A good layer

After weeks and weeks of discovering what Mike and I have been affectionately calling "character", we've finally discovered something pretty exciting in the new house.  We've spent hours peeling back layer and layer of wallpaper to only find another layer of wallpaper.

Layer 1 is on the right, layer 2 is on the left

Just when I thought I would be done we found layer 3

Remember that Sparty bathroom?  Under one layer of Sparty wallpaper was another layer of Sparty wallpaper.  That's right - not one, BUT TWO, layers of Sparty wallpaper in this house.  

Mike started to remove the wood paneling in our living room while I crossed my fingers there was drywall underneath.  We were only lucky enough to find yet another layer of paneling.  And when our contractors removed a door frame, they exposed paneling under a layer of drywall.

So when Mike decided to attack the fireplace this week, I wasn't holding my breath for anything exciting to be underneath.  But while Lily and I sat snuggled up on the couch as Mike literally attacked the fireplace with a crowbar and hammer, we discovered the original brick fireplace beneath.  

We've got a little bit of work ahead of us to get the rest of the wood glue and tile grout off but I'm super excited to see if we can save it.  The brick looks to be in pretty good condition so hopefully with a little love and a new mantel, we'll be able to save some money by not refacing the entire thing.

Living amongst the dust

Hello from the construction zone!  We've made some real progress on some of our house projects the last two weeks.  And by "we", I mean our fabulous contractors - who also happen to be family.  My mom's cousins have been making the trek up to Grand Rapids to assist us with our laundry remodel which ended up leading to our bathroom remodel.  So far we've only had to make one trip to the laundromat, vacuum and dust 25 times, stop in at Lowe's/Home Depot/hardware stores 8 times, and I think we've only changed our minds once.  Ok maybe twice.

I promise to post some good before and after pictures once everything has been put back together but for now, here's a few.

Can you envision it?  This is soon to be my Pinterest inspired laundry space!

See ya later Sparty bathroom

Best demo helper ever

We frequent the hardware stores so much,
Lily requests to go to "the depot" for fun

Thoughts?

This is one of those times I changed my mind.
Usually we're spot on in picking out a color. 

We LOVED the blue but hated it with the tile.  We even
considered taking back the tile but we also LOVED the tile.

Our little hula girl

Happy belated Halloween!  The list of characters Lily wanted to be this year couldn't have been more diverse.  She went back and forth between Mickey, Superman, a spider monkey, just a monkey - you name it.  Prior to our vacation, we still hadn't settled on a costume and we were running out of time if I was going to craft it myself.  Luckily, on a quick shopping trip to the general store in Hawaii, Lily agreed to be a hula girl….coconut bra and all!

My office does trick-or-treating for all of our little ones so Lily got her fill of candy just running up and down the rows of cubes.  She kept asking when she was going to Daddy's office for candy.  The best part about office trick-or-treating?  I didn't have to rig her costume around a winter coat!

In our last two homes, we never got trick-or-treaters, so I was pretty pumped to be living in a neighborhood full of kids.  That is, until our neighbor told us since our houses were so far off the street, they always got skipped.  So instead of standing by at the house, we went next door for chili and goodies, and were surprised to be getting trick-or-treaters!  The wind was blowing and rain/snow was spitting but the doorbell kept ringing!  Mike even had to run home and get more candy to hand out.  Best of all, Lily was more excited to hand out candy so we didn't even have to venture out into the cold with her.

Lily also recently moved into another new classroom at daycare.  She is now in a true pre-school age room with fewer teachers and she's loving it.  Mom and Dad and are loving it too - price reduction AND she comes home exhausted every night.  She moved over with a couple of her friends that have been with her since she started in the infant room.  We are really excited to see her development in this new challenging room!  

Last week to celebrate fall, AppleTree had a fall harvest festival.  We got to visit in the afternoon while the kiddos performed a song and dance, do crafts together, and enjoy cider and donuts.  And last minute, AppleTree changed their no costumes policy for Halloween.  It was awesome to see all the little ones dressed up.