Patience paid off

So yesterday, I said that I am practicing patience for our porch furniture. Well, I had been for only about a month and half, looking on craigslist and such. Everything that was being sold in Nashville was over $200 and another one I liked was being sold for just $50, but an hour and half away. And then there was the problem of not just driving for it, and would it be rickety or worth it, but we needed a vehicle to transport it in.

Right after I finished yesterday's post, I went to the flea market with our friends Brian and Jenna. It was hot. Hot. Strangers kept asking me if Chloe needed water, and I felt like a bad pet owner. But we stuck it out to see all we could see, because it only comes one weekend a month. Towards the very end, we saw it. Well, at first we saw padded versions, which in my mind, I was already ripping off the pads, but over three feet was another just wood version. It's a bit of an ugly duckling right now, but I can see past its gross brown paint job. I talked them down from their price (real bargainer, I am. Actually, had Brian and Jenna not been there, I probably wouldn't have talked the price down, I needed some encouragement). But in the end, I got it for $50. The best part, Brian and Jenna had driven their pickup, so we pulled it up and hauled it away! I went back today, because I love the feeling of 90 degree heat and black jeans, naturally, and I bought the two little stools underneath it for $6 total.

It needs a little lovin'. I'm thinking gray. With a large print gray and white cushion. The stools will get a matching paint job. Any thoughts?

Summer!

Howdy! So...life is busy as we all know. We returned from our trip to KC and soon had a house full of family, which was AWESOME. All the Dirks siblings were here along with Allison's husband and their two crazy kids. It was a great time.

Here's Ryan and Liz's cat in KC, clearly begging us to take her from them. Sorry about your underwear in the picture, Caleb.

This tree! I had no idea this is what it would do! It is so beautiful and has bloomed just in the last few weeks, with increasingly more blooms. Prettiest tree on the street! There is a younger tree just like this in our backyard as well.

We know what we want for porch furniture, but are "patiently" waiting to find the right one.

My new purchases today. I've been keeping my eye out for a hanging plant to make the outside of the house a little more homey, but none have really caught my eye. Today I went to get my haircut and made a impromptu stop at a flower/plant shop right by the salon and I saw these. Also, I got really good deals on them because, well, all men were running the joint.

These are called Salvia and I need to get a pot to plant them in. The guy selling them to me told me they are highly hallucinogenic if smoked. Alrighty. Thanks for the tip, man.

This. It's a pretty purple and you can take branches of it and create starter plants, so let me know if you want one :)

Look mom! My African Violets are blooming! I didn't kill it!

Caleb's brother Adam was living with us for a brief period of time before he headed out to camp, and he became our slave...I mean helper. He took over scraping paint and sanding and prepping the ceiling for paint. Unfortunately for us, and probably with relief for him, he got called early to camp and couldn't complete his sentencing...I mean projects. So, shoot, it's back up to us. Thanks for helping out so much, Adam.

We got a new wide-angle lens recently and I've been so excited to take pictures of the house with it. This is for you, Gabe, when you asked so long ago to see a panoramic view. Well, its not panoramic, but I thought this might give you a better idea. Also, the house was untidy and I started taking pictures anyways, but I'm a little OCD for that, so I tidied up and re-took the pictures. Just. for. you.

From the front door:

My new place mats from Allison! Aren't they cute! I can't believe how perfectly they match without her ever seeing the table in person.

This picture makes me laugh and also makes me sad. It looks like a split screen of before and after, except its not. Our house is in perpetual "before and after" depending on what part of the house you're in. Clearly, everything else besides the bathroom needs help.

Here's what I've been waiting for the wide-angle for. Now you can finally see what it actually looks like instead of snippets of information.

Still scraping, more and more slowly.

Well...hmmmmm. Haven't posted anything new and exciting in a while....so why not start off with a picture of a sweet potato I've had in the house for way too long, shall we?

You know it's been an exciting week when the first image you get is a sweet potato with eyes. Yum. Ok, so the real highlight of the week was when these funny little mugs arrived to us as a surprise gift from Caleb's sister. Cute, huh?

Regal Chlo-dog

Ah yes, more scraping, though it is going quite slowly.

And it makes such a mess.

New pretties in the bathroom! I was very excited about this new addition. Caleb hung our new floating shelf after it was painted (home depot carries every variation of shelves except white floating shelves, so we painted a black one white).

I'll have a wide angle lens soon so that I can show you what the bathroom really looks like instead of snippets.

And this is me about halfway through scraping the window frame, paint-flecked and wishing I would stop scraping so I would eat dinner at a reasonable time like a normal, sane person would.

We're very close to sanding the trim-work down so that we can paint it, folks.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

Nashville Flood and continued house projects...

Hello Friends,

Maybe most of you have heard already, but Nashville was flooded this past weekend. I'm at home; downtown where I work is flooded. Not only are parts of downtown inaccessible, but the power has recently gone out downtown. We're not actually sure when my office will re-open; it depends on the power. The damage is major. Check out www.tennessean.com for more pictures. Our house, thankfully, is fine. We are situated on a hill, but these pictures below are just blocks from our house. We feel very lucky. Flood insurance is not something most Nashville residents purchase, so pray for the families who have lost everything this weekend. I know that I will have a job when the water recedes, but many are not sure due to businesses being destroyed and the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Hotel (one of the city's largest employer) out of business for an indeterminable amount of time.

Our friends Brian and Jenna looking out on the water level a few blocks from our house.

You can see where the water level had already receded from.

This seems like an inappropriate follow up from those pictures, but uploading these in a perfect order is a pain, so...so be it. Miss Chloe poses with her stuffed beaver toy.

Just imagine her saying "HEY!"

I can't remember if I've posted a picture of our washer and dryer, but I'm very pleased to have these in my house. No more hauling weeks worth of laundry to the car to the laundromat, to the car to the house.

These are the little projects I worked on while Caleb was away in California to keep myself occupied in the evenings.

And so the scraping begins....sigh....I've only just begun on the bathroom, and I'm already thinking I should change my voicemail greeting to "Hi, this is Kelli. I'm probably scraping paint or picking paint flecks off my face and out of my hair, so I'll get back to you as soon as I can....beeeeep."

FYI: We sold the air conditioner units! Yay! The first sold for $30, which was the nicest of the bunch, and we kept posting them on craigslist lower and lower until finally we just wanted them OFF our porch and posted the three remaining units for $30 total. We had a customer within the hour. It was great. They showed up in a tiny car and shoved all three in there with two passengers and two HUGE speakers in their trunk. Not sure if those units are still in their car. I have no idea how they were going to get them out.

Our backyard now that spring has greened it up.

An old barbecue that we uncovered from rubble and leaves and branches.

I feel I am becoming my mother. (Love you, mom). My mom loves birdhouses and collects them. This was a cute little towel hook I found at the flea market the other day for the bathroom.

The most recent project (besides scraping paint) are assembling shelves in the bathroom. Caleb put these supports up and assembled the shelves using particle board and piece of molding to make the front of the shelf finished. I've been painting the shelves white and the supports will be green.

She wasn't very sure of this.