Dan's Trip to India

Dan returned this morning from his 10 day trip to India. One of his clients has an office over there and that was the purpose for the trip. Besides working, he took the time to see some sights, including the Taj Mahal. I think it was a fascinating and a memorable trip for him, but I am so relieved to have him home!

Syd's Eye Patch

Syd had an appointment with her pediatric opthamalogist, Dr. Kern, yesterday. I told her how the school nurse had called me five times in the past three months to tell me that Syd fell down, Syd ran into a pole, Syd tripped and hit her head. Also I reported the trouble Syd's having in her classroom reading type that is single-spaced and in a small font. Dr. Kern decided that she isn't reacting well to the eye drops (atropine) that we put in her eye on the weekends. The purpose is the blur the stronger eye, so that the weaker eye is forced to work. However, the effect seems to linger through the school week and seems to be causing these problems on the playground and in the classroom.

She recommended we return to a sticky patch for four hours every day. Unfortunately, the atropine was working and we don't want her vision to slide back again. She's up to 20/30 in one eye and 20/40 in the other. That means we have to remember to put the patch on every day when she gets home from school!

The first night I got the sticky part too close to her eyebrow and that bugged her, but tonight I seem to have positioned it better. It's all a learning curve for us, but one thing is for sure: she is a cutey-pie with or without her eye patch!

Each patch has a different design--just like in the book, My Travelin' Eye that Aunt Stephanie gave her.

The Big Reveal

Hah! Finally here are the AFTER photos. If you're wondering what took so long, I needed to wait until my house was clean enough and clutter-free enough to actually be able to see the floor! (With Dan being in India for 10 days, things have been a bit crazy around here.)

All in all, I am so happy with how things turned out! We've been wanting to replace the floors for the past 5 years--ever since we moved in--and I think my patience has paid off.


The Family Room

Love this room--it's so comfy and has room for all of us to snuggle up and watch a movie! The paint on the whole main level is Berkshire Beige by Benjamin Moore. I was going for a "greige" (grey+beige) with a bit of warmth for all of my red accents.

My BFF, Remi, helped me arrange the black and white photo collage on the wall. She has such a great eye! What would I do without her?

Here is my old mission style entertainment center that I distressed, painted, and glazed. It was a crazy project that I burned the midnight oil working on last month when Dan was in the Ukraine. At one point I was in the garage painting at 1:00 AM when it was only 37-38 degrees! I was absolutely freezing and knew at that point that I had officially lost my mind. Luckily, the paint dried, despite the cold temperature, and the finished product is really fun! I replaced the hardware too and that completely changed the look. I love one-of-a-kind pieces--especially ones with a history.

The Powder Room

I kept most of my black accents for the powder room, but added in a few new pieces from Homegoods and the Design Shop in Luckets. The black and white harlequin-pattern floor mat really brings it all together! Don't you love the crystal knobs on the black shelf? I sewed some black and white check ribbon on the hand towels so they would hang on the knobs. The paint is Meditative Blue by Sherwin Williams.

 

The Entry Way

Here is a good shot of the flooring, going from the kitchen to the entry way. I fell in love with this flooring because of the 5 inch wide planks and the distressed nature of the wood--it has texture when you run your hand across it--as opposed to being a smooth plane. This also helps with the wear and tear with a family of six. If we get a scratch or a ding, I just get the black putty out and work it in, until it becomes part of the character of the floor.

Ronald painted the handrail black and the stair risers white and the flooring company sanded and stained each stair to match the floor. This was the most laborious part of the project, but I love how it turned out. Ronald also added the picture box molding in the entry way and the dining room.

 The views from upstairs looking down and downstairs looking up. Welcome to our happy home!

The Living Room

Same furniture and curtains--new crown molding and 5 inch molding on the base boards.

 The Dining Room

Added a rug under the dining room table to give the room a bit of warmth. Same table and red toile curtains that I made ten years ago. I still love them!

The Kitchen

Back to the heart of the home--the kitchen.

We knocked out a half wall that was separating the kitchen from the family room. Now that the flooring is seemless we have one, big open space and I love it! I shifted the kitchen table toward the family room and got a new pendant light from Lowe's. Still love, love, love my antique table from Luckets!

My other crazy project for this renovation was painting the kitchen island. I wanted a contrasting color to the cabinets and so I sanded, stained and distressed the island. This project evolved from day to day. I started with the same color as the powder room. "Hmmmm. Too muted." Then I painted over that with Rain by Sherwin Williams. This added a bit more green. I finished with just a touch of grey glaze.

I read in a home decorating magazine that every room should have an unexpected element. Here it is!

The BEFORE photos

November was largely a blur due to the home renovations happening all around us. Luckily, I remembered to take a few "before" photos. I hope this will remind me that all of the blood, sweat and tears--mine, not the workers--was worth it!

                                                 kitchen with tile floor and sage paint

                                             Family room with worn out carpet and sage paint

                                                         Entry way with light wood

                                                        Den with old carpet and red paint.

                                             Stair landing with light wood and buttery-yellow paint.

We are grateful!

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I am feeling grateful for a warm, dry, comfortable home to live in! The pictures coming out of NY and NJ are just heart wrenching of families who have lost everything. I am grateful to be a stay-at-home mom and to be able to spend my time planning meals, cooking, cleaning and dabbling in a little home decorating and home organization. This is where I am happiest and I am so grateful my circumstances allow me to be here with my kids 24/7. They are my joy! What a blessing to have four children who are happy and healthy and trying to do what is right.

I am grateful for my husband who brings laughter and stability into my days and reminds me not to take life so seriously-- a reminder that I seriously need! He honors his Priesthood and is a loving father and husband. I really feel guilty that he doesn't have any hobbies. He spends so much time at work and with church service that whatever is left-over, he chooses to spend with me and the kids. He has been my sweet heart and confidant for more than half of my life and I can't imagine living without him by my side.

Our extended family offers us love and support unconditionally. We know we are the black sheep, living so far from home, but they continue to love us anyway. Gregg and Mona came in November to watch the kids for 6 days, while Dan and I were away. How grateful we are that they are so generous with their time and resources to come and help us! The blessing of our parents' righteous examples continue to bless our family.

Living so far away from our family, we find ourselves relying on the kindness and service of friends. We have dear neighbors and families from church who are helping to raise our children. They share our faith and values and we hope we help them as much as they help us. These friends share carpool duties, host play dates, offer to babysit, teach cub scouts or girl scouts, coach sports teams, teach Sunday school and Young Women's, gather mail and water plants, rake leaves and shovel snow. They enrich our lives and we are grateful for each one of them.

Lastly, I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I know that He died for each of us and that only through His Atonement can all that is unfair on this earth be corrected. He is the Light and Life of the world and I hope that I can daily strive to increase my faith and live more like Him.

Blessings to each of you!

                 Happy Thanksgiving from the Kotters and our dear friends, the Van Horns!

Dan, Mikelle, Ethan, Syd, Logan, Alex, Ginni and HF

                                                     Love that turkey shirt, Alex!

                                             The kids are having fun making candy turkeys.

                                               E gets up close and personal with his turkey.

                                       Who am I kidding? They are just eating the candy!

Mikelle shows off her finished turkey: Oreo body and fan, Mike and Ike feathers, Whopper head and red skittle "glottle"--(what's that thing called? We debated it, but I can't remember the final answer.)

Happy Halloween!

I know. It's weird. Halloween did not happen in December or November, but I am just now getting around to blogging about it! The photos are too cute to just sit in i-photo so please forgive the dates not really matching up.

Syd (aka Batgirl) and Ethan (aka Captain America)

                 (Not sure that Batgirl has a gun. We may have our super heroes a bit confused!)

(Dan adapted Ethan's viking shield by covering it with tin foil and wa-lah! It's now Captain America's shield!)

 Our annual Halloween menu with "dinner in a pumpkin" and "worm-o'licious" pudding.

The whole crew is ready to rock. Mikelle stayed home and answered the door for trick-or-treaters and Syd and Ethan went out with Dan and the neighbor kids. Logan went with Jordan and Tyler Hamm and came home with close to 20 lbs. of candy! I have never seen such on obscene amount of candy bars.

                                                       Our last minute-spooky decor!

Seriously...the whole month?

That's a little scary. The whole month of November has just disappeared! How did it happen? I suppose I can chalk it up to 3 work crews coming in and out of my house to remove carpet and tile, replace the flooring, paint and add molding and picture boxes, stain the stairs and add lights in the kitchen and family room; one week in Palm Springs; 2 international trips for Dan (Ukraine and India); oh and just real life on top of that! Whew! No wonder it was a blur...