All Things Big....

So after a few days of rain and nothing major to show for the work going on at the house, today was a fun day of BIG things!!! The rain has slowed the progress down (or so that is what they tell me, although I am not really sure why, since everything is inside)! Today they started a big chunk of the painting, and said it will all be finished on Saturday / Sunday!! The painting already looks great, and fresh! The house now looks completely different, and a huge (BIG) update, with the new stairwell spindles in!! They look wonderful, and honestly, it is a world of difference! They were making sure they were all secured in this afternoon as well as painting all the interior doors in the house! Below you will see a few pictures of the BIG updates .. if the contractor was nearly correct, we may even be done a week early with the project ... I guess I better get to packing, fingers crossed his prediction comes true!! In other BIG news, Maggie became a BIG sister today!!!! Sweet Grace Tate Robinson was born today, and I could not be happier for her parents Julie and Arnie, and BIG sister Maggie!! I love the sweet baby girl so much already! I can hardly wait to see her and Maggie in person next week! From the looks of the pictures I have seen so far, she is quite the cutie, but I would expect nothing less based on her adorable sister! I miss them all, and it seems like so long since we have seen any of them... last time we saw them we were told the BIG news that Julie was pregnant, and now she is here! Welcome to the world, sweet Grace Tate, we can't wait to watch you grow BIG!!

Here are ALL the interior doors in the house, they are all somehow leaning just right supporting each other without touching each other too much, and they took the spray gun and went to town on them!

the new fabulous stairwell spindles... the top pieces of wood are the originals and will be stained to match the floors, when the floors get stained!

The moulding (now painted, and column looked so fabulous in person, that I thought a picture was a good idea, but it really didn't do it justice!

Day 14 ..... BEAR DOWNNNNN!!!!

I think I have come up with my new motto I will use when the workers find themselves slowing down and spending more time outside than smoking, I am just going to walk up and yell "BEAR DOWNNNN!!!" Clearly that will get the job done ..... ummm you know, like Arizona just got the job done against Duke!! WOHOOOOOO!!! Revenge is so sweet this go round ... we're going all the way... mark my word -- See you in a few games KU!! I dreamed of that game coming to reality (as a championship game) for many years when I was in college -- finally that wish is coming true!!! Wilma and Wilbur are going to be there cheering all the way to the title win!!!

On to business.... today was another eventful day at the house. I spent oh about an entire hour going through about 20 colors deciding which ones we would use, and which would go where, etc etc etc .... the only objection of color Evan came up with was the color of our closet, but he easily decided the one we chose will work just fine!! :) I'd say a discrepancy in closet color, is an easy one! :)

They have now "labeled" each of the walls with the color code and/or color name on each wall, so they know which goes where. I also (obivously) went through the house with my notes, and made sure each and every wall was labeled correctly!

In addition to the paint, today the elctricians were there to put can lights in throughout the living rooms and kitchen, removed the lovely green and white fan in the kitchen, and put the trim up around the new openings, and put our "fake" columns up in the breakfast room to seperate the breakfast area from the living room.... pictures below!!

They tiled the upstairs bathroom, and grouted the laundry room, and tell me the painters will be there over the weekend -- oh my, I love this progress!!! Next is the cabinets, then staining of cabinets, etc, and then last but surely not least, staining of the floors!! I can hardly wait for it all to be done, I can slowly see the progress turning from this house we bought to OUR HOME!!! :)

This picture is just classic ... a few days ago we got a nasty note from the postman saying do not park in front of our mailbox.... I guess this is what we get for laying the law down -- instead they created a full on parking lot in the smack middle of the cul-de-sac and parked in front of the neighbor's mailbox instead... OOPS .... i bet the neighbors are pretty excited to see the house done as well! :)

here is our newly grouted and tiled mudroom / laundry room...

this is our finished off opening ... ready for mr painter!

and here is our new "fake" column - there is also one opposite it. What you can't tell, or maybe can is it is sort of a flat "fake" column made out of basically moulding, the white line parallel to it to the right of the column will be painted over - that used to be the "dividing line" This will look amazing ones the painters do their magic!!!

And the countdown is ONNNN.....

Well the countdown has begun!!! Today they laid tile in the house.... They taped off the room so i couldn't get a picture, but it looks great so far!! The laundry / mud room is done and the upstairs guest bath will be done in the morning!! Tomorrow i meet with the "decorator" who is just the contractors wife who is a designer as well who will help me pick paint colors for every room in the house!! Ahhhhh!!! No pressure or anything!! :). Its all getting pretty exciting as now things slowly start to come together. The kitchen light fixture will be in on Friday amd that will be another fun thing to add to the mix!! Today evan and i were over at the house this evening and the words "we might even be done early" were uttered...... Lets not get our hopes up, but i get married in right at 2 months (from yesterday, if anyone is counting!!!!) and i would reallllyyyyyy like plenty of time to move into my fabulous, exciting house well before it's time for the wedding!! My soon to be father in law..... Blog shout out to Dick.... Had an idea this evening that i might just use...... He said to remind the workers about the necessity of speed to mount a clountdown clock in a prominent spot so they remember the crunch is on..... Although lets be honest, to mount a large countdown clock on the wall i would need to borrow the electrician to help me set it up, and that would take away from his work..... Maybe i will stick to marker, construction paper, and tape for now........ 37 DAYS until the promised completion day of the house, and ..... 58 days until im Mrs Robinson!!!! Let's Go!!!!

Day 12, forward motion steps!!

Finally the day has come, where I can say we are making progress!! No more tearing out, now we are putting new things in!! I must say it was a little uneasy yesterday when there was noone at the house any of the 3 times I went by to check on things. Today they made up for that lack of work yesterday! ALL of the hardwood floors have been laid and they look fabulous!!! I am told that next they will stain them, but we will see, I thought they were to put the cabinets in before stain, but who knows, it is all a suprise at this rate, because it took 11 days to remove the flooring, and under an entire day to lay all of the new flooring - go figure!! Ill take the suprise!! They also put sheetrock back on the widened opening where they did some electrical work behind it! More update tomorrow, fingers crossed for more forward motion!! :)

I have no idea what they already put all over the newly laid floors, but you better bet ill be keeping a close eye on this situation!! :)

love me some newly laid and NAILED, not GLUED, fresh wood floors!!! :)

The sheetrock to soon finish the newly cut opening, and the new beautifully laid flooring!!! And the wood has not been stained yet, so that will be coming soon, currently they are just plain raw wood!

Spring has Sprung!

Yesterday was one of those absolutely gorgeous days outside that you so badly wished you lived on a beach, or are itching to do something outside, because it is 80 degrees outside and not a cloud in sight!! That got me to thinking, maybe we should spend some time in our yard and appreciate having a house (since we can't live there yet) and plant some flowers since there is no time like the moment, as it seems to have finally stopped going through cold snaps in Atlanta. Off to Home Depot we went, and made big plans for today (Sunday)! Well of course, wouldnt you know it, it was 65 and overcast with no sight of sunshine today. There was no rain though, so we got to working. Below are some before and after pictures. Nothing major, just adding some color to the front yard, and a few planters scattered around outside with some pansies in them!! The pansies at the store were so pretty, I couldn't resist.... Plus what kind of Tri-Delt would I be if I passed up a great opportunity to plany pretty pansies in hanging baskets on the front of my house!! :) Before I leave you with some pictures of our before and after flower planting day, i have one more thing to say..... BEAR DOWN WILDCATS!!!!!!!

Backyard before.....

Backyard After.....

Baskets before.....

Baskets After.....

So maybe this is why they say remodeling can be frustrating....

Well, as you can tell, it has been a few days since I did a house update, please don't be fooled, it is not because I have become a "lazy" blogger again, the lack of posting is becauuuuuuuuuuuuuseeee.... our wonderful, promising us a May 1st deadline, stressing Amy out, says he will call back within the hour and never calls back, at least he has a fun southern accent contractor (and his team) have given us a whole lot of nothing to document.
I am not saying they did NOTHING all week, but they surely didn't make it very exciting to see the progress!
All of the flooring, ever last 1 x 1 inch chopped up square has been removed, and we have a MESS of a sub floor. The dumpster is now completely full, on the verge of overflowing (I bet out friend the realtor, who lives down the street and is having an open house at the house 2 doors down wishes it was already gone, as she tries to sell the house two doors down). Besides 2 lovely (disgusting) fans and a few brass light fixtures, everything that will be removed has been removed. One fan which is grease covered, because apparently it was a good idea to put a ceiling fan in a kitchen (what???)!!
We have our fun new light fixtures ordered, and they will be so fabulous when they arrive. Besides finishing the removal of flooring, the electrician seemed to have been there on Friday (or so Evan tells me, but maybe he is just trying to keep me calm) to finish up some behind the walls wiring, so they can (hopefully soon) move forward with finishing up the entry ways in the dining room, and formal living room / informal living room.

Like a camper, I will play "Highs and Lows" of the week at the house......

Highs: all the flooring is up, and well that's all I got, oh the lights are ordered, but I did that, so really that doesn't count!!

Lows: I had a mild breakdown (it may or may not have been major at the time) when I found "samples" of what I believe was going to be the flooring they thought they were going to be installing in my newly renovated house....... let's just say it probably would have taken 34 months to lay, and each slat was less than 2 inches wide, ummmmmm NO, we ripped up flooring that was wider than that, and we felt IT was on the narrow side!! Contractor came up with some great story like those were to go under the casing, but isn't that odd, I see no sign of casing anywhere on property, and they surely are in no hurry to put it up. Anywayyyyy, at least I caught that one before it was too late!!

Now i sorta want to go to camp.......

Let's hope for a more productive house week next week!!

We may get a new niece next week (I already consider her my niece, although she won't officially be until May), depending on when she decides to make her big debut into this world that is so excited to meet her!!! You just never know what this week may hold, Potato may be done baking and ready to come out and play!

I know it will be a better week, and a productive WEDDING week for sure..... dress has FINALLY arrived in Atlanta, and I will be picking it up and taking it to the dressmaker / alterations lady for some "work". We will leave it at that, as to not ruin any surprises!! :)

Day 3 ... and the walls have been chopped

Ok, so the walls weren't chopped, but they were cut to make larger openings. They look fabulous - they took the openings into the dining room and living room up to match the height of the new opening between the living room and formal living room, and it already looks so different!! It will be wonderful when it is all done! They clearly are having a horrible time with the flooring, they are having to cut it into tiny pieces upon removal ..... hopefully this doesn't slow them down!! We were happy to find workers there until almost 8pm tonight.... hopefully they keep up the pace! Sorry for the dark pictures .... it was dark outside by the time we got in there, and there was no electricity on in half of the house..... we are hoping that was on purpose!!!

The new opening between the formal and informal living room

They are having to chop the floor into tiny pieces to take it up, I took a pictures so you could see what I was talking about....





The dumpster is now almost completely full.... I guess its time to bring in the new things! :)

Day 2.... Kitchen gone bye bye...

Happy Friday!! Today, was the 2nd day of work on the house, and filled with more demolition. Very little progress was made on the flooring, it seems it is taking quite some time and labor to remove the old flooring. The kitchen is now completely gone, and it already looks completely different! Luckily, it is becoming hard to remember what the old green counter tops looked like :)



Here are a few pictures from today's progress.....

The cleared out kitchen

the progress/ lack of progress on remvoing the flooring

Day 1 ... Demolition Day!

Well ... let the games begin!!

This morning we met with the contractor and finalized some details for the project on the house. The next thing we knew, two hours later, there was a dumpster in our drive way, and rolls of carpet being thrown out the upstairs window. Here are a few pictures of the demolition from Day 1!!

the half way cleared out kitchen...

the half way filled dumpster after only one day....

Home Sweet Home....

We have a house!!!! After much searching, looking at houses, stressing about offers, putting an offer on one house, then realizing another house was perfect for us, we have found the house of our dreams in the most amazing neighborhood!!! We have some work to do on the house, so let the time clock begin........ Just over three months to the wedding, and a house to remodel!!! Ready, Set, Go!!! I will post pictures along the way, but here is a picture of the front of the house to hold your attention!! :) We couldn't have found a better neighborhood, filled with many young couples, and so very many young kids. The house is fully fenced, and we have one of the best lots in the neighborhood!!