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We are still at it – we will be for a while as you all know. I didn’t get anything posted last week as I was in Corpus Christi with Ciera on Sunday and I’m sure if I tried to have posted something, it would have been an epic failure, so here is our last 2 weekends of work. It doesn’t seem like a lot and probably a true statement as we are on hold for some of it as we are waiting for materials to get in.

We have ordered all of the new banister parts and the wood stair pieces that are needed so we can finish the upstairs hall flooring. It is all supposed to be in this week, so fingers crossed by the end of next weekend it will be done. Most likely wishful thinking as Chad gets his cortisone shot in his hand on Friday, so it may end up being a TV weekend. I cannot complain as I definitely would not want to go through those shots/pain.

One of our setbacks was with the hallway outside of my office. Chad needed to put a second coat of paint on the wall so we could hang my office door. There are two windows on the one side of the hall and we knew we would be replacing the trim, so why try to tape and paint it, just remove the trim, paint and then we could put up the new. Well….take a look at the window now, it is broke. We thought we would replace these windows as they have a weird boarder on them, but not right away. Guess the house had different plans (or rather Chad).

We then decided we better start getting some quotes on windows, ugh. I knew windows were expensive and I know not everyone has seen every room in this house, but we do have A LOT of windows. We think we know who we are going to go with and waiting for the final quote to land in the inbox. They anticipate 3 days of work, ummmm that is going to be fun. Rodney will be happy as he’ll get to go have his play days, but the kitties, well that is going to be a nightmare, from them being scared to then probably figuring out that they could escape, thinking it might get a little crazy.

Speaking of the kitties, their cat hall is almost completed. We have to do the caulking yet and once we get the banister stuff in, then we can finish up the floor. Getting there!

The final thing we accomplished is my office door did get hung. Yahoo!

This weekend we did a lot of “things”, let me explain. 🙂 Saturday was spent tilling up the backyard for Ciera’s garden. Now, we all know I cannot grow a thing and all things I try to grow die…hence Ciera’s garden. However, picture this garden area as my new pool. That is EXACTLY what this area will become once Ciera finds her perfect home away from home. As Ciera grows veggies, I’ll just keep dreaming of my pool! The plus, I’m not ready for the pool yet so I guess free veggies for a season is a good thing. If I were to opt for the pool, then nothing on the inside of the house would get done, so I’ll just keep dreaming of my perfect backyard. A win-win situation (for now).

We did get the second vanity installed in Ciera’s bathroom, so the vanity area is 100% completed. We will start on the shower area next weekend, not a big fan, but it has to be done. Since we had a few extra hours on Sunday, why in the world would be just sit idle? Ok – can you tell I would have been fine with being lazy? Nope, we started on what I’m calling the “cat hall”. This will be an area where we will hide the cat boxes but will have some storage above so I can put all of Rodney’s towels (he does love his baths), all of his bling (collars) and all that miscellaneous stuff that comes when you treat your fur-babies like kids. Oh, how I need to get a life. 🙂 until then, well, a cat hall it is.

I know it will not look like much, but Ciera’s vanity area is painted, trimmed and one vanity is in. We found out (shame on me for not looking earlier) that the faucet we wanted to use will not work with these vanities, so new ones are needed. That will be a Lowes/Home Depot/Google search tomorrow.

Obviously, we need to also hang the mirror. The new light is up, but as of this posting, I don’t have a picture of it (I blame Chad, hee hee). It will all be completed next weekend, so we will have before and after pictures next week!

The office is finally completed! Ok – so I’m waiting for my shutters to come in (1st or 2nd week of April) but that is easy-peasy for Chad to install, so I’m saying my office is done! Chad also textured and primed Ciera’s bathroom… well the vanity area. We are going to get that 100% completed before we tackle the shower and tub, I don’t feel right totally upsetting her normal morning routine. We are getting there and that is all that matters, each weekend a little more complete.

We did have a couple surprises this week, as I have said, this house dictates what and when we do things. First the springs to the garage door broke – no big deal, we would just go get new springs, Chad would replace them and on with life we would all go. Nope – you cannot get the springs we needed for a couple of weeks. Ugh! Therefore, we called a local garage door company to come and fix it. I have to say, they were great and come to find out one of the previous owners had the wrong springs installed, so now we have a working garage door with the right springs. Thank goodness! We also encountered a surprise when Chad removed one of the vanity lights in Ciera’s bathroom. The picture will be below, but why in the world would you put the electricity through the right spot? Not in this house – let’s put it off to the side, so you have to move the wiring to the right spot to even hang a new light! It is now fixed, but these little hiccups always take extra time away from what you think you will be doing. It is ok, we are just going with it, as it will all look fabulous soon.

This weekend we did get my office moved to its official location in the house and I will have completed pictures next week. I have organized chaos right now as I had half of my office stuff still in boxes, so this week I’ll get everything unpacked and in its proper place. I took the week off with Ciera (her spring break) so I have all the time to get it how it needs to be. We also took out the final vanity in Ciera’s bathroom and have the tile laid and grouted. Ignore the yellow walls – we have to retexture the ceiling and walls, but it is starting to come together. She should have the vanity area functioning by the end of next weekend and then we will start on her tub/shower area. It will be fabulous when we are done and cannot wait to show the completed work if it turns out anything like we are planning.

I know, most people would say that the office is not the priority, but as you all know I literally live in my office, so once it is done, I would be ok with the rest of the house sitting. I just need to have a pretty place that feels like me for my workday. We only have to paint the trim and I can start to move into my new space. We also started to put the new flooring in the hall, to connect with the office. Naturally, the floor was not level, so fun and games there (otherwise I am betting my trim would have been painted and I could have been moving this week). Oh well, all is good as my house is starting to look like “me”. Yes, I know I share this living quarters, but I really don’t think Chad cares what I come up with. HA!

This weekend, it was all about the paint, in my office that is! I found this color for my office in Little Elm, and I still cannot shake it, so it is back. I have the deep red wine color that really pops once all of the trim is bright white. The walls are painted, new ceiling fan is up, and new air vent are all completed. Chad also started painting the hallway, but it is not exciting as it is boring white – there is a purpose behind the white, but not going to ruin the surprise. This weekend, fun with flooring (I so hope) then, I can start the move into my office (my home away from home). 🙂

We had the set back with the colds/Covid going through the house and started to get going last weekend before we had to make a very quick trip home to Nebraska. However, we were back at it this weekend. We won’t do much if anything next weekend as we will be back home in Nebraska as Chad’s mom passed away. Look for updates the following weekend. This weekend, Chad got the office and part of the hallway mudded and primed. We did go get the new office door and paint and fingers crossed he doesn’t have to work late this week as then the office will be painted and then we can work on installing the new floor. Regardless, progress!

We took a couple weeks off due to the colds that hit Chad and Ciera then me last weekend, but this weekend we were back at it. We only had Sunday this week as Chad had to work on Saturday, but that is ok – any progress is better than no progress. Naturally another coat of mud and sanding happened, but the real progress was running electricity to what will be my office floor. Yahoo! Plus, Chad ran the plastic tubing so when I move upstairs, I can have my wired internet line. I know wired in internet may not seem like a big deal to most, but with my job, it makes it much better, trust me. 🙂 Happy Kellie work-life, happy Chad.

As we were making 1 trip to Lowes (yes only one this weekend) a tree-top guy stopped by and I was actually happy that he did. He said that he used to trim our big tree for the previous owners (yahoo) and he can put lights in my tree too. I cannot wait for him to do his magic as my big tree out front can be in its full glory! Plus, he is going to get rid of the outside landscaping – for a low price of $200. That is to remove and haul away – hey, that could be a rip off, but we don’t have to do it, so I’m 100% excited for Monday morning! I cannot wait to share that next Sunday with all of you.

Hope the weekend was good for all. Chad and Ciera were a little under the weather with colds, so instead of pushing ourselves, we opted to just take the weekend and rest. Ciera’s birthday is this week, so we took this opportunity to celebrate on Sunday streaming all things, ‘Ciera’. If any of you wanted to see the new Hotel Transylvania Transformania, I recommend it, not my favorite one, but it was still good. We will be back at it next weekend with (fingers crossed) a crew that is feeling a little better.