GRASSHOPPERS DON'T SAY CHEESE!!!

Today when we were coming out of church Ryan exclaims, " There is a giant bug that jumped on my SHOE!!"I looked around, saw nothing and started walking again. "NO MAWM!" "LOOK!!"

I looked and saw!!! OH MY that is the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen! It is like the grasshopper worthy of a national geographic shot! I was only armed with the photo capabilities of thee iPHONE.

Ryan and Ethan say, "TAKE A PICTURE OF IT!" ok I will OBEY!! I whip out the iPhone and get squash down to take the shot, getting as close as I dare!

Ethan yells out in the little green guy's direction, " SAY CHEESE!!"

Ryan screws up his face and says, " GRASSHOPPERS DON"T SAY CHEESE!!"

Teehee, I love the darn things these lil monsters say!

Cheese is almost like my favorite food

Ryan is my son! He loves cheese! Ethan is my son! He can eat a bag of Dove chocolates in one sitting.(you don't want to know how I know that).... Tonight Ryan comes downstairs from bed and says he is hungry. I throw a box of crackers at him WHY? BECAUSE!!!(teenager roll eyes and huff) b/c I'm off duty you see. Then he asks for cheese. CHEESE! I'm kinda like "ughhh"
but then he does this without prompting....we'll least to say he got his cheese.....and kisses :) And if you want to see the comic genius behind this watch "Wallace and Gromit"

Well nothing is ever done DONE, but.....

To be honest, it's been a transformation, a very gradual transformation. So doing this and looking at the before pictures for myself was shocking. Especially my first room I'm going to feature...the KITCHEN....


Here is the before, complete with white countertops and greenish blue tile: Here is Ethan walking on that blue green tile:








I like the island in this kitchen and the extra tall cabinets with crown molding and then I did the unthinkable to them.....I painted the oak an antique white color and then antiqued them with a glaze. We replaced the green tile with this porcelain tile I found at Home Depot for $1 a sq. ft.!! I did a matching backsplash with accent tiles. Instead of purchasing a new stove I found a replacement part warehouse in Austin that had black knobs for my make and model for $3 each! We replaced the countertops and appliances and new hardware completed this kitchen remodel!



Moving upstairs to our Master Bedroom. Finally in 9 years of marriage we bought bedroom furniture. Our old room was kinda catch all for any random items in the house that didn't have a home with a great big bed in the middle of it all. Here is the before..I was watching the movie Bedroom Story with Adam Sandler and I loved how the hotel was decorated and that was my inspiration.

I found this wall art collage at Big Lots :)

These black and white damask chairs from Pier 1 were my favorite find.

I found this Manhattan chair on craigslist for $200!!

This Leather sofa again on craigslist for $500!! It was barely used too!

In the opening are painted shells on string I found at the Pottery Barn outlet for 70%off!!

Here is the boy's bathroom. In here we stripped pastel pink and blue wallpaper, painted green and added crown molding around the mirrors. Also new faucets and hardware.In our MasterBath there was new paint and deco.

Love this patent leather black cube I found at Marshalls!

This is the office that used to be the living room. We had it walled in and added french doors. Then painted in a silver blue color and used my red photo albums as decoration :) So without further ado...here is Seth's old office:

And the new one:

My mom sewed these panels to match the space. Thanks MOM!

Image a room lined with little tykes toys and cheap toy bins was the old toy room. We sold many of our toys in a garage sale and put the rest on shelves in the closet which made room for this new redo. All from IKEA! These shelves were $19 each and the bins were about $20 for all! The pictures on wall above are actually cork board covered with matching fabric from the window treatment then I super glued the ribbon.

One good thing when we bought the house was that she had not really painted hardly anything, so we could start from scratch. The great room was a white never ending space:
In this space we tore out the carpet, replaced with faux hand scrapped hardwood. Then I took some subway tiles the same tile of the kitchen and re-tiled the fireplace surround. Then I designed and had a carpenter help me nail new "legs" to the fireplace mantle.

I gave Ryan crayons that matched the room and told him to draw me some pictures. He did and I loved them so I framed them!

Then there is the guest room. It is painted a pearly white silver color. The window treatments are all target! :) The bedding I got at Linen and Things when they were having their going out of business sale :) The bedroom furniture we got on craigslist for $500! It was in their guest room too so It has hardly ever been touched. Love it!I had this huge wall to cover. I found these chargers at Target on clearance and decided to use them as wall art in a pattern.
The boys room furniture is the best and only we had for a long time thanks to great in-laws who gave it to us once they found out I was having my 2cd boy. I just hung some inexpensive wall art :)
Here is the old dining room :

We added a chair rail and paint ofcourse.

That's it! Putting together this documentary took about as long as the remodel! Geesh!