We're getting in the home stretch

You can tell we're getting to the end because we're running out of steam! We're shooting for moving in this weekend for various reasons. Janiece and I finished painting our bedroom ceiling and walls at midnight 2 nights ago. Ben had worked on the kitchen floor for quite a while and took the kiddos home for us. He also got the small leak fixed, our bedroom ceiling patched and something else done but I can't remember what. Jonna was also there helping us scrape up the adhesive in the hall. We've been working on this for 4 days but we finished it yesterday so we can paint the floors! Yesterday we rippped up the carpets in the master, painted the first 2 coats on the trim in the master, finished ripping up the adhesive in the hall, and worked on the kitchen floor. Whew! The kitchen is a disaster! We ripped up the tile because it was cracked and it appeared there was carpet under it. Instead we found 2 layers of linoleum and tar! It's being impossible to get up! And now the whole floor is destroyed. The hardwood is in most of the room but there is about a 3 foot section of plywood. However, yesterday on google we found out that someone said to use a wallpaper steamer and it works wonderfully. They're $28 to rent for 24 hours at Home Depot so instead Janiece looked on Craigslist and found a floor steamer (which she wanted and I was kind of wanting too) for $30!! So last night we loaded the kids up in the rain and ran to Springfield to get it. It works beautifully! It's still a lot of work but it's actually coming up! So excited and motivated now. The list for today stands as follows: Paint the trim in the master again, finish removing the tack strip and pieces of tiles in the master, paint the master floor and the hall floor, clean. Not too shabby! Then we'll work on the kitchen either tonight or maybe I'll wait and let Ben do it Saturday so Janiece and I can start moving us over!

Some Before and After Pictures

Ben and Adam working on the plumbing downstairs. Is everyone just thinking "that deer paneling is the best in the whole world!!" or what?
Mom decided she really liked the nail gun. She kept stealing it from Janiece which was hilarious! We were having a blast!
This is what we look like every day at the end of the day. The house is making us gray headed!!!! YIKES!!!
Mom and Adam fixing our toilet at about 11pm while Ben was working. Mom, Janiece and I thought we could hold the toilet up a little bit and get the hideous blue carpet out from under it so we could lay new flooring...we were WRONG! Either we are super strong women or the bolts to the toilet were super old....I prefer to think the first thought, but the toilet decided to rip out with the carpet. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming as the toilet was flying at us (ok maybe it wasn't flying that fast but we have to add drama here). But the toilet is now in the tub and will hopefully be replaced tomorrow in it's rightful spot!

This week Janiece, Mom and I used the table saw, air compressor, nail gun and 2 paint sprayers all in one day! It was quite a day! You should've seen the guy at Lowe's when we were picking out our wood to make board and batten walls in the living room. Classic! So in one day we cut and installed board and batten in the living room, painted the ceiling, painted the walls 2 different colors, pulled up all the carpet and all the tack strips, took Jonna to Branson, then Mom delivered her and all her friends from Branson to their homes after midnight then had issues with the Suzuki and had to call Mom at 2:00AM to come pick us up! It was a LONG day and it was only 2 days ago so we're still a little tired. But the living room looks AMAZING. These pictures do not do it justice so I guess all of you will just have to come visit ;-)

We are SO tired of painting white. I've already went through at least 5 gallons which is odd because we never paint white...we like color! But look what a difference it makes in this hall!

We've Been Busy!

We've been at the house nearly every day until after 10pm. It's going SLOWLY for us...mainly because we're painting all the wood trim white. It's worth it but very time consuming. Here's a few pictures!


Two "during" pics of the boy's bath. I decided to embrace the blue and go with it. I like the blue walls much better than the pink walls with floral border (which by the way, next time you decide to put up wallpaper or a border please think twice. It'll date your room in a few years and it's such a pain to take down that you'll leave it for 30+ years until the next person moves in and thinks "yuck" and it'll take them 5 hours to take down a simple border... can people not paint murals instead? Just a thought!) I hope to finish this room tomorrow. All the wood work will need to be painted about 5 times and the carpet is coming up. I already have fabric for the window, I just have to make the curtain and I'd like a new faucet but that might be a while in coming. We'll see!

We have these huge drawers in the linen closet. The kids decided to play in them while we were painting the cabinet they fit in.

Good news is that Ben got us set up on propane today. No more freezing! Janiece and I have been painting in one room with a space heater while putting the kids in another room with a couple of heaters. It's been fine but a little chilly when the doors are open so we're thrilled with heat!

Ben also worked on getting us water today. It's been a challenge painting and bleaching with no water. Some of Grandma's friends have a well service so they came out. The kids got to ride up on the big truck which was SO cool! Who cares about pulling out the well? This is much more awesome! We all learn so much by just observing and asking questions. Today was a life lesson in how we get water. We all learned a lot!

The boy's room and the library got finished today except for painting the doors (which I'm hoping Ben will take them outside, spray them, and be done with it so we don't have to) and scraping the excess paint off the windows! We can check those off our list!!

Our library!