Updating our 1986 Home - updatingour1986home

Lawn Chair that needs a new cover
IMG_1650.JPG 2012-03-20

ditto
IMG_1651.JPG 2012-03-20

Naked wicker furniture with no covers
IMG_1655.JPG 2012-03-20

Dungeon or Home Office?
When you first walk down the stairs, this is what you see to the right.

Possible playroom?
Right now we're just storing stuff down in the dungeon, I mean, basement, but it could be a great playroom for kids and adults.

Craft center...maybe?
One corner of the basement I have a lot of craft stuff.

Future Man Cave?
Past the home office area is where Craig would love to have a Man Cave where he could watch all his Gangster, war movies.

You work here?
Sometimes I work from home and yes, this is my home office.

Another shot of the "playroom"
I hope to one day make this a functional playroom.

SunRoom 404.jpg
SunRoom 404.jpg 2010-01-10

SunRoom 402.jpg
SunRoom 402.jpg 2010-01-10

SunRoom 403.jpg
SunRoom 403.jpg 2010-01-10

SunRoom001
The clear bin in front of the toybox is labeled just for dress up shoes and purses.

SunRoom002
This bin holds 95% of all the play kitchen food, utentils,etc. I wish it held all of it.

SunRoom003
This gray bin tucked next to the love seat contains more dress up clothes and dress up stuff.

SunRoom004
Garment rack holds most of the dress up clothes. There are a few upstairs.

SunRoom005
The toy bin holds several toys but some toy sets won't fit in the smaller bins.

SunRoom006
The view of the room from the back left corner. There are two kitchens the girls play with, their play table and toybox

SunRoom007
A couple of Melissa and Doug toys are kept here. The girls haven't been playing with their baby dolls like they used to

FamilyRoom

In the Family Room we keep some play sets, book case, and riding toy.

MoreFamilyRoom

Here's a laundry basket we use to store all the Little People toys.

FamilyRoomBookcase

The last two shelves have been taken over by toddler friendly dvd's (I limit regular tv) and diaper changing stuff.

MoreFamilyRoomBookcases

The bottom of our other bookcase has more of the girls books, VHS tapes and legos.  I think the legos would get played with more if I had a better place to store them.

AgainFamilyRoom

The kid friendly trampoline with handles that will not fit in the Sun Room and I don't know where else to put it.  It's an awesome toy for wearing the girls out.

LivingRoom

Here's the living room\gymnastics play room.

MoreLivingRoom

The rest of the living room is pretty normal with not too much kid stuff going on.

MoreLivingRoom

The overstuffed toy box in the living room.

DiningRoom

The girls stand in this when we cook together in the kitchen.  I store it in the dining room.

VanityDrawing.jpg
VanityDrawing.jpg 2009-12-19

KitchenCountertopsDrawing.jpg
KitchenCountertopsDrawing.jpg 2009-12-19

Working on the Barn

Craig calls it a barn, I call it a shed.   Should we call it a baed?

Later that summer

My Dad helping Craig work on the barn\shed.

Replaced all the dryrotted wood

Looks good guys!

Before Family Room
Yeck! Can't wait to get rid of the nasty old carpet in the family room.

Before Family Room
Before Family Room

Family room almost done
It looks so much better already.

Working on the Family Room
They're over halfway done with the family room here.

After Family Room
Doesn't it look beautiful?

More After Family Room
I LOVE our new hardwood floors. Bellawood rocks!

Before Hallway and Foyer
Before Hallway

After Foyer
After Foyer. Bye, bye dark parkay!

Before Hallway
Before Hallway with nasty old carpet.

After Hallway
After Hallway

Working on the Foyer
They started here at the entrance and worked across.

Before Living Room
Notice the boxes in the corner. We had those sitting in our house for about a month.

Starting on the Living Room
They had just started at this point.

Working on Living Room
Working on the Living Room.

Before Dining Room
I was glad to be rid of all those boxes of hardwood in the dining room.

After Dining Room
I think Laura likes the new floors.

More After Dining Room
Now we just need the shoe moulding put down the furniture put back into place.

Working on Foyer and Living Room
The installers got the dining room and foyer almost done the 1st day.

Cut to fit
The installers did all the cutting outside so we didn't have much dust.

Bellawood Natural Ash
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new hardwood floors. Gorgeous!

Another Close up
I had to get a couple shots of the new floors. Beautiful!

Picture 005.jpg
Picture 005.jpg 2006-08-22

P1010093.JPG
P1010093.JPG 2006-08-22

P1010094.JPG
P1010094.JPG 2006-08-22

I'm working on the upstairs playroom.  Check out the Playroom page to get the full breakdown.  I'll be working on their new closet curtains which will double as doorway play store and puppet theater.

We had a yard sale Saturday and sold, donated and threw away a TON of stuff! I spent most of Sunday cleaning out the basement.  The basements still a mess but I'm making headway.  It will be a nice playroom for the girls and us hopefully before it's cold outside.  It was definitely not cold today.  It was a sauna outside today.

Well, we've finally picked out paint for the kitchen, master bathroom and hallway.  The painter starts Monday.  I am hoping we can get everything done within the next two weeks before Easter gets here.  Craig's using the computer\guest room as a closet and his Mom is going to need it when she's in town for Easter.  I am just tired of living in a partially finished home.

Next, we've got to decide on the wall tiles for the kitchen backsplash; I'm hoping I can talk Craig into doing that this coming week.  He's taking off work Monday so maybe I can talk him into doing it then...hmmmm...

Well, what I thought was going to take two days actually took six days to complete.  Installing the new kitchen floor and putting the backsplash on the master vanity. 

TruRock got it right on the third try with the backsplash and even that wasn't perfect but hey, I was ready to have our vanity finished. 

The floor took six days because it began to bubble up in places.  I spoke to the contractor and they assured me this was normal for a vinyl floor because the glue was releasing gas and would disappear after 48 hours.  48 hours later we still have bubbles on the floor and realize that the installers covered up an air vent.

The floor installer came out and put a tiny hole in each bubble in the floor and then proceeded to squeeze on the floor to release the air as if to pop a zit.  He then fixed the covered up air vent and everything looks fine now. 

We have been without a stove, washer and dryer for six days and I'm about ready to lose my mind.  Not that I like to cook but eating out everyday is expensive and I really didn't want to take my dirty clothes to wash over at my parents house. 

Lesson learned: not matter how long you think somethings going to take it always, always takes longer.

Dad, Marty Bryan, is having a birthday today! He's the King in these parts but don't tell Elvis. ;-) Happy Birthday Dad!

 

Well, the kitchen countertops look great!  The only concern is the plumber has to move the dishwasher over a little; the granite installers had it too far over on the right so there's a huge gap on the left side.

 

We are happy with the kitchen countertops.  The masterbathroom countertop has a few issues; 1.  the wallpaper underneath the backsplash is visible, 2.  the backsplash ends are chipped and 3. the seam doesn't line up.  TruRock is coming back out next Thursday to fix everything. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

January 7th 2010 is the big day...we get new countertops in the kitchen and master bathroom.  The tile work for the master bath will soon follow! 

The cabinets look great!  We have an installer coming out tomorrow to look at the kitchen floor for putting in the new flexitec flooring we picked out.  Also, our drawings for the kitchen and master bathroom countertops are done.  Hopefully we'll get a new kitchen floor before Christmas!  If we're really lucky maybe Santa can work a miracle and we'll get the countertops in before Christmas. ;-)

The Kitchen Tune Up people were able to schedule us in for Friday so I'm going to post some before kitchen photos.  I don't expect the change to be all the dramatic; we're keeping the same color cabinets we're just hiding the old hinges and cleaning them up a bit.  It will be a subtle change but a good one.