31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation : Day 3

Before we get started, I have to say something.  I turned 31 today.  Which is sad.  But it's also kinda ironic because this is the 31 DAY challenge.  The irony was too much for me to pass up.  (And also, I'm trying to deal with the fact that I'm now in my thirties and not just thirty.  I know.  There are bigger problems in the world.)

Ok, ARE YOU READY FOR IT?

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Finally, we get a glimpse inside the ugly little house.

But first a reminder of what she looks like on the outside:

And now, let's get inside. You may want to hold your nose. I did.

 The Entryway

Ok, you'll notice that there's carpet on the stairs.  Which, normally I'd be like "ok, whatever." But we live in Vancouver.  That's like 2 hours above Seattle.   And what does everyone know about Seattle?  It rains. A LOT.  Like starting in October and ending around June-July.  Don't mis-understand. It is BEAUTIFUL here.  But it's the northwest and rain just comes with the territory.  So, all that to say: a carpeted entryway doesn't mix well with wet shoes.  You can guess what it smelled like...it was musty. And they had cats.  Cat hair stuck on stairs.  Delicious.  (Did I mention I have severe cat allergies?)

Moving on.

At the top of the stairs was the kitchen.  The kitchen quality was actually not too bad.  It was from Ikea.

The Kitchen

Ryan's dad just happens to own a high-end kitchen cabinet and design company.  This is a picture of him and Ryan re-designing the kitchen.  Woo-hoo for family connections!

Now the following 2 pictures I took on the day that the sellers moved out.  They were such nice people and really got it cleaned up and looking good.

***MONEY-MAKING TIP***

Because the Ikea cabinets were in such good condition, we sold them on craigslist for $500!  They were gone within the week!  (And actually, the guy who bought them didn't need all of them so we ended up using the remaining cabinets as extra storage in our garage.  Win-win!)  We  also sold all of the appliances on craigslist.  It was amazing how fast everything went.  We used all that money to go towards our new cabinets and appliances.  If you are doing a home reno, consider selling your cabinets (even bathroom cabinets!) and any appliances you aren't keeping.  There's no harm trying!

The Dining Room

Now this is where the pictures get a little tricky because the rooms were very choppy.  And also because I am not a photographer.  (That's probably the main reason, but we'll go with the choppy thing too.)  So if you were standing in the kitchen, you'd see the dining room:

scary skull, anyone?

After the sellers moved out, I snapped a shot of the empty room.  Do you see how the laminate floor is wavy where it meets the carpet? 

Here's the dining room looking into the kitchen and living room:

I think that's a lot to swallow for day 3.  Tomorrow we'll finish the "before tour" of the upstairs.  I can hardly wait to share all of the afters because it looks SOOO different.  The layout has completely changed into a modern, open-concept feel. Oh! I love being married to someone who can look at my  pinterest account and say "yep I can do that."

He's also my bff.  

On that note,  thanks for reading about our ugly little house! 

See y'all tomorrow,

E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation : Day 2

When we left off yesterday, here's what our ugly little house looked like:

And now let's get day 2 started with our backyard.  Here's what it looked the day we came to see the house for the first time (and obviously before we got a hold of it).  My beautiful in-laws joined us to give their stamp of approval on moving their grandkids into a dump.  (Have I mentioned I'm sarcastic? Please don't hold it against me).  The backyard before:

Our boys only cared about 1 thing: room to run and play.  Our last house was very nice and definitely spacious but it had NO yard.  When you have 3 boys (or kids at all!), backyard space is a definite perk.  The boys must have thought so too because they never even came in the house!

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but the deck was falling apart.  And that rusty old railing had to go. 

Our youngest son, Seth, had the pleasure of being the first one put in time-out in the new backyard.  Check out that bottom lip.

Fast-forward to November after we actually owned the house and we (ok, Ryan) got the deck taken down in a matter of hours. 

Notice that big pile of aluminum in the bottom right-hand corner up there?  Cha-ching! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my Day 1 money-saving tip.) 

Well, that just about sums up day 2. 

I know, it's not really that fun.  The demo part that is.  When I look at renovation or DIY blogs I always find myself wanting to see the after pictures.  And they are coming, I promise!  But this week I want to focus primarily on getting you into my world:  seeing the gross, deteriorating house that my husband promised me he could turn into a home.  My husband does this for a living (time to throw out my unashamed props to him and his company) so I had no doubt he could do it.  But still.  

So tomorrow, day 3, we will finally get inside the house.  You'll get to see weird rooms with weird decor and you may wonder, as I did, WHY.  

Thanks again for stopping by!

E

31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation : Day 1

Hey y'all!  Welcome to my October series: 31 Days to a Complete Home Renovation.

:: Scroll down to read day 1 ::

Click below to read the other days in this series.  Every day I'll add a link to each post I write.

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21/ The Kitchen
Day 22/Macy's room
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I am SO excited to be a part of this series by the write31days.com team!  Here's the deal: it's a challenge to write every day for 31 days in October.  SO, here goes nothin'!  Let's get things off on the right foot and make some introductions:


My name is Elita. Welcome to my little corner of the world.  Which, by the way, happens to be in Vancouver, Canada.  Let me give you a brief run-down of who I am so you won't be confused by my many American-Canadian references.

I was born and raised as a pastor's kid in Houston, Texas, went to college in Alabama, married my Canadian-born husband, popped out a few kids and then we made our way up to my husband's neck of the woods, Vancouver, at the end of 2011.   I am blessed to be married to my best friend, Ryan, we have 3 little boys and I am expecting again (no we don't know what we are having, yes this was a surprise, and YES I am going to be thrilled even if it's another boy).  Phew!  Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business!


I've posted about it once before (click here) but my husband and I undertook a major project last Fall.  We bought a fixer-upper on the outskirts of Vancouver (by the way, $330,000 is about what it costs to not live in a trailer park in Vancouver.  In case you were wondering).  And since our budget was so low, we knew we had to buy a house that was falling apart so we could renovate it and hopefully make some money.

The part we didn't anticipate was the timing.

We had to be out of our rental by December 1st.  The sellers were not leaving our house until November 2nd.  In case you're counting, that's 28 days. We actually did the reno in 28 days.   Not 31.   But don't you worry.  I will have lots of extras to share in those 3 "bonus days."  Extra little DIY crafts we did around the house and things like that. I will give some tips on what TO DO and what to never-ever, not even if your life depended on it, do in a home reno.


The process was pretty well documented, through my husband's notes and my photographs.  (Aaaand let's just stop right there and allow me to be the first to admit that I am no photographer.  I wish I had the time to sit down and fiddle with our really great Canon that my in-laws gave to us. But....either I'm too lazy or I just don't have the time.  Check with me again in 5-6 years.)


So, on to day 1!


Here she is.

I know.

She's ugly.

But my husband, 2 of our boys, and my father-in-law make it at least slightly sweeter, right?  Or else you just feel bad for my kids at this point.  And you may possibly be wondering why my 8 year old is holding a chainsaw.  I can understand that.


ACTUALLY, that picture was taken after we pulled out 2 trees from the front yard (hence the chainsaw.  That my kids did not use, by the way).  The trees were causing moss to grow on the roof (which needed to be replaced anyways) and they were in really odd spots of the yard.  Here's the picture with the trees still in the ground:

And here's proof that it was my man who did the sawing and not my children:

The next thing we did was pull those awful aluminum window awnings down and remove the brown shutters.  (I use the term "we" very loosely here as I did none of this. I stood by and watched while my husband did 99.99% of the work on this entire house).

RANDOM MONEY-MAKING TIP:  

Did you know that you can make money by recycling aluminum?  I'm not talking about coke cans, people.  We made over $400 by recycling all of the aluminum from our house: the window awnings, the windows themselves, the siding, and the gutters.  When you're doing a reno, and every penny counts, $400 extra is a major bonus.  

So on day 1 we basically pulled the trees out of the yard, removed the awnings and the brown shutters.

Here she is at the end of day 1:

Come back tomorrow and see what day 2 of the outside looked like.  I'll give ya a hint: we move to the backyard.

Thanks for popping by y'all!

E

The Friesen Six

Well, the news is out.

We are expecting baby #4!  We are thrilled, surprised (no, it wasn't planned), and just feeling incredibly blessed to be doing this again.

We kept the news to ourselves until around week 11.  Then we shared the news with our boys.  We asked our good friend, Melody Davis, an amazing photographer (but an even better friend) to come and capture the reveal:

That odd thing I'm doing there is telling the boys that a "small size surprise" is coming in March 2015.

I love the progression of the faces as the news settles in!

The boys were pretty excited, as you can tell.

The household is split in its vote for a boy or a girl.  Here are the results:

If, by chance, you're color blind, that's 2 votes pink and 1 vote blue.  We find out the gender of #4 in November, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will share the news with everyone.  

Muah-hahaha (that's my evil laugh).  For the record, though, Ryan and I are absolutely going to be thrilled if #4 is a boy.  Just for the record.  

For those of you who don't know our story, we have three healthy boys ages 9, 6, and 4. We also have three babies whom we've never met but we know have been raised in the beauty of Heaven.  Three little ones who have never experienced pain, sickness, or the mistakes of their parents (haha).  They've grown up under the watchful eye of the King of Kings.  And that makes me happy.

But I miss them still.  The ache comes at odd times, like when I hear of a friend losing a baby, or when I hear of a friend battling infertility.

While we are over the moon excited for this wee babe, I find myself grieving at times for the many friends I have who do not have children of their own.  Who have prayed, cried, and ached for a child of their own.

From my heart to those beautiful friends (your faces are going through my head even now):
Be bold.  Be courageous.  For the Lord your God is with you.  He will not leave you or forsake you.  He has not forgotten you.   He hears you.  He knows your heart's deepest desires.  He knows.

With Much Love,
The Friesen Five Six

28 Day Reno

That's reno... as in short for "renovation."  Not the city in Nevada.  Or is it New Mexico?  I actually have no idea.

Anyways, it sounds like a dare, doesn't it?  My boys are big into dares these days:

"I bet you can't do a full home reno in 28 days."
"I bet I can."
"I dare you."
"No."
"I double dog dare you."
"Okay."

((Although with our kids,  the dare usually involves eating some sort of insect or jumping from somewhere insane, like the roof.))

Any way you slice it, we did another renovation.  It was our first reno in Canada.  We bought a type of house that locals refer to as a"BC box."  Basically, it's a rectangular/shoe-box shaped house that started popping up in the late 70's + early 80's.  They lack character and are fairly small (usually less than 2,000 sq. ft.)   And they are a dime a dozen around here.

So our adventure began when we bought it back in October, took possession November 2nd, and moved in December 1st.  That's 28 days, if you're counting.  And yes. We renovated it in 28 days.  I use the term "we" very loosely here...Ryan renovated.  I babysat.  And I picked out everything, which should count for something.

I have waited until now to post any pictures because while the nuts and bolts of the house were done....so many details weren't.  And, actually, still aren't.  But it's getting there.

I felt the need to finally post a picture today because this morning we had our BIG DAY. It was appraisal day. (And, for the record, it came in over what we were hoping. THAT is a good thing!). Most of our friends up here know that since starting the reno in November, we've been total recluses.  No dinner dates. No friends over.  No weekends out.  For a very social family, it's been super hard.

So, to reward my hubby on an amazing job, and to show proof to our friends that we did indeed do a renovation, here are a couple before and afters:

There is a house behind all of those trees.  Can you see it? Here's a little bit closer:

And because I feel that we need a close-up of the magnificence of the window over-hang thingys:

Once we got the trees removed, we got a better view of what we actually had to work with:

So....drumroll please....here is our house as of this morning:

I realize this picture is totally and completely off-center.  Sorry.  I was excited. Here's another one:

Here's a few more:

And here's a few before and afters of the kitchen:

Here's Ryan and his dad re-designing the kitchen:

This is after day 2 or 3 in the house.  We took out two of the kitchen walls to open up the house:

Here's a different view:

And...here it is now:

So, to re-cap:

And:

That's it for now! I'll post more pictures as things progress.  But for now.... we are resting!!!  (and possibly meeting up with friends again, inviting people over for dinner, and going on dates again. Woo-hoo!!!)

Xoxo,

E

Tithing my Time.

I've developed a problem in the last year or so.  I used to be a person who was prompt and organized, even after my kids were born.  And now...I'm not sure what's happened.  I just can't seem to pull it together.  We are late for almost everything.

It bothers me on several levels, but none more so than what it teaches my kids.  That it's ok to be late.  That we can make excuses.  That school, or church, or that kid's birthday party, or that dinner with friends isn't really that important, so we can be late.  Obviously, I don't actually speak those words to my boys.  But, what's that old saying?  They learn from the way we live, not the way we speak?  I may not have it verbatim, but the idea is true.  I can tell my kids all day long that they need to manage their time better. That when I say get dressed, I mean get dressed.  Now. Not in 45 minutes after you've played with lego, punched your brother, and rummaged through the fridge for a third breakfast.  I can tell them...but what does it really say to them when I'm still in my bathrobe, sipping coffee, and in no rush at all to get myself ready?

But, here's the thing: so often when we are battling with our kids about something or some issue, I find that  what's really happening is that the Lord is trying to work out that exact same thing in me.  In this case, it's my time.  How I use it.  How I manage the days, the hours, the minutes he's given me.  It goes far beyond being late (because, let's face it...something about having kids just slows us down). I believe it has more to do with how I tithe my time.

If you've grown up in church, you know about tithing money.  10% of your income goes FIRST to the Lord.  Not to visa or mastercard.  Not to the mortgage company or your landlord.  But to THE GOD WHO PROVIDES every need we have.  For Ryan and I, that's been a non-negotiable. Almost 11 years later and every pay check or bonus gets 10% (often times more) taken off the top and tithed to our local church.  It's almost mechanical now.  It's just part of our lives, part of our budget, part of how our household is run.  (Our boys also tithe when they make money from their chores.)

But a tithe on time?  Is this Biblical?  Is this hidden somewhere in Leviticus?  Is she making this up?  ...Well, yes and no.  I do not know of a scripture that says "thou shalt tithe 10% of your time to the Lord at 6 am each morning."  But, I also don't believe I'm making it up.  It's a concept I started thinking about last year when it became evident that I was struggling with how I managed my time.

Because, if you're a mom, let's be honest and say that many days are challenging when it comes to time.  You wake up early (and if you're lucky, it's a little before your kids, so you can have that coffee while it's still hot).  Then it's a mad rush to get breakfast made,  (do I feed them eggs, toast, and a yogurt parfait? Or homemade oatmeal?  Or should I whip up gluten-free, whole-grain, flaxseed pancakes?  Or do I throw cereal at them because it's easy and fast?  Cereal it is).  THEN it's time to get the kids dressed.  And if you live in my house, many mornings it's as if everything that can go wrong, will go wrong:  SETH!! What are you doing IN the toilet?  Ahh! Now you need a shower.  JACKSON!! Why are you coloring on yourself? Again? In permanent marker?  I hid those 2 months ago!  NOAH!! I know you're not actually doing anything wrong, but you're also doing nothing, which by default means you're doing something wrong because you're not dressed for school.  AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE IN THE HOUSE?

And then once your kids are dropped off at school or preschool, you have an exact amount of time in which to do your "out of the house errands".  This is only magnified if, like me, you have a baby or toddler that still naps.  In which case you have like 2-3 hours to go to that play date, have a coffee, go grocery shopping, and change the world. Then during nap time, you once again have to manage your time:  what do I do during this blissful time of peace when I am the only one awake in the house?  I'll work out! I'll do laundry that's been piling up for a week! I'll get dinner ready! I'll clean the floors! ...and then instead you end up falling asleep or (worse!) "quickly" checking your instagram and Facebook posts and then suddenly the kid is awake and its time to go get the other kids from school.  And then the dinner rush and then bedtime (best and worst part of the day) and then ... exhaustion.

I am tired just writing that.  And it's not even 8am. So, here's what I am getting at:  after far too many days like the ones above, and praying "Lord! There must be a better way.  I can't stand having so much time and yet so little,"  the Holy Spirit did what he does best:  He spoke to me and convicted me.  That my time is not my own.  That I needed to set aside a portion of "my" time to Him.

So, I started waking up at 5:15.  Because our youngest wakes up at 6, and I knew that while I hated to wake up that early and I was certainly still tired, it was all I had to give.  And I started looking for Scripture to back-up this thing that had sparked the whole tithing my time concept.  And here's 2 of the verses that stuck out to this non-Bible scholar:

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.  If you do," says the Lord Almighty, "I will open the windows of heaven for you.  I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in!  Try it!  Let me prove it to you! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.  Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the Lord Almighty.  "Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight," says the Lord Almighty.  

Malachi 3:10-12

...I know this is talking about tithing food (in essence, their food was their money back then.)  But I felt that this could easily translate to my time.  To bring my time to Him and then he can do the things I can't during the day.  He can open my eyes to the needs around me.  He can bless me, not just for the sake of me being blessed, but so that I can be a blessing to others.  He will guard what I entrust to him (my time) and help me to manage it well so that it doesn't shrivel or escape from me.

"Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  Cry out for insight and understanding.  Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure.  Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.  For the Lord grants wisdom!  From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.  He grants a treasure of good sense to the godly.  He is their shield, protecting those who walk with integrity.  He guards the paths of justice and protects those who are faithful to him.  Then you will understand what is right, just and fair, and you will know how to find the right course of action every time.  For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  Wise planning will watch over you.  Understanding will keep you safe."  Proverbs 2:2-11

...This challenged me to keep a tight perspective on WHY I am waking up at 5:15 every morning. That to have wisdom, understanding, and insight, I need to LOOK for them.  That to carve out a portion of my day everyday and give it back to him, spend it with him, is not without purpose. It has results. Real, tangible results that affect how the rest of my day is spent.

And by LIVING out the way I hope my boys will behave, I pray that they catch onto not only how to manage their time, but that the BEST, FIRST, and MOST IMPORTANT thing they can do is give it back to their heavenly Father. To sit at his feet, learn from him, allow him to break them, build them, and become men after God's heart.