Repurposed Furniture

 My parents gave us some furniture they had housed in their garage for years. Some worked out, some didn't. But I decided to give them a face lift. The bookcase was used as storage in our garage at our old house! Matt has had that since college!

 Simple spray paint to update some brass hardware!

 I did prime everything and then used a glossy paint that is used for trim for the grey. The white was reused from our old kitchen cabinets!

 I wish I had a before picture of both of these!

 The bookshelf now houses Ashton's stuff! We also spray painted the lamp shade to match!

 I was able to salvage some dresser drawers even if the dresser itself was too old. A little paint and caster wheels makes a great storage for out of season clothes!

Oh how I wish you could have seen the before but isn't it a beauty in the girls room??

My First Project - The Kid Station

When you have a large blank slate, what do you think would be your first project?? Well, when you have four kids, three of which are in school... mine was to tackle the school "drop zone." After scouring Pinterest and loving tons of ideas, I came up with this!

I LOVE it!

We had all the letters from their names I had above their beds at our old house. I simply painted them with crafting paint from Michael's. I bought the clip boards to house their homework. And yes, I had to get Eliza one too even though she won't have homework for the next few years, it had to match! And we all know in even 1 year, I wouldn't be able to find a similar clip board. And hooks for their backpacks and jackets. It's laughable at what it looks like now. Nothing like this that's for sure! It's a much mess compared to this but we're still trying to figure out the toy situation! It's always a progress right?

We had the desk and ottomans the kids use as seats from the old house.

 Almost everything here was simply moved from the old house and found a new home. The empty frame was one that displayed Ashton's 1 year old pictures and it finally broke! So, now it houses school art! Yes, it definitely is a much messier mess now!

I'm laughing because it doesn't even look like this anymore!

The toy cubbies have been moved and replaced. The TV cabinet remains in place and has gained an actual TV. Thanks Black Friday sale! We added a couch, and finally blinds after many months of having see through windows! I guess I should update the toy room but it has definitely been a work in progress!

Moving In

Let's see what it looked like when we were moving in! Let me remind you, we were in the midst of starting a new school, still working our regular jobs (yes, no time off was taken), and trying to keep up with our regular lives. It was a bit hectic to say the least!

Holy boxes! So this is the sight of our future toy room.

This is the same room with an angle from the front door/entry way.

What's all the blue tape might you ask? It's all the imperfections I was talking about! From texturing issues, paint, you name it, we had it!

Our entry way from the front door. Yes, everything is white!

Our New Home

Well, to say we have been busy the last few months is quite the understatement. The same weekend we closed on our home, we were at the Strawberry Music Festival. We had to clean out our old home and make it rental ready. Thankfully we found renters fairly quickly and so far, cross our fingers and pray, they have worked out well.

So here we are, our first brand new home and it is a blank slate! Something I love, and not hate, but let's just say, it can be overwhelming how much there is to do to a brand new home! First of all, since it's brand new, I expected it to be perfect and well, it wasn't. Since they build these homes so fast and furious, there are tons of minor imperfections to be done. So here we are, 4 months later with problems we are waiting to be "perfected." But all in all, I love our new home! I love the layout, I love the space, I love that it's new, I love my new kitchen, I love my pantry... the list goes on and on!

So here it is... 4 months later. Our brand new home! It still sometimes feels like a hotel since everything is white but I'm feeling the itch to make it ours after a few months. It took some time to move everything over and get everything situated, but we are and hope this year I can put everything in it's place! Slow and steady wins the race, and let's just say, this is going to be one long race!

First Day of School

We started the first day of school in August 2015. Even though we were living at our "old" house, we commuted for about 2 weeks before we got into our new home. Ashton had to transfer to a new school and took some time to transition from Valley Oak. But we are now fully at Dry Creek Elementary.

Ashton's 1st day of 2nd grade

6 years, 11 months

Violet's 1st day of Kindergarten

5 years, 4 months

Tim's 1st day of Preschool (at Dry Creek Elementary as well!)

4 years, 1 month

We're Back!

Well, let's just say a few things have happened in the last 6 months! I will work on updating pictures and our family happenings soon. We had a great Christmas. We traveled up to San Jose to spend it with the Besmer and Renfer families and back down to Santa Maria to visit my Mom's mom, Nanay. She is 88 years young and is sprite as can be. We are so blessed with all 4 great-grandmas and 1 great-grandpa!

The following week we traveled to see my Dad's mom, Great Grandma Perta. The kids love seeing everyone and of course, getting lots of love and presents!

And our biggest news of 2015... yes I realize it's 2016 now, is that we moved into a new home. So the last 6 months has been dealing with all of that. Moving, renting out our old home, moving into a brand new home and making it our HOME! We love it and will update soon on our progress. It's fun having a blank slate but oh so overwhelming!

Last Day of Preschool for Violet

So, next year I will have two kids in "real" school, one in preschool, and two remaining in daycare. Violet did well in preschool this year despite being a little shy. She learned most of her letters, her numbers, and the sounds to the letters. We need to get her more comfortable with being able to tell the teachers what she knows. She loves to color and draw, especially mermaids, rainbows, and princesses.