Spy Gear

This is where having a friend in the flooring business pays the most.  Glynn sat there with his little laser light making sure that the first line of tile was PERFECT.  He said that if the first line is perfectly straight then the rest will line up well.  He was amazing and the floor is looking fantastic.  I did tease him though that he was using his laser spy gear for the job.

Looking good.

Close up.

This is how much we were able to finish in the first day.  That was nearly 400sf of work.

For the second day in a row we were not able to walk on it.  The kids were going crazy because it was so tempting but we managed to keep them off.  I then realized that while it was a little inconvenient to not be able to walk on that area, the next part was going to be very inconvenient considering we would not be able to go into our kitchen at all for two days.  This is where preparedness training comes in to play.

How Firm A Foundation

Now that the walls are done we can start putting the floors down.  Because of all the dust in the house from tearing up the floors, most of my pictures have dust spots in them.  I didn't realize how much dust was still in the air until it kept showing up in the pictures.

All cleaned and ready for the next phase. 

Stapling the lathe to the floor.

Alex was so excited that he was able to help.  He loves working with his hands as much as his dad does.

Megan and Alex doing a happy dance on the cool blue floors.  They had fun just running around in circles.

The layer of thin-set spread over the lathe to strengthen the floors.  When this dries we will have a great foundation for the tile to protect it against cracking.  The hard part was keeping the kids and the dog off the floor until it was dry.

Next up...laying the tile.

Paint-a-Thon

Now that all the floors are pulled up and the baseboards have been removed I wanted to paint the walls before any new flooring went in.  It was really nice not to have to tape off the baseboards and worry about covering the floors.  I was now ready to paint the living room, dining room, kitchen, and stair well.  This was a very big job though so I enlisted the help of my friend's sis-in-law to help me.  She loves to paint and is very particular about the touch-ups.  With both of us working for two days straight we got it done.  Now my house is full of color.  I am one happy girl.

Frog tape looks cool and works well too.

I have more blue walls.

I wasn't even going to paint the vaulted part that separated the kitchen from the dining room.  It was too high and I wasn't sure where to start and stop.  My helper told me that she would love to paint it and it should just be the same color as the living room.  So now even that part of the wall is painted and I'm glad it is.  It really pulls the rooms together.



This area was the main area that I dreaded and needed her help on the most.  It looks simple in this picture but this wall is right over the stairs and I had an idea of what to do but I was not sure I could do it so I was really looking forward to someone who has done it before to come and help me.



We got the wall painted from the bottom of the stairs all the way to the top.

The second day we worked on the kitchen.  This little area took longer than the three others put together.

I like the blue and the brown together.

Better shot without all the frog tape.  Looking good.

This is where the living room and dining room meet.  You can't really tell but the wall on the left is not in shadow.  It is actually a little darker than the wall on the right.  I was hoping for more of a contrast though so that it had more character than just being all one color.  You really have to know that they are two different shades of blue to see it but at least it is not so bad that it really sticks out.

That was a lot of painting and I can honestly say that I don't want to paint again for a long, long, time.

Ahh...the sounds of construction.

Day 1 of flooring:

Well, actually in our house it's the sounds of deconstruction.  I was so excited for start day.  I must admit however that even though I new we had to tear up the old floors I wasn't entirely prepared for what that really meant.  The loud echoing sounds of all the hammering and cutting were very reminiscent of the days we were building our house.  It was quite exhilarating, but the mess and the sight of the men pulling up the floors that we have been walking on for over two years was a little unsettling too.

Eating their last lunch pic-nic style on the old floor.

All ready for the make-over.

Ripping out the carpet (that was the easy part.)

We are so glad to have our friend Glynn helping us with this project.  Not only is he a great guy and a lot of fun to be around, but he does floors for a living so he has all the tools and knowledge to get us through this major job.

If these old floors could talk.

Entryway.

Pulling up the linoleum and all that underlayment (that was the hard part.)  I was the one who put in the underlayment so I made sure that it was really stapled well.  Great for the linoleum but not so fun when you are trying to pull it up years later. 

Shoes are required at all times right now so that no one steps on a staple or gets a sliver.

No turning back now.  I can't wait to see the finished project.

Got Tile?

Anyone who has talked to me in the last 6 months has heard me say that we were going to upgrade our floors and finish painting soon (more times than they wanted to I'm sure.)  I always said we were getting tile and new carpet but it just didn't seem to be happening.  Around Thanksgiving we finally got our carpet and I painted some of the upstairs but I realized that while we were finally getting things done, I didn't want to tear up my house for the holidays so we waited until after New Year to put in tile and finish painting. 

That time has come and we got the delivery we have been waiting for.  3,000 pounds of tile are now sitting in our garage.

Every time I went in and out of the garage I would stop and stare at these boxes of tile lined up and just envision what they were going to look like installed.

They are so beautiful to me.  They are 18inX18in tiles that are smooth and polished on top.

All the supplies and lathe needed to begin.

Not really sure what to expect but I am excited beyond belief.

birthday.2

Wow last year flew by so fast.  I can't believe that I am talking about Alexander's second birthday.  That little man is just growing up so fast.  But really, he has always been pushing limits and doing things faster than his sisters.  Really, it is amazing that this is only his second birthday.  He is so much fun.

We had Xander's favorite dinner for his birthday...breakfast.  His two favorite foods in the world are bananas and scrambled eggs.  Cheese is a close third. 

It was so much fun watching him learn to blow the party favors.

I don't know what he loved more...blowing out the candles or opening presents.

The race track was a hit with everyone.  It took a while before Alex even got to play with it.

He is such a talker.  His vocabulary is bigger than we know since he uses more words everyday, and uses them correctly.  He's also really good at his colors and numbers.  He even wants to potty train.  He has had a few successes on the potty but his little body just isn't as ready as his willingness to learn.  I don't think it will take long at all once his body is ready...woo hoo!  He loves to be moving (always has) and loves anything to do with Pixar's Cars.  He is still allergic to milk...that's hardest to deal with when we have ice cream.  When he isn't on the move he is a great cuddler.  He loves to give hugs and kisses.  He still has his little puppy dog face that melts my heart every time he uses it.  He just brightens every one's day so much.  We wouldn't know what to do with out our sweet little Alexander.

Here are a couple pictures that Rebecca snuck on his birthday.



Happy New Year!!!

This year New Year's Eve for us was pretty low key.  We just made our traditional late night treats, played some games, and counted down to midnight.  We went outside and saw some really big fireworks from the city next to us, let the girls light some sparklers, and then went to bed.  Not much, but we really loved that we were all together.

You can just see the love between those two. lol