Moved In

Well we are finally in our own house.

Friday was our first night and oops we forgot curtains, alarm clocks etc. I couldn't find anything. Oh and our sleep number bed wouldn't work and we had to tear apart the air compressor and fix it, it had been jostled in the move and the air was not staying in. Cori and Jessie stayed with us on the bunk beds we set up for them.

Saturday Cori and I helped my dad haul wood and Luna the cat finally came to the house.

Sunday we worked on putting some things away and had a nice dinner. Mark came over and put up the chiar rail in the dinning room.

Monday the refrigerator that Mark and Jane gave us showed up and I spent the evening cleaning it and moving food from the small extra frig to the one in the kitchen. My kitchen looks much smaller now with the frig but what can you do.

I will be posting pictures of before and after soon so check back often.

What a difference good friends make.

Friday October 3rd.

Our good friend Nick was nice enough to come help install my new countertop and even helped put in most of the kitchen/dinning room flooring.

Below he is putting the starter holes in for my sink.

And then attatching the plumbing back up.


This picture(below) is of the new flooring about half way installed.

The tile laminate was much more difficult to install than the wood laminate. The material goes together a lot harder and you have to be more careful about getting the tile grout lines to match up. However, I love the way it looks and I didn't have to do all the cementing , spacing and grouting. It is still easier than real tile and is supposed to hold up better and be easier to clean.

Saturday Oct 4.


My dad helped me finish that flooring. He also put in my tile backsplash (made us appreciate the effert tile flooring would have taken) and my mom helped me put all of my cubbard doors and hardware on.


As you can see below it is really turining out nice. This view is from the mud room. As you can see we kept the old hood and with the color choices it looks nice.

Here is a close up of the tile prior to grout with the under cabinet lighing on.


Sunday Oct 5.

Sunday we moved a load of stuff to the house, grouted the new tile, wired the cooktop to my stove, wired the outlet for the microwave and oven and cleaned up the house a little. Ben also put in my closet organizer.

Below you can see my cooktop, the tile grouted and it gives you a good view of the kitchen from the hall/living room side of the house.

This picture is of my dad finishing the outlets and switch in the backsplash area.

Ben and I also tried to fabricate a new piece for our lazy susan to see if we can salvage it. We are now thinking we will need to trim the door down a little on it to get it to rotate without rubbing all the paint off.






The house is really taking shape now.

Monday Oct 6.

I took a van load of stuff to the house. Dad and I worked on the shelving for the oven/microwave cabinet. I also was able to use my cooktop for the first time and eat like real people out of a real kitchen. wow!

Update as of September 30th, 2008

Some of the rooms are actually about done!!

Saturday I put the 1st coat of paint on the cubbards while the carpet was being installed. Laying carpet is the only thing we have paid someone else to do up to this point.

You can see the new carpet in the guest bedroom and Tylers room below. The same carpet went in the master as well.




Sunday Dad and Ben worked on putting the under the cabinet lighting in the kitchen. Ben really got into his work as you can see.




Cori and I set up Tylers new big boy loft bed and I vacumed the carpet.


As you can see below Tyler absolutly loves his new bed.









Before we left that night Tyler, Grandma, Ben and I decorated his new bed with Pixar "Cars" stickers. I will get a picture of that soon.

Monday I put the 2nd and last coat of paint on the cabinets and now I am ready for countertops and flooring in the kitchen dinning room. By the end of this comming weekend the living area of the house should be done enough that we could move in soon.

:)

9-24-08 Cubards are Primed!

So I do not have a picture but I am happy to say that Jane and I finished putting the 2nd coat of primer on all of the kitchen cabinet comonents. :)

I will check themover for imperfections and then start with paint. I cant wait to be done with this.

Sept 10-20 progress

Time to update the blog.

Here is a picture of the living room with the new paint and flooring. Notice the door now has a window and the half wall has a mantel on top.



Mark and Jane worked on painting the trim so that it could be put back in the rooms after flooring. Ben has been working 7am-11pm every day lately and was only able to stop by on a break to see how things were going.



Dad and I have now gotten fans put back up in the master, tylers room (pictured below) and the dinning room. The other fans I had planned on putting back up were very noisey and I decided I will go purchase some cheap ones for the kitchen and guest bedroom.


Mark and Jane painted the top of the kitchen/dinning room and I have started primming the cubbards. Jane helped prime the doors.



We will continue the lengthy process of priming and painting the kitchen cubbards and then we will be ready to put in the flooring and countertop.

Carpet is comming for the bedrooms on Saturday so they say. Then we can finish those rooms with the trim and closet doors. I am actually hoping to start setting up Tylers room Sunday but we will have to wait and see.

Sep 5-7 Flooring and Paint provide Encouragment

Since I have been bad about putting up pics lately here are pictures of the new closets that we added to the Master bedroom (top) and Tyler's room (bottom) Also note that we finished painting the bedrooms, hallway and living room except for some minor touch ups.

Ben's dad, Mark, has been a great help in accomplishing all the painting so that we would be able to lay flooring this weekend. He has spent all week finishing those rooms for us. Lucky for us to have a retired parent eager to help, since time has been our biggest obstacle.

The next project was to lay the wood laminate flooring in the hall and living room. Our fathers came and helped us lay the more difficult pieces in the hall and closets.

Below Mark (Ben's dad) is figuring out the cuts that Bert (my dad) will need to make to go around the door frame of the bathroom.


and (below)Ben is laying the edge pieces that will but up to the tile laminate that will go in the dinning room later.


This picture (below) gives you a good look at what the results looked like in the hallway.



At around 730 pm, we sent our fathers home to get some deserved time off and Ben and I spent the rest of Saturday "Date Night" completing the majority of the flooring.

It was actually nice to be alone working on something that actually provided visual results. The flooring provided needed encouragement that this house will actually be completed at some point.

I didn't get a picture of the living room as Ben and I worked late into the night and didn't get a chance to take another picture yet.

We are very happy with the look of our new flooring and anxious for the carpet to arrive so the bedrooms can be finished off.

Next we will focus on the kitchen/dinning room. We ordered the new counter top and it is due to arrive sometime after Sept 21st so we at least have a deadline in mind for getting the kitchen/dinning room done.

I will do my best to get more pics to post soon.

crunch time!

Well, it is September and the house is not ready. However, Carpet is comming next monday and we are working hard to get the bedrooms, hallway and living room done including the wood laminate flooring before the carpet comes.

We only have painting and the flooring left for those areas.

Then the only thing holding us back will be the kitchen/dinning room. This really means that I need to get my cubards painted as they are holding up the rest of the work in that area.

Mark and Jane (Bens parents) are now back from Minnesotta and we are sharing their house with them untill we can move into ours.

Mark is helping us on the house and Jane has to leave for the rest of the week for work.

Ben has gotten very busy with work and I am now working 45-50 hours a week to help with all our bills, so finding time to work on the house is getting more difficult.

Remember us in your prayers.

8/25/08 update

So I have not taken any pictures lately as I have not charged the batteries to the camera. I will attempt to get some soon.

Since the last posting we have gotten the doors back up (once painted), We created a second closet for the master bedroom by steeling the adjoining rooms closet and then built a new closet for that room. It is framed, drywalled and has 1 coat of drywall mud on. We still need to finish sanding it before we can paint.

Ben and dad also re-patched the bad patch in the master and patched the holes in the ceiling and wall where we removed half a wall in the living room. This will need at least one more coat of mud before it can be sanded to paint.

I have nearly finished painting the half bath. I had not planned on doing anything with this room yet but Ben and Cori decided to remove the wallpaper border one day and then I had to paint.

Ben has also started re-building the cubard where the newer (still over 20 years old but 20-30 years newer than the one I have and it is a self cleaning one, unlike the one that came with the house) and bigger wall oven is going as well as making a spot for the microwave so we can keep it off the couter.

Nick came over and helped us on Saturday and he switched the garage and front door for us so that the garage now has a fire proof door separating it from the house.

With any luck we can get the bedrooms painted this weekend and then start finishing the painting in the living room and hallway next.

I still have to get my cubards painted as soon as Ben finishes rebuilding that one unit.

Ben also bought our new furnace this weekend and that will be installed after we move in and before it gets to cold.

Well, I think that is about it for an update. I will try and get some pics up soon and keep you posted.

Sat Aug 16: New Electrical Service thru Monday Aug 18

Saturday Dad and Bob (a cusin) put in a new 150 amp electrical service for us.

Here is a picture of the old pannel box after it was removed.


Here is Dad putting the final touches on the new panel box.


I spent the day running back and forth to Lowes to get the supplies needed.

We also put another coat of paint on the doors, and on Sunday Ben changed the locks on the house. I continued prepping the kitchen for paint.

Monday night Dad started finishing the half wall after Ben had pre cut some pieces for him during the day. Hopefully that will be taken care of by the end of this comming weekend and we can get the Living room done.

Aug 8-11

Here is a list of our accomplishments:

-Ceilings painted in 2 of 3 bedrooms
-Trim painted in 2 of 3 bedrooms
-Trim painted in hallway
-Trim painted in full bath (this realy cleaned it up)
-Started painting doors white to match trim
-Painted smallest bedroom brown.
-Started painting Tyler's bedroom red and green.
-Removed backsplash in kitchen (realized we will need tile or the faux tin to cover the walls due to condition of wall)
-Sanded cubards in kitchen for painting
-removed wallpaper from soffit in kitchen
-Primed dinning room

While things are going slow we are steadily getting closer to completion.

Here are some pics.


Ben has removed the backsplash and started sanding the main cubards in preparation for paint.


Cori helped me scrape the wallpaper backing off the soffit of the kitchen so that I can paint it later.


Tyler and Daddy started painting his bedroom. He got his big red wall. I loved the green that I picked too.

Work Continues

So I have failed to take many pictures lately but regardless work continues on the house.

Mom has started sanding my cubards for me and dad has nearly finished the electric on the main floor. We have decided to put in a new 150 amp service though so he has that big job to do now.

Ben and I have been able to prime everything except the dining room and kitchen. We descovered some peeling paint in the dining room that Ben and mom have scraped off. Ben has also painted 2 of the 3 bedroom ceilings.

Tyler's "new" loft bed arrived on thursday and we realized that he isn't going to have much room now that he has a big boy bed and changed plans to put him in the bigger bedroom. I had allready primed the smaller room for dark colors but what can you do. We know this will be for the best.

Our friend Rick brought over carpet samples and measured the bedrooms tonight so that he can give us a quote on carpet.

Little by little things are getting done.

I will try and get some pics up soon.

The Big Roofing Weekend: July 24-27

This was the big weekend; we had many projects, a lot of work, and recruited a lot of people to help out.

The main project was to remove the existing shingles, remove the existing chimney and put new shingles and vent cap on.

Ben worked by himself during the day Wed and Thursday with help from my brother Ron, and my cusin Mike in the evenings. A friend of ours, Nick, did come help Thursday morning as well. Between Wednesday and Thursday they were able to remove a little over half of the shingles and put rolled roofing on to protect the house from the elements.

Friday Ron and his roomate Dave came and helped Ben all day with others comming in the evening to help finish the task of removing the remaining shingles and paper the other half of the house.


(Here is Ben picking up the shingles to carry to a 20 yard dumpster.)

Saturday everyone showed up to help, on the roof (Ben, Dad, my brother Ron, our friends Nick and Rick, my cusin Mike, and Ben's cusin Dan) and they shingled nearly 2/3 to 3/4 of the roof that day.


(Rick, Ben and Dad getting ready to put more shingles on.)

On Suday, they finished the shingling and spent the rest of the day putting the caps on.


(This is my Dad putting the cap pieces on.)

(This is my brother cutting the cap pieces. We saved a bunch of $ by cutting our own rather than buying the matching cap materials)



(Here is the house with new shingles and a little hedge triming)

In order to feed our work crew Ben and I bought a 100 lb pig and had our friend Bob roast it for us. We asked for others to pitch in with a dish to pass and we had a great dinner before the guys went back on the roof.



We also had our friends Jack and Ryan show up Saturday morning and they hauled all of the drywall and panelling we had torn down in the basement out to the dumpster and even swept up. They also put all of that carpet in too.

My best friend Cori and I tackled Priming the dark blue bedroom and hallway and even gave the kids brushes to help.



(Tyler, Jessie, Jasmine and Autumn pre-prime the wall, we rolled over it later)

Later Bree (my undergrade employee from work ) showed up and we even primmed the darker walls in the living room and dinning room.

That afternoon Cori started working on the kitchen/dinning room floor.


(Here Cori, and my cusin Elizabeth are hand scraping that carpet glue and backing off the floor.)

I later finished this on Sunday.

My Cusin Mike borrowed a tractor from friends of his that live just around the corner and we used it to get the shingles up to the roof.

(Mike on the Tractor)

Sunday he used the mower on it to mow that tall grass in the back of the yard and tried to remove the garbage/burn pile that was out there untill he desturbed a bumble bee nest and was chased out. He did push the brush pile to the back of the property so it isn't in the way anymore.



This was a very productive weekend for us. Everyone is tired and sore, so we will be taking Monday off from the house. Poor Mike works at a lumber yard and will be moving 120 bundles of shingles this morning, despite all the shingles he moved this weekend, so he won't be getting much of a break.


Thank you so much to everyone that helped us this weekend, we could not have gotten it all done without you.

July 18-20 projects

Project one for this weekend was to create the half wall between the formal entry and the living room to open the space. The light switch was moved lower on the wall, an outlet was added to the exterior from this circuit, a box was put in for the outside light (was just atatched to the house before) and the wiring cleaned up a little.



We are a little concerned about the stability of the new half wall and so we plan to add a post to the open end at some point in the future.

Project two was to install the can lights throughout the house for better lighting as well as new switches and smoke detectors.

Here Ben is cutting the holes for the two 4" can lights that go above the kitchen sink

This is one of the can lights in the living room. We have not put the covers on yet as we still plan to paint the ceiling.

My brother finished my demolition project in the basement by removing all of the drywall ceiling and between Ron and Ben all of the tackstrip is finally up as well as the staples that were still in the two larger bedrooms.

While the guys worked on the electric, mom and I removed all of the doors, drawers, and hardware from the kitchen so it can be prepped for paint later.


I also primed the chair rail for Tylers bedroom and went to Lowes for new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, a shower can light cover, paint and some misc electrical parts we needed.

By the end of the weekend the lighting in the house was great. We are especially pleased with the lights in the hallway because it went from a dark tunnel to a bright and inviting space.

There are still some unfinished things to do as far as electric but it will now wait until after the roofing is done this weekend.

The Shock of Electric Costs

A trip to Lowes last night for electrical supplies caused Ben and I to re-evaluate the number of recessed lighting we want. I wouldn't budge on the light for the shower (a girl has to be able to see her legs to shave right)

As you can see the supplies are stacking up......now lets get on with the work.