Home tour

I enjoy decorating, and I love homes; so I find it suitable to post a "home tour" in my blog. What I am surprised by is that it took a comment on my
You Capture! In the Kitchen post from 3 Sun Kissed Boys to actually urge me to do this! It should have been done ages ago!!! So, without further adieu here is my home:
*FYI: Most of the pictures were NOT taken by me, we had the house up for sale a few years ago and we had a photographer come in and take the pics to put on the listing. Hence the cool "fish eye" effect* Due to the economy it didn't sell and we are still here.


The home was built in the 1850's. It's way older than we thought when we purchased and the way we found this out was when we were renovating the kitchen, we discovered newspaper clippings inside the wall from the 1850's. We purchased it 6 years ago, and then spent 14 months renovating before we officially moved in. The woodwork was hand sanded and refinished, the ceilings upstairs were all turned from "drop ceilings" to vaulted ceilings. We added crown molding to the rooms, refinished the fireplace, painted our little hearts out and at the end of the adventure we had a great place to call our "First Home".













Our front porch covers two sides of our house. I love it!












This is our entry from the back, goes into the kitchen. I wanted a "Tuscan indoor/outdoor feel"

















My husband remodeled the kitchen when we bought the house. We kept the historic tin ceiling; everything else was gutted.










This bathroom used to have a shower in it. We took it out and finished the bathroom. Much more spacious!









Dining Room, we purchased the furniture with the home. We just felt it "went" with the charm of the old home.











Family room














We had the hardest time figuring out what to do with this fireplace!! We *just* finished it this spring!











Master bedroom
This room is painted completely different from when this picture was taken. It now has red stripes and the yellow wall by the window is a deep blue. I went with a "All American transporation theme" Complete with little tin airplanes hanging from the light. There is a cherry wood crib in their now and a train table too :)
This is our daughter's room. I caught a lot of grief for this color choice!! When we first painted; with no furniture in the room we used to joke you needed sunglasses to enter the room!! It has since been toned down by being decorated. I had a vision and I am glad I took the risk with bright paint!
The butterfly mural I painted to serve as the headboard for my daughter's bed

That concludes the tour, thanks for looking!

Follow up to the bat story

Well, it's been two days since our last bat incident. Thankfully there have been no more bats. The last night we had a bat, the capturer suggested we tape the closet doors shut. We had suspected the bats were coming in the chimney and then squeezing through little holes in our daughter's closet, then sneaking under the door into the bedroom. (Bat fact: Bats can squeeze in through a hole the size of a dime. Our house is over 150 years old, I have no doubts we have plenty of holes or gaps that are atleast that small.) Since taping the closet doors shut, we have been successful in achieving peace in the house at night. Though my radar goes up when night falls, I find myself stopping at "intersections" in the house and looking both ways for "BAT CROSSINGS" LOL! I wonder how long it will take me to get over that paranoia!
Another follow up: the skunk trap did indeed catch a skunk. It was taken off our property and just to be sure we set it up again the following night. This time no skunk. Instead an opossum. Poor thing! Was scared and they are pretty harmless, so I took it upon myself to release it from the trap. Most wildlife I don't mind sharing my home with, as long as they aren't getting inside and they don't smell :)
As I type this, I have a few guys here working diligently with my hubby to seal up the cracks on the outside of the house. I am hoping they make it in here soon to get into my kid's closets and seal those up. I have visions of opening my daughter's closet which has been taped for two days now, and having bats swarm out! I hope and pray that's not the case, that there is not even ONE bat inside of that closet or I will have some sanitizing to do to all of my kid's clothes including the fall wardrobe I just picked up last week!

You may now call me "Bat Lady"

Two nights ago, we all went to sleep peacefully as previous nights. My son woke up at about 2:30 am. I went into his room, tucked him back in and then moved in the direction of my daughter's room to check on her. I was stopped in the hallway by what looked like a flying shadow near the ceiling in her room. I stepped closer to take a better look, and to ensure my sleepy eyes weren't deceiving me...sure enough I saw it again! I knew EXACTLY what it was, and I went into my bedroom to wake my husband "Albert!" "What?" "I think; I mean I KNOW! There is a bat flying in Acilia's room!" "A what?" "A BAT!!!!!!!" We went into survival mode. Between our fear and hesistation we *knew* our kids needed to be removed from their beds and hussled into our bedroom! My husband turned into the Knight in shining armor and went into our son's room first. He picked him up and ran back into our room. Shew! One down, one to go! We opened the door and there it was again! The bat was by our door then swooped back into our daughter's room! "Ah, ok, my turn, I'm going in! I'm the mom!" I left my bedroom and started walking to my daughter's room! SWOOP! The bat was in the bathroom and then flew back into our dauther's room! My husband took a turn, he went into our daughter's room and the bat was resting on the drape. "Please Lord, don't let that thing move" Al grabbed Acilia and as he turned to walk out with her, the bat started to fly. He picked up the pace and got safely into our room. Door shut! Now what?!
I did what any rational sane almost 30 year old with a family would do; I picked up the phone and called my parents :) They suggested we call the police non emergency number. I hung up and did just that. We were told there was nothing they could do, and then they gave us numbers for Wildlife Rescue. Read: Free public safety that's paid for by our taxes can't do anything for us; we will transfer you to a company that is going to bill you for an emergency call in the middle of the night! Fabulous! Sign us up! :)
Two and a half hours and $350 later, we had a captured bat that was on it's way to be tested for rabies (you may or may not know but if you share your house with a bat while sleeping, they could potentially have bitten you in your sleep therefore it is lawful for you to have to get a round of Rabies vaccinations. Unles you capture the bat and have it tested). It was hard but we managed to fall back asleep at 5 am.
The following day, the company sent someone to inspect our home inside and out for a bat roost (A bat roost is where they "hang"). The inspector left with great news! It seemed to have been an isolated incident! We were thankful and set on getting a good night's rest.
That night, the kids were tucked into bed, I had just come out of the shower and as I put my towel away I saw something fly past my door. I had been jumpy all day and "seeing" things so I was unsure and truly HOPING it wasn't what I thought it was. I went over to my bed and told Al I thought I saw another bat in the house. He was in denial. I was too. Hoping praying....it flew past again! Ok, pretty sure I actually saw that....flies past again....YES. ANOTHER. BAT! Al and I tag teamed this time! The bat was in our son's room, Al had a towel; he walked toward the bat with it, as I walked toward my son who was now awake telling us there was a bat in his room. Bless his heart. We got our son out of there and closed the door behind us. The bat was trapped in our son's room. We immediately got on the phone with the company and had them send someone out. New tech, this one came in captured the bat and then proceeded to the roof to check things out. My husband followed him to help and they befreinded each other. We now have our own personal bat capturer. He told us we could call him at anytime to come and take care of the bats in the house; he is also going to be by this weekend to help my husband "bat proof" the house.
Our night ended at 2 am and we are hoping and praying tonight is a restful night.
Side note: While my husband was outside, he saw a huge skunk in the yard. Skunk made eye contact with my husband then waddled it's way UNDER OUR PORCH! Our bat capturer friend is also a skunk rescuer, so he did us the favor of placing a trap for the skunk. This morning, we had a trapped skunk which has now been removed from the property!
Feels like animal kindgdom here! Or as my mom has put it "A creepy Halloween Horror movie!"

Summer breeze

As I let my dogs out tonight the breeze caught me off guard. It smelled like summer and it felt so good. I wanted to bottle it up. Truth be told, I wait all year for summer and when it concludes I could tear up.
Summer is almost over, we have one more week of freedom before school starts and the hustle & bustle of the year and all of it's busyness comes full force. I feel my days getting shorter as the darkness falls upon us at 8PM when it was 9PM a few short weeks ago.
It feels like yesterday that we were frantically searching for our plan as summer began. Here we are; ready to start a new year.
One week from today my daughter will be blissfully asleep (11:30 pm) having the first day at her new school behind her.
She doesn't like school, the poor girl. I told her if it weren't for school she wouldn't know how to read. Something she truly enjoys. She can have her nose in a book for hours each day and still seem to enjoy picking up a new book when the first one is complete. It's exciting to think of what changes will come with this next school year. What maturities will be met, the path our life will take. It's going to be a big year. I can feel it.
For now, I will soak up the summer breeze and it's scented Heaven!

Cute story

Disclaimer: I hope this story does not offend anyone. The innocence of a child at the age of 7 is quite apparent.

I went to a resale tonight. My 7 year old little girl came with me. It was a girls night out for us. We met up with one of my friends and we got our shop on for Fall/Winter clothes for the kids. Fun night!! I happened to notice on the way in the location it was held at a Synagogue. I guess the name of the place could have given it away "Beth Shalom" IF I was observant. But what I did notice were Yamakas in baskets on a table over to the side in the lobby. We went in did our shopping, we were there for a few hours. Acilia was great and I believe she got a little slap happy towards the end. She came to me and said "Look at me!" She was wearing an adorable little satin pink YAMAKA on her head. Yes, my little dear was quickly giggled at (she looked pretty cute) and then I asked her to go put it back where she found it, because we were to show respect for things that were not our's. :)

You Capture!- In the Kitchen

This week's assignment was more fun than I anticipated!

Here's my kitchen. I tried to be creative with the angles :) ENJOY!



One of the coolest parts of having a home that was built in the 1850's is having the original tin ceiling in the kitchen.








The "necessities. Bible, Computer, plant, remote, magazine :)














Good excuse to photograph your butter ;)












My little boy enjoying a cup of (DECAF!) coffee :)
















Mother's Day gift one year. My mom made pics of my kids into "flowers" :)

His perfect love

It's Sunday and I sit here pondering the love that God has for me. He loves me so much that he is never mad at me or disappointed in me. He wants the best for me and treats me with grace. No judgement, no punishment, he loves me. He made me who I am, his plan for me has yet to unfold but he guides me and he makes me feel safe and loved always. Seeking that from a human, I just don't think it's possible. That kind of perfect love. God knows my every move, he designed my every move. He is not surprised at my actions, he has special plans for each of my actions. He is all I need to survive, I want deep in my heart to hear his requests for my life and for him to show me the path to what's in store.