What a great week

We have been MIA this week from blogging, but for good reason. Logan was up for her Feb. break and we had a blast! Sure we worked all week, but teenagers sleep all morning anyways! We had so much fun cooking together, Annie had a constant play pal and to top things off, we went prom dress shopping. YES, she is growing up. What is great about being a stepmom, I skipped diapers, terrible twos, awkward middle school, and jumped right into HS years. I have such fond memories of HS that to me, this is fun! Of course, there is always worry surrounding school work, is she having a great time in HS like I did, what kind of college will she go to, and of course the boys. That brings me back to prom.

Here it is, THE prom dress. And she looks gorgeous in it (pics of her will come in April after the prom). the colors are purple, not blue, like my "hi-tech" iPhone camera makes it out to be. =)

Her dad on the other hand, boy has the worries set in. Prom, boys, school, and being so far away, it is even worse. If he could, he would implant a GPS tracker in her! Just wait until she starts to drive on her own this summer, OY!

As for home improvements, they are slowing down a bit. We still need the trim up in the LR, we have replaced 2 doors so far, more to come as we buy them. This week's goal, make a bday gift for my 93 yr old grandmother. I will take some pictures as we create it and share.

Have a great week everyone!

We have a couch!

That is right everyone, slowly but surely, we are moving furniture back in and our living room and kitchen for that matter, is becoming livable again! As you can see, our kitchen before was a nice holding area for our couches. Just imagine a love seat on top of that couch, I took this after I had moved it back in.

And of course, as a great help, Annie wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Just look at that face

 

And this is start of something beautiful.

 

As of today, there is a tv and tv stand along that back wall. Last step is the molding, unless the gaps are something more of a trend these days. I vote no. If you remember, I had said we were about 1/2 day behind, well, that 1/2 day has become over 2 weeks. Oy! If only we didn't have jobs and of course, were actually trained in drywall and not marketing and computers. All in all, not to shabby for our first time. 

We are excited to see what ReStore has in store for us this weekend. Fingers crossed for matching doors and possibly a "new to us" vanity.

We can see the light!

That is right, we are so close we can feel the comfort of our couch, the glow of our TV, the feeling of opening up the fridge when we want to. After 2 weeks of working on our living room after hours, we finally have paint up! Patrick worked constantly last week sanding and re-mudding areas of the drywall. 

 

 Trust me, it was quite a messy job, even our poor Annie was looking a little "lighter" after being covered in dust that found its way throughout out house. But, I came home, this part was done, so all that was left was to prime all walls and ceiling and paint. And at 11:59 pm last night, we finished, sort of.

 Here is where some speakers will be placed.

And here are some more speakers. Not sure how loud the living room will now be but Patrick says to trust him and I will do that since I am too exhausted to question the amount of speakers being placed in our small living room.

 

As for almost being finished. The walls will need a light second coat later today, then we can finally bring our furniture back in. Last step to bring this room back to looking like a room, the molding and baseboards. We have picked them out already and I can't wait for that last step. 

In the coming weeks we will be doing some smaller home improvements, nothing as major as this living room. If you know about ReStore, then you know how many awesome deals you can find and of course, going to a great cause. We are heading up there this weekend for a 50% off deal on doors. This house is old and the doors show it. Time to upgrade to fancier, panel doors! Yes ladies, married life is craaaazzzzy!!!!

Monday Madness

Nothing new to report, walls still look the same, furniture is still making its home in the kitchen and paint has yet to be bought. Oh the joys of home improvement on your own. Patrick is back from traveling over the weekend just in time for me to scoot out for the week for a work trip. What a wonderful Valentine's day gift would it be to come back and have the room completed (hint hint). We shall see!

Walls come down, then go up

Our weekend was very, very eventful. As you know, we are dabbling in the home improvement arena and first up, our living room. The house is over 40 years old and after numerous attempts to push those pesky nail pops back in and flatten out the cracking seams, enough was enough. So...the walls came down

And the ceiling

And look what we found behind one wall, evidence of a nice family I will never want to meet:

Luckily, I was able to be "off the schedule" during this demolition as my dad came to help us.

So during a nice dinner out with some girlfriends, the walls came down, along with the dust. Once it settled, we were up bright and early Saturday, to put them back up! Through all of this, masks and goggles were definitely worn.

Attractive, I know. But hey, my lungs and eyes are very important to me so I suited up. So the process began. As you can see behind me in this last picture, there isn't much of a stud coming off of the cynderblock wall. So we added on some 2x4 on both ends of the room, this way when we want to hang something, no need to drill into the cement, soo much nicer.

We also tore down the old insulation (R7) and put up new (R13), can you say, lower heat bills and warmer house! And the walls went up. You can see in this picture there is lovely, new recessed lighting as well. I have more pictures of this to come. Just wanted to share a bit of our progress so far. Hopefully after this weekend, we will be on our way to painting.



So any tips on what we should paint our living room? The floors are dark wood, couches are dark green and we will be having white crown molding when it is all said and done. I am thinking tan, any more exciting ideas?