New Project!

We've started renovating the second bathroom upstairs. It's been gutted for a few months and has been our storage closet for tools and other materials since then. Last week, Nate laid a new subfloor and cement board in there. Yesterday, we went to Home Depot and ordered tile and bought a toilet, two vanities and sinks, plumbing materials, and faucets. We hope to have it finished in about a month. This bathroom will be a bit more involved as there was only one sink in it before. We'd like to make it a Jack and Jill bathroom as there are three bedrooms up here. Nate is going to have to add the plumbing for another sink. We're excited to show you the finished product!

Catch up

I'm back at it! We finally got the internet so I'm able to blog again. Numerous people have been asking for an update, so I'm happy to oblige.

I can't believe we've been living in the house for three months already! Time has really flown by and we've gotten a lot accomplished. I'll give you a quick list and a bunch of pictures (because I know that's what you are really after) to catch everyone up.

1. We put all of our stuff away! I love having the crawl space. We have so much shoved down there. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I am so happy to finally see where the wall meets the floor in all of my rooms. When we lived in our previous two apartments, it seems like we had stuff piled everywhere and I could never see where the floor met the wall. Simple pleasures.

2. Nate waged war on the dandelions and the creeping charlies and was victorious! In April, we had the worst lawn on the block, but Nate was diligent with weed killer and planted new grass and our yard looks respectable now. Can you believe this picture! There are about 10 heads to this stem!

3. Nate did a ton of work on the master bathroom. He replaced some of the subfloor, layed cement board down, layed slate tile, installed a new toilet and sink, resurfaced the tile in the shower to freshen it up, painted the walls, and installed new light fixtures and a fan. We thought about ripping the shower out and starting over, but that was going to be more expense and unnecessary work than what we were interested in. The resurfacing was an inexpensive option, and a very effective way to go. The tile is now a brilliant white instead of a dingy gray. Caveat Emptor! You need a gas mask to work with this stuff. We couldn't sleep in our bedroom for a week because the smell was so strong and nauseating!

4. We replaced some of the windows in our house and can't believe our energy bill. What a difference!! I'm so happy with the white vinyl casing.

5. Nate so lovingly painted the fireplace door a beautiful black. It looks so nice with our speakers, TV, and automans which are also black.

6. My dad made shadow boxes to fill in the holes in the wall where there used to be speakers. I painted all six and nate installed them. The two in the upstairs living room house beautiful vases I found while on vacation in Sedona, AZ. The other four in the basement house Nate's surround sound speakers.

7. We've started to put pictures on the wall which really makes me feel at home. We have our diplomas on the wall in the office and some other art on the walls. I created this bead art for our bedroom to be placed above my dresser. Michaels had a sale on beads so I painted the background of the board and strung a bunch of cute beads together. I love finally having time to be creative and decorate!

Come visit! Drop ins welcome!

Update

Nate and I got all of our stuff over to the house on March 30 and handed in our keys! It's so nice to just live at the house and not be driving back and forth! We're still in the process of moving in and putting all of our stuff away. Last week the weather was warm and beautiful so we spent a lot of time walking around our neighborhood and the walking paths in our area. We love our location! Nate also did a lot of work outside in terms of cleaning out the garage (we rented a dumpster), raking the lawn, and scattering grass seed.

I would love to share more pictures with all of you, but we don't have the internet at home yet. Check back in a couple weeks for pictures! My family is coming up in a week to celebrate my brother Adam's birthday so our goal is to have a lot accomplished by that point. What a long process.

March 24-25: Moving still continued

We have so much stuff! Nate was working nights so he slept during the day and then brought a load of stuff to the house. Then we'd meet at the apartment again and pack more and bring another load over. It's pretty much just piled up in our crawl space, kitchen, and entry way. Minimal organizing and putting away has occurred. That's for next week. We just need to focus on getting everything out of the apartment. This is very stressful for me. When I was a little kid, I had a reoccurring nightmare that my play room was completely full of boxes up to the ceiling. Before I could go to sleep, I had to unpack and put away every box. Every time I move, I think of this nightmare and I feel close to a panic attack. You'd think that after moving twice a year for the last 7 years that I'd start to get over this. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I am done moving for a good long while.

March 23: The move...continued

We still have more work to do on the house, but for now, we have to put all of that aside and focus on moving out of the apartment. We still have a lot of stuff left there. At this point, my shins and knees are black and blue from carrying large, awkward items. All I can say is that I'm so happy our house is only 15 minutes away from our apartment. I'm also very thankful that Nate's dad left his truck for us to use this week. That is a huge help.

Today we moved over a bunch of shelving units and our dressers. Tons of miscellaneous boxes were moved over as well. Thank God for the crawl space. Only thing is, at some point, we'll have to pull it all out again and sort through it to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I know that we have about 3 blenders, 2 irons, and 3 hand mixers. This is so not necessary.

March 22: Scramble!

Mom and Dad were awesome and stayed an extra day. They got so much done. Dad put up the trim in the basement living room and overcame a few obstacles with that. Mom finished painting the laundry room and finished the touch-ups.

Nate had worked the night shift the night before so he slept and then brought over a truck-load, including the TV. He also organized the basement living room for us. Complete with lawn chairs as furniture. I'm really excited to buy furniture for that room.

Nate grilled brats and then we all talked and relaxed for a while. Mom and Dad packed up and eventually took off.

Nate and I decided finally that the upstairs living room would be the sitting/game room and the downstairs living room with the fireplace would be the TV room because it is best set up for surround sound. We have been pondering this ever since we bought the house because both rooms have are kind of odd and we weren't sure how to arrange furniture in either one. I think we finally figured it out and I'm really happy with the result.

We accomplished so much this weekend. It feels like it was the most productive because we finished so many projects. I'm really happy with the house as a whole now. It's starting to feel like home.

March 21: A day of rest

On Sunday, we took it easy. Mom and I put the first coat of paint on the laundry room in the morning while Dad added extra screws to our railing to reinforce it. Unfortunately, Nate wasn't feeling well so he slept in. We had actually all been intermittently sick during the weekend. On Friday night, Dad woke us up to let us know that the furnace had back fired twice. We kept it off all weekend and just used the fireplace for heat incase the furnace was making us sick. We've actually kept it off since. We're happy that the weather has been nice so we don't actually need the furnace.

In the afternoon, we traveled to Chaska to celebrate my second cousin Eli's 1st birthday. We spent a wonderful afternoon there and then came back to the house for pizza. We relaxed and talked the rest of the night and ended up getting Dairy Queen blizzards before bed.

March 20: The floor is done!

Dad and Nate worked really hard on the floor all day and got it done late at night. It looks amazing. At first I was concerned that the color would be too light, but it has dark grain that works with the existing wood in the room. Also, it really brightens up the room. They did a great job going around the fireplace and finishing the floor in the numerous door frames and crawl space.

I went to the apartment and packed another car load. Then I brought it back to the house and unpacked. Then I dusted, cleaned, and polished all of the trim on the top level and part of the main level of the house. It was so dirty.

Mom spent the day doing a few touch-ups from where it was scraped during the carpet installation process. Then she finished the kitchen!!! She could be heard singing "ding dong, the fugly green is gone...". What a transformation. The cupboards are so much happier now with a complimenting color palate. We painted two colors to make the long eat-in kitchen seem more like two rooms: a dining room, and a kitchen. The kitchen still needs more attention. The previous owners aparently used the counter tops as cutting boards so they need to be replaced sometime soon. I would also like a new sink as this one is not very efficient. The drains are on the side of the basin, not centered, and the bottom is flat so nothing goes down the drain without quite a bit of coaxing.

We got so much accomplished today.

March 19: They're Back!

I stayed home from work again and packed more boxes/rubber bins in the morning before heading over to the house. Once I got there, I unpacked them. Then I did a deep clean on the bathroom that we would be using. Our one functioning bathroom out of the three. I conquered the dirt and dust! Dad came in the afternoon and we prepped the basement floor for the laminate by scraping any raised concrete and vacuuming the resulting dust. As soon as Nate got home, they laid the plastic and got to work! Mom came later with Lex after their shopping trip in Mankato. Then Mom and I went back to the apartment to pack more necessities for the weekend.

March 18: The Move

The move: phase 1 of many, many trips.

I stayed home from work to start packing. I packed a bunch of boxes worth. I can't believe how much stuff we have. At least some of it is still packed: we have 15 bins already packed up and sitting on our balcony. I'm a little nervous to open them up. They've been exposed to the elements since we moved here last March. Oh well, it's stuff we don't really use anyway.

We also got our ducts cleaned today.

When Nate got home from work, we packed up our recliner and couch and brought them over to the house. Then we came back and got our bed and box spring and brought it over to the house. Mom and Dad are coming up this weekend and we want to start living at the house so that we don't waste time commuting. Plus, now I'm just getting really excited about the house.

March 17: Carpet!

Our carpet was laid! Nate went to the house to see it and was really happy. Then he drove to Osseo to trade our Maxima for a friend's truck for the day so we could move our big stuff over to the house! I'm so excited. I had a long day at work and had to stay late. When we got home, it was 8 so we called it a night and watched a movie instead of starting the move.

March 16: Pad

The pad for the carpet was laid! Nate said it really brightened the whole house. I can't wait for the carpet! Nate cleaned some more vents outside and then called it an early night.

March 15: Clean!

After work, I spent the evening scrubbing the whole fireplace. It was pretty dusty. I also did more touch up painting on the trim. I am not in love with painters tape. Paint can seep under it and it is hard to peel off sometimes.

Nate brought over his motorcycle, grilled us steaks, and vacuumed the whole house (vacuumed the concrete with the shop vac) so it's ready for the carpet.

March 14: Day of Work

What a beautiful day! It was 60 and sunny-- perfect day for working outside. Nate cleaned out the gutters and some vents on the outside of the house. He also cut down a bush and trimmed a tree.

I stayed inside and did some touch up painting and finished painting the trim in the bathroom.

Together we cleaned out everything in the rooms that were going to be carpeted.

Then Nate showed me his pride and joy: the crawl space. I totally don't understand his fascination with it. There was talk about making it a wine cellar, man cave... He's been trying to show me for a while, but I don't really like crawling around on my knees on cement so I've been avoiding it. I joked that if he had a "luge" on a track that brought me in there with the touch of a button, I'd be all over it. Anyway, I crawled in there and it is actually pretty nice. Every corner is bright, the floor is clean after a couple runs of the vacuum, and there is a ton of space! We can shove all of our extra things in there so our house can be immaculate!

March 13: Flooring!!!

We finally picked up the laminate flooring for our basement living room. I am so happy with it. I can't wait to see it installed. It is going to look gorgeous. Nate carried it all down to the basement. We also bought the sink for our master bathroom. It fits perfectly and is a huge upgrade from what was previously in the room. Nate also replaced some of the subfloor. Then we went to a men's gymnastics meet.

March 11: Two tons

Nate's personal victory: He had already discovered that our driveway had a third lane, and finally finished shoveling all of it. He figures he shoveled a *literal* ton of snow/ice today. Impressive. I believe him, too. The snow was piled so high. After that, he came back to the apartment and we had a nice relaxing evening.

March 9 and 10: Thankful for the help

Ken spent the day at the house while Nate and I were at work preparing things for when Nate got their. They put up foam insulation against the cement blocks in the crawl space and then ran the line for the kitchen stove. Now all the crawlspace needs is carpet, a couch, and a tv!

I went right to the house after work because we had a consultant from Home Depot scheduled to come and give us an estimate for replacing the shower in our master bathroom. In order for someone to come out and give an estimate, both homeowners must be present or else they won't even talk about it. Weird. Unfortunately, the person couldn't come so I decided just to leave and get some groceries and make supper for everyone.

March 8: Bed!

Nate's dad came back up with his truck, so he and Nate picked up our new bed! They also did some shopping at Home Depot for the supplies to run our gas line for the oven.

Nate's input. We also put up plastic in the crawlspace to seal off the insulation and keep it from getting in our hair while we move around in there. It's turning into a really useful space at this point.

I needed to catch up on chores so I stayed home to do laundry and dishes.

March 7: Saga of the 2x10

We put in another full day of work at the house. Mom, Dad, and I finished painting the guest bedroom (since it was a light color, I could roll it) and the master bedroom. All that is left is the laundry room, kitchen, and the three bathrooms. Mom and I can work on that while Dad, Nate, and Sam work on laying the floor next time they come up.

Nate picked up the grill from Sears and grilled us burgers!!! Lex and Mitch came over to eat lunch with us. The first burgers of the season always taste the best!

This is our office, aka gopher room.

This is our master bedroom. The color didn't turn out amazing in this picture, but it's a beautiful light gray.

This is our guestbedroom which hopefully will be used by each and everyone of you!

Nate's input: today Tim and I put an extra floor joist in the crawl space. Naturally it was a tight fit, but it came to be known that pressure treated lumber is sized differently than construction grade - naturally there would be multiple sizes of 2x10's... and neither is actually 2" x 10". That added some frustration to the day.

March 6: Fired

Let me just start out by saying, I'm used to my family "firing" me from certain tasks. For example, my sister fired me from addressing the envelopes on MY wedding invitations because my handwriting wasn't good enough and I wasn't properly centering the addresses (sorry to those of you who got my envelopes...thanks for coming to my wedding anyway). I am more of a big picture type of person and sometimes overlook details or get overwhelmed by all of them. So I should not have been surprised when I was fired from painting my own house. Dad and Nate had gone to Menards to get new subfloor for the bathrooms so Mom started trimming the second coat of the basement living room. I thought I could roll behind her once she got far enough ahead. I guess I was wrong. It is a dark color and apparently more finicky so you have to roll it just right. Fine, it was my friend Maria's birthday anyway so I just called her. "Mom said, it's not that I'm firing you, you were never hired, honey." I see how it is. I'm really not offended. It's just one of our family jokes. As an aside, you may notice that none of the pictures in this blog include me. That is because I am the family photographer, something I'll probably never be fired from. I'm trying to figure out if it's because I'm good at it or just that my family would rather be photographed than be the photographer themselves. Time will tell.

We did get a lot accomplished. Nate's parents came up and brought firewood so they built a fire. Nate and his dad cleaned all of the snow off of the roof. They also chipped ice. Nate's mom and I cleaned the kitchen cupboards and made them all shiny. My parents finished painting the basement living room and put the first coat on the master bedroom and the guest bedroom. I'm so pleased with the colors. Dad also repaired the bathroom walls. The previous owners had glued the towel rack and toilet paper dispenser to the walls. I vow to never glue anything to my walls. We all treated everyone to a nice supper at Tinuccis after a hard day's work.

March 5: Bummer of a day

I must say, this was not one of my favorite days in life. I woke up knowing that Mom and Dad would be putting my cat of 14 years to sleep. Poor Kahlua had been suffering from kidney failure and had been dehydrated in the last month of his life. Mom had been giving him an IV of fluid every day to make him comfortable, but he was just too sick. They did everything they could. Mom said at 14 he was like an old man and he was ready to go. They say you just know when your pet is ready to go and Mom and Dad got the memo. Dad held him as he went. Better to die in the arms of a loved one than to die alone. I was so sad all day at work. I remembered all of the good times I had with him and the joy that he brought to my life. He used to suck my finger when he was little. I was his person. He would sleep with me. One of my favorite memories was picking catnip and rubbing it on the carpet in front of our TV. He would roll around in it and be so happy for hours. Our relationship changed after I left for college. Then Mom became his person. He would snuggle with her every morning and evening in her chair. He was such a sweet cat and had a very calm and friendly personality. I loved listening to him talk. I just wish I could have said a proper good bye to him. He just deteriorated so quickly. We're all going to miss him so much. He was most assuredly a family member and one of my favorite childhood memories.

Mom and Dad eventually made their way up to Cities. They got to the house a little before Nate and I did. Unfortunately, our laminate flooring for the basement living room was late, so they just focused on painting. They painted the hallway and put the first coat on the basement living room. After supper, Nate and Dad put new insulation in the crawl space. We all got tired early so they came over to our apartment for a nightcap. By the way, for those of you who don't know, Nate is an excellent bartender.

March 4: More window talk

After work, I went to the apartment and made lasagna, banana bread, and brownies for the weekend. Nate went to the house and had 2 different window appointments. Wellington and Sears both gave us estimates. Those appointments really solidified our decision to not go with American Exteriors. Wellington is still the front runner, but Nate is strongly considering doing them himself since we're just doing inserts, not frame-out replacements.

March 3: More Paint

Nate chipped yet more ice and shoveled more snow. He even shoveled off the whole deck and patio. That was nice because we could see how big our patio is. We've only seen the house during the winter so we're curious to see what the patio and yard really look like.

We went to Sherwin Williams since Nate can get a discount through Marathon. We picked out a bunch of colors: kitchen, 3 bathrooms, master bedroom, and laundry room. Then we talked to the guy about the discount. It wasn't as great a discount as they made it seem. Paint is still cheaper and higher rated at Home Depot. We should have asked first. We went to Home Depot next. We picked out paint again for 2 bathrooms and the master bedroom. The color selection isn't as big, so we held off on picking the other colors.

We ate at Chipotle and brought the paint back to the house. I went back to the apartment after this and Nate stayed at the house. He ran lines in the crawl space so the whole huge area is lit up with the flip of one switch!! Before, only the entrance was lit. He was pretty happy with his accomplishment; always excited to learn something new. The extra light will really help when he puts the new insulation in and runs the line for the kitchen stove.

March 2: Mission accomplished

Nate had chipped a lot of ice and shoveled our driveway. I met him at the house and we carried a lot of the bathroom stuff out to the garage. We haven't gotten a dumpster yet. Right now we just load everything into the garage. When we're done with all of the construction, we'll get a dumpster and get rid of it all at once.

We drove to Penney's and found a comforter! Just what we wanted: a simple gray one! It is a really pretty gray and will look wonderful in the room. Then we went to Sears again to look at appliances. Nate had found a fridge and washer on the website so we were hoping to see them in person. They didn't have them so we decided to wait. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to find a duvet cover to go with the new comforter, but they were all pretty expensive and not what we wanted. Thus ended our night.

I wish there was more time in the day to get things done. It seems like we only have about 2 hours after work to devote to the house. Then we have to eat and clean up and go to bed. If we're lucky, we get some relaxing time.

March 1: Saga of the Comforter

We need to find a comforter for our master bedroom. We want something gray and simple looking. Can't be that hard right? Well, we went to Target, Herbergers, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy's, and Sears. Nothing. Everything was too floral, expensive, or young. I couldn't believe it. We've got trusty Penney's left to check, but there's not one in the area so that'll be another day. While we were in Sears, we found a superb deal on a grill so we paid for it and Nate will pick it up this weekend. We spent the whole evening shopping and didn't get anything done on the house.

February 26-28: Mini Vacation in Duluth

One of my favorite places to visit in this state happens to be Duluth. Nate and I spent four wonderful years there together and fell in love with the city. We go up every winter and ski at Spirit Mountain. We were excited to get away and take a break from house work.

On Friday, we went skiing with our good friend Amanda and then had half price appetizers at Applebees. We finished the night by warming up in the hot tub at the Radisson.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at our favorite coffee shop in Duluth: Bixby's. We love the egg/sausage/pepper jack cheese on a bagel and the cinnamon and sugar bagel. We usually get both and share. Then Nate got his hair cut at his favorite place: BAM Style. Then we packed up our hotel and went skiing with Adam, Samantha, Alexa, Mitch, and Alek. The weather was beautiful and we had an awesome time skiing in sweatshirts. I had our camera and took some videos and pictures. Then we went back to our relatives' house, Dave and Louise, and had homemade chili. We sat around and talked for the rest of the evening and had a fabulous time.

On Sunday, we went to church and then ate at Pizza Luce. Then Adam, Sam, Alek, Nate and I went to Gooseberry Falls and explored. After that, we ate again at Betty's Pies.

It was a wonderful weekend; exactly what we needed. I love spending time with my siblings. We all get along well and have a blast together.

February 25: Windows

We knew right away that our windows were not amazing. Someone from American Exteriors had come to our door while Nate was home and wanted to do an in-home presentation and estimate. If we used their company to replace our windows, they would give us a discount and we'd have to put their sign up in our front yard and write a review for their website. We figured we might as well hear them out. They came at 7:30 and started out the presentation by walking us through the quality of their windows and doing a price comparison between their windows and the market average for other companies' windows. Of course they were lower priced and higher quality. He showed us the windows and did an energy efficiency analysis which showed us how much money we could save by putting in better windows. He went through the history of the company and finally got to the estimate part. The estimate was pretty high so we figured out how we could do a few at a time and still get a discount through their program. They stayed until 10! I was so annoyed that it took so long. I still had to pack for our trip to Duluth the next day. We told them we'd think about using their company. Nate and I really never jump on things like that, especially when it involves a lot of money. Nate did some subsequent research and price checking and now we think we'll either go with Wellington or Nate will replace them himself and still qualify us for the tax break. We'll be making a decision on that in the next few months.

February 24: Other bathroom

We both met at the house after work. I worked on painting the laundry room trim. Nate ripped the upstairs bathroom apart. Now we have two gutted bathrooms ready to go!

February 22: Barter system continued

Our furnace guy came back today to put a part in the furnace and hooked up our dryer. Now both are fully functional. Nate helped out and was able to learn quite a bit. I stayed home to do dishes and clean. I also made homemade chicken cordon bleu.

Fireplace

This fireplace has been the center of hot debate between Nate and I. At first we had agreed that we'd reface it with slate and put a wood-burning stove insert in it to make it more efficient. The insert may turn out to be unnecessary. Nate had a chimney sweep come over to clean the chimney and while inspecting it, he praised the construction of our fireplace and said that it was just fine the way it is. The door on the fireplace is a really high end door too. The problem is: I don't like the gold on the door. The house was built in the 80's, so all of the fixtures and hardware are gold. I much prefer brushed nickel. So, I beg him every day to paint the gold part of the door black. This little change will totally transform the room. And make me a happy wifey. He is hesitant, maybe later - it's not necessary before move-in. I know we can paint it for a few dollars and make it look like a million bucks. We continue to debate this. We have decided to keep the brick and not reface it. At first I didn't like it because the brick is brown, but the grout is dark gray. I wouldn't have picked that color grout. Our solution is to paint the wall gray to make the brickwork pop.

February 21: Barter System

During our inspection, the inspector told us that he wouldn't live in the house withot having the furnace taken care of. It hadn't been cleaned since 2001 and showed it. This did concern us so we got a new filter and a carbon monoxide detector immediately after taking possession. I was telling one of my directors about this and she said she knew someone who could look at it for us... her husband! He is HVAC certified and could at least clean it for us and give us his opinion on how soon we should buy another one. Sweet.

I thought he might be able to clean our furnace, hook up our gas dryer, and run a gas line for our new gas stove all in one day. Ha ha ha. Well, I thought that since I didn't know how much work would be involved. He did clean our furnace which took quite a while because it was filthy. He had to buy some parts for our dryer hookup so he wasn't able to get to that. The stove would just have to be another day too. We were so thankful that he came over to work on our furnace. His prognosis wasn't too hopeful... That's okay, we can take care of that this fall. In exchange, we would babysit their two adorable little girls a couple of times... and give him beer. I love the barter system.

Other happenings of the day include: I finished scrubbing the master bathroom shower and scrubbed the basement shower. I also started priming the trim in the laundry room.

Nate finished taking all of the insulation out of the crawl space and helped Troy out with the furnace. After having the fireplace professionally cleaned, Nate started our first fire in the fireplace!

While shoveling snow, Nate talked to one of our neighbors he'd met when looking the place over before we bought it. He owns a carpet business and said he'd give us an estimate for the carpet we want. He beat Home Depot's price as well as two other's, so we found this to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Besides, it's nice to work with the smaller operations when possible, even though Home Depot is currently one of my favorite stores.

February 20: I Been Everywhere Man...

Saturday morning. We relaxed for a couple hours after waking up which was nice, and necessary. Long day ahead. Around 11, we took off for Dock 86. This is a wholesale furniture store, so we were intrigued. We'd never been there before. We needed a bed frame and will need a couch. We looked around and I found a beautiful bedroom set that I like. We just have our bed on the floor; so it would be really nice to have it in an actual frame. That is our lowest priority right now. We did end up finding some cool art. Nate picked something out for our bedroom and then we took off for the next destination. BTW, Dock 86 is just a division of HOM furniture..

We went to lumber liquidators to get laminate flooring for our living rooms. They had a lot to choose from and we found something for the basement right away. It is a really blonde, thick laminate and nothing else was even comparable. This was an easy decision. Except for the fact that it had the padding attached to the bottom, which wasn't what we had wanted originally - but it's a higher quality pad so it should be fine. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any laminate that we liked for the upstairs living room. It was hard to find something to match the existing oak elsewhere in the house.

Then we went to Home Depot and looked at lighting for the kitchen. As I had stated in a previous post, our flourescent light had to go. A knowledgable man at Home Depot planted the idea of putting in recess lighting in the kitchen in Nate's head and we loved the idea. It'd look sweet. We didn't buy anything, we were just gathering ideas. We did find hard wood flooring that would match our upstairs living room perfectly though!!! It was on sale so we got temporarily excited about it! Through the course of our shopping and talking to people about what we'd need to lay hardwood, we learned that you can't lay it on a particle board subfloor. We'd have to redo the subfloor in the living room, so we decided to just keep looking for laminate. We also picked out our carpet and priced that out.

Then we went to a flooring store and priced out carpet and looked at laminate. We made the executive decision to just put carpet in the upstairs living room. It would be way less stressful and would still look good.

Then we ate at Chipotle and went back to the house. We measured all the rooms in the house that would get carpeted and ran the numbers. Home Depot would be the cheapest. We'll order that tomorrow.

Then I got the privelege of scrubbing the master bathroom's shower with CLR. Nasty stuff. But it does work.

I put another coat of paint on the guest bedroom.

I can't remember what Nate did, but I'm sure it had something to do with his pride and joy, the crawl space.

Then we had a major discussion of our living rooms. Which would be the TV room and which would be a sitting room. Both are wired for in-wall speakers, but we're trying to figure out where we can get the best furniture set-up. No decisions made.

Bah, so tired. Let's go home.

February 19: Gutted

Nate gutted the master bathroom! He took out the sink, shower door, and toilet. Now it's just a clean canvas that we can do whatever we want with!

Thus, the source of my stress. Nate did clean it all up though.

I have a big project at work so I stayed there late to work on some stuff. Then, I went to the apartment and made supper and Nate came home to eat and watch the olympics. So bummed we haven't had more time to watch! I didn't even watch women's figure skating which is usually my absolute favorite sport during the winter. At least it isn't the summer olympics. I certainly couldn't miss gymnastics.

February 18: Prep work

After work, Nate drove to the house and ripped up the master bathroom floor. Under the linoleum, he found plywood, another layer of linoleum, and then more plywood. He took all of that out and then studied the subfloor. It had a weak spot so he decided to replace that area as well. We're down this far, might as well give it a good foundation. He then used our new shop vac to clean up.

When I got to the house after work, I taped off the window in the laundry room. The wood trim is sun-scarred, so we're going to clean it up and make it a pretty white!!! Then we heated up soup in our microwave.

Then we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look at comforters so we could pick a paint color for the master bedroom. We'll get a new bed, so while we're at it, we might as well get a new comforter too. I was excited. We were looking for something simple and elegant. Probably just one color... in the gray family :). We actually didn't find anything we were interested in. Everything was either the wrong color, too girly, or too young. Bummer. I so very much love to cross things off my list. It was getting a little late, so we went back to the house and grabbed our stuff and called it a night.

Nate gets off work at 3 so he can put in a decent amount of hours in at the house. I on the other hand get off more like 5 or 5:30. By the time I get to the house and we figure out what to do for supper, there isn't much time left for work before we come home and get ready for the next day.

February 17: Break

Sometimes I just need a break from the house. Right now it feels so much like a construction zone that it doesn't feel like home at all. I still refer to the apartment as home. Plus, I still have to keep up on cleaning at the apartment so it's nice to spend an evening there every once in a while. I inevitably get stressed out at the house with all of the work that needs to be done yet before we move in.

Nate stopped at the house after work and shoveled. Then he gutted the master bathroom- it needed help. It's small, which is fine, but it was dingy too. The tile in the shower was super dirty, so we'll have to see what a thorough scrub will do for it. The linoleum was ugly, the sink was scuzzy, and the toilet was beyond help - it's all ready to be ripped out. We have big plans for this bathroom.

February 16: Niches.

Nate's work is really close to the house, so everyday after work, he stops at the house to get more homework done. Nate shoveled more snow and put screws in the subfloor to get rid of some squeaky spots. We met each other at the apartment and ate a quick supper.

After dinner we went shopping. We went to Home Depot to order the tile for our master bathroom. Then, we went to Lowe's and bought a stove, insulation for the crawl space, and some light fixtures.

We have definitely given a lot of business to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menards. We have found that they all have different niches. We've been going to Home Depot whenever we need the raw materials for a do-it-yourself project. The staff know about all the areas in the house. We got all of our paint, plumbing materials, tile, fan, and will get all of our lighting stuff there. Menards has been awesome for miscellaneous tools and we will also get our sinks for the bathrooms there. Lowe's is where we've gotten most of our appliances. We did also get some appliances from Sears. It's nice to know exactly which store will have the best quality and the best deals on whatever we're looking for.

February 15: Appliances and Beds

We went shopping... again. We went to Appliance Smart in hopes of finding a really good deal on appliances. We still need an oven, fridge, and washer. We didn't find what we wanted. Bummer. Then we went to Sears and did find what we wanted, but thought we could maybe find a better price elsewhere. We held off. Mattress Giant was having a President's Day sale so we checked out the beds there. Their prices are high! We went next door to Slumberland and found exactly what we were looking for for much less, awesome. We ordered it - success for the night. We do so much price comparison and shopping around that it makes me so happy to finally purchase something knowing we got a good deal on a good product. Most places count on impulse buys or high-pressure sales tactics.

Color

I am totally amazed at how easy it is for a color to...change color. Paint will look totally different depending on the time of the day. Changing lightbulbs make colors look completely different too. This can be good or bad...

It was hard to decide if I liked a color because I would like it more or less at different times of the day. The most striking example of morphing color is in our kitchen. I tried to take a picture of it to visually explain. The railing in our living room really perked up after we painted the walls brown. The wood has a beautiful hue that really pops. Normally I'm a fan of dark wood, but this honey oak looks good. But, we have the same oak in our kitchen and the walls are a weird green and the lighting is a huge flourescent light on the ceiling. It makes the wood look totally sick and dirty. What a contrast!!! We considered refacing, but realized all we have to change is the lighting and wall color. That'll save us a lot of money. Nate's excited to change out the lighting, and I'm excited to see the difference.

This picture is me standing in the kitchen and looking out towards the living room - notice the difference in the wood color? That's the same wood and same stain!

February 13: Longest Day

Nate and I got up early in the morning to go shopping at a Menards in Eden Prairie that was going out of business. Doh, they would move all of the big ticket items to a new store before they marked everything down 40%. We should have known. Oh well, we got a bunch of random little things and a garage door!!! That was a great deal. Then we went to Home Depot and got a new fan for the living room.

We went back to the house and Mom and Dad had painted the living room brown teepee. Success!!! It looked way better. Everyone was relieved.

I worked on scraping the wallpaper in the laundry room. Nate and Dad hung the new fan and the new light fixture!!! The living room and foyer are done and look awesome. I was so excited. Nate and Dad even hung my art! Unfortunately, we used 3M command strip hooks to avoid nail holes and 20 minutes later they fell. At that point, the scaffolding was already put away. Bummer. Guess we'll do nails after all. I was so hoping to have something completed, so I was a little disappointed when the art came crashing to the ground.

Isn't it funny how paint changes in different lighting?

February 12: A pivotal day

I came home and saw the new tan color on the living room wall. I was super bummed. It was totally green. Lesson learned: pick a color from a paint chip, not a magazine. It was so different. Mom and Dad agreed, we had to do something different. We debated about what the next color should be. We could get the same tan that we were putting in two bedrooms, but that didn't work here either. I found a different paint chip and after much painful discussion and polling, we decided to go with the new color "brown teepee". I felt terrible that they had to keep painting over it, but they wanted me to be happy. I was hoping that brown teepee would be the one. I felt really bad though, because Mom is afraid of heights and to paint part of the wall, she had to be on a ladder on scaffolding to reach it. Sorry Mom!! The picture is her painting over the grayish brown.

Nate and I finished pulling up staples and then Lex and Mitch came over for supper. We had BBQ and beer. Yum.