a month of projects

After one month in our new house we've...

...put up shelves, a workbench, and peg board and put down an epoxy floor in the garage

(before)

(after)

...painted a family room

...installed a new ceiling fan in the family room

(before)

 

 (after)

...replaced the kitchen faucet

(before)

(after)

 ...painted a master bedroom

...installed a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom

(before...still need an after picture)

 

...replaced 2 light fixtures in the upstairs hallway

(before...still need an after picture)

...cleaned the dishwasher

(by the way, I will now swear by this stuff! the dishwasher was pretty bad and had a bunch of buildup from hard water. it's sooooo much better now after just running this stuff through!)

...changed the thermostat to a programmable one

(before)

(after)

 

...had a fence put in the backyard

I myself only had part in a few of these, but my wonderful husband had a part in every single one.  We also had some help from Chris' parents - thanks guys!  It's been a productive month for us since we've had the house and we're really enjoying it with these projects done.  Maggie's loving her backyard (but she never wants to come back in after we let her out - because she's sniffing so much)!  I think we'll be done with house projects at least for a little while now.

Nothing like making a house your own!

(We actually haven't done anything for several weeks now, but I just didn't get around to getting this posted until now! And we're going on having the house for 2 months now.)

Productive weekend

We had a great and productive weekend - Chris' parents came to visit us for a few days for the first time.  They were also a huge help in getting more projects done on our house.

They got here on Thursday night and we had pork chops and potatoes for dinner.  (Thanks honey for grilling.)  We just enjoyed talking and catching up a little...and curling up on the couch that night since it was cold!

On Friday, I was off to work while the other 3 had a long list of other things they were going to do:

- visit to Verizon to get Chris a cell phone! some of you may know that this is quite a major step for Chris...he hates cell phones.  But I wanted him to get one since he was going to be traveling so much (and I didn't want him taking my phone all the time).

- visit to Menard's to buy shelving for the garage

- put up shelving in the garage and try to get it more organized

- mowing the yard

- change lock on the front door (so you don't have to lock it with a key from the inside!)

I was so appreciative when I got home and the garage was looking great, Beth was finishing up mowing the yard, and a yummy pot of chili was smelling up the house :)  I think the garage looked great and Chris is working on it more today!



That night we enjoyed some chili and playing eucher (a card game that we love to play together).

On Saturday, we got to sleep in a little and then got up to do our workouts.  After that, Beth and Chris went in the backyard and starting trimming away at our trees, which badly needed trimming.  They were helping to get it ready so that the fence company can put in our fence this coming week!  (Definitely excited about that!)

Around lunchtime we headed out to get a few more things from the hardware store and we also enjoyed a great lunch at Famous Dave's BBQ.  I don't think any of us had ever been, but it was delicious!  We might have to go back there again.  FYI...if you ever go there, the Devil's Spit Sauce is quite spicy! (I think the name is pretty funny too :)

We found a great and inexpensive kitchen faucet at Lowe's and we decided to get a new programmable thermostat at Menard's.  While we were out, we had also been looking at over-the-stove microwaves.  (There is currently only a fan hood over our stove right now.)  Well, after talking to a nice guy at Lowe's that knew what he was talking about, we determined that we can't fit a microwave in without taking out (or shrinking) the cabinet above the fan hood.  That project may have to wait for a while longer, which is just fine.  (It's just a little annoying for the microwave to take up counter space.)

Then it was time to go back home so the guys could replace the faucet.  It was a little bit of an adventure but I think Chris learned how to do it after this being his first time to replace one.  (His dad was mostly supervising, but stepped into help more when the old one wasn't coming off so easily.)  Chris only got water dumped on his head one time! 

All in all, I think it turned out really nice.

 



Yesterday afternoon, I also got to talk to our next door neighbors (the Hernandez's) more.  I went over to borrow something from them and the little boys took my hand and led me into the house to show me stuff.  It was so cute!  I got to see their Spiderman and Batman costumes that they're wearing today (and some of their toys down in the basement)!  And they also had to show me their pumpkins and bale of hay :) It was fun and nice to talk to our neighbors more.  When I got back home, our other neighbor Jeff was in our house because I had also asked them to borrow something.  So he was just hanging out until the guys got done with the faucet.  He was telling us about the house that they're having built right now.

Well after all that was done, Chris and Beth then started on replacing the thermostat.  It went pretty smoothly (because it's a simple fix) and it turned out great.  It will be so nice to have the thermostat automatically adjust the temperatures throughout the stay...hopefully that will help our utility costs stay down :)

That night we ordered some pizza and played pitch (yet another card game).  We hadn't played that in several years so it was fun trying to remember all of the rules and also the strategy of the game.

It was a great weekend and we really enjoyed having them come visit us.  We really appreciated their help with everything!  They are both hard workers (I wonder where Chris gets it from) and such a joy to be around.  I'll have to post more pictures soon of all of our befores and afters on our house projects.

First weekend in Peoria and house projects

Last weekend we spent an extended weekend in Peoria.  We closed on our house on Thursday (Sept. 30) and then spent the rest of the time doing house projects!  I'm glad that we had the time to spend over there before we move all of our stuff because I'm sure these things were much easier than if there was stuff in the way.  Here's a recap of our projects:

Yay! The house is ours :)

First project: epoxy coat the garage floor...

After we closed on Thursday, Chris worked all afternoon on cleaning the garage floor and preparing it for the epoxy. It was quite the process especially when he busted two hoses and I had to run and get him a new one at the hardware store. It a good thing Home Depot is so close! (We actually found out later that he may have busted them because our water pressure is at 125 and the max is normally 100!)

So after getting up at 4:30am EST to drive to Peoria for closing, we worked together on putting down the epoxy until about 11:30pm CST. It was quite a long day, but we were so glad we got this done and out of the way. We had actually wanted to do this at our house in Lafayette, but it doesn't work quite well to do this after you have already moved in.

Next up on Friday: painting the family room

After both of us going into work for a while, we came home and started painting our family room that afternoon.  We chose the color that our friend Kenlyn used in her front hallway :) and it's also the color that LCC used too.  It's looking so much better than the white that it was painted before.  These are some pics after the first coat.  There's a pic with the finished paint a little furthur below.



(Maggie was trying to figure out what to do with herself the whole time.  She was a little out of sorts since she didn't know what was going on.  She spent a fair amount of time looking out the front door.)

On Saturday: hanging two ceiling fans and painting master bedroom

We wanted to replace the ceiling fan in the family room with a different one and we also wanted to change it since it didn't have a light.  Well, this was quite the adventure for Chris.  He had to first borrow an 8-foot ladder from a neighbor since we don't have one that was tall enough.  Chris was figuring it all out but then the stubborn wireless box for the remote control on the fan was not fitting well up next to the ceiling.  He said that he was hanging from the ceiling at one point!  (He was yelling for my help but I was upstairs painting in our bedroom with the radio on and the door shut!)  But all was well and he didn't injure himself, although he was so tired.  It was REALLY frustrating when it didn't work after he got it all together.  By that point, I had gone downstairs to help him while he fixed the wires.  And then it was working wonderfully!  Here's our new family room...

While he was putting the first fan in, I was painting upstairs in our bedroom.  We painted it the same color as we painted our bedroom here - worn gold is the color.  We liked how it looked with our bedding so much that we wanted to use it again!

We also wanted a ceiling fan in our bedroom since there was just a light fixture (that was outdated and not that pretty).  So after the painting was done and the first fan was in, we had to install the other fan in the dark.  But it went well and took about the half the time of putting the other one in!  The room looks really good but I didn't get a picture of it.  That will have to come later.

I can't even believe it, but we're being moved next week!  The movers are coming to pack boxes on Tuesday, pack the truck on Wednesday, and then deliver everything in Peoria on Thursday.  We can't even believe it's really time for our move, but I think we're both looking forward to this whole process being overwith - it can be taxing at times.  We just ask that you continue to pray for us as we have to say goodbye to Lafayette, go through the actual move process, and settle into our new home and jobs.