If you think you are seeing a snapshot from the latest episode of "Hoarders", you are not.  This is my dining room.

Here is a picture of the mountain of junk behind my kitchen island.
And here is another view of the mound of junk placed behind my kitchen island.

This project began Monday afternoon.  Matt and I decided to save some money and remove the furniture and old carpet from the bedrooms ourselves.  It was a massive undertaking, but it was worth it.  When we moved into this house five years ago, we placed carpet remnants in each of the bedrooms.  They were not tacked down and looked awful.  But now we have beautiful carpet in each of the bedrooms and the boys even got some cool new bedding.  With the completion of Josie's new bedroom, it feels like we've finally made this house a home.  There are only two major items left on the home project list- new roof and the completion of the extra bathroom.  I'm not going to push too hard at getting these projects done during summer break because Matt might just decide to strangle me. He has applied for an Assistant Principal job at two elementary schools in town.  He will know within the next two weeks if he got one of the jobs.  If Matt does get the job, then he will be working the entire summer, and all home projects will be put on hold. Summer break began 5 days ago, and already the pantry looks bare. What I'm not paying in child care this summer, I'll be spending on snacks and drinks.  I assume the kids are just bored, but with this heat and the gigantic blood-sucking mosquitoes, I can't bear to go outside for more than 10 minutes at a time, and really, neither can they. Despite the unbearable heat and mammoth mosquitoes, I am on cloud nine; 9 weeks of no alarm clocks, no homework, no grading papers, no packing lunches, no whiny kids except for my own.  Speaking of the kids, they are falling into the summer routine more quickly than expected- staying up late, sleeping in, watching cartoons all day.  If you stopped by around noon, it's likely you would find us all still in PJ's. We are leaving for Ellijay, GA in two days for our official summer vacation.  I will post some pictures while we are there.  The kids were such great travelers when we went to the mountains over Christmas break.  I'm hoping for the same luck this time.
Bedroom After Photos: