My Great Excuses + Pictures for your Satisfaction!

Really, I mean it... I have missed you! All of you readers out there who bug me and tell me I need to update, well here you go. Only a month and a few days later, and for that I am sorry.. but you must understand my circumstance. Once we moved in, I had no computer access unless Caleb was at home because our home computer was not hooked up and I could not for the life of me find my laptop (which is awful anyway...). And those of you who have work computers know that it isn't exactly a great idea for Caleb to let me upload our personal pics to the blog, so I was a good girl and didn't do it. Fast forward into mid-June: we get the home computer hooked up, finally and guess what... IT DIES (by the grace of God it was 2 weeks before the warranty expired!). And what a sad day... seriously. Never in my life have I been more thankful for blogging and shutterfly because otherwise all of my pictures of the remodel would be totally gone. A lot of the pictures of the remodel were lost, but I just conceded that there was nothing I could do and pouting would only make both Caleb and me miserable. So, once again, no posting pictures. Fast forward again, I get my home computer working and I leave my camera at my parents house... No posting pictures again. Well, fast forward to now and you must know I feel like one lucky duck. I have my camera and my laptop computer, although it loses charge very quickly and the charger is a thorn in my side, works, so here ya go. Enjoy what pictures I have. Hopefully more to come soon!

Guest Bedroom... AKA The Morris Hotel. So far our count is 3 visitors.
Another view of the guest bedroom
Guest bathroom.
Master bathroom

Dining Room (decorated for the 4th of July.. yes, I may just be one of "those" people who always keep the table decorated... I think it's cute!)
View from the Dining/Living Room into the Breakfast Nook/Kitchen
Breakfast Nook
One view of the kitchen
Another View of the kitchen

We are in.

So, we are in the house and officially have internet. Well, supposedly we have "had" internet since Friday, but I just got it working in the last day or so. It is coming along and I will have pictures to post later... hopefully tomorrow. I do not have the computer set up and my laptop has seen its last days, so I only get to use the computer when Caleb is at home and isn't cracking the whip. I know you are all on the edge of your seat... hopefully I will have pics up tomorrow. Night night blog world!

Quick Update

So, this one is going to be short. I just wanted to let you guys know where we are at in the project. Caleb and I feel like zombies, so exhausted from spending all of our free time for the last 2+ months working on the house... We did not move into the house this weekend due to certain circumstances, BUT we will be moving in next week!!! It is definitely less than ideal to move during the middle of the week, but as with everything else, we literally had no option. The POD will be delivered at the beginning of the week, then we will unpack it and be in by this weekend! We are thrilled and can't wait to show you pictures of the finished product. Of course, as with any home, there is still some work to be done, but nothing the city won't let us do while we are living there. Pray for us tomorrow as we have the plumbers and electricians coming to finish out and will be calling for inspections in the afternoon. Pray that everything is complete and we can move forward without any hiccups.

Houston, We have counters!!!!

What a fun day!!! We got our countertops!! was so interesting watching them do it... So, here's the story. I was told I needed to be at the house between 10 and 11, and that it would take around 3 hours to do the entire install. Well, around 9:45 they called so I raced over there to the house (I was buying plumbing fixtures.. another day!). By 10, I realized I had the wrong faucet and needed to go get a new one. Well, as I was getting my stuff together, I heard the workers talking and it sounded like they were concerned about something, so I glanced out the back door. Lo and behold, I see the guys with my big L-shaped piece on the orange Home Depot-esque 3 section dolly trying to get up the back stairs. They were using one of the guys shoes to protect the granite from the concrete (real reassuring, eh?) and they had the weakest dude trying to hoist the granite and the dolly up the stairs all by himself. In my mind, and of course out loud, I think, "Would you like for me to help you with holding the bottom of the granite so you can get it up the stairs?" Well, as you could probably guess, I got a snicker and a polite, "No mam, we've got this" response from one of the workers. After standing there staring at them while they try to figure this thing out, I figure it is probably better if I just left because I will annoy the tar out of them staring while they try to not break a very expensive piece of stone as they ghetto-rig it up my stairs. They had my number in case it broke while I was out.. Well, luckily, they didn't need it. By the time I came back, they had set all three pieces of stone on top of the cabinets and were getting ready to start cutting the hole for the sink and faucet. It was insanely loud while they cut the sink hole and of course, as a special ed. teacher I began worrying about the state of all of our ear drums and went on an unsuccessful hunt for ear plugs from our tool box. Oh well, I settled for looking like a 2-year old holding my ears closed. About 2 1/2 hours after they started, I had beautiful countertops to enjoy for many years!! Enjoy some pics of their handiwork!

Our countertops and the trusty dolly...
The countertops, view from the dining room.. Notice the faucet to the left of the sink.
Close up of the countertops... New Venetian Gold Granite

Another view of the c-tops and the kitchen.

the list is shortening..

So, our laundry list of everything that will make our home "liveable" according to the city of Richardson is getting shorter. YAY!! We have one bathroom left to tile, the kitchen is tiled, the countertops will be delivered Friday and hopefully at the beginning of next week, we will have all of our plumbing fixtures in!! And, the only other big thing is that we have to blow insulation in the attic, which we have heard is not a big task (comparatively speaking, I guess...). That means that hopefully next weekend (May 16-18), we will be moving in. I am a little nervous to say that because I don't want it to not happen, but I'm just going to go ahead a put it out there. I need to call and get our appliance set up for delivery. Do you remember several months ago when I was so excited about my appliances?? Well, it just so happens that my wonderful, fabulous appliances will probably end up being delivered on my birthday!!! It may seem weird to most of you, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE cooking and being in the kitchen, so we have probably spent the most money, love and attention to that space so I can enjoy it and through my cooking, my husband, family and you guys, my wonderful friends, can enjoy it as well!! As I type, the light fixtures are being installed in the house. Things really seem to be coming together and I just can't wait to not be living out of my car and always on the go. That's it for now!

Oh, P.S. Caleb is taking the GMAT on Saturday, so say a prayer that he will be able to focus his attention completely on that this week and that he would have good rest. I guess that means you should pray for me too because I'm coughing up what feels like my left and right lungs all night long, so my husband can't sleep either.

Much love!

Prayer Requests!!!

Pray for us as we really begin to enter that final stage of getting our house ready for moving! If you feel so inclined, here are some things we need specific prayer over:

• First and foremost, that God would continue to be Lord over this project, the timeline and how we "manage" all of our contractors throughout the process
• Pray specifically for tomorrow (April 10th), as Caleb will be working with two guys from 4L Engineering to completely redo all of our duct work. They have been soo wonderful and gracious, with the owner of the company being not only one of Caleb's best friends dad, he's also an Aggie. We really need the duct work done quickly because we did not plan to do any major HVAC work which means we didn't include it in the budget... and with it costing us a lot per hour, the quicker it is done the better. Pray that their work is done very thoroughly, and very swiftly.
• Pray that this weekend would be free of hiccups, and that we can go in to it with all of the supplies we need in order to put a serious dent in the tile work. Ideally, we could completely tile both bathrooms in the course of the weekend. We shall see.. But regardless, we need prayer that our time would be consumed with laying tile rather than making Home Depot and Lowes runs!
• Pray that the weather would cooperate.
• I know this may sound silly, but pray that we could find paint for our house that we like and goes well. I just don't think I would be a good steward of our finances if I kept spending $5 here and $10 there to try out different paint samples, even though I like the paint when it's in the swatch but not on my walls. It is very frustrating!!
• Pray that the Lord would truly guard our finances with regards to the house and that every penny spent would be put to use wisely.
• Pray that we would be good stewards of our time and that we would truly finish the work God began in our lives through the commitments we have through the end of the month.
• Pray that God would provide sweet rest and that the moments we get a chance to stop, that we would be thankful for all of the blessings and that we could find peace and rest in the hope that God is going to carry us through the end of this project.

I am sure that isn't everything, but that is all my brain could handle and all the prayer requests my mind remembered at the moment! Thank you all you wonderful prayer warriors!! We can't wait to show you the fruits of your prayers when this project is complete!

Exhausted!!

SOo... Here's just a quick update for you! We had a CRAZY BUSY day, but got so much done! We literally had a 12 hour work-day, leaving before 8 a.m. and not getting home until after 8:30 tonight. But wow, what a productive day! And for starters, I must give a few shout-outs to the rock-stars of the day. Geary, Caleb's step-dad and remodeling extraordinaire, came through like you wouldn't believe. He helped us rework the moulding on the tops of a few cabinets, helped us pick out a painters rig so we could spray the cabinets, helped us finish prepping the cabinets for paint, probably sprayed 4-5 coats of primer, helped us sand down the primer and prep the cabinets for paint and then sprayed a coat of the cabinet color. And that's just the stuff I saw, I know there was so much more he did that wasn't in my plain sight because I was working on other stuff. Next shout-out goes to my parents, Richard and Debbie, who were amazing. They came over with their yard materials, fertilized our yard, prepped both of the bathrooms for paint (taping, etc.), sanded down the wood in the bathrooms that had texture on it, filled holes, painted the ceiling, painted some walls, put up some sheetrock, put up some concrete backerboard and SO MUCH MORE!! Wow.. It was a crazy day, but it was so productive! I am most excited at this point about our cabinets, they look amazing! I can't wait to share them with blogworld, but it will have to wait because they are not finished. That's all for now. Sorry it was so short and no pics. You'll have to wait until next time!

Archways and Cabinets

Thought I'd change it up and put the pictures first... I'm gettin' wild and crazy on you... Or maybe I'm just going crazy from this project... Or maybe I was already crazy.. All of the above are possible! Enjoy!

Archways (view from inside the kitchen into the dining room) and our sweet workers who just prayed before eating pizza! How amazing is that???
The master bathroom, ready for tile... Does this make anyone want to volunteer to help us tile?? Hehe..
From the left: First inset is the new washer/dryer closet, Second Inset is the space where the fridge will go, Third Inset is the space where the pantry will go
Archway (view from the hallway into the living room and entry way)
Cabinets... LAAAAA! (imagine the sky opening up and beautiful music playing!) I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my new kitchen and can't wait to cook! Who knows what this lady will whip up with all the new inspiration?!?

Two fun things in our home are in the house and make such a difference! It is starting to feel like a home! And we are starting to feel the pressure to get the house done in the next 27 days... AHH! Pray for us as we try to do our best to get this home finished with quality and that the Lord would truly direct the time schedule over the next few weeks and that God would send us contractors who want to work for free, or at least cheap! Here's what is on the books for this weekend:

• This weekend: Painting another coat on the kitchen ceiling, filling all the nail holes in the cabinets, sand all the filled holes, vacuuming the cabinets until they are 100% saw dust free, tape the kitchen, tape the windows, caulk all the corners to prep for paint, seal the room off from the rest of the house, spray the kitchen cabinets (courtesy of our FABULOUS STEP-DAD/FATHER-IN-LAW Geary) with primer and paint... you can pray for hot and dry weather, rip out all the door frames and trim throughout the whole house, finish peeling up the "hopefully not asbestos tile", paint the master bedroom and 3rd bedroom, paint the bathrooms, finish tearing out the wall paneling, take all the paneling out to the garage, fertilize the yard, hope we can revive the grass, spray the kitchen cabinets with final coat (hopefully it will be ready!!!), tear out all of the duct work through the entire house, and not lose our ever loving minds!

Soo, is there anyone out there who watches HGTV like it's going out of style and really want to take a crack at some DIY home improvement? Or even better, we got any closet tile experts willing to sacrifice some time to help us out? We really aren't afraid to be beggers at this point! Haha... I'm kidding, unless you really wanna help! I hope this gives you an idea of the craziness that has ensued at our casa. Well, if I can tell you anything, I will tell you this. None of the pictures I have posted throughout the whole process have done the home justice. The before pictures didn't show how bad of shape the house was in and the after pictures don't show how beautiful the house is now. Hopefully once we are in the house and it is done, we can throw a big party so that you guys can all come see the fruit of the labor of us and our friends and families and everyone we either paid or thanked for their help on our project. It will be all worth it. Well, that's all for my novel this evening. Say a prayer for us as we enter the home stretch!

We're on 3rd base..rounding in to home!

Wow... I cannot believe it is nearly April!! We have just around a month until we absolutely have to be out of our apartment, which means we also have to be in our new house. That means, life for the next 30 days are going to be sheer chaos!! If I can last through the next 30 days and maintain sanity, I think I can handle a heck of a lot for a 24, almost 25 year old! We have 1 month left in the CARES Apartment Ministry, which means we still have 70 hours of service to the apartment complex and 384 apartment residencies to love on, 1 apartment that has to be packed and ready for the move, 2 full-time jobs, 1 husband trying to study intensely for the GMAT which he'll be taking May 10th (pray for that!) and 1 house to complete, from refinishing the hardwoods to painting the walls to tiling the floors and bathrooms to putting in gutters to helping our yard live to SO MUCH MORE! Mylanta.. does that make you want to come help us?? Well, if you feel ever so inclined, we'd love to buy your lunch on a Saturday for some help painting, etc, etc, etc! Sorry no pics.. just a short post to let you know we are alive and the house is coming along. I will post pics soon. The house looks totally different!

Walls, windows and a workaholic!

Here's a big update, one the few of you who keep bothering me have been waiting for! Sorry... I am just so busy these days I can barely keep up with myself! Between work, CARES, the house and my family (husband and 2 dogs at the moment), I have to remember to breathe sometimes. I am really enjoying every bit of the remodel, but will be very glad when this labor of love is complete! This week is my spring break, and since there is no relaxing with this much work to be done, I have been over at my house working my tail off. I have to say, though, that I am very proud of all I have accomplished! I do have to share a quick warm fuzzy story! On Thursday, we had A LOT going on at the house. We had 2 inspections that we had to pass, so I had my framing crew on my job shimming up some spaces in the wood, spraying foam in the holes the electricians and plumbers left, framing out a new window space and installing insulation in all of the open exterior walls. I also had all of the windows being installed throughout the house. On top of that, I had a mason on the job patching up the spot where the new window would be. And as icing on the cake, I was there removing ceiling tiles (156 to be exact), ceiling nails (somewhere around 700 of those) and peeling up what we think may asbestos tile from the old sun room so we can refinish the hardwoods that are under there. Sound busy? It was! Well, around 11:00 a.m. I realized that I really needed all of my workers to keep working through lunch to get everything done that needed to be done prior to the inspection, so I decided to go buy them lunch! Well, you would have thought they won the lottery or just accepted Jesus because there was some serious hollering, excitement and thankfulness in my house! It was such a blessing to bless them with lunch and just reminded me that we can touch peoples lives in even the smallest ways, and even when I think I am doing something to motivate people to work, God can use it in a much bigger way! He just reminded me of how blessed I am and how even the little things can be used to spread the love of Christ by being self-sacrificial with my money and servant-hearted with my gifts!

This is the master bedroom carpet that I rolled up all by myself! I didn't think it was such a big deal, even though it was pretty tough and took a bit of time.. but when I told my father-in-law, Geary, who is a contractor, that I did it all by myself, he was quite impressed! He said that is normally a 2 or 3 person job.

Our windows, woohoo!

The "hopefully not asbestos" and linoleum flooring I am peeling away to reveal the beautiful hardwoods.

New window in the front bedroom. If you come visit us, you could open those windows as you will stay in this bedroom! So fun!

The truck with the windows, and me on the sidelines praying that none of them were broken.. my prayers were answered!

The old front window is gone and the frame is just waiting for the new one.. Aren't they shiny and new!

The master bath with insulation.

The hall bath with the new, much smaller and much more private window plus insulation.

The ceiling, sans tiles. That was some tedious work. See that faint blue chalk line on the ceiling?? That chalk line centered the room for the original owner to install the ceiling tile probably about 50 years ago... Crazy!

Hope you enjoyed the picture walk through our journey in the last few days!

Demolition and Dirt Boogers

Soo...here's pictures of 2 weekends of Demolition. Enjoy!

DEMOLITION ROUND #1

Well.. my camera was too cold to take a picture when we got in the house and it was 39 degrees, so I had to wait for it to warm up for about 4 hours before I could take a picture of how cold it is in our house!!!! We were both wearing 3 layers of clothes (thick ones!!), pounding at the tile and cement wall and we were still FREEZING cold!!!!

Some of the damage from day one. This is the 50 year old, non-functioning, and VERY unsafe heater in the house. It will be gone ASAP!

Some of the wreckage in the master bedroom.. wood from the shelves, ceramic pieces from the heater, nasty middle school boys bathroom style sink (YUCK!) and stinkin heavy pieces of cement wall.

More damage in the master bathroom, including the pipes that should have no water in them yet are leaking...hmm.

Caleb, probably early in the day, because we were definitely not that chipper by the days end.. We have a newfound appreciation for manual labor!

Me, cute pink gloves and ugly goggles included! You should be glad I took the face mask off! I figured with all the labor and nastiness I would be surrounded by, I could at least have an ounce of cuteness with pink gloves! Somehow it makes working a bit more motivating!

Caleb's sister Emily had to get in on the action! All the family came over to check out our project and I saw Emily just itching to do something so we gave her the sledgehammer and put her to work!

DEMOLITION ROUND #2

SOooo, this time around we kinda knew what we were getting ourselves into.. we look much less excited, knowing the pain that we are going to cause our bodies because of the work we were about to take on!

We were much smarter today.. See that nifty little tool in my hands?? Yes, my friends that is infact a miniature jackhammer/air hammer with a chisel tip. The force was on our side! Don't be fooled though, that Katie did all that work you see, for Katie could not hold that piece of machinery up for more than 10 seconds!

Demolition in the second bathroom. No more birdbath sink!

Lots of walls gone.. the two bathrooms are connected which made a lot of the work easier in the second bathroom because we could work from the back side of the wall. Leverage, people, leverage!

All in a good days work. We only have about 30% left!

Caleb doing the hard labor in the master bathroom, inhaling a LOT of dust! Oh yea, best part is that we found out the seat in the shower is SOLID CONCRETE. Even the hefty tool we rented couldn't put a dent in that. How are we going to get that out? Well, my friend that is a great question for which we have no answer...

View of the hall bathroom from the master. All the pipes you see are nasty and rotting and ALL have to be replaced. Oh yea, you can pray that we find a plumber since ours quit on us Friday. Lovely... oh well! I guess we will have more time to demo the bathrooms.

More of the master bathroom. Look at all the concrete, tile and dust buildup. That's about 3 inches deep. It would probably be 4 inches but I think we inhaled all that extra inch in our lungs.

See the seat.. solid concrete. That is my new enemy.

But the rest of the shower, we are winning. HA!

Soo, that is our demolition in a nutshell. Now on to the second half of the blog.. you know.. the "and dirt boogers" part of it. Disgusting huh? Well, actually we are quite thankful for the dirt boogers. Why? Well, that means our body is doing its job. Those hairs up your nose do have a job, and the last two weekends we have experienced the joy and nastiness of it. Nastiness because who likes boogers, especially when they are grey and full of gristle. Joy because on some level I (Katie) think its really funny to talk about boogers and even more fun to pick them in the car and make the people (husband included) driving next to you totally disgusted!!! NO... I know what you are thinking now. I properly disposed of all of the boogers that were used to gross out the road neighbors in a tissue... but I did have a good laugh. And once I started calling them dirt boogers, I was so excited about writing the blog because I had a catchy name for the title. And we all know, the title is the first thing a person sees to draw them in to reading a story. Now aren't you all so glad you stuck around to the end so you could see pictures of our progress and enjoy me talking about boogers? Happy Sunday!!! =)

First hit at the money pit!

First things first, right?? Well we knew that before we could do anything else, we had to get the foundation of the house leveled. Along with that, we knew we had five 50-year old trees and 3 red tip bushes that were going to be a nightmare if we didn't get the roots taken care of. Sooo.. our first hit to the bank account was on shimming up the foundation (for a description see Foundation and Our First Steal.. Of a Deal, That Is!) and installing root barriers between the house and the trees. Here are pictures of the results! Enjoy!

Tree in the front yard with roots that were as big around as my forearm in some parts!
Another front yard tree with massive root barriers, all hand dug!

Red tips... the structural engineer said they probably have not invaded the foundation yet, but these shrubs can be a nightmare to the foundation so we got them taken care of.

Pecan tree in the back... It didn't get root barriers but I had to show a picture because I am SOOO excited about the pecan tree! I had a pecan tree in one of the houses we lived in growing up so it was neat to have that memory and know that maybe our kids will have memories of a pecan tree.. and PLUS, now we won't have to go spend a fortune to buy pecans! We have an unlimited supply for free in the yard!

Another tree in the back that didn't get root barriers, but I couldn't leave him out...

This is the BIG MOMMA tree that was causing the biggest problems to our foundation and the root of the problem (haha..) that began our concern with getting root barriers.

All in all, our first experience with the home was absolutely WONDERFUL!!! I cannot sing the praises enough of the company we used for our foundation work, All-Pro Foundation Repair. They made this process so easy and light on the wallet. The estimator who came out to our house was an Aggie-great start. He was completely honest with us from the get-go and even came out a second time on his own time to go through the house again and walk us through his concerns for a second time. He told us about all the people we would be working with and was always available when we needed to talk to him. He sent out a great structural engineer who made recommendations that would take care of the foundation within our budget. The best part of it all, though, was the day all of the work took place. That's right, I said DAY- meaning uno, one, single day! I got to the house around 8:15 a.m. to meet with the forman who took off his shoes in our nasty home even though I told him he didn't have to worry about it. Every single worker looked up from the work they had already started with digging the roots to greet me and shake my hand. The forman told me they were going to do more root barriers than what was originally suggested free of charge. Wow.. that was a great start. Anyone who knows me knows I love free stuff, especially when I know how much money I am already spending!! Then, I left for them to get the work done. They were done by 11 a.m. WOW! And as icing on the cake, when Caleb came out to inspect the work, the forman explained to Caleb that while they were shimming the house, they really felt like a certain part of the house was sagging, so he made the executive decision to add a pier to the house... FOR FREE!! We are talking with all the additional stuff they did to the house, we would have incurred almost another thousand dollars, and they did it for free! What a blessing! And even more than that, what an honest company that sticks to their word on the quote they give and what a company that stands by their work so much that they would put extra piers and root barriers where needed for no charge so they would feel good about the work they did.

Ahh... warm fuzzies! Now we are on to other projects that haven't been as warm or fuzzy. Stay tuned...