Way too much going on!  Tile guys started yesterday.  It already looks great.  For something we didn’t plan on doing, I’m sure glad we did!

The painters are back and it’s looking really goood! (sung to “My boyfriends’ back and you’re gonna be in trouble”). Every day it continues to lighten it up!

Hardwood guys are coming on Wednesday.  To start laying wood on the kitchen area and then comes the sanding and then sanding.  Scheduled the carpet installation.  Can’t believe it.  That’s supposed to be the last thing before we start moving stuff in.  Exactly!

Kids enjoyed the pool today.  What a difference.

I’ve been asked that a couple of times.  I have a question, are you guys doing this without a General Contractor.  Just calling  people to show up and do the work.  You’re scheduling everything.  Yes.  Yes we are.  Except for the bathroom.  We hired a GC for that, and am I happy about that decision.  He’s gettin’ it done.

Tile is ready to go in on Saturday.

River City Drywall is just about finished.  Mud and taped everything.  Sam said it’s ready to be textured tomorrow.  What a difference.  They did a fantastic job.

Hardwood guys came early this week (supposed to be there Monday, they were able to come on Tuesday, Wednesday and worked Thursday.  They have the kitchen left to do, which will start on Monday.  I have to removed tack strips and lovely staples, but, will gladly do it this weekend.

Finally, I started and finished Steve’s room.  I put a coat of Kilz on it on Saturday.  Painted Kelsey’s Room Sunday.  Started Steve’s room on Monday.  With the wrong paint.  Jeff and Steve walked in to the room and the gray we purchased, looked lavender.  Steve isn’t good with lavender.  So, I stopped at Sherwin Williams and looked for a cement color.  I didn’t see any cement wall color.  I grabbed a sample on Wednesday and put it on the wall Wednesday.  It has been approved, so,  painted it today.  It looks good.  But, after it drys, we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.

More to come…stay tuned!

On Friday, River City came out and opened up the soffit, and put drywall over holes we made.  Saturday the Master Bathroom became much cleaner and open.

Jeff rented the power washer and washed the back deck…looks so much better.  Steve pulled tack strips from the living room. Kelsey painted her bathroom knobs and put them on. And I painted Kelsey’s Room.  Lacewing from Sherwin Williams.  Love their paint.  It was Pepto Bismol Pink yesterday.  I put a coat of Kilz and on the walls yesterday and then painted it Lacewing today. Turned out pretty nice.  Kelsey likes that I painted her room.  Much better than pro.  She says.  Don’t look too close though.  One we get furniture in and curtains, it will look much better.

It’s been quite a few days.  We’ve cleaned the pool area…good bye spiders.  And, Sam the pool guy came Monday and tried to clean the pool, but, he only could get so far.  So he’s coming back on Friday to finish cleaning it.  He said we could swim in it, but, there’s something about being able to see my feet in a pool.  Oh, and being able to open my eyes underwater…that’s another thing that I take for granted….

Insulation is being sucked out and and put back in tomorrow.  Pretty excited, because that means that all those little holes in walls will now be filled in and covered over the drywall!

Received the hardwoods, so they are sitting in the house, happy and getting acclimated to there new environment.   And, he can start next week.  2 weeks prior to schedule.  Awesome.

Tom’s Painting Pro’s are finishing up what they can do, before the drywallers come and am really happy with how it’s turning out.  They are such hard workers.  The dark wood molding is really look fantastic with the white paint.  Just updates and lightens up everything.

Added some paver sand to the walkway and painted the guest bathroom today.

It’s coming together!

The septic was not underneath the cement pad.  But, it was backed up.  Quite a bit.  I won’t elaborate, but, I just want to say that we haven’t been there, so, it wasn’t us…I’m just saying.

I visited the house today.  Punched the code into the gate. Nothing.  Tried again. Nothing.  Tried once again.  Nothing.  Whether I was awake or not (it was 6:30am); I couldn’t get the darn gate to open.  So, I hoofed it.  In heels.  And a dress.  But, now I know that I can walk to our house in 10 minutes from the gate.  If I ever have to again.  To add insult to injury, the painters used the code….and got in.  Just fine, they said…no problem, they said.

I couldn’t write for a couple of days because, of, well, sheer fear. There.  I said it.   Our septic alarm was sounding.  That’s not good.  No one wants a septic alarm to sound.  Jeff said to call a septic service and I did.  I tell them the alarm is on.  They immediately go out to the house to check things out (this is at about 7pm on Monday).

I’m at  a band concert listening to some great 6th, 7th and 8th grade bands.  Just a side note, please know that when a 7th and 8th grade jazz band plays “Stairway to Heaven” and “Freebird”…I think your supposed to feel old.  It’s mandatory.  I had immediate flashbacks to middle/high school dances where for me the shortest guy would ask me to dance and we’d dance to the longest song ever…”Stairway to Heaven” is 8 minutes y’all.  8 minutes! “Freebird” is 4 minutes…it seemed way longer back then.   It wasn’t comfortable… for me, for the guy, sure because he usually hit chest level…wait a minute…but, I digress.

Septic.  That is not a nice word.  If we were to think about positive or negative words….like “happy” is a positive word, “joy” is another happy word.  “Peace”…that’s a happy word.  “Septic”, not trying to be discriminatory or harsh, but, it’s a negative word.  So, we didn’t know where the septic field was and the septic guy thought that the septic field was crushed because of where the patio and retaining wall was placed. Speechless.  Jeff met with the Septic architect…yes, they have those!  He couldn’t remember where it was…but, was reassuring.  He doesn’t think it’s underneath the patio or the retaining wall.  And no, the septic field isn’t crushed.  The septic guy told us to try something and see if the alarm goes off.  I checked it at 4pm today…and it’s off.  Oh my goodness.  Cannot tell you how thankful I am for a little red light not to be on.  I’m hoping we are in the clear.

Miller Roofing fixed the roof leak.  I am so impressed by them being able to fix it so quickly and know exactly what to do.  But, I had two different people tell me to talk to them because they know what they are doing with tile roofs.  So, we can now finally suck out and blow in insulation.  Drywall the patches and get ‘er done.

Here’s some updates on what the painter’s have done.

We worked all weekend.  Went to church today and the pastor talked about needing to take a rest.  We need rest he said.  I’d have to agree.  And to remember all the good things that God has done in our lives.  It was funny, I was talking to Kelsey about that before church.  But, I digress.

So Jeff rented the Power Washer on Friday night, so he’d be ready to go on Saturday.  Really smart because they are gone early on Saturday.  But, he got to it early by meeting the roofer about the leak…I mentioned the leak, right?  He says he can fix it.  I’d really like that.  Hopefully this week so we can put some insulation in (they are coming Thursday).  So we can close up those holes in the walls (drywall is waiting) and have the painters finish up painting before the hardwoods.

So Jeff worked real hard on the power washing and it looks magnificent. The pictures really don’t do it justice.  There was so much bird dodo everywhere.  All over.  He did come upon a Dove, and wouldn’t get rid of it.  She stood her ground he said.  I on the other hand, am not partial to Dove, because whenever I hear a Dove cooing, it means death to me…(something my mom said).  But, if you read what they are supposed to represent in Christianity is Love and all good things.  If I were there, I’d have gotten rid of the Dove (sorry Chris) but, maybe it’s good I wasn’t and she has a special place to raise her babies.

The painters have been working extra hard and it looks amazing.  They are in the Master Bedroom now.  After painting the trim, I think we are going to have them paint all of the white trim.  It looks amazing and I cannot come close to comparing to what they have done.  All that work, cleaning it, sanding it, wiping it down with something that smells really, bad, all for not.  But, it’s ok, the end result will  be that I have more time to spend someplace else.  There is PLENTY to do.

Kelsey has been doing a great job doing things that her hands can do.  She’s learning how to fix nail holes in walls, pulling out leftover nails from molding left in the walls.  She even painted today.  Very helpful.  And so has

Steve.  He’s been mowing and power washing.

They both bagged all those artificial greenery around the pool.  Looks cleaner. There’s landscape drips throughout the pool area so we could put real plant in there.  There’s plenty of other stuff to do, so I’ll just keep the artificial stuff in there for now.

We are all a little tired and with help can get this done.  I’m just saying, there’s a lot of praying going on.

I finished painting the guest bedroom closet.  Fabulous!  The picture is from the guest bedroom.  Didn’t take a picture of the closet because well, I was just over it.   I got paint in my hair.. On my arms, shirt, head, glasses.   It was tight spot, so everything kept sticking to the paint.  Every time I moved, I’d hit a wall that I had already painted.  Not fun.  Next stop, master closet. There’s more room in there, so, I’m hoping that more of the paint will end up on the walls and not on me.

The painters started today.  We have open holes in the house waiting for insulation and drywall, so, they are starting in the dining room, then the study and then maybe the master bedroom.

They have equipment and they name them.  Billy is their sprayer.  They spray the molding and it’s looking pretty fantastic.  He showed me this stuff called “Krud Kutter.”  You just wipe it on the stained molding and in 10 minutes it’s ready to take paint!  He will keep busy, there’s plenty to do while we are waiting for the roofer.  Yes, I said roofer.  There’s a leak. Thought it was fixed, but, it rained today and whomp there it is…more water coming through.  But, at least the wall is already open so we can see the leak.

Ordered the hardwoods and trim molding.  Supposed to come in within the next 2 weeks. Hopefully the hardwoods will start being installed June 29ish.  I’m crossing my fingers for that date because, painting should be done and we won’t have to be in there at all.

Last, but, not least, the pool guy, Sam, came today to shock the pool.  He said he’d vacuum it later this week. You can see the bottom.  That’s a first in a long time.

So, Kelsey and I were painting Steve’s closet.  I had turned his light on prior to working and it never came on..never flickered.  I continue to paint.  Brought in more light/flood light and saw where I missed. I only had a few more swipes to go and bam…the light just came on!  It’s a flourescent light, it just took a while to warm up for me.  Once it came on, I saw all the areas that had yellow peeking through.  RATS! Probably should change that bulb.

Kelsey’s closet is almost done (I missed a few spots…didn’t have that good additional light!).  I have visions of what this closet could be.

Well organized, everything put in to a bin (I like bins).  But, who lives like that?  So, I’m just happy to get it painted.

Steve’s closet is complete.

Kelsey vacuumed all the wood molding that I’m going to paint white.  I scrubbed it, sanded it.  I gotta tell you, I made this thing to sand the molding and it was awesome.  Wasn’t sure, but, using a pool noodle and sand paper, and wall-la…a great way to get molding ready to painted white!

I know it doesn’t look like much, but, it really worked and got the job done!

Ok, I told Kelsey I needed photo’s of the closets and she grabbed the camera and started snapping away.  But, she walked in to the Family Room where Steve was working and said “Hey Steve, look like you’re working, I gotta takes some pictures now”.  So here are some photo’s of Steve looking like he’s working!

I think he would agree that taking up tack strips…well…sucks.  I can’t think of another word, really. Do you see how’s he’s balancing. That’s not amatuer stuff here ladies and gentleman, and he’s using both hands. Left for holding multiple sticks at one time, it’s amazing!  I think it’s all his drumming he’s doing at school.  You can’t see it, but, his forearms’ got game.

Jeff hauled 3 pick up beds full of yard debris.  Admittingly, we have this round area that we kept dumping prickly bush trimmings in, thinking, we were going to have one heck of a fire…but, with all the dry weather we’ve been having, they have banned all burning, so, he hauled off all those trimmings.  There may have been something nesting in there too he says.  Birds flew out of everywhere. He swung at one because it came out at him.  I’d say we have overly aggressive birds.   A few years ago, Jeff visited Wild Birds Etc.  He asked if they carried something that got rid of birds…they said, “that’s not what we do here”.   Oh.  My bad.   And there’s an entire store exclusively providing stuff to help there things survive? Got it!

But I digress…Jeff is on a first name basis with the lady at the dump.  Which, I cannot reveal her name for internet security reasons, but, he knows her and she asked him today how many times he planned on coming back.  After a few trips with all the branches and leaves in the bed of the truck, he is now known as “Lawn Debris Guy” at the dump.  You know when you have a nickname, you go there quite a bit. It’s probably not a nickname he likes though.  “Smart Guy”, “Tough Guy”, yes, not “Lawn Debris Guy”.