Day 16

 

 New Years Eve Day!

 

New Years Eve Day!

 Day 16, the master bedroom floor is complete. Ok, maybe not COMPLETE in the full sense of the word but it is all down and ready to sand! One of the two guys got sick today so he had to leave early. It was only him and hubby there today. I took the day off to go with mother n law to get new boots for hubby. (have not mentioned how terrifically awesome my mother n law is in a while. She is the mostest awesomest mother n law ever!) And I’m not just saying that to kiss her ass cause she does not even get on the internet so will never read this. Lol To tell the truth, I am very fortunate to have all the in-laws that I have! My hubby has a GREAT family!!! Except his brother! He is a homeless guy that begs for change on Gunters Avenue and embarrasses the whole family!  (LOL Just kidding Brother N law!!!! Making sure you’re keeping up with the blog!) hehehehe

 Anyways ……… That was that for today. I talked hubby into knocking off early and we went to Huntsville and then Walmart, then came to mother n laws house and I cooked dinner for a change. Had an awesome day spending time with hubby, (other than in the concrete dust, paint smelling, floor hammering loud house). Lol

 Happy New Years everyone!!!!!

Day 15

Today hubby and 2 guys got to the house early. About 8AM. I didn't get there until right after 9AM. They got most of the hardwood layed in the master bedroom. The hardwood strips are an inch and a half wide so it took the majority of the day to do it. They worked a total of about 7 and ½ hours to lay the bedroom. The only thing left is the closet area. The 2 guys also put second coat of mudding on the walls.

 What did I do you ask? Welllll …….. I was on stand-by in case they needed anything; good thing I was! I had to go get more nails and a piece of wood to cover a boo boo in the master bedroom. Lol Who ever built this house (or someone who lived there) put an air condition vent in the floor in the master bedroom and when we pulled the vent up to lay flooring, guess what? There was insulation under it! WOW! (Actually we noticed it on day one). So I cut the piece of wood and hubby screwed it down. They got a lot done today and our house is looking closer to a home! Stay tuned and tomorrow I may publish a photo of what color I am planning on staining the master bedroom! MAYBE J

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Day 14

 Day 14 the 2 guys come in to help hubby with the house. I stay in bed until 9:45. I was so tired. There is a reason they call this MANual labor folks!

 So the 2 guys come in and the put the corners on the walls (not sure what the technical term is) and get them mudded. They also got the left side of the closet extended to the wall to make a his and hers closet.

 Hubby spent the day pulling up the tile linoleum in the kitchen. For those of you who have never done this before, it is a pain in the butt!!!! He had to use a heatgun to heat each tile before they would even think about coming up. It takes about 1 and ½ minutes to pull up one tile and there were hundreds in there! So that was his job for the majority of the day.

 When I got to the house, I brought lunch for hubby and we sat on the tailgate of his truck and ate lunch. (A tailgate party ….. well…….. sort of). Lol It was warmer to sit in the sun and eat than in the house.

 Once we got finished up with lunch, I loaded all the chair rail and baseboards into the back of the truck and went to the dump. Hubby tried his best to explain to me how to get there. (Man giving directions to woman is the same as woman giving directions to man ……… it’s like speaking French to an Indian). It took me FOREVER to find this place. (A place my son had no problem finding a few days prior! Obviously, he speaks the same language hubby does. This pissed me off even more lol!)

 I get to the dump. Oh what a lovely place! I have done 2 tours of Iraq and I tell you what, I have NEVER smelled ANYTHING as fowl as THE DUMP. And it doesn’t matter how cute you are!!!! You are an equal at THE DUMP. No one is willing to help you unload! (Unlike Lowes where I had THREE little guys helping me at the same time yesterday). J  THE DUMP is THE PITS! I will not be volunteering to go back there again.

 When I get back to the house, the 2 guy are packing it up and getting ready to leave. They will be laying the hardwood in the master bedroom tomorrow.

 Hubby was still digging up the tiled linoleum in the kitchen. I helped him do that. (And by “HELPED, I mean I got up a total of about 20 tiles out of a few hundred). He is such a hard worker! He is the most handy man I have EVER met in my life!

 Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow besides laying the hardwood flooring. The photos below are the closet (before and after photo) and the kitchen where hubby dug up all the linoleum. I’m sure tomorrow will be another fun filled day full of adventure! J

 CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Day 13

  

Today hubby gets up very early and goes to Fort Payne to pick up the rest of the cabinets; We now have ALL the kitchen cabinets and flooring from Fort Payne. I get to the house about 9:30 with breakfast. (I had to go to Burger King for the Croissants and McDonalds for the hashbrowns). YUMMY! We eat breakfast and he starts digging out the excess grout from the tile and I go to Lowes for sheetrock (to extend the closet in our room), nails, screws and some other items; also had to go to WalMart for cleaning supplies.

 When I get back to the house, I go upstairs and start cleaning the upstairs bedroom. The vanity (the one I thought was white) turned out to be not so white. I cleaned it with some all-purpose bleach spray and bleach water. To let you have a little clue of how nasty it was, there were whiskers in the drawers! WHISKERS!!! Not in the sink….. IN THE DRAWERS! Lol And there were some yellowish drippings from the top back to the lower back of the vanity. EW! Don’t even wanna know folks! I don’t even wanna know! (No telling what ANYTHING in that house is after finding a BONG in the attick!) I mean, never mind smoking marijuana is illegal, but to do it in the attic! Lol Oh well …. Moving right along...... I had gotten a new toilet seat but it was the wrong size so I just keep the seat off of it and clean it. If I thought the vanity was awful, that’s only because I had not really looked at the toilet. But, it looks brand new now. I fill the tub up with bleach water and let it sit a while before scrubbing it. In the meantime, hubby is downstairs still cleaning the grout line in the tile. It was very time-consuming.

 After I clean the bathroom, hubby starts grouting the tile and I go behind him with a sponge wiping it up. We were both on our knees for most of the day. It was a pain in the ass! Let me tell you! We (when I say “we”, I mean HE), misplaced the sponge, so I was then using a 5” by 3” sponge trying to get this crap off the floor! Lol Hubby calls mother – n- law to the rescue. (You know her, the great lady who cooks dinner for us every night and has coffee ready!!!) She saves the day once again. She brings us THREE huge sponges and TWO extra buckets! This lady does NOTHING half-assed! She is the awesomest! I see where the hubby gets it from J

 Anyways, hubby was planning on extending the closet out tonight also for when the guys come tomorrow to tape and mud the sheetrock. He forgot the saw! I run to mother –n- laws to get the saw and some dinner and he finishes the tile.

 When I get back, we realize that I forgot the nails at Lowes. We eat dinner and decide to just extend the closet tomorrow since we have had two very long days in a row and by this time we were both ready to go home.

 We clean up and leave the house for the day. Below are photos of the finished tile (that has to set for 30 days before sealing it), a photo of my cabinet (raw and have to be sanded, stained and sealed), photos of my clean bathroom )love the double sink and mirrors) and a photo of my hands after sponging the floors all day. Tomorrow and the weekend should go pretty smooth since we have the most time consuming things out of the way now.
(CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)

Day 12

 
Today was a long day. We went to rent a concrete saw so hubby could cut a trench in the concrete to run electricity to my new island! We got to the house and I started with removing the light switch covers and outlet covers from upstairs. Got all those taken off. Hubby started cutting a trench in the concrete. OMG! There was concrete dust EVERYWHERE! I came down to the garage to take photos of him in the kitchen and at one point could not even see him because of all the dust! He got the trench done and we went to Lowes.

 We got back to the house and he finished the trench. He put the wiring through conduit and then covered it back up with hydraulic concrete.
 He was going to start on the tile in the the bathroom but the vanity in there was PUT together in there; therefore, we could not tile unless we took the vanity out. So be it! The vanity AND the toilet (thank Goodness the toilet!) went out to the trash. I had tried everything I could to get rid of that vanity and toilet lol, NOW IT HAPPENS! :O) After the junk is out of the way (hehe) hubby starts laying tile in the latrine ..... ummmm .... bathroom. I offered to help cut the tile and for the first time ever, I got to use the tile saw. It was pretty cool…… AT FIRST. It’s like any new toy, the new wears off eventually. Lol

 We got a lot done today (even though it doesn’t sound like it). We worked almost 12 hours today.

 Thursday he is going to have 2 guys helping him so it should go pretty quick then. Everything he has done up to now has been very time consuming. Laying tile takes a while and this was his first time. Digging the trench takes a while also.

 I think tomorrow we will start grouting the tile and the floors in the master bedroom should go down Friday!!! Sooooo excited!

 Here are some photos of my hubby when he was digging the trench. This was at the beginning. There was one point that I could no longer see him because he disappeared into the concrete dust. Lol

 (I think Friday I will use my one hour massage hubby got me for our anniversary!)

 
 

Day 11

 

 Today I wanted my husband to take it easy. He has been so sick and still working 10 – 12 hours on the house every day! He went first thing this morning back to Fort Payne to get the rest of the flooring and the cabinets. Took everything back to our house and unloaded it. All the hardwood flooring is now sitting in the room acclimating and getting adjusted to the inside of the home so we can start laying it in a few days. (Hardwood flooring has to sit in the house a few days before you can lay it). Tomorrow I will start spackling the upstairs and he will start grouting the tile. 

Day 10

 

CHRISTMAS DAY! It's Christmas day and I am sitting in our bedroom floor in my new Christmas Pajamas. Ohhhhhh Nooooooo………  Not opening gifts…….  I was in my bedroom floor with knee pads over my new Christmas Jammies with a flathead screwdriver and needle nose pliers pulling the staples out of the floor that held the padding under the carpet on. Let me tell you!!! WOW! There was no pattern to these things. It’s like boss man said “just use a few boxes of staples to secure it down real good”. There were MILLIONS of them! OK, maybe not MILLIONS but very close to it. Got all the staples up from the master bedroom, two spare bedrooms, swept up the mess and now the floor is ready to lay the hardwood. (As soon as we get downstairs finished)

 Hubby FINISHED laying tile by the front door and around the edges of the living room. Tomorrow he will start on the bathroom downstairs. First thing in the morning he will go back to Fort Payne, Al and pick up the rest of the hard wood flooring and cabinets.

 His daughter is coming tomorrow with her boyfriend, so maybe they will get in on the help too!

 I posted the photos of my sons wreck to day seven if you are interested in going back and looking at the photos.

Day 9

 Day 9, Christmas Eve:  Hubby spent a little time cutting tiles to fit in corners today and I went to Huntsville Christmas shopping. We now are at his mommas house getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner. No updates will be done for the rest of today. Maybe tomorrow we can get over there in the afternoon and get back to work. Still no more photos, but will get more tomorrow or day after. Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 8

 Day 8: Today I wake up before anyone else so I get coffee on and breakfast cooked. My son is still sick from the ham sandwich so he doesn't eat anything. My hubby goes ahead to the house and I wait at his moms with my son for the mechanic to call and tell us the truck is ready.


My hubby lays what tile we have left and only has a little bit left to do. (Just finish the edges up (those are tiles that need to be cut) and lay tile in the bathroom downstairs). He comes back to the house, we go get truck, son heads back to Salem, Al (where he lives) and we decide to attempt to go back to Fort Payne to look at cabinets.


We get to Fort Payne to a place called Dixie Salvage http://dixiesalvageinc.com/. 

 we damn near have to run this lady down to help us. I was so frustrated by this point that it didn’t take much to aggravate me more. She showed us some cabinets, I was NOT impressed (with her OR her cabinets) and I am ready to leave! My hubby goes to the back through the double doors and starts looking at crown molding. (Meanwhile I am thinking, I do not want anything from this place!) I tell him “I am ready when you are”. He just “heavy sighs” me. (I am sure I am not the only woman in the world who gets that deep exhale when her hubby is frustrated with her and instead of saying something he may regret, he just exhales very deeply and loudly. (This is known as “the heavy sigh”. Lol

 We head to the back towards the hard wood flooring. Why? I have no idea since we already agreed upon laying the cut plywood at an average of $1.oo a square foot. WAIT! What is THAT? OMG! That is REAL hardwood flooring for $1.49 a square foot! And hubby would only have to stain it and seal it! Not sand it, cut it, stain it and seal it! OHHHHHH I ALMOST love this place!

 Long story short, we get a enough to do kitchen, dining room, master bedroom and one of the spare bedrooms. The lady that helps us figure all this up is FANTASTIC! She took the time to help us add up all the square footage and total cost of hard wood. (MUCH nicer than that OTHER lady).

 Once we are done there she takes us over to the cabinets and helps us there. I can NOT begin to express how nice and helpful this lady was! I was actually in a good mood now! Lol  Once we take up about a little over an hour of her time, she leads us to (in her words) a lady who is fantastic with helping design kitchens and getting the right cabinets.

 NOOOOO! IT IS NOT THAT FIRST LADY! HERE WE GO! RIGHT BACK TO HELL. I had decided in the first ten minute I was in the store (when we had to chase this lady down just to NOT help us) that I did NOT like her! ANYWAYS! She starts getting the square footage of my kitchen, sizes of the walls, where I want my appliances, where the plug ins and water pipes are etc, etc.

 She draws a few lines on her grid and ask what cabinets we would be interested in having. (OK lady, so you can draw a few lines on paper, so can a first grader! NOT impressed!) We move on to the drop-in stove. Alan tells her he has an island for my drop-in to go into. (The one I thought I was going to vomit when I first seen it in the house!) She then proceeds to tell him instead of chopping it down, it may be worth the money to just get cabinets and countertops there. OK LADY! I am not SO pissed at you any more! She gets me my new island!

 Now ot the sink and dishwasher. I say I wanted him to extend the kitchen wall to give more room and maybe put a breakfast bar there but we just didn’t have time to do that and the improvements to the house also. She explains we could also use countertop and cabinets to provide an extended counter top for a breakfast bar and scribbled on her little paper just how to do it, what size it would be and the exact cost. At this time I am slightly impressed with her knowledge of the products, prices and how to design MY kitchen JUST the way I wanted it. WHAT! What??? Did I just hear Alan say OK to my breakfast bar??? OMG Lady! I LOVE YOU! I REALLY LOVE YOU NOW!!!

 Longer story made long: We got hardwood flooring for kitchen, dining room, master and spare bedroom. We also got 9 base cabinets, 14 wall cabinets, countertops, an island and a breakfast bar for right at $4,000. !!!!! We expected to pay OVER $5,000 for JUST cabinets! Alan even left there with a painting of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that looks JUST like Chessey! Lol

 We load half the hardwood flooring (and did I mention that this is REAL Hardwood? (Maple) into the back of the truck, drive to Guntersville, drop it off at the house and then head to Christmas dinner with hubbys dad. All in a days work! Lol

(I will post a photo of the FABULOUSE kitchen that that WONDERFUL lady designed for me as soon as I scan it!)

 PS. EVERYONE at Dixie Salvage was VERY helpful! That place was a breath of fresh air after all we have been through. They were very knowledgeable, took their time with us and I would NOT go ANYWHERE else for supplies! I realize it was ME who had the bad attitude when I walked in there! Please check them out if you are anywhere in Alabama! It will be worth it!
                                   (Click on photo to enlarge it)

Day 7

 

Day 7! LUCKY NUMBER 7! It was raining in Guntersville today! My son wanted to go bow fishing since it was his last day here. He woke up and was throwing up and just sick. Seems my husband had 2 ham sandwiches the day before that his mom had made him. The sandwiches sat in the house all day and then hubby put them in fridge and gave them to my son to eat for breakfast. EW! Lol

 Hubby heads over to the house and my son and I head to house late morning. Today is the day to go look at cabinets! YEAH! FINALLY! Something fun! We get to the house and my hubby and I go to look at cabinets in Fort Payne, AL (an hour away) and my son takes hubbys truck to go bow fishing.

 We get almost to Fort Payne and my phone rings. (I hand it to hubby because I do NOT talk on cell phone and drive). Hubby answers the phone and hands it to me. *Confused now. I say “hello” and all I hear is a VERY low toned voice saying “momma”. “HELLO!”, KENNETH!!!! Silent air on the phone!!! OMG! Something is wrong! I hear “Momma, I just got in a wreck”. OMG! So, I flip out in my mind but stay calm on the phone (kinda) and make sure he is ok. A car came around the curve into his lane; he swerved, lost control and hit the guardrail. (Had guardrail NOT of been there, he would have ended up in Lake Guntersville!)

 We haul ass back to G-ville to make sure he is ok. (In the meantime, hubbys dad is with my son). Son is ok, though soar and still throwing up from ham sandwich lol. We take son to hubbys moms and then decide to go look at appliances since we didn’t have time to go all the way back to Fort Payne.

 OK….. so we get to Sears and we spend an hour and a half with the sales guy and I pick out ALL stainless steel appliances! OH YEAH BABY! Sales guy rings it up and says “go ahead and swipe your card please”. I look at hubby and said “WAIT!!! DON’T SWIPE IT!!!” I changed my mind! Lol I wanted to look at the black appliances to save us some money!

 I ended up with a dishwasher, side-by-side fridge/freezer and drop in oven for about $2,292.12 total! A savings of $1,000 because I went with black and not the Stainless! Delivery is set up for the 21^st of Jan.

  I leave there feeling great because, for the first time in my life, I have a BRAND NEW appliance! My hubby leaves there satisfied because he has the most wonderful wife in the world. (OK, and the fact that I saved $1,000 going with the black). lol    ( I have now added photos of my sons crash after the photos of the appliances.)

Day 6

Day 6 my son and hubby laid most of the tile in the living room. This is a timely job. My hubby had never laid tile before, but you wouldn't be able to tell! (And it is a process!) You first have to lay the tile, wait 2 hours before you can walk on it, put the grout in between the tile and wait 30 days before you can seal it! Well, they got the tile down today. MOST of it. The house is coming along very nicely! I went to the house for a bit and my son would mix and lay the mortar, lay it, I would hand hubby the tile and spacers and he would lay it. We had a nice system down. I only helped for a bit (not the whole day).  


 The photo does NOT show the TRUE colors of the walls. Hubby is going to put a beam up to separate the kitchen and dining room (so there will NOT be a brown line straight down the wall).

Day 5

 Day 5 was the first day my son and hubby worked on the house together. They fixed holes in the walls, prepared the walls to paint and then painted all of the downstairs walls. They also went and got tile to lay on the living room floor. That cost was about $500.00. It was $1.49 a square foot. A pretty good deal. I didn't take any photos of the house on this day.


 This was also the day my hubby and son dropped my sons truck off at the garage because on the way up here, a bar across the front of his truck was so loose you could shake it with your hand. A $600.00 fix. (Not sure if I will add that in on the renovating of the house or not) lol

Day 4

 

On day four, I was on my way back to Guntersville with my son following me so he could come help with the house. Hubby was once again at the house by himself. He put the second coat of paint on the kitchen wall, finished sealing the cracks in the foundation, got the water turned on, got the water working properly and got the heating and air unit working so we would have heat.

 On my way back from Salem, I called my mother N law and she asked how would I like pizza for our anniversary dinner. Anniversary!?? OMG! It was my anniversary! I TOTALLY forgot!!  I felt so bad! My great hubby didn’t forget though! He got me my first ever professional massage! Great gift after all his slave driving and making me tote ALL the carpet upstairs to the garage. Lol He is the best!

 Tomorrow should be very productive with me, my son and hubby all working at the house. Either VERY productive or a very good day for deer hunting lol (Deer run through our yard and there are even a few white albino deer running through there! Anyways…… whatever happens, I will post pics lol

 (Hubby didn't take photos today, so I will tomorrow morning).

Day 3

Day three I was on the road to Salem, Al and hubby was at house by himself. He got all the glue cleaned up off the floor from where we had to pull the linoleum up to repair the cracks in the foundation. He also got all the cabinets and kitchen sink moved out of the kitchen and got the kitchen painted with the first coat of paint. He also put the first layer of hydrolic concrete in the cracks in the foundation. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it is when you’re working alone!