I had actually been eyeing it for a while, but finally decided to take it on. 

It started off easy enough, a simple frame and I was on a roll!

Then I made it to the X and I was stuck... really stuck. I got this piece to work after a lot of mess ups and I couldn't get the other piece to look straight. I had so many cuss words I wanted to say, but Shila kept me in check. So I sat there and sat there and looked at other people's beautiful X tables and then tried more pieces of wood. 

Then like a miracle out of no where, The Triple Truss Coffee Table was posted during my mini melt down. It was like a calling from the diy gods, I was meant to make a simpler version of the table.  

It is nice, I know. I love it so much! Of course I had to stain and poly it. So I used a Rust-oleum stain in Kona. I ended up using a q-tip to get the stain down into the pocket holes. I had to stain inside because I have the 3 kiddos and I pushed being outside a little too much.

And here it is, the finished project! Along with a sneak peak at the end tables I made later on.

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All The Before Pictures

Okay so I've been a little stressed out lately. In my mind my house would be perfectly me instantly, but it's still a 70's house. So I thought I'd spend some time just posting pictures of its 85% awesomeness and then of course its 15% seventies wonderland.  My sister was down today and her love of some of the stuff I hated made me laugh, so I try not to offend anyone with how horrible I think some of the stuff is.

To the upstairs bathroom!

Above you can see the beautiful cabinets and wallpaper in the kid's bathroom upstairs.  The cabinets are well bit but old and dirty.  The wallpaper just brings out a dirty look in the tile.

Ignore the mess, I was messing with wallpaper stripper, yay! Don't you love my bamboo medicine cabinets, I didn't even notice them until after we moved it. In the end the bathroom just feels small and dark with all the dark dirty wood.

 Ahhh the master bath. The sheer number of windows and very busy wallpaper can make one feel a little dizzy, but it has so many good things. A double closet with plenty of room and a double sink with a vanity area in between. Our previous house was a 1 bathroom so the luxury of my own bathroom beats all the cons.

 The master bedroom is a nice size, I still haven't pulled out my measuring tape to get an exact size but you can see that we threw our king size bed in there no problem.  Besides that I haven't even had a chance to hang curtains or get a bed skirt. My husband doesn't seem to mind though. The couple things I'd like to point out:

The headboard is an old door

The nightstands are made of scrap wood

I tried spray painting the lampshades (Fail) 

 This is my Shila's room, I know its just got toys in it.  She shared a room with her brother all her life so she has nothing of her own.  It's a large room that one day both my girls will share.

 Here is my helper, Shila, in Mason's room, well technically their shared room since she sleeps and plays in there.  I made those bunk beds at the old house. They are a little beat up now but they work great. Shila just saw the picture and said "Wow that's my cool bed!" 

 This small room is the nursery, you should be able to tell by the small onsie on the box, besides that I haven't done much.  Now all the rooms boring-ness is starting to overwhelm me. 

 This is where I spend of our time, toys, TV, and computer take up this room not to mention the darkest paneling in the world.  Its also fuzzy and splintery. If I had the cash I would rip it down and put up dry wall like in the rest of the house, but I don't so I won't.  

This is going to be the living/dining/kitchen area for my parents. They will be splitting time between Illinois and here and its cheaper if they just live with me.  

Their kitchenette, I find it so cool that I had to add a close up. It has a stove, sink, and fridge. This saved me before we got our new fridge.

 The parent's bedroom and plenty of room for a queen bed and a dresser. Besides that there is nothing interesting in this room.

 The downstairs bathroom, the tile is grey so I find this bathroom to be my favorite.  There was no mildew stains which I'm still fighting in the kid's bathroom.  Its a good size with a linen closet hidden behind the door.

 The entrance to my house! Its beautiful as long as you don't look directly at the tile, you may get a little dizzy. The dresser is stuck in here until strong men move it for me. This dresser once served as my island in my old house but with a little refinishing it will be BRIGHT PINK and in Shila's room. The picture's on the wall were me just playing with old picture I had. 

 Plenty of storage in this room too.  

 Ahh the empty living room not to mention the never used elliptical since I'm 32 weeks pregnant and too tired to even finish putting up the last things in here. So the workout is not happening until my body is free of carrying a baby in it.

 My once beautiful dining room table. Its been beat and bruised and painted on. Used for anything that involves standing to get something high. Currently a chair is in the living room being used as a computer chair, it is my everything set.

 The kitchen is nice, the cabinets are old and dated but very sturdy and have lots of storage.  They need to be painted on the inside and the pulls are not pretty. Oh can you see me house keys hanging above the wall ovens? Yeah my mom placed those there and didn't tell me. They are out of my line of sight and it took me forever to find them.

 The giant fridge we just bought! I need a large fridge with our future of a family of 5 with 2 live in grandparents. Plenty of counter top space.

My beautiful window with broken pieces, floral wall paper, smeared windows, and the trash bags and boxes from the rest of the house.  I know amazing how I haven't managed to tackle so many things. It seems like my days have gotten shorter.

Well that's it for now. It was late when I took the pictures so I was too scared to venture into the basement. Maybe I'll have more later. 

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