Floor Planner

Have you ever been to the website www.floorplanner.com ?

I found this site awhile back when Anthony and I were talking about how we wanted our shop/apartment to look when we started building on our property. I wasn't excited about the idea of drawing up a grid and cutting out little pictures of tables, stoves, chairs, and such (to scale), so I search around on the internet and found a free and easy to use floor planner that had all those things and much, much more. All I had to know was the dimensions of the apartment section of the shop, and off I went. I really got into it and spent about 4 hours playing around with layouts, where to have the bathroom and the stairs and all that. I finally came up with this for the downstairs of the apartment:




Anthony requested there be a T.V. room, and I really wanted a sitting place that was no where near a television, so we worked everything else around that. The kitchen is super tiny with limited storage space, but  if you look at that white space on the top left - that's the stairs going up from the back door. Underneath that is going to be all the pantry space I need. I could even forgo having a dishwasher to gain more cupboard space. No, seriously, I could. I've got more to say on the whole dishwasher subject at a later time.

On a whim, I put in a cute little chair, standing lamp, and small round table next to the front door. I like the idea of having a little space to just sit, or read, or write, or whatever. Most of the foot traffic is going to be coming in through the back door because the bathroom/mud area is right there. We'll have some "locker" spaces against the wall to the bathroom to put all the shoes, coats, umbrellas, etc. that need to find a place when people come in.

On the whole, I really like it. It's nice and cozy. I think we can be quite comfortable until the house is built. Then, we can use it as a guest house for when people want to stay a day or two. How fun :).

I'll probably do some rearranging to the upstairs layout before I'm completely satisfied with it. But, here's what it looks like right now:


The stairs come up into what will be the "school room". There's a craft table in the middle for all of our project times and we each have a desk to work at. There's plenty of space for storage cabinets, white boards, bulletin boards, and the like. It should be great.

If you're planning a room remodel, or are thinking about building a house, I would highly recommend using www.floorplanner.com to get your layout ideas down. It's very versatile and has a TON of items to put in your rooms, and it's FREE!

Wet Days

100 piece puzzle a great-uncle gave to the girls. Alexis had to hurry and do it right away :)

The last few days has been quite wet around here. The girls haven't had a chance to get out and ride their 4-wheelers at all. We've been mostly hanging out around the house reading books and watching shows. One of Alexis's favorite books right now is the Horse Diaries Series.


We accidentally started with book eight because we had seen it at the library and didn't realize there was a huge series of them. Even so, it was a really good book. We've now started at the beginning and we're picking up book 2 at the library tomorrow. We've since found out that there is a Dog Diaries series as well, which I'm sure we'll be tackling next.

As for Kaitlyn, she's been thrilled with her BOB books. We're working on set 1 right now. There are 18 books in this set.
These books are the BEST for getting the beginner reader going. Kaitlyn's been doing fantastic and the books crack her up. It's funny watching her read the words, look at the picture, and then understand what's going on, and then she laughs and laughs.

As for me, I'm doing my annual read of Stepping Heavenward.


I try to read this book once a year because it's so inspiring. There is so much that speaks to my heart and each time I bring away something new to help me become a better follower of Christ.  One of my favorite quotes from her is this:
You cannot prove to yourself that you love God by examining your feelings toward Him. They are indefinite and they fluctuate. But just as far as you obey Him, just so far, depend upon it; you love Him. It is not natural to us sinful, ungrateful beings to prefer His pleasure to our own or to follow His way instead of our own way, and nothing, nothing but love of Him can or does make us obedient to Him.
I highly encourage every woman to read it at least once. You won't be sorry.

Some Fun Pictures


The above is a little collage of Katie at the ocean. She had so much fun there playing with Alexis and our dog Suzie. Even though it was a really windy day, she giggled and giggled while chasing the surf until she got too cold and then we raced back to where the truck was. She warmed up in the soft sand and played seals and sharks with Alexis. It was a great time.


This picture is from today. Alexis went out on Summit Lake with Papa and caught herself eight fish with the largest being 14.5" long. She had such a great time. Papa said she did outstanding. Way to go Alexis!!!

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