a long over due update!

Alright, well I don't know if I should call this an update or not, because this post will not bring you fully up to date. I mentioned in my last post our laptop died so I haven't been able to blog for quite a while. To make matters worse, last week our adorable little Dave puppy decided that it might be fun to chew up mommy's very nice touch screen phone which had a lot of house pictures on it. So these pictures are kind of spastic and don't tell the whole story, but it will catch you up a little bit on what I didn't get to post.


We ripped out all of the tile! The hideous mess of a floor is finally all gone. We start with just the hallway, which is what this is a picture of. Then we went out and bought some laminate wood flooring and got the hallway finished so that the carpet guys could come in get carpet in the bedrooms. Busting out the tile and scraping up the thin-set stuff underneath seemed to take forever! It might have even been worse than scraping popcorn ceilings.

A week or so later, we finally started to bust out the rest of the tile in the living room, dining area, and kitchen. Lucky for Nathan, when I left him doing that awful job to go run some errands, a neighbor from down the street knocked on the door; he came right on in with a few tools to make the job easier. Turns out, this neighbor does flooring as his profession- so he knew all the tricks. He helped Nathan out, and by the time I got back, the entire front of the house was almost completely done!

While we were busy ripping tile out of most of the house, the two bathrooms actually got new tile. When we went to the tile store, Nathan and I both reached for this tile at the same time- so we knew it was meant to be. This picture isn't fantastic, but in case you can't tell- it's a reddish toned tan 16" tile. WAY better than the 12" whitish junk that was throughout the house before.

We put the new tile in all by ourselves. We had to rent a tile saw and everything. I had taken a bunch of pictures and this was going to be its own glorious post, but alas, the tiling pics were on my now demolished cell phone. Dang it!

One weekend, Rod and Marvin came over and built some fantabulous shelving our closets. I absolutely love it! This is a picture of the shelves in the guest bedroom- our biggest closet. Later on down the line, I had the not so super fun task of painting all the shelves white. Ugh. That was a monotonous job! But I must admit that all the closets do look fantastic now!

Um...this is a picture of Nathan... I am not quite sure what he is doing because it has been so long since I took it. I think he might be putting the new handle on the toilet. We went ahead and bought new brushed nickle handles for the toilets since most everything else in the bathroom has a brushed nickle finish.

And then came painting; the job I was most excited to do at the start, that I now despise! Seriously- I was psyched to pick out paint colors and transform the inside of my new home with a roller and paint brush. That is why Kassi and I are smiling in these pictures.

These were taken on like day 3 of painting I think. Well, a few weeks later and I am still doing touch up and edging and I am sick of it! Once this house is done, I would be perfectly content to not pick up another painting implement for the next 3 to 5 years! But again, even though the job sucked- the finish product is pretty awesome. I love love love my paint colors!

Oh yeah, I had to paint these babies too- another huge pain! While I might be willing to paint some walls in 3-5 years, I never want to paint a door EVER again. We lined them all up around the walls in the front room and painted every one of them- with at least 3 coats! Blasted cold weather and smooth surfaces- making my painting life miserable. I don't think I did a very super job on them, but they look ok. I love the style too- I like it much better the traditional 6 panel look.

We got a fabulous new shower door put in- with the brushed nickle finish of course. It looks very nice. I am pleased; probably because it was installed for us and I didn't have to do anything. =p

I am not exactly sure why I took this picture either. I might have been trying to show the floor- or maybe the new vanity top, or even the awesome light fixture I picked out (which doesn't have the shades on it right now, due to the huge ball light bulb that are in it. We keep forgetting to bring the right bulbs from home.) Anyway, this is a picture of the hallway bathroom. Not quite finished, but getting there.

This is a picture of the back bedroom that will be an office/craft room when we move in. It was the one with the bugs bunny light switch plate. I am pretty sure I took this picture to show off our new carpet and the ceiling fan. Everything in the bedrooms are new now. They look really awesome. You would never know it was the same house.

And last, but not least on this home update- our fabulous new lighting fixture in the hallway! Ooooooooh! Aaaaaaaah!

This now completes the tour of my camera's memory card from the past few weeks. Please tune in next week when I can show you some finished rooms, new cabinet hardware, my wonderful wood floors, and more!!

uh-oh...

Our laptop is pretty much dead. That's why I haven't posted any blogs in a while. The house is coming along nicely, and I promise to post all the pictures of the progress as soon as we get this computer situation figured out. Until then, I am going to have to tell you all what Nathan tells me "You're just going to have to be patient!"

house update

Ok, so here's what been going on with us and the house. This past week we have taken like 4 trips to the dump. I even took a trip all by myself! We got that big pile of junk out the garage and all the little debris out of the house.

I had forgotten how stinky it was at the dump. By the end of our last trip on Saturday we were all smelly and gross. But at least now we can walk through the house and garage with tripping over a bunch of stuff. It's still a bit dusty, but it's coming along nicely.

We have made about half a dozen trips to Home Depot. I'm noy sick of it yet- it's still shopping. And it's shopping for stuff that is going to make my house awesome.

There was one thing that happened this week that I didn't get any pictures of, but I have to blog about anyway. I was cleaning up around the house, while Nathan was putting up the last of the drywall around the shower. All of a sudden, Nathan dashed down the hall and out the door. "Where are you going?!" I shouted to him. "I have to turn the water off!" He had put a drywall screw through one of the pipes in the hall bathroom and water was leaking out the wall. So, we had to have the plumbers come out again. It's all fixed now though- so, no worries.

We finally got a light put up out front. We do a lot of our work at night after Nathan gets off work, so it's nice to have a porch light now. It was just a spare fixture that Nathan's dad had, but coincidentally it was the same light fixture I had picked out online for the front of the house. How convenient!

While we were demo-ing out the house, Nathan made the discovery that the bottoms and some of the framing on the vanities in the bathroom, and the cabinets under the kitchen sink were all rotted out. They were water damaged from the drains not being connected correctly. So instead of buying all new vanities, Nathan decided that he was going to re-frame them.

It was like it just came naturally to him. He had them done in no time.

While Nathan was in the garage working on the vanities, the puppies played in the back of the truck. They had been in the backyard all day though...

...and they were tired. So they went inside the truck to lay down and relax for a little while. Aren't the cute?!

Here are the finished cabinets. They turned out awesome, and it was a lot cheaper to fix them than to buy new ones.

So now we are moving forward! Our new windows are going to be here on Thursday. We are getting ready to order our counter tops. The drywall guys a coming this week to finish up, and then comes my favorite part...

PAINTING! We are getting our colors picked out and before you know it, we'll be having a painting party. Woo-hoo!!

dave's emergency surgery

"Hey Nathan, Tarin- what happened to your dryer vent?"

Oh....That's what happened.

My dad came over to check out the progress on the house, and while we were in the laundry room, discussing our plans- Dave decided that he wanted to come in there too-- via the dryer vent!

He got his head stuck. I went around to the back yard to try and free his head, but it wouldn't come out, so I pushed his head all they way through the hole so it was around his neck. Meanwhile, Nathan was on the other side of the wall, pushing the vent out of the wall.

That's how Dave got that nifty square collar!

It was so funny- and weird- I had to go out to the car and get the camera!


Of course, we can't have a puppy running around with a dryer vent around his neck- so we did an emergency surgery to have it removed.


Luckily, my dad was there to hold Dave- while I took pictures to document the event.



It only took a few snips with the bolt cutter...

...and Nathan was able to snap it apart.

Free at last!!

The poor little guy's heart was racing so fast! Did he learn though? Of course not! We had to leave the dogs in the backyard while we ran some errands, and when we came home Dave was in the garage. He had climbed through the same hole.

Goodness! What will they do next?

we're here to save the princess!

mail time!!

We got the mail box installed this week too. We had to, because the mail lady informed us that we had already been getting mail sent to this address, but she had to send it back because she had nowhere to deliver it.

Dave & Buster, checking the mail.

"Here's the mail, it never fails; It makes me want to wag my tail; When it comes I want to wail- MAAAAAAAAIL!!"

I painted the post all by myself. Isn't it pretty? And then Nathan dug the hole and stuck it in the ground. And now we get mail.

subcontractors

So this week we had our first subcontractors came. The drywall and plumbing guys came.

The drywall guys covered everything in plastic and started on the ceilings.

They also patched up all the bigger holes in the walls.

The plumbers came and installed this awesome bath tub! It's deep and glorious. I can't wait til everything is all finished and I can take a nice, long, fantastical bath in this tub. I don't think I have taken a bath since we've gotten married- only showers.

They also got the shower pan installed.

It's all starting to come together!

the government can

This pretty much sums it up...

new stuff!!

It's not much, but I am excited to have put some new things in, rather than ripping old stuff out!

Nathan and his dad got the can lights up in the kitchen! They looks and work marvelously!

They also got the front room all wired up for a ceiling fan- so for the first time we have a light in there!

It's the little thing in life that bring the most joy! =p

MORE house demo

So we've been pretty busy at the house! We're getting close to the end of demo- which is exciting for me, because I don't know how much more my body can take. Here is what has been going on:

We finally finished demo-ing out the bathrooms! Well, NATHAN finished. He's awesome.

We even got the tile ripped out.



We've got plumbers coming this week to get the new shower and tub stuff put in.

Nathan also ripped out some cabinets in the kitchen- not for good though. Since there were drain issues, there was also a lot of rotting wood. So Nathan only took them out so he can fix/re-frame them. He is going to do the same thing for the bathroom vanities.

We also finally got around to scraping popcorn ceilings. Oh my goodness!! That is the most awful job EVER! Not fun. The goobers who lived in the house before painted over the popcorn- which made even harder to remove.

Nathan figured out a trick to make it easier...AFTER I had done it the hard way on my own in one of the bedrooms. He realized that if he took the scraper and lightly scraped off some of the paint, and then sprayed it down with water, I came off in sheets. I had done it dry! I was sooooo sore! ... I am STILL sore!

Nathan is a ceiling scraping champion! He's such a hard worker- and he never complains.

This is the floor of one of the bedrooms after we had finished scraping the ceilings.

Nathan and I were only able to get the three bedrooms done while he was off work on Friday- So lucky for me- my fabulous father was willing to come on Saturday- Halloween- to help his poor, super sore daughter finish scraping the family room.

I let Dad in on Nathan's trick, and we got the job done pretty quickly. My dad did most of the hard work because my arms were sore and weak from doing the hard work the day before. It was nice to have someone else there to talk to too.

It's done now- that's the most important part. And I hope I never have to do it again! It was really tough work, but since it's MY house, I was willing to endure whatever I had to, to get it done. I just keep trying to tell myself how fabulous it will look when it's all done!

My dad insisted that we sweep all the ceiling debris into piles and make it look all neat and tidy. Our trash can was full, so we have to leave it there until trash day.

Once we had finished the ceilings, we made an appointment with the dry wall guys to come in and re-texture the ceilings and to do some repairs on the larger holes we have around the house.

Now, I am not 100% sure, but I think the only things we have left, as far as demo goes, is to rip out the baseboards and possibly to rip out the tile in the rest of the house.

With everything all ripped up like this, it's hard for me to think that in less than a month we are planning on being completely moved in and LIVING here! My anxious to see it all come together.