Great Progress!

Gallons of Paint: 20
Rolls of Tape: 10
Paint Rollers: 15
Hours painting: Thousands
Being finished: Priceless!



This week we made so much progress around the house. It is starting to feel like a real home! Thanks to the undying and invaluable help of my Mother-in-law Deb and devoted Mom, the painting is completely finished!! (well, 99%) We even moved furniture into the master bedroom. It felt so good to finally see the fruits of our labor.


One of the painting task/projects was to take off the mirrored glass closet doors and paint them chrome. I was feeling rather ambitious one morning and decided to tackle this on my own. I was feeling so proud of myself as a lugged these heavy doors to my pre-made painting area on the front porch. "Jer is going to be so impressed when he sees how hard I worked today!"
I got both doors and the top and bottom tracks outside and was ready to start painting. As I went to put the door on the saw horse, the border slipped off and the door landed on my foot...

I guess I learned my lesson about taking on a project over your head.


The floors are getting trashed, but a little elbow grease fixes that right up. We spent a lot of time on our hands and knees scrapping things like mortar and gum off the floor.

In the kitchen, Jer finished drywalling, we had a really great guy named Adam come out and tape and texture the new walls over the weekend and we painted on Tuesday. That means, the kitchen is READY FOR CABINETS!!! In less than 2 weeks, we will have a fully functional kitchen. Pretty hard to believe!

My mom, not only the brains behind this whole thing, an excellent painter as well!!

Even Dave lent a hand holding up drywall! A true family affair!

We installed new doors in the back of the house, which is not an easy task. Jer and I managed to get the door in and level, but turns out Lowes' doors actually need to be hung not-level in order to close them. Our carpenter was able to fix it for us in about 5 minutes (after we had spent about 3 hours trying to get it level)

We have a functioning garage door opener!

In the dining area, we cut a giant hole in the wall for a built-in-bookcase. We were thinking the hole is rather convenient, maybe we'll just leave it.


So we have a very exciting week ahead of us!! Stop by anytime to see the progress for yourself!

"Try not to cut it open and inhale the dust"

This week has been all about insulation and dry-wall. We were in a scramble to try and finish the kitchen walls so that the kitchen could be installed, but missed the deadline by a week. Now the hope is to finish the kitchen walls by this coming Monday and start the cabinet installation ASAP. We had some awesome help this past week from our LA friends Tim and Wes. They came up to Redding for the Man Trip, but I put them straight to work. They were real troopers and really helped Jer a lot finishing the plumbing and hanging the insulation and drywall.

The kitchen Before:

The Kitchen During:


The Kitchen After:

Woo-Hoo, we have walls!!!


On a plumbing note, as I mentioned in the previous post, Jeremy and I had redone all the kitchen plumbing, minus one last line that needed to be connected for the fridge water. When Tim arrived, he promptly took over my role as plumbing-assistant (Luigi) and was sent under the house to check the connections. (We treat our guests "real nice") So Tim agrees to wiggle under the filthy house and gets in prime position. "Ok, ready!" so Jer turns on the water and hears, "Got a little leak here!" "Really? It's leaking?" "Yup, little leak..." A few minutes later, a soaking wet Tim emerges from under the house. Definitely leaking... No problem, the boys removed the joint and put it back on and the house has yet to flood... Way yo go guys!

Here how you get under the house:

Working hard in tight spaces:




Hurry up and fix it, I'm thirsty!!

Ok, fixed!


I'm still just painting away...

On a side note, I am not a total slave driver. The boys did get to take the weekend off for a great backpacking trip in the Russian Wilderness. Here is where they spent their time off.

Thanks Tim for all the pictures! And above that, thanks for all your help!!

And so it begins...

Well, I always thought I might start a blog once Jeremy and I had kids. I mean, everyone I know blogs about their children. What a great way to keep out of town family up to date, and brag about adorable babies. I however, having no children, thought blogging was not for me. I thoroughly enjoy reading other's blogs but didn't think I would have much to contribute to the blogging world. My mind was changed this evening by my brother and sister-in-law at our "good-bye" dinner. They are moving across the country tomorrow and requested Jeremy and I keep them updated via blog about the happenings around the house. Though I will not be recounting funny stories about cute things kids say, I will share the triumphs, frustrations and accomplishments of remodeling a 60 year old house. Since I will probably be blogging exclusively at work, I will try to go back in and add pictures on my days off. I might throw in some random thoughts about life, since I'm at it...

So here it goes: House update numero uno
Jer and I knew we always wanted to move back to Redding. All of our extended family lives in Redding, and most of our friends. We love the small-town feel, the outdoor activities, and think it will be a great place to raise kids. We had decided to live in an apartment for a few years and save up money for a down-payment on a house. The more we though about it, it occurred to us that now is a better time to buy than ever! So our hunt began...and ended rather quickly. Thanks to the help of super-Realtor Patte (a lifelong family friend of my family) we found our dream house. A 1950, repossessed, fixer-upper. It had all the things I was looking for: hardwood floors, big windows, open floor plan. We knew it needed a lot of work, but we felt up to the task. After a painful escrow period with incompetent mortgage brokers, the house was finally ours and the beginning of June.
The day we received the keys, we went over to the house and began knocking out walls. Since then, the house has been a bustle of activity: painting, tiling, drywalling, demolition, etc.
Here is the current state of affairs:

The master bathroom is about 1/2 way finished. Jeremy gutted it, put in a new tile shower (thanks to the help of cousin Ryan's tiling expertise) fixed all the plumbing and is now moving on to the floor. Once the floor gets layed, he will grout everything and then install the toilet, sink, and vanity. So hopefully in a few weeks we will have a fully-functional bathroom.

The entire house is almost completely painted. My dedicated step-mom has been super-painter and has helped me everyday to get the painting done. I never want to see another piece of blue tape in my life.... The ceilings in the house are vaulted, with exposed beams. We had to tape off every single beam and paint them individually. It took forever!! But the paint looks really beautiful.

The kitchen was completely gutted, down to the studs. Jeremy and I redid all the plumbing. I think I might change careers, I am quite the skilled plumber! This past week Jeremy, Wes, and Tim hung new insulation and drywall. We plan to have the walls tape and textured, and painted by the end of the week so the cabinets can go in Monday!! Woo-hoo!!

I am finishing up a stretch of 6 days at work and can't wait to get back to the house. I will add pictures when I get back to Redding.

As a side note, we said good-bye to Jon and Jenn this weekend and are still grieving over the thought of them living 3000 miles away. We will think of you often, miss you like crazy, and count the days until you move back!! We are praying that your journey is safe. We love you!