Christmas break

Since the kids have been out for Christmas break we haven't gotten much accomplished...til today!  Ashley has my kids in Asheville until Saturday.  So...my awesome plumber came and fixed the closet for my washing mashine, capped the plumbing in the kitchen, installed my new toilet in the master, and fixed my sewer leak.  Coy stained part of the ceiling and the beams.  They are AMAZING!  I'm so happy with how they look now!  James wired the outlets in the living room floor.  Chad stood around and supervised it all :)  I did help stain the ceiling, but I'm too chicken to stand up on the scaffolding so I did what I could while I sat.  We are starting tomorrow at 8am and putting in a 12 hour day.  It should be great!!

We have been so busy!  The master bathroom is almost done.  The tile backsplash and floor is finished.  I LOVE IT!!  James wired all the overhead lights and switches for the girls rooms.  The kitchen cabinets have all been removed.  I was so happy to see them go!

The kids found my camera :)

Kitchen wall

My kitchen wall has been framed!  There is a HUGE opening between the kitchen and the rest of the first floor.  This is one of the things that I really wanted to happen.  All we need is sheetrock and its complete.  Chad layed the master bathroom floor today and Matt Krause cut and installed the countertop.  I'm going to love my new bathroom!

Small progress...

I have some sheetrock up in the kitchen and my living room, my pantry has been framed, master bathroom cabinets are painted a fabulous color of brown, and both of the girls bedrooms have been covered with a coat of primer.  This is progress!  I also priced some kitchen cabinets today.  Then, after shedding a few tears, I decided that I am going with custom built cabinets.  Custom built from the workshop of Bill Harbinson ( and he is so EXCITED ).  On the other side of that, we have found more water damage under the toilet in the girls bathroom.  Gotta take the bad with the good in a remodel.  That's what they tell me anyway :)

Katie and Julie enjoyed removing the laminate flooring!  And just so you know, Julie thinks the helmet is her hard hat :)

It's been a little slow at the new house the last few days. Chad took a load of Christmas trees to Florida so that ended demolition for Thursday and Friday.  Katie and Julie had a snow day on Thursday so Mamaw and Papaw came over to play!  Well, Mamaw played making an art project with Katie and Julie.  Papaw pulled nails out of the kitchen cabinet doors I was going to refinish for over 2 hours.  I decided the next day that I hated everything about them and I was buying new ones.  Papaw wasn't thrilled, but I'm excited to shop for new ones! :) I did get some primer up in the master bathroom and sheetrock mud in the half bath.  Chad won the argurment for taking Sunday off.  I just can't wait to get things going again!

We got our first Christmas card.  The girls were crazy excited about it!!

Rain, rain, rain

I was so glad to pull in the driveway this morning and see Worley Robbins!  He's the expert Chad called  to check out our water problem.  The basement is wet and it looks like under the front window has rotten wood.   I'm  pretty sure that we are going to hire a roofer.  But, Chad and James did vent some stress on the black tile today.  It was cemented in on top of chicken wire.  It was HEAVY!    Much to everyone's surprise, I went shopping.  I bought all 30 handles for my kitchen cabinets and a new stainless steel kitchen sink!

Someones trash is someones treasure

It was another FAN-TAS-TIC shopping day for me!  I found my 4th, much needed, sink for $5. Yep, $5. Brand new, still in the box, perfect size.  Yay for me!  The best find of the day was the furniture.  It came from a home that filed an insurance claim for water damage.  They had it cleaned and wrapped in plastic.  It looks brand new!  Then they took it to the dump,  You read correctly, to the Watauga County Landfill.  Chad and I scooped it up and now have furniture for the kids living room!  Oh yeah, doin the happy dance!

Chads birthday!

We had a birthday / demolition party at our new house on Saturday.  I think everyone had a blast!  We started on the kitchen demo.  The oven is out, frig has been moved, and all cabinet doors are off.  Then...we busted a hole in the wall!  This is one of the things that I am most excited about.  I hate being in the kitchen and feeling isolated from the rest of the house.  This fixed that, no problem.  This might stay as is, or if I get my wish, the entire wall above the bottom cabinets will be gone.  I had some great friends helping me with this or I would never be able to do it!

My ladies had an awesome time tearing out some wallpaper.  I think they said it smelled similar to an "old man fart"

I did have a super awesome plumber come and fix all my sinks and toilets!

Friday, Day 3, had some demoltion but I had way more success shopping!  I found the tiles for the master bath floor and backsplash and the tiles for the other 3 bathroom floors.  I got a great deal and my tile guy approved them :)  I aslo got a cabinet for Katie and Julie's bathroom for $15.  The sales guy said the hinges were broken but they really just need new screws.  That kind of deal makes me really happy!

With the removal of the carpet we found the water damage to the floor.  It is not at all as bad as we thought!  That is great news!!



Day 2 demolition

Day 2 of demolition has been a breeze!  Ripped out sheetrock, carpets, padding, and paneling.  It was really noisy and very dusty.  The bonus room wall does have some sort of issue with the weight from upstairs.  We have another contractor coming to check it out tomorrow.  When the paneling came out of the living room, we found out there is no insulation in the upper wall at all.  All went well with changing the water and the power into our names.  The garbage and recycling pickup starts next Thursday.  Yay for the garbage man! 

I had my first fire in my new fireplace tonight.  Katie and I loved it! 

First day of demolition

First thing we did in our new house was...eat.  If you know Katie and Julie at all, you know that this is one of their favorite things to do. 

Remodel starts with downstairs wall being removed.  There is water coming in the workshop and down the back wall from a clogged drain outside the front door.  We had to tear the wall out to see how much damage there was.  This was SO MUCH FUN! 

Wall removed and to our surprise, there is way less damage than we thought!  Digging out shrubs and grass infront of the house and replacing the drain will definitely fix the water issue downstairs.  Problem #1 is on its way to completed!

Katie and Julie enjoyed day #1 just as much as we did :)

Coloring on the walls!!

Chad and I first saw this house in September.  When we pulled into the small circle drive we both knew this was the house we had been looking for.  The outside is faded and in need of a pressure washer but the red front door, large windows, and the 2 car garage had us very interested.  Warren Shepherd, the contractor that showed us the house, gave us a number to a realtor, Marty Rice.  We called and called but never could work out a time to get into the house.  So, we decided just to drive by and check it out again.  When we got to the house the front door was open.  The auctioneer and his wife were cleaning out some of the stuff still left in the house from the homeowners.  We walked the upper floor, through the master bedroom and kitchen, down the stairs into the other 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, then in to the workshop and back into the 2 car garage.  We looked past all the dirt, dust, stained carpet, and old bathrooms and without a doubt this was the house we were going to buy.  After a week or so, we met with Marty and got to go into the house again.  There is some serious work to be done, but Chad and I are all in.  Then it was High Country Bank, home inspection, appraisals, underwriters, sign this, go get that, ill call you back, and we dont know yet.  As of 11am on November 30th we own a home that our family will truly be happy in.