Work In Progress Wednesday

I'm not even sure where I'm at with this it's been so long since I've updated the home renovation progress. We got the driveway done and we did a little bit of winterizing on the outside and got a new furnace and AC... which means we've now replace every major appliance in this house since we've moved in. So now we're starting to work on the inside. Mark really wants to get the family room painted before baby comes but it's proving to be a bigger project than expected... of course, lol. We also need to replace the front door and get that painted before it gets too cold to do that. I haven't been able to help much with anything as this is my biggest pregnancy and I'm already pretty uncomfortable. I wish I could do more :(. It now looks like we'll be pushing all the painting to the spring... this is the one thing I'm really looking forward to so that the house will feel like it's ours and not someone elses. We're also totally amazed at the air quality with the new furnace... we think there must have been a slight carbon monoxide leak as I was always feeling tired and headachey, but it wasn't enough to trigger the alarms. But since we've replaced it, I haven't had any headaches other than tension headaches and I'm still tired but that's because I'm very pregnant and the bloodwork shows I have low iron. But, other than that, you really can tell the difference in air quality now, not just the headaches and tiredness but it just seems easier to breathe. YAY!

And I'll leave you with a pic of my sweet little boy who just turned 2 at the beginning of the month and we celebrated with family this past weekend.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, last week was a bit busy for me prepping for the worship and prayer concert at our church so I didn't get to update all the stuff we're getting done on the house. So, here we go!

First, Labor Day weekend was a really nice sale on Behr paint at Home Depot so after spending the weekend playing with the samples we got and then going back for more samples, we finally decided on a color for the family room, kitchen/dining room, living room and hallway. It was really hard to decide because well we don't really have any furniture to base our color choice off of. With the open floor plan we thought it was best to pick just one color and we can't wait to cover up the nasty burnt orange, mustard yellow and hunter green from the previous homeowner! Here is the color we picked... I'm soooo excited about it.
and we are sooooo close to having the driveway finished... Mark had sealed the driveway but it still has some cracks in it so we're going to have someone come out and do another coat just because it wasn't as easy has Mark thought to only have it 1/4" thick to prevent the cracking and he was afraid all his hard work would be destroyed by the winter weather if we didn't get it done before it got too cold. Here are some pics of Mark working hard to finish up the driveway!

Before:
and in progress

and while Mark was doing the driveway Moriah sat in the garage painting her table she made at the Kids workshop at Home Depot
and a phone picture of Isaac making his football stand from earlier that morning, we even brought his football along with us
and then came Labor Day and Mark ended up Laboring more than he had planned... which I guess is the case with plumbing... our bathroom faucet always struggled to drain since we moved in and we had changed the faucet but never installed the new drain that went with the faucet so thinking it would just be a matter of cleaning out the trap ended up being much more... we had to put in the new drain and of course that never goes as planned either because Mark had to go to the hardware store twice to get a few extra things to make it all fit back together...

Wanna see the old nasty drain?
no wonder it took so long for water to drain from the sink, EWWWWWWW!

Not sure I'll have much to report next week since we have another busy weekend ahead of us, but maybe I'll find something new to report :)

Happy Hump Day!

Work In Progress Wednesday

Weeeeeee! We got so much done over the weekend! Mark's Sister, Brother-in-law and nieces came for the day on Saturday and we accomplished soooo much! They arrived at 7AM and got right to work making breakfast. After a yummy breakfast the guys went outside and got to work. I had to take a quick before photo before missing it. I think I was still in my pjs, lol.
and then they got right to work getting all the screws out... hmmm, this is going to take a very long time! We had wanted to salvage the boards to make the steps out of, but there were a MILLION screws and they weren't exactly coming out very easily. So, start thinking Tim Allen grunt and power tools... they brought out the saws and it probably was a good idea they did.

they look totally amused, don't they? tee hee... OK, at least one of them is.

ah! That's better!

ummm.... I'm not quite sure how this deck was still standing! No wonder it had a great bounce to it and no wonder it had so many screws in it... I'm pretty sure the screws were the only thing keeping the deck from falling apart, lol
after lunch came the job of taking out the posts, which is another funny, roll your eyes story.
and here is our after photo... we are hoping to put in the tile patio next spring and are looking forward to starting to work on the inside of the house again.
The deck wasn't the only thing taken care of this weekend. I took advantage of the babysitters and cleaned up the family room moving some of the furniture into the office and clearing up everything on the floor. After the guys were done with the deck they brought my craft table (old dining room table) out of the garage and set it up, which means I can pull out my sewing machine and start working on some other projects again. They also brought our bed frame which is still in the box from IKEA and laid it flat on the floor... we're a little worried it might be a little warped so hopefully this will straighten it out before I'm ready to paint it and get it set up. I'm so excited that the kids can go down to the family room and it be safe. Although, we haven't moved any of the furniture or TV down there so we're still using the living room as our family room. Mark's Sister also did some weeding in our front yard which we totally needed and she helped out a bit with the deck too. I'm so thankful for all the hard work they did.

For dinner we decided to treat everyone to one of our favorite Chicago joints! It was totally a hit with them and they were excited to find out there is one only about an hour away from them. We LOVE Portillos and were so excited to treat them to something that totally is all "Chicago". Afterwards Riah and Mark went over to their hotel and had fun playing in the kiddie pool. Riah was exhausted to say the least after such a fun filled day with her cousins.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, I don't have much to report... on the nights that aren't too hot Mark will finish filling some of the cracks and he's looking forward to Labor day weekend to seal it. It's really starting to look nice and I'm so proud of him and all his hard work. I know it will be years before it's nice and smooth but it's a definitely improvement.

This weekend we are so excited to have family come visit. My parents are coming to visit with long-time friends and Mark's sister and family are coming to visit and also to help Mark tear out the deck. We're so excited to get this deck out and get the repairs on the house done that are needed from the damage the improperly installed deck did. We decided not to finish the patio because now that summer is almost over and the weather is getting more tolerable we're going to start working again on the inside of the house. We really want to be able to open up the family room again and get some painting done before the baby arrives.

Now we're off to take our daily walk/stroller ride and enjoy this beautiful cool weather. I can't wait to show you all the progress next week!

just because they're so cute

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, we've been enjoying some vacation although Mark's been spending as much time as he can fixing up the driveway. It hadn't been sealed in several years and it's in really bad shape but to re-do the driveway cost a crazy amount of money so another DIY project for us. First Mark borrowed a pressure washer and washed the driveway. WOW, that was crazy and here's a pic of how messy Mark got, lol.
and then he's been pulling out all the loose asphalt and filling our driveway back in. It's been quite a project and now we see why it's so expensive to do a driveway. He hopes to finish filling it all in by the end of the weekend because you can't seal the driveway for a month and then he's hoping to seal it over Labor Day weekend. I'll get some updated photos for you next week hopefully, but here's a little pic of what needed to go into it... it's a much bigger project than we though it was going to be because we wanted to do it right so we don't have to do it again in a few years. That seems to be how all the projects around here go, lol. We still haven't painted this place and the colors are really really starting to get to me, lol. I can't wait for this fall when the weather is cooler and we can get to painting again.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, there isn't much to report after our exciting news of a little miracle. Mark did start to work on getting out the bushes in the front yard which proved to be much more difficult than expected. I wish we could have just left them there but since they were destroying the house and also the landscaping comes up too high we have to get rid of them. It looks like we'll have to take out everything and just leave the tree and plant some grass after we get rid of all the excess dirt... which will be nice for filling the big swamp/hole in our backyard. I'm so excited to report that we have some tomatoes growing. Since we weren't able to get a garden going yet this year and I LOVE fresh homegrown tomatoes we bought one of those Topsy Turvy hanging tomato plants and I can't wait for them to be ripe and ready to eat! YUM!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Work In Progress Wednesday and some really exciting news!!!!!

After taking a much needed break from the blog we have some exciting news to share, but you'll have to wait. We've (as in my parents have done the majority of it) been working on the landscaping and it's coming along and hopefully by next summer I'll be able to have my garden. I did get one of those Topsy Turvy things you see on TV and started a little late with the tomato plant but am so excited to see some tomatoes growing this week! I can't wait to have my own homegrown tomatoes... they literally are my most favorite fruit... well, maybe they're a close second to avocados. We still have a lot to do yet but it's been exciting to see the progress. We've also been enjoying our weekends of visiting family. I think we're glad that we made that decision to spend the weekends vacationing instead of working on the house. It's hard to believe that we closed on this house almost a year ago and still feel like we have sooooo much still to do but am amazed at how much we've accomplished. It hasn't gone as fast as we had hoped and I really had hoped that we would have painted all the rooms by now but there just were more important things that needed to be done first.

OK, ready for the exciting news?



That's right, we have a little surprise due in January! It's still early and we can use your prayers but I'm terrible at keeping secrets and well, it's pretty hard to hide anymore. I was literally in maternity clothes the moment the pregnancy test showed positive, lol. We are so excited although with our history of infertility and multiple miscarriages we've been really cautious and anxious. So far everything looks good and the baby is growing. It was so wonderful to see that little heart beating at all of my appts. Because of my history of miscarriages I've had several appointments so far and we're finally getting to the point where we can breathe a little easier although we're still not out of the 1st trimester and can still miscarry. That being said, we would love your prayers. We are totally praising God for this little miracle and even though this baby was not a part of our plan we definitely know it was a part of God's plan and are rejoicing in it. This has been such a growing experience for me knowing that there is nothing I can do... everything is up to God. Only God could allow my body to become pregnant... some of you remember a little over 5 years ago when the dr. told me that it would be a miracle if I became pregnant, to which I said that I believed in miracles and became pregnant with Moriah a month later. Only God could allow this pregnancy to continue and grow like it has... many of you know that after Moriah was born we had 4 miscarriages and we determined that I had a clotting disorder and needed blood thinners to keep a pregnancy going. I knew with both of those pregnancies that God was working through the drugs to allow us to have our 2 little miracles. I'm just reminded how big God is and that he is so much bigger than all of this. Anyways, we're really hoping to meet this little one in January and so excited to teach this little one about who God is and how amazing he is. I wonder what God plans on naming this child... he only gave me 2 names on the Women's retreat 5 years ago.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" Jer 29:11-13

Work In Progress Wednesday

We got nothing done this weekend. We were all sick, sick, sick so we spent Saturday just vegging around the house. Sunday we spent enjoying Mother's day and then Mark was back to work on Monday. So, once again, I have no updates on the house. I will say that I'm looking forward to us all being a healthy family again and digging out all of our landscaping of weeds, lol. Hopefully, we'll get some stuff done this weekend... pray for nice and dry weather and good health. :)

And because I can't post w/o pics, I'll leave you with a pic of my two favorite kiddos in the world.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, we're getting back into the swing of things and Mark has been busy busy busy! After realizing that our landscaping is pretty much just weeds, clovers and dandelions, we decided we need to put that higher on our priority list... I admit, I'm quite a bit embarrassed by our yard and kind of convinced Mark to put it at the top of our list. I'm afraid we might have to just re-do our whole yard, it's soooooo bad.

The other thing we're working on is tearing our our deck... it was built by the previous owner and did a terrible job and it's in sad shape and also causing damage to the house so we decided to take out the deck and build a patio. We'll hire someone to make steps but we're going to lay the patio ourselves. Mark bought a palette of cement tiles that were on sale and was quite the story hauling it all home... even the biggest rental truck it was too heavy for. We had no clue it was going to be such a huge deal. After many times of the alarm going off on the truck and moving it around, they were finally able to get it to where the alarm didn't go off.... which begs to question... why sell something that nobody can haul home, lol. Well, Mark got it home finally w/o the alarm going off and quickly unloaded the 3,000+ lbs of tiles into our backyard and got the truck back within the 75 minute rental time. WOOT! Now to find some limestone to lay down below so that we can get started.

Next will be renting a rototiller and start digging out all giant weeds and trying to fix the landscaping and plant some more grass.



ETA:
OK, Mark just linked me up to THIS and now I want to do that to our patio, how cool is that!

Work In Progress Wednesday

We are LOVIN' taking a little time off of house renovations to play on the weekends. Moriah decided to give up ballet and other park district classes to get a zoo membership this year and I'm actually really happy that she chose the zoo over classes. I LOVE the zoo and we had a blast there last week and can't wait to go back. My little girl is growing up so fast, I can't believe how fast time flys really really can't. She's also going to be buying a new bike soon. She has to be able to write her name by herself with no help from us and she's become my spelling machine. She's been spelling her name out all week getting ready to write it down. She also has to pay for some of the bike and so we counted up her coins in her "Spend" slot in her piggy bank and she's only $.23 short of what we agreed she would pay for her bike so she has to do some extra chores to get enough. I wonder if she'll remember to put it in the "Spend" slot or if she'll put it in one of the other slots for "invest", "donate" or "save".

On Saturday Mark and Moriah went to the Kite Festival, it was a bit cold but they had fun and Moriah couldn't stop talking about the octopus kite they saw.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, so much for taking a break from working on the house... with all the rains we had last week we noticed that the sump pump was sounding like it was on it's last leg... something we didn't want to break for sure! So, Mark did some research and he bought a new sump pump and installed it over the weekend. And... of course nothing is as easy as we think it will be and we had to go to Ace Hardware to pick up a new check valve and some other things. Anyways, Mark said all in all it was a pretty easy project and hopefully some time this summer we'll get and install a backup sump pump. And since I hate to leave a blog post without any pics... here's a page I did last night and had a blast doing.

Credits:
Burst TOT by Dani Mogstad (freebie on SSD blog)
The Way I Am by Lauren Grier (part of the FIX this month)
Itty Bitty Paint - newsletter freebie by Lauren Grier
Shaplates Bonus - newsletter freebie by Misty Cato
Doodle Me Stitches 3 by Lauren Grier

Work In Progress Wednesday on Thursday...

Well, yesterday was quite a hectic day so it's a day late... but the floor is FINISHED! The room isn't finished but it's in working condition and yesterday Mark worked for the first time in his office, WOOT! Right now Mark is at Home Depot with Moriah buying a new sump pump... it's been acting funny lately during the storms we've been having and we decided we probably should take care of that ASAP. After that is installed we are going to be taking a nice little break to spend some time as a family since it's been a long time since we've been able to do that.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, once again I have nothing new to report and I don't even have a photo to share with you since nothing has changed other than Mark got 2 more rows done on the floor. Our kids have been really craving some Daddy time and Isaac was taking 2 naps again and since it's a noisy project we decided to just hang out as a family instead of working. With the holiday this weekend we'll be having family time on Sunday again and visiting Mark's Grandma on Saturday and so we won't have anything new again next Wednesday. Hopefully after the holiday though we'll be back to working on the room so Mark can start working in there. We'll probably take some time off of the house too to focus on enjoying our family. And... the search for a new furnace and AC will begin and hopefully we'll start working on the family room so that by next fall we can open up the downstairs.

Since I don't like leaving you w/o pics, I'll point you to some fun free templates made by Traci's girls. Check them out... click on the photo to be directed to the Hawt Mamas blog for the download link.

and here's the page I used to make my contribution.

Enjoy and remember if you download them, be sure to leave some lovin' for the Hawt Mamas thanking them for the awesome templates.

Work In Progress Wednesday

SOOOOOOOOOO CLOSE!

Well, the paint job our friend did is beautiful and the kids had such a blast with his daughter. We had so much fun going for a long walk and playing at the playground. I was super sore the next day from the walk with Isaac on my back and pushing the girls in the stroller, but the weather was fantastic and it was so worth not being able to walk the next day, lol. I made my crockpot chili and they all stayed for dinner and their daughter finally crashed right before Bible study. The girls just absolutely loved being together all day. Mark decided to let the kids "help" put in the floor on Saturday and as you'll see in the photo, we didn't quite get the room done yet, lol. Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to find some time to finish up the floors and Mark can move the desk into the bedroom and set up his "office". YAY! The final part will be to paint our canopy bed so that we can put it together and bring our current bed downstairs so our parents will have a bed when they come to visit! YAY! Now we just need some really consistent warm weather so we can do some outdoor painting. :)

Here's a photo, excuse the grain... the batteries were dead in my flash and I was too lazy to switch them and just bumped up the ISO to the max, lol.

It's so much better than that Colts blue room, right?

Work In Progress Wednesday on Thursday...

Not a whole lot to report... we've been enjoying the weather before it snows again this weekend so instead of painting the bedroom/office we've been outside. Our good friend is coming over tomorrow to paint the bedroom for us while I watch his daughter. Moriah can't wait to have her come over to play and Isaac can't wait to teach her how to get into trouble, lol. Hopefully, what this means is that we'll be able to put the flooring in over the weekend and be mostly done with the room, YAY!

...and since I don't like to post w/o any pictures, I'll post a photo of best friends dancin' at the Arboretum earlier this week.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, I haven't done any painting like I had planned on doing since I've been dealing with headaches and upset stomach the last few nights but the room is all prepped and ready to be painted. Mark decided to help me out and he'll paint the ceiling this week and then I'll have the weekend to paint the walls. I'm so excited! I can't wait to get rid of that obnoxious blue color and have a nice calm neutral color in there. I also can't wait to get the "office" out of our bed and into an actual office, so that we aren't distracting Mark during the day and Isaac isn't distracted while nursing. OK, so here's a couple pics for you! Adios Colts Blue, Hello Creamy Mushroom!

Isaac got his own little workbench... awesome find at a resale on Saturday!

Moriah helping Mark clean the room and get it prepped for painting

Ready to go!

Work In Progress Wednesday

Not much more to report since last week, just more sanding and prepping the 4th bedroom to paint. I think I finally picked out a paint color for the room and I can't wait to get started... Did you all see this picture that I posted yesterday on my P365 blog? Yes, Mark was putting in Tot Loks in the kitchen cabinets and Isaac wanted to be a part of the action and knocked over the drill and bent the drill bit along with a nice little gouge in the hardwood floor... Oh, the joys of boys, lol.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Not much to report this week... Mark spent the weekend with more mudding and more sanding... we're getting soooooo close! Anyways, I finally picked a color for the 4th bedroom and hopefully next week during Isaac's naps, Moriah and I will be painting it and finally moving Mark into his "office", YAY! Since I'm having difficulties transferring pics from my camera to the computer you only get an old P365 pic to show you the progress.


and for fun, I've added a fun little quiz... I'm laughing because I think it's pretty accurate for me, lol. Would love to know if you take the quiz and what you come up with for yourself.

You Are FAQ

For you, the internet is like your personal library. And you know more facts than fifty normal humans. Your brain is basically lot a computer at this point. You have a lot of information stored up there. You spend hours looking up obscure information and learning things. If you have question, you always Google it. You can't help but be a bit of a know-it-all. You can answer everyone's frequently asked questions.

What Internet Slang Are You?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity