As our (extended) family has grown, so has our collection of folding tables & chairs. They come in super handy when we’re hosting a big group for the holidays, but we’ve never had a great place to keep them all the rest of the time. For years, we stored them all in a bump out…

I feel like winter is closing in on us fast. It’s already snowed and we have another couple inches forecasted for Halloween tomorrow. Crazy! I had a long list of projects I was hoping to get a start on in the yard this fall, but it looks like they will need to wait for next…

For the past few Halloweens, Haley has been working her way through all of the Disney princesses as Halloween costumes. She’s been Belle, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty – and has dress up dresses for most of the rest in her closet whether or not she’s worn them on Halloween. So, this year, I was pretty…

Invariably, when we update something in our house, something else (that we thought looked fine before) stands out as not looking as nice/fresh/updated as we had previously thought. Why is that?!? When we added on to the front of our house, the new entry way felt so nice – and the adjacent wallpapered foyer almost…

I think we can finally call it – summer is over. Around here (northern Illinois), fall has already had a couple of false starts this year, but this time it looks like it’s here to stay. So, it must finally be time to close our swimming pool for the season. Closing our pool isn’t difficult,…

Over the last year or two, Haley has become a real “Lego Maniac.” She has always loved playing with building toys – and Lego is no exception. She especially loves the “girl Legos” – the Disney Princess & Friends sets are favorites. She has so much fun building the sets, spends hours playing with them,…

Our formal living room has been a work in progress since we moved in to our house. At the time we moved in, the (slightly pink) paint color in this room was one of the least objectionable wall treatments in our house. It was (at least) a fairly neutral color in comparison to the various…

I feel like window treatments have been an ongoing project since we’ve moved into this house. We started out hanging shades only where we needed them for privacy – and, now, we’ve been adding them in other spaces too to help with temperature control. Most recently, we added shades on the little side porch off…

When we were back-to-school shopping a couple months ago, Haley picked out a pretty nice insulated lunch box for $10 at Walmart. I’d been thinking about ordering her one from Pottery Barn Kids, but had sticker shock when I went to pick one out. (I do love their stuff – but, man, they can get…

For Haley’s 7th birthday, we celebrated with a Lego Friends themed family party. We really didn’t do a whole lot in the way of special food or decorating, but we did make this fun Lego Friends Happy Birthday Banner and a homemade Lego Friends birthday cake. Haley’s request for her cake was to have a…

Our PVC Basement Flooring

Our 100+ year old basement will probably never be true finished living space, but earlier this year, we decided it was time to fix it up a bit. Our goal was to clean out anything we weren’t going to use again (primarily old construction materials), freshen up the surfaces, and – most importantly – have…

Haley’s birthday was earlier this month – she turned 7 this year. I’m not sure where the time has gone! We had a low key family party at our house to celebrate. She picked a Lego Friends theme this year. We kept it super simple (definitely not a Pinterest-worthy event), but I wanted to share…

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