The old is new again and the new is REALLY new!

Remember how the living room used to look? (sorry this pic is from when we just moved in)

 

Well the plaid furniture was moved downstairs. Here's the story:

The love seat was small enough to go downstairs through the kitchen. The couch was another story. It had to miraculously fit through the front door, be carried around the house via the driveway and then into the back door. However, it didn't fit with the door on, so that had to be removed, it also didn't fit down the stairs with the railing on so that had to be removed too!

Once those were out, it took about 7 minutes to get it through the door and down the stairs.

The cat was a great supervisor, also a great get-in-the-way-er.

 But once the furniture was in, it looked great!

In the upstairs, we now have NEW furniture!!

This is the love seat. Complete with cup holders, cubby, and recliners!

 

And here is the couch! I think it's from the future. It has recliners on both sides, a drawer in the middle that has a spot for freezer packs and will hold 4 beverage cans of your choice. It has a flip down table with cup holders and buttons for massagers on both sides, and a flip up reading light for each side too!

Now, I realize that our blog is called "Kruschel Thoughts" I forgot the last few times to add a thought!

So tonight, I add one:  Why are they called 'stands' when they're made for sitting?

Before and After

Before

After

 

 

Before

 

After

Now we wait for carpet!

The painting is all done except for a few minor touch-ups.

The bench has new hardware on it and looks much cleaner. We are waiting for the fabric we chose to come back from a friend who is sewing it together for us so we can attach it to the cushion and have a sitable bench again.

The new door is painted and up.

AND we found our new bar! A beautiful buffet table from an antique store in South Haven. It arrived Friday evening at the store. We came Saturday morning and it was ours!

I even LOVE the hardware on it!

Carpet comes tomorrow! Pictures will follow once it's completely installed!

still still working...

 

The walls in the back of the room have been primed and painted with their first coat of paint.

Kind of a tan color.

The trim will all be white.

The front half of the room... the walls have been primed and the first coat of blue applied to the one wall.

The wall on the right is just primed. Not painted yet.

Thank you Jason for removing all of those little mirrors and the sticky things under them.

He primed these walls too... 

The one on the right will also be blue. The wall on the left will be tan.

More improvements to come!

still working...

Here's the progress in the basement. All this was done today.

Where did the bar go?

There it is!

1 wall primed. Much more to go.

They call it "Labor Day Weekend" for a reason...

... it means WORK.

We've decided our basement needs help and I know I'm tired of looking at the very "stylish" 70's everything.
Here's a picture so you can remember what our basement currently looks like.

Goodbye bar

Goodbye green cushion

Eventually we will say farewell to the green carpet.

Goodbye shelves and mirrors

Goodbye shelves and ugly door.

It's been a while.

I thought I'd better post again since I haven't blogged in almost a month. 

Since the last post we've traveled to Nebraska to see the Kruschels and to Minnesota to see the Kruschels, the Schewes, and the New Mr. & Mrs. Rigge. Fun was had at both places and it was great to see family and friends and how big the nieces and nephews have gotten!

While we were in Minnesota, Mom and Dad K were generous enough to share some of their garden with us! THANK YOU! 

Here's the work in progress:

It was decided that we should do our flower garden in this section of yard due to the sunlight and lack of neighbor's vines. Here's hubby hard at work removing the grass. We transplanted the grass here:

Decided here to not plant anything! This way we can somewhat control the pesky vines from the neighbors yard. Yes the hibiscus will be moved soon.

This is where the flower garden will be, this is NOT where the plants will be located. We are hoping to make this a bit bigger also.

Also a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Mom and Dad U for the help chopping down crap in our yard. 

Here's the beginning to the pile of crap chopped down. On a side note, look at the bottom left corner of the picture, that is the strange orange and purple mystery item found in our back yard. After long deliberation it was determined to be a root and thus removed from the premise. 

Here's the boys chopping down a maple tree that was growing through the fence.

And what's mom doing during all of this hard chopping?

Playing with her Ipod of course!

Before we go, here's a look at some of our summer blooms!

 snapdragons 

lilies

blue hydrangeas

pink hydrangeas

Tonight I will leave you with this thought: 

Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one?

Bricks, Chips, Burgers, and Basketball

More landscaping was on the agenda for this weekend.

We pulled LOTS of weeds, put down a layer of weed barrier, lined it with bricks, and filled it with cedar chips.

It smells awesome! 

Some beautiful blanket flowers

What kind of lily is this? 

We did not plan it but we sure enjoy it!

And a little basketball action to start the summer.

All this while grilling stuffed burgers! YUM!

 And I leave you with this...

How can someone "draw a blank"?

Blooms!

This nice warm weather has brought blooms to our yard. 

Check it out!

The white peonies are blooming!

The Red Peonies are almost there!

And 2 of the different kinds of Blanket Flower.

The others are still trying.

Thought to ponder: Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.