100% Done

I am happy to report that our renovations are officially complete.  All of the work is done, the checks are cut and I no longer have to deal with the bank.  Woot!  Woot!  Here is one final photo of the kitchen completely done including the new stove that James installed all by himself.  It is beautiful and amazing!  It is nice feeling moved in even though there are still plenty of boxes in storage to sort through, but I will just deal with those a little at a time!

Finished kitchen!  

I have also had fun canning this week.  We have always wanted to grow enough tomatoes in our garden to can without having to purchase any, and this year we may have finally done it!  We did get some extra tomatoes from friends who couldn't keep up with theirs, but it is amazing to can produce that you didn't have to pay for and you know exactly where it came from.  Love it!  I am up to 31 quarts of tomatoes!

It doesn't look like a lot but that is a lot of tomatoes!!  About 19 quarts worth.

This is messy canning kitchen, but it is nice to see that I can can, eat watermelon and still work on other projects in the kitchen all at the same time!

I love seeing the product of hard work!  These look great down in the storage room!

I almost forgot to mention that James has decided to learn to work with wood.  Pocket holes are his new best friend.  He started with these shelves for the boys room.  They are amazing!  Stay tuned for more fun projects with wood . . . be prepared to be amazed!

Moving Week!

This has been a busy and crazy week but hopefully it will be the last of its kind for awhile.

On Monday we had our countertops installed, carpet installed, all heating and cooling projects completed, and our carpenters finished up the trim, garage door and kitchen hardware.  James and I spent the day at the house cleaning, organizing, unpacking and finishing projects of our own.

Carpet going in!

James cut and put these shelves in.  They are perfect!

Our carpenter took his trailer and left.  It was a bitter sweet moment.  

By the end of the day Monday just about everything was finished that our contractors needed to do.  So, on Tuesday we packed up our little house and moved into the big house.  We felt like this day would never come, and we were very excited that it did.  We spent most of the day moving things in and unpacking the essentials.  Our plumber even came to install the sink since he had to wait until the countertop was in.  He has been a rockstar, and I could not be more grateful for his willingness to come and finish up projects when they needed to be done.

Faucet, Countertops, Shelves, Hardware, etc.  The kitchen looks amazing!

We were all excited to sleep in the new house, well, except for Hyrum, but I did manage to get a picture before he started crying.   First night in the new house: 

We spent the rest of the week unpacking, cleaning, organizing, finishing installing closets and bathroom hardware, and emptying our last storage unit.  Yipppee!  Here are some before pictures and then some more after pictures. 

Remember that there were seven offices that looked like this.

The old lovely kitchen.

The former family room.

The new dining room!

Part of the master closet.  James did a great job designing and setting this up with mostly pre-existing materials.  Gotta love the Billy Bookcases from IKEA.

Some more shelves in the family room on the pretty carpet.

More family room.  The boys have been having fun opening boxes of toys without me.  Hmmmm. . . 

Part of the boys closets.  Again more Billy Bookcases!

Lots of storage space.  The boys did a fabulous job helping us put these shelves together!

 Now, lest you think that everything is all clean and perfect, I have a dirty little secret down in the unfinished part of the house . . . it is a mess!!!  But keeping the mess out there makes living better, functional and clean, and we all know how I feel about that.  So, here is a sneak peak into the mess. . .

My big mess that is not inside of my living space.  This is what happens when you just keep brining things in without organizing.  I'll get on that . . . sometime.  :)

 This has been a busy but rewarding week.  It is really great to be living in our new house and have some of our old things back in our lives.  The boys love having more of their stuff as do James and myself.  This has been quite the process but through all of the headaches, fights with the bank, building problems, little house issues and much more we have been carried by the fact that this is the path we knew we should follow and that in the end it would be worth it.  I am here to tell you that indeed, it was worth it.  I hope everyone gets a chance to come and visit our new home and enjoy it with us.  Thank you to everyone who supported and helped us through this process.

Week #10 Renovations/ Week #1 Move in

The end is very much in sight and it is very exciting!  We spent most of this week cleaning in preparation of moving in.  There is plenty of dust to clean out and even though I have not been victorious I have removed a LOT of dirt!

So, what fun things have happened (cleaning does not count).  James started putting in mirrors and other fun little things that you just take for granted, like toilet paper holders.

The island countertop is in and looks stunning!

New stairs are in that James stained!  It about killed him but they look great!

Gary, our carpenter, was busy this week putting in molding, countertop, stairs and much more.  He even managed to start putting in the garage door.  He will have to finish it up on Monday, but there it is!

 

 

Then, on Saturday we emptied our large storage unit and put it in the house.  We had a ton of great help, so it took less than 2 hours.  Wowzers!  

Then, we started doing a little unpacking before we move in.  I actually like doing some unpacking without living there because then very little gets moved around.  

New shelves for the school room are filling up quickly!

Michael loves having tables to play games on!  

We even put in some bookshelves in the living room and started to fill them.

But before the night was over I had to move everything out of the way since there is still a little work left to do.

I even cleaned out the kitchen to make way for the rest of our countertops!  Those stools are just perfect, though, don't you think!

And amid all that I found a little time to pick vegetables for a nice Ratatouille Sunday dinner!  

 We are absolutely exhausted from working on moving, but it must be done and we will be so glad to be in our new house!  Move in day is still slated for Tuesday.  I can't think of anything that would put that behind, so here we go!

Week #9 Renovations

This was a very busy and exciting week with a little bit of stress.  We began the week by meeting with the countertop guy to get a measurement.  We thought we had everything ready until he told us we didn't.  We didn't have the sink installed and we learned it was easier said than done.  But our carpenter rose to the challenge and was able to get the sink in by lunch when the countertop guy was able to return and measure.  We were very grateful that he could come back that day because they won't install it for 2 weeks from the day the measure.  Phew!

I feel like so many things happened this week, so I will just try to hit everything.  Our carpenters finished the hard wood flooring!!!!  The peak in the living room was the last part, so it is our great celebratory photo!

They then started putting in doors and finished about half of them.  They also worked on the ceiling in the basement but didn't quite finish that either.  But it is fun to see doors up and flooring finished!

The boys room and closet with doors!

Next, the tiling was started and finished this week!  We tiled all of the bathroom floors and the master shower.  It was amazing to watch them go in and look just as we had hoped!  

Setting the shower tile.

Jacob was excited to help the tilers.  He was able to hold the tile!  Kids just love to help!

They also let him put one of the tiles on.  I don't think he'll ever forget which one he did.

Laundry Room floor!

Boys bathroom floor.

Shower is all tiled and grouted!

We did learn that we should dry the shower floor daily to keep it looking good and lasting forever.  Roger that.  :)

Our electrician came this week to finish all of the electrical for the house.  This was extra exciting because it meant that we would have light again!  It has been a challenge to get the painting done when we could not work at night in the dark.

Dining room light.  It is on a dimmer which is really fun!

Light above the sink.  It is really fun.

Michael was excited to help with the install of the can lights.  There were plenty to help with!

There was light . . . and it was good. . . very good!  

Fun hall lights.

Michael was excited to install the light in his closet.  It is on a motion sensor in hopes that it won't be left on all day every day.  Fingers crossed!  

Can lights in the basement to make sure it never feels dark.

 Our plumber also was hard at work this weekend!  He installed the dishwasher and water line for the refrigerator.  He put in all of the fixtures in the bathrooms.  And guess what?   We have HOT WATER!!!!  But that was a team effort as we needed a gas line, an outlet that was turned on and of course the plumbing.

Boys bathroom with vanity, toilet and shower!

Master bathroom.

100% done!  Woot!  Woot!

Sink and dishwasher.   

Hot water heater with power, gas and water!  It seems too good to be true!

Our heating and cooling guys worked on the gas lines and vents as well.  They aren't very fun to post, but their work is appreciated nonetheless.  

James has been working on prepping the new stairs and staining them.  After a few attempts we are going to go with a dark walnut, but you don't get to see them until they are in.  :)  Michael was even helping!

This young man has been working hard to help in any way he could!

This week has been full of work by many hands and it has been great to see everyone work together.  All of the boys had a chance to help at least one of the contractors which is great!  I really want them to be as much of this process as possible.  We will be moving our things in next weekend but can't move in until the countertops and sink are in.  We are getting so close I can taste it!

But as with every project comes garbage, so hopefully this next week we can clean most of that out and start cleaning and prepping for four very anxious boys to move in!

Soon our deck will have a grill and not so much garbage.  :)

This week we also got to spend time with family who were passing through.  Marquie (James' sister) and her husband Patrick stopped by for a visit Saturday morning.  We also enjoyed some time with them down in Nauvoo.  We don't get to see them often, so it was fun to share in some fun memories with them! 

Marquie was particularly excited to meet Hyrum for the very first time!

This has been a long process but now that the end is in sight time seems to be flying which is very exciting!  Hopefully our next update will involve us being in our new house.  Yippee!!!