The Stevens Family

We've made TONS of leeway on the downstairs bathroom. We went a little bit bold with the colors, but the effect is pretty cool. All we have left to do is to paint and put up trim boards. I'll post a picture when I can get a decent one. I'd kind of like to wait until the project is complete until I share a picture.
We're also hoping to get a lot of progress done on our bedroom this weekend. It's basically a lot of woodwork, and a second coat of paint on the walls. And then I can hang stuff up on the walls, and sort of decorate. Yay!
A store in Fort Madison, Sweet Magnolias, is in the process of a going out of business sale. They have a lot of stuff that I'd love to have, but even at sale prices are a little steep for me. We did find one thing though, it isn't perfect, but it is the perfect size for the space that will one day hold our built in book shelves. I know we won't be able to afford the perfect built in bookshelves for years, but I really wanted something to put in the space that would hold our board games and whatnot. This is what I found:
It was only $80, and it was the perfect size. I thought we could reface the drawers, add some cool knobs, and paint it. We'll wait awhile before we start anything on it, mostly because we aren't sure exactly what we want to do with it. But for now, I'm just glad to have the nice deep drawers for extra storage.

Our open house is scheduled for the fourth weekend of June. So, if you're from this area and read this blog, and I know you, leave me a comment and let me know if you want an invite. Chances are you're probably already getting one. It's nothing to spectacular, just basically a way to let everyone see how far we've come. Plus booze and snacks.

I'm working on another blog. Since I'm becoming a realtor soon, hopefully (come on fingerprints!), I thought I'd start one up about the Burlington Iowa area. It'll basically consist of the fun activities going on in the area, because there really IS something to do all of the time, you just have to find them. Since I'm an old house lover, I'll probably post information regarding older houses that could use some help as they enter the market. There will also be links to other local sites and blogs that pertain to the area. We'll see. I hope to get more of a start on in the next couple of weeks. The link will be www.burlingtoniowa.blogspot.com.

In Jayden related news, he's still a bit of trouble. Not bad trouble, just getting-into-a-lot-of-stuff-because-he's-so-curious trouble. After the lipstick incident, I warned Josh, "Do not let him out of your site, not for a minute!" And I went off to work. I came home to Josh with a scowl on his face and a broom in his hands. He was cleaning up the hot cocoa powder that covered the kitchen floor, trailed through the family, and coated our couch in the living room. Can't say I didn't warn him. Our house smelled delicious.

Yesterday I posted regarding the difficulties working on the house when it's just me and Jayden. Well, it didn't stop there.
Here is the reason I can't even let the boy out of my site for ten minutes:

We have a LOT of painting to do. Although I'm a stay at home mom, I refuse to paint during the day when it's just me and Jayden. Today, I gave in. It was just a little bathroom. And this is what I got:

I finally met some of the neighbors that have been waking Jayden up at the crack of dawn. I went out to hose of some of the cracked up, useless foundation I dug up in the back yard, as I was spraying these two baby birds came out to play in the water. They walked right up to me, and probably would have walked right into my palm if I would have let them.



I think playing in the water is enjoyed by most youngins...

Warning: Old person bit ahead.
I started my very first vegetable garden today. So far, it's just tomatoes. We'll see how they go before I venture into possible killing any other innocent plants.

Our bank appraiser and our loan officer came to the house on Tuesday to appraise the house again. The house turned out much different (in a good way) than we had planned on when they did the initial appraisal, so they wanted to redo it so our loan would look better. I think it went well, they both left smiling, so that's a good thing, right?

Well, we did really good with our to do list last weekend. We were able to accomplish everything, except getting anything started in the downstairs bathroom. Hopefully we'll be able to get to that sometime this weekend. And I really really want to get our bedroom finished. So hopefully we'll be able to get those two rooms under control in the next couple of weeks.

I'd really like to get some more yard work done also. Yesterday I decided to clean up the back corner, it was completely grown over when we bought the place, and it's getting more and more under control. I decided to uncover some of the concrete, there used to be a building in the corner, and the foundation is still there. What I thought was just a couple of cement slabs turned out to be the entire foundation. It's very uneven, and it was under 3-4 inches of dirt. I'm not sure what we'll do with it, but for now, Jayden is having a good time driving his trucks on it.

Also, in case you didn't know, we lost my camera in the move. We assumed Jayden put it in a box (because he really does try to help), but we haven't found it, so we think it may have gotten thrown away (another thing Jayden likes to help with). We finally gave in and ordered a new camera, since I'm (almost) a Realtor now, I can use it as a tax right off! I haven't had the chance to play with it too much, but I did take a couple of pictures and videos last night just for fun, and basically just to see if it could take a picture of Jayden that didn't turn out as a complete blur.