Sorry for the Delay

I know that some of you check in on us daily. I sincerely apologize for the delay. Our home computer died, and with summer here, I am only working 3 days per week. YAY! During those 3 days at work, I have been really busy, so no time for blogging.

I do not have pictures to post at the moment but promise to post some as soon as I find the upload cable. We have been busy little bees since my last post, so I thought I would at least give you the low-down.

Memorial Day weekend-the kiddos spent the night divided up between Grammy's house & Barbara's house. Barb and Grammy took turns caring for them during the day so that Brandon and I could do some home renovating. Over the long weekend, we (mostly Brandon & Jerry) put down wood floors in the playroom, the boys' room, and Kynsie's room (used to be the office). I helped some with the floors, but mainly painted the hall, the boys' room, and Kynsie's new room. We do have lots of pictures of the project. It LOOKS great! We were exhausted! But I am so glad we did it. The cosmetic improvement is wonderful but the main reason we got rid of the carpet is because of all of the ickies that are in it like dust mites. Braylen's face would break out every time he laid down on the carpet. We also figure it contributes to his asthma. So thank you Tax Return, we got rid of the carpet. The paint was also only part cosmetic. We used NO-VOC & Super LOW VOC Paints from Benjamin Moore & Home Depot. Our goal was again to reduce the toxic pollution in the house. From Benjamin Moore
we used Aura paint. It is the super-low VOC. It has a slight smell but very slight. I like this paint because it covers pretty well and you can choose any color you want. The big trick with no-VOC paint is that many regular retailers offer it, but what they fail to tell you is that the dye that colors the paint is loaded with VOC, so the minute they color your paint, it's no longer low or no-VOC. Benjamin Moore offers a water-based coloring system that adds no VOC to the paint when it colors, so I really like that. They have another product that is NO-VOC called Natura, and I kind of wish I had gone with that, but the sales person said it doesn't wash very well and if someone colors on it with crayon, I would have to repaint the wall! At any rate, I am VERY pleased with the hall and Kynsie's room colors, but the price was a bit painful...$56 per gallon!

For the boys' room and the playroom (yet to be painted) I chose Home Depot's No-VOC paint called Freshaire. I would have used this for Kynsie's room but they don't have any purple, and that was the color I wanted for her room. I like the Freshaire alot because it has no odor at all. I literally put my face near the can opening and took a deep sniff--nothing! So, that was nice. I don't like that the low and no VOC paint don't cover as well, so plan on more than one coat, or a lot of touch ups. The Freshaire paint was less expensive, and it is truly no VOC. Home Depot uses a powder colorant so no VOC's are added during coloring. BUT--they have a pretty limited color selection--nothing really bright. So ,that is a down side. I promise to post pictures as soon as I can.

This past weekend, we participated in the neighborhood garage sale and moved a bunch of stuff out of our garage! YIPPEE! We didn't make a ton of money but we were jsut trying to move the stuff. The leftovers went to goodwill.

I think that's it for now. Pictures to come soon!