here are some pictures from the last few weeks…

 

Clouds rolling in over the top of the mountains at sunset. 

 

 

Michaels birthday dinner date with Eric and I.

 

My birthday boy!

 

Tulips in my front yard form the bulbs I planted 2 years ago. 

 

Michael choose this outfit for our dinner out celebrating his birthday. Love this boy!

 

 

Amazing what you find when you tear off sheetrock….

 

 

 

Ben is learning some awesome carpenter skills.

Painting the master bedroom

 

Laura has been staining door for me. They are beautiful when they are finished!

 

The girlies are always close by with a smile and some pink.

 

Easter Dinner ended up at our house this year. No kitchen, no furniture, no much of anything. So we pulled out the plastic tables and chairs, paper plates and plastic silverware and celebrated Easter. 15 of us. 

Spring is finally here. After a ridiculously long winter, cold and wet, the days are finally getting warmer and the sun is shining a bit more. Heres looking down to our lower fields. Gabe was having fun in the giant mud puddle in our front yard. 

~cheryl

We are back home again and hard at work. We have two rooms that have tile that need to come up. Ben and Michael are my tile removing guys. I think its the loud noise of the air compressor and jack hammer that makes the job so much fun. We are still in the “Glorified Camping” setting around here. Crazy simple meals, washing dishes on the back porch, and eating at plastic tables and chairs with paper plates. It’s old. Oh, how I dream of my new kitchen everyday. But there is still much ahead of us before we are finished. Eric is still working on some electrical. The new windows need to be installed downstairs. New plaster on the walls downstairs. Paint. I’m so tired of painting. Then the flooring, which I am very excited about. I hunted high and low, up and down the whole west coast, and finally found a great deal on tumbled travertine in the versigh pattern. 15,000 pounds of it is wrapped in pallets at the shop, waiting for us to install. I’m near giddy thinking about it. And after the flooring is down…THE CABINETS!!! Which I am even more excited about than the flooring. My dear friends husband is making them for me. He has been ever so patient with me as I change my mind, bring him pictures I’ve torn out of magazines, and try to explain things I’m not even sure make sense to me. I can not wait to see his finished work. They are going to be beautiful. 

I’ve had fun chasing down bargains. Our Sears went out of business. Each week I went in and checked out the price drops. after about 5 weeks of checking and watching the cooktop that I wanted, I noticed that they had this paper taped to all the display models EXCEPT the one I wanted. So I asked the sales lady why the papers. The paper stated that the displays were not for sale as working appliances, but  fixtures. Hmmm. She called “The Boss” and he came over. “You can have it for $25.” I was stunned. Then he went on to say it might not work and that is why they were selling it as a fixture. We are talking about a $1300 Stainless Steel 5 burner gas cooktop here. The same one that the week before was $700. It looked brand new. Umm, Yes, I’ll take it. Worst cast I have a $25 paper weight. So I brought it home. $25. The best deal yet!! Eric looked it over and said all the parts were there. The electric start worked when we plugged it in. Hooray!!! And I called Dacor and asked them about it, giving them the model number. Yes, working cook top AND it came with the warranty even though I bought it as a fixture. I’m still in shock sometimes when I think about buying it!

Everywhere I look there is dust. Even when I dust something that seems like it should be dusted, even in the midst of this, like the piano, within a hour, there is more dust. Everything in this whole house is dusty. For me, this near makes me want to cry somedays. I love clean. Clean white towels folded on a shelf. Clean bathroom floors and mirrors. A kitchen that sparkles with a bouquet on the counter. A place for everything. And everything put in its right place. Now, I am well aware of the fact that 9 people live in this home, And it makes it challenging to keep it clean. And often, I have to choose to not clean or organize something because my children are more important than clean bathrooms. But this, this crazy, big, dust everywhere mess is overwhelming. And as I look at the dust everywhere, I think about some other areas that are dusty in this home right now. Like getting the children up early to read the Bible with Eric before he leaves for work. Haven’t done that since we started this. Or my quiet times. Seems like they are few and in-between. Or working with children on heart issues or attitudes. Or date nights with Eric. Or taking pictures of our life outside of this house right now. Or just playing with the children. And it makes me want to work that much harder and faster to finish here. To put our home back together. To do one last, super deep, dusting and cleaning. To go back to what normal is in this home. And I know its a season. And I know that God has and is doing great things in this home. I see fruit in our children and our family. I see God blessing us so much more than we deserve. And I am thankful. Thankful for the hurdles and challenges that we grow in. That polish us and push us out of our comfort zones. For friends that stand beside us and help us and bless us. Yes, the dust is thick, and is not done settling, but I’m not giving up. Not on God, or my children, or my husband…or this house.  

 

 

Took out the pocket doors and making arches.

 

Helping herself to leftover pickles from dinner.

 

Caught!!

~cheryl

We spent the day at the beach. It was a little cool, but that didn’t stop the boys from playing in the water. We found lots of sand dollars, walked the boardwalk, and chased waves. I love the beach. Maybe someday I will have a house right on the ocean with tons of windows looking out at the sand and water. 

 

 

Here’s a few (ok, a lot) of pictures from the last two days. Lots of sunshine, playing at the park and swimming. Its been fun to take pictures of the children again. Oregon winters aren’t the best time or place to get pictures of children. And then I’ve been a little distracted with this remodel. 

Jumping off the wall into the pool.

 

 

Neighbor children being entertained by my children.

 

First time my toes have been painted since the wedding last fall. I feel happy!

 

i was surfing Craigslist for some good deals for my kitchen appliances and came across an ad that said a granite shop was going out of business after 30 years and they were selling all their remnants at cost. It was about an hour from my house, so I packed up the children and set off. Mike, the owner was a super fun guy who spent four hours with Eric and I (he met me after work) helping us pick out what we needed to do all of our bathrooms and built-ins. Normally, you would go into his shop and he would help you pick out your stone, then he would fabricate it for you. But, with him wanting to retire, he is not doing anymore fabricating. Just selling off his remnants. Eric was very interested in fabricating our granite (which will save us close to $20,000!) and Mike was thrilled to teach him a few tricks of the trade. Eric is a dentist. From what I observed listening to the two of them, working on granite and stone is a lot like working on teeth. Just different scales. Granite is heavy. Very heavy. So this is the biggest obstacle. The rest is just time. Cutting, grinding, polishing. Eric is excited to teach Ben the polishing skills. And Ben is super excited to learn.  The only piece we couldn’t buy from him was for my new kitchen island. It’s big, and he had no pieces left that were big enough. That I liked. So he sent us over to the place where he purchased the slabs of granite from wholesale. This was a huge warehouse with rows of granite slabs. It was breathtaking. Granite from all over the world. Brazil, India, Canada.  We walked the isle. Slowly eliminating until we found a slab that was big enough and we both agreed beautiful to become the island top. 

The next step was getting this to our house and set up for Eric to begin work on. Mike offered to deliver it which we thought was very wise to accept. He’s been transporting granite for 30 years. He knows what he’s doing. Eric had to get a huge one ton crane to use to move the granite slabs.  Each weighs around 1500 lbs. And we had two. It took Eric and Mike 3 hours to unload his trailer. It was a very slow tedious process. I was stressed. Mike kept saying, “if the granite goes, just get out of the way!” It would be way to heavy to stop. But they did well. Not a single crack or chip when they were finished. 

I’m excited to watch Eric and the boys fabricate this granite and marble. To take it from a raw slab of stone to a beautiful countertop. But I’m definitely going to have to be patient.  Eric is thinking close to 200 hours of working on it.

 

 

 
The remnants of granite, travertine and marble that we bought.

 

The slabs of granite that we chose for my kitchen island and counters.

 

The granite being delievered.

The one ton crane to move it off the truck into our driveway.

 

Unloading.

 

Mike and Eric after everything was unloaded. And nothing got broke!!

As I daydreamed about the guest room and what it would look like, i imagined some of the places we have stayed when we have traveled. The warm, inviting, years of stories within the walls, sorta feeling. I love color. Bright colors, bold colors, even the neutral and white colors. So I just started painting. One thing I wanted to preserve, even with all the layers of paint, was the beauty of the hand plastered walls. So that meant no rollers or paintbrushes. They all left streaks and filled in the crevices and character of the plaster. So I found a lint free cloth, dampened it, and lightly rubbed on the paint. I started with a tan base paint. Then went to a darker color called coco rum. I spread this one so lightly. Randomly. Leaving unpainted places. Then I added more colors. Yellow and orange. Rubbing paint here, wiping it off there. Slowly blending it all together.  And when all of that had dried, I went over with a cream color, accenting all the plaster marks. Wiping the paint into the crevices. Just enough to make the wall look a hundred years old. I debated to do the ceiling. I didn’t want it to look like a cave. But the white ceiling just didn’t match, so I matched it to the walls.

The window had not been replace yet in these pictures. It has since, but I’m not there to take a new picture. so later.  I put the art on the wall to protect it while we worked on the other rooms. And the chair just seemed like it should sit there in the corner for now. I have a wrought iron bed painted a cream that will go in here. and I found bedding that will wisk you away to far away places with waves lapping outside the windows and vendors in the streets selling their wares.  Bright bold colors on a white backdrop. Now, onto painting the rest of the upstairs…

 

 Cloth I used

 

Blending colors.

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, I found Julia looking like this…

 

 

and then I found this…

 

 

 

 

so I made her do this….

Going to try and post in order here so there is some sense as you look at pictures.

So these pictures are upstairs in the master bedroom and family room. We framed in a walk in closet, since there was no real closet and this room is over 200 sqft. Tore all the casings and trim from the windows. Then sheet rocked and bull nosed them so we could plaster right up to the window. The look I am going for with this is Tucson and Old World sorta blended. I love the warmth and inviting character of these styles. I have been studying it in magazines and books and every building I’m in that is of this style for about a decade. And I love it. So plaster was on the list. Just about every room in this house had a different texture on it. When we are finished, every room will be hand plastered. 

I want to make sure to not leave our children out of this story of our remodel. They are a huge part of it. From working along side of us, to taking over meals and laundry and other household chores that I normally do, they have been AMAZING!! I have loved all the conversations I have had with the older ones as we work late into the night side by side. It’s been a good growing time for our family. Honestly, it’s hard to stay grounded when your whole life feels like its been placed in a popcorn popper and then turned on. So many things to try and stay ahead of. Like…

-Staying content living in this mess.

-Not overspending our budget. (this means hunting down EVERY bargin!)

-Having patience when there are set backs.

-Keeping my children safe in all of this.

-Being creative to save money.

-Accepting the fact my clothes are all wrinkled and shoved on an old shelf

(because I have no other place to put them)

-There is not a clean room in my house. And I can’t clean up this mess.

-That Eric and I disagree on things.

(I’m right brained. The artsy, creative, free thinker. He’s left brained,

keeps track of every penny spent, sticks to the budget. The Realist)

-That some days, my water is turned off, or electric is off the whole long day.

-And on really bad days, the septic back flows out of the toilet and tub onto the floor. 

(And the one child who saw it forgot to tell me until about 3 hours later. )

 

But I’m still smiling. Still thankful for this house and the vision we have for it. Praising God for all His blessings in all of this. Like a much needed trip to So Cal. 

~cheryl

We had to paint this pink glue on all the walls before we could plaster. It keeps the plaster from flakingoff the already painted walls.Here I’m sheet rocking the windows so they can be plastered.This arched window was a crazy challenge. Spwnt about 5 days trying different ways to get the sheetrock to arch inside the window. Finally bought super thin sheet rock and sprayed it with water to get it to bend without snapping or crumbling. 

The ugly color of brown on one wall in the master bedroom. Fan is coming down too.

Little workers removing carpet. Gabe is the safety inspector! LOL

Plastering the windows after removing the casing and trim 
New Plastered Window

My new plasters, bull nosed windows!!

Josh pulling up the carpet on the stairwell 

Jules has had to spend a lot of time in her crib. Keeps her safe and alive. She’s about as wild as she looks in this picture!!Keeps me on my toes!

Sleeping Gabe after a hard day of working

A new linen closet framed into a dead space. AWESOME!

Eric’s Uncle Rodger. Helping with framing. 

Caged little children. Two are happy and one is not. 

Gabe using the Shop Vac

My new walk in closet in the Master Bed

The new family room

I’m sitting here in a hotel in Southern California. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I’m going to try and catch up here. Seven children are all tucked into beds, corners, and chairs. And it sounds like the sick ward at the hospital. Coughing and sniffles. So far the count is five out of seven are down with an awful cold. One that keeps them up all night coughing.  Thats a lot of coughing for this tired Momma. We left Thurs evening and got here Friday afternoon. Just the children and me. I picked them up after orchestra practice and started driving south. Eric had to stay behind to work. I love my hard working man. We came down for a Memorial Service for a dear friend who took us under her wing when we showed up for Dental School. She helped us find housing when I was convinced we would spend the next four years living in the Wal Mart parking lot in our twenty two year old motorhome.  All seven of us at the time. She always was a welcoming smile on the fifth floor when we would visit Eric at school. She brought meals when I had my babies. Was always sending food home with Eric to help us stretch our money a little farther. The children all called her Auntie Joy. And a joy she was to our family. (This is not my friend so many of you have been praying for.  Lord willing, I will get to visit her on this trip!)

I painted bathrooms up until about 30 minutes before we jumped in the car to leave. And I still had not packed. I was sorta dreading it. I love being organized. When I leave on vacation or to go away, my house is clean.  Very clean. Only because I absolutely love to walk into a clean home when we return. Even if it is only for about all of 60 seconds, Then the car sorta explodes into the house and you would never of even known it was beautiful and spotless (ok, I’m stretching it on that one just a few minutes before. But I know. And I knew the whole time I was gone.  So leaving this time meant leaving a house that has been in major construction mode for going on months now. We have packed up most of the whole house and put it out in the shop. We are replacing every window, door, flooring, light fixture, and texture on the walls. Then there is the kitchen remodel. Lots and lots has happened. But thats next post. So I raced through the house. Literally throwing things in suitcases. Now, my children were all neatly packed. They started the day we decided to go. Which was about a week ago. While I was painting or sheet rocking or working as general contractor, they were busy little bees getting their suitcases out (each has their own) and packing up all their clothes. Which is not very much in our construction mode. I just didn’t have time to make the lists and slowly pack everything that we would need. Honesty, I knew there wasn’t much I could forget that I couldn’t just buy down here if I needed it. And forget I did.  All my jeans and shorts. Diapers. Shoes. PJs. Just about everything in the bathroom like deodorant, razor, face wash. The huge tub of snacks for the trip. And lots of other things I have already forgot that I forgot. So first stop as we rolled into town was Costco. Love that store. Then we checked into our hotel. I Pricelined it. It’s my new favorite thing to do when traveling. You can get awesome deals on really nice hotels. This one was no exception. It’s beautiful, spacious, and has a full breakfast with custom made omelets (which I love!). 

I’m hoping to stay about a week or so. Its a much needed break away from our house. I have loved almost every minute remodeling this home, but it is a enormous task which consumes just about every waking moment of my day. And I still have all the normal life stuff that requires my time and attention. I can’t seen to justify writing a post or checking FB, or reading a magazine or making a phone call or packing a suitcase when I’m overwhelmed with all the work that I can do. Our goal is to do as much ourselves as we can to stretch our money as far as we can. This means working hard. Working very, very hard. 

So, remodel pictures to come in the next day or so. I can not wait to sit in our old church tomorrow morning and listen to our Pastor preach to my heart. It’s hungry for what he has to teach. And my oldest 3 are equally excited. Time for some beauty rest now. At least during this lull from coughing children.

~cheryl

A few weeks back, we awoke to a winter wonderland! And this place does feel that way. Hills everywhere, trees covered, and a house that looks castle-ish. The children were out as soon as it was light enough to see. I just found these pictures on the little point and shoot I carry around in my purse. I had totally forgot about them being on there. Maryann decided she was allergic to snow, because she kept getting it in her boots and she didn’t like that. She and I and the little ones headed back inside to make hot cocoa, apple cider and pumpkin bread to de-thaw the older ones when they came in. We all really missed our dog that day. When it snowed last year, she had loved it. Racing all around. She looked almost wolf like. But, alas, many new memories from this day with just brothers and sisters.