almost there

We are almost ready to move into the house. Meanwhile we are working on the Ash Rill house, enjoying some of our summer harvest, and taking trips we don't have time for :).

For some reason, I really had a hankering for home made lemonade. I think it's because I had some delicious (spiked) lemonade when we went away for our anniversary.

The boys are being pretty good. Wellington at the moment is driving me crazy. He's been very demanding lately and believes he controls my phone and the computer. The boys and I have also been battling a terrible cold for the last week and a half. I'm finally kind of feeling normal. Health is definitly not to be taken for granted.

Over the weekend we got to go to Lake Toxaway with Paul, Karyn and Andrew. We enjoyed being up there so much! It's a beautiful place if you ever get the chance to go. We swam, boated and did lots of fishing. I don't think Karyn or I have any chance but to do lots of fishing in the next several years. :) Here we are headed out.

{sorry about the finger!}

Fielding was out. of. control. when it came to fishing and having the fishing pole. I think we were all amazed/shocked/confused by his obsession.

While we were down at the lake, I spotted a snake in some of the shrub netting. The guys promptly went to work getting him out. In the end, the snake survived. We think he was nonpoisonous.

My brave husband.

Happy birthday, Karyn! We got to celebrate Karyn's birthday while there too. The boys were super excited about cupcakes...as always. They were delicious!

I also introduced the boys to Duck Hunt and Mario! Oh my...it was so fun to play the original Nintendo. Josh and I wanted to play but the kids ran off to get into trouble so we had to stop. :) Did you play the original Mario?

Ok- the house is getting sooo close! We got gutters last week. Here's the gutter machine. I had never seen this thing before.

Trips to Home Depot aren't as thrilling any more. Wells fell asleep on the way there. I transfered him into the cart and did most of my shopping before he woke up! Poor guy!

This window still hasn't been replaced. But you can see our cool bronze gutters here.

I couldn't help but do a little something fun since I was bringing these pavers from the other house anyway. ...An entrance to my will be garden!

The floors are still not right. We had planned to move Wednesday...tomorrow. But the floors have many spots that have issues. Thus, they are coming to sand, do another coat of stain, and put the poly on tomorrow and Thursday. Friday is moving day!

There was dust all over all the trim...even with a bagged sander. :(

Here's the kitchen this morning....While I'm writing this, the guys are finishing the granite and installing carpet upstairs. Check in next time for pictures of that progress!

That's all for now! Hopefully things will fall into place. It's crazy here. I've got to head back to the house to check work, pay guys, clean for floor people and then do some returns at Lowes!

~ Helen

Another week down

Below is one of my little pirates. We had a great time this weekend celebrating the birthdays of Michaela and then later my friend Lindsay. Wellington and Fielding were pirates for the kid party. :)
And here you see Wellington "relaxing" has he told me. We had lunch at the new house several times last week. I guess this is what Wells likes to do after a nice meal.

This week we worked on the cabinets, garage and floor. None are completely done. All look a lot better and the progress is exciting to see. Here's a picture of the cabinets with primer.

We painted the cabinets inside and out. It was great that we had nice weather most of the week. They guys were able to paint cabinet doors in the garage and outside. As you can see...the garage is a mess and was partially painted and drawn on. But now it has a nice coat of white paint!

I think the cabinets looked better even with primer!

The laundry room is all in! Cabinets have just been cleaned. I'll probably paint them sometime later. They are fine for now. Love that I have a sink in there!

We went with a lightened version of Sherwin Williams' "Chopsticks" for the cabinets. They are a very soft cream, a little darker than our trim. I haven't picked out knobs yet...maybe tomorrow. We plan to go with oiled bronze hardware.

Sorry for the fuzziness....Just another view of the cabinets painted.

We're finally to doing the floors! I remember talking about the floors as one of the last things to do. So exciting! They were supposed to be done today. However, true to form, the subs are not done and Josh actually went over today and did some work behind them. But everything is sanded and we have 2 coats of stain on the floor. They are not where I want them to be. We want a white painted floor but no one will do it for us. I guess they are concerned about durability. In the pictures below, the baseboard look aweful ~ please note that there is dust from the sander and they won't be that yellow. :) They boys were amazed by the sanding tools.

On top of the stain we will put down a polyurathain (sp), 2 or 3 coats, and then the quarter round trim. This week will be devoted to getting the floors done, garage finished {little painting left}, and the granite template made {Tuesday}. Also on my agenda is to get my boys healthy! They both have nasty noses still and now I am loosing my voice. Please pray for health and energy for us to finish. We have 14 days or less till we move in. It's gonna be crazy!

That's it for now! Have a wonderful week!

Helen

The outside is almost done!

Happy Monday! My last post seems like ages ago. I'm having a hard time keeping track of things....Over the last week, the exterior has been painted {stucco and trim}. The inside walls are completely painted and trim is being painted now. Here's a picture of the exterior in progress.

A before paint from the back....

We took a little break on Saturday {after going to look at granite again} and celebrated my nephew Josiah's first birthday! Man, he loved that cupcake. He's such a cutie and love my boys. He just watched them the whole day like, "man, I can't wait till I can run and do that too!" :) We had a great time celebrating with them.

Wells was just beside himself. :) He even sang happy birthday with us! Fielding had a good time too, but can you see how tired he was...

I just love those naked bellies!

Back to the house...On Saturday, we picked out granite and signed a contract. We picked out a granite called "St. Cecilia." So today, I've been trying to nail down a cream that I like. This picture doesn't really show what it looks like in person. But it will be in this pallet but a little darker than shown. When I left the house earlier, the guys were taking the cabinet doors off to sand and prime. I also met with a carpet guy earlier to get a quote for replacing carpet upstairs. We're undecided about doing that right now.

Here's how the keeping room looks now. It has new paint and trim. The trim hasn't been completely painted yet. The floors are going to be started on Thursday! That means we need to bust it to get the cabinets and trim painting finished before then.

Foyer is looking nice....still have that lovely chandelier. Anyone want to give me a new one??;) We've been looking at fixtures online. We've found plenty we like but not with the right price tag. Maybe we'll find something on craigslist.

I love these little outdoor lights Josh put up.

We got some new hardware for the doors. I love how the oiled bronze looks. Obviously, I need to get new locks too. Its so depressing though going to HD just for door nobs and hinges and having a huge bill. But they look good!

The floors have been patched and are refinishing starts on Thursday! That means we have to finish all the painting of trim and cabinets before then.

I love that we have hydrangeas at the house! I love them and have never had any!

So remember how the guys didn't use a form board on this stoop? Yea. They didn't really level it either. I think it has to come out. And that has to be done before we can put the column back in. But the paint makes it look so much cleaner! These photos make it look really great...the stucco seems more muted in person.

All these boxes FILLED my house. We still have some clothes, a few dishes and our furniture at home...but I think we could easily fit everything we own in this addition.....crazy....

So, for this week I have choose a cabinet color, maybe choose carpet, pack, show house/choose tenant, be a runner for the workers, decide what to do about the back patio. Our options are 1) tear out, 2) resurface or 3) cap with stone. The fear with capping is that it will probably crack at some point and should we invest in doing the stone now? What would you do?

Update on Fielding ~ He's doing great. His pink eye cleared up really quickly and he's not showing any sign of his ear(s) hurting him.

Funny things the kids have done recently:

1. Wells informed us during our walk on Sunday that he is not Wells, he is Wellington.

2. Michaela told Wellington the other day that he was going to be her husband. Wells then looked at me with kind of a paniced look and said, "But...I'm still little??" As if to say, "I'm not ready for that mommy!" :)

3. Fielding is trying to potty on the toilet - to no avail. He just points at himself and then at the water like he's trying to tell it to work.

4. Wellington was playing blocks this afternoon and told me it needed to be painted and that he was building an addition.

5. Just after #4 Wellington said he was "going to work" then would come running to give me a hug saying, "I'm home!"

6. Tonight wells poured out the wire trash can, put it on his head, and said he wanted to play catch. We don't watch TV. Has he seen a baseball game???

There are more too, I just forget them so quickly. They are constantly doing hilarious stuff. I love my kids.

That's all for now! Have a great week!

Helen