Painting & House Recap!

Welp, we had a couple of days of painting. Last Monday - Wednesday I had off of work and really tried to get most of the painting done!  My mom was a big help, 2 of my brothers and also my friends  Patti & Sheri came to help.  In those 3 days (really 2.5ish) we got all but the 2 extra rooms, the hallways, & the fireplace wall done!  I couldn't believe it!  But now as I write this, the 2 extra rooms are done, the hallways are painted and only the fireplace wall and all the touch-ups need to be done! But I hope that that this weekend I am able to finish it up! =)

Here are some photos:

Before - Kitchen & Living room Great Room

After

 

Our Master Bdrm

 

Office

 

(looks a little brighter than it really is!)

Matt varnishing the trim

My dad staining the windows

Fireplace is finally in! (& the mantle too!)

Railing that my brother keith made for our garage! I love it!

Other than that, a couple other exciting things have happen with the house:

• We ordered and received all flooring (minus the carpeting though) and it is all ready to be put in!

• We bought a fridge.... found a great deal on Home Depot.com and have it sitting at

my parent's house until we are ready! Now we just need to get the rest of the appliances!

 

• Our cabinets should be in in the next week & a half or so! 

THAT, let me emphasize THAT, will be SO EXCITING FOR ME!!! The kitchen and what is looks like has been what I have been planning and look forwarded to for a very long time! As soon as we had to plan out our budget for the house, I had gone into Project Place and started working with Holly on the design!  Once that is done..... I will be ONE HAPPY CAMPER!

(alright... maybe I should actually start working for the day.. hehe)

Here are some colors that are in our house.......

Can you guess what colors go where?

never again......

..... and probably the worst day so far with building our house!

So, last week Wednesday, Matt and I decided we were going to tackle the blowing-in the insulation in the attic. I had Wednesday off as my normal day off, and Matt decided to take a vacation day so that we could get going with it.  We knew that we couldn't start right away because the drywallers were still finishing up the garage ceiling, so we headed out to price out the different brands and ended up at Security Lumber with a decent price, but they would deliver it to the house, blower and all. So we decided to that so we didn't have to go get the trailer, go back and hope that none of the insulation or anything blew off the trailer. When we got back to the house, we were hoping to be able to set the blower up inside, but to our surprise, found out that the garage door was "mysteriously broken."  Which Matt knew that it was working the night before.  But after Matt tried awhile to fix it, we decided to just "set up shop" with the blower outside and run it through the window. Well, it started out ok, but then it was......

just a stop-go-stop-go-stop-go, 

 jenni rip the top off and rip the wires for the remote start,

fix the blower, 

reset the blower, 

stop-go-stop-go-stop-go, 

go turn the power back on in the house... 

stop-go-stop-go. Ugh!!! 

So annoying. 

And Matt would have to come down from the attic, 

every single time to help me fix it!

But then we got the hang of it..... 

but what was supposed to take 3-4 hours... took 8-ish hours.

AND we had to go back Thursday night and finish up for an hour b/c we ran out the night before. 

I'm glad it's over and I'm glad that we had the experience, but i won't say that I'd love to do it again!

here are some more recent photos... 

 

 So, these next couple photos show just how MESSY it got. i was outside, where it was windy and damp with it being cold out and matt was in the attic where it just blew around... so we look like a bunch of crazy people with gray hair & insulation in and on parts of our bodies that we didn't think it would get to (well, for me at least since I was outside with it blowing in my face & up my nose).

Someone on Facebook suggested that we use this as our Christmas card for next year... haha...

probably not, but maybe i'll include a little snapshot of it or something.  It was a exhausting day, but it was nice to do something with Matt. I enjoy doing projects with him.... as long as we don't get too mad at each other! haha....

 Here is part of the finished work Matt did with the insulation.....

   

 Taped and Mudded for the 1st time!

  

 ("great room" - kitchen & family room)

  

 Ahhh... the tile I picked out for our Master Bathroom..... i absolutely LOVE it!!!

We are going with the middle color and then mosaics that have all 3 colors in it! I can't wait to see it go up in the bathroom! YEAH!!!

 

I think that's all for now......

the EXCITEMENT is rising!

DRYWALLERS CAME TODAY! We thought they would really just get the ceilings done and maybe a little bit of the walls, but I really think that they are 1/2 way done put up the sheets of drywall. It makes it so much more real. So exciting!!! Here are a couple of pictures:

Entryway

The ceiling in our master bedroom

Great Room

Office 1/2 way done!

In other news (b/c you know the house is pretty much our life right now! haha)
- Loosing Weight - At the beginning of the year at work, we started the BIGGEST LOSER contest. Of course I was all about it, I love the show. I mean it was one the reason that I was able to loose those 60 lbs. I lost over 2.5 years ago. BUT this time around it just seems so much harder. I'm not sure why it's harder, I could probably think of somethings, but I can't have excuses. That won't get me anywhere. But I am determined to get back down to my weight before the wedding, if not MORE! I remember that counting calories and just walking A LOT was all that I needed. But I think I will need a little different kind of exercise regiment. So that is why I bought (on Amazon.com) Biggest Loser's CARDIO MAX. I have never been one to do exercise videos or really have any desire to do a workout video, I've seen some clips of a couple, and they just didn't appeal to me. But my friend Becky really recommended this DVD and said she really liked it. So I got it in the mail today and I popped the DVD in today after work and I was so pleasantly surprised and actually "liked" it (as much as you can like working out! haha). Now I just need to keep up with it!!!

- I changed my blog so that anyone can comment, I don't believe that you have to have a blog yourself anymore!

part 1 ::: (catching up on our lives)

Let's catch you up on what is happening in our lives.... BESIDES the house!

: Matt :

1. Work is going good.  He doesn't have as much pipe to take care of as he used to, so that is quite an adjustment for him.  He is not gone out of town at all anymore really. Which I know that he enjoyed doing (and i'm not going to lie, I didn't always enjoy it, but it was nice to have the bed to myself!).

2. Church. Ever since I have known Matt, he has been a deacon at his (our) church.  And just recently at the beginning of the year, his term was up.  That is an adjustment for him I truely feel.To not have any responsibilities after church, to count money, to fix thing or that thing is something he isn't used to.  But I think this will open up some opportunities for us to experience church together a little bit more. (more on that later).

3. House - i know I said i was going to tell you what's going on besides the house, but that is just such a big part of his (our) life right now. He is there every night working on pretty much everything. He leaves for work in the morning, doesn't come home, but goes straight to the house and works there from anywhere between 8-10:30 depending on what he needs to get done.  I bring him dinner and help him if I can help with anything. I really appreciate all the hard work that he is doing though. I am so proud of him and I take pride in that MY HUSBAND (along with some family & friends) did A LOT of work on this house (sheesh, he wired up the whole house with electric, how awesome is that!).  I am so excited to call that house our HOME.

: Jenni :

1. Work is slow. But that is very typical of this time of the year.  Hopefully it will pick up again around Valentine's Day.   I am still off one day a week (which i LOVE).  I use it to do some grocery shopping, see friends, or just catch up on business stuff (which actually was the MAIN REASON why actually started taking days off in the 1st place, haha - but the other things are starting to take over and become a little more important to me). I actually came quite close to changing jobs. I am not always the happiest at my job and I feel like I drive pretty far just to sit on my butt and not do much during the day. So, the bank in town had an opening for a teller/sales rep position.  I actually went pretty far in the application process (and the girls at the bank know me and actually really wanted me to work there), but then one morning on the way to work, I just kinda had an epiphany. I have it way to good at THE SHOPPER. I have the days off already that I want, I have vacation time already built up. So why am I giving all of that up just to work a little closer to home. For right now, the best decision for me, and for us was that I stay where I'm at.

2. Business is slower right now too b/c of the time of the year. I do most of my portrait sessions outside, so the winter is not ever my busy season. But I'm hoping to put together a couple of PHOTO SHOOT EXTRAVAGANZA days starting in May where I go to one location that day and see how many appointments I can "knock-out" that day, so i'm not eating up all my Saturdays of the summer. One will be at a county park in Hobart, IN - one will be at the beach/downtown area of New Buffalo, MI - and the other one will most likely be in fall probably at a state park.  Right now, the places I have thought of are all in Indiana, but I also want to "cater" to those that in the Kankakee area that I think might come out for this.  So.... i'm opening to anyone's ideas (not that I really have any followers of my blog, but i can dream, right?)




to be continued......

some more photos.....

My seat in our shower!  (I'm kinda excited about it!)

This is what I did on Saturday when I was there working.... putting cardboard over all the electrical boxes so that when the drywallers come... they don't hit the wires Matt put in... i know, i know... very IMPORTANT & DEMANDING work! hehe....

 Insulation between the garage and the house (master closet & laundry room)

 We're just waiting on the fireplace.... COME ON ALREADY!!!

Playing Catch-Up..... i know, i know... .it's been forever!

*(Christmas Day fun!) Matt went to go check on the house b/c of the rain/snow melting and found water pouring in to the basement b/c the septic tank stuff wasn't all hooked up and settled correctly yet! Didn't last too long.... just in time to go home, shower and make it to christmas lunch.

NICOR IS IN!!!

Electric is all done!

HVAC is all roughed in!

Kyle & Lydia came to visit

They got a ride in the shopping cart that the plumbers left for us!

Trim up and around the garage door really makes it look better!!!

Insulation is IN!

Well, most of it, we are still putting a little bit up around the ceilings.

ALMOST ready for drywall!! =) YEAH!

garage (now actually it has a door on it!)

Our Front Porch

Concrete Basement

Basement Stairs

Siding done on 2/3rd's of the house!

Our Sunset! =)

It's been a long time.....

Photo Update:

We have a roof

the windows and shingles are on!

the front door is stained!

we have power hooked up!

tubing is in the concrete floor of the basement for radiant heating!

just thought this was a fun shot!

all the wires have to start and finish at the same point... good thing matt is good with figuring that all out.... it worked out GREAT!!

We are a little farther than this point...
I just haven't gone over to the house to take more photos of what is new. We now have the concrete floor poured, we have stairs going to the basement in both spots. Matt has put in some electrical stuff.... can lights, outlet boxes, and have even started running some conduit!

Talking about Matt.... I am so proud of him for all the hard work he has done so far and all that he will be doing in the next couple of months!!!