Coming soon ...

WINDOWS WILL BE INSTALLED ON WEDNESDAY... FINALLY!!! We've also installed new kitchen floor, hung up some more light fixtures, re-hung our kitchen cabinets, and tore out the old green tub!!

Pictures of all this coming soon...as soon as we get a chance to breathe!

Some before and afters

Well the floors are done. Sanded, cleaned up, sealed, and coated. Talk about a process but WE LOVE THEM! Here's some pics, they certainly aren't completed rooms but they are on their way!

Talk about a backache ...

The wood floors we uncovered after taking up the carpet were in pretty good shape but they definitely need refinished. After we took up all the tack strips and staples it was about 120 man hours of sanding.

Bending over the machines for that long did a number on the back. But it was all worth it when we saw the results. After some filling and extra sanding most of the stains came out, at least as well as they could have.

We were hoping for hardood floors under the kitchen floor but after Joe and Dan chipped away at the particle board underlayment for an hour we didn't find any!

Painting Party

It's been a long time since we posted but tons of stuff going on. All in an attempt to get moved in next Sunday!! It will be nice to live in one place in stead of two. We had a work party to get a lot of painting done about a month ago.

Even better we tore into getting the carpets out at the end of the day! Unfortunately they we just disgusting, completely stained with pet urine and who knows what else!

Now we're getting somewhere!

After that scary bathroom 'discovery' on Friday night (see below), we had a pretty successful weekend. Saturday we got a lot of priming done of the walls (we're having a 'painting party' this weekend to get the bedrooms painted). Joe did a great job fixing that pesky corner!! Here is a picture of pre-primer and after (this is the corner that had about an inch gap around it...it gave him a lot of headaches).

Saturaday night we tried to get the kitchen really prepped so we could start on the cabinets and ceiling on Sunday. First, we did get to celebrate Easter (on a smaller scale). We got up at 5:30am for a sunrise service (we went on a short hike with our friends Dan and Natalie to this mountian top that has a beautiful view).

Then after our regular church service we headed out to the house - super motivated to get our 'list' done. Joe did some patching while Myra painted the ceiling (talk about a crick in the neck)! Then Myra started to prime all the kitchen cabinets. Joe said 'Oh, I doubt those will take more than 45 minutes to prime'...and went out to mow our 'field'.

Two and a half hours, after Joe battled down the yard, Myra was still working on those cabinets. Then another hour and a half later - she was done! Painting some of the corner ones involved some special manuvers.

Joe did another coat on the ceiling and we were excited that we got what we wanted done (for once!)! :-) Here's some more pics.

Another 'Do we really want to go there?' moment

Well, Friday night started out just fine, we had some 'goals' set out and were on our way. Then we thought 'Hey, let's take a look at this tub wall'. That's where things started going bad. Since the inspection we were a little worried about water behind the wall under the window. So we started out just removing a few tiles around the window.

Then we discovered that the tiles under the window weren't attached to the wall anymore, just each other!! The plaster behind the wall was just dust. Well, the next 'logical' thing to do was to figure out how much was really bad.

After a lot more wall came down (man that is A LOT of tiles), scared, we decided to just walk away....After a good nights sleep we realized that it was probably for the best - we are starting to get excited about what it will look like once we are done with it!

We did get some other priming done too...but this was the 'highlight'....

The Walls Came Crumbling Down, Slooooooowly

Well, we decided that as much as we REALLY wanted to just paint over the walls in the guest bedroom, it was probably best to try to remove the 'junk' that was there.

Two of the walls were covered in some sort of dust/old glue that was fun fun fun to remove - a mere 8 hours later we were down to the textured walls - phew! Here's a silly video clip that Joe didn't know Myra was taking: VIDEO. Here's Joe with the oversized toothbrush we were using.

Myra tried her hand at this expanding spray foam to insulate the holes from the electrical work - guess they really mean it that you don't need to fill it more to 1/3 way - it oozed just a little..

Meanwhile Joe attacked the cracked guest room corner for the 3rd time - and no, 3 times ended up NOT being the charm, the entire patch feel off again! Frustrating!!

After finishing up the scrubbing of the wall, the next project was texturing the small bedroom walls. For those of you who have never used textured paint before, it is basically paint with sand in it - and it not a lot of fun to put on...you use this crazy loop roller that splatters everywhere. You need to stir it really well first, as demonstrated by Joe. Then two gallons of paint only did 3 walls and Myra!

The good news is, we are that much closer to priming and painting! Its starting to look like a house! Here's a few more pictures is you are interested.

Look Dad...it's a Craftsman!

So the lawn was getting a little out of control, it was time to purhase a lawn mower (or a hay bailor at the rate we were going). We were heading up to Portland to get an AWESOME vanity (just wait till the house is done...you'll see if in the 'finished' photos!) from a guy on 'craigslist'. So we found a couple other things. Got a great deal on a brand new mower (in the box) from a guy that bought it but then moved into an apartment. Then we made a third stop to get a ceiling fan someone was selling. We've saved a ton getting the house fixtures like this! Anyway Joe got busy plastering (whats new) and Myra mowed part of the lawn with our new self propelled mower. Its great...and it's a Craftsman (Dad will be proud).

They're bbbaaaaaaacccckkkk!

So I can't really say why, but Jeremy and Carri and John and Sarah all came back again this weekend to help us with the house! Jeremy & Carri on Friday night, and John & Sarah on Saturday. Let's see, Friday we got a whole lot of random stuff day, a few plaster touch ups and then Jeremy put a second coat on some of the living room walls. Carri was busy getting the contact paper out of the drawers (better her than me!). We started refinishing a kitchen lamp we found at a resale store and then started sanding the kitchen cabinet frames. It was a long night.



Saturday we got back into painting (living room and kitchen cabinets). We had a whole bunch of things we crossed off the list, thanks to the help. Painting, plastering, removing paint from the cabinet hinges, relocating a light fixture, and then plaster, plaster, plaster...will it never end! Don't ask why Sarah's enthralled with the brush...I really don't know ---------->

John was getting a little unsettled so we sent him out to relieve frustration by ripping down the old fence!




We wouldn't be nearly as far as we are without friends! CLICK HERE for more pics from this weekend.


We spent the rest of the night sanding and plastering. Joe was opening up some of the cracks so that there was more surface area for the plaster to stick too, but when Myra walked in she was a bit suprised.

When Irish Eyes Are Smilin'

I forgot to post something OTHER than the house from last weekend. We took a short break to celebrate St. Patricks Day with our Young Marrieds group. Joani organized a great meal of corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage....oh and Mt. Dew! We could only stay for a little bit, then it was back to HW (yep even on Sat. night). Luckily we had some good stuff to wear (we were told everyone was dressing up...jokes on us!) that was leftover from a failed attempt to New Orleans 6 years ago! Remember that Shelley?