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Ok, what I mean by that is we are now starting on the main floor! We opted to start with the atrium and dining room as they tie together. That meant pulling up the floor, finding ANOTHER mystery box, sanding the ceiling, and putting up a wall to block the dining room from the entry way. When you see the wall that we built to separate the atrium from the dining room, this will not be “open” as it is today but will become an art niche. I think we all know I love to decorate for all of the holidays and seasons, and one thing I miss from our Little Elm house was the art niches. Therefore, we are putting one in, which makes my heart happy. 🙂

Before

Before…

No more floor!

The plywood you see was laying down here making a box in the floor. We have decided that they had an indoor garden/flowers as you could smell dirt. Anyway, that had to go and be fixed RIGHT!

This was under the brown carpet stuff in the above picture

Sand base!

Concrete base and then we will put the floor leveling on top before we put down new flooring.

Wall framed and partial sheet rock. This little area will become where we will keep our shoes, jackets, etc.

The other view – remember this open spot will become an art niche! Cannot wait to show our progress next week!

Well, I have once again fell off my weekly update. I’m hoping with the NFL starting preseason, that will get me back into my normal Sunday updates (as the computer is with the TV and with NFL, it becomes my favorite room). Anyway, we did venture out to Port O’Connor which is on the Gulf Coast and cannot wait to show you the pictures. The water in this area of the Gulf is perfectly clear. I did not expect it and have to say, right now this will be my beach of choice.

We also found that a bird decided to use my wreath on the door as a great place to build a next. Needless to say, when we opened the door the one night to bring in some packages, there they were – baby birds!

On the home front, we did get the mini splits done in the extra bedroom, Ciera’s room and only have Ciera’s bathroom left. We were going to do that this weekend but decided to take in some racing on Saturday (there were some fights between drivers, and one got mad enough after the race to plow into another driver and turned its truck (yes truck races) on its top. It was fabulous! Since we need 2 good days for the mini split, we decided to spend Sunday getting the framing done for the second landing in the Atrium. We will get the atrium all completed then this week in the evenings.

The far landing is what we completed a few weeks ago that comes out of Ciera’s bedroom (see previous blog post). The closest will be enclosed with a landing that will come out of the extra bedroom

Framing is done and we will get it sheet rocked yet this week.

I know you would think we would have gotten more done, but Chad is right, these split units can be an ass-kicking. The 2nd split unit is in, this is in the upstairs hall/entry way leaving us with 3 more left to install. I do have to say, I love mine in the office now having a full week of using it and so I’m very excited to get the rest of these in. The old duct work is leaking so much, no wonder the unit for the upstairs cannot keep up in this heat. I’m super excited not only for the coolness, but a lower electric bill.

Before…

Hole is cut and the board at the bottom will support the unit while getting it all in place and the wiring/drain lines all connected.

Here is the unit and only needs the cover and we are done.

COMPLETED!

We have had a few things that we’ve worked on since the last update. We decided to build a “cat-io” think patio but for the kitties (well and us). Off of the master bedroom there is a porch that we were not using; I normally like to sit outside, but the mosquitos NEVER die here, and they make it unbearable. Then add to this the fact that I only have 1 window for the girls to sit in, they needed somewhere to get their fresh air. (Trust me when I say they have not been happy to not be able to have a window open and watch the outside world). What you cannot see in the pictures is that we did put in a cat door, so the girls can go in and out whenever they want to.

The other ‘fun’ stuff we have accomplished was replacing siding under a couple of windows and painted with what I think will be the new house color. You will see the difference in one of the ‘catio’ pictures. Ciera and I spent part of the 4th of July back home and while we were back in Nebraska, Chad put in the first of many mini-split units in my office. I worked some today and I was actually COLD; therefore, money well spent in my mind. Chad may disagree as to quote him “this was an ass kicking” and did tell me he missed me helping. (I’m taking that all as a win).

Inside looking out and yes that is a portable AC – the girls (and obviously Rodney) deserve the best of both worlds. Yes, they are ALL spoiled!

Gamora is super happy – yes, purple lights, that is the color she likes best.

New siding and this will be both the siding and brick color.

If you look at the top in the middle this will show you what a difference the color will be.

Mini-Split prep

Completed!!!

We can have 3 units total hooked to this one outside unit. Yes. we will have 2 more hooked to this one and have another whole unit that will have 3 other units. This will allow each room and the upstairs hall to each have their own unit and individual temperatures.

You know, things had been going really well with the remodel, so we should have known. Let me start with the good first. We were able to get the landing built outside of Ciera’s bedroom into the Atrium. We will be putting a door in the other side as that connects to the garage (meaning walk in garage = more Halloween decorations). Chad needs to texture; paint and we will put up railings which will hope to give a New Orlean’s feel. While we were cleaning up, we decided to pull up the floor under the landing as it was HORRIBLE, so walking on a little bit of concrete for a while would be much better. Well, that is what we thought. Upon pulling up the first plank of the floor, we see brick – same brick that is on the outside of the house. Then plywood floor but when you looked between the plywood and the brick, it appeared to be dirt. Sigh. Chad drilled a small hole to find they actually made a wood box to fill in the space. Well….we all know what is next on the list to be fixed correctly. We now know what we have waiting on the other side of the hall because when Chad remodeled the bathroom on that side, he claimed he could see brick. I doubted him but now know we have another mess on the other side. Here’s to no dull moment in this house!

We have accomplished a lot and I have not updated this for a couple of weeks; therefore, I’ll apologize for the long post. The entry way is DONE (meaning painted), new stairs are installed, and the last of what needs to be painted upstairs is primed, so will be completed by end of this week. We can then say we are 95% done with the upstairs. Why 95% and not 100%? Well, the one banister we will not finish until we take the brick off of the living room wall downstairs (they will need to match – which will make sense when we get to that point) and we are going to add a floor upstairs where there isn’t any (above where you see the scaffolding in the last post). Since there isn’t a floor there now, technically the upstairs then would be done. BUT as everyone is probably figuring out, that is not how we roll. LOL!

Entry way is DONE! White walls, gray trim and yes those are weights on the stairs. Last of the stair project and waiting for the glue to set.

Stair landing has its new floor!

This is to show that the old steps were too thick for the flooring I picked out. We had to pull up the old steps, put in new steps so that the flooring would work.

New steps! Yes, the one at the top got fixed as well. 🙂

Last of the hall which will be completed this week. Yahoo!!!

Ok, so the entry way isn’t new, but it is going to feel like it is new by the end of next weekend. We scrapped the popcorn ceiling and textured it this weekend. By the end of next weekend, the ceiling and walls will be painted. I’m not going to press my luck by saying the crown molding will be up too, but I cannot wait to get rid of this icky yellow color! As you all have probably noticed the remodel slowed some over the past month or so. This is because I was working on starting a business. No, I’m still working at Optum but started a business where Chad will be my main employee and hopefully this will put less stress on his body. I’m calling it his retirement job! Check out the business at: http://www.acetechstx.com. Needless to say, we have a lot going on! If you come to this site and no update, know we are still working on the house, but may have had to delay as we are focusing on the business.

prepping…

more prepping, this one took a bit as we had to move the scaffolding a few times, but it is all done!

We have been busy with “life” over the past few weeks but getting back to it. I think I last left with getting the door in Ciera’s room and crown molding up. We did get that all painted, the shutters in, and painted the closet. We have all of the new closet shelving to put up, but watching paint dry, is like watching a pot of water boil… Next weekend that will probably be the only thing accomplished as next Saturday we are going to a sandcastle competition. We are not competing, that would be hilarious but cannot wait to see what the competitors come up with. I hope all have had a great Easter! We did take some time to do our normal egg dying and Ciera and I are trying a new blue raspberry sparkling wine. Gotta say, it is good!

goodbye icky dirty walls!

It was one of those weekends where you know you accomplished a lot, but when you are asked, you can’t remember exactly what all you did. That is how the weekend went for me. We did a lot of little things. We sold the cart, so now we have space again in the garage, planted most of the flowers in the front bed, painted Ciera’s ceiling and decided to put the ‘garage’ flowerpots on a different timer, which meant running new waterlines in the attic, punching out a new spicket out the garage and adding a timer. We also sat down to order the new AC/Heater individual units for the upstairs. We are taking out the new AC (don’t ask) and now each room upstairs will have their own units with individual temperature controls. That means there should be some fun coming in the next few weeks. Get exited!

These are rose trees in the back. They are to have burgundy and white roses; the front rose is pink.

Same pink roses at the back with a little gem magnolia tree. The pink and white daisies are yet to show up that will be in the middle and front.

water pipe that comes down from the attic, out the front side of the garage for the spicket for the flowerpots.

This was a half-half weekend, meaning half of the work inside and half outside. We did get the door installed from Ciera’s room that will go out into the Atrium landing area. The ceiling in her room is primed and when Chad was doing that, thought he would just give it all a fresh coat of paint, so he is redoing the whole room. Whatever, silly boy. We also ordered the plants/flowers for the front flower bed which should come in this week. So excited as if it looks as good in person as I have in my head, I will be super happy! However, the flowerpots around the garage needed flowers, so found what we wanted for them and got those all planted too. Not a busy weekend, just steady.

See that pink – he is redoing it for whatever reason, but this is the door from Ciera’s room that will go out to the landing. If you look closely on the other side there is a hole in the wall, that was to mark where the door will go into the garage. Chad was going to punch out the wall this weekend but got him to wait until Ciera’s room is all done as then we can build the landing correctly and be able to stand on something really solid to put in the other door. We have to move some supports in the garage (and re-support it) so more than just a quick punch and hole and put in a door.