It's been a long few days and it's not over yet. Tonight I told Andrew it feels like we're never going to live in this house. I hope that's not true. But speaking of, it looks like we're probably going to push back the move in date. Originally we hoped to be in on September 13th but now we are thinking Saturday the 20th. ACL Festival is the weekend of the 27 and we HAVE to be in by then because I refuse to think about house stuff during that weekend, and Aubrey is coming to stay with us. I have been looking forward to that weekend since, well, last year at ACL time and I don't want anything to interfere.

I haven't been writing much the past few nights because I have been incredibly exhausted. I am tonight, as well (its 12:15 am as I write this) but I will write a little. Last night was my dad's last night here so he of course wanted to get done as much as possible. I came home around 11 last night and Andrew and my dad stayed at the new house to do more work. My dad needed to be at the airport this morning at 6 am so I was planning to take him at 5:45. I woke up several times during the night and felt around in the bed to see if Andrew was back yet. Finally at 5 am I heard them come in. My dad took a quick shower, packed up his things, and we left for the airport. I kept telling him he was going to get sick or catch something since his body was so tired and he was going to get on an airplane. Hopefully that won't happen, but he definitely wore himself out. We appreciate all the work he put in and the bathroom tile is going to look great once it is completed (Andrew plans to do that in the next few days.) After I got home from the airport around 6:30 we went back to bed and slept till about 11. I had really wanted to go to church today because our new preacher's first Sunday was today, but it just wasn't happening. It would have been impossible for Andrew to be functional, having stayed up till 6:30 am.


We were getting ready to head over to the new house around noon when we got a call from RoomStore saying they were already at the house ready to deliver our furniture. We had to fly over there to meet them and get the furniture. Of course the floors aren't done so we just had to push the furniture up against the wall for now where the wood is already finished. Even though we can't really enjoy it yet, I'm excited to actually have it and I love the way it looks. So this afternoon we started the wood floors in the family room, the room where the new furniture will actually be going. It took about 2 hours to get the first few rows started because the wall is not completely straight. If you've ever installed hard wood floors yourself you can understand how annoying it is to work with a wall that isn't straight. I had no idea before how difficult this could be or how important it is to start off right. We had to snap about 6 chalk lines before we got it right. Then Andrew didn't want to start adding more rows till the first two were completely dry so we left for an hour and a half and came home to hang out with the dogs. I think Andrew would have been happy to not go back, but I was anxious to get back and actually start work on the floors. The floors we are installing are a glue down product so we have to spread a very thick, gooey adhesive and then lay the boards. The
skill involved is really not that difficult, but it is time consuming and exhausting. My back is extremley sore from bending over so much and my hands and fingers ache. That said, it's kind of fun to do it yourself and you take more pride in the work. I definitely recommend doing it yourself and saving $2000-$3000 dollars, but the work is no walk in the park. I'm still really proud of us for doing it, and kind of amazed that I am doing something that looks so good. Every 5 minutes or so when I stop to take a breather, I'll take a step back and say something like "I really like it! It's looking so good!" I did the same thing when we were painting. I think Andrew is getting sick of hearing me say it. We stopped around 9:45 to go get some food from Subway and ate our first dinner in the new house.



















We stopped working around 11:30 and had completed about 2/3 of the room. I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight without seeing the furniture in the room where it belongs, so before we left I made Andrew help me move the couch in so we could take a look at what it would all look like. I love it!! Just imagine there were baseboards and the floor was clean... and that the rest of the house was done!









We worked pretty quickly in the family room tonight. This room is smaller so each row didn't have to be so long and we are getting better and more efficient. We should be able to finish this room tomorrow night after work.

For Hire

26 year old, white, married female. Will install wood floors and paint.

Picture Update

The tiles have been cut, laid, and spaced. Tomorrow they will be glued down and then grouted the next day.















The contractor came today and painted and installed the light fixtures in the rooms with high ceilings. I'm really happy with the paint color we ended up using, Desert Camel. Here is the transition between the two colors.




















This is the old game "How many ladders can you fit in a room?" The answer here is 4. Below is a REALLY tall ladder that I am glad I did not have to get up on. Also pictures of the new installed light fixtures. They look great!


















































Andrew and my dad working on installing another ceiling fan.

















I LOVE THE NEW FRIDGE!! It's so shiny and pretty! It's a little bigger than I realized, but it fits ok and looks great.

Toadies

Here is a snippet of our evening at Stubbs with Toadies.

Darwin Has Arrived

I can't be too long tonight since again, it's late and I've had a long day. It was also kind of a stressful/ dramatic day at work for several reasons that I won't get into on here. Nonetheless, I was able to get some work done at the house and my dad and Andrew are still there now.

I took a long lunch and met Andrew and my dad who had just arrived from the airport at home. We ate lunch and then headed over to the new house for a look around. I couldn't stand for Andrew to get to be the one to show it to him first so I had to do it. As soon as we walked in the door I could see the analytical wheels turning in his head, taking in every detail and already pondering the various projects. Anyway, I couldn't stick around too long because at that point I had already been gone from work about an hour and a half. After work I made a delicious dinner of fajitas, if I do say so myself, and then we headed back over to the house. I finished the second coat of paint in the half bathroom but I'm sure I will have some touch up to do after it dries. I'm mostly ready to be done with the green because, while I like the color, I'm getting sick of looking at it and washing it off my body. I finally got some in my hair tonight, I knew it was inevitable, it was just a matter of when. So tomorrow I will finish up the touch ups in the family room, kitchen and half bath and then hang the cabinet and mirror back up in the bathroom and put the new towel ring and toilet paper holder up. I can't wait to see how it's going to all look! This one room that will actually be COMPLETELY done in the next few days. All the other rooms will be works in progress over several weeks.

One disappointment we faced today was some news from the contractor. He came over and met Andrew and my dad at the house, and upon further inspection, it looks like removing the popcorn ceilings would be a lot more costly than we thought, for several reasons. Popcorn ceilings are usually put in a house because it's an easy and cheap way to finish a ceiling and it hides flaws in the work. If they were to just scrape our ceilings it would look terrible because when the house was built the ceilings were not finished well, and it would show. They'd basically have to scrape the ceilings and then put in a whole new ceiling which would be REALLY expensive, and ultimately not worth it. So we basically decided to not do the ceilings, which kind of sucks cause I was really looking forward to getting rid of the popcorn. But I guess it's good in someways because we aren't going to spend the money on doing it. Now it looks like all they will do is painting for us in the rooms with tall ceilings and installing a few light fixtures. I'm hoping we can get them scheduled to do that ASAP cause I'm getting impatient!

Andrew and my dad are working hard on the bathroom tile project tonight. There is a lot of preparation involved in this project and it's a lot more elaborate than I understand. I know they are cutting cement boards that have to go under the grout and tile because I caught a pic of them in garage working on it. Don't they look cool?
Tomorrow our new fridge is going to be delivered and I can hardly wait! It sounds so nerdy but getting this new stuff is really exciting. It's going to be even more awesome when we get our furniture on Sunday! We are going to see Toadies play tomorrow night at Stubbs and take a break from the craziness. Hopefully my dad will relax while we are out because he is already working really hard. I don't know if I will get time to write tomorrow but I will try and get some pics up from the concert.

Goodnight!

Well I don't have a whole lot to report today since I spent most of the day at work. Andrew was off and got some work done at the house as well as doing some prep for my dad's arrival tomorrow. He was able to install all the new door knobs which will match all our brushed nickel light fixtures. I think they look pretty good, and at 6 bucks a piece you can't beat it!














The wood for the new floors was delivered today while Andrew was off, so it was exciting to get that and start to envision it in the room. Apparently it is supposed to "acclimate" for several days and sit in the climate where its going to be installed. We didn't know this until recently and unfortunately it's only going to have about 2 days to acclimate but it should be ok. We also went to Home Depot after I got off work and picked out the tiles for the master bathroom. It's just a plain white ceramic tile, but I really like it and think it will have a clean look. And it was only 99 cents a square foot! You know I love a bargain! Here is a shot of the wood "acclimating" in the boxes.



I was able to finish the first coat of paint in the half bath downstairs. This was tricky because the room is small and when I put the ladder in there it takes up almost all the space so it makes maneuvering around pretty difficult. I will try to get the second coat done tomorrow so we can be done with all the green! Marika also came by to see the house for the first time while we were over there tonight, so it was fun to get to show her around. I think we are going to make a pallet for her in the closet to sleep on when she moves in... anyway...

Tomorrow my dad gets in a little after noon and then we kick it into high gear. In the afternoon the contractor is coming by the house to talk to Andrew and my dad about some of the work. Hopefully we can get it scheduled for next week so we can start thinking about moving in sometime! Probably the biggest project that my dad and Andrew will work on is tiling the master bathroom. While we are doing the wood in a larger area, putting the wood floors down shouldn't be as difficult as the tile job. Hopefully we can maximize the time that my dad has here and get a lot done. We also need his help with changing a lot of the light fixtures.

Oh yeah, one last thing... tonight on the way over to the house we were driving behind the weirdest contraption I have ever seen. Since I had my camera with me I whipped it out and tried to get a few shots. I got a pretty good one from behind, and once they turned I tried to get a side view but didn't get it time. You can see the "vehicle" to the left on the edge of the windshield. It had two tires in the back but only one in the front so I'm not sure if it was some kind of motorized bike with a cab on the back... anyway, it was weird! Anyone have any idea what this is??







It's after midnight now and way past my bed time! Good night!

September

It's September 1st and I can't believe it. I also can't think of September with out this song coming to mind... truely a classic. ;)



Today was another long day of working at the house. Last night I talked to my sister on the phone and she said her and my brother in law missed the "novels" I used to write on here when I first started. I don't have too much to write the past few days because it could all be summarized in a short sentence: we worked. In this case I guess a pictures is a worth a thousand words. Here are several thousand words from today:



























We finished painting the kitchen and family room and are really happy with the results. We are doing the same green in the half bath downstairs. I've gotten about halfway done with the first coat. Andrew continued on his quest op ripping up flooring. There was a small tiled area in the master bath that he had to break apart. He removed the toilet from the master bath to prepare for the retiling. It is temporarily residing in the bath tub as you can see, but it looks like we are going to get a FREE new toilet, so this one will be on the curb soon. If you live in Austin and didn't know this, check this out! http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/sftoilet.htm The city will give you up to 3 free low flow toilets per household! We are only going to replace the one for now, but might do the other later on. Since the toilet has been removed from the floor, there is quite a lovely aroma coming up from the sewer. We had to stuff towels over the pipe to stop the smell from coming up and believe me it's GROSS!! Well that's all for tonight. My dad get here Wednesday and I have some cleaning to do before his arrival. Thanks for reading!