Welcome to my home

Front Room

Before-

After-


Hmm. Doesn't seem like it changed much. Notice in the first picture there are no overhead lights. Pretty typical for a house this age. In the after pictures you can kind of see the new overhead lights. Also, we sanded and refinished the wood floors. Hmm, they look almost exactly the same, but trust me they have a lot better finish on them now. Before it didn't look like there was anything on them. Also we repainted the walls and baseboards. Yes they are the same color as before, but I liked the color somebody else picked so we just gave it a fresh coat of paint.

Like our furniture? We had to use our furniture budget for other stuff. That's okay, someday we'll get a couch for upstairs. For now I think it's funny. It looks like an old lady lives here, sits in the chair all day, and stares out the window. I sit in the chair at night and stare out the window. Nothing too exciting going on. Although my neighbor across the street apparently has problems sleeping too.

Bedrooms

Before-

After-

There use to be carpet in the bedrooms. When we first looked at the house the carpet upstairs seemed okay, but when we looked closer, it had pee stains in it too. Of course they soaked through to the wood floors and ruined them. We just decided to recarpet. Wood floors are nice, but I like carpet in bedrooms much more.

Bathroom

Before-

The bathroom wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too good either. White tile on the floor?! Also the placement of the toilet was weird. The vanity was next to the tub rather than the toilet being next to the tub. What happens when you are sick, on the toilet, and you have to throw up? I have had to throw up in the tub before. Chad thought I was funny about wanting to move the toilet, until his friend Kevin said exactly the same thing about the placement of the toilet. I don't really like the tile around the bathtub, but it was in good condition, so we decided it shouldn't be replace. Also, it's always behind the shower curtain.

After-

The family room

Before-

Pee soaked carpets. Ewwwww!

After-

I wish I had a before picture of this wall. We added the play area under the stairs and my dad had a great idea to widen the doorway in the stairwell. It made such a huge difference.


The Utility/Laundry Room

Before-

Once again my dad had a great idea to put up a wall and make a Laundry Room and a Utility/Storage Room.

After-

Lots of storage-Love it! My dad of course found the stuff or had the stuff to make these very useful shelves. A bit messy right now because we are still getting settled.

My uncle hooked us up with this shelving for free. Thanks Alan!

And finally, the Kitchen

Before-

The kitchen had white tile. Again, not a good idea. I actually didn't mind the cabinets, but there weren't many of them. And look at that counterspace. Not a whole heck of a lot. And the kitchen had a horrible layout. Three doorways into it made for an awkward layout.

After-

Yup, I went with light, painted cabinets. I love them! But I've only lived here a week. Maybe ask me in a year how much I hate cleaning them. I originally chose maple, but then found out cherry was the same price, so I told the cabinet guy to do cherry. Then one night I really couldn't sleep because I wasn't happy with my decision. Even with a natural finish cherry was just too dark and I didn't like the grain on the maple, so I told the cabinet guy to paint the cherry off white. He thought I was crazy, but did it and I love it.

Dining Area

Before-

After-

Still lots to do, but isn't there always lots to do when you own a house. The big things we need to do are redo the bathroom downstairs. It's Chad's bathroom and it doesn't even have lights in it. He has to wear his headlamp when he uses the bathroom at night. Also, we need to finish the 3rd bedroom. We had to rip out part of the ceiling because of mold. Then we decided to rip out the whole thing to make rewiring the kitchen easier.

I was sooooo sick of the house before we moved in. It will take a while to adjust to moving, but even now I'm okay with the house. I think it's beautiful. Just don't look too close.

Really, truly

We are almost done at the pee house.

Honestly.

Cross my heart, hope to die.

Yesterday Chad finished up the last big project-refinishing the wood floors. As with almost everything we've done it didn't go off without a hitch. It was tricky, because Chad isn't a professional, and there is one spot that really got messed up. I cried about it. I'm not mad at Chad. It saved us $1200 to do it ourselves, it's just not perfect. But hopefully nobody will notice because nobody is going to be looking at the house the way we have been the past seven months.

Tonight after working on the house my mom fed us dinner, then we jumped on the trampoline with the boys for a while, and then came home. I was cold, so I put on a big comfy sweatshirt and wrapped up in a blanket on the couch.

Despite the fact the boys were running around, having fun, and screaming I started falling asleep. Chad picked up my heavy bum and carried me into the bedroom. (I shouldn't say I'm heavy, I'm not, but I'm almost six feet tall. I'm not a featherweight. Also, imagine trying to get my long lanky arms and legs through the doorway without bumping anything.)

I woke up a while later and Ben was snuggling with me. Jack ended up in the bed with me too and Chad was asleep on the couch. I woke up again around 3:30am and could not fall back to sleep, so I came out, got on the computer, caught up on blogs, and ordered a new shower curtain. I decided to join Chad on the couch, but before I could even join him Jack started crying. So now here I am, chilin' with Jack, writin' a post.

Two numbers for you- 3207.23 and 300.

Amount spent at Home Depot and Lowe's over the past seven months-

$3207.23

(It was less that I was expecting but doesn't include-kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances, tile, carpet, everything to do with refinishing the wood floors, etc...) No wonder the boys hate those two stores, we've spent so much time at them. I don't like them so much either.

We've spent about $20,000 remodeling the house. I hate spending money. It makes me sick.

Oh and 300?

This is my 300th post.

I love blogging. Okay, mostly I love that it's a journal that I can go back and read about things I thought I would never forget. My uncle reads my blog and told my aunt that he feels like he is spying on me. Spy away. I don't blog about anything I don't want people to read. I write all that stuff in my journal. I'm suprised and flattered that people find my life interesting enough to read about it. Also, I'm so glad that other people write blogs because I would much rather read about their lives than I would about a celebrity's life. To me, my friends and family are celebrities. Living real life, with real problems, on real budgets and surviving it all.

P.S. We can't move into the pee house until the floor cures. It takes 7 days to cure 100%. I'll post pictures soon. I want to get pictures of the house before we move in.

The pee house update

Things are moving along with remodeling at the pee house. (My mom says I should stop calling it the pee house, but until we move in I need a way to differentiate between where we are living and the house we own.)

The kitchen cabinets are mostly done, just a few adjustments need to be made before the countertops are installed. Countertops will probably be installed next week. When that's done I'll post a picture of the kitchen, so you can see what I decided on.

It's taking us a long time to get things done, but we are getting there. The boys are tired of the pee house and they've been that way for a couple of months. Jack will say to me over and over and over again, "home, home, home, home," with a sad puppy dog face.

I'm tired of it too, but at the same time I don't want to be done. Then that means we have to move. There is always the biggest reason that I don't want to move, but there are other reasons. I just don't handle big changes very well. Also, moving isn't fun and I hate being disorganized and moving generally means being pretty disorganized for a long time. I know I am brat. I've wanted a house for so long and now that we have one I think, "we are fine where we are at." But not really. My aunt's have kindly let us live here for a long time and now it's someone else's turn. My cousin, Jake, is going to be moving in when we move out.

I still have a few decisions to make. I need to buy a dishwasher, pendant lights for the kitchen, carpet and random other little things.

Like I said, we are getting close. Hopefully we will be in before Christmas. I'm kidding of course!

DIY

One day when I was a teenager my friend, Heather, and I were having a conversation about boys and getting married. In the course of our conversation we talked about how her dad and my dad know how to build and fix just about everything that is in, on, or anywhere near a house. When I was growing up I only remember seeing a repairman in my parent's house once or twice and that's because the appliance was still under warranty. My parents never hired somebody to do any kind of work for them. They are absolute do it yourself-ers. Heather and I wondered how would we ever find guys like our dads (in that aspect). Turns out that we didn't necessarily find guys who know how to do everything, but we found guys who are willing to learn. Everyone has to start somewhere, right? I mean my dad has 30 years of experience over Chad. Of course he knows a lot.

The other day Chad and I were talking with somebody about what were were doing at the pee house. We listed off a bunch of things, and then they asked, "you know how to do all that stuff?" Umm, no, but know people who know how to do it. Chad did know how to do some things before, but he is learning more than ever now. Thanks to a lot of help from my dad.

We decided to replace almost all the plumbing in the house and Chad is almost done with that. We are replacing almost all the wiring in the house and will be starting on that soon. I say, "we," like I'm doing it too. Chad and my dad are doing most that stuff. I am doing things that require less knowledge. Today I painted doors. I'm mostly doing things that will make the house look beautiful. Chad's doing things that will make the house functional. Both are important.

We had originally planned to move out of my aunt's house around this time, but we haven't been working super hard at the pee house. We haven't pulled a lot of late nighters. I think we'll need to start doing that soon, because now I'm pretty set on moving into the pee house the end of June. Not that I want to move anytime soon. I'm pretty devastated that I will no longer have the convenience and comfort of living across the street from my sister. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited we know own a home. It's just that I've been seriously blessed having the opportunity living so close to my sister. I know I write about this a lot, but I think about it a lot. And then I try not to think about it a lot because it makes me soooooooooooo sad.

Snuggler

Benjamin is a snuggler. (Is that a word?) He never wanted to be swaddled when he was little. He hated it because his arms were pinned down. As he got bigger and his arms got longer he has loved to wrap those arms around my neck when sleeps. He is either doing that or playing with my hair.

Ben ends up in our bed every night. Perhaps I am way to sympathetic when it comes to this, but Jack still sleeps in our room (because Ben still has night terrors) and sometimes I feel bad that Ben is in his room all by himself. Some nights I walk him back in his room over and over again, but most nights I just let him stay because I'm too tired to get up and Ben just loves to snuggle. I just took these pictures-

Jack loves to snuggle too. I'm seriously contemplating having the boys share a bed, when Jack is big enough.

Wondering what we are up to at our house? We are cutting holes in the walls. Part of this hole use to be a big window. Too big for the small kitchen. We cut it even bigger because we are going to use the space as a doorway to the pantry we are adding onto the house and we are going to bump the fridge back into the space. The black doorway use to be the back door and we covered it up because we are reconfiguring the whole kitchen. The kitchen won't have any windows. Maybe this a mistake, but it's a small kitchen and we need the wall space. Also, it means I get a pantry. I'm trading a window for a pantry. I hope this isn't a mistake. I love white cabinets, but I also love dark, dark cabinets. I think that with no windows and dark cabinets the kitchen would just be a dark hole. That's why I'm contemplating light colored cabinets. I'm thinking maybe cream. I think it won't get as dirty as white. I don't know.

Today we will be taking out the window to the left as that is where we will be putting the french doors.I say 'we' like I'm helping with it. Actually it's mostly been my Chad and my dad (with some help from my mom.) A lot of the time when I'm at the house I'm doing this-Pushing the boys on the swingset. Kids could swing for hours, it's amazing.

Decisions, decisions

I thought it would be so exciting to be able to pick out my own kitchen, but it is completely stressing me out. I hate going into scrapbooking stores and have never much gotten into scrapbooking because all the choices stress me out. I felt that way as I visited some stores this week to get ideas for a kitchen.

I don't have a very defined sense of style (I think so many things are beautiful) and I'm trying to narrow things down. I've been spending way too much time on the internet looking at pictures of kitchens. I think I keep hoping that I'll find a picture and be like "that's it!" And then I can take it somewhere and be like "make it look exactly like this without being too expensive."

The kitchen I have now (that my aunt's of course picked out because it's their house) is knotty cherry with a natural finish. When the cabinets were first put in they were a lot lighter and the sun has darkened them up over time. They are a beautiful, warm color and I think they are nice. But I don't think they are what I want to do in my house, I don't think they 'go' with my house.

Here's a picture so you get the idea-

Somewhere I have a better picture, but I can't find it right now. (Plus, this picture is funner anyway.)

There are only a few things I do know that I like. I like simple, clean, lines. Meaning I don't think I want cabinet doors with arches. I like something like this-

Um, just kidding of course!

I like cabinet doors like this, no arches or raised panels. Okay, that's pretty much all I know I like for sure (maybe).

As for color of cabinets I have no idea. For some reason as I've looked through pictures I'm drawn towards white cabinets. But I'm worried I won't like it for long and then I will wish I had gone with a natural wood, but right now I cannot figure out what I would like. Also, I worry way to much about what other people think and when I say I like white kitchens they give me weird looks. I think a white or light kitchen goes well with my house, but I'm not a expert on design or anything. If I were rich I would pay somebody to figure out my sense of style and design the kitchen for me.

I love these-

I particularly love the above kitchen because it is very symmetrical. I would love for my kitchen to have symmetry like that, but it's too small.

Wait, I kind of like this too-

Hmm, dark?! I like this too-

Something in between.

We might be moving into the house without doing the kitchen, so I can have more time to decide. (Don't worry, there's another kitchen in the basement.)

I don't know.

(As for Chad's take on all of this- "I want you to be happy with it because you spend the most time in it, so do whatever you want." Love him.)

Remodeling Part 1

We've been working on our house for the past couple of weeks. We work at the house Tuesday-Saturday, taking Sunday and Monday off. We've done a lot of demolition. Here's a picture of the kitchen before-

And after-
There use to be three ways into the kitchen. A doorway from the hallway, doorway from the dining room, and then a door that went outside. Three of the four walls had a doorway in them which made for a very awkward kitchen. So we closed off the doorway to the hallway, the doorway outside, and then took the wall out between the kitchen and the dining room.

We are going to put french doors in the dining room. My dad measured the opening and said it was a custom sized window so we would need to order a custom size door. I found one on the KSL classifieds that is exactly the right size and it's brand new. Wahoo!

We have lots to do, but we are making progress. We are still doing some demolition but on Saturday Chad started doing some building. Some of the things we will be doing- rewiring most of the house, redoing most of the plumbing, putting in overhead lights in the living room, refinishing the wood floors (I'm still trying to figure out what to do about the stains), building a play area under the stairs for the kids, moving the location of the toilet in the upstairs bathroom, completely redoing the kitchen, etc...

Ben loves helping us at the house. He is amazingly helpful. Sunday morning he woke me up and asked, "Can we go to the pee house? I want to work."

I need to figure out soon what I want to do with the kitchen. My dad has come up with an awesome layout and despite the fact that the kitchen is small there will be a lot of counter space and a lot of cabinet space. What kind of cabinets do I want?! What kind of flooring?! What kind of countertops?! Of course we are on a budget, but even within that budget there are almost endless possibilities. It's a lot of fun, just overwhelming. We're taking this weekend off and going camping. We are probably going to freeze, but oh well, it will be fun.

More to come...