Step 17, 18, 19 & 20...trim, heaters, carpet & THE MOVE IN!

After waiting an extra week, the heaters went in this week. Most of the trim and baseboards were put up. While I was enjoying my first day back at work....lol....the carpet was installed. I was so happy to see the rooms finished. Alexis & Nolen were jumping around in their rooms. I started to move their stuff in as soon as I got home. I realized last night that the curtains were way too long, so I had to cut them off. Going to hem them tomorrow & make pillows out of the extra material.

Nolen is trying out his big boy bed. I hope he doesn't fall out. I shoved it up against the wall and will probably have to put a rail up cause he really tosses while he sleeps.

The very first thing Alexis put in her room was this VERY soft circle rug.

Alexis doing some twirling in her room. Lots of pink I know, but she loves it.

We still have a few minor things to do. Gutters need to be added to the new part, closet shelves need to be put up, and a few things need to be hung on the walls. We are extending our laminate flooring from the kitchen through the kids old room leading to the new part. This will make a nice walkway that won't show wear like carpet will. Pete is going to install the laminate flooring. My goal was to get the kids in the rooms before school started, and boy was it close, but mission accomplished!

Step 16...paint & stain doors

Since my last post, I have been working on doors. I have been dreading these doors & now I know why. Alexis' room door is white on the inside & stained on the outside to match the outside of Nolen's. These pictures show me working on this door & I'm trying not to get white paint on the stained side. Her closet door is white inside & out. Nolen's room door & bi-fold closet door are both stained. Had to do the staining inside the house due to the heat & humidity outside. So I have been smelling some mighty fine fumes lately.

As of today, I almost have all the doors finished. I need to put one more coat on half of Nolen's closet door and I also need to put one more coat of paint on Alexis' closet door. I don't think the first coat of paint covered it well. Our workers put up most of the trim & base boards today. The base board heat will be put in on Monday and the carpet will soon follow. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Bought shelving for Alexis' closet yesterday for Pete to put up.

The outside is almost finished. We need to put the guttering on the new part. It's hard to see the south end of the house from the road with the tall corn. Notice the extra sand we had left over. The kids have claimed it & play in it almost daily. With Nolen, the sand seems to be always flying.

Step 15...sand & stain & paint

I agreed to stain & paint all the base boards, trim, various other boards & the doors. Wow did I have my work cut out for me. We decided to paint all the boards for Alexis' room in white and stain the ones for Nolen's room. After 3 days I had everything done except for the doors. We then decided to go ahead and have the guys hang the doors before they were stained.

She looks like she is sanding, but really she just wanted her photo taken.

Me sanding away.

Base boards for the rooms.

We just loved the rainbow last night. The pot of gold was definitely in my field, but no one went to get it.

Step 13 & 14...paint & brick

I started painting the day after they primed the walls. Took me 2 1/2 days to finish it, but it was worth it. Painting a new room was so easy because I didn't have to tape off since the trim is not up yet. Each kid has two colors on their walls. We are going to put borders up between the colors. Alexis' borders arrived today and Nolen's was out of stock, so we will have to pick another one for him soon. My next step is to stain 3 doors & 1 folding closet door, all the trim & other various boards that will be used. Since they took a window out of my room & the kids room to put on the south end of the house, I now have holes to fill. I decided to make them built in bookshelves, which will be so much easier than putting up dry wall & painting to match the rest of the room.

So you might be asking where the pictures are of the painting. We'll I'm not posting them until the borders are on, so stay tuned to future posts.

On Friday, four guys bricked the whole west side of the house. We were able to keep about 900 bricks from the original south end of the house & were hoping to re-use them. When we received a few brick samples, the bricks were a lot shorter. So we were told that they wouldn't be able to mix them in. So we ordered @4,000 bricks. When the bricks arrived they were a tad bit longer than the samples, but still a little bit shorter than the original bricks. Pete talked with the brick layers & they thought they could go ahead and use the 900 we saved. We decided to mix the old in with the new on all 3 sides. The new wall is a little bit lighter than the original, but over time I think they will match better. Actually if we throw some dirt on the new, they would match better. lol Today we got out the power washer & sprayed some of the original bricks to see if we could lighten them up. We did see a change since some of the bricks had green gunk growing on them. Though it's not a perfect match, it's still better than siding in my opinion. I really think after a few years, you won't even notice the difference. I'll have to plant some landscaping bushes in front of it as well.

Nolen helping move original bricks in place for the workers.

The complete wall. Took them 8 hours. I was just expecting them to get 1/2 of it done. They worked very fast.

I almost had to stand in the road to get the whole house in the photo. House looks so much longer now. I just realized that I now have 2 more rooms to clean. Now is the time I teach my kids to clean up their own rooms!

Step 11 & 12...Dry wall and connect the new part with the old part

This is the hole that they cut going from the kids room into the two new rooms. Window was removed & placed in Alexis' new room.

Dry wall is up. Nolen's closet & doorway.

Walk in closet for Alexis. I figure she will have a lot more clothes being a girl & all.

Various Summer Photos

We have been busy this summer. Thought I'd post some pictures of what we have been doing besides adding onto the house.

I think these two could pass for sisters. They are only a few months apart in age. Katie visited us several times while she was here visiting her grandma. We just love her Alabama accent.

I had another birthday & Pete took me to Evansville for 1 night WITHOUT KIDS. I normally have a DQ ice cream cake for my birthday, but decided to just have my favorite M&M Blizzard since we were on the road.

Pete's brother, Dave, has been here for a few weeks. His daughter Courtnie caught a fish while fishing at East Fork Lake. (Love the boots girl!)

I'm really not for sure what to say about this photo, just that Pete probably won't like it. I'm saving this to show Nolen's first girlfriend.

Something happened to our garden this year. I think the chicken poop made everything go crazy. (Thanks Doug) Pete planted 8 tomato plants and we found out he planted them way too close. They have grown together and are as tall as Pete. It's impossible to get to the middle of them. We have been eating corn from the garden, though the coon ate the first of it. Pete took care of him, if you know what I mean. We still have plenty more & some that hasn't tasseled yet. We also planted giant sunflowers for Alexis. I'll have to get a good photo soon since they just started blooming.

Fourth of July in their red, white & blue. These two just love the tire swing. I can stand and push Nolen for over an hour & he doesn't get tired of it. He just loves it when I push him high enough to hit the tree.


VBS started this week. We have an Egyptian theme and Alexis fell in love with this hair piece.

Dave & his son Ethan caught 50 blue gill in one morning! They cut them all up and I guess a fish fry is in the future.

Pete caught several bass on the lake & they were cut up as well.

Step 9 & 10....Inside walls & insulation

The inside walls have been studded up & now it is looking like two rooms. This shot was taken while standing in Alexis's room looking into Nolen's room.

Alexis posing in her future bedroom.

Alexis stands in the doorway of her walk in closet. We decided to give her a big closet for all her stuff & future stuff. Note: The window in the back of the closet will soon be moved to the south end of the house.

I think it was 90 some degrees when Pete & his dad installed the insulation. I went to get a fan for them because there was hardly any air flow in the rooms.

They have left out one window in order to gain access into the rooms for now. They haven't cut the door into the rest of the house yet. Next week the south end will be sealed up & dry wall will begin to go up. Painting day seems to be getting closer & closer. I still need to pick out carpet for the bedrooms.