Wrong Number

Things have began to spiral down lately. And apparently it isn't just me. So much negativity has been reaching people's lives through the Facebook world. I have heard from so many people that You shouldn't eat this or you shouldn't eat that. THIS is what's good for you. THIS is what will make you live the longest. Oh man. It's a tough judgmental world we live in. You can't look at Facebook for more than 5 minutes without seeing someone post something about working out/ eating better. And you know what, I am happy for you!

I am so incredibly proud of everyone that has changed their life around to better themselves. There is nothing wrong with eating healthy and working out. I try my best to do both of those things. But the thing is, some people are trying really hard. And if someone has stopped drinking pop and is now only drinking juice and you have to lecture them that that isn't good for you either, you my friend, are missing the point. They are TRYING. And they might not be up to par with where you are in life, they are trying to better themselves. They are learning and instead of discouraging them from what they are doing, try praising them that they are doing great!

I witnessed a very childish fight a couple weekends ago. A tall skinny drunk man looked down on someone very very important to me and said "Hey fat boy, come here." It made me cry. Because what this man didn't know was this "fat boy" he was referring to, has changed his life around more than he would have ever known. He is on a diet and has actually dropped 25 pounds. It is cruel things like that that make people so judgmental. You may have no idea what someone is going through in life. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

For me, my life has been a constant struggle with negativity. I have had more women come up to me and ask me if I have been eating, that they hate me for how skinny I am, what's my secret and so on. What these women don't know is that I have been to a doctor to find out how to actually gain weight. I have no secrets. I dropped the 25 pounds I gained from being pregnant in about a month probably from running after a 2 year old and trying to get everything done around the house. That's it really. Do I watch what I eat? Well if that means how many Reese's I just shoved down my throat, than yeah, I do watch what I eat. I am the one cooking it, I probably have a pretty good idea. Will it catch up with me? Probably, but I am not going to let myself get to that point. I have issues to why I am not working out and quite frankly, that's up to me and not you. I do not have to explain to you why I am not working out. And I also don't want you to judge me for eating that donut I had yesterday.

I saw on a blog I follow something pretty neat that just kind of touched me. Not literally, but I needed it, especially today. And I decided I wanted to do it. And I did. I text 10 made up numbers with area codes from here and Alexandria and I told them "I think that you are an incredibly amazing person. I Hope that you have a great rest of the day((:" I loved it. I was getting replies back saying "Thank you so Much. But who is this?". I didn't respond back. I just wanted to try and brighten someone's day who may have needed it. Because who knows what they may be going through. What if today was their last day of chemo and I just made them feel wonderful about themselves? What if they just lost someone very important to them and this may have just put a tiny grin on their face?

The point of my whole post today is, be kind. Be happy for people. It is so easy to get caught up in jealousy and start bashing someone because you think it makes you feel better about yourself. It doesn't. It is really going to make you feel like a really horrible person afterwards and you just shot someone else down for it. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. But this time, one of those birds is you. Challenge yourself to go out of your way to say something wonderful about someone. Try and make someone Else's day. Try and encourage people to continue to do what they are doing. Stay beautiful to yourself, you deserve it. Honestly, stop worrying about other peoples lives and worry about yourself. Telling someone they look nice today will make you and the other person feel great. And just think about you would feel if someone came up and told you those exact same things. And from experience, never tell a skinny women she is to skinny. Just like never tell a larger women she is to large. Smile more. Laugh more. Life is as great as you make it.

Kappes Concepts

Aaron has picked up wood working in the last couple years just from DIYing our house. He has done so great with learning how to do electrical, piping and doing general maintenance around our house. Between him and his dad, we have saved thousands and thousands of dollars learning to do it ourselves. I am so proud of the things he has accomplished. He is at a great spot at his work right now and has only been there for a short period of time. After building a little toy chest for Carson, he thought, maybe I could start building things for people and selling them. Things never really went anywhere with that though. But he continued to build things for me and saw an interest online from friends and family.

 

It started out with a pull-out drawer he made me after we went looking at Menard's for one. The exact same one was $60+ dollars. All depending on what size you wanted. He built this one for me for $15.00. When comments were coming in about how people wanted one and how great it was, he thought he could do bigger things. So from there he just started building things.

 

 

Next was a set of night stands for our bedroom. This was the first thing I have ever stained and I loved it! One night, Andy text him and talked about starting a company. With their welding and wood-working experience, these two boys could create endless possibilities. Metal and wood is so huge right now. It is beautiful together. Ideas were really starting to flow with the boys.

 

Their creations were beautiful. And lucky me, got to showcase them in our house. From candle holders to tables. From seating benches to storage. They can custom build anything you want! Andy started taking some blacksmith workshops and has learned to do something pretty incredible things with metal.







 

This was their latest piece for a customer. They sent a picture of something they had in mind and the boys did it. It turned out beautiful and such great quality. I think that may be the problem now a days though. I honestly feel that the public is looking for "cheap". Something that will just suit their needs for the time being and may break in a week or a year. You never know with some of the items you purchase for cheap. With their products, you get high quality. Something that will last years and years. And whatever you want! They literally will custom make you everything from the color of wood you would like to the style of hooks. Widths, heights and lengths.

 

 

If you are looking for a high quality piece of furniture, storage or decor, get a hold of these two boys. They would be glad to help you out with anything you may need. They are doing a pretty special project right now and plan on a big Giveaway piece coming up! So don't forget to like their page for all the details to get yourself entered! And if you are in need of a custom piece, give them a call at 701-412-3077.



Our To-Do List

I like to make lists. For everything. I like to be able to see everything written down and in order of what I am going to do and what has already been done. I feel like I have actually accomplished something as I get to cross off each item I have listed. So knowing that, you better believe I made a list of things to get done for our house. And this isn't little things like washing dishes and doing the laundry. It is bigger items that would probably require my husband's assistance. So here they are.

 

Kitchen

 

 

• We are contemplating the ceiling right now. We are thinking about actually wallpapering it a bead board pattern. Either way, it needs to be fixed and painted or wallpapered.
• Finish the toe kick ( you can't see it in the picture)
• Finish putting up trim as soon as the ceiling is done
• End cap counter
• Organize some of the cupboards with built ins

 

Stairs Wall



 

 

• Cut the wall in half and open up the stairs. Build a ledge on top. I want the ledge high enough so kids can not climb on top and fall. We were thinking right above the light switch.

 

 

Desk Area



 



•  I thought having a desk in this little area would be great with me having my business at home. As you can see, it's not. It collects junk and I hate junk collectors. So this will be a pantry. I am thinking something like this .
• Finish trim 
• Add a door where the window is so it will lead to our patio.
• Take out basement door when we cut the wall in half.

Dining Room

 



• Paint the walls gray
• make a valance to cover the curtain rod.
• Aaron is going to make us a new farm table for our dining table.

Front Entrance

 

• Replace door with a new one and a much smaller window. I hate feeling like someone is looking at me at night. I also hate curtains on windows and I need that to not feel like I am being watched. A door like this would be awesome. Little or no window. We don't ever use this door but maybe we will start later down the road.
• paint walls gray
• turn closet into a more functional closet. Lots of storage space
• Have Kappes Concepts build me a nice storage bench for where the cubby storage is now.

 Living Room

 

 

• Paint walls gray.
• Possibly get lighter furniture and move this furniture downstairs.
• New windows
• Update fireplace surround. Maybe do some sort of built in like this.
• Build a breakfast bar where the window is into the kitchen. Add a few bar stools and eliminate one of the couches for space.

Small Hallway

 

• Hang a picture of Hudson. :/ I have one, just haven't bought a frame for it yet.
• Add door for going upstairs.
• Paint walls gray
• Create a new growth chart to hang up
• Organize pictures on other side and maybe make into a whole picture wall

Carson's Room

 

• Move Carson upstairs and this would be strictly a guest/toy room.
• Create a wall full of built ins to store toys and movies in
• Re-Sheetrock the walls and update electric.
• Paint the Revere Pewter color by Benjamin Moore. Here.
• trim
• knockout Hudson's closet (which is on the other side of Carson's) and make a deeper closet for more storage.
• Add closet doors

Side of House





 

• Create a little mudroom where the entry door is.
• Put new siding on. We are thinking this color.
• Build a storage Area for a couple garbage cans so they don't blow away in the wind.
• Take our concrete on side of house and add grass there
• Paint foundation or maybe get a stone paneling to cover it. Something like this.



 

Front Yard 

 

• Side house this color.
• Remove large tree in front of the yard. (It just covers the whole house and takes up a lot of the yard)
• Add pillars and a better entrance to the front of the house like this one.
• New Front Door
• Change the steps to come down in front of the door instead of sideways and add a landing to have a nice little porch. Right now the steps cover half of the window in our bedroom.
• Add a wrap around porch like this one .
• Plant some sort of plant/flowers in the front mulch bed.
• Make a brick mailbox like this 
• Level out our lawn and add grass.



 Driveway

 

• Add a two stall garage with a room on top for Aaron's "man cave". He calls it his man mountain. This would eliminate loud noises from games and friends coming over from the basement.
• hopefully purchase the lot right next to ours to add a double garage



 Back Yard

 

• Excuse me while I barf. We still haven't fixed our gutters from when the tree landed on our house. That will be fixed this summer, for sure!!
• Side the house
• New windows upstairs
• Connect the roof lines so they meet each other which would make either another room upstairs or an open tall ceiling in our entrance/dining room. I am leaning towards a tall ceiling. (Kind of a dream of mine)
• Create a patio where Oakley's kennel is right now.
• Make the window on the farthest right into a door that would lead out to the patio.
• Create some storage for the boys toys.

The "Man cave"

 

• Create a small hallway between this room and our room and make this into a bedroom. What is the bar right now, would be a closet. And where the jerseys are hanging would be an egress window.
• Sheetrock/ Mud/ Paint
• Add hallway
• Move into this room.

Bathroom Upstairs

 

• This wall where the door is will be knocked out. The bathroom will be twice as big as it will be using half of Hudson's room. The other part of Hudson's room will be our laundry room! Both boys will be moved to the two upstairs bedrooms.
• Shower will stay where it is but be a tiled walk in shower with no doors.
• Toilet will stay but we will add a double sink on the window side of the wall.
• Tile bathroom with possible in floor heat and do something fun with the walls. ( still undecided)
• Laundry room will look something like this. Actually nothing really like that, but I just wanted to find a laundry room with lots of storage space. And this was the closest I could find.

 

Pictures I didn't add were the upstairs bedrooms because I can't even make my way up there to take a picture. Pretty sad, I know. But those two bedrooms would be gutted, new electric, new windows, new walls and paint and new flooring. There is an unfinished little closet area up there that we would make into a small bathroom with just a toilet and sink for the boys when they have to go to the bathroom. The steps are kind of steep so we wouldn't want them coming downstairs in the middle of the night to go.

 

Well, that is our to-do list as of right now. I am sure there will be many things that we change but I will continue to blog about everything that we are doing to the house!!! Until next time....





Bathroom, Phase 1

Our bathroom was gross. And that is an understatement. I took out the bathroom mirror because I thought it would look perfect in Hudson's room. Taking that mirror out led us to a hole in the wall from our previous cabinet that had an electrical cord attached to it and went into the wall. I also started taking paneling off one day in hopes of just patching up a few holes and painting over our nasty brown, hair sprayed cover walls. Instead, we ripped off the paneling to find out that it was glued on many many years ago and now the glue was there to stay. I tried to sand paper it off and that did zero justice. So we were stuck with an ugly bathroom until Aaron had time to fix it.

 

 

This was before we had removed that piece of paneling and after I had already started painting the ceiling and top section of the wall. After ripping out the paneling, we ripped up the flooring. Aaron was busy putting in the new linoleum flooring that we had spotted at Menards awhile back.

 

 

I loved this flooring and could already feel the bathroom getting a little more cozier. We went and picked up some paneling from Menards as well. We wanted to go high enough so we didn't have to patch all the holes. This may sound pretty lazy, but next spring we plan on gutting the whole bathroom and Hudson's bedroom for a complete remodel which would leave our bathroom about twice as big and the other part a laundry room. Oh how I would give anything for a laundry room on the same floor!! But until then, we are just doing what we call "Phase 1" until we get a few other things figured out.

 

 

I think the shower that I hated prior to our Phase 1 fits in a little better with the white paneling.

 

So fresh and so Clean ((:

 

 

The mirror was made by my and husband's company called

Kappes Concepts . Aaron and his brother Andy created it and make customer furniture and home décor. Make sure to like their page for an amazing upcoming giveaway!! But that is our Phase 1 bathroom update in a nutshell. Sorry I have not been posting on here. For some reason, my page wasn't running correctly. I think I have it all figured out now though. So until next time....