Moving and reminiscing

So, a lot has happened in the past month. We sold our house and moved into Bayfair, our transition home that Gayle has graciously let us stay in, while we clean up/fix up our new home at Little Redwood. Our Italy home (sounds really exotic) was everything we ever wanted and truth be told, we could still be living there now but we were tired of stubbing toes, tripping on each other and getting frustrated about never having any room to put our stuff. I would always laugh when people would tell me how they never had any room in there 1200-1600 sq. foot house since ours was a little over 1000 sq. foot. But, nevertheless, it was such a good home that God provided for us at a time when I had only been working a year and JP was going to school and working part time. The payments were awesome, gonna miss that. We added a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our home improvements. We laugh when we think of our furniture when we first started out. My parents gave us their couch, which was so big that we could both lay comfortably on. (We used to be really skinny back then too) JP's parents gave us the burnt orange recliner, JP still says he had some of the best naps in that chair. And our end tables were tray tables for a LONG time. We kind of grew up as adults in that house and brought our babies home there. Those were good ol' days.

We miss our neighbors. Not sure we'll ever have neighbors like Lyndsey, Brent, Jason, Andrea and most recently Regina and all the kiddos again. Sad, but we are just 5 mins away. I'll miss getting together on the spur of the moment and letting kids play in the front yard while we all chatted. Won't forget last year's snow and how we all ran around like we were 5, THAT was pure fun. How often do you get to tackle your neighbor? So many memories and good times. I'll miss 4522 Italy. You were a good home to us.

Leaving 4522 Italy, home of JP and Lana

for 8 sweet years. We will miss you

So hard to say goodbye

Little Redwood, new home of many memories waiting on us
Ahhh, the country kitchen complete with wallpaper (I HATE WALLPAPER!), rabbits, potpourri and dog food on the floor

The master closet, just throw it in

Don't bother picking it up.

Check out the window sill where the dogs got poopie all over

The selling point, the awesome backyard
The NASTY stove that we ended up getting rid of

Sarah, Carol and JP after tearing out carpet.
Eddie and Gayle helped too, just didn't capture any pics

Probably the dirtiest job of all, ripping out the smelly
urine and poo filled carpet, gag.

JP, Dad and Mom tearing out the vinyl floor in the kitchen

Dog poopie and pee stains in the living room
I poured vinegar on them and they ended up

being a frothy paste, hmmmm.

Chuck, taking out the tack strip in the game room

JP, texturing the kitchen

We LOVE the paint sprayer that JP bought on Craigslist for $100

JP, high on paint . . .scary

One side of the pantry doors primed

My inspiration kitchen is from Lettered Cottage on Misty's blog. I am using her paint color, pale pale blue and I'm going to paint the cabinets black. Don't care that I'm copying her. I Love her taste. So, I will post more pics. I already painted the kitchen, just finished the second coat of blue last night and topcoated the doors and trim the other day. We are focusing on the kitchen area right now so we can have a working, clean kitchen and then I think we will focus on the upstairs bedrooms so we can try to move in within the next month or two. It's taking us a lot longer than we thought. It's really been hard trying to do this around JP's work schedule since he works late and I've pawned the girls off on every family member. Yes, they both have been a little more clingy that normal to me. Hope I haven't scarred them for life :) Thank goodness that I work for the school district and I've had time to work on the house! So, with that being said, I must give credit to Mom and Dad, who have constantly kept the girls, and worked on the house and asked me almost daily "do you need help today?" To Eddie and Gayle who have also watched girls and done grunt work. I REALLY regret not having my camera when Gayle was wearing her plastic cape and goggles while scraping off texture. To Carol, for watching kids and cleaning and keeping us fed with banana bread. To Misty and Chuck for scraping off wallpaper (worst job in the world), taking out flooring and painting. To Sarah who helped with the removal of the hazardous carpet! Have I left anybody off?

I love all of you! You're the best and I don't know how people do it without their family? I'm spoiled.

More pics to come. Who knows when though.