My "Real" Job

Had to do a little bit of my "real" job this morning for Live Your Life, ink.  Drove up to Godfrey to put down a floor vinyl for a Wedding that's tomorrow night.  This bad boy was about 42" square.  I just love the way it looks on the dance floor....

Congrats to Adam & Carley!

Take it from me...14 years will be here before you know it  :)

Ahhh...Flowers

Today we took a little road trip to Zimmerman's Greenhouse...close to Vandalia, IL.  It was a trip that I hadn't made yet.  Mom, Angie and I jumped int he truck around 11 and took the little over an hour drive to go see what all the fuss was about....

Well....let me tell you...the fuss is definitely about something!!!  Now mind you...we are all three flower lovers...(like seriously...I think we have an illness, lol)  It was soooooo hot....who goes to a greenhouse when it's 100 degrees outside??  It's like we're asking for punishment!

But just look at all of these beautiful flowers!!!

I've never seen such gorgeous begonia's....LOVE them!

The shade house...still going strong in the middle of June.

Wonder how many we can fit in the truck  :)

Look at this one....GORGEOUS!!

I LOVE yellow & purple flowers together!

These planters were just huge...like 3.5' tall.

Wish the new house was done...I can see two of these on the front porch :)

Seriously...what do they do to their begonia's?

This was one of my favorites...how cute is this.  It's probably about 2' wide!

So between the three of us we FILLED the truck bed and cab, lol.  There was NO more room in the Inn.  We're going to have to make this trip again for sure.

Oh, and we had lunch at this cute little Amish Country Store just up the road from Zimmerman's.  What's better than a homemade hot ham & cheese sandwich for lunch and then buying bulk foods at the same place??  FUN!

Chim, Chim, Cher-ee, Chim, Chim, Cher-ee

Guess what I found......

My earring!!  YEAH!!

While I did tell Kade that if I found the lost one I wouldn't need the new ones....I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to let him take them back, lol!  It honestly was driving me crazy that I couldn't find it though.  Today was extra bad...I looked all over at the new house...in the truck...then finally decided that I should maybe check under the seat.  Low and behold...there it was!  It must have fallen off of the tote when Kade chucked it into the back seat and then lodged itself between the cushions.  (our back seats in the truck fold up for more storage)  So glad I found it!!  I'm still thinking I should get some new piercing studs from Claire's Boutique though, lol!

So today we met with Turney's about Geothermal and some plumbing stuff.  Waiting to hear back about what appendages we're going to have to sell to get the Geothermal that Kade really wants, lol.  The appointment went really well though overall.

We also had the Chimney Sweeps come out this afternoon to clean and inspect the chimney.  HOLY MACKEREL that chimney was a mess!!  They said they'd NEVER gotten so much junk out of a chimney before!  GREAT! (not!)  So together, with my cleaning yesterday and theirs today, we got about five...that's right FIVE, 5 gallon buckets of junk out of the fireplace/chimney!  Pretty that thing hasn't been cleaned out since 1974!  The damper COMPLETELY fell apart when he reached up to clean it (which I knew was going to happen, lol)  So we're going to have to buy some kind of a damper for the top of the chimney now.  Otherwise, there are just 2 places that could use a little fireplace cement (which I can fix myself!)  Whew!  Oh, and I need to find some fireplace doors too.  That's gonna be a fun one...that bad boy is 46" wide (much wider than most fireplaces) so of course it's going to be a special order item!!  Maybe I'll get lucky, but I've been searching online for a bit tonight and haven't seen any "good" deals.  Perhaps I can get Kade to just go for it sitting open (if we get the good damper for the chimney)  I have to say....I LOVE that it's a real wood burning fireplace!  They are SOOOO relaxing!  The chimney guy did actually say that we could build a fire in there ANYTIME now, it's ready to go! (Kade, are you reading this???)

I think tomorrow we might be back at pulling up the hardwood floors in one of the two bedrooms left.  Can't wait to actually get that done (but I can guarantee that my arm could wait a lifetime, lol!)  Two more days until the rest of the walls come down....so exciting!!  I guess I really need to start making some decisions on flooring and cabinetry.  Ugh!  Somebody needs to do that for me I think!  :)

We made it to closing! Whew!

 

I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it!  We are now officially homeowners!  It's been a long time comin' huh?  Well, Kade finally talked me in to this place.  Not far from where we've been for the last 13 years, off the road (very important), 2 ponds and 30 acres.  The house DIDN'T sell me on this piece of property, but the other things did!!  Here's what we've got to work with....

Built in 1974, this baby hasn't been touched since!  Don't you LOVE the carport in front of the garage....NOT!  And then there's its color....like a few different shades of skin.  Did they have to pick brown/beige/tan for everything?  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE brown...but something about these colors together just don't work for me!  So many decisions...and I can't even make ONE!  That better change REAL quick!

Below is what our plans were looking like for a new build.  We didn't finish the plans...but we still will...I'm not giving up the dream of this 2 story beauty!

Big plans for the new house....how can I make it livable??  What can we do to make it OUR home?  Here's what we've got planned...

• Gut kitchen and bathroom
• add half bath on main floor
• add laundry room on main floor
• salvage hardwood floors from main floor for the basement family room/bedroom/and craft room
• new hardwood throughout the main floor
• deck off the sunroom/kitchen
• add new HVAC (the house has crazy electric heat in the ceilings and NO air conditionally...I swore I wouldn't do that again, lol!!)

So....can we finish it all??  We shall see!  Kade thinks we'll be able to move by April 1st, I'm thinking May 1st....and oh yeah....we're pretty much doing all the work ourselves!!  And the project starts.....NOW!!