FINALLY!!

Back on the world wide web!  Oh my goodness, it has been a long time!  But, we finally figured out how to get internet.  We have been busy getting the house ready, we passed all of our final inspections and are moving things in.  We still have a ton of work left to do, things like trim, fixing the siding outside, replacing windows, my island needs the counter top on it...lots of little things, but...we have a fully functioning kitchen, lights, electricity and we are starting to get furniture in place.  We are so excited to start getting things back to 'normal' again!  Here are a few pictures of how we have been living...it ain't pretty, but it's getting better!

 My favorite part of the house...my new huge fridge!  I think I hear the angels singing when I open it up!!  And yes, it just eeked into that space...it's 2x the size of our old fridge, {which drove me nuts because we couldn't even hold enough milk for the week!}  We can fit all the milk and juice we want in this one!

 Thankfully the gaps were fixed before we got any of the cold weather!

 Doing home work! 

Ready or not...

Here we come!  We will be with out internet (and t.v., a kitchen, most lights, as well as many other things) for the next little bit as we are going to be moving into our new home{a tad prematurely!}  I hope to get internet up and running sometime soon, however...we have been too busy to deal with that just yet, so it will have to wait!  I'd like to do a little "reveal" of each room when it is finished, so it's probably good that I won't be able post any pictures before the room is actually done!  Although, I'm not sure that they will ever be done, seems like there's always some work in progress, so goes home ownership!  We will miss the view from up here on the hill, we have great memories of our time spent here, but look forward to the next chapter of our life in our farm house!  A huge thanks to Gary and Linda for allowing us to stay here, we feel so blessed, it made a difficult move 4 years ago much less painful to know we had a great place to land.  And now that we have fallen in love with everyone up here and found a home of our own to settle into, we are excited for you to move back into your amazing home!  God is good.  His timing is perfect.  We are blessed.

renovation realities...

Have you ever watched the show, Renovation Realities on the DIY Network?  I love that show.  Anyhow, if you have never seen it, it's pretty much a reality show of ordinary non skilled people renovating their homes{much like we are doing.}  Well, mostly people have disasters or crazy things that happen to them or their house during the process.  We had one of those moments Saturday, when I was putting the second coat of polyurethane on the floor. 

We were almost finished, when I ran out of poly.  So I asked Ryan to get the other gallon, the only problem was that I had left it in the bedroom which was surrounded by...wet polyurethane!  Oops!

 So Ryan went up the ladder through the window and back down the steps and did a  maneuver spiderman himself would have been proud of!  {I wish I would have gotten that on camera.}  He made it safely into our bedroom, but couldn't figure out how to get the poly and himself back out of the room.  So, he proceeded to set drop the poly into the uncovered vent hole...but the poly proceeded right on down to the basement!  I was standing near the basement door and ran down as fast as I could, hoping I would find it still in the container and not on the basement floor!  I ran into a few spider webs which was not cool, but found the smashed container, still full and unopened!  It was good comic relief after my stupid mistake!

On Sunday, I was able to finish the final coat of poly, I love these weird floors.  Some of the wood looks like zebra, each piece is so different, I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but they turned out great in my opinion!  
Ryan finished carpet upstairs tonight, and we moved the majority of our stuff over to the barn...we should be sleeping there soon, although it is far from being done, it will be nice not to have 2 houses to deal with!  One is plenty enough for me.  We are getting ready to be done.  We would like to have some normalcy again.

oh my have we been busy!

Trim

flooring...

remember those old yuck covered wood floors?

well, we worked on them almost non stop this week, we fell in bed late at night exhausted, but our hard work has paid off!  Thanks to all who help us this week, you were a blessing!

Thank goodness for smart phones, so we can look up answers to our questions!  Our general contractors wife had a stroke on Sunday,{that is why we were googling stuff rather than ask the G.C.} she has something called Patent Foramen Ovale, she is doing well, although she will need some physical therapy, and she has to have open heart surgery next month.  Please keep the Cook family in your prayers!

20 grit sand paper!  ouch!

We found oak floors in the kitchen,

and douglas fir in the living and dining rooms...

 Dust, lots and lots of dust!

Finally, we were able to start staining!

and I spent all day today putting on the first coat of polyurethane!  Only 2 more to go...ugh..
We were also able to get the vanities and linen closet in the upstairs bath.  Hopefully we will have a fully functioning bath by next week!  Our washer and dryer were delivered today too!

 

 

 

Ryan is working on carpet right now, oh, and in all of our "free time" we are packing up the house getting ready to move! 

paint!!!

We have nice new drywall everywhere on the main floor!!!

We had a mishap in the bathroom so it needed to be skim coated.  I was the lucky one who got to do the job!  Amazing how many skills I am gaining during this remodel, not really good at any of them, but oh well!

Once we had the walls smoothed out, we still had to prime.  Lots of white!  Christi came to help, and she was good at cutting in.  I do not have a steady hand for doing that.  Barb, Kendra and my sister Steph also came to help.  Thank you ladies!  

The living room with primer...

the kitchen without!

Ryan and I covered with primer after spraying the entire first floor!

That is the way to go, it went so fast!

Finally it was time for some color!  The girls light pink room.

Dylan and Jayden's khaki room...

Spencer and Easton's greenish room...

our gray hallway...

Steph painting my door!

The girls entertaining the girls!

I love color!!!

Ryan has been busy putting up the trim that my mother in law painted!  It's coming around!!!  Tomorrow we are laying linoleum, and finishing up the trim upstairs!