Punchlists

Thanks to my husband, our home is currently filled with punchlists like these. We have lived at our new house for a month, but we are still not living in our home.

We have undertaken a larger than anticipated set of remodeling projects. Our home will ultimately be better for it, but in the meantime our life is dominated by punchlists and many, many projects.
Folks have been pestering me for an update about our house, so in honor of the punchlists that currently decorate the walls in our home I thought I'd give an updated tour complete with punchlists.

THE FAMILY ROOM

Ok, honestly, at the moment it is more accurately the mud room, or that area where everything needed to complete any project lands. We have not tackled a single project in this room. (In fact, we don't even want to think about what needs to be done in this room yet!)


SPARE BEDROOM

What's been done so far:

- hardwood floors refinished

-icky wallpaper removed

-walls re-mudded and textured
-baseboards sanded and prepped for painting

-icky smelly carpet removed
-wall heater removed and appropriately patched

What needs to be done:
-paint the walls

-paint closet interior

-replace light switches and outlets

-replace light fixture? (maybe someday!)
-install quarter round and new crown molding

THE KITCHEN

What's been done:
-Flooring replaced

-and since the last photo update - the ceramic tile on the cooktop counter has been removed

To be done:
Everything! The appliances are arriving, the backsplash tile has been selected, the countertops are selected - but we need to finish the rest of the house before we tear up this room!

The background for this picture is our new ceramic tile. The small subway tiles are what we have chosen for our backsplash, and the top sample is our countertops.

THE HALLWAY

What's been done:
-The floors have been refinished
-The walls have been repainted
-the light switches have been updated
-doors are painted (mostly!)

What's left
-Install crown modeling and quarter round
-Install new hardware on linen closet

THE MASTER BEDROOM

What's been done:
-The walls have been painted (Faded Clay)
-The trim has been painted (Honeymilk)
-The floor has been refinished (Golden Oak)
-the outlets and switches have been replaced
-The doors have been painted

What's left to be done:

-install crown molding, baseboard, and quarter round
- replace the light fixture? (maybe someday!)

This room is not in bad shape at all

By the way, our home has true divided light windows. Might I interject to say, that these are fabulous - until you have to prep them for painting and ultimately paint. What a pain!

THE BATHROOM

What's been done:
-Trim painted

-icky wallpaper removed

-walls textured with a Venetian Plaster application

-Walls painted (Violet smoke)
-cabinets painted and the odd 1970s swoop removed from the bottom of the cabinets - that has been replaced with more modern lines

What's left to be done:

-regrout the floor :(
-install new cabinet hardware

We are making progress, slowly, but surely - maybe we can have most of the projects completed by Thanksgiving....maybe!

Need your help!

Help!

I need to post our wedding announcement in our respective newspapers, and I can't pick an image. In case you didn't know, I'm a bit indecisive.

So, help!

Here's the link to our wedding images.
http://www.pictage.com/712199

Which one would you choose for publication of our wedding announcement. There will be at least two postings - one in Iowa and one in Amarillo. Leave your vote for the picture to include with our announcement in the comment section.

Thanks!

People of Walmart

This is funny stuff. I can't make it up.

Check it out - you will laugh.

www.peopleofwalmart.com

Be the Floors

Bryan is the floor.

I mean that in a good way, well he does. It has become his mantra over the course of the past few days. I wish there was something I could to help with the project. But, my rockstar husband insists that he has it all under control. The floors are looking great, honey! Thank you!

Days of Labor

Friday evening when I got home from work I had the brilliant idea to do a little bit of cleaning up around the house. Hey, I was in a mood for a bit of destruction - pulling down weeds off the side of the house seemed like a good way to vent this energy.

First of all, folks, if you think it is a good idea to plant vines to grow up the side of the house. Please, think again. While the vines do have a certain "charm" the havoc the wreck on the exterior of your home is tremendous. My personal issue with vines is the number of creepy crawlies they allow to hide in their protection. We found (and eliminated) one mouse - eeber geebers! Weeds on the side of the house - no more please!
While the weeds growing up the walls of the house have been removed - there are still many roots to remove. Bryan started the process on Friday evening and had to stop when he broke the shovel.

My wolfie, that's a big stick you have! Folks, these are some serious roots to remove.

After Friday evening's festivities (which required yet another trip to Lowe's to replace our shovel and purchase other remodeling necessities) we embarked on the great mission to finish our hardwood floors. Many, many, many hours have passed and we are still not finished with this project. Bryan is now one with the buffer and has sanded and screened and buffed every inch of the floor. I have stained every floor board. There is more buffing to do before we can begin sealing the floor. I'll post pics from the floor project once we have achieved completion. Until that point, must continue on.

Renovations: Day 12

It has been awhile since I have been able to post updated photos of our home. I went through the house a few moments ago and captured these images to help tell the tale of our renovation.

This first image is of the back bedroom, or the office, or whatever we decide to call it today. Last time you saw it was decorated with an atrocious layer of wallpaper (pink and floral - disgusting!). Bryan's brother, Ken, has finished applying a layer of drywall mud and texture to the walls and now they are ready for a fresh coat of paint.



This is the west wall of the master bedroom. These walls have also been floated with a fresh coat of mud and textured. Bryan was curious and wanted to see what our paint colors would look like on the walls so he applied these test patches tonight.

The color for the master bedroom is called faded clay. It's an orange tone without being agressive, but it is still an earthy color. The colors we have picked for the interior of the home are all earth tones. In this picture you can see how the master bedroom color works with the hallway color.

This is a shot of the south wall of the living room. Bryan also tested this paint tonight. I can't remember the name of the color at the moment and I'm too lazy to walk back to the house to look at the paint chip. We will save that information for another day and another posting.

Front entrance with view of the dining area, hallway and kitchen

The big project that has been completed is our kitchen floors. We now have a new ceramic tile floor in the kitchen. So long icky yellow, green, peeling linoleum! There is more work to be done in this room, but it is nice to see some definite progress.

During all of this construction our family room is serving as a workshop and storage area. This room is a long ways off from an update.

We had to move all of our belongings from the rental house to our house. Thankfully, we have a double car garage. We are literally stacked to the rafters in there - with a narrow walkway down the length of the garage. Unpacking is not in our immediate future!

While we are living in the middle of a construction zone, we really aren't living in the construction zone. Luckily, our new home has a back house and we have been able to set up our bachelor pad style home here. It's our bedroom, living room, bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, general utility room. For now, it's home sweet home!