Author Archives: Kellie W

We have had a lot of life events happen, which has caused our delays. I guess since it is football season, school is back in session, we can now get back to the house. Our life events at lease are exciting: Ciera got engaged to Dylan, Ciera and Dylan bought a house (which included a weekend move in there), I’m ending my job with Optum and taking on a new opportunity. The only constant is Chad hasn’t changed a thing. That is really a good thing! So let me get you updated on where we are at. The last post I showed you how we put in the door to the extra bedroom for the landing. We have now put a temporary floor that connects the landing out of Ciera’s bedroom and the extra bedroom so we could get the popcorn ceiling sanded and get things retextured. Chad did get it all sanded, mudded, sanded again, so we are ready for painting. We should be able to get that done this week or definitely next weekend.

We will be putting a door off of the extra bedroom landing into the garage, but need some “man” help to get new plywood into the attic, so that will be the Oct 12 as Dylan is going to let us borrow his muscles (teaser for what is to come). This way we can close off the access to the attic from the garage making getting all of my Halloween decorations in/out of the house much, much easier!

Temporary floor connecting the two landings

Before – need to sand the ceiling and enclose where the vent is. We put in the mini-splits, so that duct work isn’t being used.

Looking towards Ciera’s room as I’m sure I’ll have an “after” picture when we are done.

Sanded and starting to mud

Sanding and mudding

I know you all have heard me say this house really does dictate what we do next. This time, it was Hurricane Beryl! We planned to put up a shed this weekend but with the impending hurricane, we opted to postpone that for a different weekend. Instead we did one thing that was driving me crazy and also started to complete the opposite landing in the atrium.

The driving me crazy item was the only carpet left in the house – the carpet in the master bedroom and what is currently the closet. I’d rather walk on concrete (I am getting a couple carpet runners – once Amazon makes their appearance next week) but that carpet was just GROSS and I was done with it. Plus this will allow me to start to map out where I want to move walls with the master makeover.

We had the landing/balconies completed in the atrium, but still needed to put in the door from the extra bedroom to the landing. Plus we need this finished so we can remove the popcorn ceiling in the atrium and paint – meaning if we are pulling out the texture gun then we need everything completed so we make that mess one time in that area.

I’m happy to say (for anyone wondering) so far no activity from Beryl. It is suppose to hit land late tonight/early tomorrow and right now going north of us so we will just have the typical rain/wind. I may change my mind in the morning, but as of this minute, not panicking at all.

closet with the carpet

closet no carpet – believe it or not, one day this will be a vanity…

Looking from Ciera’s balcony over to the extra room

Door is in!

From the extra bedroom looking out to what will be the balcony.

I am happy to say the front of the house is complete! The brown cedar shingles were all re-stained (meaning no more white on them). I’m just going to call that a win. Everything we wanted to do last week, didn’t happen. We knew we wouldn’t have our full weekend as we went to look at a house with Ciera and Dylan. Some rain came through, which was much needed, but no painting then. Plus this year is the first that we have had to experience these invasive caterpillars. I know they have a name, but I just call them damn annoying! They were/are EVERYWHERE and they have decided they really like my daisies, which has not made me happy. Needless to say, these little buggers will make webs in trees. The plus, they DO NOT like my trees (just the daisies) but that doesn’t mean they don’t think they should invade the lawn, the house, sidewalks, etc. We spent a lot of $$ on bug killers and I made sure Chad had all of that stuff down.

This weekend, then we did get back at it – slowly. Chad’s hand is really hurting so we didn’t go a full speed as normal. He does get his shot this upcoming Friday and so we will be taking next weekend off. He may show me how to run the power washer (can’t be that hard) so I can wash down the front patio and sidewalk coming up to the house – it has some overspray on it, but that should be about it. We are going up to Dallas to see Ryan’s new house (Friday after his shot) and making a quick stop at NFM for the new sectional. I am saving ~$1000 by driving up there rather than getting local and that includes the u-haul, hotel, food and gas. CRAZY!!! I am SUPER excited that NFM announced they are opening another location in Austin in 2026…then it will only be a 2 hour drive rather than 5.

See you all in a couple of weeks!

We are spending our Memorial day painting (as I believe I had already mentioned). Surprisingly, it is going very well. We have had a few people drive by and stop and say they think it is looking good as well as a couple neighbors. I’m sure they were all curious of my hodge-podge look prior to this weekend, but glad to say it is all coming together. We still have the bricks in the flower bed to prime/paint and the bricks on the east side of the house (and I keep forgetting about the chimney) and the day is not done, but I knew I would not want to do the blog this evening. We do have to touch up some of the brown on the cedar shingles, but that is to be expected.

One thing that we tried and we weren’t sure how it would work out is a window mask/peel. You paint a clear coat over the windows, then you paint like normal and peel it off at the end. This actually worked!!!! Plus, we were then able to paint the window trims, so now instead of brown, they are the same cream color as the house. I’m super happy when things like this really work plus that means the new windows can remain a lower priority still.

Front before

Side (before) with the column getting primed (yes we are painting the brick).

Front entry before

Here is what the Mask and Peel looks like on the window

In case you are curious, this is what we used, both Lowes and Home Depot have this (if you ever get brave to try it out).

Notice the windows are all painted and this is where I peeled off one section.

After

After (notice touch up needed on the brown cedar shingles)

We purposely took March off as the living room was an ass-kicker and then ended up having April off too. This was naturally due to life events and thanks to Elise we had Brahma games to attend. 🙂

We are back at it now after the much needed break. We are getting the house painted before it gets too hot as it is already a little muggy, but trust me, we are not complaining. Since we are doing this ourselves, it will be a few weeks before we are finished. We will be back home for a weekend in May and Chad is on call next weekend so can only do little chunks. We are planning on getting most of the back and one side of the house done before memorial weekend so we can hammer out the other side and front over the 3-day weekend.

New siding where we took out the door/windows (not painted)

The new door with the trim put up.

This is the BEFORE – you can see the new siding to the far left that is yellow and then the old paint is more of a tan, you can’t really tell in this picture, but it was and ugly tan color.

Tried to get the same angle and this is AFTER with the new cream, almost white color.

Door after being painted, if you look up, you can see some of that ugly tan, the photos don’t show it well, but look at the brick and think of that type of tan on the siding. No thanks!

Granted not our house but this is the ultimate color concept so you know what we are trying to achieve.

I’m going to say the living room is COMPLETE! We do have to paint the trim and the door yet as well as finish the desk (and decorate). However, all of those things can be done with the furniture in place. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I plan to get different furniture, but you know after spending 3 months in the dining room, I just may chill for a bit. You won’t see a post next weekend as Chad gets the shot in his hand on this Friday so it will be a weekend of enjoying our new living room. I have pictures of the room completed without furniture and the same angle with the furniture. If you are curious what the two wires are behind the couch, those are for the in-wall speakers. I have them, just didn’t get those installed, but that does not prevent us from watching TV! Hope everyone has a great week and we will “see” you again in a couple weeks.

This was a productive weekend! The entertainment center is painted, caulking is done, desk is built, and the fireplace is all tiled. We have to hang the tv, get the drawer knobs, put the fireplace back in, and need to get the flooring in before we can “set” the desk. The plan is to be moving my living room furniture back in Sunday next weekend. Fingers crossed!

The one “miracle” this weekend was Chad actually let me paint. He is always so OCD about it, usually my job is to only supervise and chat with him. I did the best that I could on the cabinets and the shelves that I could reach without being on a ladder, so if everything from the floor up sucks, well that is why. On a VERY happy note, look at all of the extra room I have for Halloween decorations! I have some that I haven’t been able to put out since we moved here, so they will be making a comeback and there is room for A LOT more. I have not enlightened Chad of this fact yet, but in case you were curious, there is 249 days until Halloween!

All painted! The blue tape on the walls are where we need to touch up the white paint.

Well we got a lot done, but not as much as I would have preferred. I wanted to say the entertainment center was all painted this weekend. However, Chad worked some on Saturday and it is now mowing time down here and he wanted to take his time for the first spring mowing. Yes, he is that man yelling “get off my grass”, whatever…

The entertainment center is all built, the home theater wires ran, trim is up and all we need to do is paint it. I do plan on putting up tile around the fireplace so fingers crossed we get that done next weekend, problem is, I keep changing my mind on what color I want to go with. The legs for my desk won’t be in until Monday or Tuesday, so the empty space on the one side is for the desk – right now looks a little odd. Here is a progress picture and then completed.

We are getting there one board at a time. The main piece of the entertainment center is up and trimmed with the fireplace installed. Now we have the counters and shelving to put up, paint it all and then maybe then ready to lay the flooring.

First, I need to mention we did not get everything accomplished this past week/weekend. Chad had to work late on Friday and then woke up on Saturday with a nasty cold, so there was no work done on Saturday. However, we did get the beams trimmed (I don’t think you can see it in the pictures) and painted. We did get the lights all hung but one of the busts was the ceiling fan. That thing will be getting sent back or taken to Goodwill as it will not let me reprogram the remote to the fan. I spent WAY too much fighting with it, so I’m done and will get an old school fan. Technology! In the pictures, if you think that banister looks crappy – you are correct, we will be replacing it, but will be one of the last things completed.