Life goes on.....

Maggie is still doing her horse riding every Tuesday evening.  Last week she had a fairly new horse (can't remember his name), who was by far the most docile horse Maggie has ever had.  He was lovely.  Maggie is doing so well with her riding, she is so much more confident around the horses and she knows exactly what she is supposed to be doing when she gets the horse ready for the lesson.  She looks so comfortable on the horse too.  It has been very good for her.

We got a skip at the weekend to get rid of all the stuff we have taken out of the house.  The whole side of our house was piled high with junk and we really needed to get rid of it.  We must live in a really good neighbourhood because no one else threw junk in there when we weren't around.  I don't know how they could resist!!!!

The first BBQ at White Ave took place this weekend and it was a huge success!!!!

I bought this terrarium at Arhaus before we moved into our house and finally got around to getting some plants for it.  The other day Maggie asked me what animal was living inside of it, I guess she didn't realize you could just have a bunch of plants.  I think she thought there was a tarantula in there!!!  I told Sam that we should tell Ben that and he'd NEVER go near it!!!!!

Ben and Maggie seem to really enjoy our new house. Ben definitely spends less time holed up in his bedroom.  We have a nice little area in the kitchen where they can sit and eat easily.  Maggie likes it because she can pause the TV, rush in and eat, and go right back to it!!!!!

Ben and I were in Whole Foods yesterday and found these heirloom baby tomatoes.  They looked too good to not take a picture of them.

Let there be light......

We have had a lot of new lights in our house recently.

Sam bought me this light for Christmas. Christmas came early because the box was sitting on the porch when I got home-haha.  I had seen this lamp in Restoration hardware and I absolutely loved it.  It's right up my alley, a combination of history and chemistry.

I ordered these lights from Craftsman Connection.  I haven't been able to get anything from them for a while, but now I have my old house back, they are on my quick-dial list!!!!  These are hand made iron and slag glass. This one is inside the front door.....

....and this one is at the top of the stairs

Another Restoration Hardware find is the lamp I bought for our bedroom.  Solid piece of crystal, absolutely beautiful

There will be more light soon, we have had power run to the center of the dining room for our chandelier when it arrives.  Then, we will be able to eat at the dining table....

For now, it's just a hole waiting to be filled!!!!

House update.....

I love my sitting room so much, I might just take pictures of it every week!!!!  I'm not sure if I should get a new rug or not.  It is completely out of the colour palette of the chairs, but maybe it's so far away that it works....

These stock have been a great price at Trader Joe's for a while.  These are doing really well in the sitting room, they are already a week old.  The Singer sewing machine looks perfect in this room

Sam is so proud of the basement.  He has done a fantastic job with it.

I have put all my holiday china away in these cabinets, it has really helped with the limited space in the kitchen.  We also have spare toiletries in the cabinet in response to the fact that Ben insists on going in the bath at exactly the same time that we start getting ready for bed!!!!

We even have room for the rowing machine and the yellow bike.  We never thought this was going to happen.  We have a new water heater too, it is very fancy.

Food collection.....

Harvesting season has arrived!!!!  The school garden has been much neglected this Summer with the move etc, but we have had some goodies from it.  We have had quite a few green peppers, but only Ben eats them.  Ben's cabbages are finally ready to pick.  The butterflies have had a field day with them, but some are still in good condition.  I made dinner with this beauty on Tuesday.

Ben also wanted to grow aubergines this year and finally I picked 6 of them.  I'm going to make moussaka this weekend, haven't made it in years.

We went to Eckert's last weekend because they were picking both apples and peaches.  We now have a massive amount of fruit!!!!

First day of school

We have spent a lot of time at the Brentwood schools this past week.  I got Ben and Maggie registered for school and they have had their lockers etc assigned.  You've got to love a school district whose colors are purple and gold (well, at least I do).  All the lockers are purple.

Yesterday was the first day of school.  Sam remembered to take a picture of them this year.  He's loving being able to walk them to school in the mornings.  They both had great days on their first day.  Ben found people to sit with in class and at lunch. Maggie's class didn't really have a regular day, just more of an orientation, but she was very excited about it and couldn't wait to tell me that she managed to get her locker opened 3 times!!!!

What a difference a day makes.....

I was off work on Tuesday and had a very busy day, with 5 different contractors in the house!!!

Sam hung Ben's picture in the family room-our first picture on the walls

We got our new furniture delivered first thing in the morning.  These are the chairs we got for the sitting room (the old dining room)

We got these dressers, one for our bedroom and one for Ben's room.  They are really cool, I love them

We got this coat rack/shoe storage to replace our mud room facilities.  I can't bring myself to allow the kids to store their shoes in here yet.  Not sure we want Maggie's shoes stored anywhere near a dining room!!!!

Dominko has been working on our basement.  He hung these shelves that we can use for storage, we definitely need them

There is another shelf next to the dryer so that I can store the laundry stuff

We hung the bathroom cabinet in the laundry area for now, but I think we will move this into the bathroom once we get the extension done

Dominko hung our mirror over the dresser in our room

HEY!!!!  This is supposed to be MY reading room.  Who let the kids in there?????  They love this room and my chairs.  Ben is spending a lot more time with us than he did in our old house.  He sits in the kitchen rather than his room, I'm very happy and hope it continues......

We have achieved a lot in just over a week

We moved in less than 2 weeks ago and we have done so much already.  We have had a huge number of contractors in to fix things up and it's so much better already.  When we moved in, I was thinking "Oh Lord, what have we done?"  After a few days, I absolutely love the house

We had the big hole in the family room fixed and decided to paint the wall a "Sylar color".  The green looks much better.  Looks like the kids have settled in well!!!!

The kitchen is working out well.  Definitely not like my old one, but it has as many cabinets as you could fit in the space.  I have missed the cabinet trash can, but I bought one from The Container Store and it's working well (honestly I thought we'd walk into it all the time!!)  Two of our counter chairs fit in the kitchen and that space has rapidly become our mini office, it is very cozy

Best thing about the house?  I can hang my stained glass again!!!  Sam put this up in the sitting room and I love it

Our major project is going to be how to put a light over the dining room table.  We decided to make the sitting room into the dining room since it's so much bigger, but the major drawback is that there is no central light.  We are going to have to take up the floors upstairs to do this, but it will be worth it

We have put a chair at the sofa table in the family room.  We need to try to find something better that could be used to eat at and that will fit in the room.  we found something ideal on line, but it appears that it isn't on sale yet (patent pending)

More green walls!!!!

The kids have bought their school supplies and sorted them out (apparently they are supposed to be at the bottom of the basement stairs!!)

We still have a lot of boxes in the basement, but probably only half as many as we had at the beginning

The new home for the cats in the basement

Sam got Jasim (our painter) to drywall the unfinished wall in the basement.  I am very happy to have a second fridge in the basement again

Our new shower curtain.  Got it from Anthropologie and I love it!!!!

Sam took the corner cabinet down in the bathroom to make room for our little cabinet.  We found this really cool cubbie behind the cabinet.  We are going to paint it and I can put towels etc in it

Our bedroom, not had anything done to it yet....

Maggie's room is small, but I have managed to fit everything into it very well.  It is so cozy in there

Maggie's room is so small, Sam had to take the door off the closet!!!!

This is NOT messy Ben, I just haven't had time to unpack his room yet!!!!

I did find his alligators!!!!

And I have unpacked some of his books.....