Dining Room Reveal

 Loving my 12 light chandy from Ballard Designs, I wanted a significant piece over the round table, this was just perfect.

 Everything in this bookcase has meaning to us.

 I found this awesome column for $35 at my antique mall. The mirror was a $4 gar.sale find last summer.

 Under this cloche is one of the very old German Bibles that my mother in law gave to us from Mark's grandmother.

 Some more of the collection. It was like they were meant to be there.

 The cigar box was in some of my Grandmother's things, the binocs were from a g.s.

 Almost everything in this room was second hand, except the chandelier and the new PB rug.

 Everyone loves my tobacco basket, I found it for $35 at a second hand thrift store a few years ago. 

 The Ethan Allen dining set and buffet was a hand me down from my sister Melanie. Those gorgeous curtains were a gift from her for my 40th bday last year, she got them from her sis in law who didn't like them! They are from Chandlers'.

 One day we will have wood floors!

 I have named  our home Dandelion Cottage, I will explain it later in another post!

 A few before shots with my mil's things in here.

Ta-Da !!!

Kitchen Remodel part 1

Whew!  I am tired just looking at this post!  We have been busy as bees since moving last month, we have been waiting for the contractors who are doing my mother in law suite to remove the cupboards in the kitchen and re use them in her new kitchen.  Last week we finally had demo day and Mark and I got straight to work, and work we have done.  Constantly.  We are starting to see things take shape so I thought I would share a few (ok alot) of pictures, mostly so that  could keep track of our progress (and my mother in law who has fled to Florida for 2 months could see too!)  Here are a few photos of the before, the way it was when my mother in law left. 

I am already taking heat from the locals for not making cookies like she does!

She is never this cluttered, I took the photo on busy day.

We are reusing her cabinets in her new kitchen space.

She even got her own entry door

The door to her new bedroom.

This hallway will lead to her family room. 

Here is the kitchen now that we have our cupboards going in.  We purchased our cabinets from Ikea and are very happy with them so far. 

I am so excited about having glass doors, you have no idea!  I wanted you to see how high they are, my hubby is 6'2", he has been so wonderful, staying up late working hard to get this done for us. 

So my first choice for countertops was a marlbe looking granite, loved it!  But way out of our budget so we went with the Corian countertop. We ordered ours from Lowes and right now they have a deal where you get free undermounted sink with your order ($400 value).  So we were pumped about that. It is going to be a few weeks before the countertop is installed, I can hardly wait! Lowes also has a deal going on right now if you purchase a gift card (over $500) they will give you 10% gift card starting March 18th. We purchased a gift card in the amount of our counter top and in  a few weeks we will have  over $200 worth of Lowe's credit coming to us.  We thought that was worthy of passing along to you guys!

We painted the wall in the dining room and purchased an awesome rug from the Pottery Barn Outlet. Things are taking shape!  We also hung a new chandelier in the dining room , it is large and grand and I love it!  We are not done with it yet, I need to clip the chain and maybe add some shades, I found it at Ballards. 

These are my mil's appliances, we need to go back to the old house to get ours this weekend.

We are going to put in darker wood floors eventually and paint the lovered doors white.  The knobs still need to go on the island and wood blinds need to be hung.  I have a new light fixture to hang over the sink, I need to find somthing else for the ceiling lights.  We are also going to attempt a subway tile backsplash. 

So that is it so far.  We still have  a long ways to go, it will be wonderful to get the countertop in!  I am really sick of eating out!  At least we have a temporary sink, thankfully!  It is so exciting to see our hard work paying off.  I am living in a constant mess around here, but it will be worth it when all is said and done! 

As a side note, my coach Mr. Cole's body has still not been located in the icy waters.  It was 4 weeks ago yesterday that he was presumed to have drowned.  They are still searching for him and need our prayers.  Thank you. 

A Hint of Lime

Myah and Dayton's rooms were our first priority when moving into this house. I wanted  to have a little sense of normalcy for each of them, I knew the rest of the house would be getting pretty tore up and they would need to be surrounded by their own special things, their comfort items.  We got to work painting, tearing up carpet, painting trim, adding new window coverings and new light fixtures.  I had started going in a different direction with Myah's room initally, with pinks, salmon's and grays.  It just wasn't giving off the vibe that I wanted her little haven to have.  Enter a trip to Homegoods:

I had put this pillow sham and bird photos in my cart about a month and a half ago,  the sham was the only one sitting in a clearance pile for $3.50.  I carried it around in my cart and tried to  find things to match.  I was afraid it might be too bold for the cottage feel that I was going for in this house.  So I put it back.  This past weekend I went back to our old house and hit the same Homegoods.  Would you believe this cute sham was still there?!  I took it as a sign and rolled with it.  The next aisle over was this green glass lamp, I have to say I am finding myself adding hints of lime throughout this house and it fits the beachy, lake, boho relaxed feel that I want to create. 

These bird prints were also on clearance this time. Funny I just saw them in Target yesterday.  Love the Boho feel to these too!

I have been searching for a colored cork board for her room and wouldn't you know it, over in the next aisle was the lime green one!  All of the sudden her room was taking shape in my cart, I caught people looking in my cart, probably wondering who would ever put all of those funky things together!  Umm, that would be me!! I have to say that this little desk area won Myah over!  She is my little creative girl!

The owls were a gift from Santa via Pottery Barn Outlet, she loves them! She is on an owl kick lately.

I threw the basket and cute flowered box in and I knew that  she would love it!

I added her little  antique McCoy Chinese girl vase, remember when I bought this ages ago??? I can't wait to fill it for her!  She actually has such  a pretty view out her window, she  will see the gorgeous lilacs when she wakes up every morning. 

Isn't this just so fun!!!

I added a few accessories to her dresser and hung an old photo of her that I have had stored away, one of my all time favorites that I took of her. She loves jewelry so I kept her bling out where she can see it. 

She also loves to read, she is really doing well on the Bob books, have you heard of them?  And of course her Bible is always close by, she is my little spiritual child!

I moved this little desk/table in for her and added the $30 chair from Ikea (found on clearance).  I love the airy feel to her room, very cottagey! 

Here are a few before shots of what used to be Grandma's office, now Myah's bedroom. We painted and put in new carpet and light fixtures. 

And after, Myah's little place to call  her own.  She loves it!

I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your prayers for Mr. Cole, they are still searching for him, it has been a week now and still no sign of him.  :(

Matters of the Heart

I would love to write a real mushy gushy post on here about how much I love my man, but you already know that.  What you do not know is that my heart is aching, heavy and hurting on this Valentine's Day.  I don't want to be a huge downer on here but we need prayers, huge prayers.  Let me give you a little history lesson.  When I was  little girl I joined a track (running) club, I started running competitively at 10 years old.  I would not say I loved running but it seemed to be my niche.  I hated practicing, running long distances and aching muscles.  I ran in Jr. High and eventually joined the High School track team.  I was a freshman, new to the team with alot to prove and not alot of confidence.  Enter my coach, Mr. Cole,  a soft spoken, gentle, kind man who had a warm heart and a simple grin.  He did not get riled up, I never saw him angry or ever heard him yell at any of us.  I kind of stayed under the radar my freshman year, the older girls got the good positions and relay teams.  I was a sprinter, I loved the 100, 200, 400 relay and 800 relay.  I somehow qualified for the regionals as a freshman, maybe Mr. Cole just put me there, that would be like him.  I ended up surprising everyone that day when I took third in the region, finishing in front of my team mates.  It was like I came out of  nowhere.  The next year I became a more important part of our team and got the good positions and got to be part of the relay teams, I was thrilled!  I went on to run all 4 years of my high school career and ended up winning the conference champ in the 100 for 2 years and also took 4th in the state for our relay team, we actually were a pretty successful team and as much as Mr. Cole could have bragged about us, he never did, he was a wonderful example of good sportsmanship. All of my success I owe to    Mr. Cole.  He encouraged me and molded me into becoming  a better runner than I ever imagined I would be.  I loved that man, everyone did. 
Last Saturday night we were at the local ice rink watching our friends play hockey and I noticed a display in the arena that had a photo of Mr. Cole and said he had been inducted into the Coach's Hall of Fame last October.  I saw his sweet grin and  knew that he was the one person I could not wait to see now that we are living back home. As odd as it sounds I really thought about helping him with the track team. 
You can imagine how devasted I was when last week my brother in law called to inform me that he had been out on a call the night before ( he works with the dive team for the police dept).  My breath literally stopped when he told me they were looking for Mr. Cole.   The weather has been just awful since we moved back, we had a blizzard last week and then bone chilling temps followed.  The wind chills were in the negative numbers. 
There is a long lake that turns into a river in our community.  This is the lake that my parents live on, where I grew up.  Mr. Cole lives at the north end of the lake near the river in a beautiful old home that I am sure he lovingly restored.  Apparently, Mr. Cole was going to look for his missing yellow lab, Joe, his truck was found running near the river bank, door still open and footprints slipping into the icy waters but none coming out.  They figured he was trying to get his dog out of the waters and he fell in himself.  No one is for sure what happened but there has been a huge search going on in our tiny community since last Wednesday and no sign of Coach.  He was also a shop teacher in our district and had recently retired, he is 62 years old and still runs marathons.  He is also still coaching track and cross country.  The man was loved in this community by everyone. 
Sadly,there is still no sign of him.  The searchers have been using divers, air boats, helicopters etc... and finally yesterday they found Joe's remains about a mile and a half from Mr. Cole's home on the lake, in the ice.  My heart cannot even fathom what his family is going through.  We just want closure and piece of mind for the family at this point.  Our lake is fed by a dam  and it is 11 miles long, the search is very difficult right now because the lake is frozen. 
 This weekend I found the little ear cuff that he had given me as a graduation present, it was a one of a kind metal flower piece in a silk oriental bag.  Such a precious treasure to me now.  I have been driving up and down the road that runs parallel to the lake and praying for him and his family.  Our little community is pulling together and volunteering to search, feed volunteers and pray.  That is about all we can do right now.  I am asking you to join us in the praying portion, we feel so helpless and want to find him so badly, he surely did not deserve to die this way.

One of the search crews.

People have said that he and Joe were always together.

My mind has hardly drifted to any other subject this past week, he is constantly in my thoughts  and prayers. The weather is supposed to be warming up this week so I pray that they find him soon now that the ice is shifting and melting.  I will keep you posted as soon as I find anything out, I just know you are all my little prayer warriors out there and we could really use them right now!  I know I am going to be holding on to my sweetheart even tighter this Valentine's Day.   

God Bless You Mr. Cole