It's Over

The floor coverings are gone. The downstairs is now all raw concrete except for my bathroom and Eily and Nora's bedroom. It's going to stay this way until March, so in the meantime, I'm going to finally get curtains and rugs so that it's not so cold and sterile feeling. In about the three weeks, the painter will get started painting all the walls, and we will then be two thirds of the way through all this home repair chaos.

I feel like all I'm blogging about is the very boring details of our house. Sorry. It's just that is what's captivating most of my thoughts right now.

A while back, Kathryn asked me what I would do in my "free" time if I could do anything I wanted. I think she asked it just offhandedly, but it stuck with me and I have devoted a lot of my "free" time thinking about it. What would you do?  I have narrowed it down to sewing and cooking, but I just can't decide between the two.  Of course, traveling would be the obvious answer if "free time" meant more than a few hours in a row and an endless budget, but she didn't clarify those facts.

What would you do?

Hello again!

We have been so busy doing projects around the house that I haven't had the time or inclination to write a post. I feel a bit panicked to get all the to-do items crossed off the list before baby gets here.  This week we have painted the shutters, painted the front door, installed a new storm door, pruned the bushes in the front flower beds, organized the barn, installed some light plates, put the baby bed together, switched the girls' clothing from winter to summer and then priced all the items that we don't want anymore for the yard sale we are having this weekend. We also bought some shrubs but we haven't had a chance to plant them yet.

What has the spring inspired you to do?

Construction!

We've been working on the bathrooms at our house.
This is our bathroom after I peeled up three very smelly layers of linoleum.

Isn't that disgusting? Claire thought it was too.

And then, Philip came over and took out the sink and cabinet. It was a lovely moment. (I cannot turn the photo. I've never had this problem before. Sorry.)

And then the toilet was removed.

Here's Philip our wonderful friend and a pretty good handyman as well. :)

Then yesterday I painted the walls a color called Ante Meridan.

And here is the main bathroom. I haven't cleaned the black dust from the grout off the floor yet.

Tomorrow the plumber is coming to install the sink and the toilet in our bathroom and secure the above toilet. Pictures will be taken.

Fences, Fevers and Fun

We got a much better estimate on the fence. He can do the fence, the bathtub wall and the dishwasher cabinet for about the same price that the other man was going to do the fence. And we know he does good work because he just finished building an addition on my brother's house. I'm very, very happy about this.  He should be starting this next week. !!!!

Eily is sick. She and Elaina just seem to be trading their sicknesses back and forth. And it's only ever a fever. Jason and the girls are at church all day so it's just me and Eily keeping up the homefront. The staying home part is actually a good thing as far as the cleanliness of the house goes. It was so bad here. We were having to step over dirty clothes on the floor and the sink was (still is) full of dirty dishes. I'm waiting for the dishwasher to get done so I can reload it and I've started in on the laundry. Other than those things I have the house picked up once again. I also clipped and organized all my coupons. It's been a productive morning.

I have one week at home before we leave for Harmony Hill. The girls and I made a paper chain to represent how many times they have to sleep before we leave and every day we remove one link. They LOVE it. It really seems to be growing shorter awful fast. Guess time flies when you're haveing fun!!

Back in the saddle again

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day. Mom! I just realized we never put the flag on the porch. Man. I hate that we forgot that. That's the best part.

Anyway, we went to Mom and Dad's house and the girls swam and the puppies played and the whole group ate. Then we left and two chillins went to sleep on the ride home and the other went down as soon as her special bed was put together. (She had acquired a fever during the festivities.) It was a simple night. It was lovely.

A few weeks ago, Mom and I went around to a lot of stores in the area and priced the lumber for the privacy fence that we are hoping to have built. The lowest priced store had an estimate of $1000 and that was with an over-estimate of how many feet of yard we are going to cover.  When we got home last night there was a job estimate from our neighbor (that we have been waiting 2 weeks to get. grrrrr). He wanted to give us a bid for the fence and we told him that was fine but we were going to go with the lowest priced bidder. Do you know what his quote was?!!! $2650!!!!! Excuse me, mister, but I happen to know that the lumber is less than $1000 and that is a lot of moolah for labor. Especially when we are only working with $3333 and have a long list that we want to be able to check off.   Do you think that was reasonable? Am I way off on what to expect when it comes to paying for labor?  I have another man coming today and I really hope that his quote is much lower.

Jason built us a raised vegetable garden a couple of nights ago. I'm very excited about it but once we got the frame we realized that we don't have any dirt. It seems like dirt would be an easy thing to get but apparently not. By the time we get all of this figured out it will probably be fall.

What should I cook for supper?

I am very sleepy but I am determined to battle on and get the laundry done and at least some of the house cleaned. By tomorrow, I should have 2 estimtes on the fixings. Woo! Hoo! For me, that's a very exciting thing.

For those of you that are familiar with my muffin top...

It's going away. :) Yesterday I rode the bike and my thighs didn't hit my stomach when my knees were peddling. Improvement.

We found out today that they had gotten the amounts on our accounts mixed up and my account to fix the house only gets $2000. This drastically cuts into what we can get fixed but I'll just be thankful for the changes that do take place. Fence, air conditioner unit, kitchen cabinet and tub wall get first dibs on the money. After that we'll just do as we can. I'm really hoping the floor will still be able to get changed but it's not looking too good as this point.

The older girls started swimming lessons again but this was Eily's first time. She and I are taking a Mom and Tot class and let me tell you, that girl is like a little fish. She has no fear and naturally does the moves. Today she learned how to kick her feet, kick her arms and blow bubbles. Then she learned how to do all three at the same time. It's going to be fun.

Home Repairs

Doesn't that title just reel you in? Doesn't it sound so exciting?  Well it does to me!!  

We have been accepted into an IDA government program that will allow us to make some major changes on our home and hopefully, when we put it back on the market, it will sell quickly.
We put $1333 into the account and once I finish my 5 week classes they will deposit $4000 into the account. Not a bad deal, eh? I have already completed 2 classes and I will be doing another class this Tuesday so we are really close to being finished.

Jason and I have made a list of the things that we want to get done and they are numbered by importance so that if we run out of money before we get to the end of the list it will just be the little things that don't get done.  I am going to share my list with you so that you can rejoice in the changes with us. And, you can anticipate the entire list being crossed off. And... because it's fun!!

1. A privacy fence built.  Once this is complete we get to bring our new puppy home. Bella had babies. Did I not ever mention that? They are adorable little puggles. Half beagle and half pug. I'm so in love.

2. A cabinet built around the dishwasher, a microwave cabinet built above the dishwasher and a small cabinet that had to be removed when the plumber put a new faucet on the bathtub needs to be re-secured. There was the issue of getting the existing cabinet tops to match the new one until I came up with the bright idea to top the dishwasher with a wooden cutting board. I can't think of the name of that material at the moment.  This is driving me crazy! What is that called? I have said it about 4 times today and I cannot even get close to thinking of it right now. That is so frustrating.  Oh! Oh! Butcher's block. Ahhh. My brain feels better now.

3. A new air conditioner unit for Jason's studio.

4. New walls around the bathtub. No more urine-yellow tiles!!! (This also has to be done because the plumber knocked tiles off when he put the new faucet in last week.)

5. Put laminate wood flooring in the living room and the hallway. Now, I always said I would never put laminate wood in my house but I have to remember that we are selling this house so it really doesn't matter that it's not real wood. Not to offend everyone that has laminate wood (I think that includes almost all of you) but I just personally want real wood in my *dream* house.

I think your floors look lovely.


6.  Bathrooms:
- Tile floors
- Pedestal sinks if the plumbing will line up correctly

7. Put new lights in the hallway and the kitchen. The current hallway light is actually an outdoor light (what were they thinking?) and one panel is missing and the kitchen light is outdated and just plain ugly.

8. Paint the front door and the shutters. I think I am going to go with black on this idea. We have some black in our brick and the wrought (sp?) iron is black.  If you have a better idea, please share it.

9. Landscaping
My cousin, Roy, said the first time he ever came to my home, "Man, I would love to landscape this yard!" Guess what Roy!! This is your chance!  (Actually, he already knows about this.) I want the two front flower beds freshened and they need new borders. I would like to have window boxes under the two bedroom windows on the front of the house and I have thought about a little round flower bed between the two trees in the front yard with a birdbath right in the middle. Are birdbaths a thing of the past because I really like them but I never see them anymore.

10. Last but not least, (except in this case it really is the least important so never mind that,) 
installing an outdoor light in the backyard.


Isn't this all so exciting? I just can't wait. The next step is to get estimates on everything and then in three weeks we can get started. Hooray!!!!