A Light at the End of the Tunnel

My, my, my...it has been a very long time since I've blogged.  We have been very, very busy!  I obviously cannot share all of the fun things I have been up to, but I know lots of people who are very curious about the progress of our house and our housing situation:)  I'll update you as best as  I can!

First of all, we are currently living in my in-law's basement!  Our house was under contract within a month of us actually putting it on the market, and closed on May 23rd.  We feel so very blessed that it was such a fast sell!  To us, it was just another confirmation that God truly is taking care of us and wanted us to move!  Also, to many, living in your in-law's basement doesn't sound appealling at all.  However, my in-laws have beautiful walk-in showers and a front loading washing machine in their basement (among many other fantastic things), so, though I am extremely excited about the new place, I am QUITE content right now:)  We are so very thankful to them for letting us stay with them! 

Now...onto the house stuff!  Here is a not-all-inclusive list of what's been happening...in extremely random order...

• Walls and basement ceilings re-textured
• Wood floors installed and finish
• upstairs hall bath, laundry room, basement bathroom and vanity areas, and most of the basement bar area is now tiled
• wainscotting installed in dining room
• wainscotting mostly installed in the laundry room
• cabinet refinishing is a little further, but definitely not finished (and won't be when we move in, as I haven't had a place to work!
• Master closet rebuilt
• shelves added in laundry room closet
• Awkward wall in laundry room moved about 6 inches back
• French doors added in basement
• duct work re-vamped
• Gutter system altered
• Kitchen cabinets altered for new appliances
• Columns in basement decoratively wrapped

Also, we have had TONS of help cleaning and preparing for the painters to come.  Fred and Libby, my sister Shawn, and my parents have helped us big time, and I seriously would have gone crazy without them!  (Thank you so much!)   I absolutely hate all of the little things that have to prepare for the big things, such as cleaning EVERYTHING, taping windows off for the painters, and removing cabinet doors from every cabinet in our entire house, but it all has to be done, and is all very time consuming!  There is no way we would be ready for the painters if they hadn't helped so much!

I've mentioned the painters a couple of times.  We originally wanted to do all of the painting ourselves.  However, we ended up doing a lot more work than we first planned, and the project is taking much longer than I expected.  We have 2 foreign exchange students arriving in July (which I do believe is new, extremely exciting, news since my last post)  We definitely want them to have a comfortable place when they arrive, so we need to complete this mongo project asap!  This is why we are hiring professionals:)  The painters are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, I do believe.  They are painting all of the woodwork, the kitchen cabinets, all of the walls, and the ceilings.  It is going to be the most significant progress on the house thus far.  I am sooo excited!

The week after the painters finish, we plan on adding carpet and granite, grouting the tile floors, and putting the final finish coat on the wood floors.  After that, we plan on moving in!!!  We definitely won't be as finished as we originally hoped to be when we moved in, but the finishing touches are definitely not necessary for living in the house.  For example, our light fixtures will be dated, and we won't have shiny new plumbing fixtures on the sinks...but we will still have light and water.  No big deal :)  We plan to finish those projects as soon as we are able:)

Here's a little picture update:)

Finishing the wood floors.  They are so dark and lovely!  (and covered in resin paper, so I can't enjoy them!  But it's keeping them safe!)

Wainscotting!  Wood detail, and wall area enclosed with wood will be white, and the walls will be a medium-brown.

Adorable wainscotting in laundry room.  It is not finished in this picture, and the cabinets now have 2 coats of stain.

Wood floors are covered, and cabinet doors and island are out.  Ready for painters!  (I love the light fixtures that Wes installed!)

Basement.  The columns aren't completely finished.  It looks so much more open without the brick half-wall!  Also, notice the lovely french doors and the light from the window in the other room pouring in.  (happy sigh:))

New master closet organization:)

Tile in the basement bathroom and vanities.  It makes the space look so much larger!

.As you can see, it doesn't look amazing in there just quite yet, but we are getting so close!  I think the paint is going to fix the majority of the eye sores, and make it look so much cleaner, and obviously more finished.  Even though it still feels we are a long way away, the schedule shows otherwise.  Thank goodness!  I  hope to be able to share beautiful pictures soon!!!

:)  Have a great day!