Carpet......and the moving begins

This past Friday, the carpet guys showed up to carpet the basement and living room. I signed my kids up to help them out by picking up all the scraps of carpet padding. The kids thought that it was cooling helping them. I'm sure the guys liked one less thing to do!

I guess I haven't taken any new pictures with the carpet in......gasp! So unlike me....I'll have to get on that! But now that carpet is in and everything is sparkling cleaning pretty much everywhere......we started moving some boxes!

Here is the first official load....with many more to follow. Our moving date is in less than two weeks. I hope to take a load over each day and put it away until we move. I hope this method helps make the transition a bit easier on my nerves/stress level. If you can add us to your prayer list over the next two weeks and we pack and unpacked, load and unload, I would sure appreciate it. This end result of this process is such a true blessing, but that doesn't make it stress free.
So if you don't hear from me much over the next weeks you'll know why...smile

Cabinet Update.....

Here is a shot of pre-sanding, pre-priming, pre-painting, pre-antiquing, pre-poly......

 This is after sanding, 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of paint, antiquing, glazing, then 2 coats of polyurethane......drum roll please.......

I still have the hinges to put back on and the hardware to put on.....plus these beauties I picked up

They were only a few bucks and came as bare wood. I painted and antiqued them, then put some poly on them. They are going on the two "drawers" under the sink. You know the ones that looks like drawers but they are not. It just a little jewelery to dress it up a bit. You simply use a good wood glue to put them on. Remodeling the cabinets has been a big job, but I have had help with all the layers of priming and painting. I am very pleased with how they look! I'm so thrilled with the results that I can't wait to tackle the vanity in the master bath....eventually.....after a nice long break.

Painting the Cabinets!

This was our kitchen when we first bought the house...wallpaper boarder...laminate flooring...flowery fluffy curtains...ohhhh my! Not exactly dreamy in my eyes. So I immediately knew there would need to be some elbow grease involved in this space.

We have reached the point in our remodel that my attention had been directed solely to the kitchen. So this past weekend I started digging in......

First I removed all the doors, hinges, and drawers. Then we spray them all down with a chemical called TSP. It removes all the grease, dirt and any other yuck that is on the cabinets.

We just ripped up the carpet in the living room, and I thought this would be a great workshop area. After cleaning everything with the TSP, it was time to sand everything down. I used a hard grit (360 for bare wood) sandpaper and went to work. All the cabinets bases, the island, doors (both sides) and drawers were roughed up.

In the first picture you can see that these cabinets bases have a laminate overlay on them. Not my favorite. So I bought the nice thick wood bead board to replace it. I bought the wood version so it would take the paint well. Here it is with one coat of primer on it. I wanted my island to look more like a piece of furniture, and I think this bead board will help accomplish that look.

I find painting all of the doors so relaxing. I like to see them transforming right before my eyes! Believe it or not painting these cabinets has been one of the most controversial things we've done. People get really passionate about whether or not to paint wood. That's also one of the things I think is fun about making all my decisions for the house. Having your home is about making it your own. Your home naturally will reflect your taste, your personality, your style. My dream kitchen happens to include painted antiqued cabinets....I think I might even win over a few of those who thought painting them was a terrible idea....if not, I'm okay with that too! I know I WILL LOVE IT!!

Well minus all the tools and junk which have found there home on my kitchen island for now....this is the progress so far. One coat of primer is on everything in this picture....I'm a bit farther than that now. Well that is the house update for now. I'll post more on the entire process when I am totally done, just in case some of you would like to tackle your cabinets!

One Step Closer.....

We are moving one step closer to the end of our BIG PROJECTS at the Dream House. I have been painting.....painting....and painting some more.....and just when I think I'm done......yep you guessed it! The good news is when I am completely done every ceiling and wall in the ENTIRE house will be freshly painted which will hopefully last a very long time!

When you are painting trim for the basement.....you getting even closer! Ohhhh that feels good!

After one of the bathroom looks like this.....

Then another looks like this..

Ours kids have decided that demo is pretty FUN!

All in the name of getting ONE STEP closer to move in day..........

Lots of Excitement!

Lots of EXCITEMENT going on in the Little Miss Julia department lately.....

She wrote her name all by herself for the first time.

She is really getting into "her school work". I'm trying to hold to the girl off a bit, she's only three. She insists upon doing school work like the boys...which isn't bad. If she doesn't slow down I'm not gonna have anything left to teach her for kindergarten. Oh well, I think most kiddos her age with older sibling have this same issue. I think it's a good issue to have...smile.

One BIG HUGE thing that also happened was that Julia asked Jesus into her heart last week. I was having a conversation with Caleb about heaven and then Julia asked how we get to heaven. I laid out the plan of salvation. She asked for forgiveness of her sins, and thanked Jesus for dieing on the cross and rising again for her, then asked Jesus into her heart. It was such a sweet time.....and it on happened during bath time! Julia is the last of my little bunch to accept Christ as her Savior. It's has been such an honor to have been able to lead all the kids to Christ.....it always seems to happen during the day when daddy is at work. Now I will continue to train them on what it means to walk with God in their daily life....by example, by discipline, and  by simply loving them while they are still at home with me.

Paint Selections....

While I realize it's really hard to tell the exact colors via the computer screen, I thought you might like a peek into what colors I picked in the basement. Some are neutral (the common spaces), but I really enjoyed adding lots of colors to the different rooms!

I LOVE this teal and dark brown!

 You tell your mom you want a RED room and she delivers! I paired with this gray (old driftwood to ease the shock fact a bit.) I also used this gray in the school room.

This really isn't a good photo, I see the spot light is on in the room. Well anyway it's a nice spring looking green....I'm planning to pair it up with some whites and dark brown accents.

I don't have the stairway and hallway painted yet, but it's called "creamy pebbles"...reminds me of sand. I think it will look great once I get it all done......Almost done with our HUGE painting marathon! Almost............

Here soon I'll post some pictures of what colors the other two kids picked for their rooms.

Basement Update!

I am thrilled with how the basement remodel is coming right along. At the end of last week we had drywall up and the mudding had begun. Tuesday was my first official "GO day" on painting. With the help of several committed volunteers (who are grossly underpaid, but super appreciated) we got the first coat of paint on most the room lickity split. By Wednesday evening we had a second coat on most of the rooms, and the contractor was able to continue on with their work.
Here are some "new drywall" pictures:

 Want to know what colors I painted the rooms? I'll soon post some pictures and let you see for yourself. I picked some fun colors along with some neutrals....I'm glad all those decisions have been made....whew!