Renovation station

Renovation Station. That is my house. We're basically finishing up everything we didn't get done last Summer before Addison was born. From August-October, I painted the Living Room, Dining Room, Master, Nursery, and upstairs Bathroom. Isaac gutted and re-did our upstairs Bathroom as well as the tenant's. He also built a new porch and bought a nice light and lamp post for out front to go with our new gardens. He re-did all the electrical and put new lights in every room. Shortly after Addison was born in late October, we had a new steel roof put on the house.

We started more renovations this Spring. I just painted all the trim, the shelving unit in the Dining Room, and the front entrance. Isaac and Laine are outside finishing the deck that they started building just two days ago.

Here's what's on the menu for this year:

• Build (solar) air heater for shop
• Make Bathroom vanity
• Drywall and insulate Bathroom wall and ceiling
• Tile Bathroom floor (and possibly the hall and Laundry Room)
• New (concrete) Bathroom countertop
• Bathroom lights/fan
• New Bathroom fixtures: Bought, not ready to be installed
• Paint Bathroom
• Insulate upstairs Bathroom window
• Re-paint upstairs Bathroom door
• Fix upstairs hole near Bathroom
• Rip up Kitchen floor
• Replace Kitchen floor
• New Kitchen cabinets
• New (concrete) Kitchen countertop
• New Kitchen sink
• Relocate Kitchen light switches
• Paint Kitchen
• Paint front hallway
• Paint shelving unit in Dining Room
• Paint upstairs shelving unit
  
• Paper/paint back hallway
• Paint all upstairs trim
• Paint all downstairs trim
• New hot water tank for tenants
• Insulate under addition
• Install Natural Gas heating
• New front door
• Paint front porch
• Build back deck
• Paint back deck
• Plant tree out front
• Build Addison's book shelf
• Build Addison's toy box
• Paint Spare room
• Paint Laundry Room
• New shelving unit for Laundry Room
• Sever lot for new house

Watching paint dry

That's what I did today. I wasted a day with my mom perfecting a brand new paint job on my front hallway, only to discover we were painting over an oil base. As the fantastic paint job dried, it began to peel. As we pulled the paint tape off, it began to peel off even more. We hadn't thought to primer, as the walls were basically white to begin with. The walls are textured, which adds to my frustrating (though they do look pretty when painted properly). We spent forever and a day trying to fix it and touch it all up. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it looks like. Hopefully it'll be okay and we won't have to start over.

Now I know for next time? Unfortunately we only have three more spots left to paint in the entire house. I've learned my lesson a little too late.

I should probably go to bed now. I've tried to once already and failed miserably. Addison went right out and I felt really tired but just couldn't shut my brain off. Instead, I came downstairs and stared at my new half-ass green walls and did a load of laundry. Awesome.

I think it's time for a post that's not all baby

"I wanna talk about me.  I wanna talk about I.  I wanna talk about..."  Oh Toby Keith.  How I love thee.  Seriously though, I think it's time to mix it up and give everyone an update on everything else going on in our lives, and start this Blog Challenge.

Isaac and I are loving our new house and baby girl.  He's still in the city Mon-Thurs but that's about to change very soon.  He's taking Paternity Leave!  He'll get the whole last half of it (six-ish months).  I'm so excited!  I'll be staying home too, focusing on school and enjoying being a stay-at-home Mom (SAHM) for now.

We got the house in July and I moved in in August of last year.  Before our tenant moved in September 1, he redid our upstairs bathroom and her bathroom from scratch, painted said bathrooms/our bedroom/living room/dining room, started the nursery (still not quite finished), got a new roof, took down the old porch and made a new one, resurfaced the deck and stoop, installed a new outdoor lamp post...That's all I can think of off-hand but I'm sure there is more.  We picked up new couches, replaced some light fixtures.

Why am I telling you this?  We're continuing the renovations, starting this Spring.  Isaac is ripping apart the kitchen and downstairs bath and starting from scratch on both.  We'll redo the laundry room too, and paint everything, plus the two entry ways and guest bedroom.  Everything mentioned is getting new floors, too.  I'm so excited!  It'll be a lot of work but he got all that stuff done last Summer when he was only here on weekends, so I imagine this will be done quickly too.

We also got a trailer to camp out in at the lot for the Summer.  It's mainly a roof over our heads when we're out there in a few years building our future house.  Again, SO excited!

I was supposed to start school this semester but CUTV didn't have much to offer and not many people signed up for my classes so they were scratched.  Not impressed by this AT ALL but what can you do?  Hopefully I'll be able to find enough Summer courses to get my degree finished soon!!  I can't wait to go back.  I really miss school.

The in-laws have picked a location and date for their 30th anniversary cruise, which should be nice.  They're gone for three full weeks!  They'll have to catch up on their time with A when they get back.  They're going in April and return just in time for the birth of A's cousin!

Speaking of, Ryan's second daughter is due April 29.  I'm guessing she'll be born April 25.  I don't know why, I just picked that date and stuck with it.  It'll be a busy time of year for that family.  Once she's born, they'll have about three months to finalize their plans for their wedding (reception).  We all have so much to look forward to this year!