Friday, February 24, 2012

Slow week

I was out of town last week (family emergency that took the girls and I to Iowa), so projects were halted. Bryan did what he could this past weekend, but we didn't make much headway... although what he did get done looks great. Both bathrooms got new exhaust fans. They both kicked the bucket a while back, so it's nice to have nice new working ones in their place. And they LOOK nice too.In an attempt to keep as much off of the counter tops as possible, toiletries have their own little home under the sinks. Now to just get into the good habit of making sure it's all cleaned up after each use. Good thing my girls are trainable. :)Bryan did work on our bathroom a bit. The painting has been finished and all the fixtures were put back in place... with a new shower rod. We still need to clean the tile grout and give it a REALLY good cleaning... oh and of course those pesky screens need to be redone. I'm thinking the faucets need to be replaced, but Bryan wants to see what a realtor says before we invest in those.I also noticed this morning, Bryan began fixing the wall in the kitchen. It had some cracking on the lower side. He's began building it back up... should be good for a coat of paint this weekend.Not sure what we can get done this weekend as it sounds like Bryan is bringing quite a bit of work home with him. :( Hopefully some little projects can get crossed off the list though...

Monday, February 13, 2012

Making room for baby

We've officially made room for baby! Everything EG and Reese related is out of EG's old room, and everything baby has been moved in. These are before pictures... well, when EG lived there anyway.And then this summer came, as did the new the roof, and the new roof debacle.While the girls and I were at a baby shower Saturday morning, Bryan Kilzed, and repainted the ceiling and the three walls got a new coat of khaki.Sunday was spent putting it all together for baby. I think she'll love it! :)And I finally got around to organizing the office area of our kitchen. All is done except for (there is always an "except for... ha!") the three drawers on the right.This week we hope to finish up the master bath, and get all of the unneeded furniture and packed boxes downstairs into the garage to be put in the attic/storage. :) Bryan's big job this weekend will be cleaning the grout in our bathroom/entry way to the house and putting new linoleum in the laundry room. Before we know it, all we'll need to work on will be the garage!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Weekends

Two weekends ago Bryan replaced the part of the playroom/breakfast nook floor that had been Winston damaged. I think it's safe to say it was much easier than he had anticipated and was able to get substantial work on the master closet (which was finished this past weekend... except for repainting of the window sill, and the back of the door needs to be scrubbed down) finished as well.There were water marks from the roof debacle that needed to be taken care of on the closet ceiling. Bryan just went ahead and decided to repaint the entire thing. It's so fresh in there now! Baseboards needed some work too, so it was tedious and time consuming to say the least.While Bryan worked on the chemically smelling projects, I cleaned out and reorganized all of the closets. I ended up packing away tons of linens and extra towels.

Upstairs hall/linenDownstairs/coat closet. Come Spring/showing season, we'll be able to pack away all the Winter season items.Since Bryan finished the playroom floor, I was able to have my dining room back. I ended up repainting the table/chairs and was able to put a clear protective coat on, but it definitely needs a couple more before it's called finished. I picked up a couple of little decorative things, so it can be crossed off the list any day now.The big project this weekend was the master bathroom redo. It needed a ceiling repaint as well, so Bryan was able to get that and the walls repainted. The walls are now a blue color, and I LOVE them.New color on left, old color on right... this was taken at night, so the colors are way off.
This is a much better picture taken today during day light.The plan this weekend is to finish up the master bath, clear out all that got replaced in our room during these projects (in order to call the master suite finished... minus replacing all screens), and working on the baby's room. That room took the brunt of the water issues from the roof, so it'll take some time no doubt.

Slow and steady wins the race... or at least it better. :)

Monday, January 23, 2012

Holy shenanigans...

We've been MIA for 3 months. Holy shenanigans. We have, however, been keeping busy. In addition to home improvements, we've spent the last three months traveling for the holidays... which included trips to Disney World and New Orleans, AND I'm currently incubating a bambino, so needless to say we've been busy. :)

We have definitely been able to work on some projects around here, both large and small. We'll start with some of the small ones. We FINALLY replaced the broken bar on the outside lamp, and I painted the lower portion. The top still needs a good coat of spray paint, and we need to find the pieces that go inside in order to have it operating. You'll also see a change in the seasons! ;)Ugh, I seriously wish I had a before picture of this door. This is the door that leads from the inside of the house to the garage. It was BEAT TO HELL... and that's putting it nicely. There were scuffs and marks ALL OVER this thing. I talked Bryan into picking up some of that Glidden door paint that you see on the fancy commercials. IT'S AMAZING STUFF. I did one coat of white over EXTREMELY black marks, and it looks AMAZING! Well worth the $22/quart!Our biggest project so far has been re-tiling and painting the spare bathroom. I realize the befores are pretty dark... but the paint is grey, and this was taken after we had already began taking things apart.(Note how non-pregnant and skinny I am!)Nice and fresh! Left to be done is replacing the screen, kick board under the sink, and the toilet seat... oh and new caulk is needed around the sink area.(Note how pregnant and non-skinny I am! My belly button looks like it is going to poke someone's eye out... ha!)A closeup of B's beautiful floor.A current thorn in my side. It's organized, but it's not cute. I'm seriously considering getting some large baskets to house towels here and putting all the bath toys under the two sinks (which need organizing anyway).Our big project this past weekend was working on our master bedroom. This blank area is where the previous owners had a mirror attached to the wall. We could not for the life of us get it down, so we simply painted around it. Fast forward to a couple of years ago (we've been here 7 years come May), and the damn thing just came off, so this is what we've been looking at... sad I know. Add in a random dresser from the girls' room, a chair, a chest, a set of plastic drawers for linens, and a portable heater for the baby's room, and you have the master bedroom/catch all. I guess life just caught up to us, and we simply didn't make time to fix the things that were wrong. Now we're doing it all at once... oy.This is the only before shot I have of our room... and it's a good one for sure... all the mess and shenanigans are hidden. ;) We kept the same color... just a fresh coat was put on, took down all of our personal family photos, and took out everything that didn't belong. We still have the same duvet cover, I just haven't put the down comforter back inside it yet.There's that chest hidden on the left hand side. It'll be taken out this coming weekend when Bryan can put it in the garage to be put in storage. I can't wait to move, recover the cushion, and put it under a sweet little mirrored hook thing I have... it'll be so cute near the entrance to a front/back door/mudroom!The door to the right is the closet (which is also a project for this coming weekend), and to the right is the master bathroom (which needs more help than I even care to acknowledge right now).Speaking of taking down all personal photos... I really miss them. :( We still have personal photos out, just not with people in them. I'm starting to feel like I'm in someone else's home... which I guess is the goal.Fresh paint and lacking personal photos.This coming weekend's big project is repairing the flooring in the playroom/breakfast nook. This is the most recent before photo I could find, but it doesn't even look like that anymore... most of the toys have been taken upstairs into the girls' closet/garage.Damaged floor from our dog who used this as his potty while we were at work... ahhhh work... work outside the home... ahhhh... that seems FOREVER AND A HALF ago!And now this is the current state of my dining room... In order to get one room done, you have to totally destroy another. Our bedroom is looking great, but now it's all shoved into our upstairs hallway. Our living room is looking great, but now it's all shoved into our garage... it's a vicious cycle I tell you! :) Hopefully we'll have some more updates to share after this week/weekend... it's getting closer to listing time!