Painting Completed...

 

Getting the paint stirred up and ready to go...

 The awesome painters...

 The Dynamic Duo...

 The TV is still in the living room on a chair...

Josh didn't want to miss the baseball playoffs...

 I couldn't take pictures while my dad was suspended above the stairway...

but you can see how he did it...

Josh held the ladder... I held the paint...

 After years of my dad telling me...

"You are going to drive me to drink"

It looks like I finally succeeded!

 This pic does not show the true color... but it is beautiful

See those sweet "white" baseboards...

my mom painted all of those!

 Moving on to the kitchen...

 

I will have to get some pictures of the completed job in the kitchen and some better ones of the living room.  After the living/family and hallway was all painted... we had to wait 8 days for the carpet to be cleaned... can you say MESS!  The living room had a card table (great for eating on since the kitchen table was buried) 4 folding chairs and the TV. We lived in total chaos for over 2 weeks... no Halloween or fall decor in sight... take out dinners were our friend... but in the end it will be worth it I keep telling myself!  After the carpet was cleaned we moved everything out of the kitchen/dining area and moved it to the living room.  It only took dad and Josh 2 days to get it done and we were ready to getting the house put back together again... I still have things to get finished...but we have Halloween and fall decoration out and everyone is a happy camper!

 

Pre-Paint Job...

Can you say WHITE?  I love the color white... just not on ALL of my walls... this is how my house has looked for the past 7 years... white... everywhere you look... white...white...white.  It doesn't say home... it says... cold!  In my "former life" (those of you who know me ~ know that I was divorced 18 months ago) and the former life didn't deem it necessary to paint... well it took me a few months to do it... but here we go.  This whole "painting burr" got started when we moved everything out of our family/living room and entry to have the carpet re-stretched.  It had "wrinkles" when we bought the house 7 years ago... and they just kept getting worse (kinda like my face these days... more wrinkles are appearing weekly)... so after the re-stretch I looked at all of the cold WHITE walls and decided I didn't want anything moved back into the room until it was painted.  Ironically my mom called a few minutes after the carpet man left... I got brave and asked her if she would mind going to Bennett's Paint with me to pick out paint colors... she said that her and dad were headed to Pepperidge Farm for cookies and she needed to talk to dad.  I laughed when she said she would call me back...because I knew dad was going to pop a gasket. She called back a few minutes later and said she and dad would meet me there... I asked "is dad mad" and she said..."yes"!  When I met up with them at Bennett's we found the perfect color and Martha went to work her magic.  I told dad that I had saved some money and that I was going to pay a professional painter to come and paint and that he wouldn't have to fuss with it.  Later in the day I started calling painters... they all wanted $300 - $600 per room.  Well I had saved... but not that much.  Dad to the rescue... he and Josh are going to be painting... stay tuned...

Swimming... Anyone?

With all of the snow ~ rain ~ sleet ~ hail and all of the other weather that Mother Nature has sent to Logan this past week... this is the beginning of the Johnson Swimming Hole.  This picture is taken from my deck looking at my neighbors backyard... our property line is where the wood stick is on the middle left of the picture. Thank goodness my house is built up a little higher... looks like our neighborhood could be in for some flooding when spring finally does arrive!

Valentine Decor...

 Valentine printables from While He Was Napping
embellished with Stickles

Shelf...

Bookcase

Glass End Table

Christmas Decorations...

Josh put up the "loopty loops" (that's a Johnson term for sure) and dug out the old trees from under the deck... we haven't used them in 7 years! I never would have thought they would have still worked... but they were beautiful.  My dad made these out of cages and strung green lights on them... they looked really cool with the deer I used to have... the green had come off of the bulbs... other than that... they worked like a charm!  We also decided to see just how "white trash" we could be this year with the old Santa and his Harley blow up decoration.  It worked... not our "normal" style... our choice would have been Dez (our new favorite Dallas Cowboy guy) riding on a large football... maybe next year!

Holiday Decor...

Labor Day...

I was looking forward to a nice 3 day weekend (I don't get many of those these days)...I knew that I needed to get the door jams painted... but I had NO idea just how much work they would be! Mom and dad to the rescue! They both came down on Saturday morning... mom and I sanded while dad primed and then painted the wood.  Dad installed new molding around the doors... why in the world they picked black strips when the doors and the casings are white is beyond me... but I now have brand new white strips that looks so pretty!

The Front door... and a closer look.... it really needed it!

The deck door...  and the garage door... all in much need of some TLC

The front door and the deck door completed ... don't they look great!

Then it was off to the fridge in the garage... luckily I spared you the grossness of it with no pictures but imagine 6 years with 4 not so "careful" boys getting in and out of it on a daily basis... ooohhheeeewwww! I scrubbed and scrubbed the outside and the inside while mom worked her magic on all of the shelves and trays... it looks brand spank me new! On Monday Josh and started on the garage... We moved pretty much everything and hosed the entire garage down, the cobwebs from the ceiling went bye-bye,  we got Josh's Corvette moved closer to the house (now that we only have 3 cars at the house instead of the 7 cars we had at one time...yes my dad said we looked like a used car lot... and it was sooo true!)  I got the entire driveway and side parking finally hosed down and it looks (and feels) so good! All in all it was a very busy weekend... but we now have 23 projects done... and only 477 more to go!

Re-Decorating...

The "Throne" and bookcase...

I have room behind the loveseat to look at my

beautiful view of the farm land and horses!

I've had my rocking chair for over 30 years... still love it!

The china hutch... with more patriotic stuff

I keep my patriotic stuff up May - August

Mom and Kendra's idea...I think it turned out great!

As most of you know by now... Val and I are getting divorced. It's a good thing for both of us and was decided upon mutually and thus far (knock on wood) we have been able to agree on everything! The apartment Val and Jake were going to move into finally became available (after 3 months of living with their daughter/sister).  Val and Jake were finally able to come and get their "stuff"  which I had agreed they could keep in the house until they were able to move in.  

I've been excited about finally getting to re-arrange things... my things! ... and this is how it turned out...  I had some great help from my mom, dad, Josh and Kendra. What do you think?    

I LOVE IT!

Yard Care Professionals...

Have I mentioned before that I have the two cutest yard care professionals that mow my lawn on a weekly basis? It's true... they are both cutey patooties!

Josh and Joey Burns... you two Rock!

I don't know what I would do without the two of you! My lawn has never looked better! If you need your lawn mowed... edged or aerated Give them a call... these two sweet boys can visit your yard too!

The Deck...

The deck on has been needing to be stained for the past 5 years... Now that I'm the "boss"... it's finally getting done! Josh went and got the stain and the brushes... and along with help from Papa they had the deck looking 100% better in 2 hours!

While I was busy working in the kitchen...  pulling out and cleaning behind the stove (uuuuuggggghhhhhh)  and the all of the other appliances... Josh was busy outside taking down Christmas lights ~ cleaning up pea gravel in the front parking ~ raking the pea gravel around the house ~ and weeding! He didn't stop until it was all done! He's my hero!  He has stepped up to the plate and is taking care of the "man" things around the house! After we were all done working we went and sat on the deck in our rocking chairs... it was so relaxing! I'm looking forward to many more... now all we need is a grill!