Keeping The Christmas Spirit...

December 15, 2012

I was going to blog yesterday, but for some reason my pictures wouldn't show up.  I thought I had lost them all, but they reappeared today.  I think the universe was telling me to quit complaining and learn to be happy amidst the mess.  I got the strong impression that I needed to learn how to keep the Christmas spirit with me even though I haven't been able to decorate inside for Christmas.  So, today, I will show you what we have been accomplishing at the house with minimal complaining... (notice I wasn't able to say 'without' complaining... just trying to keep it real)

We have had many additions to our original plans for remodel, one of them being the kids' bathroom.  We have ended up redoing most of it.  Here is the picture with the hardwood floors done, and we will be getting a new counter top and painting the old cabinets.  The wall colors have changed as well.   We installed a new toilet and the kids seem to like things much better as they actually work now.  Finished pictures to come...

The back splash in the kitchen is complete except for some small cutting of the stone to make it so the switch plates fit.

In many of the previous posts, I have spent hours cleaning up before taking the pictures.  I decided not to do that so that you would understand how the house looks Monday through Friday and hopefully better understand why I haven't been able to decorate for Christmas.

There are lots of little things to be done, like install the five thermostats, but first I need to paint the walls...

We are missing a few switch plates that had to be special ordered...

The baseboards and trim are getting painted...

The fireplace is missing several stones that came off when they put in the new floor, so David is going to attempt to fix those...

Meanwhile, we have been starting things in the basement.  This is the bottom of the stairs which were taken out and 'floated' as we are pouring concrete to level the place out and cover the underfloor heating down there.

Cement truck arrives...

And down into the basement they go...

And this is our back yard post clean up, you should have seen it beforehand...

Luckily the snow hides a multitude of sins...

And if you keep looking upwards, the view is beautiful...

Especially when the sun comes out...

So I am endeavoring to keep the Christmas spirit by keeping heart and mind skyward.  The bonus is that  the view is amazing, this is our birch tree out front...

Seeing as it is just a little over a week away, I am wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas filled with much happiness and joy...
~Mary

Counter Tops Going In...

December 3, 2012

Last week was a doozie for me.  I cried 3 out of the 5 days...  So much was going on and I had a birthday party to be ready for by Friday evening.  The great thing is that everyone really pulled together to help me get the place ready.

The major thing that happened this week is that the counter tops, sink, and stove and range hood were installed.  Not necessarily working, but at least installed.  We also received all of our appliances.  So, the oven, refrigerator and dishwasher were brought in as well.

That is the island that I am so happy to be getting...

I need to bring the bar stools in from the garage and assemble them...

Luckily, by Friday, I had my oven working and was able to make Danika's cake.  She requested a fancy ladies hat for her 12th birthday cake with three flavored layers, so I made this pink hat with chocolate feathers...

Gotta love the layered inside...

What a great first use for our new oven!!!

As for the green paint in the kitchen, the majority of people hated it, and David was the only one who really loved it, so we decided to change it.  This is the third time painting this part of the kitchen!  The old green was so bright we had to put two coats of primer on first, so really it is the fifth time I painted it...  I am looking a bit tired...

I have to send praises out to Joe Fulford who really organized everyone to get things moving so that  we could have Danika's party.  It took the help of everyone including Ken, our cabinet guy, Richard, our trim guy, and Mike, the main guy who has been on the project every day for the past four months.  They worked really hard on Friday to make sure everything was ready.  Joe also brought us over a dinner of steak with blue cheese butter, mushrooms, red potatoes and fresh bread... it was fantastic.  

One other bright spot for me was that Richard Palmer, our trim guy, had taken the glass door that I etched and fixed it up so that we could use it as the door between the mud room and living room.  He did an amazing job.  I was so surprised when he brought it in and mounted it.  I actually love it.  We call it "The Aspen Door".

So, another week down.  This week we will be refinishing the floors in the dining room, putting the back splash tile in the kitchen, and doing touch up painting.  We are also staining the wood cabinets that I stripped and sanded.  David did some more fine sanding and finishing before the stain.  We are hoping to get the cabinets installed in the mud room this week.  

I still have to unpack all of my boxes and put everything in its place in the kitchen, but I don't think I will be able to get to that this week.  We shall see!

~Mary

The Cabinets Begin...

November 25, 2012

Danika turned 12 today!  It seems like time is flying by even though this remodel seems to be moving along at a snails pace.  We had a great day snuggling in bed followed by opening presents and eating chocolate chip pancakes.  Then we went to church and came home to a really nice visit by Jen Ashton and Traci Fulford and three of the girls that are Danika's age came and wished her a Happy Birthday. After they left, we watched a movie together and went to dinner for her birthday. It was a really nice day.

This past week the cabinets arrived at the house and installation has begun.  Ken Knieper (our cabinet guy is awesome)  We also had Richard Palmer, our trim guy (also amazing) came and got a lot of the trim work done on our windows.  We had real problems with the work that Amp'd Electric did (definitely WOULD NOT recommend them to anyone) and so we had a new electrician come in and he was fabulous.  He had a lot of rewiring to do to fix the mess that Amp'd left.  So this past week we had wonderful workers and a much better feeling in our home.  Here is the kitchen with some of the cabinets installed.  The island is in the lower right corner of the picture.

Looking in from the edge of the bar area toward the dining room...

This is looking from the living room into the kitchen.  The microwave had been installed, YES.

Thursday and Friday David and I spent two solid days cleaning up the house.  We moved a ton of things out of the dining room so that we would have space to walk around. Then we brought the new rug into the living room and returned the TV, one of the sofas, and a coffee table.   At least we have a place to sit down in the living room again...

So the place is much more livable now and I am breathing much easier.  This coming week we are hoping to finish cabinet installation and get the counter tops as well.  I sure hope that isn't wishful thinking...  It sure is good to be back home...

~Mary

Seriously, Three Weeks Later?

November 18, 2012

I can't believe that tomorrow it will be three weeks since we began putting the hardwood floors in.  For some reason I thought it would take a week.  The floors are in and completely finished, but we are still waiting on the stairs.

So much has happened in the last three weeks, so I must catch you up by starting at the beginning. So, we cleared out all of the furniture from the kitchen, music room, and living room.  Installation of the new floors took the first week...

This is where the new floor was blended with the existing hardwood floors from fifty years ago...

The old and new all get sanded three times, then sealed, which will (or should) make them look almost exactly alike.

We also put slate down in the mud room.  This is before the grout was put in...

The second week was when the sanding of all the hardwood floors began.  We couldn't really live there, so we moved out to Paul Gladen's house.  Paul went to England for a week, so we moved into his place while he was gone.  He just built a new house this summer, and it is amazing.  Jason walked in the door and looked around and said, "Wow, this makes me feel rich!"  Just a few pics of us hanging out at Paul's...

The awesome wall fireplace..

Hanging out in the kitchen after school...

Jason's favorite reading place...

We even brought the keyboard along so we could practice piano...

Downstairs in the movie room for movie night...

A way to take out all of our aggression...  Oh yeah, and spend quality family time, hee, hee...

It was so nice to be at Paul's house because there was no dust, or mess, or noise...  However, that particular week it got really windy and cold.  The temperatures dropped into the 20's.  

When we got to Paul's place the kids had fun exploring the entire place.  They loved the deck above the garage and said they wanted to do their homework up there.  Well, two days in, they went back up on the deck and came back to tell us the table was missing.  Of course we didn't believe them because the table is HUGE.  It is one of those high tables that is about six feet by three feet and has a super heavy piece of glass on top.  

Apparently the wind was so strong, that it picked up the table and blew it over the edge of the deck and it was gone.  The shattered remnants of the glass top were on the roof below the deck, but the table was nowhere in sight.  The kids went all over searching for it but never found it.  David ended up driving down to the bottom of the hill and he eventually found it and the kids and I walked it back home.

The glass had cut a two foot slice in the roof below the deck, so we were worried that when the snow melted, the roof would leak.  We swept the broken glass and snow into one corner of the roof.

Meanwhile, back at our house we continued to work on the underfloor heating in the basement...

This is where we used to measure the kids' height...

Then I finished the etching of the glass door that will go between the mud room and living room.  This is me working in the garage...

Paul came home last Sunday night, but had to leave on Monday, so he was only home for a few hours.  Our place still wasn't done, so we decided to stay at Paul's again.  We saw Paul at around 11:00 a.m.. and then we were back working at the house. 

At around 4:00 p.m., after I had picked up the kids from school, we went back to Paul's house.  When we walked in, there was water pouring down through the light in the entry way.  My first thought is that the snow was melting and it was coming through the roof.  But when I went up to the deck to look over on the roof, it was completely dry. 

That was when I heard it, a rushing of water.  I saw that there was a faucet on the side of the deck and I could hear water rushing in the wall behind it. I called our contractor (who also built Paul's house) to find out where the water shut off was.  He was awesome and told me exactly where to go so that I was able to get the water off quickly.  He came over and helped me and the kids do damage control.  There was water everywhere.  It went down all three floors.  Even water coming down through the light fixture in the basement bathroom.  The worst area was Paul's master laundry, closet, exercise room because they were completely flooded - 1/2 inch deep in water.  We ended up using every towel in his place to dry it all up.  I spent the rest of the night washing towels.  At least a complete disaster was averted...

Now Paul is back home.  We had hoped to be moved out, but unfortunately the stairs have not been put in yet, so Paul has to put up with us.  Jason has been enjoying watching football (soccer) with Paul.  

We even have the luxury of an in-house hair salon.  Paul cut Jason's hair today!

The stairs are supposedly going to be finished today, but here is what they looked like the last time we saw them.  David had to sand the front (riser) and side of each and every step because sometime in the past the stairs had been sanded in place and the edge of the sander had made a gouge in the risers.  The new stairs (treads) are 1/2" not the old 3/4" so the gouge would have been really visible if not for being sanded flat by David ...

It has been a really long three weeks, and I just want to move back home.  Hopefully it won't take me so long to blog next time...

~Mary