tile to laminate: our first big house project

On Saturday we accomplished our first big makeover on our home. Everything else we've done, like peel wall paper and paint has been fairly low-key in comparison. On Saturday Ben and 3 other guys tore up our tile flooring in the dining room + kitchen to replace it with laminate wood flooring to match the rest of our house. We've been wanting to do this since we bought the place 18 months ago.

Reasons we hated the tile:

• First, it was just plain ugly. 
• It was super unforgiving when it came to dropping dishes or little ones falling.
• It was installed incorrectly (which made removal easier) so it had many cracks.
• Grout is disgusting and annoying to clean. 
• It broke up the main living space of our already small home, making it look smaller.
• It was cold and uninviting.
• I could think of a thousand other reasons...

Needless to say I was a bit jealous that I didn't get to take a crack at it with a hammer along with the guys. Ben said they all had a lot of fun with the demolition. Malakai and I went to my parents' place to hang out for the day to stay out of the way and to avoid inhaling tile + saw dust. 

Thankfully it was also easy to get up, it only took an hour. Apparently the tile was heavily glued to the previous linoleum floor so it all came up together to reveal the subfloor.

Then came work on the underlayment and laminate flooring. 

{my husband hard at work}

The biggest reason this project has taken so long to get to (besides time + money) was finding the right floor to match the existing laminate that we have in the rest of our house. We found something REALLY close right away but I was determined to exhaust all our options for a perfect match before settling. We went back to the original match and it turned out great. 

While finishing up the trim Ben's dad and brother also replaced the door from the dining room to the garage. This happened to be our Christmas present from his parents last year, but we had to redo the flooring before it could work. Neither of these pictures show that, but it looks great!

{the finished product!}

After being out of the house since 7:30 that morning and only a 45 minute nap for Malakai after driving him to sleep, I got to come home at about 6pm and see the finished product. It was like walking into someone else's home. Really it was such a funny feeling to leave with the house fairly in tact and come back with it looking completely different. What a blessing to not have to worry about any of the construction and mess and just come home to something new and beautiful!

Here's a direct comparison. The angles of the photos aren't a perfect match, but you get the idea.

Thank you so much to my father-in-law, brother-in-law David, and our friends Brad and Jacob (and their wives) for giving up a significant portion of your Saturday to work on our house and make it more of a home for us as we prepare to welcome little brother! 

little brother's baby shower

My mom, mother-in-law, and good friend Jamie put together a fantastic baby shower for little brother. (as a sidenote: "little brother" is just a nickname until his name reveal on his birth-day. It's not something we plan on calling him on a regular basis once he's born). I know some people are reluctant to have a baby shower once they've had their first baby but we all believe in celebrating every child. This doesn't mean that gifts were expected, but they did come. We were so blessed by the generosity of family + friends!

We were also blessed to be able to use the cafe at our church for the event. It was such a nice atmosphere and the large kitchen came in handy. The "theme" was a rainy day "shower" theme based on some inspiration I found through a minor obsession, pinterest. I actually designed the invites, signs, and stickers for the cups. I also made clouds with raindrops. I just love throwing parties so much I couldn't resist helping with my own when it came to the creative + crafty stuff. Plus I was planning on making the clouds anyway for our playroom.

My lovely hostesses made the cake, fruit trays, drinks, and brought banners and put everything together. It was such a nice little event.

{the food + drink set up}

 




















Guests snacked and mingled for a bit as others arrived. My favorite part about parties like this is that it brings close friends + family together into one place at the same time. Sadly, because of summer schedules not everyone was able to make it this time. Due to 5 immediate family birthdays, school, and other conflicts we couldn't have the shower in September so we had to hurry up and find a date that worked for us in August before time ran out!



This is my mom with Justice, my friend Jamie's son and Delia, my cousin Angela's daughter. These two cuties are just a week apart. You may remember how we were eagerly anticipating quite a few babies all in the month of February earlier this year, here's two of them!

After a bit everyone gathered round and I opened gifts. I was so surprised by the great gifts that everyone brought. I anticipated smaller, more conservative gifts with a second child but I have some generous friends + family! It was such a blessing as we still have a need for quite a few things. We borrowed a lot with Kai and there were some things we just did without that we'd like to have.

We got some great clothing for little brother, a toy storage shelf for the boys' playroom, plenty of baby toiletries, a quilt from Ben's mom(which is still in the process, I'll post a photo when it's done) a co-sleeper from my parents and too many other great things to list them all.

{with my besties!}

{my sister + sister-in-law}

{my mom + mother-in-law}

Thank you Mom, Debbie, Jamie, Amanda, + Kristi for putting together a great baby shower as we prepare to welcome another sweet boy into our lives.

Thanks to all of you who came and showered us with love + gifts! Thanks to those who couldn't make it and sent us gifts or have gifts for us anyway! We feel so loved.

A Gift + A Hope: Giveaway Winner, Fundraiser Totals, + Updates

First, to all involved...

{thank you}

Our little family has been so blessed by the generosity of family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers near + far. As this little project of mine began to blossom I was floored by the response at each interval. First the amazing sponsors who donated from their shops, many of their items handmade. Please be sure to visit them. Then the 26+ who shared about our fundraiser through twitter, facebook, blog posts and other social media. Many more shared and did not take part in the giveaway portion. Last, to the 12 donors who contributed generously of their own hard earned money to help our family in a time of need. We rejoiced at each donation and have seen God's provision come forth through your giving.

Of the free entries and donations combined there were 132 total entries, and today I announce the one winner. I hope those of you who do not get the fantastic prize aren't disappointed, but are blessed to have been a blessing. Each of your entries received a number based on the order your comment or donation was received. The winner was chosen by plugging the numbers in at random.org just like any of my other giveaways so as to make things fair.

The winner of my biggest giveaway yet will receive items from the 11 sponsors. A total of over $300 in prizes! Without further delay, congratulations to...

Britt!

I will email you directly. Please respond in 48 hours to claim the prize package. 

Now, on to the fundraiser updates. The final total of financial contributions towards Malakai's Surgery fund is...

We continue to be overwhelmed by this number. Partly because of it's generous size but also because of it's meaning. You see, beyond this fundraiser there is a God at work who put the little details into place to provide for our family. I knew that before and I know it even more now because of how these details revealed themselves. 

Here's a little history. Back in April, before I launched this fundraiser and before Kai even had his surgery I applied for a financial assistance program through the hospital where his procedure would take place. As I mentioned in the original post, our insurance has an extremely high deductible that we'd have to meet to even get partial coverage, leaving us on our own to cover the expense of his surgery, just 5 short months before adding another little boy to our household. You can see how the dollar signs begin to add up. The assistance program I applied for was very detailed and lengthy, but I was willing to put in the work if there was even a slight chance we could receive some help. Another helpful part about applying was that while our application was under review, all our bills would be on hold with no penalties. At the very least this would allow us time to save + raise money before our first payment would be due.

On Monday we received a letter about our financial assistance application. As Ben + I opened the letter I   lifted up a prayer in my head for God's will to take place. We both skimmed over the details silently and then my eyes came across "100%" and I clasped my hand over my mouth and gasped as I pointed it out to Ben. We weren't sure exactly what that meant, but we knew it would be significant. Yesterday I called the hospital for details and found out that anything that was done by professionals in the group that we applied for assistance through would be covered completely. I made about 6 more phone calls that morning to find out what was covered and what wasn't.

After 90 minutes on the phone and mounds of notes + paperwork spread out before me I had learned that all but 2 of our bills would be covered. With the surgery there were 6 different bills between the visits before + after his procedure, the surgery itself including the hospital, surgeon, anesthesia... Before any coverage the bills would amount to nearly $10,000. After assistance kicked in we are left with an amount almost identical to the funds raised here by all of you.

To us, this is evidence of our God at work. While we want to give all of you credit for your contributions and we are so thankful for each and every one of you, we give the glory to God for bringing this diverse community together and meeting a need that seemed out of reach. 

Please accept our humble gratitude and be blessed to have taken part in something truly amazing. This is also why we are no longer accepting donations. I had mentioned keeping the Deposit a Gift page open as well as adding a donate button here through paypal, but with everything covered we are no longer in need!

photo friday: snoozin' ((and a thank you))

Here's my boy + his "bwawdie" down for his nap at this very moment. He's so sweet + peaceful when he sleeps. He sometimes talks (just like his daddy), but whenever he's sleeping so still + quiet I can't help but watch for a little while (and try to snap a picture without waking him). 

Thank you to all of you that are praying and recruiting others to pray. I KNOW that Malakai is going to get through this and so are his mama + daddy, but it's just a heavy weight on my heart whenever I think about it. It doesn't help that I'm extra emo + constantly sick due to some very strong pregnancy hormones. So I'm doing my best to distract myself with other things and take joy in all our little moments. 

All the encouraging words and whispered prayers are such a blessing over us. I know in the grand scheme of things that this is a very very small bump in the road and that it'll be behind us soon. It could be much worse, others have it much much worse, so I don't want to whine too much around here. Despite that, thank you for reading and understanding where I'm coming from. It helps to be heard. 

We have a much needed weekend ahead with very little planned. 

Happy Weekend!