The hardwood floor is mostly down!

Dusty was back today working on putting down the hardwood floor.

I knew we had made a great choice going with Corsaw Hardwood but, seriously, these pictures do not do this floor justice!

This is walking up the steps into the short hallway.

This is the long hallway...


this is a pic of the fancy registers they put in place. They are flat so no subbing your toes!

Of course, it still has to be sanded, and then a clear coat of polyurethan down. That should happen on Friday.

This makes me want to put hardwood throughout my downstairs! It is beautiful! I haven't ever lived in a house with hardwood floors, so some of you may be very use to it... but I am not and I just love the look of it!

The railing wasn't the right size, it was a little small. So, we are waiting on getting those. We plan on painting the railings and the risers. I can't wait for all the finishing touches to be done and to post pictures of the finished product!

We have also been talking to Dusty about our kitchen remodel. He makes custom kitchen cabinets and if they contain the fine craftsmanship of our stairwell and hardwood floors, I will be confident he will do an excellant job!

I would love to begin work on our kitchen this summer, but at this point in time, we will probably save our money and do the work next summer. We will have to see. I would love to have it done before the holidays in 2009, so we will see!

Work has begun on our Stairs!!

I'm so excited to finally announce that the work has started on our stairs! Of course, there is lots and lots more to do... but this is a start!

Here is a before picture...

which, this is after we pulled up the carpeting and pulled off the side boards that were a really dark wood and removed the black iron railing.

straight on view...

I wish there wasn't a bright glare on them, they really are quite beautiful!

the side view...

there is less glare from the side. The plan is to paint the risers and the ballisters will be painted the same as the wall color. Kind of a beigey-chocolate color. I think it will be absolutely beautiful!

It repeats the same thing going down the basement, however, since we have lots of work to do on the basement, we decided to wait on doing the steps going down to the basement. Our plan right now is to do them once the kitchen is redone. I am hoping for this summer, or next summer at the latest.

so busy

It has been so busy around here. Jason has been on vacation and we have been trying to maximize his time off to get some projects done. Of course, our contractor is done, but we are not! We have lots of projects and just when I get the short term stuff done... I still have bigger projects that are on my 5-yr list. One of these days, I hope to have my house just the way I want it! By then styles will change and I will have to do it all over again!

Yesterday, we got Annie moved! She didn't HAVE to move bedrooms, but she wanted to. Since it doesn't matter which room I get to have as a craft room... I gladly let her move. The room she is moving into is smaller, but warmer in the winter months. I believe that is one of the reasons she wanted to move. Jason and I got the big stuff moved and I did manage to go through some of her stuff, but I told her she has to downsize. This girl has everything and collects everything and then what is worse is that she will cabbage other peoples things and pack-rat them as well! very frustrating to those of us who live with her!

The good thing about her switching rooms is it allows us to work on the spare room without having anyone or anything to work around.

We had a plasterer come out and smooth our textured hallway. Jason also ripped up the old carpet and old dark wood around the steps.
We also had a big black iron railing and it has been removed as well too. (I didn't have the best picture of just the stairwell and the railing... but this is close) We are prepping the stairs for the guys to come and put in our hardwood floors and our oak tops on the stairs. We were going to have a wood railing put back up, but after having the old one off... I think I like it better without a railing at all. We are talking about putting up a hand rail on the opposite wall, but leaving the rail down on the right-hand side...

What do all my blogger friends think?

The carpet is down!!

It is amazing what carpet does for a room!

Yesterday, Crawford's came and put the carpet in. I was very impressed with the job they did, but over all... I really think everything came together very well!
The twins room...
Jason still has to put up purple chair railing and purple baseboard.... but other than that... the twins room is done!! We moved their cribs in there last noc and they spent the first noc in their room!!! YEAH! It is a big day (or I should say noc) for all of us!

This is our room....
ours is a little less intresting... but nice all the same.

Progress

I have to say that Jason and I have been working on the house in the evenings after he is off work. I don't get anything done during the day with the twins as they keep me really busy! But, we now have all of the wainscotting up and it is primed! That is a big step! We are hoping to finish painting the wainscotting and then start working on putting polyurethine on the trim of the hallway and our bedroom and bathroom. Our bathroom with the wainscotting up and primed...

Twins room with wainscotting up and primed...


I have to give BIG THANKS to my dear friend Jennifer who very generously gave up her evening to come and entertain the twins so Jason and I could both be working on getting stuff done in the new addition! Her littlest girl, Emma, is about 6mo older than the twins... so when the 3 are together, it is like having triplets! Esp. since what one doesn't think of ... the other two would! Not to mention that 3 baby brains can sure come up with all kinds of stuff to get into! Jennifer took quite a few pictures of their adventures for me! I can never say THANK YOU enough for her help last noc! She not only watched/entertained the kids, but she cooked them dinner, did the dishes, picked up the toys and bathed the twins! WoW! I am thinking up something special to do for her since she helped me out tremendously last noc! Once again... THANKS, JEN!!!!

For my energy conscious friends out there...

I got this email from my dear-sweet-penny-pinching husband....

I called spoon river electric this morning and asked about discounts involved with switching over to geothermal. The lady told me we’d get a rebate of $150 dollars per ton of geothermal up to 3 tons or 5 tons, she wasn’t sure which. We have a six ton unit so we could be getting a $450 or $750 one time rebate PLUS we get a cheaper rate on our electric bill!!! She took my name and said she would check with Easley’s to get all the details. I guess geothermal customers pay a little cheaper rate for electricity. I’m not sure how much cheaper or when the rate will go into effect. She was checking into all that. That makes ol’ Ralph Nader here pretty giddy. Not only are we using less electricity, we’re paying less for it!!! WOO-HOO!!! If the rebate is applied to our future electric bills, we shouldn’t have to pay an electric bill for quite a while!!!

I call him Ralph Nader b/c he is so energy concious (not that I'm not) but he is much more on the ball than I am! After I got his email, I just had to laugh! Plus, for anyone who might be considering geothermal... I would highly recommend it!

Our Construction is done!

Well, our construction project is all done... at least our contractors part of it! We still have painting and trim work and to put up wainscotting and to put door knobs on... So, our part is no where near done, but our contractor is done!

Here are some before and after pics...
this was the back of our house before the remodel-

this is what it looks like now-

this was the front of the house before-

and this is our house now-

this was the northside of our house before-

this is the northside now-

Now... to just get the inside finished up!

My poor Cadie is sick and this is how she spends most of her day...

of course, Courtney is fine and constantly wants to play...

For everyone who wanted close-up of Courtney's new hair cut...
I took this pic of her and Jason yesterday.

its been a while...

Wow... I looked to see when I last posted and it was on Aug 7th! It amazes me how time can fly so fast!

Well, our construction is wrapping up. Our contractor isn't here on a daily basis anymore. He was here today to put up shutters on one window. The other shutters haven't came in yet.

Easley Mechanical was here to do the finishing touches on the masterbath and the toilet they installed is white... we ordered biscuit. So, they will have to fix that. If it didn't look so off in there with the biscuit shower and biscuit vanity, I wouldn't mind... but since I have to look at that for the rest of my life. I want it to match!

This is the wainscotting that we have been working on in our laundry room. It will be carried throughout the bathroom.

After this, I don't know that I will ever get Jason to put up Wainscotting again!

The countdown to school has begun! One week from today the kids will get on the bus for a new school year! I am excited and sad all in one. Excited b/c I will have 2 less children to clean up after all day long... SAD b/c the school year goes so fast and Annie is in 5th grade and Sammy is in 2nd. Where does the time go? Sammy was my baby for 6yrs before the twins came along... and now that baby is going to 2nd grade! Annie, I just can't believe is almost as tall as me, wears the same size shoe as me, has an attitude and is going into 5th grade! I remember being in 5th grade! How can my kids be that old? *sigh*

Anyone know how to keep them little?