Prepare yourself.... progress ahead!

Before:



This lovely green 800 gallon water tank came out of the room on the left. Steve drug it out with his truck. Lovely. We have some friends with 5 acres and no irrigation, so any day now they are going to be by to pick this thing up and take it home. They are going to bury it in the grown and use it as a reserve tank. That's fine by me... just get it out of here!

To the left downstairs, in the room where the tank once was, is 13x14 of pure future scrappy goodness. Oh. My. I am so excited about this. Scrapbooking is becoming a part-time job for me, and I would love to have a cozy place to do it in.

The focus of today's work... to take out the garage door on the right and put in a window.

Here are Steve and his dad in the early afternoon. Garage door and all the framing that went with it, gone. In it's place is framing for my window. Are you ready to see what it looks like today?

Brace yourself....

Ta da! I am so excited about this! Now, it's not finished. Steve had to work for someone at the "office" last night from 5-9... and they were still nailing up siding at 4:45 so it's in no way finished. But look. That there is a window! No more 1 car garage door that leaked light and had grass growing under it and into my house 365 days a year. Think of the energy savings! And with a window I no longer need a light in on the daylight. Yippee!

Here's another view. Now, keep in mind... they ran out of time yesterday, but the window in my scrapbook room will also be replaced with a window just like the one that was just put in. So they will match. More light. Natural light in my scrapbook room! Hooray!

Steve has already started putting canned lighting in my room, the tile for both my room and the "mud" room is already on order... we decided to go with the same tile that's in our entryway upstairs.... it's progress, I tell ya, progress! My scrapbook room is my Christmas present and while I don't know that Steve will have enough time to get it all finished by that big day, at least something is happening around here! We've been in limbo! So many projects, but where to begin!? This really is a good thing. We can't wait to live downstairs too... it will DOUBLE the square footage I've been living in for... ack.... 2 YEARS! I can't believe it's been that long. I can't wait!

In other home improvement news.... we just got a new bed. Steve hated our other bed. He'd wake up with sore shoulders and his handprint on his chest and a sleeping arm every day. So he picked up this:

**deleted link because it's messing with my blog layout!**

I don't know if this is the exact one, but the price is right and ours is a Memory Foam and we got it at Costco with $100 rebate, so this might be it.

The UPS truck showed up while Steve was hunting with this box that was 4' high. I was like .... "oh dear, that can't be right." But when Steve came home and dragged all 150 pounds of box up stairs on a dolly, it was an amazing experience to be had. They included an envelope opener, and you slit the bag open, unfold the mattress that's been folded in half, and then slit another bag open... the mattress was folded in half and then in a W shape. You open it on your bed, and then lay it out, and then it gradually expands. It was the weirdest thing... ever! We opened it at 12 and by bedtime it was okay to sleep on. At first we couldn't decide if we loved it or hated it, it's such a weird mattress, but since we bought it, Steve hasn't had any arm pain, I don't need to wear socks to bed because it really holds in the heat, and I look forward to getting in bed and dread getting out of it in the morning. It just hugs you close. It really is quite fabulous. But it's so different! There's no spring when you leap on to it... just a dull thud as you slowly sink down into to. And because we still have the box spring on our bed, it's really high. We might take that box spring out because we don't need it now, but for now it works as a platform so it's fine.

So there. Window. Bed. Progress at the casa de la Fiero!

Lastly.... the kiddos have been OBSESSED with washing windows lately... and who am I to crush their dreams and curb their passion by denying them this joy? Good thing I already purchase paper towels and window cleaner at Costco.... for I have been lathering our slider in order to provide them their entertainment on an almost daily basis. Yes, our house needs some cleaning... and it won't be long before I have them moving along to other windows too.