Our Favorite Room

I wouldn't have believed it a few months ago, but the sunroom has turned out to be our favorite room in the house, or at least the one where we spend the most time. After many hours of painting, planning, talking, more talking, attempting to strip floors, and finally hiring someone to strip floors, we were in business! Painting the floors was a fun adventure, and by the time we tried our second color we were both happy (not bad, huh). The first color was fine, just a little too dark. So, we settled on a Sherwin Williams color called toasted chestnut which looks great! Below is a great before and after shot and then following are some more pictures of Martin hard at work trying to tackle the floor.

Before

After

All strapped up and ready to scrub (please don't forget to notice the knee pads) You can also see layers and layers of linoleum, carpet pad, glue, etc. It was a mess!

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.