The Pressure is Too Much!

I do have a few pictures that are more interesting but they're sitting on my camera and getting them off would require way too much effort at this point, soooooo, I hope these will do. Just humor me and pretend to be interested.

Here's some of the things I bought that are currently sitting in a closet waiting to be installed. I think those are also my jeans sitting there. Wait a minute, maybe these picture are totally captivating, after all!

Here's the main tile we're using in the master bath. The small tiles are for the shower floor. I don't think I've shown this yet, or have I? Who knows. Anyway, I love those small tiles and can't wait to see them in the shower!

Holy Cow, I've Seen the Light!

I never, and I mean NEVER, want to paint with a roller and a brush again! I've learned to use a sprayer and geez louise, I've wasted half of my life painting when I could have had this contraption. I painted three bedrooms (walls and ceilings) in 15 minutes flat today and then moved on to paint another bedroom and bathroom. Granted, it's kind of a pain to clean the sprayer out when you're done or switching colors, but you're going to have to clean something up no matter how you paint. So please excuse me while I go continue my new love affair with the greatest invention ever.

While I'm here I might as well take the time to say that our entry doors and our garage doors are all being installed on Tuesday morning! What a difference that should make. Then, as soon as I can finish all the painting (I mostly have trim and base boards left at this point), our guys will be working to finish everything else. They're scheduled to be finishing up with most stuff next week. But like I said, it kind of hinges on me getting the painting done too. I'm thinking about going over there tonight since the kids are asleep, but I figure I do need to sleep at some point....

M is for Monday and Mowing

I mowed the knee high grass today. That is one stinkin' huge yard - especially when you're using a mower that is near death. It sputters non-stop like it's going to die and every so often it will just stop. Then you have to go get the huge gas can and lug it to wherever it stopped and fill it back to the rim. Then, if you're lucky, it will start again. Yep, it was fun. (I should mention too that I was power walking with that thing because I had to get it done quickly before it was time to get John David from school. Now that's a workout!)

Moving right along, tomorrow I'll be learning how to use a paint sprayer so the rest of the painting won't take the rest of my life. I'll let you know how that goes......

No, We Haven't Given Up

I'm sure you're probably thinking that we finally gave up on our miserable piece due to the lack of posting around here, but you would be wrong. Although I don't have pictures at the moment to prove anything, we are making progress. Slowly but surely.

• The bathroom cabinets were custom made and they are partly installed. They will be fully installed once the plumbing is reconfigured for a double sink. They're nice though and I'm glad I didn't go with just unfinished cabinets from Home Depot or Lowes. These cost a little more but I think we'll definitely see that money again. I need to choose a stain now.
  
• The painting has continued. Even though I don't particularly enjoy painting, I always love the huge difference it makes. It's just so dramatic!
  
• The master bathtub is in place. Now if we can just get our slow-poke plumber to come do his thing, we can get some more things rolling. A slow worker can really mess a time-line up. It's one big domino effect and a lot of times, you're just at these guys' mercy. Apparently, plumbers have no trouble finding plenty of work so I don't think they're too concerned about losing your business - hence, their total lack of regard for when you would like the job done. He keeps saying he's coming but then he doesn't. Why are we even still trying to use this guy????? Grrrrrrr.......

This week I'm very hopeful that our new doors will be installed, including the garage doors, the painting will be finished, granite counters will be ordered, and the master bathroom will be shaping up. We'll see though. My hopes do not always equal reality.

My biggest obstacle has been trying to get things done while taking care of my kids too. When we started this whole thing, we had grandparents living with us. That's not the case anymore. So even once the kids are in bed at night, I can't go over there and work like I had before. I will say that their great-grandmother has been a help though. She will often stay at our house while the babies are napping. That's a big help at least!

In closing, I would just like to point out that flipping is not for moms of little children. =)

Lest you think I've been slacking.....

My arms hurt. My shoulders and neck burn. Whah whah whah! I've been painting this week and as much as I love to paint, I'm ready to be done. The bad part is that I'm nowhere near done! It's so awesome to see how big of a difference paint makes though. It's very motivating to keep things going.

Now I'm going to reward myself for my hard work with a big glass of chocolate milk and a new episode of Law and Order SVU. All of this will take place in my bed, under my down comforter because it's in the 50's outside! Woohoo! Fall has arrived and La is one happy girl. =)

Along Came A Spider

A couple of nights ago John, Kara and I were at the Piece when John hollered out that there was a huge spider. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to grab my camera.

This thing was awful! Do you see its eyes glowing???
I think I need to use the red eye tool in my editing program on this bad boy! Yuck!

Clearly, he's looking at me.

We threw a penny down there for size reference. Aren't we smart?

After watching him for a little while it was time to kill him. John got the shovel and I got ready to video the execution. Check it out....



We finally found him on the floor a foot or two away. He must have fallen off of John's shoe. We discovered that the spider was a "he" not a "she" and all of her little babies were running wild. John quickly tried killing as many as he could, but they were fast. Eek! That's a lot of spiders growing up in that house!

This Past Week

Little by little, I'm beginning to see what it's all going to look like. I think we're finally getting to the fun (comparatively anyway) part. This past week was NOT fun. I spent my work time scraping floors (I still have the blisters and callouses on my hands to show for it) and John spent his work time crawling through the attic trying not to breathe in the insulation as he installed can lights and tried to figure out all the wiring. He's still not done with all of that, but he's at least a lot closer. We hope.

The biggest thing that's happened so far are the kitchen cabinets. They are SO beautiful! I'd love to show you a picture now, but I'm going to be mean and make you wait until the granite is installed and the sink and appliances are all in. They are so very, very lovely though. Sigh.

This picture is taken from the edge of the kitchen. That's the front door (which will soon be replaced) and that angled wall is for a picture and maybe a small entry way table. See the yellow cord hanging down? That's for an eyeball light to point at whatever is on the wall. This is one of my favorite things.

Here's some proof that I'm actually doing some work too, since so far I think I've only posted pictures of John working. We wouldn't want him to get all the credit, now would we? Notice the darker color on the ceiling - that's not due to a shadow or lighting. That's the original color we were going to go with in most of the house, walls and ceilings alike. I think I'll devote a future post to this topic alone, but suffice it to say that Walmart stinks at making paint and after a couple of time wasting trips, I headed over to Sherwin Williams to get some real paint. Some good paint. This is all still a sore subject so I won't delve into any further details at this time. The happy ending, however, is that we LOVE the color we ended up getting from Sherwin Williams. It's called "nomadic desert". Thanks to my fabulous sister Kara for meeting me at the store and helping me pick it out!

Here's Fernando's dad texturing the walls in the new room.

Somehow John David always ends up on the floor whenever we go to Home Depot or Lowe's. Silly boy. (That's Uncle Maka in the picture, not Daddy.)

I saved the most exciting picture for last. This one is of dirt. Yep, I said dirt. John is having to fill in all the low spots in the yard. I told you it was exciting.

I Accomplished the Impossible!

On Friday, I made so many calls to electricians, trying to schedule one to come sooner rather than later. Like I mentioned in the last post, we couldn't move forward with things until electrical stuff was done, we had a permit, and it was all approved by the inspector. Everyone I talked to said it would be at least a week or two before they could come out. I just kept calling.

Finally, I talked to an electrician who said he could come out on Tuesday or Wednesday. I talked him into coming Monday morning (today). So at 8:00 this morning I met him there and by the time school was out, the work was done, the permit was on the wall, and the approved box was checked. Woohoo!

Now tomorrow morning Fernando can start working again and the walls will soon be closed up. I've got to get the kitchen painted and dried before Wednesday evening when the cabinets will start going in. The guy we hired does it on the side so he'll work a few hours each night starting Wednesday and will be done by Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It's going to be so great to really get things going again.

My hands are blistered not from scraping more stupid linoleum today. I have mentioned that I hate that stuff, right? RIGHT? I even wore gloves. I got almost all of it up in the bathroom but the power was off in that part of the house because of the work being done so it was kind of dark. As I neared the toilet I was less than willing to get too close since I couldn't really see what I was doing. There were a few things back behind there that I couldn't quite make out so I decided to finish the job some other time. Call me squeamish, but I know those construction guys have been using that toilet. I'm quite positive because they bought a family size pack of toilet paper and put it in there.

I wish they had bought some air freshener too. =)

Permits Schermits

City permits are such a pain to have to deal with! I understand the necessity, but they are wreaking havoc on our time line.

And here's a tip for you: electricians are not generally readily available to come whenever you need them. Be prepared to wait a couple of weeks. Therein lies the problem with our permit issues. Our main construction guy won't/can't finish sheetrocking and completing his work until John's wiring work is complete. And in order for it to be complete, we have to have a licensed electrician get a permit and check off all of his work.

If we actually lived in the house already, this would all be a different story. But we don't live there - yet - so everything has to be inspected and given the okay before we can move in. I told John that he should just haul a mattress over there and sleep there one night so he can say he lives there! He didn't think that was a good idea.

Here's what needs to happen:

• electrician gets a permit and checks off John's work
• Fernando sees the permit and feels good about closing up all the walls since they've been checked
• Fernando's dad finishes fixing all walls and scraping the ceiling where we removed cabinets
  
• I paint the kitchen (where the cabinets and back splash won't be) and the bathrooms
• The paint dries
• Cabinet installation begins on Wednesday and continues through until Saturday

None of these things can be out of order. So you can see why getting an electrician out there right away is kind of crucial to things moving along. I finally found one who could be there at 8:00 Monday morning.

Have I mentioned that we aim to be done with the house (at least with all things inside) by the end of the month. Yep, we're crazy. That's what everyone tells us anyway. I guess we'll see.....

September 29th - Fan Shopping

Don't do it, John David. Don't do it......

Uh oh, you shouldn't have done that!

Daddy's big booty knocked him down!

Of all the fans to choose from, you would think we could find one we liked.

I like this one for the living room, but John thinks it looks like big airplane propellers. We ended up leaving the store without any fans. Boo. I want a fan!