Where have you been?

Did you miss me?  It has been a very busy 6 months to say the least.  I have been trying to divide my time between a new house in need of attention, an always on the go 2 year old, workouts, family, friends, and just life in general.  Summer, my horrible eating habits, low energy levels, and the pile of projects I'm trying to tackle brought me back to blogger world.  I'm excited to share all of the amazing things my husband and I have accomplished the last 6 months with a few personal achievements thrown in. I will be sharing recipes, workouts, home projects, some 2 year old cuteness, gardening, and lots of summer fun.  Bring on summer!

The biggest change lately has been in our home.  We bought a short sale with amazing potential.  Yes, this means hours of cleaning, painting, demo, yard work, more cleaning, planning, contractors and some more cleaning.  The original owners had 11 children.  No, that was not a typo.  When we bought it, only the Father, oldest daughter with her young children (2 or 3) and maybe 2 or 3 of his children lived here with their dog.  This poor house has taken a beating and we are slowly putting it back together.  

Home Sweet Home

We moved in a week after Thanksgiving.  Did I mention we were in Texas for Thanksgiving?  You never know how much you have until you have to pack it and then unpack it.  My 19 month old was a great helper.  Can you sense my sarcasm?  My first order of business was cleaning!  Those oh so sexy yellow gloves and I got to know each other very well.  We had a cleaning crew come in and do a quick surface clean as well as the kitchen appliances.  The rest was up to me. 

Cleaning

The downstairs grout before.  Black and Brownish Goo.

The downstairs grout after.  It was WHITE?!

Can you tell the difference between clean and neglected for years?

The floors have been scrubbed and the grout restored to its original color through out then entire house (including the 3 bathrooms upstairs).  How did I do it?  Good old Comet, a grout brush from target and some elbow grease.  I tried the baking soda, vinegar and dawn solution that did not make a dent in the grime.  Now, I want to give it one more good scrub and reseal all of the grout.  Dear homeowners, consider scrubbing and resealing your grout if you have not done in the last 5 years.  It will save you a lot of headache and hassle.  This was by far the hardest and most time consuming cleaning project inside.  We'll save the outside for another day. 

Pest Control

This home came with pets!  Woohoo!  None of these pets showed up on our home inspection.  We had fleas in the living room carpet.  It was the first thing to go.  We had a little family of mice in our kitchen.   A few traps and they were relocated to new homes.  Mostly the fields by Lifetime Fitness.  Finally, there were squirrels in our attic.  They would run around in the ceiling all hours of the day and night.  It kept us up, woke up my toddler from his naps and drove us crazy!  You can't set a trap for a squirrel in your attic because they don't hunt/gather where they nest.  You have to find where they are coming from and set traps for them there.  It took about 3 months for us to figure out they were climbing onto our roof from one tree.  This was the only tree with branches near our roof.  We cut the branch down and have not had any issues since.

The best part about living further out from the cities and congestion are the wildlife.  We have a huge family of deer that feed in our yard most mornings.  My son and I watch them from the upstairs window while we brush our teeth.  In the Spring, we have rabbits all over the yard and neighborhood.  Under our deck is home to a lot of lizards that don't bother us too much.  The coolest sighting yet was a big owl hanging out in our tree.  Its always fun to see the animals out in our yard and provides lots of teaching opportunities for me. 

We are settled into our new home, but far from where we want it to be.  I'm looking at painters tape and a step ladder as I type!  My goal is to keep this blog up to date with our changes and keep me organized as we renovate.  I need a way to focus on the never ending 'to do' list without loosing sight of the big picture.  It is easy to get over whelmed with the details.  Every room has a project unfinished or a space I need an idea for.  One day it will all come together.  OR maybe we'll sell in a few years and build our dream home.  Until then, the paint brush and pain can are calling my name.