Three Cheers for Progress!

Stage One.


Stage Two.


Stage Three.

It may look a little out of order, but it isn't. Since we decided to finish everything before we move in, all the paneling that I spent DAYS painting is officially gone, as well as the wall that separated the living room and the second room. It makes it look soooooo much bigger! This is where my beautifully painted paneling is now:

The garage. Fabulous.

I'm just gonna spit out some pictures now...Enjoy!


Washer and Dryer Hook-ups (in the room under the stairs/soon to be Laundry room)

What looked like this a few weeks ago (at the top of the stairs)...


Has now turned in to our new half bath, with a POCKET DOOR!



The cool original ceiling that was covered up in the second room.

So whats's next? Spraying texture on and priming the drywall upstairs. After that, the upstairs is almost done, besides finishing the bathroom, adding trim, and sanding the floors! I can't wait to get in there to paint!

Things are starting to take shape! More pictures as soon as the walls upstairs are done!

Oh Boy...Where to Start?

First, our plans completely changed. When we started the renovations, we were going to just finish the upstairs, then move in, and finish the first floor later. But now, we decided to finish the drywall, floors, and electrical for the entire house before we move in. Even though we can't wait to move it, it'll be really nice to move in to an almost all brand-new house. This will add at least a month or two before we can move in, or more...but patience is a virtue, right?

Second (and I feel like my blog posts get sooo long--please remind me to update this more often), THE DRYWALL UPSTAIRS LOOKS AWESOME!

One wall in our bedroom.

Our future upstairs 1/2 bathroom.

Our bedroom as seen from our closet.


Everything still needs more "mud" to cover up the screws and spaces between the different sheets of rock, as well as a sprayed texture, but it already looks a million time better.

Second, we decided to eventually put a deck above the roof of our kitchen. To have access to this deck, we took out the upstairs back window...


And replaced it with a door... :)

Kind of cool, huh?

Third, to give us more square footage, Jordan, his dad, and his friends Mike and Ricky knocked down an unused chimney... Here's what was left of it...


Fourth, Jordan and Ricky started tearing the walls down on the main floor. They started with the small bedroom, which surprisingly had sheetrock behind the wood paneling, which made their job a little more difficult. This is what the room looked like when Jordan bought it...

This is what it looked like mid-demolition...

And this is what it looks like now (after being insulated)...

So, all and all, things are going well, even though they're taking a while. I've given up on trying to get anything done there myself, since I never know what's going to be torn down next (now that the hours I painted that paneling were for nothing). :( Usually I just stop by to get the guys food and drinks, and to get Bella out of my house.

On that note, let's end this post with a picture of her, because she makes me happy. :)

She's 13 weeks old now and weighs 23 pounds, which means that she's gained 15 pounds in 6 weeks! She's gonna be a BIG girl.

INSULATION!

Yes, I think the title says it all for this post...we officially have an insulated upstairs...and upgraded electrical (because the wiring was original, from right about the turn of the 20th century), thanks to Jordan's brilliant father, Todd.


Priceless.

Some more insulation pictures...



Oh, yeah...Jordan also ripped the bathroom apart...

It went from looking like this, on the first day:


To this...right now.




A little scary, I know...but all of the plumbing is being redone and we're getting a new toilet, and hopefully a new sink too (at least I think that's the plan). :)

And me, well, I've been painting, A LOT. Just waiting for the kitchen paint to dry and I'll be posting those pictures!

More Destruction than Renovation...

Jordan signed his name on a million pieces of paper on Monday and the house is now his (or OURS). :)

The first thing he did was rip out the wood paneling in the upstairs bedroom so they can sheet rock tomorrow. So our bedroom went from looking like this:


To this (with a little help from his friends):


(Note that there was pretty much NO INSULATION in the walls...

Jordan got a great deal on Sheet Rock the day after Thanksgiving. They're going to start hanging it tomorrow.

As for myself, I've been priming. We decided that the wood paneling was a little "70's". Our future dining room looked like this on Wednesday morning:

And this is what it looks like now:

I also primed the living room, but pictures of that would just be more painted paneling and that's totally boring.

Oh, yeah, and I bought us our first Christmas Tree! :)


We're working all day tomorrow, so I'll have another update soon!

Next orders of business: Sheet Rock, priming the "office", and figuring out what to do with the kitchen cabinets...hmmmmm.