Look What I Did!!!

I made curtains! This is my first attempt and while I realize they are not perfect I am very satisfied to have taken on something new. I think they look pretty good. I'm pleased as punch to have pretty curtains (at least in one window- three more windows to go).


I took this picture when I finished them last night. The colors seem a little more true to life in this one.


This picture is from today when the sun was shining (sort of, it's pretty cloudy) outside.

Incidentally, I'm trying to decide which way to face the finials on the curtain rod. Each one is facing a different direction in these pictures. What do you think?

Guess Where I Slept Last Night!

In our new room of course! It was a little strange, but wonderful, to go to sleep there last night. I think I woke up with a smile on my face for possibly the first time in my life (I'm not exactly a morning person). It was just so bright and beautiful I couldn't help but beam. I can't put in to words how much I love the new space, upstairs and down. The family room is just as great as our bedroom. Yesterday all three kids had their own things out on the floor and there was plenty of space for everyone. My mom was playing with Lily, Jay was on the computer right there with everyone and I was just soaking in the togetherness. I LUV it!!!

It's Getting Exciting People!!!

It's been a while since you've gotten a construction update. It's not because nothing is happening. It's mostly because I have not made time to post. Today is an exciting day. The inspector came yesterday and did the final inspection. Matt passed and that means we can move in to the area. That's all fine and good, but the carpet didn't go in until today. I think we'll be spending some time tonight moving stuff in to our new rooms! We still need bars in the closet and glass around our shower, so it's not a fully functional bedroom yet, but it's getting close. It's strange and wonderful all at the same time to have these new parts of our house that we can actually use now. I'm actually not sure I want to sleep in there tonight because we don't have window coverings yet and I do NOT want to wake up at the crack of dawn, but I might anyway just because I can;-)

Here is our contractor, Matt, putting the hardwoods in our closet. They are done now, but there is stuff on them so I can't really get a good picture.
Here is our sink. We need to get a new vanity because that one came damaged:-(

Working, if not enclosed, shower.

I think you can tell what this is. It works too.

Here is the family room and you can see the office area to the left.

This is our room all carpeted and ready to go!

More Progress

Yellow family room. I like it.

Window trim in the bedroom. You can also see the outlets with wall plates if you look.

Wall tile in the shower.

I love standing in the new bedroom. I just look around and feel so happy. I LOVE the color. At first I thought it was too bright. I think it was because I saw it when it was still wet. After it dried I liked it more. The finish was pearl for the first coat because Jay doesn't like flat. He wanted a shinier finish. I love the flat look for walls, but I deferred to Jay and he "compromised" by going with pearl (one step above eggshell and one below his preferred satin finish). After the first coat Jay deferred to me because he did not like the color at all. I tried a sample of another blue, but decided to go with the first blue because it made me sad to cover it up. So the guys did a coat of flat summer blue and I LOVE it. It might appear a little bright to some, but I really like it. I really love it with the white trim. Matt was very patient with me when I asked him to wait so I could look at the color samples in the light of the bedroom. He was also patient, though he did tease me quite a bit, when I twisted Jay's arm decided to go with the original color.

I also love the way the bathroom is shaping up. I love the colors, the cabinets, the tiles. I just love it. I can't wait to move in!

We're Getting Closer

Tile floor is in in the bathroom.

Tile floor in the shower.
Our bedroom walls are painted.

Our family room is painted(picture to come) and the switches and outlets are in place.
Woohoo. We're getting closer:-)

Drywall!!!!

It's starting to look like a real room!

Here is our bedroom from the hall entrance.

The other side.

Side wall. Closet on the left, bathroom on the right.

Shower.

Potty cubby.

Vanity area.

A Long Time Comin'

I knew it had been a long time since I posted pictures of the progress on our house, but I didn't realize until I looked to see what I last posted that it has been since July! Sorry for those following along. Honestly for awhile it seemed like things were stalled. I felt like they were never going to finish for a couple weeks. They were mostly working on the closet I asked them to build for about 2 weeks. The shelves are all built now and I finally got to move the toys in. I LOVE it. This closet is like an answer to my prayers. One central place to keep our toys close to where we will spend most of our time(the new family room). It also creates a bit of a foyer in the front of the house which I like.

Some of these pictures are recap since I have been taking pictures all along, but I did get to posting them.

This is the view from the front door now. Matt put up a really thin drywall to cover the textured ceiling as a surprise for me when I came back from my mom's house because he knew I didn't like them. You'll see the texture if you look at the ceiling of the closet.

This is the hallway to the garage you can see goes off to the left from the entryway.

These are the cubbies Matt suggested. One for each kid.

This is the closet, the second area you see of to the side of the entryway.

Here is the left side of the family room with insulation. See the boards on the wall? Those are in case Jay ever wants to mount a TV there.

This is the other side of the family room.

This is the closet in our bedroom.

Here is the bathroom.

The closet is on the left and the bathroom on the right.

You can't see the roof from our bedroom anymore:-) See that little board over the door? That is where our new plasma TV will be mounted. You can guess whose idea that was. This from the man who made me get rid of the TV I had in my room when we got married.

Jay is installing surround sound before they put up the drywall.

The kids watched him.

Ryan helped.

Lily tried to help, but really she just picked up whatever tools where laying around and handed them to daddy.

This installing hidden wires is serious business.

Lily finally got to really help:-)

Here is the best part of the week...I got to put stuff in the closet! Do you know how much space that stuff has been taking up in my living room?!

Little kid toys on the bottom, then bigger kid toys and finally stuff that could cause a problem for a toddler(small parts, etc.)

We have a few games too;-)

Tomorrow they start the drywall!!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The vanity and medicine cabinets came today. It feels like things are really coming together. I can't wait to see what happens this week!

To those who are coming to the party this weekend...don't worry I've been promised that the family room will be available for Saturday.

Last Week's Progress

Here is the outside. You can see most of the siding is done on this side and the french doors are in place.

Here is the other side where the siding is finished.

This is the new HVAC unit.

Here is an overview of last week's accomplishments of the HVAC guys.

Here is the entry to the new hallway. Notice the labels where the linen closet and doorway to our bedroom used to be before they tore them out.

Here is the hallway. The wall to the left is the wall of what will be Lily's room and to the right you see the laundry and linen closet. At the end of the hallway is the entrance to our new room.

Now that you have your bearings (hopefully) you can look below to see a more comprehensive look at the area.

This is what you can see of what the plumber did last week. There is probably lots more behind walls and such.
All in all a pretty productive week I'd say.

Not so interesting in pictures...

So the roof is done. Now the HVAC guys and plumber are hard at work. The pictures are not so interesting. Pipes and ducting. I'm glad it's there, but it's kind of boring. I think I'll do a collage type thing when it's all up to show the difference closer together.

Another Day, Another Dollar...or 6,000

Jay ordered the fixtures for the bathroom today. I like what we chose, but I am still a little worried about how it will all come together with the tiles and sink and everything. He ordered the sink faucets, shower head and knob, a commode, and all the accessories we'll need for towels and such. That stuff really adds up fast- hence the title.
The roofer was here today and he had help! They finished most of the roof. I have a picture, but I'm too tired from moving stuff to make space and running around all day doing errands to go downstairs to upload it to the desktop, so you'll have to wait. Jay is wiped out too. He cleared a ton of space in the garage and the basement. I think we'll go to bed now and try to rest our weary muscles;-)

Two Day Catch Up

I told you exciting things were going to happen this week, but even I didn't know how exciting it would get yesterday. We had yet another ferocious thunderstorm. It happened in one place in the whole state and it was right over our house! This time they were done work for the day, so it didn't affect them, but the rain pouring into our house freaked me out a little bit. [I should note here that the rain is coming in because of the termite damage in addition to the fact that we have no siding and the gutters are not in yet.] Luckily nothing got ruined that we weren't intending on replacing anyway(ie the downstairs carpet). The roofer was back today, so I'm hoping the state parks association won't have to come by and declare the waterfall in our family room a no build zone or anything.
Now maybe you understand why there was no update yesterday. I was a little busy gathering all the old towels and stuffing them places to try to stop the carnage. Then of course there was the clean up so said towels didn't cause mold.

Without further ado I give you pictures from yesterday...

Here the boys watch as they take out the slider and wall between our house and the addition.

Disappointed boys arrive to find the whole in mommy and daddy's room covered up.

The window from the hole in our bedroom.

TODAY-
Today was crazy busy for me. I had two appointments the morning and three kids. I saw the window truck arrive as I left and when I returned home we had windows!

I went up to check out our room and found holes. Not one, but two holes letting in all the hot air. Thank goodness the doors were both closed keeping that hot air mostly separate from the rest of the house's air. It was also good that we were out of the house because it was pretty warm even with the doors closed.

All the windows in the addition were in, so the only one left was the bedroom.

I also found this very pleasant surprise. It's our shower stall! I didn't know they were going to build it so soon.

The overall view of the house today with windows!

The bedroom window is now in and the guys are packing up. I have yet to take the end of day pictures.

Evening update:

Matt, our contractor, went around and filled all the potential leaky places with some sort of yellow goop. Let's hope the works, at least for now. They also fixed all the termite damage they could get to without causing more problems. They "sistered" another board next to the old one. The framers are finished for now. They will be back to put in the back door and later to put in a couple windows and a slider in the existing part of the house. That way we can move some of the stuff down into the addition and make room for them to move.

We are getting squeezed pretty tight now. We have to make room in the garage so they can put a furnace for the addition, we have to clear space in the basement for the electrician and the new furnace down there and now we have to clean out our closet so they can build a bigger closet for the washer and dryer and hopefully the new wall. The new wall will divide our old room into a hallway and a smaller room that will be Lily's. I don't know where we are going to put all our stuff! I guess I'd better start figuring it out.