Before and After

We have really been enjoying our new home. It is great to have a place to settle in. We feel really comfortable and keep discovering things we love about it (as well as things that aren't as nice, of course, but we are focusing on the positive). It has been fun for me to watch Scooter be a home owner. One funny thing to watch has been his near obsession with keeping our driveway snow-free. I think he really enjoys being out there with his shovel, taking care of his home.

Unbeknownst to the neighbors, he has a competition going with them - who can keep their driveway looking the best. One day after shoveling he came into the house, sweaty and disheveled, wearing a huge grin and said, "Our driveway looks the best on the street!" Well, at least he's having fun...

Aside from shoveling snow in below-freezing temperatures we have also been working on some interior projects. We actually got these done between Thanksgiving and Christmas but haven't had time to post about them yet. One of the things I liked about the house before we bought it was the spacious kitchen. I wasn't crazy about the cabinets, though. The weird "rope" that was running down the center of the cabinet doors was ugly and dated the whole room. The cabinet doors were really cheap, thin, and even stapled together. We decided to do our best to update it on a budget.

Before.
After.
I feel like it looks more clean and modern. The backsplash and countertops don't match with the white as well as I would like, but it is still a work in progress. We never would have painted nice solid wood cabinets, but since ours were so cheap we decided to go for it.

I wish that the picture conveyed how many hours went into this project. We had to remove the doors, pry the "rope" off, sand them down, prime them, then paint two coats of white front-and-back. Once they looked how we wanted, we had to install new handles and hinges. The hinges proved to be a problem. The new hinges were a standard size, but because the cabinets were built so long ago the "standard" hinge size had changed so we had to literally chisel a notch for the new hinges in the back of the doors. Without the newly chiseled notch the doors wouldn't close all the way. We also had to paint the actual cabinets themselves. The last thing was to pry off and replace the crown molding. It was a huge project but really rewarding in the end.

Scooter was a huge contributor on the cabinet project because we did most of it over the Thanksgiving break so he had some time to help. This next project I did completely on my own though because he was basically locked in his office studying for his final exam. I wanted to try and update this entertainment center that my parents gave us. It is a really solid piece of furniture, but it was not a color we planned on using. So, I decided to stain it.

Before
During
After
I was pretty nervous when I was in Home Depot and just wandering around trying to get advice on how to begin, but I really wanted to try to do it on my own. I sanded it down, then put a bunch of coats of stain and let it dry for a long time between each one. Then I put a seal on top. I think it turned out pretty well. The best part is that the whole project only cost $15! Actually, the best part is how proud Scooter is that I was able to do it alone.

Next project - painting!

A Plowman Family Christmas

Scooter's family spent their Christmas holiday at our house this year. Because of Skipper's mission and our year in England we had not all been together since our wedding reception three and a half years ago! It was fun to spend some time together. Scooter and I moved into our house around Thanksgiving so we had month to get things ready for five guests. It was a rush and involved lots of unpacking, painting, hours on Craig's List (bless it!), and even more hours of driving around the metro area purchasing and picking up. We'll save the home improvement stories for another post, but we managed to get the house ready and it was worth it so we could relax while the family was here (well, everyone else did - I had to keep working). We tried to do all of the Plowman family traditions which included eating a bagel wreath for breakfast on Christmas Day
The most successful gifts of Christmas were probably the "du-rags" that Skipper and Skeeter got in their stockings.
They were highly amused with Santa.
But they thought they looked pretty cool.
Then in typical boy fashion they started going a little crazy...
After we were done laughing at the boys we decided that it was time for a little Christmas hot tub time. It had snowed a TON on Christmas Eve (seriously, we were out trying to drive through it and it was terrifying) so when we opened the back door it looked like this...
Someone (I'm not naming names) had forgotten to buy a snow shovel in preparation for the anticipated storm so we tried to sweep a path from the back door to the hot tub - it didn't work that well.
A word about the hot tub. When we moved in we found out that the heater on the tub was broken so we had it repaired. To make a long story short the tub finally started working. after five visits from the repairman, on December 23, so on Christmas day we still hadn't had time to use it. We were so excited to break it in! We didn't really know what the ideal temperature for the water was. The look on Josie's face pretty much says it all - it was boiling hot!

We finally started easing ourselves in, but it was a painful process.
After a few minutes we were happy to be in it.
The boys decided it was getting a little too hot after a while and decided that the surrounding snow was simply too tempting.
Boys - I'll never understand them.
After they made snow angels they decided that the hot tub was sounding good again.
Unfortunately they forgot that when you go from rolling about in the snow to really hot water it is kinda painful. Skipper seems to think so anyway...
Christmas dinner later that day was yummy. That night we had the traditional Plowman Family Christmas Program. Complete with singing, games, chime playing, a family chant/dance (don't ask) and Jacey singing a Christmas song in Spanish complete with choreography.
The day after Christmas we went to the Kansas City Ballet to see The Nutcracker. We took some pictures before we left. Look at those handsome brothers.

They sure love their mom.
Here are the girls.

The Nutcracker was really amazing. All of us loved it - including the boys, which may have had something to do with the fact that I bribed them to not laugh at the boy ballerinas (ballerino?) with an entire tin of Christmas cookies that I had hidden in my purse.
We also celebrated Jody's birthday a few days later. Happy Birthday Mama Jo!
For her birthday all she wanted was a proper family photo so we made the boys get back into their sweaters.
Overall we all got to do the thing we wanted to do most over the Christmas break - relax!