Kat's First House

Not great pictures but I wanted to show you what the craft room looks like. Not very crafty yet, but I’m working on it! At least Captain Jack has a place now

Last weekend I had my house-warming party. No, the house isn’t finished. Yes, there is still concerete floor in half the living room. What was I going to do wait 2 years until everything was perfect? We busted our butts getting the house to this point and I wanted to let people see what I’ve been doing for the past 3 months.

Those of you who couldn’t make it have been asking for pictures so here they are. I forgot to upload the craft room pics…I’ll try to do that tonight. Let me know what you think!

The dining room looks so good with people in it

Julie and Sadie

The living room

Once the floor is finished I have to try arranging the room differently

If you put your finger over the concrete part you can imagine what the room will look like complete

I'm really happy with how the colors turned out

Dining Room

The piece that inspired the colors

Mom and Dad got me the chandelier for my birthday. I think it's perfect!

Still no bed in the guest room. I should probably get one before Rach gets here...

This valance matches the bedset I bought for the room

I'm so happy with how the master bedroom turned out

You can see my lovely new windows here too !

My beautiful purple curtains

Mom and Dad also got me this gorgeous lamp for my birthday. Thank you!

There is still a ton to do. I have to redo all of the bathrooms, finish the flooring downstairs and get all of the baseboards on downstairs. Then we get to tackle the kitchen remodel. The house is so different from when I bought it and I’m so happy with how it has turned out so far. Thanks Mom, Dad, Rick, Sarah and Tom for all of your help !!

That’s right, on July 25th I finally moved in. No, the house isn’t finished…not by a long shot, but it’s getting there and my lease was up at the beginning of August so it was time. My wonderful sister and brother-in-law drove up from NC to help. Thank you both!! We couldn’t have done it without you.

As for pictures, I’m not going to bore you with pictures of Tom and Rick moving heavy pieces of furniture while Sarah and I smile and look pretty (we did a little, I promise!) but I do have pictures of the huge trench Tom dug and the new retaining wall that will hopefully fix my leak!

My favorite brother-in-law

Sorry ladies...he's taken

The new wall

Please let this fix the leak....

I’ve had a ton of rain since and so far no water has come into the house. I think we’re going to start putting the drywall back up and readying the floor for the laminate soon. I might have a whole living room!!

Thank you again Tom for working so hard. The weather was hot and the work was back-breaking. I’m sure glad it wasn’t me, lol! Really, you are a lifesaver.

So this weekend was the big one, new floors! During the week the carpet installers were in putting in the carpet upstairs and on Saturday Rick and I got up early and headed over to the house to start on the laminate downstairs. After a run to the dump and breakfast (my workers insist on being fed) we put down the moisture barrier and we were ready to lay the first pieces.

Step 1: Moisture Barrier

Now I had read that getting through those first two rows was the hardest part but I’m not sure I believed it would be that hard! Work came to a screeching halt when we just could get the second piece in the second row to attach to the first row. I’m not sure I can really explain it but when you get to the point where you’re trying to make two sides snap together things get tricky. The instructions really aren’t that helpful. So, after much shrieking and a few tears of frustration I went to Lowes to buy a tapping block. I had read about them and I knew you were supposed to have them but Lumber Liquidators said everything you needed was in their bucket. They lied. Tapping blocks are your friend. Never forget that. So, with a tapping block and mom’s new insight on how to have the boards turned (we had the wrong side facing in) Rick and I started to make it happen.

Step 2: Laying down the first 2 rows

Step 3: Everything else

We got the first two rows together and then we were off. We probably didn’t really get started until about 2pm and by the time Dad got there around 5pm we were on a roll. Once dad started helping with the cutting we got the floor down fast! We were only doing half of the living room, I’ll have to live with concrete floors on the other half for awhile until we know the leak is fixed, but we managed to almost finish it before we called it a night.

The completed living room!! (Excuse the dust)

Yes, yes I know the picture isn’t that good but I didn’t find time to clean the floors this weekend. I’ll work on it…promise .

Sunday I was a little cranky, ok maybe a lot so there was a bit more bickering but Rick got the whole dining room floor down by himself (with dad doing all the cuts) while I figured out how to place the transition pieces. We managed to finish the whole room! The short little hallway between the living room and dining room still needs to be done but it requires notching and ripping the boards and we were all too tired to make it happen without killing each other so we called it a night.

Step 4: Rinse and Repeat

Rick loved every second....

During all of that Dad also managed to put up my new light fixture! I love it

New light fixture in the living room

Overall I’d say it isn’t that hard to put in laminate flooring but it is really time consuming and my body is punishing me for keeping it hunched over and on it’s knees for the whole weekend. I think I should have been tracking my bruises through this whole process. I’m covered in varying stages of black, blue and yellow bruises all over! But, the floors are absolutely beautiful!!!

Thanks Rick, Dad and Mom!! I know I’m a horrible foreman to work for but I couldn’t have done any of it without you and I really appreciate all the time and energy you’ve put into the house!!!

So between last weekend and this weekend we’ve made a lot of progress. All of the patches are closed up and paint is on the wall in all of the rooms. We’ve still got a lot of touch-ups to do be for the most part the paint brushes can finally take a break!

Walls Patched - Check!

Dining Room Wall

Dining Room Wall primed and ready to go

Red is scary....

The dining room wall is now painted red. I don’t love it and the paint is terrible . We didn’t have any problems in any other room but this one literally started peeling off like pieces of latex when we pulled the tape. We did everything right and used all of the primers they said were required. Not really sure what went wrong but I think it was the primer. I am not happy about it but for now I’m just going to have to live with it because the thought of sanding and redoing the whole room makes me want to cry.

When I said red I meant it!

Red dining room fiasco aside I found a professional to install the stair railing and he did a great job!! Saturday I stained it myself. Turns out staining is easier than painting. Who knew? These pics are before the polyurethane. The shine made it even prettier.

Doesn't it look good?

Railing on the inside of the hallway

Mom and I also got the floor in the dining room completed cleaned up and ready for the laminate installation. Thanks to mom for being persistant and not giving up even when I wanted to.

Try not to be jealous of my boots!

This Tuesday the guys are coming to put in the carpet and next weekend Rick and I are installing the laminate. Wish us luck!!!

Lots of work this past weekend even though it required me dragging my butt out of bed on Sunday after only 2 hours of sleep . Dad worked on Father’s Day though so I guess I can’t complain! Mom and I painted on Saturday and got the second coat on everything upstairs. That just leaves the trim in the master bedroom and the staircase trim, then we’re done! Well, except for the downstairs, but hey you can’t have everything.

Guest Room

I’d like to say that the master bedroom is actually a beautiful shade of dark, burnt, orange. Pictures just can’t do it justice. Try not to pass judgement until you see it in person. What I really wanted to show in this picture is the beautiful doorway that Dad made out of what was previously a large hole in the wall.

The orange really isn't this bright....

Craft Room

On Sunday Dad and Rick both made it over to the house. Rick hung my new mailbox

Rick and my new mailbox

And then he and Dad worked on cutting more holes in my walls to run Cat 6 for the future FiOS. Still have to run the Coax before they can seal those up. Dad also finished the lighting in the living room. Yay!!

And Dad said let there be light...

I will have FiOS

Since it was Father’s Day and all I let Dad knock off around 5pm and took him to Hard Times for the best chili dogs ever…somehow Rick convinced him to get the chili mac instead. Seriously he missed out, you can’t go wrong with a chili dog.

Laminate flooring has been ordered, someone is supposed to call me today to come measure for carpet, and I’m seeing two more guys about having new windows installed. Busy week and this weekend we’re focusing on the stair rail so if anyone knows how to install one please let me know!