James Got His Wish - A Year Later!

We've been scoping out TVs for over a year now.  I can pretty much tell you any price of a 32 inch LCD out there.  I can also tell you that TVs have come down A LOT in price over the past year.  This is a great week to buy because many are on sale because of the Super Bowl.  James did a lot of research on what TVs are good and whatnot.  Well after a year of scoping out 32 inch prices, we found a great deal on a 37 incher.  I felt very guilty buying this TV because we didn't need a new TV.  We just wanted one.  With the good sales and our taxes coming back relatively soon, we splurged.  And James did all the hard work to get it mounted above the fireplace.  

Of course Ben had to be Daddy's little helper!

James measuring and leveling.

It's up in record time!

I've cleaned up the mantle a bit and threw up some pictures.  I want to get 2 little trees to flank the TV.  Fake ones.  Not real ones.  James thinks this is "gay."  It's my small attempt to be more Martha Stewart like.   We're finally starting to venture into the 21st century, yet I still can't  help feeling a little yuppie like - even though most everyone we know has a big old TV like this.  Most are bigger!

Plastering Away!

I'm stuck upstairs with the kids this morning because our Irish friend is over plastering away our front hallway.  I'm so excited to have this done so I can prime and paint away!  

He gave us a great quote on hanging drywall and plastering the downstairs bathroom so we think we're going to go ahead and have him do that too.  We just have some prep work to do before he can do that.  Hopefully we can pump that out in the next couple weekends to be able to have him help us finish the downstairs bathroom!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

I should have remembered to write a post - but we obtained ownership of our lovely home 1 year ago on January 22nd!  We're still slaving away at it (but enjoying it - at least I am!  James not so much!).  

Sometimes we wonder what we are going to do with all of our freetime once we are "done."  I guess by then, the boys will both be in little league!  That will occupy our Saturday afternoons!

Venturing Upstairs!

I don't understand why some basic cleaning is so hard for me most days, yet taking on big projects is so easy for me!  This morning, the boys and I cleaned out my bedroom and then I started taking down the drop down ceiling!  James is going to be so happy!  I really want to get the front hallway and stairs done, but we have to wait for our Irishman to plaster away.  So I had to find something else to fill my time.  This was it.

Try not to get too excited looking at these pictures of our bedroom ceiling!!!  I think James and I will be sleeping in our spare bedroom until we can get this room cleaned up a bit.  He still has to wire up the outlets and install the overhead light in here.  Oh, and judging by the ceilings (and all the cracks in it), we will probably have to throw up some drywall - or see what our Irishman can do to fix it!

The Kitchen Mouldings are DONE!

Over the weekend, I finished painting the kitchen mouldings.  I took a bunch of pictures, but this is the only one that came out okay.  

Which leaves me to my next nemisis:  The stairs!  I have to do some repair work, pick out little bits of carpet which are still attached to some, sand, fill in holes and eventually paint the faces white, sand them and finish them.  Can I do this?  Yes I can!

The Snow Is Making Us Work!

We are getting a lot of snow here in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts so James and I are hard at work to get this house done!

Here, James sanded down the window ledge and installed it. I'm repairing a few dings and it should be ready to prime and paint here soon!

I finally ironed on the edges of the countertops!  I'll have to trim them and sand them down.  

Of course a day of work wouldn't be complete without more electrical work!  We're hoping to finish up all the outlets in the kitchen today.  There are 4 more we have to do.  For those of you who do not know how this is done, here's a quick summary.  We cut the hole for the future outlet or switch.  We have a 64 inch drill bit (I think it's 64 inches) and we drill a hole through all the supports or whatnot from the basement to the hole.  Then we jam this wire thing through the hole hoping to get it from the basement out of the hole we cut.  Then we attach the electrical wire to it and pull it so the wire comes on through.  It sounds simple, but it's not and it takes forever.  

After we are done with the kitchen, we will have all the feeds done - except for the attic.  Running a wire from the bottom corner of the basement to the top of the attic is not going to be fun.  We'll have to run it behind the walls of the living room, our bedroom and up to the attic.  We'll have to be extremely caffeinated for that one.

Electrical and NO MORE WALLPAPER!

James had Sunday off from work so he got busy running more electrical wires.  It takes a good couple hours to run just a couple wires but it's getting there.  He also stapled a bunch of wires in the basement that he's been meaning to do.

James busy with his work.

A couple days ago, I finally finished taking down all the wallpaper!  I successfully did the living room, dining room, kitchen and front hallway all by myself!  It only took me almost a year, but I did it!

Since James is working so much overtime, we think we're going to hire our Irish plasterer guy to fix up the front hallway.  Apparently that single door there into the living room was actually once a big doorway.  I think it would look better opened up again but we're not going to do that.  Too much work.  I told James that I could plaster up the hallway but I don't think he has faith in my plastering abilities.  I don't blame him.  I don't have faith in my non-existent plastering abilities either.  Oh, and I added pictures of random holes in the walls and ceilings that need fixing too.  

A Refridgerator in Our Kitchen!

After months of having our refrigerator in our front hallway, we finally moved it to it's permanent home!  Unfortunately, there is an extension cord for it right now (we'll get our electrical upgraded someday!).  But it's much better!  I almost forgot how nice it was to have a refrigerator in the kitchen!  ha ha!

James does such great work!

Unfortunately, I have have a new nemesis!  Removing the wallpaper from the front hallway!  Once this is over, there will be no more wallpaper in this home of ours and I will be happy.  I have most of it removed as I type this, but this was a very challenging spot.  This wallpaper does not want to come off!!

The Kitchen Is Painted!

I finally got to painting the kitchen!  I was freaking out during this adventure because I really liked the "wet" color - but as it was drying I didn't like it.  James assured me yet again (I always freak out when painting) that when it's all dry, it will look fine.  He was right.  I like it.  Not too gray, not too ocean blue.  I like how it looks with the dining room green in the background.  

And a friendly reminder of what this wall once looked like:

And what this back corner once looked like:

Prime Time!

I've been slaving away fixing dents, holes & cracks in the kitchen.  The time finally came when I decided to prime the kitchen.  I actually did two coats of prime because I think the kitchen really needed it.  Before the prime, our kitchen had 7 colors to it:

1 Yellow 

2 Blues

1 Beige

1 Disgust (we're not sure what was  over the sink.  It was grayish blue.)

1 Drywall White

1 Joint Compound White

Pictures right before I primed!

Pictures after the second coat of prime!

Today, I've been caulking away to fill the gaps between the mouldings and walls.  I should have done this in the living room and dining room - but I didn't.   Since I have to touch up some paint in the living room, I caulked a little in there too.  I had the caulking gun out so why not?  I hope James isn't too mad when he gets home from work!

I tried to put the top mouldings back up on the door frames in the back but the nails we have are not long enough.  So I'm going to try to truck it up to Lowe's today to buy longer nails and have James put those up tonight.  Then I can start to paint away!