Monday, September 27, 2010

Milestones!


SO, June 2006,
we purchased some oak hardwood flooring in high hopes of getting it laid and installed and able to enjoy sometime that year.

(photos of our kitchen dining area,
early on in our home owning)
OUR GOAL when we purchased the hardwood was to have hardwood flooring in the kitchen/dining room/great room and down the hall so the only carpet we have in our house is in our living room and bedrooms.

HOWEVER,
nothing in our life is easy at all!

(my hubby is what you call a
"jack of all trades"..."a do-it-your-selfer"

(IN FACT, as I am typing this, he is replacing all four struts in my car)

and SO since there are only so many hours in the day and only SO much of Tracy to go around, our projects always take longer than they would for most families.

However, any project that he does,
it is amazing when he finishes it!!  He definitely has the magic touch!
I am truly in AWE at the amazing talent he has in every area of life.
I don't think that there's anything in this world that he cannot do...
and that makes me a VERY lucky woman!


SO,
Since the only place we have had to watch TV
is in our great room which is in the kitchen/dining room, it meant that we needed to move our TV watching area to somewhere different when we laid the hardwood, but since we have been trying to wipe out debt, it didn't leave any extra wiggle room, for furring out and insulating the basement.

(the boys room when Ethan was just a toddler)

Fast forward to March 2010...
Tracy had the brilliant idea to
think outside the box
and make a TV watching/computer area in one of the bedrooms.

SO,
we pulled the boys out of the bigger bedroom
and made it into a cozy little TV/computer room and
we moved the boys into the smaller bedroom complete with new bunk-beds.

After we painted the rooms and swapped furniture around we didn't make any other headway on projects...the summer got away from us with non-stop obligations...between Tracy's work schedule, being Scout Master and wanting to have FUN with our kids during the summer, there was pretty much no free time to work on much of anything. But, that's okay.

Thank goodness I'm a VERY patient wife!!
Panorama of our new
TV/computer room

This is what you see
when you walk in the room

This is the view
while sitting on the couch
(HOWEVER, it's a good thing that projects take us so long to accomplish, because we usually end up changing our mind and end up with something MUCH better. That is the case for our TV watching room.
We are actually in the middle of changing that all around...can't wait to finish that project and post photos.)

This is the boys room...
we still have to build in shelving and lockers for them.

Fast forward to
September 11th, 2010
and this is what happened that day...
Carpet gets torn up...

I'm absolutely disgusted with the amount of DIRT on our sub floor after we pulled up the carpet and pad.
GROSS!!
You would never know that
I vacuumed every single day of my life!!
Ethan Kip was the hardest working kid that day.
He didn't ever stop working.
Hauling out the carpet...

Our neighbor boy Logan
came over and helped with the demolition of our kitchen floor.
The kids had SO much fun tearing up the floor!!
Excited to raise the cabinet
above our fridge so that it will be able to accommodate the hardwood floor AND to add a nice line to our kitchen cabinets.
Jade busy vacuuming up
all of the dust, nails and other other garbage from the floor.
Hardwood all stacked in our house
and hopefully it won't be too long, before we can actually start laying it down.
STILL lots to do...
we've got to finish pulling up moldings, redo a door jam, re-sheet rock an area, PAINT, build in shelves and the list goes on until we can finally start laying down the oak flooring.

Tracy using a special tool to cut off the bottom of all of the door trim to accommodate the wood flooring.

Once the flooring is laid,
then there will be LOTS of puttying holes/cracks on the floor and then sanding the perimeter and edges with hand sanders and then sanding the main area with a large sander and then staining and varnishing and then sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and then varnishing again(that last sanding and varnishing has to be done three times to get a good protective layer on the hardwood).
and then sanding, painting and attaching all of the baseboards again (which is going to be LOTS of work) and finishing our built-in shelves and doing finish trim work.
OH, and we have to tile the laundry room and finish our bathroom and we have to put up back-splashes in our kitchen as that never got done when we moved in our house.
AND crossing my fingers that we will be able to figure out how to add a stained checkerboard effect in my kitchen area
It makes me tired just thinking about
all we have left to do.
It will be SO nice and
so worth it when it is done!
So, if I am not in the Blog world much, it is because I am trying to make the best use of my afternoons, trying to
ease the burdens of Mr. Smith to help speed this Home Improvement project so we can have it all done in time to host Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year...
which will be here before we know it.

Chaos, mess and all,
I have the most WONDERFUL life in the world and I wouldn't trade it for anything!
Life is SO good...
especially when we're all home together as a family each evening!

Hope all of my friends and family
have a wonderful week!

11 comments:

  1. Wow! 2006 YOU ARE very patient!! Ha ha
    That is definately our problem most of the time too, we are just too busy which is why I hire out a lot of things nowadays! It was bad enough already but when Kurke got called as the Bishop I knew any extra time (what is that?) would be out the window.
    I love the T.V. room you guys made - the colors are beautiful!! Good thinking.
    Tracy is AWESOME - I know your hardwood is going to look great once it is all in and after all those years waiting it WILL be worth it!! Hardwood looks so nice and it easy to clean - You will love it!
    I can't wait to see the after pictures!!
    I love the pictures of your boys happily tearing up the floor - Demolition + boys = GREAT fun!!!!
    Happy flooring!!
    P.S. Tauna mentioned on her blog that you stopped by while her house was a total mess and thought you must be mortified and couldn't wait to get back to your own house -ha ha - she hasn't seen your mess yet!

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  2. OK Kimmie YOU ROCK!!!!!
    I feel a little bit better now.
    WHAT A JOB!!!!
    It looks like Tracy will have his work cut out for him for a day or two. :)
    That is a huge undertaking.
    I can relate to what Cherie said. When Howie was the bishop it took him 18 months to do our little teeny bathroom. 18 months!

    It is going to look so gorgeous when it's done though. I love my hardwood floors and would never have carpet there again.

    I still want to come out and get some honey, but now I don't want to take any of your time!
    I think you are going to deserve the vacation we are going to get!

    Have a great week!

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  3. Man, O man what a project! You guys are AMAZING taking it on yourselves!
    I know that is a TON of work, I saw the workers do it to our house.

    We took the easy way out and had somebody else do it. That's right were the wimps of home improvement!

    Kudos to you and your family!!

    Stopping by from the Garden of Egan and I'm glad I did, I can't wait to see the finished product!

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  4. favorite post... I love seeing how home projects come together..

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  5. Oh, I want hardwood floors so very badly! I can only imagine the grime under my carpets and I too vacuum all the time! Carpet is just sooooooo OUT now!

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  6. That's exciting!!! It will be so nice when it's done.

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  7. What a lot of work! I'm amazed at all you and Tracy do! Even if it does take a few years! Can't wait to see the finished project but I guess I'll just have to!

    Having dirt under the carpet is just part of having a carpet! We pulled our carpet up after 8 years and it looked like we had poured buckets of sand on the floor!

    Take care and enjoy the chaos. It will be well worth it!

    p.s. love your tv/computer room downstairs!

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  8. Wow quite the project! I don't blame ya to take a little brake from blogging! I love the TV room and the boy's bunk beds!! I can't wait to see the end result! I love makeovers!

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  9. kimmie! very good to hear about the progress...and i know what you mean about changing up plans sometimes. but MAN chickie. just reading about what's left on your list has plum worn me out! good thing you're excited about it have the patience. i am not as patient as i should be. tired is what i am. between mega volleyball tonight AND your list of still-to-do's i'm zapped. k, g'nites! and i love progress btw. progress is WONDERFUL!!!!

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  10. Well then! Another thing we have in common--very handy husband. It is SUCH a great thing--but as you said, it does delay things for quite some time! I know that concept all too well. I am so excited for your home makeover that is just super exciting. Getting a project completed is one of the best feelings EVER! I can't wait to see how it all turns out! Good luck staying sane amidst the dust and chaos--though that is part of the fun!

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  11. Amazing all that you guys have done! That is so awesome. I bet it will look great when you get it all done. I hear you are making some great headway.

    Thanksgiving at your house?? WOW! Another big milestone. That would be great. I love Thanksgiving with Trav's family. So many people, so much fun. Too bad the plane tickets are so wretched expensive during the holidays. I love that everyone can do their own thing after dinner. Some play games, some nap, some watch a movie, some stay around and chat. There is always a fun group to join in.

    Enjoy your new space! Looks beautiful. I can't wait to see the finished project.

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