We're IN!

I know, I know... I haven't posted in a week now. Things have been a little bit crazy here at the house trying to get it all in order. These pictures were taken when we first moved in. Things are coming together much better than this picture appears. I would have to say that the only room that is completely put together is the guest bathroom. It feels good to be "home" though.

Bailey has found this new house to be lots of fun. We put her out in the backyard last Sunday and just let her play. She came in wet and dirty, but had so much fun in the process. She loves water more than anything, so the sprinkler was so exciting!
She has also found that she really likes to lay on the stairs. She fits just perfectly. I guess that she likes to lay on carpet but she doesn't really like the rug in the living room because it isn't very soft. She's such a sweet puppy!

Zach and I want to send a huge thanks out to our friends that came and helped us last week... Tyson, Sarah, Jamie, Drew, mom, and dad... we couldn't have done this move without your help. Since we got everything moved last weekend the apartment was empty for cleaning it. That was wonderful. I took yesterday and today off to clean the apartment and get more of the house in order. The apartment was clean in 4 hours yesterday and this morning we had carpet cleaners come and then we turned in our keys. We are officially done with the apartment. Now we just await our deposit check back. Hopefully we cleaned well enough to get most all of the money back! I'll post more once the house is set up.

Moving Day!

Tomorrow is the big day! We'll be moving most all of our stuff to the house. There will be little odds and ends, but we will get all of the big stuff that we can tomorrow. So exciting and so ready for everything to be in the house and organized.

Meanwhile... we have put the rug down in the living room. We got our rug at IKEA about two months ago and it's perfect for the room. At the time we bought the rug, we didn't know that we would buy a chair with the same pattern. It works out perfectly!

We moved quite a few boxes to the house tonight, and Zach unpacked the guest bathroom. He already hung our mirrors. They look great!


We also got all of the boxes for the kitchen that we had brought unpacked. You'll notice that the cabinets are no longer cluttered with remodeling supplies. They are now covered with things that belong in the kitchen. It's almost done!

So this is the stuff that we have left... actually there's a lot of stuff left at the apartments, but this just gives you a taste. With the help of family and friends, we'll have it moved in no time!



I'm just ready to be settled! Well it's time for my last night at the apartment. Official move is tomorrow... official day to turn in key is August 31st. I have a week to clean! Whew!

My chair

In this buying a house adventure, I figured that we needed at least one new item of furniture. I really wanted something nice for the living room that I could get comfortable in, but it also look very nice. So we searched at several furniture stores and we ended up at Stacy's in Grapevine. I knew that they had good stuff and they also had some pieces that were really our style. So we found exactly what we were looking for... a modern recliner. It's a push back recliner made by Lane. It's awesome... and it's going to look great in the living room. We special ordered this one with the red fabric. It's got little bitty stripes of tan and brown in it. We're gonna love it, but we can't sit in it yet. The fabric treatment is still drying.



The project that we finished tonight was putting new contact paper on the kitchen shelves. I had to show you Bailey's help... she just liked to lay in the cabinet because it was dark and cool. She's an explorer and she found that the cabinets were a nice place to be. Sure wish it had been an easy for us to get in the cabinets because putting down contact paper is hard. (by the way... these pictures were taken before we put new paper on these shelves. )


This is what the cabinets and drawers look like now. I can't wait to get my kitchen set up and start using it. It will be nice to have it all done. I guess that I should start packing some more.

Finishing touches (on some rooms)...

We have been busy over the past couple of days. We took off Thursday from housework. Friday night was spent cleaning the kitchen cabinets and painting the living room ceiling. And then came the weekend. We knocked out a lot of stuff this weekend... and that's a real good thing because the movers come on Saturday morning.

The bathroom is looking so wonderful. We bought new towel racks and toilet paper roll. The mirror is hung and it just looks so great. The only thing left is to get the floors shining in that room.


This is the living room ceiling after paint, lights being hung and the fan in working order. It's sooo nice. Below is our living room area which also needs some major cleaning to the floors, but other than that, it's done!



I wanted to post a pic of the oven because I don't think that I have before... you would never believe that the oven used to be almond. Zach spray painted it with appliance paint and it looks as good as new. Now all the appliances match except the fridge. We aren't changing that though because it is in good condition and it's white, so it matches the trim in the kitchen, even if it doesn't match the other appliances.

Almost finished room...

So I know that I have posted pictures of this little bathroom several times, but this time it's because it's almost done. And by almost, I mean all that left is to hang the mirror back up. It's done with touch up gray and white and all the painter's tape has been removed. It's a great feeling to have something accomplished.


These doors across from the shower are the laundry. A very nice little hiding place under the stairs. The doors look so much better in white rather than cream.

And this fancy little place is a little storage area underneath the bottom of the staircase. It's not much room, but it should definitely help with storing our Christmas decorations.
Zach got some insulation put in the wall in the garage that he is rebuilding and he also primed the ceiling in the living as far as he could reach. He'll finish that on Friday hopefully. By this time next week, I want to be cleaning the house and getting ready for the move! Guess I should get some more packing done soon.

White as Snow...

This weekend was spent painting all the white areas and we are still working on that now. Other projects accomplished were more wiring in the garage and the texture sprayed on the ceiling in the living room. It's really starting to come together. Only about two weeks until the big stuff gets moved to the house. We're getting really excited.

This is the dining area in the kitchen. The white has been repainted (see pictures from previous posts) and it truly makes a world of difference. The kitchen is basically done.

Here is the ceiling in the living room... Zach has yet to prime and paint. Maybe he'll get that done this weekend. He's trying to finish the wall in the garage.


Tonight, my mom and I primed all the doors, trim and baseboards. It's so much better than that ugly cream color that used to be in the bathroom. Zach and I also got that light fixture last Thursday night. I'd have to say it's also much better than the brass bar fixture.


This is the bedroom where Zach rebuilt the wall... this is after the closet door has been painted white as well as all the trim. Also a world of difference.


The next project... painting this little hallway at the top of the stairs. There are all sorts of fingerprints and pencil marks on it, so it definitely needs a fresh coat. We'll start on this after we have painted the trim in the bathroom (right now it's just primer).


In other news, we found out tonight that Zach just got moved into the Kitchen & Bath Design dept. at Home Depot. We are so excited because this means that he will move up to full time status. It also means that he will get some experience in the field of his major, Graphic Design. He starts on the 27th, which is also the same day that he starts school. Training all day and then class at night. Yea Zach! Praise God!

More to come....

08-09-07

What is the significance of 08-09-07? Well today was deemed wear your power gear day in support of 897PowerFM. This is the radio station that Zach and I listen to constantly and love. The radio dial doesn't usually go anywhere else! It's a listener supported radio station, so wearing your power gear also means you have supported the station to keep them on the air. Check them out... Power FM!
So this is the list... it's getting things knocked off slowly but surely. Anything with a big black dot next to it has been done. I'm sure that there are a ton of little things to add to this list, but this includes all the big things. We were able to cross off a few tonight like the paint in the bedroom and bathroom. The gray is completely done now. It's time to start the baseboards and anything else that needs to be painted white. It's going to be a tedious task, but it will look so much better when it's done.

This is the master bedroom. I wanted to post a picture of the color that we painted. This is the same color that was already in the room, but it looks a lot better with a fresh coat of paint.
Zach had today off from work. His job was to put the new lights in the living room, so that my dad can be ready to texture on Saturday. The only thing that is lacking now is another layer of mud on the drywall. The ceiling in the living room and the wall in the garage are the two big projects remaining. I am feeling pretty good about everything that we have accomplished. I'm just hoping that we'll be ready to move in the last weekend in August. So exciting!

Feeling a little gray...

I'm actually feeling very excited because we got a lot accomplished tonight. My mom and I painted the entire bathroom, laundry room and half of the bedroom in a color called "Pewter Mug." A very nice color of gray and a world of difference from the navy blue paint that used to be in the bathroom. I'm really loving it. Now we just have to get the doors painted and the trim, white of course. This bathroom will have red and black towels. It's a theme in the house if you couldn't tell. ;-)


This is the bedroom that Zach replaced the wall in. The paint is going to look very nice in here as well and it will definitely help clean it up. The walls were so dirty from little kids handprints and whatnot. So exciting....
While my mom and I painted in the bedroom and bathroom, Zach and my dad finished scraping the popcorn off the ceiling in the living room. My dad got some scafolding at The Home Depot and so they are able to get it done much easier. The whole ceiling is scraped and ready for primer and paint. It's coming along.
It's time to go watch some Design Star. Maybe I'll get some more ideas. ;-)

Projects over the weekend...

Saturday, I was able to finish up the touch up areas in the kitchen with a third coat of red paint. Saturday afternoon, Zach textured the rebuilt wall in the bedroom. Thanks to the Kirksey's for letting us use their "spraying mantis". It did a great job with the texture. Also on Saturday afternoon, my sister and I started painting in the master bedroom. We decided to just put a fresh coat of the same paint that they had originally used. Little did we know that it would take so much paint. It took one gallon to do three coats of red paint in the kitchen. In the master bedroom it took one and half gallons to do one coat. This was partly due to the type of paint used, Ralph Lauren Suede paint. It has a sandy texture and so it just doesn't coat very well. I think that it will look just fine one it has all dried though. I wouldn't ever use that paint again though.

Sunday afternoon, my dad started the project of scraping the popcorn texture off the ceiling. He would just wet it down and it would scrape off in sheets. It's going to look really nice once it's a flat ceiling. Who invented that popcorn texture anyway. It's just a dust trapper in my opinion.

Today Zach woke up thinking he had to be at work at 8am and then he realized that he didn't. So that just meant more work at the house. He started tearing down the wall in the garage. He got most of that down and it's ready to be hauled to the dump.

Right now, I feel like we are in the middle of about 15 different projects. I really want to finish at least one room. Maybe tomorrow.

Now for pictures....

The texture is coming off very nicely

This is the load that was taken to the dump .... these are the bushes and shrubs formally known as the Jungle.
The beginning of the tear down in the garage. We will now have a place to park our cars once this wall is finished.

And last but not least... Bailey taking a nap in the sun. This is what I will be doing right now.

Awning Red

I got off work today at 3:30 and went straight to the house to start working. That meant about three more hours of work on the house for me than usual. Zach had been at the house all day long working on odds and ends. When I got there, I started on the lighthouse border in the guest bedroom. It is now gone from the wall and that room is ready for re-texturing, primer and paint. Hopefully we'll start that Sunday. Then Zach and I started working on the paint in the kitchen. After the shocking previous post, I wanted to give you some relief today... Here is the first coat of paint being put on the walls.


These next two pictures are after two coats have been done of the "Awning Red" color. I think that there will be some areas that will need a third coat, but we'll get to that tomorrow. I'm loving it. Now all that's left as far as painting in the kitchen is the white chair rail and the baseboards/trim. I'm so excited to almost have a whole room done with paint. It's definitely an accomplishment. I looked at our list tonight and there have been about 7 things marked off of about 25 or so. We're moving right along. ;-) Tomorrow is more painting.

(By the way, the paint around the door may look sloppy in this picture, but there is trim that will be there. Never fear.)

Pretty in Pink!

Tonight I painted in the kitchen. You are probably thinking... oh what a lovely color pink. Well yes it is a beautiful pink salmon color, but don't be alarmed. It won't stay like this.... Friday or Saturday will be the actual painting of a color called "Awning Red." I'm very excited about my red kitchen to match my black and white plates. So pretty. ;-) You can't really see the texture from pictures, but it really does look good now that there is paint on the walls.



Well it's time to get in bed after a long day of work and manual work. We're taking a break from the house tomorrow night because Zach works till close. Maybe I'll get some more packing done here at the apartment in the meantime.