Let’s face it.  Open up my pockets and shake them clean because buying rugs for a 2,500 sq ft home with plenty of rooms to address can take you under the table.  If you haven’t followed my blog for a while, let me update you.  I am pillow,rug and window treatment obsessed.  This infectious habit of mine seems to grow year after year, and each time I make the commitment to a new piece I have to remind myself that I am not on a normal budget … so if I buy it, I better love it.

So this dillema of every single room in our house needing a new rug is fierce.  Each room has hardwood flooring (or tile), so the need for something cozy underneath our piggy toes is essential.  We spent 5+ weeks in here painting and renovating.  Now that the dust has (literally) settled and the boxes are slowly being unpacked, the vision for each room is finally coming together.

I’m definitely the decorating type that is inspired by everything around me.  Whether it be a garage sale find that then turns into the style for the entire room – or a piece of artwork I cannot live without.  The possibilities for each space in your home are endless.  The trick for us is finding the balance of getting it all done on a budget.

I’ve searched high and low at all different types of rugs, at all different price points.  Considering spending less – with the ability to swap it out easily if something goes wrong.  Or dropping some cash to get a piece that we can show some tough love too – to last throughout our years.

Here’s our checklist 

4 Bedrooms: 8 x 10 each

Dining Room:  8 x 10

Living Room: 8 X 10

Family/Great Room: 10 x 12 (+)

Kitchen: (1) Runner (1) in front of sink

Foyer: (1) indoor/outdoor rug (1) Runner

We also need 2 outdoor welcome mats

See why I am a bit overwhelmed! Dollar signs are in my eyes.  And the need to pick a fantastic rug is a must.  I want the boys rooms to feel super cozy + kid friendly.  Our great room rug needs to be giant, and SO comfortable that you would want to lay nude in front of the fire on it.  Our foyer + dining room + living room are all side by side, so I would like a nice flow.

We JUST bit the bullet and dropped some dough on a few rugs to start this process …

Here’s a peek at what we’ve come up with thus far…

Boys Bedrooms

I love this rug for the kids.  Made of wool, so it’s super plush texture will be a hit for the kids.  A fun pattern, and one that they will not grow out of any time soon! Originally $450 bucks each, I scored two 8×10 for $335 I’d say that’s a deal!

Dining Room + Living Room

This rug was exactly what we were looking for.  Great pattern, not to girly, not to masculine.  The black one will be living in the dining room – and the blue one I am hopeful to have in the living room once I get some new couches! Anyone want to buy our green couches? They are way to large for the space! Ha.  originally $540 a piece for an 8×10 … I bought them for $166 a piece! Wahooo

The Family Room

Here’s the big mama.  A 9×12 white shag rug was our top choice for under our leather couches.  Something to offset the strict tight feeling that the leather gives off.  White? What was I thinking? I know – but our house filters very little light, so the brighter the better we’re learning! originally $727 for a 9×12 and I scored it for $327.  Love it.

All of these rugs were purchased from RUGSUSA.COM – check them out.  Always keep an eye out for their sales, which are frequent and fulfilling.

Cannot wait to get these bad boys in the mail.  I spent three hours scrubbing the grout in our kitchen just to prep our toes to stay extra clean for our new rugs!

We still have to find our bedroom rug – kitchen rugs – runner and an outdoor rug for our deck.  

It was a beautiful Memorial Day.  Something to be said about how Brody (5 years old) is starting to understand the importance of the day.  Watching the parade, talking about our freedom, how those who have served and are serving keep us safe each and every day.

He shook his head, took it all in.  At dinner, we said a sweet little prayer with the boys.  Today, Brody marched around the house with his little flag reciting the pledge of allegiance.  I think it’s safe to say that the kids are beginning to understand that “holidays” have a lot more meaning then Bbq’s and presents.

We are super excited to live in a city where there is such a sense of community.  Being at the parade yesterday just made Dan and I even more thrilled to have jumped on the move like we did.

A wonderful day, a wonderful city and a wonderful world we’re living in.

While Dad + Papa were busy framing our new front porch + mom was on day two of the flu, these boys kept busy and played SO nicely.  Lucky us because we were all so busy in so many different ways!

Finding these bikes in our garage attic was the perfect afternoon perk to stretch our non napping boys!

O likes to check for mail, frequently, which makes mom a wee nervous considering our mailbox is at the end of our drive.  Eyes on O all the time!

Papa got a few breaks in for a few pitches – the boys loved it.

By the way, the hand eye coordination on these two is impressive.  Mom spent half the time hold her upset belly, and chasing the ball across the street!

Owen was pretty tuckered out at this point, he went in to relax for a bit – while Brody tore up the yard on his tractor.

So glad the boys were able to have such fun days even though mom and dad were swamped with other things!

Happy Monday everyone!

A lot of people have been asking me how Brody is doing since all of his belly issues, and figured this was the perfect spot to address it!

He is doing fantastic! We really did not expect anything less from this kid.  He has always had a win it attitude.

For those that have no idea what I am talking about – let me fill you in, speed style.

Brody had blood in his stool for about a week (we/doc’s assumed + hoped it was a fissure) After blood work, it was obvious that something else was going on.  As a parent, that was a bit nerve wrecking!

He underwent an endoscopy, and colonscopy which was terrifying for mom and dad.  The prep work was awful with a five year old, so much that he made him throw up.  Thankfully, he was clueless prior to the procedure, we just told him the doctors were taking pictures of his belly.  Figured the less he knew, the less he would be worked up.

After the procedure, the doctors came out to chat + pulled us into a conference room.  At that moment we knew something wasn’t right.  They further explained the damage that existed to Brody’s colon.  He was highly ulcerated and the doctors said he needed immediate treatment (steroids + such) for up to 5 days to help he get on the road to healing.

What was thought to be an in and out procedure turned into us learning as parents that Brody suffered from IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease)  That of which is broken down into two catorgories – Crohns + Colitis.  Biopsies were taken, and we awaited the results as we stayed in the hospital with him.

He was a total trooper for his hospital stay.  IV, steriod drip every few hours and constant rotation of nurses checking his stats, we were in awe of his cheerful ways.

We were super anxious to get home.  Not only for Owen’s sake but for Brody to get more comfortable.  The day we were released we learned our new medicine routine that was to be a bit more concentrated for the following weeks.

Once we were home, we continued his strict medicine routine + had to make a few trips back to the hospital for Iron IV’s for all of the blood he lost.  Which, by the way the doctors, nurses, and staff at Rainbow Babies and Children Hospital were AMAZING.  For Brody, and for us.  They held our hands the entire way.

We are now at a fantastic point of his maintenance medicine.  He did not have to change his diet (we’re relatively healthy eaters, minus some baked goods here and there) And for now, we have caught on that dairy and fried foods (shocker) can trigger slight belly aches with him.

We are SO happy to be done with the steroids he had to take for nearly 8 weeks.  His appetite was through the roof, I couldn’t keep up.  His sweet little face was so swollen – he had these cheeks you could pinch from a mile away! I would always mention something about his rosy cheeks and he would crack me up in the car ride when he caught me starring in the mirror he would squeeze his face and say, “You love my rosy cheeks” It melted me.

The swelling is fading and his appetite is back to normal! His activity level is fantastic and we are longing for summer weather to rock this season like none other!

It is still not clear which form of IBD that he has, we’ll know more as he grows.

As you can see from the pictures, nothing can keep Brody from being the fun full of energy boy he is!

Thank you for all of your thoughts + prayers you sent our way.  And continued comments throughout the past few months.  He is right back to himself, and we couldn’t be happier!

It has been two weeks since we moved into our home – some days it feels like we just pulled into the drive – others, it seems as if we’ve been here for months.  It is the constant circling that we have been doing.  Fixing the expected, and the unexpected.  Which in return has left us right back where we started.  With boxes still not packed (simply hiding in a room upstairs) and us functioning day-to-day on just our basic necessities.  It’s doable, for sure, just not our cup of tea.

What have we been doing you ask? Well – we had 2 massive issues that needed addressed immediately upon moving into the house.  Both money gulpers that we wanted to get over with right away.

1. Basement

The basement is a BIG story … one that I have been writing/editing for weeks now, just haven’t finished the photo’s to complete its journey.  We had to do waterproofing, and replacing drains, and support beams … the whole bit.  It was costly, and yet so satisfying to know one of the top reasons as to why people did not purchase this house was no longer an issue.  The first week we lived here we had contractors here all day every day for 4 days jack hammering and making what was a cleaner house a filthy house all over again.  It was SO hard to sit back and watch the dust accumulate in our kitchen as they walked through with buckets of rocks and cement.  Not for the faint of heart – certainly ones like I that love a clean house.

2. The Front Porch

  That darling, inviting front porch was a giant piece of junk that was caving in and causing our basement wall to lean.  The entire front porch needed to be ripped off – which was last weeks project.  Dan and his father will be rebuilding our new front porch this coming weekend/following weeks and I am both excited and anxious to have the exterior of my house not covered in caution tape!

The basement and front porch were the expected projects to be taken on.  We were surprised saturday night with a basement full of poop water that needed a gentleman to come out at 9:00pm to snake our drains.   The entire time I prayed he would pull up tampons or toilet paper from the previous owner, and all he got was root.  Tree root that is.  The last thing you want a snake to pull up! So that night we went to bed pondering over where to split those expenses of possibly taking down trees sooner than we had anticipated.

The icing on the cake on this fixer upper adventure is our beloved honey bees that live outside of our house next to our chimney.

 A neighbor, thankfully, warned us about the bees when we moved in, in fear of the kiddos getting stung.  We were a little agitated that the seller did not disclose this to us, but we marched on not thinking much of it.  One bee guy appointment later and we come to find that the bees have apparently been here for YEARS – and have created a gorgeous honeycomb home inside our walls, behind our fireplace.  Later this week this nice guy will block off our family room and safely vacuum out the honey bees (so they will be kept alive and saved) and clean out the honeycomb.  Sounds promising, but, he has to remove parts of the wall, possibly the mantel/fireplace and who knows what else he said to clear them out.  He literally drilled a hole above our fireplace to take a peek and all we heard was “get back in there girls” as he was plugging the hole to keep the bees from swarming out.  Wonderful, right?

Without a doubt these first two weeks have hit us in the head with nearly everything and anything that could pop up.  We knew what we were getting into buying an older home that needed work, but this time around we were less lucky and everything seems to be going wrong right off the bat.  Our sweet neighbors look at the bright side and told us how we’ll be grateful that the big $$ projects are done now – so we can breathe later.  I’m not feeling the same sigh of relief as I watch our budget for other things we need drift away.

In between this constant major renovation stage I have yet to really accomplish much of anything.  Both boys came down with a flu bug as a mentioned in our mothers day post – and when they were better I was soaking up the time with them outside, away from all of the contractors!  Painting here and there, and that is honestly about it.  I used an amazing all natural home-made grout cleaner today that I am super excited to share with you all – and that about tops my list of things I have gotten too.

Hoping to push the restart button this weekend.  Starting next monday fresh, full of ideas for this house and maybe a few bottles of honey from those bees 🙂

Better late than never –

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing mom’s out there! Our day was beautiful.  We hit a bumpy road mid-week when Owen got the flu, and then Brody followed days after.  The flu bug left just as quickly as it came – leaving two very anxious boys to get out and play!

What more could a mother ask for? Happy + healthy kids 🙂

Sometimes I just look at these mug shots and think to myself … these kids are mine? Huh? When did I become a mother of two, now 5 + 3 years of age? How did this time all go by so unmistakably fast?

And then I remember that drunken night at age 22, at a local bar – which back when my “boyfriend”, now husband Dan of 5 years and I  … you get the picture right?

I for one, honestly know that has a mom I get caught up in all that is to be done, and all that needs to get done.  Days do not seem long enough.  My patience wears thin when I cannot seem to focus on one thing for 3 minutes before someone needs their butt wiped or I need to jump out of my computer chair to break up a fight.  I despise these days.  The, “Why the heck can I not keep it all together?” days.  I wonder how working moms seem like they compile their days so seamlessly, and still manage to do more on top of it (I’m in awe).  I’m home all day long and sometimes can’t even get around to laundry.  It’s like these little stinkers are a stop watch, and I reset it each and every time I go to accomplish something, and their constantly stopping the clock.

At the end of each day, especially the difficult ones, I try to reflect on what I should/could have done better.  I do my best, as their mother to remember that kids will be kids.  My kids are not the only ones that misbehave that I need to apologize for when out in public.  They’re not the only ones who disobey their parents and crack up afterwards.

 I am learning to let go of that peacefulness I am searching for – and trying to get use to this new-found craziness chaos of life with little men.

Overall, trying to look less at how they are acting, but rather as parents how we are reacting.

 The boys so happy in their new house, and as their parents, Dan and I feel awfully proud to of gotten to this place where we can settle down and watch them flourish.

These off-their-rocker littles are our very own.  Wild, loud, full of dirt and attitude.  But more importantly, passionate, funny, and quiet charming if we do say so ourselves.

Hug, squeeze (gently) 🙂 + smooch your kids every day.  Tell them how much you love them any chance you get.  We cherish each day we have with them, knowing that they are truly a blessing to be recognized.

Growing up, our laundry room was always located in the basement.  An unfinished half of a basement, that as a child, was creepy and avoided at all costs.  Our first home we had the exact same set up.  Unfinished half of the basement, to which I did my best to make it feel more “cozy” and less dungeon like, adding large area rugs to try to lessen the cold concrete feel.  It still did not help much, but that was the only place our laundry could go!  Our newest home-made me squeal and plug my nose all in one turn around our kitchen corner.  There she was, dirty, wallpaper, covered in cat hair and dated beyond belief.  All negatives aside, she was located on the first floor.  Yes, my laundry room is a she, and I am surprised at this point I haven’t given her a name because I love her so.

Having the laundry room so accessible on our first floor, with two little boys is a true winner.  We were in sheer rush mode trying to get the wallpaper down and room prepped prior to the appliances being delivered.  Yet, the rush was the biggest blessing, because hadn’t we busted a groove on this room I would have felt the same way I felt tip toeing through my old basement laundry room.

Take a deep breath, I know this room is  was extremely depressing.

Wallpaper needed removed…

A less than appealing slop sink needed to go! Prior to us moving in, there was a kitty litter box beneath it which of course only pushed the room to hold onto their ever so sustainable smell.

The cabinets that were above the previous owners washer/dryer set I was actually looking forward to saving.  Removing one, followed by sanding and painting, and eventually adding a nice tension rod for Dan’s work shirts.  However, the cat smell was so intense it seemed to have seeped into every pore of this room.  Goodbye wallpaper, goodbye sink, goodbye cabinets.  Hello, empty bland space.

For some reason I am a little bit more in love with the laundry room then most rooms in our house. Obviously as a mom, I spend a great deal of time in here. Second to that, I see so much more potential in this room. Storage, art work and hooks for the kids coats. It drives Dan crazy that I care so much about this little room, I couldn’t care less …. a girl’s gotta decorate how a girl wants to decorate!

We painted the laundry room “gallery white” by Behr, the same color we used in our kitchen and family room and love the choice. The wood trim went white, besides the window, still deciding if I want to keep some natural wood work, what do you think?

This tiny space is a just the perfect example as to how a little sweat and hard work can transform a space on a tiny budget.

These simple changes brightened the room by light years, and tossing two clearance target rugs, we are well on our way to having a functional, and attractive laundry room.

The winner of the WayFair Pop Of Color Post is …….

Traci Sykes!!! 

Congratulations Traci! You’re going to LOVE your experience with WayFair! Email me @ thethomehome@gmail.com 

Thank You to all that commented, keep those comments rolling in.  There will be plenty more giveaways happening here! Happy Monday everyone!  

Owen turned 3 last week!

Three amazing years, with a little boy who has a personality bigger than life itself.

I wish I could just freeze time with his still sweet little toddler voice, his constant need for hugs and kisses and reassurance.  I love every minute of it.

We had a last-minute, tiny party for him just 5 days shy of moving into our house.  We were crazy to think that we could get the house ready for guests, but we managed.  It felt so good to see family and friends in our new house, enjoying the space and not tip toeing around paint buckets and power tools.  It was just the kind of day we needed to make us feel like this house will be amazing for us all to enjoy.

 Everyone had a place to sit, food to eat, and one amazing little dude to celebrate.

Sprinkle covered cake, friends and family, toys … what more could a little boy ask for?

Here, I was explaining his party … apparently it was all a bit confusing!

A simple Target banner, and goodie bags for all the kids were a must.

It was playtime the entire day.  The parents were all busy chasing their tales – it was just what a birthday party should be!

Candle lighting was an obvious show stopper for a 3-year-old, he could hardly contain his breath from blowing out 1/2 of the candles prior to everyone singing to him!

And then the finger licking fun began.  Each kid dug right in with their tiny fingers, and had at it.  It was adorable!

Needless to say, the parents steered clear of the germ infested attack of a cake afterwards.

We adore you Owen… Happy Birthday!!