Project HOUSE

Since we moved into our new (smaller but cuter) house during a winter storm and I was

a.pregnant on bed rest

b.had a 2 year old terror:-)

c.had a very depressed sister living with me who was also pregnant.

My house never got set up. I love entertaining but I still haven't gotten it together enough that I'm proud of my home. And having things not be in their place to begin with, makes keeping a house up way harder...especially for someone like me who is terrible at cleaning to begin with.

Pregnancy and bed rest turned into having a newborn...that turned into having another newborn in the house. So here we are, more than three months after moving in and I'm really ready to get it set up.

My mom "lent" me a sister this week. Miss Sarah Grace is a 13 year old drill sergeant who is relentless at making me stick to things.

Imagine this. We start working on a room, I all of a sudden see something that reminds me of an art project I want to do. So I start doing it and little miss drill sergeant says, "Helen Joy, focus. You have to focus. That isn't important."

Anyhow, she's been here less than 48 hours and I already feel like we've accomplished more than I have in 3 months. Maybe it's the baby holding, the encouragement, or the companionship, we're making headway. I wanted to give you all a couple "before" pictures. Although take the before pictures and multiply them by about 30 and THAT's how bad it was when me moved in.

My husband turns 30 tomorrow and I'm hoping to give him a somewhat inviting home:-)

Enjoy cringing at my pictures and patting yourself on the back that you have it a lot more together than me:-)

The laundry. The laundry. It never ends.

Noah taking a nap. You see our very non useful cradle being used for laundry?

Actually the kitchen is the most put together. Which is strange since regularly this is my hardest room to keep clean usually. This is after the drill sergeant worked on it for a while after dinner.

The back room which has become our/impromtu guest room/stroller storage room/to sell on craigslist room/computer room. Inviting isn't it?

Bathroom doesn't look so bad.

Not too bad...again this is after the drill sergeant was there for a little while so it was worse.

The second bathroom which is located next to the other bathroom. Although it was used as a closet before and we figured out why...in order to use the bathroom in there privately, one must be locked in from the outside!:-) So we will be using it mostly to store all of Barclay's toys that he likes to get out all at once. That lock is going to come in handy!

Living room. It's pretty much set up just hard to upkeep with a busy bee little toddler running round.

Next to our front door.

Oh the hall. Imagine 30x's as many boxes piled high. Sigh. We've come a long way!

The boys room. It's tiny but I LOVE it! We are moving Sullivan in there tonight so I'll have to post when everything's done:-)

Yeah, it'll never be perfect:-)

Well, I hope you enjoyed that tour of my home. If you're my friend in real life, don't give up on me!

Pretty posts soon to come...