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?

things are underway...

What a good weekend! Friday night was the Fireman's Fish Fry here in Grant Park. Matt had to work there so I got some stuff done at home and then met up with Renee for some drinks and then Matt and some other firemen met us up there after they were done cleaning up!!!!

Saturday night we were finally able to get together with Erika & Darrin! We went over to there house for dinner! We had a great time... just sitting and chatting!

Welp... things are underway for getting the house ready for my OPEN HOUSE Vendor Party!!! I spent the day organizing and throwing away crap that I'm just holding onto for really no reason! There is just something (in my mom's word) CLEANSING about it! It really makes me feel happy and good when I am able to get rid of stuff. Now Matt on the other hand... not so good at getting rid of things.... but that's ok.... as long as it's not in my way!! Haha.... but I have organized my business hanging files... getting rid of old contracts and order forms that just aren't necessary to keep anymore. I went through my old credit card bills and organized them and put them in envelopes to hide away where i don't have to see them for years!Ahh... what a GREAT FEELING!!!!!

Matt spent part of the day making an entertainment center that I am just so thrilled about! He is a little more than 1/2 way done with it and I can't wait til it's done! He has been great and is hoping to have it done by Saturday's OPEN HOUSE! Right now as you'll see in the photo below it just is MDF right now, but he is going to jazz it up with some fancier trim... after I paint most of it black for the insides!!!

(My man hard at work!)

(Part of the entertainment center - the shelves before I painted 'em black!)

But back to my OPEN HOUSE! I will be having 8 different vendors here in a "not so large" home... with the party lasting from 9am-2pm hoping that that will give people a good enough time frame to work with on a Saturday! =) I'm not sure how it will work with a bunch of women in this small house... but it will be fun! (I hope! haha) I am excited for a lot of the girls/ladies to see our house for the first time! Especially some friends that haven't seen it yet!!! I will be putting different people in different rooms of the house.... really leaving only the bathroom & basement open! There will be Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Premier Design Jewelry, children's books, BeautiControl, Avon, Mary Kay, & Signature Homestyles!!!! I can't wait!! YEAH!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Snowy Busy Couple of Days!

Painting the Living Room & the Hallway!

Snowy Days in Grant Park..... View from my back window!

BIG NEWS!

BIG NEWS!!! (again, no we are not pregnant)

but a lot of NEW & EXCITING things have happened in the last week for matt and i. (well,

expensive things really.... but they are still fun!)

we got new furniture last week saturday and it got delivered on Wednesday. we had only gone to one store before we found this one (which i didn't expect at all!). 

We found it at Turk Furniture while they were having moving sale.... so what we saw is what we got and what i saw was exactly what i had been looking for.  Kinda modern, but functional. Matt's only request really when picking out the couches was that one part of it had to recline if he was going to have to get rid of his lazy boy.... so he got his request... actually 4 seats on it recline!  Well, when we got it, we realized that it takes up a lot more space in the living room than we had thought, but once the christmas tree comes down, I think it will feel at least a little more spacious! We will be able to move the tv around hopefully and maybe Matt could make some bookshelves for me! =)  But the next immediate (after Christmas) project is... PAINTING!

and, ANOTHER NEW thing that we bought was a new car!  Yes, the Cadillac is gone.  Sad to say. I did like the car, but it's just not fun to drive in the ice and snow.  So, we said good-bye to the caddy and bought an "as close as you can get to a mini-van vehicle, but not a mini-van" FORD EDGE!  It's a cross-over and it's pretty sweet!  I enjoy driving it a lot!   

* bye bye caddy =( *

hello "LIVING ON THE EDGE!" haha.... 2008 Ford Edge (used)

(sorry it is a stock image.... haven't taken a photo of it in real life yet)

We hope everyone's Christmas season is going well. Last weekend was a little bit busy, and this coming weekend will be even busier!  We have b'day party on Friday night, Saturday night Derks Christmas Party, Sunday our immediate Hoekstra Christmas Party. It's just crazy!