Come take a TOUR of my old house :(

Welcome home!! This WAS my home for the past 8 years, and now it's ready to rent. (sigh)

Read about my sadness HERE.

My newly cleaned out flowerbed. See more on the Flower Bed and Garden HERE.

Come on, lets go inside!!

The front entrance. I had a new door put in FINALLY!!

The wonderful living room is huge, and opens to the kitchen, dining room, and leads to the blue room. See it back there. Come on, lets go check it out.

This was an add on by the previous owners. It was a major selling point when we bought the house. We kind of fell in love with that wall of built in cabinets, and library, oh and the windows make me really happy too, oh and of course the blue walls. 

My deck, another big plus for me AT the time. No backyard, meant no cutting grass, lol. Little did I realize that kids require a yard, preferably a fenced in yard. But we survived, and had MANY MANY good times on this deck. Endless bbqs, and believe me the kids had no problem playing back there either. Anyway, it's all clean now!!

My kitchen, which may not be built by a professional, but non the less, I love it. I love the colors, and the fact that there is no more wall dividing up the space. I love those wood counters, and my sliding drawers. We finally got a backsplash put in too. Yeah,, FINALLY... 

I love my red tiles in the kitchen, and really miss cooking in there.

I miss all the extra storage that window bench provided, even if the top was never finished properly, and it was full of crap most of the time. I still loved it. 

I miss my kids sitting on the counter helping me cook. It really was the most KID friendly FAMILY kitchen ever. Well, I've only had a couple kitchens in my lifetime, but this was the BEST I tell you.

Even my pantry got a fresh coat of paint. My goodness!! I'm spoiling these people. I sure hope they appreciate all the hard work I put into this house.

The guest bathroom!

My boys old room.

My girls old room. (formerly a very PINK room)

The master bedroom. This was also a huge selling point for me. This room is HUGE. There were times when we literally had THREE beds in there, and still had room to walk in between, AND still had nightstands on the wall. I'm not EVEN kidding. If I can find any old pics of the baby days, nursing, co-sleeping, I'll be sure to share. 

As if the master bedroom alone wasn't enough, I had this EXTRA room (sitting room) whatever right there too. I used this as an office for a while, and then each of the younger kids took turns having it their bedroom for a while.

Master bathroom.

Beautiful view of the deck, which was usually a mess, but almost always had pretty flowers too.

Ahhhh, my garage. This baby is killing me. I MISS it so much. It was a week long labor of love, the kids and I spent all of Spring Break last year painting it, and making it pretty. AND now we dont' have it anymore. Boo.... I especially miss having the big wall of mirrors. Now where are we supposed to practice our Tae Kwon Do, and dance moves.... ?

Read more about my garage HERE!

I seriously miss all my kids scribble scrabble too. Like this garage door that I painted with chalkboard paint, and the kids had no problem doodling on every chance they got.... ahhhh.

I need to do some major overhauls to our new place, so we can feel more at home. In time everything will fall into place, I know it will, but that doesn't mean I don't miss things the way they were. 

I will be putting together posts when I can, showing all the before pictures, and in between pictures of the house garden, etc. It will be fun (for me) too see all that in one place. At least my memories can live on forever on this blog right?

Do you have any stories you want to share about the PAST, that you miss so much?

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

P.S. Don't forget to check out my NEW blog series. It's all about getting things done.Click on Make it Happen MONDAYS to see what I'm working on this week!

Big Girl finally sleeps in Big Girl Room.

*** Announcements***

I have officially started my AMAZE me AUGUST weekly party starting every TUESDAY.  The party only ends when the next one starts, so please go HERE to enter and join in the fun. Show me what you got girls, I look forward to all the AMAZING things you will be sharing.

I've been hard at work rearranging Princess M's room. While I painted it, and got her room set up over a year ago, she has actually never slept in there, besides of course when she has a a friend sleep over, then they both sleep in there.

Am I the only one who let their kids take over my room, and bed? I know I'm not, and have friends who also let their kids sleep with them, but I feel like I have not had my bed to myself in like 10 years. Seriously my oldest slept with us till he was about 5, then his sister was born, and of course she slept with my until her little brother was born, which was about two and a half years. Then she moved over to another bed  right next to mine, and little guy moved in to my bed.  Where he still is with no plans to move any time soon, but we'll work on that.

So basically since my little darling started kindergarden, she's decided that she's a big girl, and that it was time to go sleep in her own bed, in her own room. So after getting over my own detachment I've decided that she was OK, and so I went to work on her room, as  I did not like the layout, and wanted to make it look better. Basically I rearranged her furniture, and cleared out her closet floor, making it a fun little play area for her and her friends.

While I still want to work on more things for the walls, I did make a little sitting area, with the headboard from the old bed, and a huge storage container that was in her closet. It's temporary but works for the time being. Check out what can happen with zero money, and a lot of back pain, from moving furniture around all afternoon. I'm pretty happy, and she was thrilled to have a NEW room, he he, kids are so easy.

BEFORE, walking in the room. 

Messy bed from a sleep over she had over Labor Weekend. 

Dino D, looking cute, but being naughty. 

Closet BEFORE, that big storage bin will become my new seating area. 

The view from the closet. 

The closet door is to the right, and the bedroom door is to the left. Notice all the butterflies, and hearts still on her wall. These were decorations from her bday last year. Finally time to take them down. 

Princess M, posing in her sleep, that night. This is her first time sleeping in her room alone.
AFTER

AFTER
 Same view from the closet. This pic is taken two days after the room makeover, but here it is.  I really need to move the wall shelf, and add more decorations on the walls, but until I find what I want, it will stay like this. 

AFTER
View from when you walk in the room.

Barbies has found a new home on the window sill, and notice her seating area. 

The makeshift sitting area. That headboard was from the old bed she used to sleep in by my bed. This used to be her Big brothers bed from 10 years ago. The seat, is that blue storage bin from the closet. I just stapled the sheet around it so it kind of looks presentable somewhat. Again, it is temporary, but works for now, and instead of us sitting there, she has decided that her doggies should hang out there. 

Newly decorated, and ready to go. 

This is the wall, her large dresser and mirror used to be on, and now its kind of bare, but she can play with her  dollhouse more comfortably now. The night stand is where she goes shopping for her kitchen. Food and dishes are stored in there. 

The closet is now a mini as in MINI play area, but for the little bodies who will be playing in there, its just cozy enough. So now she can go shopping with the recyclable shopping bag, (green one stuffed behind kitchen,,,, see it) Here babies are waiting to be fed, and with her handy cash register she charges her bother a million dollars for a banana, it so cute. 

And there you have it, Princess M, her mommy Bella, and one of her favorite puppy poodles, Blackie. 

I obviously spent NO MONEY on this makeover, but my back is paying for it, and a massage person will be happy, he he. I just feel like the room flows better now, and I like the set up a whole lot better. Plus with putting the mirror opposite the window, it just makes the room light up more. The closet is an instant little hideaway, and the kids love it. I've wanted a little reading nook in there, and now I have one, thanks to an old headboard, and a huge bulky storage container full of clothes.

I am happy to be linking up to the following parties.
Making Mondays Marvelous @ C.R.A.F.T
Craft-O-Maniac Mondays @ Craft-o-maniac
The DIY showoff Project @ The DIY showoff
Making the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter









As always ENJOY!

Special requests, or mad love always welcome:)
bellabeforeandafter@gmail.com

Monster Weeds go WILD.

Hey guys, I am going to do some catch up today with some posts I wanted to do last week, but never got around to doing. Do you guys remember my post Making a Bed for my Flowers where I walked you through some stages my garden has gone through, and I promised I would show you how horrible it was looking now after a summer of neglect. Well, I got brave last week, and despite being sick, I got out there, and tackled those monster weeds. My plan initially was to just do it in batches, as I knew it was a big task. Of course once I got started I just couldn't stop, and I finished pulling all the weeds in my flower bed. Everything in the front of the house that is, the sides are not done yet.

Now don't get scared at the size of these weeds, and I promise my garden has NEVER looked like this before. I actually pulled weeds last month, and they were barely any, and then I blink and these things popped up literally overnight. Well, maybe a bit longer than that, but seriously they are the biggest, scariest things I've ever seen. Thank goodness I got that under control again.

Hope you guys don't mind seeing more garden pics, but this is just crazy, so take a look, and see what happens, when Weeds go WILD.

**I've linked this up to NOT JUST A HOUSEWIFE on 7/23/2011**

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE
Yes those HUGE tree looking things that are taller than my rose bushes are WEEDS. 

AFTER

BEFORE
Again look at all those scary things, oh man, it was BAD.

AFTER
Just click on the pics, to enlarge, and you will see what a big difference there is. 

BEFORE
This corner was the worst, as you can see. 

BEFORE
Same corner, different angle. Plus you can see my lovely DEAD tree in the corner. This was one that was transplanted from in front of the garage, after the other one died, and I didn't want just one there, so I took it out, and put it here, and then it too died. The only explanation I have is that these trees need more sun. Clearly everything else is THRIVING my my garden, so this is the only thing I have come up with. 

AFTER

AFTER
I know it still looks bad, with the dead tree and all, but dang, at least you can see in there now. 

The culprits. Yes all that was taken out of my flower bed. It was a HUGE job. I spent nearly seven hours out there, and finally got it done. Lesson to be learned is NEVER EVER, EVER let your weeds take over, EVER. They really can grow like weeds, lol, and before you know it, you are slaving over your garden, removing tree like things.

Just in case this has not gotten you bored with my garden posts yet, then be on the lookout because, of course this was just the cleanup. Naturally I have tons of stuff left to do, but for now, I hope you learned from my mistake, and never put off a few minutes of pulling out a couple weeds, or else you can end up spending hours working to get rid of those suckers like I had to do.

I am linking up to these parties:
Metamorphosis Mondays





Also don't forget that I have officially started my AMAZE me AUGUST weekly party starting every TUESDAY, so please go HERE to enter and join in the fun. Show me what you got girls, I look forward to all the AMAZING things you will be sharing.

As always ENJOY!

Special requests, or mad love always welcome:)
bellabeforeandafter@gmail.com