And here is a cute little snapshot of our little family at our first home saying goodbye.
Here's the low down on what has been been our lives for the last week:
We got the house around 4pm on our possession day and by 6pm the first coat of paint was being rolled on! On to a navy blue ceiling that is! Oh my, this darn ceiling took FOREVER to cover! The culprit was Gracie's new bedroom. The room itself is a bit smaller than we are used to, but it will do just fine for sleeping in. I knew I had to get started on that navy blue ceiling as fast as possible to try to stay with our deadline. My biggest mistake was not using a primer first. I swear I thought I heard the guy at Home Depot say it already had primer in it ... 3 coats of ceiling paint later ... live and learn. So all in all, we ended up having to use a primer after the 3rd coat and then 2 more coats of ceiling paint after that. A grand whopping total of SIX coats! GRRRR!
Then it was onto Levi's room - a light blue ceiling this time. Used the primer and no problem :) Also on the agenda for the first night was to tear out the old trim in the kids rooms and start patching the BILLIONS of holes in the wall. This task called for the dream team! Our good good friends Rachel and John came to our rescue (for the second time that day!) and had it done in no time at all.
Pete's job on the first night was to begin tackling the demolition of both the kids bathroom upstairs and the master bathroom. He made QUITE the dent the first night! The push was on to get both rooms completely demo'd by the first Saturday as we were to have duct cleaning in to clean out our pipes.
Pete's muscle:
Other jobs checked off the list in the first week were: raise the kitchen cabinets (thanks again to John!!!), paint both kids rooms, paint closet doors and bedroom doors and door trim, paint the upstairs hallway, as well as remove the flooring in the playroom, paint the ceiling, walls and fireplace. Whew! I am proud to say EVERYTHING got done!! WOOT WOOT! Not without a little help from our friends though! And honestly, we have the best family and old neighbours!! Our sister-in-law, Katie, and our niece Julia painted and painted and painted until they both had hand cramps!! It's like they couldn't get enough! They were here for THREE DAYS!!!! They just kept coming back for more!! We love them SO SO SO much and would be zombies without them! And our old neighbours came one night as well to help paint and demo - their two teenage boys were mighty machines in action!.
We have also had our counter tops replaced with beautiful white marble-y looking laminate - we would have loved to put real marble in but- cha ching!!!! These look just as beautiful to me :)
Here is the before to jog your memory: (it's actually a hunter green but you can't really tell in the pic)
And here is the after: (don't mind the messy counter in the background and the yucky cabinets - they will be painted white in a few short weeks!)
New sink and faucet as well:
Something we discovered this week that has me completely freaking out is M - I - C - E! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I am one of the biggest germaphobes out there, and the idea of mice running a muck in my house just makes my skin crawl. The only thing that made me feel a little bit better was the hubs booking a pest control specialist - STAT!!! The specialist came and strategically placed traps and sprayed for bugs while he was at it - so now this house SHOULD be mice proof and bug proof for a while. It actually wasn't the biggest surprise that we have a bit of a mouse problem. The state that the house was left in was ... hmmm ... mouse friendly shall I put it? Anyway, we have been CLEANING and CLEANING and CLEANING - so now it is starting to feel like home.
Our master bathroom is also coming along. Our contractor started this past Wednesday and has already put down new sub-floor, moved the plumbing for the toilet, done the electrical for our new outlets, sconces, and chandelier and patched a giant hole in the ceiling for us. He is hopeful I will blissfully be enjoying my bubble bath by next Wednesday! We shall see!
As I write this, I have been holding my bladder since 7:30pm as Pete turned the water off to disconnect the grody old laundry tub. Now it is almost 9pm and he just came upstairs to tell me he has to go out to get more soldering material - AHHHHH! Hurry up honey!!! Also, I have fired myself as his helper as two minutes in, I zapped myself! Note to self - don't pick up a plugged in electrical cord while standing in a puddle of water. I'm okay Mom :)
The plan was to paint the laundry room/powder room ceiling and the master bathroom ceiling tonight, but with no water and no clean brushes we are getting off to a slow start!! Maybe we'll catch up on some Grey's tonight instead - after our water is back on that is!!! Oh how I miss having a Home Depot RIGHT AROUND the CORNER!!! Come on Pete!!!
We have also completely finished the playroom, and I am SO EXCITED to share those pics with ya, but this post is long enough and it's time to see what Meredith and Dr. Mc Dreamy are up to. Night night!
Rebecca & Pete
