Weekend bathroom Revival and Meeting Tank!

When we purchased our house in July we knew we had a big road ahead of us.  Every single room needed to be re-painted.  The house was dirty and smelled not so good so everything needed a fresh coat and a good cleaning.  We got right to work on the kid's rooms and our main living areas, but we never touched the bathroom upstairs.  I had a vision for the bathroom when we bought the house and already had purchased the shower curtain and the rug.  We are hosting almost 40 people at our house for Thanksgiving this year and I knew both bathrooms would need to be occupied.  So last minute we decided to crank out the bathroom.  We have a very dear friend from church that is an excellent painter and such a nice guy....so I begged asked him if he would be interested in "helping" me paint.  Well, me helping turned in to him doing most of the work.  The bathroom was a sherbet orangeish peachy color with a wallpaper boarder with bird houses on it.  I forgot to grab a picture before the boarder came down.  This is the main bathroom all 9 of us use.  It is the only bathroom upstairs where we all sleep and get ready.  It isn't the most roomy situation, but we make it work!  Oh and this picture was taken after the window was painted white.  It was a dark brown color...like the trim work and the vanity.  Here are the before shots.......

 And.....the updated bathroom....Wilke style!  The shower curtain, rug, and towels are from Target.  I have a thing for stripes lately.  Can you tell?  It made everything so much easier by going off the shower curtain for color options.  I actually sent Dan and my nephew Christian to the paint store to pick out the colors.  I gave them the general color scheme and I think they picked out the perfect colors!

 Molly had a GREAT idea of making matching pom pom garland to hang in the bathroom.  I originally wanted to make a banner of some sort, but I am so in LOVE with the pom pom garland!  I took the shower curtain to Michaels, used my 25% off coupon and got myself some sale yarn in the colors of the shower curtain.  Easy Peasy!  And...we are making pom pom garland at the next craft session which there are still openings for!  How can you not want to make these happy things?!?!?

 The vanity needed a good paint job...the brown had to go!  Molly painted the vanity itself and Christian painted the doors and drawers.  I really have great helpers!  I think the teal vanity is my favorite part.  So bright and cheery!  That is what we accomplished this past week.  Thank you so very much, Brian Scharpf and Gracie, for taking this on and helping us! We would still be removing wallpaper if it wasn't for your willingness to help us get it done!  (oh and if you guys ever need to remove wall paper....I used a bucket of hot water and a bunch of vinegar dumped in it.  I rubbed it on with a washcloth and then let it soak for a few minutes.  It peeled right off with only minimal scrapping! )

And for some more BIG news at the farm....... We have added to our family!  Let me explain...

Dan and I have been doing a lot of talk lately about Christmas.  We do this every year.  What should we get the kids?  What do they need?  How much money should/can we spend?  How many gifts should they get?  Well, to be honest....they don't really need anything.  We have more than enough toys and aside from a few necessity things they could each use, they don't need anything.  The few things they need probably wouldn't make very good Christmas gifts either.  Here you go guys...new undies for Christmas!  :)  Well, we have been tossing around the puppy idea for quite some time.  We would come and go.  Yes, we want a dog. No, we really don't want a dog.  We should get a dog!  Ummm...I don't think we could handle a dog.  Back and forth, up and down.  I had brought up the puppy idea again a month or so ago.  We were both so hesitant because we know what a commitment it is.  The kids have begged and asked and begged and pleaded for a dog for years.  The answer has always been no.  ( I won't tell you about the puppy we tried after I had Gavin...we had 5 kids under 5...Gavin was 4 months old and we just moved into our house...in the spring....with mud and dirt.  Ruffles lasted for about 2 weeks and then went to his perfect fit family home....but I won't tell you about that.)  So....I have always been a fan of small dogs that don't shed.  The teddy bear puppy has been one of my favorite breeds.  I know a few people that have them and just love them.  We were also looking into a yokie puppy as well and were decided between the two.

Ok, so get this.  A friend of mine had mentioned to me that she had a teddy bear puppy on reserve a few months ago.  She happened to come to one of my Fridays at the Farm classes and we got to talking about the puppies.  Long story short. The puppy she had put a deposit down on was ready to come home, but she wasn't going to be able to get the puppy because their plans had changed for their son.  She was going to loose her deposit on the puppy.  I obviously was on board with getting the dog...I mean, come on!  Dan and I talked about it and Dan was really hesitant about it.  He thought we were rushing in to getting a dog too soon.  He wanted to keep looking.  We were really wanting to give a puppy to the kids on Christmas morning which was proving to be impossible.  So we said no to Chrisit's puppy.

 Then after a week of thinking and talking and praying I called Christi back.  Dan and I had both said if the puppy was still available we would go ahead and do it and give it to the kids early.  Sooooo...

I would like to introduce you to "Tank" our new puppy.  To say he was a surprise would be an understatement.  Dan and I went to pick up our new puppy last Saturday.  Without going in to detail, we really feel like we more or less rescued him.  He came from a licensed breeder along with all his puppy shots and vet checks.  It was just not a good living situation there.  Anyways, Christi blessed us with the deposit and we had ourselves a brand new Teddy bear puppy!

We wanted to surprise the kids at the pet store and had a good plan all set in place and then it started to snow.  Too slippery on the roads and too many accidents.  So we brought the puppy home instead.  

 World...meet Tank.  Tank meet our crazy family!  Before you all ask where we came up with such an awesome and amazing name that totally fits our dog, I will direct your questions to Dan.  He was in charge of the name.  Bad idea made by me I can now see.

 Tank has been SO easy.  He is such a good puppy.  No barking.  Very few accidents.  He is getting a ton and a ton of love.  We don't think he was ever let outside so we had to cross that barrier the first couple of days.  He did a lot of shaking.  The kids are totally 100% in love with Tank.  And so am I.  I am not really a dog person per say, but Tank has found a soft spot in my heart.  So far he has been the perfect dog for our family.  He was the best early Christmas present ever!

If you are interested in signing up for the pom pom class you can click on the sign up button on the top right of the page. I also have lots of room left for our wreath class on December 2nd....See my post from November 19th for more details on that class!

I am off to take the Tank outside for a potty break.  I may or may not have just found a Tank accident on the floor!