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| BEFORE |
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| DURING |
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| AFTER |
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Face Lift
Well, our little diamond got a major face lift this week. It really put some life back into her exterior appearance. She got a standing seam metal roof, which replaced her leaky, mossy asphalt shingles which had no grain left on them! We started to tear up more of the wood flooring in preparation for tiling the hallway/laundry room this weekend. Keep checking in for updates!
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Homestead Progress Update #2
To say that we have been busy would be an understatement. However, we are absolutely loving living out here at the homestead. Lots of progress has been made in the past week. I have been able to get a lot of painting done and the large undertaking of replacing the wood flooring on the back half of the house (previous water damage) has begun! We will be replacing the pine wood floors in the bathroom and laundry with tile and carpet in the back bedroom. We opted for tile because these are high traffic areas and the previous wood flooring showed a lot of traffic wear. The carpet was my request....there is nothing worse than stepping out of your warm bed in the morning onto a cold floor. We have wood floors in the living, kitchen, and full upstairs, so thankfully Andrew was willing to compromise on our bedroom. We have contractors coming out tomorrow to replace the roof. We are having a metal roof installed. I am so excited to see the before and after of that!
Here are some pictures of our progress....
Here are some pictures of our progress....
Josie's room is 95% done!
My hard working handy man...
New bathroom color for the upstairs bath. (Before and After coming soon!!)
Progress on my kitchen cabinets. SO happy with the way they are coming out!
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Homestead Update #1
We have discussed what we want to call the new house...(ex: cabin, cottage, homestead, acres, etc) But for blogging purposes, we shall refer to it as the homestead.
I have been running back and forth at least every other day to move items and/or work on the homestead. My main focus was getting Josie's room primed, painted, and settled by the time we officially moved in (10/06/14). Yesterday, I headed out to the homestead extra early and stayed late to finish moving large items into her (freshly painted) room. I decided to paint her room a different color than her mustard yellow room at the old house; mainly to have something fresh and new and so I could transition the new color into a toddler room someday. I went with a denim blue color and am very happy the way it turned out--BONUS I found the can of paint in my basement that I had previously bought at a local Ace Hardware scratch and dent sale! (Who knows why I bought it at the time). I did not get a picture of her room. I will post a before and after pic sometime after we get settled.
Now, my main focus is to finish my kitchen cupboards. I LOVE my cupboards, but unfortunately realized shortly after our commitment that they had mildew stains. I have done extensive amounts of research and washed/sterilized them inside and out numerous times. The only option other than replacing them was to thoroughly paint them with Kilz Primer and hope the first few coats covered it. It worked! I am ready to paint my top cupboards and will move on to the bottom cupboards for primer. I decided to do half and half so I could at least utilize half of the cupboards during the start of us permanently being there rather than searching through boxes for every meal.
We had the plumbers out last week and after 7 broken pipes, I think (fingers crossed) that the water is good to go. Waiting on the water test this Friday to ensure it is safe to drink and bathe in. I need a shower.
Here is MY wish list to complete this month: (in order of importance)
Finish Cupboards
Prime both bathrooms
Prime Laundry/Hallway
Paint kitchen and living room
Prep for DIY Kitchen Back splash project (yay! I am so excited for this)
Find area rug for living room and Josie's room.
Here are some progress pictures with the cupboards...
Looking forward to showing you the dramatic Before and After pictures!
I have been running back and forth at least every other day to move items and/or work on the homestead. My main focus was getting Josie's room primed, painted, and settled by the time we officially moved in (10/06/14). Yesterday, I headed out to the homestead extra early and stayed late to finish moving large items into her (freshly painted) room. I decided to paint her room a different color than her mustard yellow room at the old house; mainly to have something fresh and new and so I could transition the new color into a toddler room someday. I went with a denim blue color and am very happy the way it turned out--BONUS I found the can of paint in my basement that I had previously bought at a local Ace Hardware scratch and dent sale! (Who knows why I bought it at the time). I did not get a picture of her room. I will post a before and after pic sometime after we get settled.
Now, my main focus is to finish my kitchen cupboards. I LOVE my cupboards, but unfortunately realized shortly after our commitment that they had mildew stains. I have done extensive amounts of research and washed/sterilized them inside and out numerous times. The only option other than replacing them was to thoroughly paint them with Kilz Primer and hope the first few coats covered it. It worked! I am ready to paint my top cupboards and will move on to the bottom cupboards for primer. I decided to do half and half so I could at least utilize half of the cupboards during the start of us permanently being there rather than searching through boxes for every meal.
We had the plumbers out last week and after 7 broken pipes, I think (fingers crossed) that the water is good to go. Waiting on the water test this Friday to ensure it is safe to drink and bathe in. I need a shower.
Here is MY wish list to complete this month: (in order of importance)
Finish Cupboards
Prime both bathrooms
Prime Laundry/Hallway
Paint kitchen and living room
Prep for DIY Kitchen Back splash project (yay! I am so excited for this)
Find area rug for living room and Josie's room.
Here are some progress pictures with the cupboards...
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| Our first look at the kitchen. |
 |
| Taped off all the window panels---NOT FUN. |
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| During Painting. |
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| 3 coats of Primer and Walls and Ceilings Primed. What a difference some paint makes! |
Monday, September 22, 2014
Wiltshire Homestead
I can finally share our exciting news...along with purchasing 28 acres a few months ago, we also have been given the opportunity to fix up a cabin to the adjoining 30 acre lot. So, the Wiltshire's are moving North! No, not back to the home state, but 30 minutes closer. That knocks the drive down to 10 hours 30 minutes!
It is bittersweet putting up our first family home up for sale, but we are so much closer to our dreams with this move. We will be busy, busy, busy the next year with home improvements and land clearing for our Polebarn next Spring (hopefully). With that being said, the blog will be put on the back burner, and switching gears a little as well. We are unsure when we will get internet (or if we can get it out there!) but will try to keep you all updated with our projects, as we have volunteered to do the repairs ourselves to get the cabin back in tip top shape. Here are a couple pictures, one of the three of us, and one (BEFORE SHOT) of our diamond in the rough....
Did I mention, we welcome volunteers and helpers...........
Free room and board, free food, and free adult beverages.
HAPPY FALL YA'LL!!
It is bittersweet putting up our first family home up for sale, but we are so much closer to our dreams with this move. We will be busy, busy, busy the next year with home improvements and land clearing for our Polebarn next Spring (hopefully). With that being said, the blog will be put on the back burner, and switching gears a little as well. We are unsure when we will get internet (or if we can get it out there!) but will try to keep you all updated with our projects, as we have volunteered to do the repairs ourselves to get the cabin back in tip top shape. Here are a couple pictures, one of the three of us, and one (BEFORE SHOT) of our diamond in the rough....
Did I mention, we welcome volunteers and helpers...........
Free room and board, free food, and free adult beverages.
HAPPY FALL YA'LL!!
9-Months!
In three short months I will have a ONE year old. I still do not know how I feel about that yet...
Today was Josie's 9 month appointment.
Weight: 22lbs 9.5 oz (94th percentile)
Height: 29 1/4" (95th percentile)
She has eight teeth and working on those awful molars.
She ordered her first meal-out this past week: quesadilla (and LOVED it)
She is still an all vegetable girl, but is starting to enjoy fresh cut peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges.
She is not crawling, but that isn't stopping her from getting around.
She is very vocal and loves to mimic sounds.
Josie is a social butterfly and likes to flirt with the old men in the grocery store.
Our most common words are Dada, RaRa, and Hi.
We also went on our first hayride and saw our first cow this past weekend...she waved hi at them the entire ride.
Today was Josie's 9 month appointment.
Weight: 22lbs 9.5 oz (94th percentile)
Height: 29 1/4" (95th percentile)
She has eight teeth and working on those awful molars.
She ordered her first meal-out this past week: quesadilla (and LOVED it)
She is still an all vegetable girl, but is starting to enjoy fresh cut peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges.
She is not crawling, but that isn't stopping her from getting around.
She is very vocal and loves to mimic sounds.
Josie is a social butterfly and likes to flirt with the old men in the grocery store.
Our most common words are Dada, RaRa, and Hi.
We also went on our first hayride and saw our first cow this past weekend...she waved hi at them the entire ride.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Self Confidence
I have been debating about how I wanted to go about this post for some time and whether or not I even wanted to post it at all. However, after getting so many responses from new mothers about my last "Out of Milk" post I decided if I can help even one other Mama, this post will be well worth it.
I have always been a person with high self confidence. Sure, there was always something about myself that i would change, but it always seemed to be something small and never affected the way I felt about myself. I have always loved my hair, loved my butt, boobs, and legs. The only thing I constantly battled with was my stomach, but like I said, nothing to stop me from feeling self conscious or to keep me from sporting a bikini in public.
I felt beautiful most of the first and second trimesters of my pregnancy. In my last trimester I began to feel less and less attractive. Of course this is nothing that my husband said or did, it was just something deep down in me that made me find myself for the first time, ugly. It could have been the human growing inside of me sucking every last life out of me, but I told myself this feeling will pass. After all, there is nothing more beautiful than new life.
After Josie was here I went in for my four week check-up with my doctor. I had lost all my pregnancy weight plus 6 pounds of pre-pregnancy weight. WAHOO was not the first word that came into my mind. If I was technically smaller than before I was pregnant, what was all this extra baggage and where did that factor into my weight?! I do have to say that the first month or two when my milk supply sky-rocketed, I felt TINY, but later realized my enormous (and swollen) boobs made my waist look tiny and the fact that I had looked at my waist protruding with a human for almost 9 months, of course it looked tiny now!
Josie was a beautiful newborn baby and we constantly received compliments on her beauty. One person said, "You know what they say, the girls take all their mother's beauty." That was it, SHE stole it! Okay, I quickly came to my senses and realized this wasn't completely true, but I did like that for an excuse for a while.
I had Josie in December so I could cover my body for a while without anyone noticing. But summer weather hit quick and I found myself sneaking my maternity elastic waist shorts into my wardrobe and wearing loose fitting tops. Nothing wrong with that, but it wouldn't have been my first choice of attire. Sport shorts and drapey tanks slowly worked into my wardrobe when the weather got unbearable. My daisy dukes, cute summer tops, and tanks got thrown into my garage sale and were sold much less than what they were worth just to get them out of my sight.
There came a day when I was finally sick of it and wanted to do SOMETHING. I started walking with Josie--lasted about 2 weeks. Then we made our vacation plans for the summer, which was 90+ days away. P90X. Yes, I was going to do that! The DVDs never made it to the TV. 60 days until vacation, I am going to join one of these beachbody-type teams and be beach-ready for our vacation. Never signed up. 30 days until vacation, okay I am going to do a combination of these 30-day work outs. I printed them off at least! We head out next week. I sit here with my final ItWorks Wrap on, which for me hasn't shown any improvement (Some people see WONDERFUL results, so don't let my experience or lack of one deter you from it...everyone is different!) Yes, get out your little violin to play or call the WHAHmbulance, but honestly, between school, Josie, home, and activities I had no extra time to commit. Or maybe it was more that i just didn't have the energy by the end of the day.
Modesty. There is something to say about being modest, but for me there is something also to say about feeling frumpy. Swimsuit season. I have never dreaded it until this year. I decided to focus on finding cute one-pieces and tankini styles to help me get through the season. However, I never felt cute. I felt frumpy. I kept grabbing my two-piece suits and trying them on just in case they had somehow gained magical powers and could turn me into a super model. So far, no such luck.
This post is not to complain or whine about my body, but rather, help everyone to realize Mamas bodies change. I swear somedays that i have shrunk and the extra baggage settled in between my hips and boobs. And by settled, I mean wilted. I have learned (forced myself to see) that there are still things that are pretty about myself (right now my feet) yes, feet can be pretty if they make you feel good. I make it a goal to find something good to focus on each week that you like about yourself. Last week was my eyebrows, the week previous my eyes. I have found that focusing on the good tends to outweigh the bad. I even wore a two piece to the public pool with Josie a couple weeks ago, sporting my stretchmarks and all. I was definitely self-conscious and regretted this decision when we got to the pool, but quickly forgot about it once I saw how much fun Josie was having and how much better I felt about myself to let some of that translucent skin see some sun. I even felt a little dare I say it.....sexy.
Despite the kind and encouraging words and compliments from my amazing husband, sometimes I can't see it until I BELIEVE it myself.
So our vacation is literally right around the corner. I made the decision to not pack any of my "frumpy" suits. Only my old two-pieces-- don't worry no string bikinis. We will have access to a public pool almost our entire vacation. To me, vacations are supposed to be about family fun, sunshine, and good food. Not being self-conscious, staying inside fully-clothed, and tasteless food.
Looking forward to more posts in September!
I have always been a person with high self confidence. Sure, there was always something about myself that i would change, but it always seemed to be something small and never affected the way I felt about myself. I have always loved my hair, loved my butt, boobs, and legs. The only thing I constantly battled with was my stomach, but like I said, nothing to stop me from feeling self conscious or to keep me from sporting a bikini in public.
I felt beautiful most of the first and second trimesters of my pregnancy. In my last trimester I began to feel less and less attractive. Of course this is nothing that my husband said or did, it was just something deep down in me that made me find myself for the first time, ugly. It could have been the human growing inside of me sucking every last life out of me, but I told myself this feeling will pass. After all, there is nothing more beautiful than new life.
After Josie was here I went in for my four week check-up with my doctor. I had lost all my pregnancy weight plus 6 pounds of pre-pregnancy weight. WAHOO was not the first word that came into my mind. If I was technically smaller than before I was pregnant, what was all this extra baggage and where did that factor into my weight?! I do have to say that the first month or two when my milk supply sky-rocketed, I felt TINY, but later realized my enormous (and swollen) boobs made my waist look tiny and the fact that I had looked at my waist protruding with a human for almost 9 months, of course it looked tiny now!
Josie was a beautiful newborn baby and we constantly received compliments on her beauty. One person said, "You know what they say, the girls take all their mother's beauty." That was it, SHE stole it! Okay, I quickly came to my senses and realized this wasn't completely true, but I did like that for an excuse for a while.
I had Josie in December so I could cover my body for a while without anyone noticing. But summer weather hit quick and I found myself sneaking my maternity elastic waist shorts into my wardrobe and wearing loose fitting tops. Nothing wrong with that, but it wouldn't have been my first choice of attire. Sport shorts and drapey tanks slowly worked into my wardrobe when the weather got unbearable. My daisy dukes, cute summer tops, and tanks got thrown into my garage sale and were sold much less than what they were worth just to get them out of my sight.
There came a day when I was finally sick of it and wanted to do SOMETHING. I started walking with Josie--lasted about 2 weeks. Then we made our vacation plans for the summer, which was 90+ days away. P90X. Yes, I was going to do that! The DVDs never made it to the TV. 60 days until vacation, I am going to join one of these beachbody-type teams and be beach-ready for our vacation. Never signed up. 30 days until vacation, okay I am going to do a combination of these 30-day work outs. I printed them off at least! We head out next week. I sit here with my final ItWorks Wrap on, which for me hasn't shown any improvement (Some people see WONDERFUL results, so don't let my experience or lack of one deter you from it...everyone is different!) Yes, get out your little violin to play or call the WHAHmbulance, but honestly, between school, Josie, home, and activities I had no extra time to commit. Or maybe it was more that i just didn't have the energy by the end of the day.
Modesty. There is something to say about being modest, but for me there is something also to say about feeling frumpy. Swimsuit season. I have never dreaded it until this year. I decided to focus on finding cute one-pieces and tankini styles to help me get through the season. However, I never felt cute. I felt frumpy. I kept grabbing my two-piece suits and trying them on just in case they had somehow gained magical powers and could turn me into a super model. So far, no such luck.
This post is not to complain or whine about my body, but rather, help everyone to realize Mamas bodies change. I swear somedays that i have shrunk and the extra baggage settled in between my hips and boobs. And by settled, I mean wilted. I have learned (forced myself to see) that there are still things that are pretty about myself (right now my feet) yes, feet can be pretty if they make you feel good. I make it a goal to find something good to focus on each week that you like about yourself. Last week was my eyebrows, the week previous my eyes. I have found that focusing on the good tends to outweigh the bad. I even wore a two piece to the public pool with Josie a couple weeks ago, sporting my stretchmarks and all. I was definitely self-conscious and regretted this decision when we got to the pool, but quickly forgot about it once I saw how much fun Josie was having and how much better I felt about myself to let some of that translucent skin see some sun. I even felt a little dare I say it.....sexy.
Despite the kind and encouraging words and compliments from my amazing husband, sometimes I can't see it until I BELIEVE it myself.
So our vacation is literally right around the corner. I made the decision to not pack any of my "frumpy" suits. Only my old two-pieces-- don't worry no string bikinis. We will have access to a public pool almost our entire vacation. To me, vacations are supposed to be about family fun, sunshine, and good food. Not being self-conscious, staying inside fully-clothed, and tasteless food.
Looking forward to more posts in September!
JUST a college graduate.
I am done! I officially ended my time at Chattanooga State this week. I took my final exam and will receive my degree in a few weeks! What a ride it has been...Since starting college back in 2007 I have transferred twice (once out of state) and have experienced every possible emotion along the way. I earned 89 credits while I was in MI attending GVSU and GRCC. Only 12 of which transferred with me to Tennessee. I literally had to start over. But, I. AM. DONE!!
I have had many wonderful people congratulate me and tell me how proud they are of me. However, in the mix of all these happy emotions, there are always THOSE people to make you step back and rethink. This moment has occurred more times than one might think possible since graduating while talking to (unnamed of course) people. The conversations went a little something like this each time.
Person: "How is school going?"
Sadie: "Really well, actually. I graduated in May, but finishing up one final class this summer."
Person: "That is wonderful! I am so happy for you (yadayadayada)! What is your degree in?"
Sadie: "I have my associate of science for early childhood education!"
Person: "Oh, you (--emphasize the next word choice--) JUST/ONLY have your associates?"
When I first experienced this, I immediately felt shame. Not because I was ashamed of my achievement (although it did down play it quite a bit), but it was an automatic response to the previous comment. I found myself beginning to explain why I JUST/ONLY had my associates. This went on a few more times, until I tried to avoid it all together by just saying "I have a degree in Early Childhood Education," carefully leaving out the A.S. part. I then would be questioned about my plans to teach and would be caught off guard about and find myself trying to backtrack to explain my degree didn't exactly allow me to teach my own room.
THEN ONE DAY SOMETHING CHANGED. I CHANGED.
I finally came to the realization that I had accomplished something great. Associates, Bachelor, Masters, or Graduate....I finished college. I HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE.
So to respond to those that asked me earlier about me "JUST/ONLY having your associates?"....
-Yes I JUST have my associated degree.
-And, I JUST worked my ass off the past seven years to achieve it.
-Yes, I could have a masters degree by now (laugh to yourself cause I don't find your joke funny), but sometimes life JUST doesn't work that way.
-By the way, I JUST worked full time to pay my own way through college.
-And throughout my entire college career, I JUST experienced three major life changes--moving to another state, got married, and had a baby while going to school for JUST my associates.
-I JUST have the most supportive husband a woman could every ask for and a group of very special people who coached me along this long road.
-So, I JUST don't care that you think less of me for JUST having my associates degree.
-I JUST couldn't be more proud of myself and thankful for those people who have been there the entire time.
-So next time someone you know JUST earns their Associates Degree, JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
I have had many wonderful people congratulate me and tell me how proud they are of me. However, in the mix of all these happy emotions, there are always THOSE people to make you step back and rethink. This moment has occurred more times than one might think possible since graduating while talking to (unnamed of course) people. The conversations went a little something like this each time.
Person: "How is school going?"
Sadie: "Really well, actually. I graduated in May, but finishing up one final class this summer."
Person: "That is wonderful! I am so happy for you (yadayadayada)! What is your degree in?"
Sadie: "I have my associate of science for early childhood education!"
Person: "Oh, you (--emphasize the next word choice--) JUST/ONLY have your associates?"
When I first experienced this, I immediately felt shame. Not because I was ashamed of my achievement (although it did down play it quite a bit), but it was an automatic response to the previous comment. I found myself beginning to explain why I JUST/ONLY had my associates. This went on a few more times, until I tried to avoid it all together by just saying "I have a degree in Early Childhood Education," carefully leaving out the A.S. part. I then would be questioned about my plans to teach and would be caught off guard about and find myself trying to backtrack to explain my degree didn't exactly allow me to teach my own room.
THEN ONE DAY SOMETHING CHANGED. I CHANGED.
I finally came to the realization that I had accomplished something great. Associates, Bachelor, Masters, or Graduate....I finished college. I HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE.
So to respond to those that asked me earlier about me "JUST/ONLY having your associates?"....
-Yes I JUST have my associated degree.
-And, I JUST worked my ass off the past seven years to achieve it.
-Yes, I could have a masters degree by now (laugh to yourself cause I don't find your joke funny), but sometimes life JUST doesn't work that way.
-By the way, I JUST worked full time to pay my own way through college.
-And throughout my entire college career, I JUST experienced three major life changes--moving to another state, got married, and had a baby while going to school for JUST my associates.
-I JUST have the most supportive husband a woman could every ask for and a group of very special people who coached me along this long road.
-So, I JUST don't care that you think less of me for JUST having my associates degree.
-I JUST couldn't be more proud of myself and thankful for those people who have been there the entire time.
-So next time someone you know JUST earns their Associates Degree, JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
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