Thursday, October 20, 2016

#tbt #March2016

Today's #tbt takes us back to March 2016 so we can remember fondly a month that seems like it was a lifetime ago.

1. We begged people on Facebook to buy our house because, after about 10 days, I was over making all beds every day.

2. Jake started his First Communion classes at church.

3. We started gearing up for our Spring Break trip to California to visit Uncle Eric and Aunt Caroline.

4. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day.

(Johnson cousin-style)







Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Brooklyn's Birthday...like her last birthday.

So, two projects done in the home + many more in progress = a Way Back Wednesday post for you taking it back to late February when we celebrated Brooklyn's 11th birthday.

(Confession: It was so long ago, I first wrote 10th birthday, then deleted and wrote 11th, then had to stop and do the math. Law.)

Brooklyn opted for a sleepover with school friends the weekend before her birthday. They are a great group of girls.

We did face paint, pizza, cookie cake, and then breakfast at Biscuitville.


She opened our presents on her actual birthday...


And then had a family party complete with S'mores skillet for dessert.


And baby Crosby was feeling well enough to venture in "public." So thankful for that!


And then we wrapped up February by putting our house on the market. But I don't have to tell you how that ended up. :-)


Monday, October 17, 2016

The Evolution of the Dining Room...

So, how about that? Two project updates in a row. :-)

Our dining room had two good things going for it when we moved in.
1. It was big enough to hold my grandmother's table and china hutch.
2. It was square. (I know, not that exciting, but I felt bad only saying one nice thing about it.)

It had several things that I knew I needed to change right away.
1. It was cream on cream. (In fact the entire house is/was cream on cream. Please, for the love of everything, don't EVER paint your walls and all your trim and all your doors the same color. All over your house. Everywhere. It makes for some long nights for future homeowners.)
2. It had carpet. (Again, for the love of everything, please don't carpet your dining room. Two meals in, and I lost biscuit crumbs and egg roll bits in that carpeted jungle. Lugging out a vacuum cleaner is not what I want to worry about after every meal. I wanna be able to sweep and go. Swiffer if I absolutely have to.)
(Pic taken from the zillow listing.)

(Pic taken from our inspection tour.)

The kids helped with the carpet removal...


Kinda. :-)

My awesome mother-in-law helped paint during the day when we were at work...

And you all know the story of the floors...

And, voila! A new dining room!



This table and hutch hold so many memories for my family, so I love that it's now traveled to three of my own homes and continues to host so many family meals.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

So, I promise we really have been working...

We've been in the house almost 5 weeks. In houses past by the 5 week mark, I would have had every box unpacked, every wall painted, every picture hung, and been hanging out on my couch watching TV by now in the evenings.

Not with this princess.

We decided to do all "major" construction first before buying furniture (less to move and have to cover and keep clean). The biggest project was the wall between the formal living room and den and then all the main level floors (while all newer carpet, it didn't match once we opened the wall AND who wants carpet in their dining room? biscuit crumbs- ew).

This is the wall that we wanted to open up. (Pic taken during our inspection walk through...Chad pondering all that is to come.)

We hadn't even owned the house 24 hours before I let my dad start drawing on the walls...


After a stressful moving experience and closing, it was nice to get some aggression out...



After the wall was opened and framed, we tore up all the carpet in anticipation of the laminate wood flooring that was to come that Friday.

Notice I said "anticipation?"

Welp. As with many best laid plans (or should I say when you are dealing with subcontracted companies of Lowes), things don't always go as planned.

I was excited about having someone else come and do the flooring as we (mostly, my dad and Chad) had been working so hard on everything else. But what I found was that when the floor is not 100% perfect, the said subcontracted company of Lowes will not do the project.

Which they decided the morning of.

After I had already purchased all materials.

And had them sitting in my home "acclimating for 96+ hours."

And tore up all the carpet.

And pulled up 1056 carpet staples.

And cleared my entire day to do other home projects while said subcontracted company of Lowes did this project.

But they didn't.

They walked out at 9:05am.

Leaving me staring at thousands of dollars worth of materials.

And plywood flooring. (Apparently un-level plywood flooring.)

And no plan.

Y'all. I don't need rescuing often. But I did what most anyone would do in this situation.

I texted my dad.
And he came to my rescue.
Big. Time.
 
There was a lot of stress, panic attacks, hyperventilating, sore backs, hammered thumbs, trips to Lowes (yes, I still love Lowes, but not said subcontracted company), trouble shooting and skill learning in a matter of a few days.

I will tell you that the ONLY good thing to come out of this "delayed, you-gots-to-do-it-yourself project" (besides some awesome family bonding time) was the fact that we got to get some good painting done over those few days with no floor (because who cares about drippage on plywood?).

One of the mini transformations was this fireplace...

And I had to replace this 30 year old fan...
 
And I am now happy to report that 3 weeknights after work + 2 weekend days + the best family ever = a new beautiful laminate wood floor.


...And some very tired Johnsons and Baders.

Who still don't have furniture. :-)

Friday, October 7, 2016

Let's back it up...

...like back to February.

(I really thought I would have some good house updates for you this week but we ran into some snags- but I'll save that story for another day.)

How about some cute kid pics instead?

So, February.

Hmmmm.

Let's see.

We rode in the Scout.

I got some good niece/nephew snuggle time...


And some good friend time...

Our Goddaughter, Allie, was confirmed...

And then our sweet nephew had to be admitted to the hospital for RSV...

It was a scary time for all of us, but Crosby was a champ and pulled through bigger and stronger than ever.


My sweet Valentines...

And Uncle Chad finally got to hold his nephew...healthy and happy to be home.

The sweetest cousins (and first of many pics like this)...



February was full of highs and lows, but we are so thankful for Crosby's healing and for the family time we had.

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