Looking In My Front Door

This is the moment you've all been waiting for, a tour of my house. (I'd much rather be showing pics of the lights we took the kids to see, or cutting down our Christmas tree, but since I forgot the camera, you'll have to view these instead!)

In the beginning.

The front entry.

Welcome to my hallway, er, house.

With carpet and lovely brown linoleum.

Without carpet and linoleum.

Eww....put it back!

(Just be thankful you can't smell this picture. I still can.)

Suprisingly effective drywall demolishers.

The finish crew. Aren't they beauties?

The bare studs.

(Note the section of flooring that is missing?)
Since this was a load bearing wall (for the garage) we had to re-inforce the beams in the ceiling (attic) before we could proceed forward. And do a little re-wiring.

No studs at all!!

But, where did they go?

Ta-da!

We recycled them into a wall in the former hall to really create an entry to the house.

This is the back view.

This is the front view.

Note the subfloor is gone, too.

Drywalled, mudded and waiting for texture.

Hardibacker down on the floor.

OOoooh, pretty paint!

Pretty paint all around.

(This is after we kilzed the entire house.)

A new foyer with 16" tiles.

Shocking that it took us a long time to come up with this design.

Simple really is best.

Close up of the beautiful tile.

Almost finished, with grout and flooring.

Not suprisingly we still don't have the transition piece in place, so this is still what it looks like. Maybe I'll get it all finished by March.

So, there you have the first mini-transition-tour. Look for more starring the kitchen, the family room, and the bathroom, with minor roles going to the laundry closet, hallways and bedrooms.

Now, you must remember, we only had minimal tiling and painting experience before this project (I'm talking the entire house). Most of the things we did here were new skills that we acquired or faked. Some things we hired out, due to time/safety constraints, but alot of things we tried on our own. Definetly a learning curve.

I'm BACK!

Yes, I know. This is the moment you've been waiting months for. So have I. FINALLY we got internet hooked up at our new house. Only three months, four days, six hours and 22 minutes. But who's counting, eh?

During that time we have started school, missed the first birthday of H, didn't miss the first steps, entertained Grandma, pulled of the Children's Primary Program at church, celebrated dad's birthday (by dad I mean S), gotten sick, traveled to see Grandma & Grandpa in Nauvoo, gotten sick (again, or still?), trick-or-treated, been called as Primary Pres., raked leaves, eaten turkey, raked more leaves, lost first and second teeth and swept the floor--alot. I think S has been to vegas for a couple business trips (hey, gotta fund the new digs somehow!). The kids are taking swimming lessons at the Y and A is in dance (again). I also managed to get over 1,000 pictures off of my camera (backlogged since March), and attempted to consume an entire refridgerator worth of food single-handedly as part of a new exercise and eating program. (Didn't work--had to throw the green stuff out. Funny, since most of it was green to start, teeheehee.) This year has been insane for our family. I'm hoping to post some house pics before 2010. I'll try to get the progression of a room. It's seriously amazing...and there are some things still left to finish. We've started not noticing them (baseboards, door trim, floor trim, dangling bulbs in nak--exposed wires on the ceiling, that one fritzing light in the kitchen, blurry paint edges, wiggly doorknobs, upside down doorknobs...the cementboard hearth...)

Isn't homeownership grand?

Now, if I could just find some horizontal surfaces besides cardboard boxes, I might be able to get those Christmas decorations out...

(seriously love it)

ps. did I mention a new hairstyle?

Cliffs of Insanity

I've decided that all things in life can somehow be related to "The Princess Bride". Ah, that classic tale by S. Morgenstern about true love, large beasties, sword fights...but I digress.

I have come to the Cliffs of Insanity.

We're moving on Saturday.

Have we finished the house? No.

Have we packed up this house? No.

Hence the Insanity.

Or rather, I should declare this undertaking, "Inconceivable!!" (Although, it probably doesn't mean what I think it means....perhaps I shouldn't use it anymore...)

I'm in such huge denial about the tasks at hand I bought three cookbooks today. Like a big slow-cooker full of beef soup with a little cornbread on the side will make it all go away.

Have I mentioned what a pain it is to move across town?

And for our Anniversary we bought baseboards and DH-S did get me flowers, but could only sign the card with a big "9" because he's so exhausted?

And that the kids start school on Monday?

And it's Sweet A's birthday on Thursday? (poor kid always get shafted, two years ago we drove out of Utah on her birthday to move here!)

And that DH-S has business related evaluations and people coming from out of town for three days?

And King H must have me in his sights or be in my arms at all times, or major meltdowns occur?

And lest we forget him, Sir C can hardly wait to wear his new school shogees (H helping me type--all typos are henceforth his fault), er, shoes, and thinks everything I ask him to do (like brushing his teeth before bed) is mean.

Oh Calgon, take me away!

(If I actually had a tub that I could sit in. ..)

Just what it's like in my corner of the world.

Send fudge. Fast. Or one of those HGTV guys to finish my house... in two days. And a nanny to watch the kids.

(Seriously, I've had alot of people helping out and watching kids, we wouldn't be this far along without such fabulous help. I'd probably be in a padded cell.)

And I have been taking pictures. I'm on my second memory stick since May. I just lost the reader/cables to upload them. The transformation will amaze you. Probably won't get to post them until October. Just to warn you.

So, I'm still alive. And if I can find a giant to carry me, I'll be on top of the world in no time!! =)

I should have made that rhyme....

Ah, well... life is ----good.

I've just fallen for the (third?) most classic blunder of all time... homeownership. The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia.

Hot, Hot, Hot

yes, folks, and it's not just me.

The temperatures are large up here---107-ish on Sunday, when our AC went out (yikes!) and it didn't cool down at night, so we were sticky and sleepless all night, Monday we hung out in town and in the car, the AC came back on, and it was 108 yesterday, 105-ish today. All I want to do is eat ice cream for dinner and sleep in the afternoon. I remember when it got really hot in the summer mom would let us have vanilla ice-cream, topped with fruit coctail and cheese and crackers on the side. I loved it! No cooking in the heat and something cool to eat!

Not much progress at the house in this heat. Although the ducts got cleaned out, and a new furnace and AC were installed Tues, so we painted a bit more. Second coats aren't very exciting. We're trying to finish painting the house Friday am, then get appliances, and put in laminate flooring on Saturday. We're getting closer!!

Although, I've learned that the "best laid plans of mice and men (and mothers!) do often go awry."

We'll see what happens.

Paint

I made a trip to the paint store, and came home with four quarts to test out on my walls. Just to make sure the colors I've chosen are ones that I can actually live with. I also picked out a blue and green--for bathroom(s) and laundry room.

Paint chips lie.

Or, they tell the truth, it's just very, very small.

Large swatches on the wall look very different.

I'm glad the three colors I've held onto since March are ones I still like--the main house color, the living room, and the dining room. I just have to see if my other half likes them, too. They match all the tile I've chosen. I don't think I can change them. I love the blue and green I picked out, which match the shower curtain I bought (two years ago) and have never used. The blue is very bright. Which I want in the laundry room (makes me think of the ocean with white washer/dryer and white cabinets above), but probably not in the bathrooms. I think I'll have to get a darker blue for the master bath, and the green for the main bath. Any extras will go to painting the interior of the linen closet and pantry (with white shelves).

We'll see.

The only rush is that our appliances are being delivered at the end of this month. That means the kitchen floor has to be in place, which means we have to finish painting in there before that, which means all the paints need to be chosen and decided.... the domino effect.

Holiday

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!!

By Royal Declaration from the Powers that Be, aka Their Royal Personages, The Head Cheeses, The Weilders of "Veto-Power", The King and Queen, Mom and Dad

Today is declared a HOLIDAY in the House of A*******,

the Holiday of Tuesday.

And by official decree there will be

NO WORKING AT THE NEW HOUSE.

Not even stepping foot in the house, or the garage, or the yard, or driving down the street.

We need a break-- a chance to breathe.

(and so does our house)

--see previous post for an explanation

Notes to Self

Self,

Here are a few things I've learned over the past day or so....

• leaving the house at 8:30 am and returning at 10:00 pm is hard on little children too, not just adults
• sometimes its better just to rent/buy new equipment, rather than spend an hour or so cleaning old stuff, only to discover you need a crucial part, and end up buying the equipment (in frustration) anyway (we now own a paint sprayer!)
• time reserved for "paint prep" should be used wisely
• there are always more things to prep than you realized
• ...or even prepped!
• ceilings don't have to be sparkling clean (kitchen and bathrooms are my exceptions) in order to prime, they just need to be swept free of cobwebs
• car buffers and a tsp/bleach mixture work well to clean ceilings
• so does the Daniel-son "wax-on / wax-off" method
• children who claim they're bored may not be having a great un-scheduled summer, they may actually be bored playing in the yard of an empty house
• you know you've got good friends when they come over to help, get high off of the paint fumes, and take all your children back to their house for the rest of the day
• THANK YOU!!! (Can't be said enough.)
• One five-gallon bucket of kilz oil-based primer isn't enough to cover the entire interior of a house and all the doors
• four buckets is just about enough
• they need to be shaken before you leave the paint store
• kids don't like necco candy - apparently it's an acquired taste
• getting high on paint fumes is possible even with a carbon filter breathing mask
• and with a little dust mask
• it's not fun--just pretty much annoying
• but if you wait long enough, you can still drive a vehicle
• you just can't park very well
• melted ice (water) is the best stuff ever
• having white trim/doorways/doors is amazing (we came from 70s brown)
• walking through a freshly primed house, all in white, is amazing
• it's like walking through a cloud

We've felt like all of the work we've been putting in hasn't shown up very well. Things are finally all coming together. We primed the entire interior of the house yesterday. (As was pointed out, it's one of those jobs you have to finish once you start, because the thought of having to come back and do it again makes you want to vomit.) This is a huge change from all the dark interior wood trim and dingy walls. It's going to be sooo great when it's finished, and we're preparing for the home stretch now. This consumes so much of our lives right now, it's insane. But now we're getting into cool stuff, like paint, tiles and flooring, so the results are more rewarding. All that prep is paying off, and it's nice.

We just might make it afterall....

Be Careful What You Ask For...

...because you just might get it!!

Did I ask for things to pick up?!? They have. That's why I've been *absent* (more than usual, anyway).

Things are getting crazy busy at our house--all the doors are sanded (cabinets and closets and regular old doors), half of the cabinets have been tung oiled (two coats front and back), the inside of the cabinets have been primed one coat, the bathroom floor has been repaired, the stone fireplace has been REMOVED, the "pit of despair" discovered under the hearth (that led to the crawlspace), a floor has been created over that, the hall-wall has been partially built, all the subfloor has been replaced and hardibacker put down for the tile areas, (bathroom, entry, hall, kitchen, living room), the kitchen counters are in!! beautiful laminate faux granite, the drywall guy has been selected, the furnace/air conditioner/heat pump is still being debated, and I'm looking forward to more tung oiling (my wax-on/wax-off muscles are in agony!), more prep for painting--cleaning walls from all the sanding dust, filling in nail holes, sweeping, taping windows... our floor has arrived, we just have to pick it up, and our appliances have been ordered and will be delivered at the end of the month. Phew. That's just the work at the house....there have been other things going on as well... like the kids in swimming lessons, my grandfather passing away, business trips to Portland, girls camp....and I lost my camera.

Perhaps next summer I can lay on my back and watch the clouds float by?

Reality

Yeah, the demolition revealed that the wall to be removed is load bearing, requiring weight-shifting trusses in the attic, and the rock fireplace isn't going anywhere. There's a reason it's been around for 30 years already. So, it's slightly pulverized facade, as well as the destroyed wall around it have to be repaired.

I'm not sure those were in the budget....

Getting Excited- Again

We met with a contractor friend last night at the house. We really have no idea how to do home remodeling (aside from watching the DIY network every spare minute during our free preview month!) and wanted a professional opinion before embarking on the next steps. I'm so excited about the things we discussed. I'd tell you all what they are, but you'd probably get bored. I think they're only exciting to us homeowners.

We have some more demolition ahead of us, and then lots of clean-up and prep work and some more huge decisions. I think my budget is already shot for the amount of things I want to do, so I have to really look at my list and figure out what's a need and what's a want. (I think they're all needs!) We also have to figure out what we can do ourselves (to save money) and which to contract out (to save sanity, time, and energy.) Major compromises will have to be made, and much creativity used to stretch the funds. Some things I'm getting hung up on are: cabinets (paint (white-ish)or stain (cherry-ish)?), picking laminate flooring (cool and still in budget), waiting for the appliances to go on sale (stainless vs. white?) and actually getting over to the house to do the work. It's not exactly kid friendly at the moment. (tacks, nails, dust, dirt everywhere!) Hopefully this weekend will see some progress and a few more trips to the dump.

Our goal is to be ready to move in August.

(Ha!)

Am I an optimist, or a realist? Hmm...