Week 9 . . .

There is so much happening already this week I thought I would start updating now! I think I am going to switch it up a bit as well, instead of room by room, I am going day by day.

Sunday . . .
Lydia and I worked on staining the floor in the master bedroom, hallway and living room. By the time that was completed it was too dark to varnish the master bedroom so we went home. Lydia and I both forgot to bring the good camera so I took a few pictures of the living room with my phone.

This probably shows the true colors of the wall and floor best in the living room.

You see our pile of supplies in bottom right corner. We kept them all piled on a trash bag since the stain was so permanent, we didn't want any accidents. We also sat a lot waiting for stain to absorb. Roll a section, then wait 10 minutes and wipe off excess, again and again. This is what takes so long. We wiped up excess with t-shirt material that Levi at Home Depot gave us! What a guy! When we ran out later, I just tore up some of my own. After first wipe in master bedroom, we both dawned gloves from then on, it still looks like I've been rooting with the pigs around my fingernails!

This is just a picture of the completed living room before varnish.

Supplies we used on floors . . .

 

I applied stain with paint roller. I found that to be much easier than by hand and I believe it was a more uniform coverage. The roller was lamb's wool for smooth to semi-smooth surfaces. In the dining room I switched to roller for smooth surfaces and there was a lot less splatter. The splatter is pain if it is out of reach on the floor and you can't wipe it up. The polyurethane said it must dry for 6 hours before applying the second coat or you will have to sand the floor before the second coat if you wait beyond 8 hours. Well, I waited beyond 8 hours, it was actually 14 so we will see how it goes because I did not sand the 1st coat.

Kevin worked on the pen for Howdy and Maddie until dark. He started setting poles for the new privacy panels he is planning to put up on Thursday and Friday. He then laid padding down in David's room for the laminate wood flooring and was able to get about 1/2 the room completed with flooring before calling it quits.

Monday . . .

Kevin was able to finish setting the poles in Howdy and Maddie's pen. He moved on to finish David's flooring. By then it was time to get home to bed for work tomorrow. He gave David a job to lay all the padding down for Lydia's room. I think David was happy to have some responsibility because he went after that floor like white on rice!

The back posts are wood for the privacy fence.

The front poles are metal (I'm not sure why) for the picket fence. Kevin didn't want the dogs to be completely cut off from us with all privacy fencing.

David's room. This is looking from his doorway to opposite corner.

This is looking from corner towards his doorway.

David's job of putting down Lydia's padding.

Looking from other side of her room.

I started the evening by applying varnish to master bedroom and living room and finished with Lydia and I applying stain to dining room floor. David helped a little towards the end.

Floor after 1st coat of varnish. I noticed the spots on the picture again so I went and cleaned the lens and re-took the picture.

The spots were worse! I thought something was seriously wrong with Lydia's camera! I went home and researched on the web and found out that those are dust particles that are reflecting off the flash! My first thought is GROSS! My second thought is, my varnish!

The little hallway! Evidently there is no dust in the hall!

This picture shows the true color of the floor better but the flash was too bright. I love the color but still not too happy with the finished product. I wanted a streaked worn look like our bedroom but the wood did not want it. The streaks you see here are not intentional.

I just put this picture in so we could see there is more dust settling on the varnish!!!

This is the living room after 1st coat has dried. The next picture is a better representation of the color.

Looking from dining room towards northeast corner of living room.

Looking from front door towards dining room. The dining room has not had varnish applied yet in this picture.

Tuesday . . .

Kevin was not feeling well today. I think it is a combination of a lot of work with no break, horrible eating habits this last 2 weeks, and stress at work. He just went to the house, took a nap, ate something that would go easy on his stomach and watched some TV.

The kids started packing their rooms. David is almost done and Lydia has just got started. She has stacks of boxes in her room and it looks like she hasn't even begun. Like her mom, she'll learn to start letting things go because it is a hassle to keep packing and unpacking until you get settled somewhere.

Linda came over Monday and Tuesday to pack up most of our kitchen for me! She also took some bigger, bulkier items over to the house.

Some of Lydia's boxes. We had to have a discussion on how to pack boxes and get as much as you can in them. She is not the organizing type although she swears she is.

These are couple of boxes that she hadn't unpacked since we moved out of our old house 2 years ago.

More of Lydia's packed boxes, some from old house and some from now!

Lydia's closet! She has a lot of packing to do!

Lydia's bedroom, scary . . .

David's closet after packing. He is my organizing minimalist.

All his packed boxes from old house and current.

All the boxes Linda packed. There are some at end of bar that you can't see. This is so much weight off my back! She packed a lot of decorations as well.

Week 8 . . .

The briefness of last weeks blog is made up for in this week's . . .

It's getting busy! Monday, Lydia and I went to house and I painted some more! We went back on Tuesday Wednesday and honestly, I don't remember what I did! I know I got the knobs and drawer pulls added for the kitchen. David and Lydia did some cleaning. Kevin was on vacation this last week and he was working everyday!

Sunday was exciting because my brother dropped by to check things out but I wasnt' there :-( and my aunt Jackie stopped by to see the house in person! She didn't stay long but it was sweet to see her. Sunday was her birthday so, Happy Birthday Aunt Jackie!

The blinds arrived on Thursday and Friday. I haven't even opened the boxes yet. I would love to get them up but right now, it isn't top priority.

Also, I woke up Thursday morning with what I thought was the beginning of a sinus infection and it hung on until Saturday. Now I think it was just a combination of allergies and reaction to the all dust from Kevin sanding the drywall. Thank goodness, right now is not a good time for being sick!

The whole family went to Fort Worth on Saturday and picked up the flooring for the kid's rooms. The gentleman had originally quoted us $1.89 per square foot and then lowered it to $1.79 per square foot. That was exciting and helped a lot so we could get the better padding which he also lowered .05 cents/sq ft. We had shopped several different places and this place had the best prices for flooring and the accessories, Elegant Flooring.

After unloading the flooring we were off to Home Depot to pick up some of the fencing material and the supplies I needed to stain the floors. I told Kevin next time we go there we are going to have to get pictures with the folks who always help us to put on the blog! Then when you go to Home Depot, you'll know who the best is! All of these errands took most of the day and we were starving! As a family we got to eat together at Antonio's our personal favorite for mexican food. (I had a gift certificate from my buddy, Mr. Dolney!)

See below all that was accomplished . . .

Master Bedroom . . .

All the mud as been applied and sanding completed! Troy came over Thursday evening and helped Kevin apply the texture to the walls. It is all taking shape! We picked out the color for our room, a dark shade of sage like green. The vote was 3 to 1. Lydia picked a lighter green called asparagus, she said she definitely didn't like the name but the color was nice. I chose the darker green and had the guys vote without knowing Lydia and I had made any choices, sneaky I know, but they can be easily influenced. Kevin liked both but preferred the darker so I won! When I think about the bedroom, I imagine what would make me feel better when I have a migraine, the darker the better! I would love to have a honeymoon suite but hey, I live in reality.

I was able to get the floors in the bedroom stained on Sunday. The color is dark walnut and is a lot darker than the sample but I am still happy with it. (Check it out in the living room below.) No pictures of it this week because we finished about the time the sun went down and there is no light fixture in our bedroom yet. We forgot Lydia's camera and my phone wouldn't work :-(

As you can see there was a lot of progression this week. Below is pictures of final mud application.

The pictures below are of all angles of the bedroom showing that the walls have been textured. The ceiling has too but I didn't take a picture of it.

The pictures below are of the hardwood in the bedroom after a very thorough cleaning by myself and Lydia. It was swept, vacuumed and mopped. The first two were done several times. Of course the color is totally different now. Supposedly, this is the original hardwood from the 20's and it took the stain very well. Since it was my first time ever to stain hardwood, I started with the bedroom so I could make mistakes. The king size bed will take up most of the room. The only mistake I made didn't even involve application. I didn't realize the roller was sitting in the stain and it soaked it all up. There was a lot of excess on the floor so that section is a little darker than the rest! Lesson learned, always watch where you place the roller!

Lydia's Bedroom . . .

Kevin framed in Lydia's closet on Friday. He wanted to make sure this was done before he and David installed the flooring. Since it is a floating floor, he didn't want the closet framed in on top of it and be floating as well. I know what is meant by this terminology, but when I hear it, I keep thinking of floating on a air mattress at Possum Kingdom Lake. Very good thought!

Oh, sweet Aunt Juanita! She came over and convinced Lydia the closet needed to be along the wall right when you enter the bedroom instead of where the old hot water heater had been. After considering it for sometime, Lydia agreed it appeared to give her not more floor space but more "usable" floor space. After I considered it a moment, I thought, I had Kevin tear out the closet in the master bedroom because it was right there in your face as you entered the room and this is the same thing! But it works in this room, that's the good thing!

These boxes are the flooring for Lydia's room. I believe the wood beside it is more of the closet. Not sure why there is a door in her room. Check out those windows letting all the sunshine in. I love this room but Lydia may grow to dislike it come deep winter time and again in July/August. Luckily it isn't on the north or west side of the house. I think the blue Lydia chose just sets off the sunshine!

David's room . . .

David's room is taking shape as well. I took several pictures showing things that happened this week. 

This is just showing you the progression of David's closet.

This is David. He was pooped from cleaning all the construction materials from his room, our room and Lydia's room. Check out the ladder hanging on the other side of the entry! That leads to the attic that I will show pictures of shortly.

This is the beginnings of closing up the doorway of David's room. Also, notice there isn't as much "stuff" in there now.

This corner was a cluster plus the shelves that served as tool central!

When Kevin was removing sheetrock from above the soon to be gone doorway, he found this picture of horse. I am sure there is a good reason for having things like this behind sheetrock but I still have to wonder, why? It wasn't part of wallpaper, just a picture.

This is looking from David's room into the dining room.

David's closet.

Just had to take a picture of the clutter-free area in his room. You can see the doorway to the kitchen and the pretty horse picture.

This is David's flooring for his room. They got 9 boxes each.

More clutter-free zone! Sweet!

New Hallway . . .

Check out the attic, the ladder and the doorway! It's huge!

This the storage closet in the new hall. It will probably be finished after move-in. The texture is on and waiting for paint, that too will have to wait until after move-in.

Opening to attic. You can see the ladder, barely. It looks so tiny in this picture.

Here is the door to the attic! Of course, it too needs paint! I am going to be sick of painting when this is done but I am getting better at it!

Dining Room . . .

A lot of de-clutter was done in this room as well by David and Lydia, I think Linda helped some too!

Still cluttered, not sure why I took this picture. Maybe to show the texture that was added around the entry way to our rooms.

Everything was removed from the room including the paper on the floor to prepare for staining. This is looking towards kitchen from living room.

Looking from kitchen towards the living room. It was in this picture that I noticed lens needed to be cleaned on Lydia's camera. I don't know if it has gotten dirty from being at the house all the time or from her role as yearbook photographer at her school.

Check out the cheap $5 blinds from Home Depot! Hung them all by myself!

Looking towards our rooms. This is wall my home office hutch will be on.

This is probably a better picture of the texture around the door.

Now this picture and the following are after I water mopped the floors in the living and dining rooms. Just wanted you see the how nice & clean it all looks now.

Utility Closet . . .

I think I may have already shown pictures of this in previous blogs but here is another one. Also, the plumber came this week and set up the water lines and drainage for the washer. Kevin said David saved us about $100 dollars by going out side his room and digging a hole for the drainage. Having a teenage son comes in handy! Also a little payback for all the baseball expenses. We are ready, set, go for the new high efficiency, stackable washer and dryer. Now that is something I am anxious to get to! NOT!!!

 

Living Room . . .

Nothing much new happening in this room but I wanted to show the rockin' cheap blinds I hung and how clean it is. I am pretty sure Linda helped get it cleaned out and I am sure David and Lydia worked on it as well. I pulled the paper up, vacuumed, swept, vacuumed, swept and water mopped the floor in preparation for the stain.
On Sunday evening, Lydia and I with a little help from David stained the living room floor. It is the last picture in this section.

Looking from dining room towards front door.

From front door looking towards dining room.

West wall with new blinds. This a/c unit has quit working. It smells fishy when I turn it on and it is no longer cooling.

East wall.

The stain looks a lot better in this picture than it does in person. Whatever this wood is, it doesn't like dark walnut (probably wouldn't like any other color!). I was going to apply by hand in the beginning because there was so much excess in the bedroom. The wood soaked it up like water so I switched back to the paint roller. The coverage was much more uniform but the wood would accept it places and not in others. Because the wood was soaking it up so fast, we were having a tough time wiping out the overlap marks! It looks splotchy in this picture because some of the stain was still wet. I have a feeling I am going to have to apply a second coat. I used one quart of the stain for our bedroom which is the same size as the living room and I used about 1 1/2 quarts in the living room. In retrospect, it probably needed some kind of sealer applied before I started staining, another lesson learned!

The Kitchen . . .

This room is getting wrapped up for now. No more action until after we move in. Bob came over Thursday or maybe Friday, I really was feeling sick because the days all ran together. Anyway, he came over and put the hinges on the cabinet doors for me and hung them. What a sweetie! I knew if he did it, it would be hung like I hung them myself. I know others are out there but when it comes to stuff like this you can't get more picky than Bob and I. Everything has to be in a straight line and perfect. He even adjusted one of the cabinet knobs I had put on because it was off a hair! 

There was an oops on the lazy susan doors but Kevin graciously took the blame. Although he had removed one of them for me, he forgot how the doors were put on. Bob and Linda's lazy susan door has hinges and opens out so you can turn the trays. Ours actually attach to the lazy susan and turn with it. Oh well . . . 

This door is A LOT brighter orange in person! David took the paneling off the pantry door for me and this is what we have. The inside of the door is white. It is distressed looking for sure! If it wasn't for all the glue on it, it would be fun just to leave it. Jen had said I may need to have some color in the room with value and I think I found it . . .

Just a picture of the cabinet box after a second coat of paint. In all the pictures I took they still looked white.

Cabinets around stove after second coat of paint.

Cabinets around sink after second coat of paint.

You can't see them very well but these are my drawer pulls with stars. I have a close up picture of them in a previous blog. Linda worked hard in the kitchen on Friday to clean up all the dust from the drywall sanding. It looked really nice when I got there Saturday morning. Sorry Linda, it lasted about 1/2 a day! We now have a path through the kitchen to access other rooms.

Cabinets around stove with doors that have knobs and hung. By the way, the stove area seems to be our current closet! Those are Kevin's pants and to the left is my pants, shirt and shoes.

Now my oops! That cabinet door you see on the top cabinet. It isn't suppose to be there. It should be in the stack of doors with the center cut out waiting patiently for chicken wire. Somehow, I got them mixed up and cut the center out of a door from the bottom. Also, note the hinges on the bottom cabinet beneath the Sonic cup. Those shouldn't be there. Yep, that's a lazy susan door.

See my knobs! I will be putting drawer pulls on the faux drawer fronts as soon as I figure out how to get them on there. I can't just drill holes because the sink is in the way. Another after move-in project. Notice all the stuff on either side so we have a path to the sink. Also behind the roll of black padding you will notice there is a missing cabinet door! This is the door I took the center out of by accident. David suggested I just take the center out of the door on the far left so it will balanced. I'm considering it, we will see.

Other . . .

Bob and Linda went to some huge and famous antique sale in Round Rock, TX and came across these door knobs. David called the bronze knob on the far right and Lydia snatched the glass knob. Believe it or not, Kevin had already decided she would get that one. She says there is something mysterious about glass knobs. Personally, it reminds me of Aunt Clara on Bewitched. I like the knob on the far left with fancy the geometric pattern.

That is Kevin out in the backyard on Saturday evening digging post holes for Howdy and Maddie's new home. Note: they have priority over Lydia's closet! Here is some pics of our other kids . . .

Kitty Belle. 10 years old.

Howdy the Hound dog. 4-5 years old.

Maddie the Catahoula/Australian Shepard. 9-10 years old.

What's Ahead . . .

This next week will be filled with packing and wrapping up projects in the house to prepare for moving in. We have to be out of our rental by November 1st. We are to say the least, very excited! 

1. Finish electrical in living room, dining room, master bedroom, utility closet.
2. Finish Lydia's closet
3. Install blinds
4. Install the a/c - heater
5. Get Internet hooked up
6. Get Directv hooked up, appt made for 10/29
7. Finish installing the back fence for Howdy and Maddie

What can wait until after we have moved . . .

1. Finish closet interiors for all new closets 
2. Install washer/dryer
3. Finish painting trim in the kitchen and the chicken wire doors
4. Living and dining room windows
5. Knobs on interior doors
6. Paint and hang interior doors
7. Finish tearing out front porch
8. Install chair rail, crown molding and floor baseboards
9. New roof
10. New driveway
11. Paint outside of house
12. Clean out garage

Needless to say, this blog will not end after next week! Hope you don't mind still keeping up with the Poer-house!

All donations will be accepted whether monetary

or physical labor! Sorry, it will not be tax deductible!

(Just so you know, this is a joke but if you want to . . . )