Is This Heaven, No It's Iowa: January 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Built ins/Fireplace makeover

The latest project was redoing the built ins/fireplace area. I've gone through my pics these are the best "before" pics I have. The previous owners painted the wood a dark brown, which I actually didn't mind. Mike didn't care for it at all. Mom recently wallpapered behind her built ins so that inspired me.

Another "before" shot.

The process ended up being a little more labor intensive than we had planned, but what project isn't! Haha. We ended up putting 3 coats of black stain on the built ins. The first two coats were streaky looking. Finally, we mixed the stain/poly mix really good and it finally worked. The wallpaper also had to be hung twice. First time there was WAY too much paste, after 6+ hours of drying there was still wet glue oozing from behind the wallpaper. Had to rip it off and start all over again. 2nd time was much better. The kids both helped with the wallpaper.

The came time to tear off the old tile. I actually did some of this, but I'm always behind the camera! :)

Finished product. I really like this! One of my favorite transformations so far. I need some major help in "styling" the built ins. Sara or mom need to come help me with that...hint, hint! This is my lame attempt.

With the fire on. We don't really use the fireplace bc the blowers are SO LOUD! But I turned it on for sake of the pic. :) now we are talking about painting the walls in the family room..... We shall see! :)

Friday, January 24, 2014

Basement Pics

When we purchased this house over the summer the big project (besides the master bath) was finishing the basement. I feel like this is where I worked the entire fall. Mike hired a crew to hang the drywall and spray the texture. The rest if it we pretty much did on our own. We did have Mike's employees help here and there hanging doors, priming, etc, but mostly it was us. Our goal was to have it finished before we hosted Thanksgiving and the day before Thanksgiving the granite was installed in the bar area. Cutting it close! We are happy with how it turned out.

The stair leading up are to the left of the pic, near the light switches on that wall. The door you see is the downstairs bath, which is at the foot of the stairs. I already posted a pic of the bath a few posts ago so I didn't include it here. This is the big play area. Mostly overtaken by Porter's Legos. I need to find a way to store his sets once they are completed to get them off the ground. I'm thinking just a bookcase of some sort. I also need to get some things up on the walls!

Standing in the play area looking into the cozy TV area. Mike was really wanting a walkout basement, but we are happy to have bigger windows down here as a compromise.

Behind the couch is the bar area.

Then a wide hallway leading to the workout room.

Another shot.

This kids favorite part is the "secret hideout" that Mike dreamed up. :) Coming down the stairs is a built-in bookcase.

But if you push it open there is a ladder going down into a hideout.

It's hard trying to get a pic of the inside. We let the kids and their friends sign/draw on the inside of the hideout. Pretty vpcute!

A shot of how the ladder comes down and how you can get into the hideout.

It was really hard for adults to squeeze into that space to get in so Mike enlarged the hideout some and added a bigger door that leads to our storage room that we can easily access the hideout if need be.

With the door opened looking into the storage room.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Pinewood Derby 2014

Saturday morning was devoted to Porter's Cub Scout troops Pinewood Derby race. P had been looking forward to this for a LONG time. He (Mike) worked very hard on his car. Friday night they went in and had the car weighed and inspected to make sure it met all the criteria. Thesis the ral deal, guys!! :) Saturday morning the derby started at 9, Stella and I showed up a bit after 10. The derby lasted until around noon.

Porter watching a race. You can see the track in the background.

Porters car getting ready to race in a heat. There were 52 heats, then the top 18 made it to the finals. There were 18 heats in the finals. Porter didn't make it to the finals and was a bit bummed, but he's already planning for next year!

Off they go! His is the red car with black stripes.

With his 2 good buds, Austin and Hank.

Shot of most of the cars. There were 52 participants.

Accidentally uploaded this and can't get it deleted, so please ignore.....

With his car

Just a shot of Stella. She loves playing with my old Raggedy Ann doll and her stuffed bear, Vada Bear, that she still sleeps with every night.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Heat Wave!

A beautiful weekend weather-wise in Iowa! We've earned this after last weekends polar vortex and -45! degree wind chill temps. On Saturday we headed over to Sleepy Hollow to enjoy the mid 30's tropical temps! We ended up being there from about 10:30-5:30. Would of stayed longer, but we were all (Mike!) getting hungry since we hadn't eaten since breakfast.

Kids started out on skis.

Stella really took to these and by the end of our day, she was going down hills, without falling, that even I was not brave enough to try.

Getting off the rope lift.

Ready to conquer the bunny hill!

P ready for a wipeout! He actually did quite well for his first time on skis.

After hitting the slopes we went snow tubing. What a blast! I have no pics, too busy zooming down the hills. Great fun!

Then the kids and Mike (I know my limits!) went snowboarding. Mike was a snowboarder back in his HS days. He was able to coach/give the kids lots of pointers. While Stella took to skiing, Porter took to snowboarding! Was fun to see them both progress as the day went on. It was our first time taking them out on skis/snowboard and they both want to go back soon. And we all enjoyed fresh air and sunshine! :)

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

"Snow Day" Fun!

The kids had a "snow day" on Monday which was not really a snow day since no new snow fell, but due to the Polar Vortex we had beyond frigid temps the past 48 hours. We didn't leave the house at all on Monday, except for Mike. Our high was like -7 on Monday with wind chills making it feel like -45 below. Crazy!! I said many thankful prayers that day for a roof over heads and warm blankets, food in our bellies. It makes one realize how lucky they are.

Anyhoo--- school resumed for our crew on Friday. Unfortunately both kids were sick and missed school that day. Porter was most upset that he couldn't go to school! The ickys definitely hit Stella much worse. Poor thing was in our bed all.day.long on Friday. All.day! Her fever spiked Friday night at over 104.

Here's Stella resting in bed while Porter is rallying and being a pest to her!

We had playdates planned for Thursday with their preschool, BFF's, but since my kids were sick we postponed to Sunday. Porter went to their house to play with Brant and Mallory came to our house. The girls had a GREAT time! (so did the boys, I just don't have any pics).

So back to our snow day. The night before the kids were able to stay up late. We play lots of games/board games here and over break Monopoly Jr has become P's favorite game!

Snow Day found them working on Lego sets.

Then we did a handful of cold weather science experiments! Starting with freezing a t-shirt. Took just a couple of minutes.

Porter is blowing bubbles which instant froze. Very cool! (yes, that would be our Christmas tree laying on the deck....don't judge!).

I've heard of frying an egg on a sidewalk when it's super hot, but not freezing an egg when it's super cold!

Throwing boiling water into the freezing cold air and watching it turn to vapor! So there you go folks, my turn at homeschooling my kids for the day! Haha! Stay warm everyone!