The first afters

So I really am quite close to being all finished with my main level. Here are a few of the afters from the front living room and dining room.
Before: One wall was a huge mirror. It was a little over the top, plus the corner of it was pulling away from the wall, so we either needed to take it down, or re-secure it. I decided we'd take it down. It came off in one piece, but then it had to be broken to get it out of the room. No idea how they got it in there unless it was installed by the builders.

 But here is what we have done with it. This is my room that is going to be clean all of the time. No toys go in here, it's a place where, if I have an unexpected guest, I'll have a place that I can sit with them. (you know, as long as they don't look over and see the dining room, which may or may not be clean at any given moment.)

We even got new furniture for this room. It's the first time that we've ever bought new furniture (unless you count mattresses.)
And here is the dining room. I love that these two rooms both have crown molding, and the dining room has the chair rail. I didn't love the wall paper in the dining room. The day that we signed the papers, we headed over here, and Jesse and his dad worked on that mirror, and I started peeling wall paper. It was a beast!!! But, by the end, I figured things out, and had a pretty good system going on with the steamer, scraper and sprayer. Good to keep in mind as I need to strip the wall paper in the rest of the house. (powder room, and one bedroom.)
After I got the wall paper off, the wall was in bad shape, so my friend Colleen came over and helped me to basically Spackle the walls. It worked, and after some primer, they were ready to paint. I can't thank enough the friends that I have who came and helped me paint one day.

 And the after:

My friend Cindy came and helped me to hang the shelves, and many of the other pictures in the house. That is always a scary thing to do in my opinion.
So there you have it, a little bit of what I have done with my new house. I need to get up from the computer and start working on putting books on she bookshelves in the family room, and we have the mini-blinds to replace the ones that are kind of broken out there, and then that room will be finished too. Then maybe I can focus on some of the bedrooms and the powder room. :)

today

Today I unpacked my sewing boxes. Let the procrastination of unpacking begin!

Back in the habit

So running..... Sometimes I talk about it over here. Not so much lately. It's been a rough past 6 months when it comes to running for me. Ironically enough, it was running the marathon last October that started things off. I had spent the previous year running non-stop, and also doing Weight Watchers, and I was just burned out. So I thought, I just ran a marathon, I deserve a break. So I took a few weeks off. Then I was ready to get back into it, and the great stomach bug of '11 hit our house. 2 weeks of non-stop fun. Then I thought, OK, now let's get back to work. But then I got this chest cough that just would not go away. About 6 weeks with that one. We finally got to January, and I think I ran a few times then, and in early February I found out I was pregnant. I was determined to run through this pregnancy, even though it was difficult for me to run in my previous ones. But then I started spotting, and I didn't want to run then. By the beginnning of March I had a miscarriage, and by the time that was over, we were in full on packing mode.
So yeah, it's not been a great running time for me, and add to that the insane amount of hormone and stress eating I've been doing, and I'm a mess! But now things are settling down. I went for a run around the neighborhood last week, and on Saturday I even went out and got a new pair of running shoes. I even have a goal in mind. After running the marathon last year, I thought it would be kind of fun to run all of the races in the Baltimore Running Festival. I already have the 2 hardest out of the way- the marathon and half marathon, so now all that is left is the relay and 5K. The two annoying races to run. The problem with the relay is that you train with your friends, and then you have to run it alone. And the problem with the 5K is that it's a lot of money, and a long way away to travel for a little 5K. But I thought that we'd try to get around the problem with the relay by putting 2 teams together. I certainly have enough running friends, so we'll just pair up according to pace, and we can do the relay without running alone! Yea! So that is the plan this fall. Pregnant or not! I have a friend who would like to be pregnant this fall as well, so our plan is to run/walk it together.
So we have this new house, and it's really close to the C&O Canal, which is a runners dream! I thought since I don't have to worry about hills, I'll be able to take Graham and Olivia out in the jogging stroller 3 days a week and run on the canal. Today I tried that. I think I'd rather die. Maybe I'll get used to it. Maybe it was a bad plan to take my 70lbs of stroller and kids out on only my 2nd run in 4 months. Either way, yuk! I remember why I ran in the evenings.
Anyway, so now I have a goal again, and I'm going to get back into it. It's time to get a little bit more discipline in my life!

The first thing on the walls

So yesterday we finally had our final walk through with our land lady in the old place, and we are out of there for good!!! It feels so good. Today I only left the house to go for a run along the canal. (More on that to come.) My children and I sat down to a lunch in the kitchen at home that was not fast food. It's like my life is finally beginning. We have now been living in our new house for about 2 weeks, and we are unpacked enough to get by. Most days I work on a box or two, but I've also been focusing on getting out of the old house, so things have not been going very fast. I don't have much in the way of after photos to share because most rooms have boxes in them still, and I have no curtains or pictures up. However, I did hang up my first thing yesterday. This quilt was at the DC LDS Temple Visitor's Center for the past month on display, and yesterday I got it back. So here it is in the dining room. I love it!

At Christmas time it will be replaced with a Christmas tree quilt that I have, but other than that, I spent so much time and money on this thing, it needs to be prominently displayed!

Later on this week I have a friend coming to help me hang pictures. I really get nervous about that. I may start working on curtains today as well. We'll see. I need to install all new curtain rods. We have the Bishop coming to visit tonight, and he will be the first non-friend to come and see us in our new house. When friends come, they know me, and my cleaning style, and are very understanding about the boxes abounding 5 weeks after buying the house. :) So anyway, I have work to do today while Olivia naps.