Beautiful Weather to Inspire!

We have had a wonderful break from the heat this last week. The kind of break that lets you open all the windows because it's cooler outside than in. Even though it's strange August weather, I'll take it!

Last week I barely touched my computer, and that was fine. Hubby and I got a lot done. Not as much as we hoped, but enough that I'm okay taking things a lot slower from here on out. We still have to sell our other house before we can get the rest of the kitchen finished. That could take a while. Even though most of the house still looks like this...

No floors and stuff piled along the sides.

We have one room that is finished "enough" to enjoy and be our sanctuary from the rest of the crazy.

And finally, as soon as I hit publish on this post, I'm going to write! From here on out, I'll get back on a regular schedule of exercise, house cleaning and writing time. I'm so ready! Even though there are still boxes piled up in the sunroom, this is where I'll sit and write today. The weather is a comfortable 72 degrees and the sounds of insect life buzzing is quite pleasant.

In other news:

• I've sent a note to my editor and am just waiting to get started on SFK edits. As soon as I know a timeframe for the release I'll let you know. 
• Now that I'm moved, I'll start advertising the Bold New Worlds contest more. I've sort of neglected it this month. :(

What are your goals for this week?

Kitchens and Sequels

I went without internet for a few days after last weekend's move. Thank goodness I had pre-scheduled the Adam Lambert post! Anyway. Every day has been filled with work. And driving my hubby's truck. Randomness right here! I'm so glad he finally bought a truck. A big truck. Why? Because I really like driving it. :)

Okay, back to the remodel goals for this week...

Getting ready to start laying tile. This is the one thing we're paying someone else to do--so far.

He laid about half of the 900+ square foot room today!

While floors were going in, hubby and I decided to try putting up our own wall cabinets because, why not?

Don't worry, the base cabinets won't be off center when installed. That's for those of you with OCD like me. I just like torturing you with the photo. :)

Most of the other work we need to do seems small compared to getting the floors and the kitchen put in. But there's tons of it left to do. Right now I'm just praying our other house sells, like THIS week. Until that happens, we won't have our kitchen island, the rest of the appliances, countertops, backsplash or floors in this area of the house.

I feel like I should sit and watch The Money Pit. I think it would make me feel better. Maybe. This house is old and that means we have had a few surprises. Such as the fact that we couldn't move our pantry from it's horizontal position to vertical because it was only half an inch shorter than the 8 foot ceiling. I really miss my 10 foot ceilings! We gouged a few new holes into our scraped and patched ceiling. In the end we cut off almost 4 inches from the base before we could scrape by. Of course once it was upright there was plenty of room to spare.

And, after four months of begging multiple electricians for a quote on the work needed at this house, I finally got one yesterday. It's in the $8500 ballpark. *sigh* We have three fuse boxes, none of which are up to code. They are about $1200 a piece to replace. Then there's the cosmetic stuff we'd like to do. It'll have to be done bit by bit.

The good news is even in this state of chaos, this feels like home. That's a good thing when it's all said and done.

Okay, now for some great news!

It's official (actually it was official last Friday), WiDo Publishing has picked up Talia's sequel. All the paperwork is signed and they've announced it on their website. You can read the interview HERE.

Thankfully, we'll finish stage one of renovations by the time I need to start working with an editor. I'm excited for that. It's possibly one of my favorite parts of being an author. That's when you get to take something good and make it shine. It will also put me firmly in Talia's world so I can get back to drafting book three in the series. I REALLY want to get the first crummy version on "paper" by the end of the year. With hard work, and some luck, I can get that one out in a year instead of two. That's my goal anyway.

What's everyone else up to this week?

Quick update...

We move this weekend! Hopefully after that I'll be able to write some better posts. Or at least have time to look for guest posters. :)

After painting for 2 weeks straight, my hands hurt! They're cramped into a claw. But, the house looks and feels much better. Unfortunately, I didn't finish painting before the moving date--tomorrow. There are still 3 bathrooms and a laundry room that need painting. And lots of touch up work. Ah, well. Eventually.

Monday will see the beginning of tile work for the floors. Half of them (900+ sq. ft) are purchased and will be installed over several days next week. The kitchen cabinets (minus the island and the three pieces that had to be sent back because of damage during shipping) are ready to be picked up. Slowly we will get this house put back together.

I'm just not sure how we're going to survive without a full working kitchen. There is a stove and oven in my mom's attached apartment, but she has no counter space. Should be interesting. I see a lot of crock pot dinners in our future. And paper plates. LOTS of paper plates.

Remodeling Update

The Bad
1. I hurt! I don't think my feet will ever stop throbbing.
2.  Our roll-out was promised early Thursday morning (for a huge cost mind you), but it didn't show up until this morning (Friday).
3. We still can't get an electrician to call us back. We've tried 5 of them now. Everyone is busy, and I guess the two who came out to give us an estimate were scared off?


The Good
1. My family is AWESOME! They are all working super hard to make this place our own.
2. My husband is THE man! Seriously, who knew he could do all these things?
3. All the trash is out of the house
4. The closet wall is rebuilt--my awesome hubby and I did it ourselves!
5. The kitchen ceilings have been scraped
6. The big room ceilings look just fine with a new coat of white paint (we decided not to kill ourselves scraping it)
7. All the tile, linoleum and carpet is out of the two main living areas
8. We are not getting out of bed early tomorrow. At this point we just hope we CAN get out of bed. LOL
9. There is a new fridge in my mom's apartment area
10. Even after buying my hubby a few new toys, we've saved a ton of money doing everything ourselves.
11. Floors are scheduled to be delivered next Wednesday

Best of all, I think doing it as a family has brought us closer. Instead of sitting around the house this week, my teens have been working. And they like it! There's been no bickering (other than about who's turn it is to do something), and they've been helping each other. I love it!

Here are a few more pictures.

The boys' room

The driveway has been pressure washed

As soon as the pile of trash was loaded into the dumpster we started on carpet and tile.

After scraping some more ceiling, daughter #2 had her dad "wash" her hair.

Son #1 and a friend helping us shift some of the debris in the roll-out. I was terrified they were going to step on a nail. Luckily, there were no injuries here. 

With the trash gone and ceilings scraped, we decided to try to rebuild the closet wall ourselves and save some money.

It fit perfectly the first time! We were surprised because it seemed so easy. I guess years of HGTV and DIY were worth something after all.

After a 12 hour work day, our new wall had to hold us up!

Remodeling with a little paint

 I have not been home much so far this week. My body hurts all over and I'm sleeping like the dead at night. We are still waiting for our dumpster to show up at the other house so the big changes are at a standstill. However, I have been painting.

These pictures don't really show things well, but it will give you an idea. I keep forgetting to take before pictures, sorry. I pulled this first one off the zillow site for the house. Everything was painted this blechy beige color. That plus the wood trim makes the house look old even though it's got great space and potential.

Last night hubby went out by himself and went a little paint crazy. He bought this professional grade paint sprayer and really wanted to try it out. Since we planned on scraping these ceilings he didn't bother to tape anything. He also wanted to rip the carpet out and just leave the plywood floor until we get around to phase 2 tiling, so he didn't cover it. Everything now is a light gray with a hint of blue in it. It feels a lot lighter. (That weird green strip is in a different room and will be gone soon.)

Did you notice he painted EVERYTHING! Even the wall heater. I hope that isn't a problem when we go to light it (propane). He also painted all the trim and called it a primer coat. I think he just wanted to play with his new toy and didn't know how to quit. :)

This next room is the boys. They are going for a beachy theme. I let them paint. Well, they started painting and decided that wasn't nearly as fun as punching holes in walls. I did the second coat on my own and added the stripe. It's high because I didn't want to deal with all the oddly placed outlets.You can barely see one of them up level with the window. This was all we planned, light gray with a blue stripe, but it doesn't feel finished to me. Last night I bought some bright orange and plan on adding a thinner stripe to the top and bottom of the blue. And the trim will get painted white. Anyone have some surf boards for sale? 

The lighting is really bad in the girl's room. K chose this bright yellow for her two walls. A picked a soft violet for hers. I'll try and get a photo with both colors in it the next time I go out. It's not as scary as I thought it would be, and once they get furniture in it will look even better.

Our rollout will be delivered tomorrow and it will be back to moving walls and the kitchen. This time from the floor out of the house. I can't wait to see the space as it will be without all of that trash. It already looks and feels better. Once it's clean, we will be ready to rebuild the back side of my closet wall (only in a different place) and get the tiles in. I picked this great looking white ash wood looking stuff. It sort of looks like reclaimed wood, only whitewashed.

What's everyone else up to this week?

Renovations Report Day 1

We've been waiting to buy a particular home for the last four months. Our hope was to sell our current house first, but that hasn't happened...yet. However, with the beginning of school quickly approaching, as well as the desire to do some renovations before moving in, we decided to go ahead and buy the second home.

It's terrifying in one way, but after months of praying about it we still feel good about this decision. We closed on Friday and immediately started the work.

Before

 After 4 hours

Now we just need the dumpster to arrive. :) Saturday we scraped the popcorn ceilings in part of the kitchen. It was easy but super messy. Once the dumpster shows up (hopefully today or tomorrow) we will clear out the debris, finish scraping the ceiling and rip up the carpet and tile so it will be ready for the new floors to be installed. Finally, we will get a new kitchen straight from my dreams.

It's so exciting to finally be working on the new house. Although it's quite a bit older than our current home, the potential and space is wonderful!

I'll post regular pictures while we work. Here's some of my favorites from Friday.

I got to take the first swing with the sledgehammer. You can see how surprised I was at how it felt going into the drywall. I've always wanted to punch holes in the wall but never have.

And then there is my youngest. He was in heaven! And a bit silly.

One wall down...

The pile of debris.

My kids kept fighting over the sledgehammer. I wish they did that with the opportunity to unload the dishwasher!

At one time everyone was working on the same wall.

He couldn't lift the sledgehammer but did lots of damage with the crowbar.

More to come!

Today we will be painting the kids' rooms while we wait for the dumpster to show up. We'll also continue pressure washing the outside of the house. 

What do you think? Are we crazy? (definitely!) Neither my husband or I have ever done this kind of thing, but we've got YEARS of HGTV and DIY Network under our belts. That means we're professionals, right?!?