Moving the Newlyweds

This weekend we helped move Megan and Kevin to Kansas City, Mo..... to their first apartment as husband and wife!  They are starting grad school soon, so there was no time to waste and these kids with the help of  Kevin's parents and Mark and I helped get them set up in  their new place!  It is a really cool loft that I think they will enjoy!   I like the way it is set up and Kevin's very talented father built them a double desk that also serves as a divider for the bedroom! 

From the bedroom side

Knock Off Wood project!

I will let you guess which one is Pottery Barn and which one is Knock Off Woods? (the one I made?)

I love making things myself!  In the craft room office I had a Bedford Corner Desk from Pottery Barn and through my daughter Jala found this awesome website http://www.knock-offwood.com/ and found a pattern for the corner desk and base units... So I began my venture for making it... I went to Lowe's with my trusty little (3 page long cut list) for the desk... I left it at the projects desk because they told me they were way too busy to cut it right then, it took them 4 days and then had to go back 3 more times to get all the pieces.  Lesson learned was not to leave them the list but to stay with them as they cut it to make sure they understand the plans and get it all done!  I purchased a nail gun to use with the air compressor which was Awesome!!!  (give a girl a nail gun and look out!)  The desk was amazingly easy to do because Ana is so awesome on KOW at every little detail...  It took 3 days to finish completely... one day to put together, (then another trip to Lowe's for missing pieces) then a day to paint the whole thing!  I was so thrilled with the outcome I sent the pictures to Knock Off Woods and to my astonishment she featured me on her blog one day on The Bragging Post!!! I really wasn't trying to BRAG I was just amazed that I could build something!!! Here is the link if you care to go look at it...  http://www.knock-offwood.com/2010/05/bragging-board-calling-all-detectives.html I was quite honored!

Wedding Day

Today (May 22, 2010) is Megan and Kevin's wedding..... Megan is my stepdaughter.  I have had trouble saying step anything because I do not want any of Mark's children to think I am trying to "replace" their mother.  You can remodel houses, change the looks of things but you cannot replace someone!  I know that for a fact!  Mark and I love each other very much but also know that Gary and Robbin play a major role in our lives!  Now back to that beautiful bride!   I know she will be a beautiful bride because she is a beautiful young lady!  I pray that everything goes as she has planned today... I know this day will also be a bittersweet day for the family because Megan's mother passed away over a year and a half ago.  I understand the sadness surrounding this day because my own daughter Jala got married 14 months after her Dad died... (but that was 6 years ago)  It is not fair when your parents are not there for the monumental times in your life (walk you down the aisle, see you graduate from college, see each grandchild born; etc or let alone just the everyday things that go on in life!).  I pray that they will also find much joy in this day!  I truly believe that Robbin has a window from Heaven and that she is truly right there with Megan today!  Congratulations Megan and Kevin on your wedding and praying for a life full of wedded bliss!

Room #1 of the redo!

The first room we tackled was the guest room, no major renovations other than new windows, patching the plaster, painting, putting up new ceiling fan and pulling up the old carpet and scraping the old varnish off and then sanding and making a beautiful wood floor!  Might I add we slaved over this for a week (the floor that is)!  The floor was a lot of work but the end effect was well worth it!!  It turned out beautiful as well as the whole room!!  I guess in some ways we started with this room, because we wanted to make it nice for any of our kids who might visit and it was the easiest room to do! 

How this all began.....

This story begins when two people namely Mark and Nancy were widowed found each other through some crazy internet dating site and fell in love and got married!  Mark was happily married to Robbin for 38 years and Nancy was happily married to Gary for almost 30 years.... We are who we are because of whom we have loved!   It all happened pretty quickly we met online in early November and were married on Valentine's day 2010.... and don't regret it one bit!!!  We were both lonely and felt like God put us together for a reason!  I am so thankful that God put Mark into my life!  In saying all that Nancy left her home in Southeastern Illinois and moved to "this Old House"!  Funny that used to be one of my favorite television shows before HGTV was born!  "This Old House" is over 100 years old!  In redoing old houses you always run into problems and sometimes open a can of worms!  I love redoing and making things beautiful so here goes our makeover!  On this makeover quest we are trying to make this home beautiful and not spend a fortune!  So there will be lots of paint used!  Did I mention we not only blended our lives (our children are grown so it is not like they were all thrown together under one roof to live) but our dogs, they are a challenge.... anyone want a dog?  Let me know!  Mark had 3 pomeranians (Gizmo, Bella and Bear) and Nancy had 1 Boston Terrier (Dude).... now Nancy was already struggling just having one dog in the house now she has 4 oops did I mention Bella had a puppy (CoCo) while we were on our honeymoon?  So that makes 5 yes 5 dogs... CoCo the newest member is leaving soon for a new life in KC so that will put us down to 4... still too many for one house no matter how big it is.... So the dogs have been a challenge! 

Nancy