New State

We visited Connecticut this past week in our house search.  I hope to also visit Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine while we live there for 3 years.

Take Pictures Of The Whole House, As If For A Magazine Cover (Before & Afters)

Well the purpose of this task was to clean out and make our house look beautiful.  Since we are going to be moving, the best we can do is clear out and stage it.  The "after" pics are what our realtor took.  Since this project  will be finished before we move back, this is the best this house is going to get

Entry Before

Living Room Before

Living Room Staged

We moved the two armchairs, and wine bar to storage...The train table is not yet gone, but is going to be sold.

LR 2 Before

Dining Room Before

Dining Room Staged

The barstools were moved to storage and the room is no longer used as storage!

Kitchen Before

Kitchen Staged

I really worked hard to clear off the counters...this room is hard to keep clean.

Kit2 Before

FR Before

FR 2 Before

FR staged

We donated and stored a bunch of the kids toys.

Coat Closet Before

Nursery Before

Nursery (Caitlyn's Big Girl Room) Staged

In between the before pictures and now, Caitlyn got a big girl room, so there is not much that remains, aside from the walls and the lamp!

Nursery 2 Before

Josh Bed Before

Josh Staged

We stored a bunch of the miscellaneous things from Josh's room.

Josh 2 Before

Josh 3 before

Hall Bath Before

Hall Bath Staged

Just hid most of the kid stuff!

Guest Room Before

Guest Room Staged

Put two big dressers in storage and got rid of the kid stuff to either my sister's house, a friend, or donated it.

Guest 2 Before

Guest Closet before

Guest Closet Staged

The luggage went in to storage and the board games are in that box!

Guest Bath Before

Guest Bath Staged

Just picked up.

Office Before

Office 2 before

This room was not ready for the pictures, but I am still working on it!

Master 1 before

Master Bedroom Staged

some furniture went in to storage and we changed the bedding; since I never even got around to pricing the hugeness of this room to be painted, I had to embrace the purple, so the bedding was neutralized and the windows in the bathroom really make this room much brighter!

Master 2 before

Master closet before

Master Closet Staged

We edited the amount of thing on the shelves

master 3 before

master bath 1 before

master bath 2 before

Master bath staged

Opening the blinds and moving the towel bar makes a big difference

 We didn't make any changes to the house on the outside, but it's so beautiful in this pictures. Spring is here!

 I am going to miss dinners on this deck

 We finally got gazebo furniture last summer, and now we are moving away and won't be able to enjoy it.

though the kids do enjoy the playset, it's a shame they only had one summer with it.

I hope the people that rent this house, love it as much as we do and take good care of it.  I know we'll do our best to take care of the house we end up renting.

Banana Bread/Muffins

Ingredients:
Dry:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp Baking Powder

Wet:
1/2 c. margarine, softened
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Brown sugar
2 eggs

Other:
2 ripe bananas
Optional: walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Spray bread pan/tin with non-stick Spray
3. combine dry ingredients.  Set Aside
4. In a mixer, cream sugars and margarine
5. Add Eggs one at a time
6. add bananas (and walnuts if you like those)
7. Add dry ingredients in batches, mixing to combine
8. Pour in to cake pan or muffin tin
9. bake for 75 minutes for cake.

Can be doubled and baked in a 9x13 pan for the same amount of time.

DSLR CAMERA

we bought a new camera.  Jared had received quite a few gift certificates from work for projects he has done.  A friend of mine had made some recommendations.  I saw a daily deal at best buy, so we pulled the trigger and bought it.  Chalked the rest of the cost up to Jared's birthday, and it was ours!  it really does take nice pictures of the kids, now to just upload the pics!  And I'll look for a groupon for classes to take to practice using it.  Maybe this digital photography through the year book will be a good place to start.

Mashed (Sweet) Potatoes

This would work well for either regular potatoes, or sweet potatoes.

1. Placed washed potatoes in pot, cover with water.
2. Boil for 10 minutes for each potato.  2 potatoes= 20 minutes, 4 potatoes = 40 minutes
3. Drain.
4. Place potatoes in large food processor.
5. Blend until smooth. 
6. Add butter and milk, garlic salt to taste for potatoes.
7. Add butter and brown sugar for sweet pototoes.
8. Serve immediately, they get cold quickly.

I don't peel the potatoes...there's some good nutrients in there!

Bike trailer

I found a bike trailer on Craigslist.  If this snow ever melts, we'll go for a ride.

Scan Photos to Digital

I had found a Groupon for this company.  Scan Photos to Digital.  I only had about 30 pictures to scan, but it was super easy.  Drop off and a few days later it was ready for pick up.