Exhaustion, appliances, moving, oh my!

My goal was to update on Sunday, but I was hit by a horrible bout of exhaustion, plus a little stomach bug. I'm still recuperating, but doing fine.

I finally got over to look at my floors, and they look great! (if I do say so myself...hee hee) There are some spots that look like I'll need to touch them up, but overall, it's good (especially for a first time attempt). :)

Dalton loves the floors. He was having a blast running and jumping everywhere.




I think I mentioned that our appliances were delivered on Saturday. We finally got the stove hooked up on Monday, and everything seems to be working great so far. :)




We also picked up a washer on Tuesday off of Craigslist, but I don't have any photos of it yet. I'm sure I'll get one by the end of the week.

We are moving on Saturday!! I still have a lot to pack up, so that's going to be my biggest goal for the rest of this week. As long as we get the big stuff moved, and all essentials to function from the house, I can always work on packing up the rest next week. Time sure is flying by!

Hardwood, plumbing, pine needles, firetruck

I got up at the crack of dawn today to accomplish a big task--put the polyurethane on the living room floor.

Remember this?

Well, it now looks like this:

The floor is still drying, so I couldn't get too many pictures from different angles. I got two coats of polyurethane on (it took about 5-6 hours for the first coat to dry, instead of the 4 the container said), and might get one more on if I feel like it needs it after it dries.

I don't know if you are able to see it too well, but in this picture, the boards on the left running horizontally are coated and the five (or so) on the right are coated, but the ones in the middle are not. It was amazing to see the difference, but I don't think it showed up too well in the photo.

Me working hard on the second coat.

Smile for the camera!!

Another picture of the finished floor.


A few other notables that I haven't mentioned....

The water heater and plumbing was installed/fixed on Thursday. I didn't get any before shots (not that they'd be particularly interesting, according to David), but here's the new water heater that was put in.

This is the main water line coming into the house. We had a pretty good leak going here, and that's 100% gone now (YAY!).

The white pipe is the new pipe here. This one looked like it had a big bite taken out of it, what caused it, I don't know (prolly because it froze last winter). The valves are also new (leaked like crazy too).


I also got quite a bit of work done in the yard today while waiting for the polyurethane to dry. I managed to get eight 30-gallon bags of pine needles bagged up.

And my pile of sticks that are growing. After I took this photo, I got a pretty good sized branch down from the tree. :)

Even though I got so much cleared away, there's still a nice little pile that keeps growing as I get more and more pulled out of the yard.

But look! A clear spot! The only one that exists so far in the backyard. The little tree on the right will be pulled up at some point.

Also, while waiting for the polyurethane to dry, we took a drive out to Lowe's. This month is fire prevention month, so they have a workshop for kids to make a firetruck. Colerain Township also had a firetruck out for the kids to see. Dalton was so excited to see the firetruck. He also had a blast while we made his firetruck. They gave him his own Lowe's apron, fire hat, and a few other goodies. Here's some pictures of him working on his firetruck.

He got tired of trying to do it himself (he just wanted to play with his firetruck), so David and I had to finish it for him. No pictures of the finished product, since I had a little buzz going from all the polyurethane, and the body of the truck ended up on at a funky angle. :)

And last, but not least, just a picture of the cutie himself. :)

Dalton's room--almost done!!

Even though I've been busy with the house this week, I just wasn't able to find time to update. I bought the carpet for my craft room, and hopefully we'll get that in one day next week. David also bought our appliances, and they are suppose to be delivered on Saturday. The plumber was out on Thursday to fix our pipes, faucet, and install a new hot water heater. My biggest project this week was trying to get Dalton's room done. For the most part, it is done. I just have to change a light bulb and put the cover back on it, put the register cover on, install the door stop, and figure out what I did wrong to his door (I think I somehow stripped the little screw that holds the doorknob in place--can't get it in right, so the doorknob won't open the door from the outside....really need to work on that. I just hope I didn't mess it up completely--I love the old hardware on the doors).

I found out the hard way that an eight-foot ladder is almost too tall for the room. Let's just say I had to touch up the ceiling in a few places. :)

A photo of after I got the blue all touched up.

"Mommy, look! A baby bug! Don't touch baby bug!" When we went to the house Wednesday night to remove the tape, Dalton found a bug on his wall. I have no idea of what type of bug it was, but Dalton was fascinated with it. I guess he is a typical boy, right?

And some finished shots. You can still see some of the paint drying. I painted the trim to the door, the windows, and the closet.

Just ignore the funky light orbs in this photo. :)

I still need to get Dalton's hand prints on the door. Maybe we'll do that this weekend.

I copped out a bit on his closet. It's done the way it is. I'd have to remove those shelves to paint the rest, and I can't figure out how to remove them without destroying them. It'll be a nice reminder of what the closet use to look like. :) Dalton looks so small in his closet, don't you think?

Now that Dalton's room is painted, his floor look awful. I was going to rent a cleaner and try to make it look better, but David told me to go out and buy some carpet for it (after he makes sure he can get the carpet installed correctly in the craft room).

A few other random photos. I found these pots behind the outdoor fireplace, but I have no idea of what they are used for. Mom said they were for special cacti, but I have no idea of what the PVC pipe in the center would have been used for. Any ideas?

A shot of the outdoor fireplace. I'm wondering if it is salvageable. I also have no idea of how it is suppose to work (or if it is really a fireplace or a grill or whatever it is).

This is a bad photo (was really starting to get dark) of the pile of pine needles we have sitting on our backyard patio. The pile isn't even all of them!

The Caprice now fits in it's parking spot. :)

As we were were walking back up the path to the front, what I do I see??

The last flower blooming of the season. Dalton grabbed it before I was able to snap the picture, so it took some damage. But what a beautiful flower. :)

Tonight I am prepping the wood floor to be polyurethaned, and that is going on tomorrow. It should be an all-day type job.

My goals for this week...

I feel the need to write down what I hope we accomplish in this next week, because I know I'll forget something along the way. I have the makings of a very nasty cold starting, but hopefully it doesn't slow me down too much.

Sunday:
bag up some pine needles
pack a few more boxes
measure the two bedrooms downstairs

Monday:
buy carpet for at least the craft room
call and set up for plumber to come in

Tuesday & Wednesday:
finish painting Dalton's room

Thursday:
rest? maybe pack up a few boxes

Friday:
sweep and mop the living room

Saturday:
polyurethane the living room floor

I think I have quite the little list going. Hopefully most of it gets done. :) Our move-in date is set for October 27, and I think we'll meet it with time to spare. :)

Dalton's room--progress

Today we started on Dalton's room. My good friend Tammy came over to help me, and we decided to do his room (instead of the water heater or outside work). So, after a trip to Home Depot, we got started.

Here's some photos of his room before we got started. The walls are lavender (it doesn't show up too well in the photos I think), and there were quite a few hooks in each of the walls.



We got the hooks out of the wall and the holes filled in (done almost entirely by the wonderful Tammy).

And got started on the painting. The ceiling was the lavender color also, so we started on that and painted it white.

While Tammy was tackling the ceiling, I took the closet. You can see the lovely pink color it use to be.



I need to get a step ladder to finish the closet, and it'll need at least one more coat of white on it, but it's mostly done. You can see the blue color I picked for his room (he wanted a blue room, so he got it). I still need to do the trim on the closet, windows, and doors, and touch up around the edges. I still have to do parts close to the ceiling (after the paint dries a bit)





I decided to paint the wood insert on the door, and I think I might have Dalton do a hand print (or two) on it in white.



Overall, I think it's coming along very nicely. I'll finish it up later this week. I am very pleased with how it's turning out so far--I just really need to get a step ladder to get the top sections (we stood on a cooler today, but that wasn't the most sturdy).

David got the driveway cleared out to where he can fit his car in, but I forgot to get photos of it. I'll get some later on this week. We've also been moving quite a bit of stuff over to the house and storing it in the basement and upstairs section, so hopefully when we move in we won't have too much to cart.

I did have one injury today (typical Michelle moment)...I went to stand on the cooler while it was in the kitchen to see if it would support my weight, and I hit my head on the oven vent hood. Needless to say, I have quite a sore head at the moment, but I'll survive. :)

Goodbye toilet!!

I tackled the toilet and actually won!! It only took me about two hours to get the old one out and the new one in. It would have taken me even less time if I hadn't had two bolts give me a huge problem (one of the bolts on the tank I could not get out, so the toilet came out as one piece...the bolt holding the toilet to the floor just needed some TLC to get out). I came very close to just taking the hammer to the toilet, but I'm glad I didn't resort to that. :) Here's the toilet that was in there originally--there is a huge crack in the tank and the toilet refuses to even attempt to flush.

After much wrestling, it's finally out!!

I look forward to remodeling the bathroom (whenever that ends up being) and getting the floor all one color. Maybe I can pick up a few of these tiles and cut them to fit back there, because it just looks bad. At least it's not a place most people look, right? :)

I had one mistake that David fixed for me after we turned the water on. I didn't get the intake line threaded correctly, so he fixed it. I must give many many thanks to my brother Dave for giving us his old tool set--there's no way I would have gotten this thing installed without it (love ya bro!!).

And the finished product:

We still need to caulk around the bottom, but I think it'll do just fine. It flushes fine and doesn't leak, so I'm happy with it. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. And thanks to everyone who gave me the tip to heat the wax seal with a hairdryer--that worked great!!

As I was taking a little break, what do I see outside?

A bunny!! I have seen so much wildlife at this house it is just amazing. Now, I know a rabbit isn't anything major, but it's something. It's just the little things that make me happy. :)

At least no more running down the street to UDF or home to use the potty. This DIY stuff is pretty fun (so far...hee hee).