What's New?!

I'm back. Yeah! I have truly missed the blogging world. I was able to post once (and thank you for comments, we all love comments!). But I didn't read a lot of blogs because now that my husband has had his laser surgery his eyes are like a hawk or something and he uses such tiny fonts on his laptop. I would have a head ache after trying to read it for more than a few minutes to occasionally check e-mails. So, I have missed all my blogging friends.

A lot is new around here. First, my body looks different and new all the time. Finn is doing well. At his appointment on Friday we could see little fuzzy hair on the top of his head and a very cute ear but he wouldn't grace us with a face shot. He weighs almost 3.5 pounds. Wow! String Cheese and Deedle were average 7 pounder babies but I think he is on track to be much larger. Maybe not. But I weighed 10 lbs 3 oz. and Chancho's mom also gave birth to a 10 pounder so maybe Finn is going to be big. In November we started clearing out our basement in earnest to be able to finish the large portion that was...well...unfinished. Chancho and his dad have spent countless hours down here since then. We did already have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom down here. But I never liked coming down here unless I had to be on the computer. One bedroom we used for a TV room. It was always crowded and always messy and even if I cleaned it up, the walls were colored on and the carpet was thrashed and it just wasn't a happy place for me. The room is now String Cheese's new bedroom. She is so happy about it that she (and the others) insisted on sleeping in their rooms in sleeping bags until we get their beds moved down here.One bedroom was sort of String Cheese's bedroom but after a few weeks she decided she didn't like sleeping downstairs alone and we moved her bed back in with Deedle. She kept her clothing and toys in the downstairs room and did a good job at keeping it clean. But her room was pretty crazy. It is what I call my "stifled creativity" room. Pretty much until last summer, I always kind of felt in limbo in my house. I painted a few of the bedrooms but Chancho kept thinking maybe we'd move and I also didn't have a lot of confidence in my abilities to really make my home look how I wanted it to. And of course there are always the financial concerns involved with remodeling. So, for 6 years most of our home felt rather sterile and bland to me--the same cream walls and cream carpet that was in the house when we purchased it. I unleashed all of my pent up desire for color on SC's downstairs room by painting the walls turquoise and using bright striped curtains and a rug. It actually was kind of cute. It was my little island room. But it was too much. Now it is Loumy's bedroom. He chose green. I got to choose the shade. He and Deedle really wanted to sleep in their rooms, as well, but then they felt a bit nervous and decided they would take turns sleeping together in each other's new rooms until they feel more comfortable. Fine with me.
The third bedroom was an office for Chancho and myself. It also had the dingy cream walls that had been written on and stained cream carpet and it was always a mess. Obviously I use my computer a lot but I really tried to look at nothing but my monitor when in that room. It is now Deedle's room. She chose blue and again I chose the shade and I think it looks darling. I will take a photo once I get it a little more finished. Since they slept in Loumy's room last night they are sleeping in her room tonight and I didn't want to risk waking them again by taking photos.

In the basement we also have now a big family room, Chancho has his own office, and we have several nice, large storage rooms/closets. Everything is now painted and carpet was finished last night! Yahoo!!! I love to be down here. Who doesn't like new, clean, and soft spaces??? We still have lots of work to do with bringing down all of the furniture and items from the kids rooms upstairs. And our living room and family room upstairs are completely cluttered with boxes and other items needing to be brought down here, organized and stored.

So far the only things we have brought down are the things that Chancho and I were most excited about. For him, it was bringing down the couch and hooking up his new TV in the family room. For me it was my "work station". Chancho spent time tonight getting everything hooked up for me and I love it. What a nice little space I have here and I can sit and blog and still be in the same room as Chancho while he watches something at night.This photo might be a little boring but I like it very much. You can see you come down the stairs and then turn and come down this hall. It used to end part way down with a door and then you would go into the unfinished part. Now it is a longer hallway and turns into Chancho's room on the right or, if you go left, into our new family room.
I am very tired but very satisfied. I did the beadboard in SC's room and lots of painting, but the majority of credit has to go to the efforts of Chancho and his dad, with out whom none of this could have happened because we wouldn't have had the money or the know-how. Thank you! I love everything!