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Well, friends, it looks like things are winding down after an exciting couple of days. Layla and Kevin have put up a new post (and it's a great one!) and our visitor count is slowly returning back to it's pre-giveaway numbers. It was tons of fun to see so many new visitors to Home for the Better! Thank you for all of your encouraging comments.
Now the question becomes, "Will any of these lovely readers come back"? We would like you to :) I suppose, though, we should be upfront with you all. Like, maybe we should go ahead and tell you that there are no knock-your-socks-off-a-magazine-is-going-to-be-calling-us-soon type before & afters here (at this point - ha). And maybe we should let you know that it sometimes takes a while to see discernable progress on this blog. While we're at it, perhaps we should also mention that sometimes we might whine and feel sorry for ourselves... well, not too often, but I'm not ruling it out.
But wait a minute. That hardly seems like a solid plan to get y'all to come back, now does it?!
So, we'd better talk fast and also let you know that sometimes we finally start to see something starting to look like "us", and after months of plugging away it means even more than a before and after completed in record time ever could. And sometimes we really are encouraged and having fun... those posts are nice. Occasionally, to keep things pretty - because everyone likes a blog that is pretty - we'll post photos of other people's spectacularly gorgeous rooms because they inspire us and we hope they inspire you, too. And, if it helps, we should also let you know that some of us are really cute and will be showing up from time to time.
So, we hope you come visit :)
In short, there are some incredible design blogs out there. We enjoy reading them, but we aren't pretending to be one of them. When it all comes down to it, this is really a house blog. It's a real family making a real house their own in real time. It's not flashy, but we like to think it's at least getting more interesting.
We would really love to have you come along with us as we keep making this home better... bit by bit and month by month. Hopefully, bin pulls, new door trim, and a power tool here and there will add up to entertainment for some of you :)
~ Jacci
P.S. - The house blog/design blog world really is an incredible place! Where else can you receive free leafblowers and free one-on-one blog advice from dear souls you've never met - all in 48 hours? :) Many, many thanks to Susie for helping me finally get these photos the right size! And look, Susie, I figured out the border, too! How about that :) And, of course, another big "thank you" to the Palmers. (Now, if I can just figure out why that photo was so grainy). Hm.
Hope y'all have a great day.
When I checked into the ole' blog this afternoon, I was more than a little surprised to see that 57 visitors were here - at one time. That may not seem like much to some of you, but to this little-known piece of the blogosphere - that was HUGE. I couldn't help but wonder where all of these people were coming from.
I hit "refresh" and we were up to 61. What on earth? And then I looked over at my righthand sidebar. Layla had posted the winner of her giveaway. My heart skipped a beat. "No way".
But, it's true! We won!!! :) Click here to read all about it. Can you believe it? Sam is going to be sooo excited.
Just for kicks, here's what I wrote to enter the giveaway. Layla had asked us to tell why we needed their free leafblower:
"I would like the leaf blower, please :)This is our first fall in our "new" house and we are one of the only young families on the entire street. Most of the homes still boast their original owners, now retired and manicuring their lawns with some fierce dedication. With four children ages 8 and under, we pale sadly in comparison. It's a good week if the grass gets mowed, let alone edged and aerated. Our house needs some love, but it has an amazing wooded acre lot. We have a huge black locust right beside our driveway that's dropping its teeny weeny leaves all over the place. Those things are tricky to rake! A leaf blower would be just the thing to take care of the locust leaves *and* get us up to speed with our meticulous neighbors :)
Thanks, Kevin & Layla!!! This is really generous of you!
XO,
Jacci"
Thanks, indeed! This is so incredibly generous of Layla and Kevin. Guys, no kidding, this is so great :)
Have I ever mentioned how quickly we bought this house? Or how we weren't even looking for a new house at the time? Or how we had not placed our current house on the market at all yet - nor were we intending to do so? Have I mentioned that the entire purchase and most of the move happened within four short weeks?
Frenzy, y'all. That's about what the activity level was like from my birthday in early November 2008 up until oh, I'd say...now. The Frenzy-versary is just a look back at Fall 2008 and early Winter 2009 and all the craziness that ensued ;)
Today's post is the last photo I have in my computer files from before November 9th - that fateful birthday (yes, I found our house on my birthday!).
This photo was taken in this week of October 2008. We had friends over to bake a geography lesson. See, if you homeschool you can both bake and eat your geography. In the younger grades, at least. Here we are making Continental Divide cookies.
In the background you can see that nothing is packed up. All is happily chaotic in my kitchen with seven children (some of which must have been napping at this point) enjoying the dough and paint swatches on the wall. I was still decorating that place! I had abolutely zero clue we would be living in a completely different house before Christmas.
Wild.
You know, I've been thinking. This is a house blog, but what fun is a house blog (or a house) without personality? And what has more PERSONality than the people that live in it? I thought it might make things a little more interesting for you all if you knew a bit about the hands you see painting and the little feet you see moving out of the way of the nail gun.
So....
TA DA!
Boy, it's pretty bad when you have to look really long and hard for a photo of the two of you together and when you finally do come up with something... this is it. But, there you go. That's me (Jacci - pronouced "Jackie") and my dear Sam. All dolled up for this summer's Vacation Bible School at our church. Now you know us a little better than before. Among other things, you now know that we don't have a lot of personal pride.
That's a little more representative :) This is Sam and our youngest child. On this blog, he goes by the alias Little Dude. He'll be 3 in February and he's exhausting and enchanting all at once.
Here I am with the little guy. This was taken a few weeks before my 34th birthday.
This, friends, is Punkin - age 5 - and she is a treat.
Shug (short for Sugar), 7 years old, showing off her new teeth coming in. Lovely, honey :)
SweetP, age 8 and a half, and our eldest (the photo is from when she was 7 and a half). She and Shug are tremendously helpful and I love them to bits. Of course, we both love them all to bits :)
And this is our house after a little paint and sprucing up. It may not seem like we've done much, but you have to understand that the siding is yellow and the shutters had been purple. Okay, mulberry. But still.
At the time of this posting, we've been working on the house for about 7 months and one week. The first thing we did was paint the pumpkin pie walls in the kitchen.
And the cabinets. We did paint them all, by the way. This photo is just a "during" shot. Oh, and we painted some doors black while we were at it.
We had "pee carpet" to remove, concrete to bleach, windows to replace, and - in short - a lot of work to do. But, over the last half of a year, it's been gradually becoming more of a way to "love on our house" and make it our own instead of just drudgery... most of the time. We're hoping and trying to make this home a Home for the Better.
We hope you enjoy reading about our progress and pitfalls.
Thanks for visiting!
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