House Update

Since last Saturday, we've been working hard at our new house getting it ready to move in. My mom came down to help for a few days and my father-in-law helped one night, too. We wouldn't be this far along without them!

First, we took down all of the hardware. Blinds, screws, nails in the walls, doors, doorknobs, etc. That took awhile in itself! Then, we went around the entire house filling all of the holes in the walls and baseboards. After all of this, we decided that we should focus on half of the house. So, we're getting the entire hallway, bedrooms, and master bathroom ready to move in. The front bathroom is really green and we're not doing anything to it quite yet. Hopefully, a remodel there will come before too too long, but we'll see. Everything costs money, so we'll really watch our finances!! We caulked cracks in between boards, pulled out all of the carpet in the hallway and bedrooms, sanded all of the wood, looked again for any holes, cracks, etc. that we might have missed and refilled them. Mom took up all of the tack boards in the hallway from the carpet, because we'll go back with something else, there. The parents also started busting out the the planter box! I'm glad to see it going away! Monday night, we all stayed until 2 a.m. trying to get ready to paint on Tuesday. After numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot, we started and finished painting all of the ceilings! Yay! It took a lot longer than we thought and my mother-in-law brought us some big, bright lights so we could work in low light. It feels so good to have that finished!

Wednesday, Travis & I actually had to work on work stuff, so mom left in the morning and we really haven't done anything on the house since then. I did meet with the carpet guys so they could measure the bedrooms. We have to go pick out carpet when Travis gets back home from Weslaco (he's gone today and tomorrow). Then, all we have to do is call our carpet guys 2 days before we want it installed and they'll come do it! At least the carpet instillation may go smoothly and quickly! However, before the instillation actually happens, we have to finish painting.

Saturday, my in-laws have offered to take Elizabeth for the day so that Travis & I can work in the house. Our plan is to first paint all of the baseboards and trim and then paint the walls. Cross your fingers that we don't run into too many glitches!

Here are a few pictures from the work being done.

Elizabeth is helping Daddy take down the last of the hardware. She was super cute and was even playing with a screw driver for a few minutes!

For a change of pace, we went outside and took down the wrought iron panels flanking the entrance. Here's the before and after.

Too bad you can now see the really, really ugly puky brown color that someone painted. This will all be redone once we get some more finished on the inside of the house.

Here's Travis working on taking out the carpet in the guest bedroom. I know it may not look like it since I'm always behind the camera, but I have done tons of work in this house!

Sunday, Travis and James trimmed all of the trees in the front yard and then the ones close to the house in the side and back yards. These trees have never been pruned and they had some serious structure problems, so we did what we could to save them in the long run.

Here they are right before the work started.

They cut down two ugly bushes that flanked the driveway. You can now see the road in both directions before you turn!

They loaded up all of the branches onto a trailer and pulled them off in the back yard where the garden will eventually go. Once it rains enough, we'll be able to burn the pile and the ashes will help the garden. If it ever rains, that is!!

Of course, Elizabeth has been an adorable distraction from all of the work being done. Mom bought her a "new house" toy that she can play with when we're working there. It's a little car that flips up and turns into a toy she can push around and walk behind. I don't know about you, but I think we have a little drama-queen on our hands!

So, as you've read, we've done a lot at the house, already, but we still have a very long way to go before it's finished. Our goal now is to get the half of the house we're working on now ready to move into by the end of March. I'm pretty sure we'll make it!