Carpets...Paint...Granite

Another exciting day in the land of homeownership....  We're so tired we can hardly drag ourselves out of bed each morning and every meal we sit down for becomes another temptation for a nap.  It's hard even to drag myself off the couch to head to bed this time each evening.

Progress is being made and it's nice to see.  I spent the morning cleaning the carpets in the bedrooms and hall, then I got out the paint once again and went after the 'garden sage' walls of the living room.

I hadn't realized that those walls needed to be painted BEFORE the new fireplace rock went up.  Andy informed me that it would be very difficult to fill in the gaps between the rocks with paint...so it's better to paint now, put the rocks up and touch it up later if needed.  So there is now color in the living area of the house!!  This means we have only two colors left to put up, 'stonebriar' on the last wall in the living room and into the dining area and 'cardboard' in the kitchen for a little POP of color over the window and around the fridge.

Andy has still been working on the counters and he started laying the granite this evening!  Once the counters are in he'll get the back splash up and we'll have a functioning kitchen...well, after it's been cleaned, of course.

Not as many photos to share today, but here they are:

Cleaning the master bedroom carpet.

 

'Garden sage' paint in on the living room walls and in the entry.

 

Andy laying the granite tile counter tops!

Once I finished the paint this evening I was able to come back to the apartment and pack up a few more things.  Now that the carpets are clean in the bedrooms I can really start moving in!  Andy is still over working on the counter and I'm excited to go see the progress in the morning!

Moving Begins

Spent the day cleaning bathrooms, packing boxes, moving boxes, unpacking boxes and taking boxes back to the apartment.  So we have clean bathrooms!  I also ordered our bathroom hardware; towel bars, toilet paper holders and a robe hook for the master bath.

I started moving in a few items that wouldn't be in the way for carpet cleaning; bathroom stuff, shoes, books and I've got clothes loaded in the car from the closet.  This evening I'll clear everything out of the bedrooms and hall so I can vacuum and start cleaning carpets first thing in the morning.

Dad-in-law and our pastor cleaned up around all the windows and painted the three white walls in the guest room.  It was a last minute decision to paint those walls, but we had the paint and thought we'd go ahead.

Andy is still plugging away at the counter tops and the mantle.  He should start getting the granite down tonight or tomorrow!

Here are some photos I took earlier this evening:

Filled book case!

 

Clean guest bath!



Linen closet...I need to figure out how to store all those light bulbs.



I moved some of our shoes into our closet!

 

Clean master bath!



The carpet extractor has arrived!
Bedrooms and hall will be cleaned over the next day or two.

 

The SOLD sign finally went up!
And that's Andy working on the granite counters.



Projects of the Day

Today was full of surprises.  LOTS of people came by to help, some of whom I was not expecting.  I stopped by the house on my way to work this morning, and found Andy's dad at it once again.  He was working on the last wall in the master bedroom, the 'garden sage' wall.  What a treat to get to the house later in the day to find it complete!

I spent my afternoon and evening painting yet again; I touched up a few spots in the hall, started and completed the 2 1/2 'cavern clay' walls in the guest bath, helped with the 2 1/2 'stonebriar' walls in the office (now complete), and helped with the 2 'whole wheat' walls in the master bath (also complete!).  I had help from Andy & Joy P., Becca H., and Hannah K.  What wonderful friends!  Thus concludes the painting of everything except the living/dining/kitchen area....which is going to have to wait until some of the other projects are finished.

Andy took most of the day off from working on the house so he could get some 'real' work done, but he was back at it this evening.  He discovered yesterday that the kitchen counters weren't level, which could pose a problem once he starts laying the granite.  So instead of dealing with that, he and Andy P. worked on leveling the surface this evening.

Andy, is still over there putting the finishing touches on our mantle so it will be ready to go up on the fireplace.  So far it looks fabulous!  I'm excited to see it in place in the house.  It is a beautiful piece of wood...and have I mentioned it was given to us by one of Andy's former employees?  A totally unexpected and much appreciated gift.  We are so blessed!

Well, here are the photos showing some of the work of the day:

 

Kitchen counters after working to make the surface level.

 

Guest bath after the 'cavern clay' walls were finished.

 

Final color added to the office.  Yes, the 'stonebriar' and 'whole wheat' are VERY close in color.

The 'garden sage' wall in the master bedroom.
That's the wall where the bed will go.

 

Master bath with 'whole wheat' to compliment the 'honeycomb'.

The mantle after stain, before clear coat...top view.

 

The mantle...front view.

Tomorrow I start cleaning the bedrooms and bathrooms.  We're going to borrow my father-in-laws' carpet cleaner and hit the floors before we start moving anything in.  So my plan is to track down his equipment and at least get it to the house.  I guess I need to start packing since none of my stuff is finding it's way into boxes on its own.  Thankfully I have most of the next 3 days off work.  Cleaning and packing is all I have to worry about!

Day of Rest...Or Not

Another productive day....though no days seem to be as productive as we would like.  Church this morning then on to more work on the house.

This morning I did the final touch-ups on the 'honeycomb' walls in the master bath and then took the color into the hall to paint the back wall of our built-in book case.  Then I had to run away for an hour or so of work.

My in-laws came over after church and painted too.  They were able to get the 2nd coat of paint on the 2 'whole wheat' walls of the office and the 3 walls of the same color in the master bedroom.  THEN then moved onto the hallway and got both 1st and 2nd coats of paint up.  Whew!  What a HUGE help they have been!

When I returned from work I painted the 2nd coat of 'honeycomb' in the book case, edged and rolled the 1st 'whole wheat' coat on 2 walls of the guest bath, and edged and 1st coated the 'cardboard' wall in the guest bedroom.

I'd like to know who comes up with the names for paint colors.  Cardboard?  Really?

Andy has spent the day completing the installation of the cement board on the kitchen counters, finishing the drywall installation and patching on the kitchen walls, the fabrication of our cabinet above the microwave, and cutting, sanding and staining the beautiful wooden piece that will be our mantel.

Here are some photos of our adventures today:

Fireplace without ugly rock (though you can still see where it was)
and the piles of new rock stacked and ready to go up!

The mantel after sanding, before cutting and staining.



'Honeycomb' wall inside the book case.



'Cardboard' wall in the guest room.

 

The beautiful flowers my mother-in-law brought as a housewarming gift.

The next few days will be a little slower on progress as Andy and I try to get some work done.  I'll still be painting each day, but I think it might be time to think about packing.  So when I'm not at work or painting, I'll be packing boxes.

From Closing Until Now

Today was another productive day.  While I was at work (7:30-5:00), the Dozier family got busy at the house.

Andy worked on the dry wall above the kitchen counter, finished installing the microwave and corresponding cabinet, and put down the cement board on the kitchen counters with the help of the Lake City youth pastor.  Meanwhile, my father-in-law tore out the rock on the fireplace and my mother-in-law got to painting the master bedroom!  Oh, and our pastor started hauling the new fireplace rock into the house.  What a great crew!

When I arrived there was a lot done!

This evening I got a second coat of paint on the 2 "honeycomb" walls in the master bath, touched up the 3 "whole wheat" walls in the master bedroom, and got the first coat of paint on the 2 "whole wheat" walls of the office.

Enough of that...here are a few photos taken over the past few days of our progress:



Lake City youth loading the trailer with junk from the shop to haul to the dump.



The first tiles to go from the kitchen counter!

Steve removing the counter and back splash in the kitchen.

Freshly painted office walls!

'Honeycomb' wall in master bath

Two of three 'whole wheat' walls in master bed room looking into the 'honeycomb' master bath

Andy cutting cement board for kitchen counters

The mess in the living room

Tomorrow will be more painting for me and the in-laws.  Andy's tasks over the next day or two include laying tile/back splash for the kitchen counter and finishing the mantle so it will be ready to go up on the fireplace when we get to that point.

There's still lots of work, but we've made great progress over the past 3 days.  We're hoping to be moving in by next weekend!  Now I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed.

Closing and Progress

We successfully signed all the paperwork yesterday morning and are now homeowners!  That's kinda scary....

And you wouldn't recognize the house that we now own from the one we bought yesterday.  It's a mess....but we are moving forward.

2 hours after the papers were signed Andy & I along with the town youth pastor, his wife, and about 10 teens began loading the trailer full of junk from the shop, house and garage to take to the dump.  Then the remaining furniture items were removed from the house and are temporarily in the shop.  The youth then helped us weed the yard and drive ways before they headed off for the evening.  I can't even explain all the time they saved us by pitching in for 3 hours.  It would have taken us DAYS to go through all that junk and move all the furniture.

Of course, the work doesn't stop there.  Andy tore out the makeshift mantle.  I started removing all the outlet and switch plates, towel bars, etc.  Then we patched holes in the drywall.  After I went home Andy continued repairing the more complicated cracks in the drywall and put up 2 of our new outside light fixtures while he was at it.

This morning while I was at work, Andy ran to Gunnison to pick up paint (40% off sale at Sherwin Williams!).  When I arrived at the house at 1:30 Andy's dad was hammering away at the kitchen counter, and Andy was finishing up drywall repairs.  I removed the shades and blinds from the windows/doors and started taping for paint.

Progress from today: the kitchen counter is gone and ready to be replaced, the cabinet over the stove has been removed to make way for a microwave/vent-a-hood, the hall, both baths and all three bedrooms are taped for paint, and 2 walls of the master bath have their first coat of paint!  Though the house looks a mess, progress has been made.

Andy of course is still over at the house working in the kitchen, but I have to get up early.  Tomorrow I hope to remember to bring the camera back to the apartment so I can get some photos posted...but we'll see.

Preparation and Anticipation

We have just 2 days until we can move into our house!  Woohoo!

In preparation Andy & I just spent two days shopping.  We left Sunday morning and spent the day in Home Depot in Montrose.  We picked out some new light fixtures, and new sink fixtures for the two baths.  We also chose a ceiling fan/light for the living room.  We visited the paint section, but didn't really make any decisions.

Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have the main item we were looking for: granite tile for our kitchen counters.  We made the decision to spend the night and visit a couple more tile stores on Monday morning.  So, we went out for a fabulous dinner and went to a movie.  We spent the night at our home-away-from-home, where we spent 4 months during 2010 while Andy was in school....unfortunately our wonderful hosts were out of town and we didn't get to see them.  But we are thankful for a free place to stay for the night.

Well, Monday morning came and went without any success in Montrose, so on to Grand Junction we went!  We visited both Lowe's and Home Depot there.  Then we started hitting tile/granite/flooring stores....and visited seven in all (plus 3 in Montrose = TEN stores searching for granite tile!).

We finally found what we were looking for in store #9...but of course went on to store #10 just to be sure.  We returned to store #9, A World of Tile, and they had just enough in stock for what we needed!  We walked out with our granite and everything for our decorative back splash.

Once we found the tile we visited a Sherwin Williams store and picked out a few paint swatches that we liked, and went with the tile.  I'm pretty excited about some of our colors, it's a little out of my comfort zone, but it is going to look wonderful.  More on that later.

After looking at paint we returned to Lowe's and chose a kitchen sink and fixture to go with our 'new' kitchen.  We looked at a little more paint while we were there, then finally loaded up the car...very full by this time...and headed for home!

Today we spent the better part of the afternoon at the house with our 'decorators'...aka, friends with a WAY better eye than we have...and discussed paint choices for the different rooms and how it would all come together.  We got some great ideas, some having nothing to do with paint colors, and are excited to get started on Thursday afternoon!

Stay tuned for photos.  They'll be coming soon.  So much to do before the end of the month, and I haven't even thought about packing yet!