Before and After Family Room

We removed one of the three windows on each side of the TV so we would have a wall to hang Zan's Favorite thing in the house!  I am sure I rate somewhere near it!  ha  We removed the mirrors, floor, stone and added new stone along with a new wood stove.  We added on to the family room, adding a walk out patio to the back yard.  We transferred the bathroom to the new addition along with a walk in closet for jackets, shoes, etc.

The Family room

The Family room

The NEW Family room

The new addition

Before and After Dining Room

The Dining Room........

We kept the original windows.  We ripped out the carpet and wall air conditional unit.  The wall between the dining room and kitchen was also removed.  My favorite is the added front porch!  I love sitting out there waiting for Blaine to get picked up for school.  It's a great time to chat with him each day.

Our Kitchen

It's almost complete!! We just have some decorating to do and some speakers to hang.

The window looking into the back yard has a window seat so I can relax and watch the kids play. We originally had planned cabinets across the entire back wall with a smaller window. The more I thought about it, the less I felt that I liked it, seemed very closed in to me. I wanted open and we all know that I would never fill up 36 cabinets!! I had seen a kitchen in a magazine at one point and loved the shelves with under shelving lighting so I asked the builder to build me shelves instead.

I also loved window seats so we had to delay construction about eight weeks to wait for the window! We were never in a rush, we knew the project would take us forever so what was another 8 weeks? I love the window seat so it was worth it!

The cabinet guy built my Island identically to the one that I had in my mind! He was great and was so dependable.

The stone wall was the most difficult project. It started off bad when my poor dad and I picked it all up in my mini van. We drove about 15mph, he unloaded it all...it was so heavy!!

Thanks to Michele stopping by and thinking of taking a photo of the stone wall being built, we realized when she sent us the photo that it was different then what we imagined. Zan left work and decided to do it himself! The wall wore him out! He is so done with this house!!! Check out photo of placing last stone...two full days of work.

Blaine's room

You probably read in my other blog that Blaine, uncle Josip and Dad are obsessed with Giants! Blaine wanted a Giants room and thanks to his Uncle, he has enough to fill a couple of rooms!! We are gonna save some of it for the Man cave. ( if that ever happens)

Here are some photos...

My blog

Everyone has been asking why I stopped the blog....

We have been so busy the last couple of months. The kids went to TN so Zan and I could get us moved into the main part of house!!! Yes, we are officially finally moved in! We started transferring our life over about eight weeks ago. We LOVE it! I used to sneak out of my one room, into the garage for peace and write my blog. Life has changed, first, the kids were gone for six weeks so I had to grout, clean, grout, and clean!! I will never ask Zan to lay so much tile again!!! I love my bathrooms and kitchen but if I would have grouted one bathroom before the others were done, I would have cut back on some of my ideas!

Chance....

We worked very hard while the kids were away so upon their return, we could transfer them straight to their own rooms. Chance was the first to return..the first night, he cried about an hour and a half! He never came out of his room but he ripped off all of his sheets and finally gave up. Poor kid, it broke our hearts. Chance has only known our one room! He was a year old when we moved into it and slept with me his whole life!!! We thought it would take a few weeks but the next night, he went right to bed! No issues since........been about three weeks now! Success!

Blaine.....

He has the ONLY (mostly) finished room, thanks to his Uncle Josip! Uncle Josip gets him Giants posters, footballs, flags, helmets, fatheads and anything else that has the word Giants on it! I bought frames for all of it and insisted that we hang it all up because it was sitting in the floor! Actually, the fathead took up my entire kitchen island (check out Blaine's room blog). Blaine moved into his room with great joy! bGuess he needs a break from all of us, plus all of his buddies bought him a bearded dragon (lizard) so he does have some company.

Quinton....

We all know he loves MAGIC! I have framed a few Chris Angel (appropriate) photos, some Las Vegas pictures and some of his magnificent travel photos! Quinton dreams of performing in Vegas and he always talk about all of his trips! He wanted the biggest bed! He asked for a pillow top big bed so his bed takes up his entire room! Who cares, he LOVES it and that's what matters!!!

Zan and I....

We barely have covers!! Kids first!!

We all love our new space. Life seems so breathable! We never go upstairs into the "room" anymore, I often walk up to get something and I can't imagine that we all lived in there for so long.

I will be sending some updated photos of the house. Today, I am headed to the shore with my boys.

Our Little Helpers

The house is gonna mean so much to all of us. We have all spent our days working on this crazy house! The boys have been so wonderful spending lots of days at Home Depot, unloading car with stuff, or just sitting on the wood so Zan can cut it!!! No matter what the task, they have been in great spirits!

Fun at the Franc's

Even though we only live in one room with no air condition, we still manage to make the best of it! We love our neighborhood. We have so much fun with friends and neighbors.