Much needed update

Ok, I know it's been way to long since I've updated pictures for everyone, so now that we have the seemingly never ending issues with our internet and computer worked out, I will post the last few pics that I took when we moved in.

Here is what the kitchen looked like on moving day. Luckily, we moved most of the kitchen stuff a couple of days before, so this was just the last bit of it. Notice that the fridge is right next to the table, it didnt' get moved until after we moved in. I guess it's all about priorities.

Here is the start of the family room. Got the TV all hooked up even before we moved in...it's all about priorities.

Those are all the picture from moving in, as we continue working on the house, I will post the progress. As of now, we are settled, but there is still plenty of work to be done. Ahh the joys of home ownership.

Just a little side note.....Happy Father's day to my father-in-law...consider this update your father's day present from us!! Love you!! =)

I'm finally up and running!!

Hello to all those who have missed me!! After terrible time of trying to get our internet hooked up and running, and the our computer taking a dump on us, we are back and running on the internet. So hang with me a little bit longer, I will get some much needed pictures uploaded this weekend. Just wanted to check and and say hi, and to let you know that I am back and ready to post some pictures. =)

Update on our home

I know that it's been two weeks since my last update, but last week was so busy that I couldn't seem to find the time to post the pictures that I took last weekend. So here they are. Last weekend we prepped the floors for the stain, stained them and got ready to start to coat them with poly urethane. Sounds easier than it was trust me. Here is what we had to show for it.

All prepped and ready for stain.

All stained and just waiting for the poly.

Mike after staining most of the house. Notice how his hand looks like it belongs to a Mexican?? Got to love what staining does to your body when it's left on too long.

Floor is FINALLY finished. It was a VERY long process, but looking at it now, it was really worth it. The floors look amazing!!

This is what Mike spent most of today on....trim. Our hope is to start trimming the house out this weekend, and finish it Friday, so maybe, just maybe we can start to move stuff in next weekend. But there is still another bundle of trim that needs to be painted, and the crown molding needs to painted as well, so we will see.

This funny looking things are the corner pieces for the crown molding that will go in the kitchen. They needed a coat of primer before they got painted, that way we won't have to paint them too much.

This is the final thing we did today. Mike changed out the kitchen light for this one that we found on clearance, which makes it that much better. It was totally amazing how just changing a simple thing, such as a light totally changes the profile of the room. It's finally starting to look like a home.

Another hard weekend

This weekend was another busy weekend in regards to the house. We had two main goals this weekend, one to finish painting the upstairs, and two to start laying the hard wood floors.


Workshop is all set up, so we're ready to go. To bad it will have to be cleaned once we're done, since it's our room. But that is what happens when it's raining outside.


All three guys hard at work. It's like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle.


This is the progress that we had made by mid morning on Saturday. We were just getting started, so we were still trying to figure out our rhythm.

Progress as of mid day Saturday.

This is where we stopped Saturday evening. We almost got the entire sitting room done.

The completed hallway.

We finally got all the painting done in the entry way, so I removed the back plastic from around the rails and balusters. We had the plastic covering them to help keep the dust that collected on them to a minimum. But now we can have them exposed.

A picture from the kitchen of the hard wood floors, the color on the walls, and the open rails and balusters.




We did get both bedrooms done this weekend. So all that we have left to knock out this week is our bedroom and a couple closets. This weekend was a very busy weekend, and everyone involved worked very hard to make everything run as smoothly as possible. This house is finally starting to look like a home.

What a difference a coat of paint makes

This weekend was another busy weekend at the house. My father-in-law has been in town for almost 2 weeks, and he has helped out with the painting. Ok, who am I kidding, he has done the majority of the painting. Painting in general is not a small task, but when you are painting the entire house, it's a HUGE task. We did have a bit of a hiccup with the paint, so lets just say that we all will be happy when it's all finished.


This is what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house. After this week, this is what it looks like now....


Sorry I didn't get the same picture of it, but you get the jist of it. The blue goes all the way around the kitchen behind the appliances and to the ceiling. The color combination turned out better than we thought it would.

Here's the other side of the kitchen. Notice the stack of hard wood that is sitting in it?? That project will hopefully start sometime this week.




This was the upstairs sitting room when we bought the house. After some love and a little bit of color, this is what it looks like now...

Amazing what a little color will do to lighten up an area isn't it? This color is really bright, but it offsets the two kitchen colors and the entry way color very nicely. Speaking of entry way...


Remember this awful looking entry way?? Well you should see it now....


This is what it looks like after one coat of paint. We still need to put on the second coat. Remember that paint hiccup I mentioned earlier...well that is pretty much what we have been dealing with through out this entire process. Oh well, what's one going to do about it???

See how nicely the colors set each other off. Like my mom always said, it's amazing what a new coat of paint can do for a room. Looks totally different doesn't it???

Of course we couldn't forget about the bathrooms that were upstairs. This is the secondary bathroom. For those of you who have been following all this progress, you will remember that we couldn't see to get this toilet to stop leaking. Well as of today, I have good news. It is FINALLY fixed!! I was afraid that we were going to have to buy a whole new toilet, especially since I had head the rumblings of taking it out back and blowing it up a few times. But this is what it looked like originally. Here's the new and updated look....


I do believe that trading the pinky color for this purple was the right thing to do.

Here's the master bathroom, before we signed the deed for the house....

Here is what it looks like today. We decided that since our room was so dark, it would be a good idea to go with a lighter color for the bathroom. I know gray can be dark, but it sets off the green very nicely.

So this has been a very busy week and weekend. We owe most of the progress to family and friends that have been so generous with their time to come out and lend a hand where ever they were needed. It's because of them that we have made as much progress as we have. Life is good and we are blessed. So to all of those who have helped, we say thank you. If it weren't for you, not all of this would be done.

We have color!!!

So this weekend was all about color. We finally got things together and started to get some colors on the wall. We at first we started with the primer, not that it's alot of color, but it's a start...


Now painting an entire house is no small task. We were fortunate enough to have some professional help come to assist us. Of course, he is all business and is very task oriented. He keeps mumbling something about his union, but I'm not entire sure what that is all about.

Here is hard at work. He's got one room done at this point, and only 7 more till he's finished.

We had a tremendous amount of help today. It's times like this that we really feel the love of our family and friends. It was because of their help in putting in a long work day, that we got everything done that we did today.







What a great weekend it was. As you can see we made some huge progress in making this house our home. It's amazing what a little coat of paint, and some color can do for a house.

On Friday while the weather was nice, I finished cleaning up the back yard, so we could put some grass seed down.

Now it looks like a yard instead of one huge mess. The ivy still has to be dealt with, but that will all come in time.

Yard waste anybody??

One of the biggest concerns was the trees in the back yard. They were so covered with ivy when we bought the house, that we weren't sure they were going to make it this spring, even if we did get all the ivy off of them.

Yea!! We have buds on our trees!! This makes me so happy. We really wanted this trees to make it through this remodel process. That way our backyard can be enjoyed to it's fullest!

All in all we had another great weekend, and even though we worked hard, at times we were goofing off just as hard. We had to follow our professional's example that he set for us.


It was a great weekend filled with hard work, fun, family and friends. Man life is good. We are sooo blessed!!