The Floor Project

The floors are finished!!! Yay!

The basement is finished!!! Yay!

The rest of the house is not...boo! Packing and painting day is Saturday. Moving day is Sunday. Yikes, so much work to do!

Weekend Update

Well, we have had a busy, busy weekend! I don't know how I'm going to get anything done now that I go back to work and school...yikes! On Saturday, we rented a sander (you know, one of those really big ones), and we spent half the day sanding down all our hardwood floors. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of Don using it...I was too busy sanding the edges and corners with a hand sander.) The floors don't look so bad in the pictures, but they are pretty banged up and we weren't big fans of the light pine. Look at the difference in color!

Then, we spent about 4 hours staining the floors...this is the part that really sucked! 4 hours down on our knees or leaning over basically painting the floors...yuck! We were so tired when we finished (at like 11 P.M.).

Then, today we got up early again (thank goodness for Dunkin' Donuts decaf...LOVE IT!) and gave the floors another coat of stain. Only took like 2 hours this time since we didn't have to be so precise. We also got all our patio furniture put together, almost finished painting the basement and planted some flowers. All in all, it was a productive weekend...now back to the real world. :,(

I forgot to mention I painted the dining room blue on Friday...so here is a picture of it with the new floors (which still aren't done).

Here is one more pic of the living room with the new floor color.

Can't wait to put a couple of coats of polyurethane down :)

Help!

Hey all...I know, 2 posts in 1 day. Who knew I had so much free time? Ha! Yesterday, I caught part of Oprah (again with the free time) and she had John Walsh as her guest...you know, the America's Most Wanted guy? Well, as some of you may know, his son was abducted and murdered many years ago. Since then, he has been a crusader for children's rights and tougher penalties for child abusers, sex offenders, etc. The law he got passed, The Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act, created the Sex Offender Registry. Well, unfortunately, that law is due to expire this July due to lack of funding. Since we obviously don't want this to happen, please go to the following link to send a form letter to your state senator and representative, letting them know that this law is important and you want it reauthorized. It literally takes 5 minutes. If the law is allowed to expire, there will no longer be an active Sex Offender Registry to track criminals from state to state. Don't you want to know who's moving in next door to your family?

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090220-tows-adam-walsh-act

If you have a blog, Facebook account, etc. please post this or direct them to my blog so we can get as many people as possible sending a letter. Thanks for your help!

The first "after" photos

Here are the pictures I promised to post of the bathrooms. The kitchen and basement are now in progress! My good friend, Lindsay, had some words of wisdom on painting (she's also spent her spring break painting her house so she knows exactly how I feel!). She said painting is such a letdown...you're so excited to begin and then you realize exactly what painting is...work! It becomes unfun very quickly!! But enough complaining...onto the pictures...

This is the half bathroom (sorry they are sideways)!

This is another view of the half bathroom.

Here is the full bathroom. It's kind of hard to see, but I painted it an olive-gold color.

One last photo of the full bathroom.

More to come later!

Painting, painting and more...painting!

Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I have spent just about every waking moment at the house doing something I have come to despise...painting. I was really excited about painting all the rooms before we got the house, and now I am dreading the number of rooms I have left to paint. Good news, though...I have completely finished both bathrooms (pictures to be posted tomorrow), and Don has gotten a good start on the basement. I am going to begin the kitchen tomorrow...ugh! Things are coming along, though, and I am so grateful to have a house to paint in the first place!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all! I know I'm a day early, but I won't be near a computer tomorrow. I truly wish everyone a blessed holiday and hope you all have a chance to spend some time with loved ones! Enjoy!

We are official homeowners!

What a day it's been! Our nightmarish real estate adventure continued today at the closing, of course. No, I didn't punch the lights out of anyone (like I should have), but the sellers did not bring enough money to closing. SO...long story short, they got mad, stormed off to the bank, came back with a check and voila...we own a house! We went over to the house and took some "before" pictures for your enjoyment. I will post "after" pictures as we check things off our to-do list. Hoosier LOVED his new home. He went up and down the stairs about a million times and kept wanting to go back outside to see his new neighbor friend. I think he'll adjust just fine to the new house, however, he's going to keep us on our toes with the stairs thing. He doesn't do stairs very well. He gets going down them too fast, skips a bunch of steps and somehow just ends up at the bottom...good thing we have a good vet for all the broken bones he's probably going to wind up with!

Here's a look at the front (doesn't look like much from the outside but the inside is really nice!).

Here's a view from the backyard of the deck and hot tub.

Here's the living room and fireplace. The hardwoods are actually a little more beat up than they look in the picture so that's why we're refinishing them.

Here's the dining room.

Half of the kitchen.

A view of the master bedroom (which looks identical to the other 2 bedrooms).

And...Don's favorite part of the house...the finished basement.

Closing

Well, tomorrow is the big day...our closing! We should have the keys in hand by mid-afternoon! Then begins the long, and I mean L O N G, to-do list. My plan is to get the yard cleaned up and seeded, some of the rooms painted and some of the boxes moved in (and hopefully put away) by next week. Our official move date is April 26 so we won't actually live in the house until then. I'll keep you posted on my progress throughout the week and hope to have "before" pictures posted by Monday or so!

Signature Post #2

However, it should not be polka dotted. Not sure what's up with that! Hmmm...maybe a bit more research is necessary!

Signature

Just trying out my new custom signature...how cool it that? If you want one for your blog, go to http://www.mylivesignature.com/ and follow their simple directions to create your own. Super easy!

We Have a House!

For all of you who have been following our navigational nightmare through real estate for the past few months (yes, months!), I finally have good news to report. Drumroll please...we finally came to an agreement with the seller and should be closing on the house early next week! All repairs are being done this week, and we should be able to get in there and start working next week. Thank goodness for spring break because there is a lot of work to be done! We are going to begin refinishing the hardwoods and painting next week...yay! Keep checking back for updates and pictures of our progress, and please pray for a smooth closing!