More Home Improvement Projects

Lately we have tackled a few more home improvement projects.  We might get them all completed by the time our term ends, haha.  One of my biggest concerns when we found this house was the floors.  They are concrete, but were not installed properly.  They have many cracks, and they mold terribly (not good for a crawling baby).  When we first moved in we had to mop every morning to clean the mold before we started our day.  It was not fun.  Since the weather has been hot lately this has helped, but we know that rainy season is just around the corner and something had to be done. 

I am not sure why it took us so long to get it done.  We checked on it last week, and then went back on Saturday to set it up.  We had a work trip out of town planned for this week but it got cancelled so that freed up some time to do it.  We asked them if they could come the first of this week.  Not only were they available, but they showed up at our house later that afternoon with all of these supplies-

I love quickness! haha They have been working hard and it is looking good.  The only bad part is our house is a MESS.  We are pretty much locked out all day and it is very difficult to take care of a child outdoors in this heat and try to keep him hydrated and shaded.  But, it's temporary and soon we will be back to enjoying our house again.

We are only putting tile in the living room and kitchen for now.  We might add it in Cruz's room later.  

I will post some after photos once it is finished and cleaned up.  I am excited and can not wait for this project to be complete.

We also recently installed an a/c unit in our bedroom.  We bought it back in December and have been waiting to see how long we could stand the heat before we put it in.  We have been told it is very expensive to run it.  We only use it at night and it has really helped us rest.  Cruz is now sleeping in his pack n play in our bedroom and he is sleeping much better also.  It has been heavenly!  They say the hottest months are April and May so hopefully soon it will cool back down enough for us to go back to sleeping just under a fan.  I am looking forward to those days.

Our Living Room- Before and After

Here are a few before and after photos of our living room-

It is hard to remember our house looking this way.  The new ceiling made a huge improvement! 

The living room area is a lot larger than these pictures show.  We love the large open space that we have.  I cleaned up for these photos, but this room is usually covered with toys.  It is a great place for Cruz to play.

  

This is a view from our front door looking out our backdoor.  You can see our outside bathroom and pila through the screen.

view from the kitchen

We also saved money by not buying or having an entertainment center built (even though I really wanted one).  Instead we used two more metal shelves that we crated from the States to hold our tv and things.  We do not have any cable or satellite service so we only use our tv to watch dvd's.  Some days I am glad we don't have it and some days it miss it terribly!

To see other posts of our house, before and after, click on the "Sayaxche house" label below.

Our Kitchen- Before and After

I cannot believe that I have overlooked posting the rest of our after pictures from our house in Sayaxche.  I lack the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and office.  I will do my best to get all of those posted soon.  I'll start today with our kitchen. 

This was the original view of the kitchen from the living room

this is the view now

We painted, had cabinets and drawers built, and added a ceiling.

the original counter area (and this was after we had cleaned it up a little)

this whole was in the corner of the countertop

We had a board cut and placed over it. 

That area now holds our coffee stuff and Cruz's sippy cups.

We decided not to have overhead cabinets built.  We only plan to be here a few years so it didn't seem like a wise investment.  Instead we put this metal shelf in the corner and it holds all of our food items.  It is not very pretty, but it is practical.

our table has a bench on the opposite side that we keep pushed up against the wall unless we have company

The kitchen also functions as our washroom.  It was the only place we had to put a washing maching, but it works well there.  For now we dry all of our clothes outside on the clothesline.

Now if it just wasn't too hot to cook I think I would spend a little more time in there, haha.  Turning the oven on when it's close to 100 degrees can be brutal!  Next house post will be the living room.

Cruz's Nursery

I hope that within the next few weeks I can finish posting before and after photos of our house.  We still have some decorating to do and some boxes to unpack, but have not had much motivation to do it.  It's like we are moved in now and things can wait.  Maybe we'll have this house like we want it before our term ends, haha.  Anyway, today I'll start with Cruz's nursery.  He was six months old before he got his own room and we were happy to finally get him unpacked and settled in.  Here is the view from the doorway-

Before we look around any further, I'll show you a few before photos- 

it doesn't look as bad in these photos as it did in person 

I can't believe now that we spent about two weeks "camping out" in here on camp cots while we worked in other parts of the house (we also "camped out" in our bedroom for a few days).  It's hard to remember the house as it originally was. 

We painted his room "glad yellow".  It is very bright and cheery- kind of like Cruz :-) 

another view from the doorway 

My friend Misty painted these pictures for him and they go really good over his bed.  You can read about us getting the pictures HERE.

Since it's too hot to use the quilt that goes with his bedding, we decided to buy a hanger and put it on the wall.  It looks cute there!

We were very happy to get his changing table out of the crate.  We use it everyday to change his diapers and get him dressed.  It is much easier than doing it on our bed or on the floor.  We are very glad we crated one here.

In one corner we have a shelf with his books on it and some baskets with a few toys.  

His bed

This dresser was made here in Guatemala. 

These photo holders were also painted by my friend Misty.  I need to get some pictures developed to go in them.

We bought these letters in Cozumel this time last year on our babymoon.  They had a booth set up selling them and we both thought they were cute.  They are actually small puzzles.  At the time we were not 100% sure we were naming him Cruz but decided to buy the letters anyway and so Cruz it was. 

We love monkey's!

A few of his many stuffed animals.  Most of these came from his MiMi. 

This is the Nosquito we bought recently for his room.  We turn it on late in the afternoon to hopefully kill any critters that are flying around.  It seems to work well.

We are thankful that the weather has been pleasant enough to still just sleep with a fan running at night.  In the next few weeks we will have to install a/c units in our bedroom windows for sleeping.  They say it's going to get pretty warm around these parts.   Also, you can see the sunflower curtain hanging (they are in every room).  I still need to visit a fabric store to buy some material for new curtains.  Maybe soon I can get that done.

Hope you enjoyed looking around his room.

Our Bedroom Before and After

 Here are a few before photos of our bedroom-

David had already caulked all of the holes in the walls and you can see from the photos just how many there were.

the walls were a peachy color with green trim around the bottom

we painted them pacer white

and put coffee brown around the bottom 

the fun part was setting up our new bedroom suite 

We first packed up all of our things back in the fall of 2006.  Our first term here was considered "short term"  so we were only allowed to bring a few suitcases each for the three years we were here.  Because of that we sold most all of our big things and boxed up the rest to put in storage.  Of all the things we sold and gave away the only thing that really made me cry was getting rid of our bedroom suite.  We had bought a cherry four poster bedroom suite when we got married and I LOVED it!  I knew it would be too big for any house we might possibly have in the future on the mission field so we really needed to sell it.  Our friends bought it from us and now use it in their home.  The few times I've seen it there still makes me very sad.  So when we were able to crate things for this term we had a lot of major purchases to make.  One of those was a new bedroom suite.  I had made up my mind that I wanted a sleigh bed but when we started looking I really liked this bed.  I thought it was simple and would go well here. 

More importantly than the bed were these pillow top mattresses (we also had to purchase).  OH MY are they comfortable! 

Getting to lay on this everynight has been the highlight of my past few days.

We hunted and hunted for new bedding while in the States last winter.  We never could both agree on anything and then on one of our many late night trips to the Super Wal-Mart we saw a large bin holding several comforter sets marked down to $30.00.  In this family it's all about a good deal.  The set includes the comforter, shams, bed skirt, and sheets.  That made the look of it way more appealing, lol.   We bought a few more matching sets of sheets and in the end saved a bundle. 

A few after photos-

I love this large window.  It takes up most of the wall.  It lets in a lot of natural light during the day.  We plan to hang new curtains as soon as we find some that match.  The owners had these sunflower curtains hanging in every room of the house.

Another thing I loved was getting to bring lots of "old" photos of us back.  Here are a few I have in the bedroom- 

Our wedding day- April 27, 1996

Our ten year anniversary cruise-  April 27, 2006

This was just a few months before we left for the mission field

We still need to add a few decorative touches and hang things on the wall but it's come together well.  After sleeping in there for two weeks on camp cots, we are VERY happy to have a nice, comfy place to rest in at night.