It was 4 a.m. by the time Billy rolled around yesterday after painting the basement. He said it looked kind of yellow and reminded him of our old house that we covered everything in yellow just to get a coat of something fresh on it. Turns out it does look a bit yellow in my craft room because it's so stinking bright in there! It's awesome, great lighting for sewing and finishing my mom's scrap book!!
The rest of the house is exactly the color it was supposed to be and I love it. Bill was able to get some of the cabinets set yesterday. We went for the really tall ones on top to give us more storage space and it looks really cool. Just basic, entry level oak cabinets like we put in our last house, only taller on top and a bit of a different color. His plan is to finish things up today with cabinets in kitchen and bath, hopefully including countertops. I am last minute packing and then will be at the house to clean up the floors and get it ready for move in tomorrow. 10 a.m. is the time we've set. People from our ward will be here to help us. Some of them have had to be bribed with fresh baked bread in order to get the piano moved. Apparently they have some nightmare stories about moving pianos through curved stairwells and the thing never touching the ground, so it's an ongoing joke in the ward every time someone is moving. The question all the men want to know before they commit is, "Do they have a piano?"
This will likely be my last post for the next few days. I will be disconnected from the cyber world until we get settled in a bit. I'll try to post some pics before the weekend is through, but no promises.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Are we there yet?
We're tired. It's 2 a.m. and Bill is painting as we speak. He was helping a friend with a DIY project tonight and was supposed to come and get me after he finished so I could be there for moral support if nothing else. I had fallen asleep for a good hour before he finally got here and was almost in a coma when he tried to shake me. Now I'm awake due to the strong winds we are receiving-gusts recorded so far at 61 mph! There is a bent gutter flapping and hitting the roof, sounds scary!
We primed the basement at about 7 p.m., ran out of primer, had to make a last minute trip to Wal-Mart. Wasn't as quick as it used to be-the last house we did was only 3 minutes from WM, this one is 15! My fast trip took me over an hour since I had to drive to the duplex and get some money first-am I ever going to learn to take my purse with me everywhere?!
We finally decided on a color for the basement. We're using a sprayer for simplicity and speed (in case you've never done this, I highly suggest it. It probably uses double the paint, but it's well worth the extra money!). We hmm'ed and haa'd about a good nuetral, homey color that could be used for the ceiling and the walls. Since we're starting in the basement, we wanted it to be a lighter color and since we want to keep the home looking 1900-ish, we went with a color called "Churchill's Hotel Vanilla". It actually has a spot on the paint card that says it's a...hmm, I forgot the exact words, but something about hostoric registration color choice. Nice marketing, eh? Worked for me!! It's sort of an antique white look. I think it will be a good beginning color for the entire house. As we live in the home and get more of a feel for how we want it to look we will paint by hand, room by room, likely leaving the ceiling this color. They say if you want a room to look bigger, keep the ceiling color light. We still have not completely decided on trim color, but we know we want wood and we think a deep brown stain will do. The white trim we had in the last house was cute, but completely impractical. Smudges everywhere are not conducive to "casual housekeeping" as I like to call my style.
My step brother the electrician and his dad were out today. The original plan was for them to finish wiring the entire house and trim it all out even though we don't even have sheetrock in over half of the place. The method to this madness was supposed to avoid a change in electrical laws that require more expensive breakers (probably designed to be a safety thing, but at this point all we are seeing is dollar signs). This would mean that we'd have to go through the entire 2 remaining levels and remove all of the plates and fixtures so we could drywall, and then put them all back on again. Yuck! Miraculously, plans changed and we're waiting on all that. But, we are in a mad dash to get the basement painted so we can have them finish there before we move in. We're already a day behind and they stalled for us today on other things, like some lights in the garage. I have definately come to appreciate the ease and convenience of light switches. It is so nice to be able to walk into a room and flip a switch instead of trying to find a cord in the dark and line up the prongs to the halogen ever so carefully to avoid death by electrocution.
We picked up the cabinets for the little kitchen and the bathroom today. In order to do this we had to get rid of the last several months of various housing scraps-shingles, siding, and lots of sheet rock to name a few. Our trip to the dump was enlightening as usual. We are a sickening throw away society. The guy next to us was throwing out quite a few things that looked well enough to be donated, but you know, I'm sure it was easier this way.
Tomorrow the kids are going to a friends house for probably most of the day so we can get some things accomplished and they can pretend they have a life. We are all looking forward to being in the house so we can have some sense of normal again. I have some packing to do still and I think Bill may be setting the cabinets.
We primed the basement at about 7 p.m., ran out of primer, had to make a last minute trip to Wal-Mart. Wasn't as quick as it used to be-the last house we did was only 3 minutes from WM, this one is 15! My fast trip took me over an hour since I had to drive to the duplex and get some money first-am I ever going to learn to take my purse with me everywhere?!
We finally decided on a color for the basement. We're using a sprayer for simplicity and speed (in case you've never done this, I highly suggest it. It probably uses double the paint, but it's well worth the extra money!). We hmm'ed and haa'd about a good nuetral, homey color that could be used for the ceiling and the walls. Since we're starting in the basement, we wanted it to be a lighter color and since we want to keep the home looking 1900-ish, we went with a color called "Churchill's Hotel Vanilla". It actually has a spot on the paint card that says it's a...hmm, I forgot the exact words, but something about hostoric registration color choice. Nice marketing, eh? Worked for me!! It's sort of an antique white look. I think it will be a good beginning color for the entire house. As we live in the home and get more of a feel for how we want it to look we will paint by hand, room by room, likely leaving the ceiling this color. They say if you want a room to look bigger, keep the ceiling color light. We still have not completely decided on trim color, but we know we want wood and we think a deep brown stain will do. The white trim we had in the last house was cute, but completely impractical. Smudges everywhere are not conducive to "casual housekeeping" as I like to call my style.
My step brother the electrician and his dad were out today. The original plan was for them to finish wiring the entire house and trim it all out even though we don't even have sheetrock in over half of the place. The method to this madness was supposed to avoid a change in electrical laws that require more expensive breakers (probably designed to be a safety thing, but at this point all we are seeing is dollar signs). This would mean that we'd have to go through the entire 2 remaining levels and remove all of the plates and fixtures so we could drywall, and then put them all back on again. Yuck! Miraculously, plans changed and we're waiting on all that. But, we are in a mad dash to get the basement painted so we can have them finish there before we move in. We're already a day behind and they stalled for us today on other things, like some lights in the garage. I have definately come to appreciate the ease and convenience of light switches. It is so nice to be able to walk into a room and flip a switch instead of trying to find a cord in the dark and line up the prongs to the halogen ever so carefully to avoid death by electrocution.
We picked up the cabinets for the little kitchen and the bathroom today. In order to do this we had to get rid of the last several months of various housing scraps-shingles, siding, and lots of sheet rock to name a few. Our trip to the dump was enlightening as usual. We are a sickening throw away society. The guy next to us was throwing out quite a few things that looked well enough to be donated, but you know, I'm sure it was easier this way.
Tomorrow the kids are going to a friends house for probably most of the day so we can get some things accomplished and they can pretend they have a life. We are all looking forward to being in the house so we can have some sense of normal again. I have some packing to do still and I think Bill may be setting the cabinets.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Woohoo!!
One level is now completely sheetrocked and textured-only 2 more to go!! Tomorrow we paint...
The kids were great helpers tonight, being promised a burger from Wendy's after we were all finished. Taylor playfully put a "kiss me" sign on my back, which Ben crossed out and wrote "kick me", then he proceeded to do as the sign suggested. The kids ended up falling asleep on the floor upstairs and it was after 1 a.m. before we left the house. No restaurants were open. Sorry, kids, maybe next time. We hope there won't be any more of these late nights, or should I say early mornings. We're planning on moving in Wednesday or Thursday this week. Woohoo!!
The kids were great helpers tonight, being promised a burger from Wendy's after we were all finished. Taylor playfully put a "kiss me" sign on my back, which Ben crossed out and wrote "kick me", then he proceeded to do as the sign suggested. The kids ended up falling asleep on the floor upstairs and it was after 1 a.m. before we left the house. No restaurants were open. Sorry, kids, maybe next time. We hope there won't be any more of these late nights, or should I say early mornings. We're planning on moving in Wednesday or Thursday this week. Woohoo!!
Monday, December 1, 2008
HERE WE COME!
Effective immediately our mailing address is:
uh, email me and I'll give it to you. I'm not sure about the safety of posting it here.
But the point is, we're moving in!! We gave our notice here in this little rental and we'll be country bumpkins just after Christmas. So ready or not, here we come Big House!
My step brother is wiring the house and he'll be finished with the rough in this week. Bill will be finished with the plumbing this week and the insulators are coming next week. What more do you really need in life? It will be a mad rush to get as much of the dry walling done as possible before we get the rest of our junk in, so if anyone wants to come and help we certainly wouldn't turn you down...:)
Sorry, no pics. I'll try and get more this week.
uh, email me and I'll give it to you. I'm not sure about the safety of posting it here.
But the point is, we're moving in!! We gave our notice here in this little rental and we'll be country bumpkins just after Christmas. So ready or not, here we come Big House!
My step brother is wiring the house and he'll be finished with the rough in this week. Bill will be finished with the plumbing this week and the insulators are coming next week. What more do you really need in life? It will be a mad rush to get as much of the dry walling done as possible before we get the rest of our junk in, so if anyone wants to come and help we certainly wouldn't turn you down...:)
Sorry, no pics. I'll try and get more this week.
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