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Make Room for what you Love- 5 week challenge

Hello Friends!  We are getting so close to moving into our new home, and I feel the need to simplify and organize!  Big time!

I've joined Melissa's Make Room Challenge....and thought it might be fun to have you join  me too!  It is just for 5 weeks and at the end you will have a home you love!

Check it out- Here and Here. 

Week 1- Master bedroom - focusing on the decluttering your dresser-

 

Here are Three decluttering steps/tips Melissa shares-

1. Empty your clothing and belongings from dresser drawers.
Take advantage of this moment to wipe them out and even add new drawer liners if you want to.
2. Take stock of how much drawer space you have. What do you need your drawer space for? Assign each drawer a purpose, with space for each category of belongings (such as socks, undies, slips, tights, PJ’s.).
3. Now it’s time to put back what you really use. What is in good condition, fits, and you actually like to wear? Put those items back in the drawer in the designated space. Match up socks. If you have lone socks, start a lonely sock basket, and if the mate turns up, you’ll be able to return them to the dresser. If the drawers become too crowded, pare down or relocate items if you have another option.

Get Organized Tip: You can make easy DIY drawer dividers from old shoe and gift boxes.

 

This drawer organizers came from Ikea...love their drawer organizers.  I also love to use old boxes.

I love how simple this was to do ( I used Heidi's room, thanks Heidi) Just using things we already had on hand..

• a basket for bedside necessities- tissue, water, chap-stick, phone
• a little greenery and candles from her home. 

It doesn't take much to get started....and the reward is awesome!   Just a few "Simple little steps."

Love this quote from Melissa's Book-

"The chaos in our physical world can reflect and even alter the state of our mood, body, mind, and spirit." 

Come follow along with me!  The Make Room Challenge  The Inspired Room 

 

Happy Day!

Beautiful world- random things

Leaving our home building site....I just had to stop and take a picture of the cattle roaming the hills, quite often you can see them chasing each other up and down the hill.  The real Happy Cows of California. (smile)

This world is overflowing with beauty....the last couple of weeks I have found myself surround by beautiful nature!  What a blessing this world is.

 Random thought- #1

Lately in the news; we are filled will sorrow from all the ugly that some people can do...how sad....

all this ugly has the effect of weakening the fabric of our society.   Because of this, bad things happen and sometimes the righteous will suffer because of the transgressions of others...I believe the Lord goes to great lengths to protect and to spare...but man has his free will to choose good or to choose bad.... I believe as sin, be it public or private, weakens us and society, I also believe all that is wholesome and good reaches out to bless and even preserve it!

Let us be the good to preserve it!  Let's keep the world beautiful.

Here is some good-

From a survivor of the resent terrorist bombing- 

"I know that I've felt His love several times. I know that if I can feel His love sitting on a sidewalk next to a destroyed airport, God will talk to his other children, too. I know that He does listen to prayers, and that the prayers the people are (giving) now, they make a difference, because I've felt them."  read full article here

Random thought- #2 

Have you heard of 

 LIKEtoKNOW.it   Whenever someone I follow on instagram posts anything from a cute pair of sandals to a fabulous rug, all I have to do is like the image and an email comes to my inbox with a link to the source (as long as that instagrammer uses LIKEtoKNOW.it).  Signing up is easy here.  You can even select how often you want to receive emails - asap, daily or weekly.  I like to receive them asap!  This is so much easier than asking someone where they found their pillow and waiting for a response and possibly forgetting to follow up.

 

Dan and I

My beautiful niece Brittney went through the Temple for the first time last week...So happy for her. There is beauty in the world.

Enjoying the beauty of Filoli   There is beauty in the world.

The house is coming along...each day a little something is different ....Happy Day!  Alene was my little helper for a day.  There is beauty in the world.

 My laundry room in the raw.  Can't wait to get my hands on it!

 

The library bookcases also in the raw...above each bay will be a light /sconce.

mud room in the raw....can't  wait to see paint and hardware!

The white wood will be painted a "wood" color.

But....happy day, the brick is going on!

Family dinner and egg hunt.

Mason and Jessica hosted our Easter Family dinner at their home...sorry Mason about the closed eye picture...

Sam, Heidi and kids

Denver, Bree and Lincoln .   There is beauty and love in the world.

 

Below are some pictures from our Ward Easter Activity.

Heidi and Yuphaa....preparing 200 cinnamon rolls for the Easter breakfast and egg hunt activity....Sarah also made 200. 

There is beauty,love and kindness in the world.

We are blessed with a beautiful world.

Have a glorious Easter! “Praise ye the Lord.”

 
 

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Building Poppy Hill: Foundation

Spring time at Filoli

Front of Filoli house

A day with the girls and two little cute boys at Filoli- 

Filoli is a country house set in 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate, located in Woodside, California south of San Francisco.

I have visited Filoli many times over the years and at all seasons....and I never trier of the architecture and garden design.  I have to say though...Spring time is my favorite time to visit.

The home is always a delight with seasonal flower centerpieces in every room...and I love the marble in the bathrooms, the marble fonts in the niches and the columns of marble in the front.

Hope you don't mind the overload of garden pictures....Happy Spring.

Now to begin....the Feast for your eyes.

 Olive Orchard- I actually love this...and I'm seriously thinking of doing something like this for our New home front yard...but of course in much smaller scale. (visiting a garden is inspiration overload.) 

Enjoying their first visit to Filoli

 

One of the reason I love spring time at Filoli....well, the Wisteria is amazing! Twisted, knotted, old wisteria growing up and over the brick walled garden.

 

More than two hundred Irish Yews that had been grown from cuttings from the Yews at Muckross House, the Bourn property in Ireland, were transplanted to Filoli.

Garden house next to the sunken garden.

 

This is the pool bath house

Wisteria heaven...I'm also planning to plant wisteria at our new home and train it to go up the back wall.

perfect day...in the high 60's clear sky and no wind....the boys were adorable and the girls fun (smile)

Happy Day!

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The Cabin- Part two of our Trip

Daffodil hill and a birthday

As part of Sandi's birthday celebration we planned to visit Mclaughlin's Daffodil hill close to Sutter Creek    It was a beautiful ride up the hill....and a perfect "weather" day!

Happy Birthday Sandi my friend!

Here is a pictorial  look at our day.

After our visit at the hill...we took a little drive over to my cabin...hoping that our daffodils were in bloom.  As we were driving there I said to Sandi...."I hope at least one of the daffodils at the cabin are in bloom"   and my wish came true...there was just one that had blossomed.  

We are planning to go back in a couple weeks and  hopefully all 400 will be in bloom.   We had a picnic lunch on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine.  Happy Day!

Happy Birthday Sandi!

Our fancy lunch...at least we had cloth napkins 

Happy Day!

 

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Lake Alpine and Friends

Poppy Hill- update- cabinets

There has been a lot of action at the house this week ....which is a good great thing!  I wanted to document the entry/stairs before the railing goes on.  I love all the angles....and the light coming in this home is awesome! (I was a little worried about that...because most of the windows face north and south...but not to worry, the lighting is awesome!)

 They are still working on the trim...which will probably continue for a few weeks.

Something way fun happened just as we were leaving the house the other day....our own personal rainbow.  I wish I had better photography skills...because it really looked like our home was under a dome.  Fun!

 and did I mention....the cabinets are going in! (it seems like its taken a million years to get to this point=)

 This is the first piece to enter our home!  So excited!  (and man, how things change when you start adding cabinetry)

They have crown molding, glass and a few other trim pieces yet to add to this piece. ... subway tile will be installed on the back-splash,  vintage tile in the blank space above the fireplace, fantasy white quartzite  will wrap around the fireplace and on the counter tops.  

This piece is part of the kitchen, our dinning table will sit in front of this piece....I decided against a formal dinning room and went for an "eat in kitchen" dinning area.  With the dinning table in this area, when we have our family together....I have 30 feet of dinning area....because I can use the entry way. (using our island I can sit everyone in our family at a table... our 10 adult kids, 13 grand-kids and us!)

 Love this view from the upstairs guest bedroom....and  the window seat bed is in. This room also has an attached Nursery. 

(a few more pieces still need to be added to the sides of the bed frame. There will be a ledge big enough to hold a cup, cell phone and book.)  also I was noticing that all the green from outside is reflecting on the walls.  There are two large drawers beneath the bed, for linens and blankets.) 

 

 They are also working away at the rock...and they have even started to grout some of it! (still wet in this picture)

 After a little trial and error....we finally hit on the right mixture and style!  This picture was taken while the grout was still wet, it will be a little lighter in color once dried.  (we like to call this "over grouting" Dan and Teresa style.) 

 Things are marching along... Trim and the stove hood are yet to go in...but soon!

Happy Day!

 

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Rock, trim, cabinets and plaster oh my- Poppy Hill update

It has been about a month since my last update on Poppy Hill.  A lot has and is going on since then.  We are at step 5; in the building process- we are half way through the steps....( the first five always go slowly....the next five will hopefully fly by)

• the drywall is hung taped and textured.
• installing exterior finishes such as brick, stucco, stone.
• Interior doors, baseboards, door casings, window sills, moldings and other decorative trim are being installed, along with cabinets, fireplace mantels and surrounds.

Here is a little review of the step to get to this point-

1. Prepare site and pour foundation
2. Complete rough framing
3. Complete rough plumbing, electrical and HVAC; and roof
4. Install insulation
5. Complete drywall and interior textures; start exterior finishes (where we are now)
6.  Finish interior trim; install exterior driveways and walkways
7. Install hard-surface flooring and counter-tops; complete exterior grading
8. Finish mechanical trims; install bathroom fixtures
9. Install mirrors, shower doors and finish flooring; finish exterior landscaping
10. Final walk-through.

 

 Exciting news...we found our counter-top material....finally!  Fantsay white quartzite  found here. Happy Day!

All the little pieces are starting to fall into place....after a million decisions! (building a home is not for the decision challenged)

"when every corner speaks of possibility I know that I am home." -unknown-

The tile has been chosen and ordered for the bathrooms, mud room and laundry room. Wood will be on the main body of the house.

1. mud room and laundry room floor - style laid- herringbone pattern
2. upstairs jack and Jill bathrooms
3. downstairs guest bath
4. carrara marble 12x12 honed on floor, marble subway tile shower, hexagon marble shower floor (master-bath)
5. vanity counter tops marble

 

 Other fun news....I was able to walk through Voigts cabinet shop and get a look at my cabinets in their "raw" stage! So exciting, they are going in next week!

 

Stone will cover the front of the house....and brick will be on the tower.  Everything will be over grouted....so it looks something like this...

source 

 Along with all this, the trim is also going in! (old world plaster on walls.)

Sorry about the fuzzy picture...I took this early evening and was running out of light.  (better next time... All the doors are five panels with glass knobs.)

 

Things are moving along!

Guys....next week the cabinets are going in!

Happy Day 

Oh, I forgot....

There are lots of very different angles and ceiling lines in this home...happy day...I like that...but...this one is very unusual....looks to be like a large ship just docked in the room.

So I was thinking....how fun it would be to paint it to look like this "tall ship"

source

At least this part....  what do you think?

 

just a little drawing.... what do you think...paint it?  The room is for the grand-kids.

Oceanside with Kent, Becca & kids-

Kent and Becca invited us to join them for a short little stay at the beach.   What a blessing it was to be able to spend some time with them....and as luck would have it, we were already in the area which made it all the better.

They rented a lovely home in Oceanside right at the sands edge. (Oceanside is a coastal city located on California's South Coast.)

Where the grass ended the sand began.  While we were together we made a couple trips to Legoland. 

 Here is my photo log of our wonderful stay with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family pictures at sunset....and of course we need a silly one (Thanks Ellie for the fun.)

 

Thanks Kent and Becca for a wonderful stay!

Love ya

Happy Day.

 

 

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Family Reunion 2014- Talent show.