::back porch of the cottage::

Our little house was such a sweet ball of potential when we found her.   She had been for sale for months, in a market where everything sold in a week or less.   Our sweet baby was shown 46 times!  She was just waiting for us to come along and scoop her up. 

The back of the house had no exterior door.  The window on the right was into a laundry room and the window in the center was into a bedroom that has been converted from a one car garage.  The lower brick  has been added at some point.   It was showing its poor construction, and was a hot mess.  I asked our builder about saving it and painting it, but she said is had to go.  

This was after we added the kitchen window and door.  All the brick and siding was gone at this point.   This was the point that we figured out that the layout of the mudroom was going to make me give up the right side window.   I was sad to give up a window but we added a bunch more.  

Her she is all polished up and almost ready for siding.  Please note that the left corner of the back of the house and the right corner are not square with each other.   We figured out that they are off by about 9 inches.  I like to think of this as old house charm.  Our builder very carefully told us about six times, that if we want a house that has level and plum surfaces we need to tear our baby down.   She's so cute that she can't go into a landfill.  So wavy floors and mostly straight lines it is. 

Siding going up with doors and windows in place. 

Here she is when we moved in.  Fresh and clean and ready to be part of the family.  

The deck begins.  

When I first saw this I was stubbed by how large the deck in.   The house is 2,000 square feet.   Not a big place for six people.   This deck seemed insanely large, in comparison.  

Look at that baby Max.   

Josh did the very center of the deck first and them game back to start filling in the sides.  

I was still nervous that the deck looked crazy large compared to the house, but I figured it would come together.   

Josh was the real designer of this deck.  He had this thought in his mind of what it would look like and he did all the work 100% himself.   

We got a free hot tub from our friend and Josh worked on renovating it so we could decide inexpensively if we like having a hot tub. 

He wasn't even done with it before the boys had to jump in.  

We are frugal in everything not Disney.  Buying furniture for this deck made me want to vomit.   But we didn't come this far to turn back now.  The pergola's were still coming together but the furniture was in place.  

I was using my new umbrella to enjoy the hot tub.  

Max and Poppy thought the set up was on point.  

Let's look at that before picture one more time.

Here she is all done.   Hot tub area with clothes line for swim suits.  Recliner chair for relaxing.   Six person dining table in the center.  No center cover, cause I don't want to block the light into the kitchen.  Second cover on the left with grill and another seating area.  

::art studio - take two::

My art studio started out rough when we bought this place.  It has been well built and was screaming for me to love it right.  

This awesome metal shelving unit was on our property when we moved in.  It's been over a year now and I have been just storing this, waiting till it stood up and demanded to be used.  Today was that day.  

My first set up had been wonderful.  I love the desk with good storage under the window.  This desk used to be in my fathers old school photo darkroom when I was a kid.   

The red lockers look awesome, but they actually are not good storage.  And the make due board on top was useful work space but needed some adjustments.  

I love this little white bookcase.  It's been a perfect pretty and sturdy display area for me and I knew it needed to stay.  

Today I (actually Josh) dragged the metal storage shelves and a very old green drafting table out of one of our milking rooms and I cleaned them up.  Poor Josh had to work his ass off all day dragging furniture around.  I'm so lucky that he humors me.  

I was on the edge of listing the metal cabinet on Craigslist today.  It seemed too big and maybe too difficult to deal with.  But once we got it in the studio I knew it was perfect.  TONS of good storage with it all open and easy to see and use.  

The vintage drafting table had one missing drawer, but it's just so cool I had to use it anyway.  It now gives a second work area so I can have company while I work.  

Look at that table!!!!  I just love it.  The top is so solid.   

The missing drawer it now open marker storage.   

::Max's Room::

Oh my precious baby stud Max.  He is so soothing to my heart.  I adore him.  BUT THAT KID IS A PIG.  He spends his time within his mind, working on creations, and exploring the colorful landscape within his brain.  Telling him to clean his room is something he is never going to do at top level.  He's got my number.  I tell him to do something and he calmly does it halfway and then peacefully waits to someone else to cause a diversion that gets it me distracted enough that the job I had him on doesn't get full follow up by me. 

Lily had a friend over and she walked in Max's room and looked under his bed for the dog.  She stood up and with all the honesty of a young girl said, "This room is really dirty."  She meant no offense and this is a kid that I adore.  But her saying anything within the house is dirty made me about have a seizure.  Next thing I knew all his furniture was in the hall and I had swept or scrubbed every inch of that room.  I found about 6 billion Legos in every spot available.  May I never see another Lego. 

This post was really supposed to be about Max's room at this point, but I got lost in how cute and dirty he is.  Refocus!

Wall between two small rooms torn down

His room started out life as two rooms that where about 9ft by 12ft.  These rooms interior walls were defined by plastic paneling walls.  Most of Max's room had subfloor that had been painted to look like a football field.  I thought the paint was actually pretty cool, but the room had so many other problems that full gut was the only way to go. 

They had the smallest closets in all the land. 

It had an old chimney in the the middle of the exterior wall that could not be saved for design purposes.  It had to come out.  Trust me - I gave saving it a hard sell but was shot down in all directions. 

Down came the chimney 

It has several awesome things going for it to counter act the negatives.  SUPER tall ceilings and huge bright windows.  The plan called for two closets in here so that if it had to be for two kids it was set.   

When we first moved in I used my old bed (hand made by my father) and an old chemistry counter my dad bought from a remodeling highschool in the mid 70's as Max's main furniture.  I got a wall map from Hobby Lobby and a wall garland from my talented friend.  I liked this set up because it had him staring out the window from his bed.  

But - with the great cleaning event discussed in the beginning of this post I wanted to try something new.  

I turned his bed to the other wall and put it under the wall map.  He has the crazy broken reading lamp that he wants on at all times and he pulled it out of the trash to replace it on his bed.  Yes - that is him all sleeping in snuggled into that big old bed. 

   

Seriously, look at how cute he is?  Books thrown all around him and Lego creations near by.  I just adore him.  

Similar view as below

I look back at the plans and the old video's of the house and I get so pumped about what we have managed to create.  It't not a big house but it works hard in every space.  This winter I want to move the puppet theater in the second closet out and turn that in to a built in desk for Mr Max.  The ceilings are so tall that there will be a little ready loft on the top level of the closet.  Stay tuned for that!

::cleaning the art studio::

I seriously love having an art studio.  The old workshop from back when our farm was a working dairy farm have been converted into some awesome living space.  The room I demanded is the best part of the shop.  It has the best light.  I love working in there.  It's an awesome space to work on my Disney ears or anything else that seems like fun.  

Things where starting to look a little messy and we decided to devote some time into a deep cleaning this weekend.    

 With all this stuff laid out and ready to create with, how can you not just go for it?

This is the sign that my parents hung on their very first shop back in 1975ish.  

I'm working on a project for my laundry room and I bought this fabric to make some curtains.  Lily and I are in love.  We used a scrap to make a sewing machine cover.  

::fishing, dead van, work salads, mama duck, face time, sushi date::

Auntie Rachel knows how to party.  We have a tradition of going fishing at their new house every Sunday night.  This is how she shows up to great us - beers and bug spray.  

We even had our matching fishing hats on.  

Poor Lisa bit the dust.  220K miles was a good long life.  She was a good old van and we had some good times together.  She decided to die why driving home from fishing on a quiet country road.  She was trucking along and her wheels locked up and that was it.  You can see how far she slid.  I swear I drive like an old woman, but it kinda looks like I Dukes of Hazard jumped something.  I am very thankful that we were alone and not on the highway.  The whole thing could have ended badly.    

Josh and I carpooled to work together for two days and it was actually kinda wonderful.  I hope we keep it up because it's like a date.  We looked at 15 different vans but found a perfect gently used one near us.  When I pulled in the dealership to see it, they had it set up like this.  They even stayed after closing to show it to us.  I loved the dealership we used and that is something I have never said about a dealership before.  The new van is named Merryweather and she is cute as can be.  

I've been on a weight loss journey.  I haven'e talked about it much on the blog because it felt really personal.  It is medically managed weight loss run by a Bariatric Center near me.  There is doctors appointments every two weeks, with group therapy, and meetings with dietary.  It's been lots of work and involved about four weeks of an almost only liquid diet.  It's really working.  I've lot 30 pounds.  I feel amazing.  And I'm proud that all the work is paying off.  I'm about to be the skinniest I have been in my adult life and I can't wait to celebrate, but not with a cake.  This picture is a cobb salad that I'be been making myself at work, beats the hell out of my old chips and chicken fingers.  I've learned so much about my food addiction and how I used it to calm and soothe myself.  I've learned that I can be hungry and not die.  It's been great growth and Josh has been so supportive.  

My female duck finally found a spot that she has set her nest and is sitting on her eggs.  She kept setting nest and abandoning them.  I have 6 of her abandoned eggs in my incubator right now.  Due to hatch next week if all goes well.  She decided to find a well protected spot at the end of our neighbors barn and set up shop.  Luckily he is a good sport and farms 1000+ acres and only has the barn next to us, he doesn't even live there.  I called him to secure squatting rights for her and he agreed.  She should have about two weeks or so till they hatch.  I have forbidden the kids to bother her.  I bugged her just enough to get a video of her protection hisses.    

You can't even see her if you stand back.  

Here I am face timing with the boys because they were fighting and I had to make them touch noses to declare their love for each other.  Summer is going so well.  Lily watches them for a few hours till the sitter shows up to take them swimming and exhaust them.  Yes, they are sitting on my island.  You just have to pick your battles when your boys are feral.  

Lily and I managed to sneak out together and spend some time alone.  I took her to my favorite sushi place.  She loves sushi, but gets to go so rarely.  I first fed her sushi at 14 months and she loved it from day one.  I loved getting to have some time just to two of us.  She's such an amazing kid.    

I was so in love with the clean simple newness of the house that I really held off on decorating.  I was broke after the renovation and out of ideas.  I just wanted to settle in and let it come to me.  I'm starting to feel the urge to add things again and bought this shelf for the kitchen today.  I used some of my favorite gifts to decorate it.  I have so much fun with this little cottage.  

One of the things that HAS to be fixed is this damn couch of mine.  It needs to go in the burn pile.  Till then these two buddies are watching the cubs games together.