A New Project

To say that it has been a long time is an understatement. Its not that I don't like to blog, its just that I like to read others blogs more. By the end of the day I am too tired to think about writing so I just sit down to read everyone elses! And I am very faithful about that :).

The thing that has brought me back is the desire to document the new project going on in our home right now. We are having our kitchen remodeled and changing all the floors in the house except the bedrooms. We changed out the carpet in the bedrooms when we moved in 4 years ago so those are staying. We are very excited about this project that has been brewing for awhile now. We (I) have talked and thought and talked and thought about this and what it would look like for about 2 years and I can't believe that we are finally here!

First, before anything I have to say how very blessed we are! The Lord has been so gracious to our family and at times Ricky and I find ourselves very overwhelmed with the bounty of God's goodness on our family when we see others hurting or struggling. It is in those times that our hearts together are full to the brim with thankfulness as we just give a soft whisper of "thank you" to God as we hug each other. But they ache at the same time for those we know and don't know whose circumstances are very different. I have been very humbled through this first phase of picking and choosing colors and flooring and countertops. The options I have when others have none. There are many times that we take His blessings for grant it and go about our lives. We pray that we are always mindful of them and that we may always make our children aware of how blessed they are as well. Through this deciding process, the Lord has given me a great desire to give back, to look for ways to teach my children more about God's goodness, and to seek ways to help whether that be in my home or outside my home. We do not need this remodel to help us live better lives but the Lord has given us this opportunity and we pray that through this project He might receive all the glory before, during, and after it is done. That He may use our home for His purposes and that our family and our home might be a blessing to others!

A wonderful man, builder and friend from our church is doing the remodeling and I'll have to say that I am beyond thrilled because the whole process has been great! I mean, to know someone in this kind of business and know they do great work is a good feeling! So much of the time you don't really know what you're getting in to.
The whole point of this remodel is to open up our kitchen to the rest of the house so that I can see what is going on :). I want my home to feel very open and welcoming for my family to gather and our friends to enjoy!
I am very excited and want to remember and share the whole process. It will take about 8 weeks and I want to embrace all 8 weeks of it - the demo and mess and inconvenience, I want to enjoy it and make the most of it and be creative with our time. I also want my response to the mess to be joyful and grateful and not complaining and dreadful so that the end result will be so worth the wait! I'm sure I will fail and grumble but I really want to look back and say "that wasn't so bad" - we'll see right?!

So here is a before picture of our kitchen when we moved in the house:


Here is what we did to spruce it up:


This picture shows the entrance into the dining room (where the panties-only-bike- riding duo is headed- do you like how Titus is cheering them on!?)

(Just so you know, we do not encourage bike riding in the house but this was taken as we were packing up for the remodel knowing the floors would come up :)


This picture taken from the front door. The kitchen is in the middle of the house right behind that wall. You are seeing the living room to the right.



Taken from sitting room, kitchen behind the wall, dining room to the left.
After the remodel the sitting room will become the dining room and the dining room shown will become apart of the kitchen with a big walk in pantry. Yeah!


Taken from living room, kitchen behind wall, sitting room to the left where Avery is speeding by.


My goal is to document the whole process from beginning to end with pictures of the progress and how we are living in the midst of it! My next post will be getting ready and pictures of my little helpers!