Sunday, June 3, 2012

We moved in!! 

But WOW...this is quite the lengthy post....I haven't posted since February....so needless to say, a LOT has happened since then!  I have all the pictures to document it, so here's a little photo-recap of the last 4 months that are essentially my scapbook of the project :)

We replaced the driveway....

 


 
We bought a safe....and somehow got it up the steps with the help of our neighbors.


 Elizabeth helped out in cutting the MDF for our fake walls that hide the new duct work. 


We picked out paint colors....then actually had the whole house painted.


And we picked out the tile for the bathrooms....and then layed all the tiles ourselves.




We had great friends come help us mix concrete and fill in the holes we made while fixing the pipes.

 


























We built a fence to hide the AC units and the trash cans.





We bought all new interior doors and hung them.










And then Will had to buy a new tool that I had never heard of (a router) for the doors.

 

Getting to the fun stuff....the start of our kitchen cabinets!


And.....the start of paint!!

 



Oh, Jose.  I don't know how he does it.
 


Liddy helped out with the trim around the closet window!  Hard-core nail gun, Thanks Liddy :)


Our painters :)  And 2 of my favorite features, the high gloss rail and the dark contract beams.




Will trimming out the glass blocks window and the painters working on the exterior.

My fave - the bulbs from our wedding now in bloom!


We installed new door hardware.  You would not believe how long we stood in that same aisle at Lowe's trying to decide knobs vs. levers.  Levers won out and I'm so glad!  I think they look great.

The cabinets coming along!


We bought a lawn mower....necessary investment.


This is our floor tile....we thought for sure that 3 pallets worth of tile would be more than enough to cover the first floor.  Little did we know that we were actually 2 boxes short.  This tile was our nemisis.  If I never have to lay another tile I will be a happy lady :)


Will's mom, Sherrie, helping us out.

Deciding on how to lay the tile. 

New tools....


Getting ready to lay the first tile...






Moving on to tiling the bathrooms - Master!



As we opened up and installed our appliances - so excited! 



So I went out of town for the weekend and I came home to find that Will had done the whole kitchen backsplash!   Should have done that more often....



Downstairs Powder Room Tile


Master Shower - almost fully tiled 


The Guest Bath - Will and I did this on one Sunday and I was so thrilled with the way it turned out!


We had the wood steps refinished - amazing!  And they match the down stairs tile really well. 


Remember those 3 pallets....we were about 1/2 way through at this point and felt like we'd been laying those tiles for ages.  And for educational purposes, the green dots are actually spacers in between the tiles.  We put them there so the tiles are spaced evenly and then you take them out and grout the space between.  Those little green guys KILL your fingers though. 


We produced a LOT of trash.  All trash in the trailer - all recycling in the truck.  The good news is.....that trash came from opening boxes with appliances and vanities and sinks! 


Now to the fun stuff....

The powder room!  Kinda funny story actually.  We started installing the original vanity that we had bought for this room and right in the middle of it we realized it was TOO BIG for this room!  It came out too far, which meant the door wouldn't open or close...kind of a problem for a bathroom.  Fortunately we were able to switch out the vanities for the guest bath and the powder room.  This one JUST barely fits.


WOW!  Doesn't carpet just make all the difference in the world??  Right after the carpet was installed, the house was no longer looking like a real house....it was feeling like a real house.  Pretty amazing.


Master bath.....more progress :)



Had to include a close-up.  My mom literally wouldn't open the front door once she noticed how disgusting the door knobs were.  Needless to say, I was elated to see them come off!

vs.


Small plumbing issue....we had a leak in one of the pipes and water was coming down from the ceiling.  So we had to cut into the ceiling and fix the pipe.  Good thing it was right BEFORE our guys were coming to do drywall and paint touch-up!


My dad came and cleaned out the garage!  Which included scraping the entire floor....not fun.

My dad also put the grill together...thanks to Will's parents for giving it to us!!


This is what wedding presents look like after being in your parents' basement for 7 months....


We used some very interesting methods of transportation for moving our belongings.... :)  You would not believe what this looked like following in the car behind!  It was hilarious - we only had to stop for a few things that went flying.


And drum roll please......FIRST NIGHT!


My favorites...before we unpacked all the boxes, I snapped these quick pictures of the kitchen


Master Bedroom - the bare minimum needed to sleep! 


Master Bathroom Vanity 


Unpacking our China!! So much fun for my Mom and me - Will, of course, looooved it.

My dad putting together our Ikea coffee table. (That little trip to Ikea could have it's own post....let's just say Will thought we would be in and out of there in less than 2 hours....it took almost 6)


 Will started working on our "barn door" for the pantry in the kitchen.


More Ikea furniture...

 
Some spruced up landscaping - front and back exterior (Sally's starting to make herself at home)
Our pantry Barn Door!

 

We had been cooking with an electric skillet for several days, but we finally got the gas hooked up and got to see our new stove turned on! 


Furniture!  The relaxing area of the kitchen.


Still rough around the edges....but we had a little cookout with some friends to celebrate!  Thanks to everyone who joined us!  And most importantly, thanks to all the friends and family who have helped us build this.  We couldn't have done it without you.




Oh yea, remember those friends and family?  Not done yet!  John and Sabo helping Will screen in the porch.  Which lasted a mere few hours before Sally jumped through it....whoops.



While the screen porch was being added, Nick and Grainger put together and hung this linen closet for the guest bath.  Gotta love Ikea.


Hard to believe it, but that is literally IT for now!  We are gearing up for my sister's big party here next weekend to celebrate her wedding with all the Greensboro folks, so we have a serious deadline to get the rest finished, decorated and cleaned up!  We can't wait :)

Thanks so much again!  Let us know what you think.