Neil & Diana's home projects:

Today is Friday-April 25th. I thought I better give an 'update' on our happenings. I am so impressed with Julie's blog and her kitchen construction pictures! How exciting! We are in the process of getting our house up and ready to put on the market. WORK! WORK! WORK!

I can tell you 3 things I 'DON'T' like to do:

1-The smell of stain (painting); it's low odor but when it's too cold and I can't open the window,

well it doesn't smell bad, but it has a low odor.

2-Painting

3-Cleaning up the mess! UGH! :o/

I 'DO' like:

The great results from the 3 things I didn't like to do! :o)

In one of the upstairs bedrooms the closet door is 36-inches wide. That's not a normal door width. When you open that door it takes 1/3 of your wall space so nothing can be behind the door! We took off that door and are putting in a door that folds in the middle. Now you know why I 'don't like' the smell of painting the stain finish! The door looks great though!

I re-stained all the kitchen cupboards. There is a product called 'Pro Fin' by Dalys. It comes in 'satin' and 'gloss' finish. I use 'satin'. It comes in a pint, quart or gallon. A quart goes a long way! If you have wood stained cupboards and they are showing water marks or wear, take some steel wool and gently go over those areas. You have to wipe the surfaces very clean (dust and lint free). Then use the Pro Fin (open the can and stir really well, it has settling on the bottom) with a regular paint brush. Leave it on 5 to 10 minutes and then 'wipe off' the stain. It takes about 4 hours to thoroughly dry, longer in the rainy weather, shorter in warm weather. It brings the wood back up to the beautiful stain it once was. Sometimes you have to do two coats. You can wipe off the 2nd coat or leave it and it will be shinier. Works terrific!

I stained 'all' the window sills in the house and the door jams where they were worn. I did all 'three' of the bathroom cupboards. Hmm. Do I want to see a paintbrush again real soon??? NO!!!

Now I have to work on 'downsizing' all the rooms and de-cluttering and making our home look ever so spacious! I made new kitchen curtains and master bedroom curtains. They are not fancy but look nice. All this prep work just to put your house on the market and look ever so appealing! :o)

David, our son, is both landscaper for us and our real estate agent. He's working so hard! He pressure washed the roof and got rid of the moss. You have to spray 'before winter.' You'd think we learned that one! NOT! :o/ Then he's putting in more decorative brick walls in the front and along the side yards. We have to get more sand, dirt and sod to bring in. :o/ He has to paint the white trim again on the house and sand and restain the front steps. We hope to have 'all this done' by may 15th. If we are lucky, May 12th! AND, Neil and Kirsten and I are going to be gone for a week starting next week! Yikes! WORK! and more WORK! But 'it will' all come together and 'we will' finish on time! :o) I keep convincing myself of that! :o)

Below are some pictures that show the 'stain' on the cupboards, finishing the closet door, curtains in the kitchen and our bedroom and yard work.

Kirsten LOVES Balloons!

Kirsten turned 18 on April 2nd. One of her 'favorite' things is Mylar Balloons!

She likes them when they start getting deflated. They still stay in the air, but she likes to grab them and they 'squeak' a lot more. She 'loves' that sound. Kirsten got '6' balloons for her birthday. I have

a few pictures of her with her 'favorite things!'

New Flooring for kitchen, laundry room and half bath.

We are trying to get our home ready to put on the market by mid-May. David, our son, is our Real Estate agent. He works for Keller Williams out in Bothell, Wa. 15 minutes from his house. He has been sooo very helpful in getting us ready! He's laid the flooring and soon will be working on the outside to do a bit of needed updating of our landscape. We put in Hamilton Oak/Traffic Master/Laminate flooring. I loved the color! It matches our walls and cupboards beautifully! You can be the judge. See the pictures. It took 2 days. I had painted the kitchen last summer a pretty soft apricot color. It's like a chameleon in that it changes color. During the day it appears pale maize yellow. As the sun sets, it turns a beautiful golden apricot. Anybody that has seen our kitchen immediately LOVES IT! They always comment how pretty it is. Thanks! :o)

David laid adhesive tile in the laundry room and the half-bath the adjoins the laundry room. It looks so much better! I love it! I chose that color (see pictures) as it won't show the dirt or shoe traffic!

That was harder to lay than I thought. It took about 1 1/2 days to lay those two floors. Dad finished putting back the trim.

I did the kitchen pantry in the same tile. For a pantry closet with lots of use, I thought it would stand up better than putting laminate flooring in there. I like it! It took me 2 hours to prep, take out the trim and lay that floor, which also included emptying the bottom 3 shelves and putting everything back again plus the trim! Yikes! It made me appreciate how hard David worked!

Let me know what you think of our floors!

Kirsten's 18th Birthday

Kirsten's Birthday!

We had a small family birthday party for Kirsten on Saturday. David and Angela and their Chihuahua 'Nala' helped dad and I celebrate with Kirsten. What a very special celebration! I have to honestly say that I never knew she'd see this birthday. She's very special and has a special syndrome-Trisomy 18-Edwards Syndrome and very few make it to how old she is. The oldest that I know of is 24. You can probably count on one hand those living.

Back to the party...

Kirsten was happy! We had her 'favorite foods.' She loves my homemade spaghetti and she loves Strawberry shortcake. She just likes the juice poured over the cake and Cool Whip on top and then mix it all up. I crumble her cake first. She loves this!

We had Mylar balloons as she loves them! We got her 4 and David and Angela brought her two more. They are in a nice bunch and she loves playing with it!

Lisa made her a cute sock monkey. We gave her 3 outfits, 2 dresses and 1 skirt with 2 tops.

We are so grateful to have Kirsten. She is a gift from God. We are thankful for the many 'tender mercies' he has blessed her with so abundantly!

Happy 18th Birthday Kirsten!