Remodel Update!

Although it's been a couple of months since I updated our move blog, rest assured we didn't just quit in the middle!  It's just gotten down to some of the more "uninteresting" things - somehow pictures of siding being replaced, touch-up paint, door knob replacement and cabinet door hinge painting didn't seem too blog-worthy.

Although most of the bigger things are complete, our painter has stayed busy with touch-ups, trim staining, final coats of poly and touch-up painting.  The rest of us have worked hard cleaning out sheds, unpacking more boxes, and even hanging a few things on the walls.  John learned some tips on working with barn wood from Chad, the guy who did all the barn wood in the guest bathroom, so we decided to embark upon a little project in the dining room and put up a barn wood chair rail. After a few staining recommendations from our painter, we experimented with some colors and the results turned out awesome!  It was fun to work on that together - one project down and more than one to go :).

Shelves in the kitchen...love the stain color our painter came up with!

Built-in drawers in the guest room before...and after.  Walls were painted as well - paneling looks better painted :).

The guest bathroom is complete and usable!! The countertop turned out awesome, and the walls are really cool. 

The barn wood project...turned out great!  And the bull decor from my mother-in-law makes a really nice touch.

The previous owner had a beautiful elk chandelier in the living room so after she had it picked up, we found one online that works great in the living room.  It's so nice to have good lighting in there again!

 Closets painted!  Mine was mauve...the tan is much more pleasant.

 This is Hillary's playhouse...it still needs some clean-up but she's already moving in.

My mother-in-law helped me put a few pictures on the shelves, and thank goodness the taxidermist finished John's deer or I would have had nothing to hang on the wall.  Right.
And the pond continues to fill each day that the sun is out.  Love the solar pump!

Another week = more Work

There are lot of pieces to this house remodel puzzle, and a few more fit into place over the past week.  And even though yesterday was a federal holiday, neither our school nor our remodel took the day off :).

Let's see...where to start. 

The last piece of furniture was delivered and we really like how it fits in the kitchen - both space-wise and color.  It's nice to have a place for my crock pots, blender, large bowls, etc. to go instead of having them sit out on the counters waiting for a home!

A couple more things before we leave the kitchen...the guy who put in our sink, Nathan, came up with a great idea for a back splash behind the sink.  Otherwise we would have kept chipping the paint and making a mess behind the faucet every time we washed dishes.  He also buffed out a plethora of scratches on the stainless steel counters, making them look like new. 




The oversized Lazy Susan arrived and is installed!  Although I should add that the box it came in was labeled "Lazy Daisy" - seriously.  Anyway, we now have a place for all the tupperware/plastic containers to live.  The Denver/New England game entertained me on Sunday while I matched up all containers with their lids and then sent the stack of extra lids to recycling.  Why do I keep lids after a container either melts in the dishwasher or cracks?  I suppose I'll need one of those lids this week since they now are no longer in my "extra lids" bin :).  By the way, WAY TO GO BRONCOS! It was pretty funny to see all our tupperware laid out on the living room coffee table. 



Our trim guy, Chad, installed some honker shelves above the ice maker.  These are SO cool looking. 

Moving out of the kitchen...the tile was installed in the guest bath!  It's a slate-look tile that goes great with the barn wood and tin.  John and I were really glad to see how well it blended in considering we neglected to bring any barn wood or tin samples with us to Harry Street carpet where we picked out the tile! 







Now to head upstairs...Chad also installed shelves in the kids' rooms.  These are awesome - we had them in our house in Fresno and any parent of kids who have received a trophy for every tournament, league, etc. they have ever played in knows what a pain it is to have all that hardware on top of a dresser or counter.  Having these shelves to display trophies and plaques is great - and there are pegs underneath for caps...since every team you play on has to have a separate cap for each of the 2-3 shirts that go with the uniform...right?!

I won't bore you with the drywall repair, concrete counter re-seal, bathroom tile grout, nail hole filling and other tedious tasks that seem to make this remodel project endless so that's it for now. We really will be ready for visitors at some point!  Very glad my mom decided not to wait until it was all finished and came to see us this past weekend.  Kudos to her for navigating through all the boxes and dust!

Another Progress Report!

Amidst a day off from school due to the wind chill, early am basketball practices, a guitar lesson, basketball games and random other daily "to do's", we have a few more things to blog about from the past week. Little by little things are coming together...

Guest Bathroom...walls finished and vanity built!  Looking forward to concrete counters and a slate-look tile on the floor. 

These shelves used to be free-standing but we really liked how they looked by the fireplace.  The only problem was they were just a few inches too wide to fit on the right side.  So our creative wood guys figured out how to make them fit and now they look built-in.  Love them!

New sink time!  When we first looked at the house, John was sold on the idea of getting a farm-style sink in the kitchen. This sounded fairly easy until our contractor didn't know of anyone who was willing to cut the stainless steel and figure out a way to install the farm sink. So we reluctantly purchased a dark grey sink and decided it would be fine, although John mentioned a number of times how much he'd like to have a farm sink.  So I put the sink installation on hold and went searching!  Thankfully our concrete counter guy knew of a fellow fireman who did a lot of welding, and after talking to him and sending him pictures, he took on the challenge!  He helped me find the right size sink to order, and we decided to make this a surprise for John.  I intercepted the big box when it arrived before John saw it, and since it was around Christmas time it was easy to tell him to stay out of the boxes in the spare room.  However, after a few ups and downs - like finding a portable welder that would handle the job, his fireman schedule, etc. - it was going to be January 9 before he could get it in.  So after dodging questions for a few weeks about why the new sink (the grey one) wasn't installed yet, I finally decided to tell John.  I had also panicked a bit after seeing a picture in a magazine of a kitchen with stainless steel counters and a WHITE farm sink (I had order stainless steel) and thought, "what if he wanted a white one instead of stainless steel??"  He was surprised and super pumped when I "unveiled" the sink, and said it was just what he had been thinking...whew!

A few pieces of new furniture were delivered this week! Unfortunately a tall cabinet for the kitchen somehow missed the truck, so that will be coming this week. A new kitchen table, a "snuggler" for the living room (who comes up with these names??), a cool bench that matches the absent kitchen cabinet and a sectional for the basement. 

We were supposed to move all of Peyton's furniture into his room on Sunday, but the day was so nice we spent more time outdoors than in (a bonus since last Sunday was a balmy 10 degrees or something like that!).  So as an alternative John and the boys unloaded boxes off the trailer and delivered it back to its owner, giving us our driveway back!  So while watching the Broncos pull off a win, we hung a few of the most important things in the house...:)

The Move: Getting there...slowly but surely...

Progress from the past week...

Painting of the kids' rooms began!  They will be finished this week so we can start getting them moved in and they can finally feel more settled.  Yes, they got to pick their own colors!

Hillary picked purple - three different shades for the walls, window cubby area and ceiling.  Painter Jen is also going to paint some flowers on one of the walls before it's all said and done.

Peyton picked purple (Wildcats) and orange (Broncos). He also ordered two fatheads for the walls.  Maybe the bright colors will help him hop right out of bed in the mornings for those 6:30am basketball practices.  Since he doesn't have a true closet in his room, Chad built him some cubbies and a hanging rack.

Trace picked black and gold (Andale) and Jen is going to paint an Indian on one of the walls.  Again, REALLY hoping that bright yellow will be the key to Trace getting up the first time the alarm goes off in the mornings!  Fortunately the black and gold also works for Wichita State :).








 The guest bathroom is underway and I think this is one of my favorite projects we are doing! The tin came from the barn where John grew up, and seeing it up on the wall after talking about it is really neat.

We also did a little furniture shopping, which will be delivered on Friday. Our other goal this weekend is to get the rest of the boxes off the trailer and move it on out of our driveway and back to its owner!