Sunroom Update

The sunroom has turned out to be quite the undertaking! In the past 2 months, we've primed and painted the walls, torn down beams and 1970's ceiling tiles, and had drywall installed over the ceiling. We decided to go with the white dove paint color on the walls, which is the same color as all of our trim. Then, we can add in color with rugs, furniture, etc. Also, we had a contractor visit us to give us an estimate on the drywall job, and he told us that the beams could easily be taken down. We decided they didn't really add anything to the room, so Martin worked hard to tear them down. We were left with a room that appeared much larger and cleaner! I don't have a picture of the finished paint job, but that will come as soon as we're done with the last coat of trim paint. We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Goodbye dark brown!

Martin tearing down beams (notice the old ceiling tiles)

The ceiling after all tiles and beams have been removed

The ceiling post drywall; notice the white walls too!

Another post drywall picture

Bye-Bye Popcorn, Hello Sunroom

For months, we have debated on the following question, "What are we going to do with the sunroom?" Well, we finally came to a decision that we are both excited about. Our plan for the sunroom is for that to be our "cozy den" with the tv, a game table, etc. Looking forward into the future it will most likely be the "toy room" as we have been told by many others. The main living room that you walk into as you first come into the house will be a nicer, slightly more formal, living room.

Because of the decision to turn the sunroom into our den, the timeline for completing that has been escalated. Our first job in the sunroom is to take down the popcorn ceiling, along with putting up drywall over the retro, 1970's drop-down ceiling tile. As I sit here and type, Martin is working away at scraping the ceiling. All it takes is some water and a little manpower used to scrape. Thankfully it has been coming off pretty easily!

We're Finally Upstairs!

Now that the focus is away from the pool, we have been back in action working on the house. Since I've last posted, a lot has been completed! Martin, along with some assistance from Dad and Chuck (Gloria's husband), worked away at pulling out the old fluorescent light in the kitchen and replaced them with recessed can lights. They look wonderful and seem to make the kitchen appear larger. I'm so thankful for the many things that Martin can do!!

Perhaps the most exciting news in all of our house projects is that we are FINALLY living upstairs!! Kristen and Trey graciously volunteered to help us move from the basement on a Saturday morning and into the afternoon. The day was a success.... we moved upstairs and we all got in a little swimming time as well. Thomas was particularly helpful as Martin put the legs back onto the dining room table. :) Some good nephew/uncle quality time for sure!

A Beautiful, Blue Pool... Almost

The pool weekend was a huge success! Martin and I were lucky to have so much family there to help us as there would be no way any of this would have happened without them!

Mom and Dad got into town on Friday night, and Saturday morning started bright and early at 6 AM when Martin and Dad headed out to start the sump pump. Somebody was looking out for all of us on Saturday because the weather was just perfect; cool and a little cloudy for most of the day. As the water level started to go down, we all worked on some pressure washing around the pool and then eventually moved into the pool. I quickly discovered a love for pressure washing because of the instant results you see... very rewarding! If you've never tried it, I recommend it.

Kristen, Trey, Thomas, Joy, Brian, Jack, and Olivia arrived later in the morning ready to help! Trey and Kristen got started with some more pressure washing (see the action shots below) and Brian supplied another, and better, pressure washer which we couldn't have done without. Martin worked on patching up a few cracks with hydraulic cement as the pool drained, and we even discovered our pool had a working light.

I have to mention the turtles because they were really a big part of the day. Towards the end of May, Martin noticed two turtles living in our pool which have remained there for several months. We have no idea how they arrived, but we knew they had a great home in the cement pond. "Turtle patrol" became a job on Saturday that was rotated between several people; this consisted of standing ready with net in hand to scoop up the turtles as they came up to get air. In the past, when I think of turtles, I think... slow. These guys taught us all differently. They would come up for air and dive back down quickly which made it for difficult for us to catch. As it turned out, we had to wait until the water level was down to about 1 foot before Trey rescued both turtles. Go Trey! We released them into the creek in our backyard.

After the pool was completely drained which took about 6 hours, we quickly got to work doing some more major pressure washing to turn the pool from green to white, or almost white. It was a fun job but quite tricky to wash the sides of the pool in the deep end. I wish I had a picture of the team effort put forth as Martin held me up on the side of the pool and vice versa while I washed.

Martin and Brian, along with the help of Brian's ASP friends reached via phone, worked on the pool light to make sure this was not a source of a leak. They also discovered the drain was not plugged and worked great! At around 5:30 or 6:00, we all decided it was about time to stop, although I could have continued pressure washing for hours. It was time for our Barley's Pizza dinner. We all worked hard to get the pool as clean as possible, and it really is amazing to see the improvements. The very last picture is Martin turinng on the water to fill up the pool... a moment we had to capture on camera.

Thank you again to everyone who came!!! We can't wait to have everyone back for a real swim!

The Cement Pond... Turtles and All

Martin and I are really excited about the upcoming weekend as a lot of our family is coming to help fix up the pool in our backyard. For those of you who don't know, here's a little background information on the pool. Martin and I were thrilled to uncover the pool in early May and were anxious to get quotes from pool companies to come in and get the pool ready. We were certain it would be a minor expense and that we would soon be floating in a beautiful, blue pool. Oh but we were wrong. Unfortunately, we were quoted prices equivalent to buying a brand new mid-size vehicle, so we were slightly frustrated. Luckily, Brian was a silent partner in ASP and therefore had a connection/friend still involved with the pool company. Tom, Brian's friend, literally made our week when we received an email from him explaining how to turn our green, cement pond into our beautiful pool in just a few, and a few inexpensive at that, steps. So, off we go this weekend to venture into the pool repair business, or at least try. While trying to repair our pool, we will also be trying to save 2 turtles' lives. Dad's bringing his waiders.... I promise to take pictures of this. Here are a few "before" pictures.

Stained

The floors are done!! We decided on the Provincial stain and are really happy with the decision. The floors are much darker but still show the grain of the wood as Martin really wanted. Don Turner flooring did a great job making the transition from the old floors to the new floors in the kitchen seamless. Here are a few pictures.

A Busy Week/Month Here

Wow! In looking back since I have written last, I realize we have accomplished a lot, particulary in the last week.

We finally chose a faucet for the kitchen, and decided on an aged bronze Delta fixture. This will match the knobs on our cabinets. Martin did a wonderful job hooking up the plumbing for the faucet; I'm extremely impressed with his plumbing skills.


Also, we decided on a paint color (Benjamin Moore's Cromwell Gray) for the bathroom cabinet and have been working hard on painting that ourselves. It turned out great and goes really well with the granite we picked out called Napoli. For the longest time we were under the impression it was Santa Cecelia, but we soon found our granite sample we planned everything around was actually Napoli. Good thing we checked, huh! Santa Cecelia has a little more gold tone in it, where Napoli has a little more of a cream background.

Finally, the moment we've been anticipating... the floors! This means that it can't be TOO long until we move upstairs! We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the floor men were coming to work on Memorial Day, which was perfect because we were both home together and able to see the stain options together. Mr. Don, the floor guy, called us upstairs and put down three different stains: Provincial, Walnut, and a lightened Provincial. I have to admit.... it was slightly stressful making this decision as there were 4 men staring at Martin and I as we made our decision. I was more inclined to go with a darker floor where as Martin wanted lighter, so we met in the middle and decided on Provincial. I think we'll be very happy with it! The floor men gave us some good advice.... the darker the stain, the smaller the room will look. We have a few small bedrooms in the back so we wouldn't want anything too dark in there. Also, darker stains show scratches (not that Millie and Barley would EVER scratch our floor).

Before & After the floors were sanded (no stain yet)

The Kitchen is Progressing....

Martin worked hard last week to remove the old countertops from our kitchen upstairs. Surprisingly, the countertops came off easily, yet the difficult part was pulling out the dishwasher.

On Friday, our new countertops were installed. We decided on Ubatuba granite and are really happy with our choice! We spent a good amount of time at Lowe's last night staring at sink fixtures. You would think this would be an easy decision but if you do, you've never seen the selection they have at Lowe's! So, that's our next job along with choosing a countertop for the bathroom.

Kitchen, Bathroom, and Yard Update ...

Finally, an update! After numerous paint samples on the kitchen wall ranging from mint green to yellow, we decided on a pretty green color called "Cooking Apple Green." It's a paint color by Farrow and Ball, but we were able to go to Sherwin Williams and get the paint matched. A small money saver here... :) Martin's parents came up a few weekends ago for yet another work weekend. Needless to say we're very lucky and extremely grateful for their help! In the course of this weekend we were able to get the entire kitchen painted, trim and all!! Above is a before and after picture.

Not only did we get the kitchen painted, but we got the bathroom started. Martin, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Martin worked really hard to get the wallpaper off and the walls sanded so we could then proceed to paint. Miss Janet put the first coat on like a pro, and Martin and I finished the second coat later in the week. We decided on a color called "Quiet Moments" by Benjamin Moore. It's a very soothing and calm blue color, just one shade darker than our bedroom color. As you can see here, we're still working on that trim. :)

Picture of our bedroom

We also had the cabinets painted by our lovely painter, Fransisco and crew. I have never witnessed or heard cabinets being painted until now, but it is quite a process. It took about 3 days to remove all of the cabinets and then spray 2 coats of paint on the cabinets. The wait was well worth it because they look great!

Mr. Simpson, Martin's granddad, came with a helper, John, to tackle our wild yard. Martin insisted on doing it all himself, but his mom finally convinced him to let someone help get it started. Thank you, Miss Janet! John did a fabulous job trimming the hedges, clearing out all of the wisteria, and most of all cleaning up the magnolia tree in our front yard. We still have work to do, but it does look like a new yard!

Last, I'll also have to update you on our pool. Martin decided last weekend that we needed to take the cover off so the rain we were about to get would help fill the pool. (The pool is full, but the water level is down about 10 inches or so.) Now this was a process as well because there was a good bit of water on the pool cover. Thanks to dad, Martin learned the trick of creating suction with a hose to remove water from the pool cover. We were both slightly doubtful, but it worked! Thanks, Dad! Slowly, but surely, we were able to remove the pool cover only to find a giant pool filled with leaves and what looked to be a darkened version of Mountain Dew. Martin began worrying very quickly that we would not be able to use the pool, so I called our own pool guy, Brian. He assured us that it was not completely abnormal for a pool to be green when you first took the pool cover off. Now all was well!

We are having quite a time fixing up this old house. Next comes our kitchen and bathroom counter tops. We are going this morning to pick out our slab of Uba Tuba granite, which will go in the kitchen, and look at remnants to use in our bathroom. Hopefully these will be installed this week.

Saturday, January 15... Work Weekend Continues

We couldn't believe it, but we were moving into our "grown up house" today. Martin and I awoke bright and early that morning along with Mom and Dad who stayed with us. After enjoying a delicious breakfast of homeade orange rolls, we put it into high gear! Dad and Martin went to pick up the U-Haul. I am quite certain Dad couldn't sleep last night just thinking about driving the "biiiiiiiggggg truck" as Jack would say. Mom and I worked on some last minute packing in the kitchen.

At around 8:30 that morning, I took the first load to the new house. I'll never forget having a minor breakdown on the way to the Baker House as I thought about leaving our first home that we had together. Well, I supposed this could have also stemmed from the lack of sleep and being a bit emotional from the stress of moving. Needless to say, the morning continued with more packing, loading, and, oh yes, even some painting. Martin's Aunt Emily stayed at the Baker House putting a second coat on the hallway and a first coat on our guest bedroom. Miss Janet was painting with Emily but later came down to help me get the kitchen all organize.d We were also lucky to have Jim come to help Martin, Dad, and Mr. Martin load and unload the U-Haul. He was a good sport that day, especially after Dad called him "Phillip" for the whole first part of the day. :)

Kristen and Thomas also showed up on Saturday to help. Thomas did a great job entertaining everyone (as always) and Kristen was able to help with transporting some clothing. You'll notice in the picture some pretty tulips; Kristen brought these along with some Valentine heart. (I'm hoping I won't find any missing clothing... Kristen has a history of "borrowing" clothes but not returning them for 3 years.) :)

Martin's Grandma cooked us all a delicious lunch of bean soup and cornbread that revived us all and made it possible to keep going. At about 3:30, the best part of the move occurred... loading our attic. Oh my.... we had a 2 strikes going against us here. The first was that every item in the attic was covered in black dust which came from the lovely men who put a new roof on our house. The second was that every, and I mean every, piece of furniture, every book, every dish, every piece of fabric, etc. that we didn't know what to do with ended up in the attic. Unfortunately I don't mean neatly packed away. Martin called it "a clown car." Miss Janet and Ashley came back from the attic adventure and swore not to talk about it. It was pretty bad, but the lesson learned is to try and keep your attic organized and black dust free. We'll see how that goes.

Later that evening, we all enjoyed Miss Janet's famous lasagne in our new home (the basement). It was actually quite cozy down there and reminded me of family gatherings at Grandma and Pap's old house. Exhausted, Miss Janet, Mr. Martin, Emily, and Mr. and Mrs. Simposon went home. Mom and Dad spent the night here with us in the hostel downstairs... basically we had a slumber party. :)

It was the first day in our new home, and we already had great memories.

Work Weekend 2011 - January 14 - Painting

We had an exciting work weekend planned for all, and it got even more exciting when we found out we were moving. The weekend turned into a moving/painting weekend versus the original plan to just paint. My parents decided to join in on the fun too! You'll be amazed at the progress we made this weekend... I think we need more "family fun" weekends like this (thought I'm not sure our parents would agree). :)


Martin's Mom and Aunt Emily came to Greenville on Thursday night, and they were over to the house on Friday morning to start painting. I met the intial, lovely carpet man from Dirtbusters at 9:30 that morning who insisted that he just couldn't clean our carpets because we didn't have the correct water connection and b/c he wasn't going to take any chances on that ice in the driveway. Needless to say, I was not happy. I frantically called Martin who saved the day by calling Stanley Steamer, who by the way agreed to come as soon as possible AND had no issue with any ice or water connection. Enough said. Lupe and Geraldo came during the day to clean downstairs. They did an amazing job... downstairs no longer smelled of stale air and dirty carpet, but now clean and fresh and ready for us to live there (almost). Really, we were very thankful for Lupe and Geraldo's help.

I headed back to work, leaving Martin's mom and Aunt Emily painting away and overseeing the cleaning. I came back to the house around 3, only to find the back bedroom wall completely painted and the hallway being given a fresh coat of Carrington Beige. It's a very neutral, khaki color that we are using in the hallway and 2 guest bedrooms. Very pretty! Back to the painting, I was very impressed. Emily's rolling skills are pretty amazing! Also, Miss Janet had been hard at work breaking up the ice on the driveway and walkway in the midst of her painting. Talk about a tough job! Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were also there working way. I ended up joining in on the painting fun by working on the molding in the living room.

Early evening, Mom and Dad showed up to help! We were so excited to have everyone there. Mom stepped up to the plate and whipped up a yummy dinner of shredded beef for us all, but not before she helped finish priming the pickled wood in the dining room. Dad finished off the job while Mom and I ran to the grocery store for some last minute things.

Finally, we all sat down (on the floor of course) to enjoy dinner and some delicious Clementine Martinis. Martin's Aunt Emily made these homemade, and they are oh so good! Even Mom and Dad enjoyed a Clementine Martini. Eventually, Martin's family headed back to his grandparents, and Mom and Dad headed back to our house. We all had a big day to get ready for!

I remember feeling that night kind of like I did at our rehearsal dinner - very thankful for the people we have in our lives that we love so much.

Work Weekend 2011 (January 14 - 17) - Preparation

Katie worked hard to prepare for the work weekend (which also turned into moving weekend). She thoroughly cleaned the cabinets downstairs in preparation for us to move-in to the house.

Katie also lined the cabinets, and the snow made it a challenge to obtain lining, so we had to make a few different trips and stock up each time.