Open House Planned

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We have scheduled our Open House for April 4th. We are having two parties that day to celebrate. The traditional "drop-in and see" party is from 2pm to 4pm. That evening at 6pm we are having another party to celebrate my (Amanda) 30th birthday. My actual birthday is March 16th, but it makes more sense to have the party on the same day at the open house. The evening party will be BYOB and my friend, Ellen, is making a Mickey Mouse birthday cake for me. Both parties are as casual and relaxed as me and Tim. Call or email me if you need directions. We are very proud of the work we have put into this house and want everyone we know to come see it.


We did take a break from home remodeling two weeks ago to go see Disney On Ice in Johnson City. If we can't go to Disney World then we have to feed our Disney craving somehow.

Laura is returning on March 20th and staying a week to help us finish up the last major projects. We will still have a few odds and ends to touch up even when we have the open house, but, as I've been told numerous times by others, we will always have things to do around the house so I see no reason to delay the celebration.

Recently we got the new bathroom plumbed in and we are enjoying showers in our new 4x4 walk-in shower. Tim insisted on having the shower head tall enough so that he would not have to duck. It is so tall that I cannot reach it at all. He LOVES IT!

I don't have any other really good construction pictures to show you in this post so I thought I'd share with you images of our construction zone. Imagine living like this for seven and a half months.

This was the scene in the living room when had the contents of the master bedroom and closet cleaned out so the floors could be laid.

This is the constant pile of supplies in the dining room/kitchen.

This is the end of our bed. I get to squeeze between the stuff and the bed to get to my side.
Our master bedroom right now. See the toilet! and the air compressor and the safe, and the bucket of nails, and the paint, and....

Under that pile of baseboards and crown moulding is our couch. In front of that is our coffee table. I guarantee that no furniture in your home can collect as much stuff on it as ours can.



The last picture is from last summer when we had unpacked the kitchen boxes and Daisy decided to bury herself in the pile of crumpled newspapers. I just love this picture!

Don't forget to let me know if you are coming to the open house so I can be sure to have enough food.

We are almost finished.

Since the first of the year, we have been very busy bees. We are reaching the deadline for converting our construction loan to a mortgage so we are trying desperately to finish. Amanda's mom and grandmaw spent four and a half days with us over the long weekend. They were a huge help. Grandmaw kept us feed and washed all of our laundry. She didn't believe that would be of much help, but it saved us so much time not having to stop to prepare meals.

So since New Year's we have installed the window casings. We are installing the door casings as we get the doors installed. I can add installing door frames to my list of tasks I hate. We have purchased all the crown moulding and baseboards which are now laying in the hall and getting in my way.

We have a backsplash.

Here are some of the doors including the ones hiding the washer & dryer and my closet.

My closet has been a headache because it is an odd size. The rough opening is 46". No standard sized door would fit. I don't actually like the folding doors, but I accepted defeat and installed them last Thursday night. We haven't installed the casings yet around it.

The master bathroom is now tiled and grouted. Mom did the tiling over President's day weekend and I did the grouting this weekend. My first attempt and I don't think I did too badly.

I also tiled for the first time this weekend. I put tile around the tub in the guest bathroom. If you'll notice in the first picture, I used popsicle sticks to level the tiles. We have used popsicle sticks all over this house. Some are still in place, hidden behind sheetrock. I get to grout tomorrow. Oh, goody.

We changed out the sink/vanity top in the guest bathroom last weekend. I installed the new faucet and build the ledge behind it. I tiled it today.

We've framed out the closet in the corner of the kitchen. We have to finish out the new drywall and paint it before we install the bi-fold door in it. We also have the mud the drywall and paint the inside of it, but that is not on my immediate list. I don't think the appraiser is going to open that door.


So that's were we are right now. We have to paint the remaining door frames and doors and then install them. We have to finish the plumbing for the new bathroom, install a fan and can light, mud the drywall, and then paint it. We also have to finish mudding then paint the guest bathroom. We have to mud and paint the guest closet and around the windows. And of course, we cannot forget the miles and miles of crown moulding and baseboards that must be painted, cut, and installed. Cleaning up this construction zone after all this is over is going to be an adventure in itself. Then, we get to unpack. I promise we will have a party when this is over!

Floors are finished!!!!!

The floors are finally installed! Hip hip hooray!!! The last piece was installed last night. We are all exhausted. The house is still messy and most of our stuff is still in the basement, but we will be unpacking this week. We bought several boxes of tile from the outlet store in Crossville. We may get the backsplash in the kitchen finished this weekend if our energy lasts.

Enjoy the pics!

Our Christmas decorations. We couldn't put a tree up on the inside this year so I put it up on the front porch. I really love my front porch!

Newly painted kitchen

The stuff from the living room sitting in the kitchen while the floors got laid.

Laura installing living room floor.

Living Room

Hallway

Guest room floor

Tim nailing floors in the master bedroom.

Stack of the new tile and the new toilet for what will be our new master bath. We have tile for the kitchen backsplash, the new master shower and floor in master bath and the area above the shower in the guest bath.



When we get backsplash finished, I'll post those pics.

Painted Walls

In case you're wondering. No, the house isn't finished. My mom spent Thanksgiving week with us and helped get our walls finished. We now have a painted living room, hallway, and bedrooms. We textured and painted every ceiling and the kitchen floor is completely grouted, too. The boxes of flooring are now in the living room waiting for us to finish unpacking them, Unless the magic gnomes show up tonight and put them down for us Mom will be coming up after Christmas to help us do it. We haven't put up a Christmas tree in the house because of the flooring issue and that's put a little damper on the season. I will probably put it up in the kitchen just so I can have it up. And yes I will post pictures. I'm trying to come up with an interesting picture to put on our Christmas cards. Something with a paint roller.

Our first snow!

Our neighbors. Aren't they cute? Tim keeps trying to pet them.

Rhonda, our friend from church, helped us paint part of our living room before mom came up, but unfortunately, we had not done a very good job of mudding so mom had to fix it. We had a great time with Rhonda at least even if the evidence has been painted over.

See what I mean about mom fixing my poor mudding techniques.

Guest room before.

Guest Room After. (Yes, I know I should have made the bed before I took the picture.)

Master bedroom.

Below are three pictures of the same wall in the living room.

After we painted it and then mom arrived and fixed more of my goofs.

Now.

Mom in action! She's grouting the rest of the kitchen floor.

Our really cool light fixture over the sink. There is a matching one over the dining room table. Or at least it will be when we get a table.

Boxes of flooring that still need to be unpacked so it can acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the house.

We have to make three more stacks like this. Now if we can just figure out where to put those stacks in the house. Lily says "Hi!"

We have a roof!

Work had stalled after my mom went back to Savannah after Labor Day, but Tim's parents came up this past weekend and got us jump started. We know have a new roof, clean vinyl siding, fall decorations, and a few primed rooms. I have discovered that I hate sanding sheetrock mud. I don't mind applying the mud, but sanding it is annoying! After we get the rooms all mudded and sanded then our friends from church are coming over to help us paint. I refuse to have white walls. I spent ten years in apartments that didn't allow paint on the walls so I will have color on these walls even if Tim thinks it's silly. After the painting is completed then we can install the floors, hang new doors, and put up the window trim/baseboards/etc. Sounds like a short list, doesn't it? HA!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

Our "Living" Room


Our new HVAC system needed different sized holes so now we get to patch up the old ones.


Our cool Corian countertop.

Our kitchen cabinets. I've finally finished all the doors, but I still have the side panels to stain and install.

Can you see the deer? I didn't want to open the door and scare it off so the picture is fuzzy.

Before the new roof...



After.

My fall decorations!