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More like 2 months instead of 1..

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.

Ahhhh time to relax some…

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.

Entertainment Center 98% done

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.

Ready for paint and tile…

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 have lights!

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.

Textured and Painted

I said that there wouldn’t be much to post as it would look like we weren’t doing anything, but progress has been made! We did get the walls/ceiling textured and painted this weekend. We also pulled up the rest of the flooring. Naturally things have been going WAY to good as when we pulled up the old wood floor a very strong smell of mildew and mold. UGH! We sprayed bleach and now letting that dry so hopefully that will do it; if not, we will get working to get rid of that. We do have the beams to paint yet – so they will not be brown, but a fabulous black! If all goes well, that will get done next weekend, lights and fan put up and we will start to build the entertainment center. See you next week!

Wiring completed

It is this part of all projects that I dislike as you are making progress, but it is so slow. Beyond getting the rest of the popcorn ceiling removed, we did get all of the wiring ran for the lights. Yahoo! Now it is just the taping and mudding, sanding and then mudding again. Hopefully by next weekend, we will be ready to texture, but that will probably be wishful thinking. Therefore, expect what will seem like “a lull” in the work, but nothing to show but dust.

Wiring ran for the new pendant lights. Previously they had only track lighting on the one side.

Holiday Happenings

I gotta say the 3-day weekends has been great and so wish we had these all the time as we got a lot done over these past couple of weekends. I hope the holiday’s were great for everyone and that you are excited for the New Year!

We got the double windows removed, the new French doors in and the water pipe capped (the water pipe came out where the new French doors are) over the Christmas holiday. This New Year’s weekend we removed the two windows and door from the west side of the room, got it all sealed back up, installed a new window and got 2 of the 3 sections of the popcorn ceiling removed. I did get a new ceiling fan ordered and 8 pendant lights which should be arriving in the next couple of weeks which will be perfect timing. It will take next weekend to get the first coat of mudding on, and finish the remainder of the popcorn ceiling removal. Then fingers crossed we will be ready the weekend after that to texture the room. We are getting there!!!

This the brace to keep the ceiling up as we took out these windows and needed to reenforce the area for the door.

Notice at the top the reinforcement, so we could remove the ceiling brace to install the doors.

Doors installed

West wall – before, we took out the windows and this door and closed it in with just a window where the door is now.

Outside looking in – this is now closed up and just a window.

Basically a completed view – just needed to do the side where the single door is (which is above where we removed it and put in a window).

Popcorn ceiling removed on 2 of 3 sections

I wanted to include this picture, this is the very top section of the ceiling that bumps up to the upstairs walkway. The builders did not texture the wall here, instead just had it popcorn textured and ran a brush over it. Needless to say, it all fell off with just touching it. Thank goodness we are doing it all over again!

And we are back at it…

I was still sore last weekend, so we didn’t get a lot accomplished and by the time I should have sat down to write the blog, my shoulder and arm were just over doing anything. However, I’m feeling much better now! Still have the tingling in a couple fingers, but I don’t feel like I can’t lift anything, so we jumped back into things this weekend. Chad worked most of the day Saturday, so pretty much Sunday work, but happy with the progress. Last weekend we got new wiring ran, decided to replace the old insulation and got the patio pad poured. This weekend, the sheetrock went up and we pulled down the temp wall that led into the hallway so we could put up sheetrock to close that off. We did take out some sheetrock on the wall that bumps up to the kitchen. I wanted to open up that wall – for an open floor design. We knew it was a load bearing wall, which meant we would have to reinforce it. What did we find instead… the upstairs sewage lines and water lines. That answers that question, that wall cannot be opened up. There is no way I’m up to messing with moving those lines. We have the kitchen and master bath water/sewage lines to play with, so I opted to give up that designing makeover dream (the opening of the kitchen to living room).

Next weekend we will be in San Antonio so I most likely won’t have an update. We do plan on working on both Dec 24-25 as Ciera is spending the weekend with us in San Antonio and therefore spending the holiday with her boyfriends family. I asked Chad what he wanted for his birthday (12/24) and what he wanted to do for Christmas, he said work on the house. So we will be working on the house. I’m dreaming of a completed remodel (like of I’m dreaming of a white Christmas). Look for an update then after Christmas!

patio pad poured. The new door is to be ready for pick up on 12/21!

New wiring on the wall that doesn’t have the black insulation. New insulation in this side wall and then replace what is on the back wall (got rid of the insulation in black).

This is the living room looking into the hallway – framing so we could put up sheetrock.

Sheetrock on the fireplace wall and the wall that will become the entertainment center.

This is the hallway looking into the living room (if you could see in there). What is the blue tape for? To help keep any dust from coming through until we are ready to tape it properly for mudding/texturing.

Crushed designing dream – not even going to try and move all of those lines to open up the wall between the living room and kitchen.