A couple of updated pictures.....

We've been working hard, but its not showing very much. It takes a couple of days for me to get trim boards ready to for Michel to put up and he goes through them in just a couple of hours, so the trim progress is slow. We have gotten carpet down in Dillon's room, starting putting in carpet upstairs, and the tile on the floor in the Master bathroom is finished. We have to put the tile backsplash around the tub and all the tiling will be finished in the house. We haven't started on the stairway yet, but we've got most of the other big projects about ready to wrap up, so we are going to get started on the stairway soon.
Pictures: 1. Michel is working really hard (Can't you see how fast he's moving?!?) on laying tile around the tub area. 2. Dillon's room with the walls painted and his Star War pictures hung.

Just catching up

It seems like the only thing that we've really done recently is staining trim and getting it put up around the windows, doors, and as baseboards. We've also got the hardwood down in the dining room and the extra we put in our closet.

The windows that are trimmed out also have window coverings on them to make it feel more 'homey.' Yesterday Michel and his dad also moved out my washer and dryer, so I was able to do laundry out in the new house last night and this morning.

We are getting closer to finishing. Besides trim and baseboards, we still have to put the master bathroom tile down, then put the bathroom together, purchase the materials for the staircase and finish it up, and also decided on flooring for upstairs and get it laid. In ten more days it will be a year since we closed on our loan and we've come a long way in that time. Won't take too much more to finish it up.

BEDS!!!!

The carpet we purchased on Friday night has been put to its intended use already. Darian's room and our room now have carpet. Since the carpet is down, we could move furniture out, so we did. Michel and his dad moved our bed and Darian's bed out yesterday and we got them set up in time to sleep in them last night. Dillon's room still needs the carpet laid in it and then we can bring his bed out, but it might not be for a couple more weeks. We've got to get some other projects finished first. In the meantime, he'll be able to sleep on his mattress on the floor in Darian's room.

May I Present..........

MY NEW COUCH!!!!!!!!!

It was delivered this morning and we got the hardwood finished up to the fireplace this evening. We've also got carpet down in Darian's room and will be putting his room together tomorrow, so I'll post pictures of that then.

Hardwood Sampling

Last night Michel and I worked on laying the hardwood flooring in our hallway and in front of the front door/stairs. Here's a sampling of the hardwood itself and what it looks like with piece of baseboard against it in the living room and the hallway.

A Year Ago Today...

Well, the picture above was taken a year ago today. Can you believe it? We started building our new house a year ago! A year ago!!!!! We've made a lot of progress in the past year considering we've done most of the interior work ourselves, but there's still quite a bit to be do. We have two more rooms to paint (master bath and my scrapbook room), windows to stain and varnish, interior doors to purchase, stain, and varnish, finish laying the hardwood flooring (which is what I should be in there doing......), carpet, and vinyl in the closets. All of the tile is down and grouted, except for the master bath since we haven't painted it yet.








Pictures: Laundry room, the boys' bathroom (fully functional except it's lacking a sink and a door), Dillon's room, Master bedroom, and Eli testing the coolness of the hardwood in the dining room.

....and Behind Door #1..........

The first interior door was hung last night! Only about 8-10 more to go............

The half bath is now almost completely functional, except for the lack of hot water. (I'll be really glad to get that hot water heater in!!!) Other things that are needed are more for decorative purposes, rather than functional purposes. Things such as a towel bar, toilet paper holder and trim around the door are all that's missing.

Appliances, TV, and Wall Colors

I'm posting some random pictures of the new things going on around my house.

The appliances arrived last Thursday, but just verily. I had called Sears to see when they would be coming out since it was 3:00 and I hadn't heard from them. When I paid for my stove and fridge I had requested a delivery date of July 2nd. The sales clerk wrote it down as 8-2-09 instead of 7-2. Sears made it good and said that they could deliver the appliances about 4:30. They were almost exactly on time, give or take 5 minutes. So I got my dishwasher (still in the box in the middle of my dining room), stove, fridge, and microwave before leaving to go meet the rest of my family for dinner to celebrate my mother's birthday.

On Saturday morning, Michel ruined my beautiful fireplace by hanging the TV on it. I still think a nice family portrait would look great there.

Oh, and as a bonus, you can see we got the red painted around the stairway, along with the tan on the walls.

Let There Be Light!

It took more of an effort than Michel originally thought, but he did manage to get the light hung in the dining room last night. See?!?!

CABINETS!!!!!!

The puzzle pieces have been put together and have created a beautiful puzzle! I'm still trying to decide for sure where I'm going to put what, but have a pretty good idea where I'm going to start stashing things. At least I should be able to unpack a few boxes now and start using some of those kitchen towels that I had bought over the past few years to use in my new kitchen, when and if I ever got it.

Now I'm just waiting for Thursday to get here so I can have my appliances!




1. Standing in the doorway between the Mud Room and Dining Room, looking toward the kitchen. The snack bar is in the foreground of the cabinets. The stove will sit in the empty spot on the left and the refrigerator goes beside the doorway.
2. Standing in the Living Room doorway.
3. Standing in the doorway to the Master Bedroom looking west. My sink is not yet cut out, but will be under the window, with the dishwasher to the left of it.
4. Pantry doors and the pantry space under the stairway.
5. The shelves in one of the two corner cabinets. They spin around and then slide out. Very cool!
6. The sponge/scraper holder in front of the kitchen sink.
7. The countertop edge.

The Puzzle Pieces Scatter About........

Just a few pictures of my beautiful new cabinets that are being installed. Stay tuned - more pictures will be added throughout the day!

The thin cabinet against the wall, beside my pantry opening is my pantry doors and frame.

The long cabinet with drawers, 2 doors, and a couple of shelves in the center is my bathroom vanity. There's also a picture of the vanity top. Each are custom made and cheaper than Lowe's!

Kitchen and Dining Room are painted, tiled, and ready to go!

Before cabinets can be installed today (they are being unloaded as I post this), we had to have the kitchen, and therefore by association the dining room, painted and the flooring down before the cabinets could be installed today. Its been a long week with lots of long nights (4:00 am Saturday night/Sunday morning before our heads hit the pillows) but its all worth it as of now! I'll post cabinet pictures later today!

I almost have a front porch!

We worked on the front porch a lot over the weekend, but we didn't quite get it done. You can walk from the dining room door around to the front door, except for the around the chimney where it gets to be a little tricky. These pictures we taken before we finished for the day on Sunday, so there's actually more done that what is shown.

Drywall is up!!!!

Pictures of the drywall (its completely mudded, but hadn't been sanded). The drywallers finished up and moved out on Monday afternoon. By midnight Monday night, Michel and I had the kitchen/dining room area cleaned and primed. We will start painting the ceilings in there today.
1. Dining Room/Kitchen
2. Master Bedroom
3. Master Bath
4. Boys' Bathroom

To Be Delivered.....

On July 2nd, I will have a new black Kenmore refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and microwave delivered. The cabinets and countertops should be delivered and installed on the 29th, so we should be more than ready for the appliances by the 2nd. Can't wait! I should have a functioning kitchen by the holiday!!!!

Drywall- Round 2

The drywall for the second round was delivered last Monday (June 8). The crew arrived on Wednesday and stuck around long enough to get the laundry room covered. They arrived on Thursday and got a bit more done, then on Friday got everything else hung except a couple of sheets that they hung on Monday morning. Taping and mudding were then started and should be finished tomorrow, along with starting the second coat of mud. Hopefully by the first part of next week the drywall will be done and we can start cleaning, painting, and putting flooring down. I don't have any pictures right now, but I'll try to get some tomorrow when I'm home more than I have been any day during the past week.

Its getting a 'homey' feel!

Our neighbor came over today and bricked our fireplace. It changes the whole feel of the living room - making it feel more 'homey.' It looks really good!!! We haven't picked out a mantle yet, since we cut down and burnt the pecan tree that Michel's great-grandfather had planted. A mantle cut from that tree would have given the house a little something special - from one generation to another. But hindsight is 20/20....

This coming week we should have the rest of the drywall delivered and hung. Hopefully the move pretty quick on it so that we can get the kitchen and master bath painted, plus get tile down before the 22nd. Our tentative date for cabinet delivery and installation is the 22nd. I might not be around much between now and then.........I'm back off to go work out in the house now.

1 Side, 2 Sides, Almost 3

The Amish were out here again yesterday. We decided it was easier to pay them to put the siding on then for us to do it. Plus it would get done a lot quicker!