Bragging on The Hubs...The Reveal

Few days ago I bragged about my dear Hubs and his handiwork on Meme's shower while he was hunting for employment.  Welp, here is the big reveal:

 Meme requested a bench to make showering a little easier.  Again, I was jealous!

 We found this really cool shower head.  He has a mini one attached so that the she can clean the shower easier.  Yes, the sweet woman is a master of cleaning at 82 years old!

 Vanity unchanged other than fresh painted walls.

 The new closet, old shower space.  Meme is a woman after my own heart....she is a freaky clean organizer!  Everything is perfectly in it's place.  She insisted that linens must be stored in a linen closet!  Oh, and apparently the vacuum too.

 Hubs tiled the outside walls per Meme's request...I wasn't so sure but it turned out well. 

 The floor was also tiled in large 18 inch tiles.  It's much more divine in person.

And it's done.  I forgot to mention that half way through Hubs got a job.  Which is why it took a couple months to finish.  Not the plan Hubs had going into it, but it worked out. 

It took a bazillion hours and lots of sweat, but Meme is loving her new shower!  And that is all worth it!

Bragging on the Hubs

I just have to brag on my dear husband whom is the Mr. Handy and can fix just about anything.  While he was unemployed, he took on a project for his grandparents.  A HUGE project.  I wanted to share his handiwork because I'm pretty darn proud of him.

His grandparents are sweet dear souls and are in their 80's.  They needed a bathroom update and didn't want to spend a fortune making a shower that was more accessible so they enlisted the help of their favorite grandson!

Here is the before:

 The shower was the size of a small closet.  In fact, that's what it would become later. 

No need for a garden tub, so that would come out and be replaced by a shower.  The commode is behind that little wall and it would stay put.  The sinks and vanity are to the right in this picture facing the tub.

Now for the demo, and framing stage:

 The old shower is now a linen closet.  Can you believe how tiny it was?

 Here you can see the vanity.  While the layout isn't a dream, he worked with what he had along with Grandma's requests...whatever Meme wants, Meme gets!

 The new shower reflects in the mirror...you can see all the framing work that had to be done.

 The new shower floor and step...ideally it would have been nice to have a zero entry to the shower, but it just didn't work out.  Meme also picked out some divine tile....I was so jealous when she brought them home!

You'll have to wait for the big reveal!  Now, I must finish schooling the girls!

Chalkboard Love

During the month of February, I was a bit restless in the house.  The cold weather and yucky rain kept me in (remember, I'm a FL girl at heart).  That means that I began looking at all the things I'd like to change in the house.  Since the list is long, and the funds are low, I'm trying to be creative!  I said "trying" which equals very little spending, using what I have, and lots of hours on pinterest wasting my life away!

I decided to make a chalkboard wall in the playroom.  Though it came out very cute, the process was a nightmare.  As you'll learn, nothing seems as easy for me as those fabulous decorators out there.  So, I got black paint on the carpet and had to use a bazillion different paint brushes to bring my vision to life.


Not wanting to purchase wood, I decided to buy the dollar store bulletin board borders and trace the cute little scallop outline on the wall, then  I thought I'd just paint inside the lines.  Yeah, total fail as I do not have a steady hand.  I figured out that taping the borders on the wall and painting over them worked best.  Then there was touching it up to make it perfect.  Blah, blah I should've spared the boring details and showed the results so here ya go:

 Note: this is what it looks like when freshly wiped down.  It never, I mean NEVER looks like this.  Instead, it looks like this:

oh yea, note to self:  colored chalk means colored chalk on floor below that does not wipe off of berber carpet.  Ooops!

 I must admit that my dear friend who's husband won't let his kids use colored chalk had a good point.  Especially since his carpet doesn't look like this.  But, I solved this issue in one simple step.  I added a rug! 

The girls love the chalk board and so do their friends. It solved the issue of a big blank wall and they get to write all kinds of random junk on it.  For now it'll stay until I get tired of cleaning the wall!

Now go get you some chalk board paint and paint a big ole' chalk board.  Your kids will LOVE it!

Just Imagine

This past Sunday our church launched a giving goal called Just Imagine: God's Gift of Play to our Children's Ministry.  It's part of our building campaign that has just begun!  I must say that I'm very passionate about this campaign...Why?  Well, because for 3 years, the Hubs has sacrificially woken up at 5am in order to set up church at a local high school.  And, we leave church at about 1:30pm after I tear down children's church and he tears down the worship room.  A very long day, but it's where we feel God calling us to serve. 

Sunday's campaign was launched to our kids along with lessons in giving.  They've been challenged to raise money to go towards a playground at the new building.  My girls have totally gotten into it and are begging for ways to raise money.  Especially Chloe, which truly shows her heart.  In all reality, she will be half way through 6th grade when the building is complete (we pray) and will probably never use the playground!

The Hubs told her she could pick weeds for $4 a bucket...our yard is covered in them (sorry neighbors, weed service is not currently a 'need').  Not too bad, but remember, as you add them to the bucket, they wilt and compact thus it takes A LOT of weeds to fill one bucket!  Rylie also decided to join in. 

Chloe was not happy that I had the camera...shhhh, don't tell her!

In all, they filled about 4 buckets, maybe 5 and collected their earnings.  It took them 2 days, but they worked hard!  I was a proud momma.  I only wonder what the neighbors thought! hee heee!

The Redneck Zoo

I'm sure you're all dying to know what the heck the Redneck Zoo is!  Well, let me first tell you a story.  See, I have this fabulous friend who knows every bargain to be had in Atlanta.  I was dying to visit the discount fabric store she gets everything at...ya know one of the places designers would never go because it's like across Atlanta, you have search through piles of fabric for hours, and well, it looks like thrift store meets big lots!  Sounds like fun doesn't it? 

Anyhoo, I was dying to go because it's like super cheap and I'd never drive myself.  We finally made a date and took the kids and went.  But first, she wanted to treat us to the Redneck Zoo...ummm, I mean The Yellow River Game Ranch.  Let me tell you, it was redneck all right, but so much fun! Complete with stray chickens chasing each other just like in the cartoons, hand written signs, and Christmas trees lining the entire park.  And no, I'm not kidding.  And no I have no proof because I didn't capture that via camera.

Back to the Redneck Zoo.  It was the most relaxed place and I'm sure the girls could've spent hours there feeding animals, chasing rabbits, and playing in the dirt.  Apparently my dear friend has taken her kids there for years.  Later I learned that it was always followed with a 3 hour trip to the fabric store.

 In addition to having wild chickens and Christmas trees (dead of course), they had a bazillion peacocks running wild.  They were beautiful!

The coolest part, is you could buy peanuts for 75 cents a bag or bring your own crackers, carrots, or bread to feed the animals!  How totally cool for the frugal momma!

We got to pet a 2 day old baby goat...so stinking cute.  Can't do that at those fancy zoos.

 I'm wondering if the above donkey was a relative to Mr. Ed the talking horse.  Remember him?

 What zoo would be complete without a big ole' fat pig!  Which I have to mention my girls asked if that's really where our bacon comes from and if so, do we really eat all that fat?  For the record, no, we do not buy pork bacon and that is why!

 This gorgeous goat reminded us of one of our favorite friends, Mr Hutson....Sorry, Matthew, but your "goat" (gotee) has nothing on this goat!

 
And did I mention this place has a celebrity?

 He lives here...the best house on the property.  And here is his sign:

General Lee, the official groundhog of Georgia.  You probably can't read the sign, but it says, "in recognition of 10 years of service"...for weather predicting.  Only it's dated 1991.  So, since this southern girl is so smart, I did the math.  That would make Old General Lee about 31 years old.  I had to ask, was that darn groundhog that they shove out of it's hole really 30 years old?

The sweet, honest grounds keeper told me in a few words, um, no.  His exact words were, "well, we keep several just in case."  I think he was referring to in case one dies maybe?  Or in case General Lee won't come out of his hole?

Oh and in case you decide to go visit General Lee, don't expect him to come and greet you. Apparently, he only comes out after the park closes at feeding time!