Crafts ~ Recipes ~ Our New House ~ Book Reviews

March 7, 2013

My Pinterest Obsession


I am at the point in the house building process where I just want to start packing up my current house. Anything that we don’t use everyday, I have the urge to box it up and get it out. My husband has pointed out to me more than once when I have brought this up, that we don’t even know that we will for sure be building this spring. Phsshhh…details.

I am stalled out creatively at this point because I don’t want to make any updates to our current house, knowing that we are leaving at some point in the near future. So, what have I done about this? I’ve turned to many blogs and Pinterest for many ideas for the new house. So many ideas, that I am going to need to go back and organize my pinboards or I won’t even know what I have.

So, if you know of anyone who has great pinboards for new home construction, or just fun boards you like to follow, let me know. I’d love to check them out. And if you would like a window into my style, go ahead and follow one of my boards…I’ve linked to them below.

Hope you are having a great week so far, happy pinning!

March 4, 2013

Monday Morning Mission


Monday, Monday….Is it one of those days?

Not for me. Not today. I am so ready for sunshine and warmer weather. Although, I must say, this has been one of my favorite Wisconsin winters. I love snow and we have had it in abundance.

Anyway, today my project is to head over to one of our local flooring outlets, Macco’s, and get a bid on flooring for our new place. I am so torn over flooring.

Doug and I both agree on one thing, no carpeting. Between his boots and the dogs, we are not carpet people. That leaves us with several options. So far, from everything I have researched, I have narrowed it down to this:

-        Tile through the whole house

-        High end wood laminate in the main living areas and master bedroom, tile in the bathrooms and mud room.

-        Laminate tile (I checked this out at Macco’s and there were some pieces that I really liked)

-        Bamboo or hardwood ( I am trying to stay away from these as we are hard on floors and the upkeep on these might be pretty ridiculous)

-         Cork ( I believe that cork is too soft for our household)

 

I would love to hear some opinions/horror stories/suggestions on this. Anyone put in all tile and later hated it? Is hardwood worth the upkeep? I’ve sanded and redone a floor once, I don’t know that I ever want to do that again…..

March 2, 2013

Puppy Love


My poor puppy. He cut his foot on some serious ice two weeks ago and it is still not healed enough for him to be able to play outside. He’s going a little stir crazy.

We got rain two weeks ago on top of the snow and it made a thick crust. Doug took both dogs out to cut firewood with him and somehow in the course of the day Griffin, our shorthair, cut his foot. It was bad, like, you could see inside it bad. But, it was also very clean and being that it was a Saturday night, I decided to clean it up and bandage it at home. I used antibacterial ointment and gauze and wrapped him up. Thankfully, he is has not chewed on it or tried to remove the bandage.

Also thankfully, it has remained infection free and so we have not had to take him in to our vet. It is healing so slowly and he is going absolutely stir crazy.  I have never had to play doctor to a deep cut like this before and it makes me nervous, but I’ve been changing the bandage every night and making sure it isn’t swollen or hot, so I think he’ll be okay. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? Anyone else have dogs that they worry so much about?

Other than that, this is a busy weekend, I get to go up to see my sisters and my nieces and nephew and Doug gets to go fishing. It’s March 1st people, here in the northwoods we are on the downhill slide to spring!

March 1, 2013


First of all, let me apologize. I disappeared. I’m sorry. It happens. Good news is, I’m back! J

For how long, I don’t know, we’ll see.

Life, as I know it, is crazy right now. Currently, my husband and I are waiting to see if our house sells. We have a unique situation going on here right now. When we bought our house in 2009, we bought it quickly, with the specific purposes of
1. Getting the homebuyer’s tax credit, and
2. Living here until and making enough improvements to resell it when we are ready to build.

Good news, we are ready to build!
Bad news, the house must sell for us to be able to build this year. If not, we’ll have to wait another year to do it.

Good news, we have a potential buyer.
Bad news, the buyer is our neighbor, who owns a butcher shop and wants to put up a store front. The tricky part is, he has to present a business plan to his bank for the purchase of the house  (and the lot, which is what he really wants) and the construction of the business. Translation, we are all in a waiting game.

So, where are we in the construction process?

Well, we spent all fall developing a plan that we both really love. It’s very non traditional, but for our style of living, it’s extremely functional. Now that we have a finalized blueprint, I am so antsy to get started on it.

Even though we have a finalized plan, there are still plenty of things we need to figure out, and plenty of things that we disagree on. For example, I would prefer the house be set further off the driveway, Doug, on the other hand, thinks he wants to keep it closer to the driveway. This is just one of the many disagreements we have, don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted as we go.

If, theoretically, everything come together here in the next month, we will start digging sometime in May. Because of the lay of the land, we will be digging a pond so that we have enough fill. I am excited about the pond for many reasons, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

I am also excited to keep you guys in the loop through the blog. I’m looking forward to many updates in the coming months and I am so glad I can get your opinions on things. Stop by and check out our progress and any other goings on that we may have.

Have a great Monday!

Erin