Day 5

With my afternoon filled with Yoga Teacher Training Barrett was able to be SUPER productive.  We are historically pretty terrible for each other's productivity, you know wondering Target for a few hours, chit chatting, getting distracted, so when I left, Barrett got to working! Check out these custom woodworking skills.  He's AMAZING!

 Working away, making a beautiful banister...

 Budget Savvy! Look at those contraptions, not sure what they're for, but I think it's to help the glue settle!

And, the inspiration!  This is what we're going for...eventually!

Meanwhile, Oliver has been having a fantastic time at Playa del Auntie Anne...here he is after a pre-blizzard excursion to the dog park.  All tired out!

Day 4: We're going SHOPPING!

Ok, come on seriously, who doesn't love to shop?  I can't say I've ever turned down and opportunity, so when it finally was time to pick out the floors and counter tops, I felt a little like a kid on Christmas morning, well actually, maybe that is an understatement, given the fact that I was excited at the idea of plywood in for the time being.  Equally as exciting was the fact that Barrett hasn't had a Saturday off with the exception of Christmas since the wedding, and I really like hanging out with him, so DOUBLE BONUS, shopping and a Saturday with the hubby! 


But first, muscles...we need muscles! Thank you to my studly husband and his equally studly friend Cody, they introduced muscled the new refrigerator up the stairs to it's new home!

 Isn't she pretty?

Now, back to the shopping!
Here's what we found....

 LOVE

Originally we had decided that we were going to look at engineered or bamboo flooring(a little Earth/Oliver friendly), and again sticking with the budget savvy theme, we were going to shy away from  getting real hardwood...we weren't sure we'd ever get our money's worth if we ever decide to move out of this palace.  But, to our surprise Lumber Liquidators had something else in mind.  After three Home Depot visits and a trip to Mendards, we landed at LL.  We had hoped to install flooring with 4 1/2'' to 5'' planks, but EEEE not so budget savvy, and real hardwood was out of the question, but then.....


We found this!

We had to do a little compromising, since this style and color wasn't available in 5" planks, only 3 3/4", but we decided to be brave and take a box home, let's just say we couldn't beat the price...they were practically giving it away (well almost!).  So, although a little hesitant because it wasn't what I had originally envisioned I agreed to take a box.  We laid it out and Ahhhhaaaa! It was beautiful, and IT'S REAL!  We pondered a little more for the afternoon, and finally decided to bite the bullet! The rest of these babies should be arriving on Saturday! Yay! 

Day 3...Now you see it, now you don't!

Now you see it!

Now you don't! Adios huge, useless closet, hello extra wide hallway!

 Eeeee...that's a mess!

Gosh we love the demolition phase.  We have pondered back and forth, literally since the day I moved in, just what we could do to widen/open up the area between the living room and the dining room.  We toyed with the idea of getting rid of the massive fireplace and knocking out kitchen walls and putting in half walls and making a little peek through window I did not like that idea, and honestly every time we strategize we ended up misunderstanding each other and one or both of us had a little temper tantrum! EEEEE...so after lots of pondering and even a little more arguing on occasion, we came up with this plan.  Get rid of the closet.  Now let me just set this up for you, think for a minute about a junk drawer that you have in your house, we know you all have them...not imagine it, in closet form! Getting rid of this closet, will probably serve a dual purpose, lots more walking space, and an even swifter kick in the booty to get organized and clean out that junk drawer I mean closet!  Anyone need a blank CD...seriously there were enough in that closet to open a store?  

Our first plan was to get ride of the entire closet, and the wall connecting the closet to the fireplace, but to our dismay, the wall that connected the closet was actually a load-bearing wall, so instead of gaining about 4 feet in the walkway, we gained about 22 inches, but even so, we LOVE it already! There is so much more light seeping in, even through our "plastic, drop-cloth" curtains! It truly is glorious.  

Also, because we weren't able to loose the wall, we decided to investigate some ideas of what we could potentially do with the "half-wall" to make it a bit more esthetically pleasing.  Here's a little inspiration I found!

Love love love the built in book shelf/storage thing! Hopefully we can use the extra wall left behind for something oh so pretty!

Day 2

Yahoooo!

The first of the appliances is installed and up and running! We can hardly wait for the other 3 to make their debuts. But a beautiful, stainless and fully functioning microwave, was just a perfect accomplishment for day 2! Thanks Tom and Dennis!

 The mounting of this little darling however, proved to be quite the task, after a few short HOURS! It was finished! Again, Thanks Tom and Dennis!

And a little re-wiring to spice up the afternoon. In honor of the refrigerator's new home, we needed to do a little rearranging with wiring and power.  Tom moved the outlet that was behind that nicely pictured new sheet rock, a little to the right, so that it would better serve it's purpose.

Today, although it didn't appear to be as visually drastic as yesterday, was equally productive day, and a fabulous preview for things to come!  

Numero Uno!

Let the games begin! Day number one's accomplishments...

 Can you figure out what's missing???

 Just to list a few things...we removed well, Barrett's uncle Tom actually, removed HALF of our counter top/cabinets today! Yay, space to move and entertain. AND, I'm still praising Jesus that he got ride of that terrible, white linoleum/carpet, I'll take plywood floors over that nastiness any day.

 Next, thanks to Tom's genius skills and our budget friendly plan, we salvaged part of the old cabinets to make a prep space next to our stove/oven.  But wait! Where did the refrigerator go?

We moved it, to it's new home, across the kitchen.  We promise this will make much more sense once we are working with a finished product and a little furniture!

Wow! Lots and lots accomplished in just the first day!  

OMG!

And now, for the main event! Remodel 2011 is officially underway, so if coaching, and working crazy hours and attempting to escape the mountain of snow that the plows frequently leave at the end of our driveway wasn't enough, we thought a little remodeling would be fun as well.  So, here we go!  


Here is a little taste of what we're working with. A couple before shots for your viewing distaste I mean pleasure!

Yep, we had to make way for Barrett and his phenomenal ceiling scraping skills!

It looks awesome by the way!

 It was a tight squeeze, but we sort of liked our cozy, little living, dining, kitchen, closet arrangement.

 There is he, hard at work, scraping away! Wooo it's been a little dusty!

And poor Oliver, he was is so confused! Good thing he's currently on a little vacation, Playa del Auntie Anne! 

BEFORE

Check you later ugly kitchen!

And...we're back!

Holy cow! Long time no blog, but after a month and a half hiatus, we're back and we have lots and lots of updates and some extra, exciting adventures happening.  But, to catch you up, the last month and a half have been a it of a whirlwind, starting with a little trip to South Dakota, yep you heard me right, we made the trek to Watertown, South Dakota to for New Year's Eve and to celebrate Taylor and Chantel's wedding.  It was a blast and they are the most flexible and fabulous bride and groom ever, let's just say the original 2010 nuptials turned into a great way to kick off 2011 when the snow finally cleared and we were able to resume the celebration on New Year's Day! So Fun!

After returning safe and sound from the South Dakota Trek, I launched into my new job(s).  I'm so lucky to be back school counseling and I even decided to come out of retirement and do a little swimming, we'll coaching that is!  So as previously mentioned our blog hiatus and be fully attributed to the fact, that I have dove (ahahahaha! Get it!) head first into the season, and it's been a blast, including a True Team Section Win, and a Conference win as well, both firsts in the team's history! It's been sooooo fun.