Merry Christmas from the Parente family!

Christmas mantel before the mayhem begins...(2am)

Joint effort headboard project

I'm so proud of dh and myself. We collaborated on this king-size headboard for our bed. I was inspired by an article in a home decorating magazine I saw in a doctor's waiting room. ;-) I originally wanted to get a blue and white toile but I was too stingy to order the fabric, knowing that I would probably want to recover this thing in a few years to change things. The hardest part (for me) was matching up the pattern perfectly to make that center seam. I love it! Of course, I meant to post this a year and a half ago when we did it. :-)

Back patio is poured now...

So it's time we start to do something to the back mud-pit yard. I can't wait to get hubby's hammock on that patio!

Hilltop house

Whose house is this? :-) Our house as seen from the peak of the "elevation".

Help me arrange my den!

I love our new home but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to best utilize the main living area. It is a main thoroughfare as well as a small sitting area. We have a bigger family TV area downstairs in the basement that is being finished by my dear husband now but we do want to keep a small TV in this sitting area. Our plan is to put built-in bookshelves/cabinets on both sides of the fireplace. 

So what kind of couch and tables would you put in here? We have a new recliner that we love and we like the color of the reclining loveseat but the loveseat, itself, has been scribbled on, etc. a few million times, so it's not the long-term piece. I have a quilt or two strategically placed on the loveseat for this reason. 

I took pictures from different angle so you could get an idea of the space better. I had the loveseat slid into the breakfast nook space for carpet cleaning. That white door you see is the door to the basement and directly across from that in the small hallway is the door to the master bedroom. You can see my new desk in these photos, too! The French doors with windows on both sides -- that's the entry to the screened porch.

Please leave comments... I need help!

Fall fireplace

Now if it would just get cold enough to use the fireplace...

If you give a mom some money...

she will spend it! Especially if the hometown furniture store is going out of business! Here's my new baby... and I got a desk, too, but I haven't gotten a picture of that yet. I'm too busy trying to load it up. :-)

We had a little bit of snow a few weeks ago...

and here's what the first snow on the house looks like!

Finished fireplace area

Someone asked me the other day how our fireplace finally turned out. Well, here it is! The tile was late in arriving so it was a month or so after we moved in when it was installed. You can't see it in this picture but there is a foot-wide area on the floor with the tile, also. I love it! We want to build in cabinets and bookcases on either side when we can.

Okay, so I finally got my camera fixed and we've been having fun with it again. Some of these pictures were taken by me and some by my oldest son. There were some real winners this week. On the right is Jacob building a cardhouse. They've all been playing more card games since our recent beach trip with my family/clan. Jacob is growing up so fast!
The next one is Grace, Mary and Grace's BF, Hannah, in Grace's new room. Yep, those walls are different colors. ;-) She picked it out and the opposing walls are green and lavendar.

House as it looks as of this morning. Today they put drywall in and dug the trench for the electrical service line so lots of progress happening now!

Front door going in...

It was a great day for flying a kite...

Love that cream color...

Siding going up!

I'm attempting to figure out how our new kitchen needs to be arranged and select a range. This is so much more overwhelming than I had imagined! I'm getting a bit too scrupulous about picking this range out, too. Decisions, decisions....

Windows!

So here's how the house is today, March 5th. Should we put the planned rails on it or just posts without railings? Let me know what you think!!!

It's really looking like a home now!
March 1, 2006

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating! I have lots of pictures of this past week's progress to share. Lent has begun and I just love this time of year!
These pictures were taken Feb. 27.