Ben's Home!

And I have some pictures of projects and recipes to share with you soon.

Before Pictures

I know I posted this in the previous post, but here's the front of the house again. It's not a very bright picture since we were checking out the house as the sun was setting. But don't you worry, I'll be posting lots of pictures of the house over the next while.


When you come to visit, knock on this door. Or ring the doorbell. Both work. Can you see a red door? I can't even though I want to. Eh well. That will be decided later. These pictures, as I've mentioned before, we're taken in January when I first looked at the house while Ben was in Canada. My plan was to email him pictures just in case I needed to buy a house while he was gone. Good thing I didn't have to!

Anyway, The house had been owned twice when we bought it. The original owners rented the house out, and there's some cosmetic problems with it because of the renters. The second owners, who we purchase the house from, were corporate. They pretty much went in and painted the whole house and maybe fixed some stuff (but not a lot, judging from the things we need to fix- anyway). They purchased it about the time the housing market started to crash in Utah. So- it went unoccupied for a long time. The paper you see taped on the front door basically says that the house has been winterized and not to run any of the water.

I pan to eventually put a small bench or chair to the left of the door.


When you walk in the house, you walk directly into the living room. It's a smaller room, but I like that. It's a more formal room and we won't be doing anything too major in it. Our plan is to rip up the carpet in this room and down the hallway and replace it with wood laminate. We will also replace the laminate in the kitchen (which you will see in a few pictures). Hopefully doing so will actually make the front room seem larger. I hope to also hang a large mirror on the wall across from the stair rail.

Ben has already started to paint this room. We are painting it a pale sand color but keeping the white trim. You'll see some after pictures of the painted room (hopefully with better lighting) soon!


This picture is of the dining area of the kitchen and was taken while standing in the front room. I like the bay window. (realtor cameo on the left!). We will place our round kitchen table in the bay window area.


The wall on the right will be painted the same sand color as the living room, and the wall on the left will be painted red. I'm so excited to have a red kitchen!


The two walls in this picture- stove and refrigerator (which we need to buy) will be painted red.
And the flooring will be replaced.


The picture below is of the master bedroom. The side wall is all closet and on the right is a window. The room will fit our california king-sized bed, which is nice. No walk in closets, which is sad, but it does have a master bath. I can't believe how many houses I looked at did not have a master bath! The current plan is to paint the walls blue but put beadboard paneling on the lower portion of the wall. You can see a sample here but just imagine, instead of yellow, a seaside blue paint! I think it will look really pretty.


This next picture is the downstairs living room. The tile is very nice although not professionally installed. It is pretty though, even if it isn't something I would pick out on my own. This room will be the "entertainment room" and on the far wall there are 10 outlets! I can't imagine needing them all since we aren't too big into gaming or TV or whatever.

In the picture you can see (L-R) our Realtor, Jennifer Gilchrist, and my step-mom and my dad. They came with me to look at houses while Ben was in Canada. When we have more money, we plan to buy a sectional couch and some area rugs.

This next picture is of the same room, but the other side. The open doorway to the far left is the door to go upstairs (where the kitchen, living room and and 3 bedrooms are). The hallway in the middle-right of the picture goes to the other two bedrooms- one of which is the craft room- as well as the 3rd full bath.


Below is the 3rd bath. The shower is a mess, even if it does look pretty. Whoever did it was not a professional and hence did not slope the floor. That means, water does not drain. So, we have to redo the shower. We want to salvage as much of the tile as we can, but we will make it not as deep. We'll tear out the wall on the right- thus extending the laundry room (Do you see that little closet to the far right? Yeah, that's the laundry space.) The tile you see for the shower is just the entrance. The shower goes all the way to the left wall.



This is the craft room closet. The picture does not do it justice! The thing is huge and all shelves. I guess there will be no excuse for the room to be messy, right? :P

This last picture is just one of the corners of our backyard. In fact, it is the smaller corner. The shed was there when we purchased it and we have plans to finish it (before the wood rots) this spring. You can see a peek of the RV pad and "patio" under the snow. Ben plans to build an awning over the cement this spring as well. This picture was taken from the master bedroom window. We are so excited to have a yard in which to entertain and garden!


There you have the before pictures! I haven't taken any pictures of the other bedrooms yet but if I do I'll post them. There are 3 upstairs and 2 downstairs. Our plan is to make one of the upstairs bedrooms an office and keep the 3rd open for now. :) The two downstairs will be the craft room and a guest room. I also didn't take any pictures of the bathrooms. Bathrooms are bathrooms. You can imagine what they look like.

More to come! Thanks for looking.

Why I haven't posted

Happy News! Ben and I bought a house! It all happened so fast and we are currently trying to make a few cosmetic changes before moving in.

Ben and I knew we wanted to buy a house whenever it seemed fiscally possible. That seemed so far away. However, with the higher pay each time he went to Diavik (Canada- Arctic Circle- Diamond mine) we were able to have a good down payment. While he was away I was in charge of looking at houses. Our realtor was absolutely fabulous, so if you're looking for someone, let me know! Anyway, Ben returned on Friday, February 6th. That weekend we went up to Midway to spend some quality time together after his long absence. The following Monday we spent the day looking at some houses, one of which I fell in love with and hoped he would too. And he did! Immediately after looking at the house we made an offer! This was Monday, February 9th. The offer was accepted on the 11th and then we started going back and forth working out contract details with the seller. We received the final contract on Thursday, February 19th and closed on the house Tuesday, February 24th!! How fast is that? It was meant to be!

What's funny is that the house is in an area we didn't originally want to live. We were hoping to find a house closer to my sister and brother-in-law, who live in Sandy. Our house is much more west. Conveniently close to my work (the drive is like 3 minutes!) but inconveniently farther away from my beloved sister and niece. *Sigh* What is distance when it's family, right? But, I've digressed. Even though we originally didn't want to live there, as I was looking at houses I would drive past the neighborhood on my way home from work and the thought kept popping into my head "I NEED to look in that neighborhood for a house." Day after day the thought would be there and I never did look. Fate made sure I got there when the house we bought showed up on a list our realtor sent. Imagine my excitement when I realized it was in that neighborhood!!

Here's a picture of the front. I have some other pictures of the house, which were taken while Ben was in Canada, but Ben's made notes all over them. Once I have some (without the unnecessary notes) I'll post them. I want to do a before and after post anyway, since we'll be changing the flooring and painting. I'm so excited to decorate!!



Cute, huh? I hope to paint the front door red. The house is on a little less than a 1/4 acre lot, is 2,135 sq ft, 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths. The downstairs has the most awesome bedroom with a huge closet FULL of SHELVES!!! CRAFT ROOM! Yippee!

So that's what we're spending our time on. It's really hard to make projects in our cramped office right now when I know there is a huge room that I will soon have all to myself with triple the space!

Oh, and what's even cooler is that one of the girls in my demo group lives in my neighborhood! She has her own blog and you should check it out! She's awesome!

You gotta love the web!

While taking a break from work I did my usual perusing of the favorite blogs. One blog leads to another and viola! I come across a cooking blog (a beautiful blog at that with pictures that make me want to eat my computer screen) that is created by a girl I went to High School with! I haven't seen or talked to her in over 10 years. It's a wonderful blog and you should check it out. Here's the link.

I love the internet! Even with all it's possibilities to harm, it connects us with people we haven't talked to in years, gives us information to help improve and beautify our lives and is all around awesome.

It looks like Ben will be leaving next Monday, November 17th. We'll see though since they keep pushing it back. Until then, I'm trying to spend as much time with him as possible. When he's gone I'll be filling my time with cooking and creating and reading and will have lots to share! Take care!

Grandpa's Funeral

My dear Grandfather passed away on Friday, October 24th, after a painful battle with Alzheimer's.

My grandfather was a true family man- always putting the needs of his family first- and it was wonderful to see so many of our family members putting him first and attending his funeral. I was able to see cousins and other relatives that I haven't seen in nearly 10 years.

The funeral services were lovely and my Aunt April, cousin Lisa and I sang a musical medley of "On My Honor" and "I Am a Child of God" (arranged by my lovely cousin, Katie Keil). I lost my composure during the opening hymn and thought I was a goner when singing the musical number. However, we all held together well. Grandpa must have been helping us.

Grandpa Davis served in the Air Force and was a BYU football season ticket holder for over 40 years. At his internment there were military rites and the pall bearers wore BYU baseball caps in honor of "papa." Here are some of the pictures (which I took with my dad's camera since I was a dummy and forgot to bring mine):

The sign on the street let us know where to go

My youngest cousin, Paden, putting on his baseball cap

Taking the coffin out of the hearse

The trumpeteer (?) who played taps.

Laying

boutonnieres on the coffin

My father and his mother

The grandsons (minus Tyler Keil who is serving an LDS mission in Georgia)

Expressing how I feel in writing is somewhat difficult for me. I hope that even though my wording is simple that doesn't take away from how much my grandfather meant to me and how much I will miss him.

30th Celebration, Part 1.

Friday, September 26th was my 30th Birthday. I wasn't looking forward to it until a few days before. My husband did a lot to make the day wonderful and he even made the celebration last until Saturday (which will be part 2).

Friday morning I woke up to a path of rose petals from our bedroom down the hall to the kitchen. Our apartment is nice enough but I am looking forward to buying a house when our lease is up. Anyway, here's a picture of the path....

.....to the kitchen where he had left a few of my presents. Last winter my favorite pair of boots were ruined so he bought me some cute new ones as well as some delcious chocolates.

Along with the presents, Ben left this note:

While at work, Ben had my favorite flower - gerbera daisies - sent to me. Aren't they lovely?

I left work a little early and so did Ben. When he walked through the door he was holding these:

More flowers! He thought that I would leave the work flowers at work and wanted me to have some at home as well. However, I couldn't leave my beautiful flowers at work where I wouldn't be enjoying them for two whole days. I brought them home.

We then went out to dinner and then on to my sister Angie's house for cake. It wouldn't be a complete birthday without spending some time with my precious niece, Abby.

Here's Abby grabbing her feet and doing the splits. Isn't she adorable?

The cupcake cake created by Angie.

I was more interested in watching Abby watch the cake than blowing out my candles. Go figure.

I love this picture. It totally looks as though she's holding the camera herself and taking a sassy picture for her facebook profile! I really hope she doesn't grow up that fast though.

Yes, I'm a mean aunt who tempts her infant niece with chocolate and icing.

But she's happy when she eats her healthy cereal!

Still hungry. Stocking feet don't taste that good but it sure is nice to be flexible!

Noses taste better than feet! Especially Mom's nose!

More flowers! These are from my Aunt Cathy.

All the flowers together. Such a happy kitchen table!

All in all it was a very happy birthday. Saturday was also a celebratory day and I'll be posting pictures from that later.