Christmas in October

Getting organized makes me giddy. Today we got to take an exciting step forward to get our clothes in order. I think the closet installation man thought I was crazy. Especially when I wrote a song and sang it for him with a coordinated dance. Ok I didn't do that part out loud, but I did inside my heart.

                           

Getting to see the carpet again was amazing. No more piles! No more russian roulette!

Another highlight is the beautiful floor Neal did in the closet. It's gorgeous. He worked so hard on it. There were many steps so it took many evenings, lots of cutting, sanding, it was a long process.

I love the final result. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It's a dark, rich brown with a lot of depth.

                        

But that's not all! The bathroom project is really coming along. Neal has done all the boring but necessary jobs, and now all the fun stuff gets to be put in place. He did his final sanding today and then painted. I picked another color from my favorite paint strip (that I've used on the whole house). This color is Sherwin Williams "Eider White" and I did it at 50%. I want the bathroom to be light and bright, but not pure white. So there's a hint of grey, which blends well with the room color since they're from the same strip. 

The shower, pre tile. Notice the spot for the skylight, can't wait to see they sky in the shower!

Mini plumbers getting ready to install a toilet.

Those mini plumbers are pretty good!

The Benefits of Sleeping in a Construction Site

There have to be at least a few benefits of sleeping IN a construction site, right? Well, there are!

1) The design process is happening as you're getting ready for bed, while in bed, while sleeping and when waking up. When lying in bed one night I realized one of the vanity lights and the plug were in the wrong spot.

2) Playing Russian Roulette is a really fun game. It's in the middle of the night and one of my kids is crying, I get up and inch my way through the room trying to avoid dresser drawers, tools, shoes, piles of clothes and laundry baskets getting to the crying child. So far, I've had no stubbed toes, I haven't tripped nor have I gotten any nails, silvers or staples stuck in my feet! 

3) Wearing the same pair of jeans every days is really cool. When do you get to actually wear out your clothes?! I'm getting that chance since I can't find my other pairs of jeans. I swear I had another pair last week, but they're currently lost somewhere in the abyss, so sorry everyone, I hope you like the ones I have on (and will have on) because they're here to stay. And stay. And stay. And stay. And sorry gym friends, that WAS actually the same shirt I wore the day before. I couldn't find any others, so sorry about that smell...

4) My Jenga skills are improving. I get the opportunity to stack some dresser drawers from my bed to the floor every evening, and then again from the floor to my bed every morning. They stack precariously and I balance and stack them with sharp precision. I don't really even like the game Jenga, but now I'll just kill it when I play.

But, since my husband doesn't have a stop/slowdown/rest/take a break mode, I know that this current chaos won't last forever. In fact, it probably won't last even two more weeks. He's most likely motivated by the mess to complete as fast as he can. Three cheers for Neal! 

LIGHTS!

DRY WALL!!

Underway Again

We're back at it! This time we've taken on the project of the master bathroom/closet project. Why you ask? Because this is downright fugly:

We've been looking forward to getting rid of this bathroom for a while. A year. In fact, since the first day we moved in. It's really small, and that was concerning to us because not only for resale value but even for us to not have to be on top of each other while getting ready, showering, etc. Our bedroom is a large rectangle with vaulted ceilings which makes it feel even bigger. Early on we decided that we'd use part of the bedroom plus the full-length mirrored closet and transform it into a master bathroom. 

So, really it's two projects in one. We ordered a custom closet system to be installed on October 14th, so that got us moving on demo. The bathroom had to be gone, floors and lights installed, drywall work complete, painted, etc before then. We brought in the big guns for demo:

They were eager to help for the first 20 minutes. 

Heave-ho on the nasty-stinky-didn't-flush-well-piece-of-crap.

I don't think he ever stops or gets tired.

Sad that it looks better ripped apart than as a bathroom.

As you can see, I'm so helpful. I take pictures while he works. 

So then the best part begins: putting it all back together. Neal had some left-over materials from a recent job, and lucky me I get herringbone wood floors in my closet. Never mind that they are testing every ounce of Neal's patience to install. What a guy.

We decided on an "inset" in the middle to ensure we wouldn't run out of materials.

Almost done! Now for some sanding and staining.

Meanwhile.....

The plumber is set to come this weekend to "rough in" the bathroom (professional speak meaning that he's going to set up all the pipes for the shower/sink/toilet in the new bathroom) so we had to frame in the bathroom space so he could do that, which means chaos ensued in our room:

Neal set up brackets with poles along one wall for our interim "closet".

Where the new wall and bathroom will be.

2x4's coming in through the window.

Carpet torn back.

Beginning of a new wall.

Neal was very sweet and concerned that all of the chaos would stress me out. I'm pumped. It means I can throw my clothes all over the place for a few weeks without anyone noticing and blaming it on the remodel. Yes!!!! Plus, then at the end of all this I'll have an organized place to keep my clothes and a beautiful bathroom. 

Outside Details

We've taken a nice long deep breath with big house projects. I think it's because we've done pretty much everything we can do outside, and the big inside projects cost a lot. I can't WAIT for the inside projects, but it will be a little while until we've saved all of our pennies. But, since Neal can't do nothing, we've done a few small things...

First, landscaping. We haven't killed anything yet!

 Second, new skinny windows and window trim. We weren't expecting the new trim to totally disguise the weird windows, but it does and it makes us happy. The windows are more subtle now.

Third, I didn't feel like spending money on new pots, so I spray painted these ugly ones. They're still kind of weird, but better than they were.

 Fourth, time to play!! We got a small ATV to ride in our yard. [We *may* be slightly redneck] It's so fun! The hidden benefit that I wasn't expecting is that the kid that is waiting for their turn likes running next to the ATV, so by the time we've rode around the yard a bunch of times the kids are sweaty and exhausted. Yahoo!

 When we're not riding the ATV the kids are riding the tire swing. They love it.

Certifiably Crazy

Well people, we went over the edge today. You thought we were crazy before, now you have actual proof. We are CRAZY. There was a shed/office/studio off our back deck. It was about 12'x12'x16', Neal estimates it weighs about 4,000 pounds. My estimation was that it weighed about a million pounds. It's unfinished on the inside, so we stuck a bunch of junk in it and called it good. It was close to the house, and we knew we need to move it at some point because we want to put an addition on the house in this area. Why not today?! It's Mother's Day!! Perfect day to move an 8-thousand (million) pound shed.

First, I had to unload it.

 Lots o' junk.

 There's the deck that will turn into an office/spare bedroom.

            Rippling muscles. I think there was a hole poked in the siding to get the hook in and around.                                 Off its foundation.

 The man. the myth. the legend. Brett Blair. Neighbor and friend. We use him for his brawn and brain.

A short video. Not sure if it will work or not.

 Ready for some dangerous action.

 So, the truck, with a wench cable, pulley, hook, prying, and some scary noises, got pulled/dragged to it's new home.

 There it goes.

 Oops. He's running because he got stung by a bee. Nice wife I am...took a picture instead of helping. 

 Almost there. 

 Here's the hook after the job is done. I don't think it's supposed to stretch out like that. Unless you're yanking a giant shed/building through your yard with a truck.

Our yard looks bigger now. We can see into our neighbors' yard. Hopefully they don't mind seeing into ours now. We ARE crazy, but hopefully they'll overlook that.

There it is, in all it's glory. Great to have that job finished.