Classroom Gutted and Cleaned!

After many days of gutting out the room and sorting through stuff I have a blank slate to start with!


My first desk!











That chair by the bright blue paper was my Grandma Canino's chair that will be used as a "reading chair"


More pictures to come as I start to decorate the room and get ready for the kids! I am having a rug ordered for our meeting/reading area and still need 6 more desks. I have 24 students which is average but we will need the space!

My Classroom Before Pictures!

These are all the "before" pics. Great size room with 4 huge windows. There are all ready a plethora of books for me to use that I don't have to go out and buy!




They refinished the floors so that is why everything is piled up





A whole lot of old curriculum and junk that I sorted through and reorganized

The Garden

These are our tomato beds with Basil around the perimeter. The tomatoes are doing fairly well and I am so excited to make sauce when they are ripe. However, we have this little furry friend we like to call Peter Rabbit who is munching away at the Basil.






Yummy lettuce from our garden.











Nursey bed for all the plants we transplanted from the old gardens we cleaned up.




Our amazing backyard with a hammock that I try and spend any moment I can on. Oh and we just added a Badminton net. So fun.

Marley & the Electric Toothbrush!

Need we say more!

Tracy and Charlotte spent the day with me battling vines!

There are a lot of vines! But thanks to Charlotte's muscles they will be defeated!

First flowers of the season!

Bye, Bye ugly fence!

Marley's first ride on the hammock!

I was sitting out on our hammock this afternoon after mowing the lawn with our electric lawnmower (highly recommend-low noise level, no fumes, and just a turn of a key it starts) realizing how our house now feels like home. It no longer feels like we are visiting. Although the kitchen is messy, we need a mirror for the bathroom and there is a lot of primer on the walls it has become our little plot of land; our footprint on this earth. These are some pictures taken in the last few days.

Marley in the Backyard

We put up a runner for Marley so she can hang outside! Here is a clip of her after a long day in the sun- prior to this film we walked about 3 miles so sorry she is kinda sluggish!

Finished but Messy!

Here is a short clip of the kitchen. Excuse the mess our cleaning lady has disappeared!

Back-Splash

Before and almost after, (I still need to cut a plethora of pieces and grout)
but already so much better! I used clear glass tiles to give the kitchen a clean modern look. When the final finishing touches have been put on I will post a larger picture.

Kitchen and Bath

Here is a sneak peek of the kitchen and bath so far. We have to finish tiling the back-splash in the kitchen, paint the bathroom and add all the odds and ends.

Some Updates

Things have been quite busy, so here are just a few pics of what we have been working on:



My dad came up to help me put the finishing touches on the tile in the shower. I finished the floor the following week but still need to take pictures. I was completely exhausted when this pic was taken!



This is a pic of our house the day we moved in. Thank God for Declan and his red gloves, we couldn't have moved in as fast as we did without him! Also thank you to everyone else who helped us out!



After we moved in our shower was not functional so Stephano had to get ready in the kitchen sink. And no that is not our new kitchen back-splash- I just picked up the tile for that today, yipee.





The week after we moved in we went to Huntington Beach, CA- it was gorgeous! I was attempting to get on Steve's shoulders in that picture, but Steve needs to get back to the gym because I know I don't need to lose anymore weight!



Marley was spade a couple days after we got back- she hated wearing the cone. She basically sleeps to get out of working around the house, however she sure is a bundle of energy when awake. Marley has been a great stress reliever for the both of us.

**When the kitchen and bathroom are complete I will post a video walk through!

The Bathroom!

Well I am on day 4 of tiling the bathroom. My friend Amy came over on day 1 and thank goodness she did, because she helped keep my sanity and get the project started. After that day I got the hang of it and found out I absolutely love to tile. It is like a big puzzle and I get to use a wet saw! I am hoping to put the finishing touches on today adn then grout tomorrow! Then I am hoping into that tub and never coming out! (All the pictures are from Day 1- more to come when I get them off the camera!)

We Love IKEA!

We needed some new furniture and decided to rent a cargo van and truck on down to beautiful Paramus, NJ. Steve, Betsy, and I had quite the adventure picking out stuff, eating Swedish meatballs, and finding where to get everything we wanted. Now we just have to put everything we bought together!

Priming Party!

We really know how to throw a party! Thank you to everyone who helped us paint, we just couldn't take anymore of those yellow walls. We couldn't ask for a better group of friends who will drop everything to come help paint for 5 hours for pizza and beer! (Especially ones with broken arms)

Another Gift!

The previous owners even left Marley a gift! Pet Cologne- we threw it out because it was highly toxic and the champagne was enough.

The Carletons in the Kitchen

Check out the guy with the tool belt! The previous owners left us plenty of treasures one of them being the beautiful deviled egg dish seen in my hands. The cupboards are almost ready to be painted- that work begins on Wednesday. Oh and the wallpaper was thankfully a cinch to get off! Gotta love those plaster walls and glue so old it just doesn't stick.