New Deals & More Tiling!

We are in the process of finishing our basement up and with that we have to tile the whole bathroom floor and shower. Before it was a very nice pink tile that we could not get to match with anything so we ripped it all out. Well this past weekend we went to Lowe's and once again find a nice tile deal!! We got 12X12 tile that was over $2 a piece for only .78 cents each! Jon is going to work on it tomorrow so I will post pictures tomorrow of that but in the mean time here is a sneak peek!

The smaller tiles are for the shower floor and accent border in the shower and the 12X12 tile is for the shower itself and the bathroom floor.

Legal 4th Bedroom

When we bought our house it was considered a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom home with a bonus room in the basement. Now that we are remodeling the basement we put a legal window in the bonus room downstairs to make it a legal 4th bedroom. The room downstairs will be our new office when things are said and done but we are just excited (or Jon is) that the window is in and that is one less thing we can mark off our to do list. Next is sheetrock and paint, we are getting closer!!

Have I mentioned lately how much my husband rocks at this stuff?? Can you imagine digging the hole by hand, I felt sorry for him.

The Renovation Continues

So continuing with the renovation and getting more into it we decided to do a couple of more things while we are at it. We have a huge closet at the bottom of our basement steps and so we decided to make the bedroom a little bigger (3 feet to be exact) so we used a little space from the closet and hallway and it really made a big difference. We then decided to downsize the doors on the big closet because too much space was being wasted. We then had to reframe all the walls and closet along with redoing all the wiring because the way it was done made no sense at ALL and the hallway and closet where so dark but we have fixed that! Here are some pictures of everything down to the studs.

This is now the doorway into the bedroom downstairs

The new doorway into the closet that is now a little smaller so we could make the bedroom bigger

Looking down the hallway for the family room

A view of the closet from the bedroom

Another view of the closet

We still have alot of work to do but have already come a long way!

The Renovation Begins

Since we have moved into our new home which has been 1 year and 3 months now we have wanted to renovate the basement hallway, closet and bedroom. The family room in the basement is really nice but the rest of the basement was not up to par, it had drop down ceiling from the hallway on and ugly old tile in the bedroom and not to mention all the horrible bumps and bad taping in the sheetrock. Well with the baby on the way we now need the office upstairs for the nursery so the bedroom downstairs will become the new office/toy room. The bad news is that if you stay over night at our home you will have to sleep on a very nice blow up matress instead of a full size bed which will become Trevor's.

So just last week we thought what the heck lets get started and man did we really mean that, the basement from the hallway to the closet to the bedroom is torn down to the stone walls and nice carpet which we have covered.

When we first started Jon gave Trevor a hammer and said here you go get to work and well he did just that, he loved every minute!!

First swing

A few more after that

About a half an hour later

And back to work he goes

A New Table

Since we have moved into our new house our round table has just not been cutting it. The kitchen is not very big and a round table makes it even smaller and another downside is that we only used 3 chairs so we could have more room in the kitchen. So when we had people over we could not sit at the table. So after doing some shopping around I found this very cute corner nook, table and bench. It fits in that room just perfect and we LOVE it, there is so much more space and we can also have more then 3 people sit at it at once. So I now have a table and 4 chairs for sale along with 2 matching bar stools (it is in very nice condition). This is just one more thing to add to my rummage sale this summer if I do not sell it before then.

BEFORE

AFTER

More Updating

Since we have moved into our new house we have done a lot of updating, painting and remodeling and we are not done yet! This whole time I have been trying to figure out what to do with our upstairs bathroom, when we first moved in I just painted it a nice gray color and hung up a shower curtain and just called it good. For sometime now it really has bothered me that I could not figure out what I wanted to do because I love doing this kind of thing. Then on Wednesday afternoon around 3pm it seriously just hit me and I knew what I wanted to do. I finally came to realize that the painted I had used had made the room too dark and it just was not exciting so that is what I needed to do, lighten things up. I went to the paint store bought 2 different colors (maple sugar & misty green) and I was on my way home to paint. When I finished I loved it, I found a few decorations to go along with the room and suddenly it all came together. Now I am happy to be in this room because it is completely and I do not have that feeling in the back of my head wondering what I am going to do with this room. Let me know what you think.

This is what it looked like when we moved in.....YUCK!

Then I did this......

Now it looks like this!

When you first walk in the wall with the window I painted the maple sugar color and then everything else I painted misty green and it made a huge difference. The room is so much more brighter and fresh.

ALL DONE

I am so proud to say that our laundry room make over is 100% COMPLETE!!!! It is such a relief to say that and now that it is done I go back and look at what it was before and what we have turned it into and it just amazes me. We had the closet doors stained and we got those back this week so Jon hung those up along with finishing the trim yesterday. It sure does help having a 3 day weekend to get everything done. Take a look at the before and after transformation.

Yes this laundry room was a scary one before we did anything to it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here is a list of the things we did:

1. Replaced all the old water pipes with new plastic ones

2. Formed walls and made 2 closets

3. Sheetrocked, taped and textured the walls

4. Painted

5. Leveled out the floor and installed tile

6. Put in a whole new ceiling

Tonight I am going to put up a wall paper border, Jon does not know yet but he is helping.

More Accomplished

Well this weekend was another good one for the books!! I am proud to say that we are 85% done with the laundry room. This weekend we sanded down the rest of the walls, then applied texture (this turned out really well since we had never done this before) and then it was time for me to paint. The color I chose was called "applesauce cake" somewhat of a tan/gold color, I like to stay somewhat neutral because then it is easier to decorate with lots of other colors. Once I had 2 coats of paint on Jon had to bust out the drain in the middle of the floor to raise up the concreate since we are going to tile it all has to be even. So since we made that mess we decided to replace the pipes and drain just to be safe. Then we refilled it with concrete and waited for that to dry. In the meantime Jon tiled the base for the washer and dryer and once that sat over night we were able to grout that in the morning. Then you have to wash the tile 3 times and then we hooked up the washer and dryer....YEAH we had tons of laundry to do!! THEN once all of that was done Jon started the project for the ceiling and got half done with that. SOOOO lots done this weekend and tonight we will finish the ceiling and lights and get the floor ready for tile so we can install that hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday night. After that we just have to install the doors and the door jams. I can not wait for this project to be done!!

So Saturday my dad asked to take Trevor ice fishing to the tournament in Hendricks and he had a great time. Trevor informed me he saw Cindy and Danny and they were lots of fun but the funniest story according to Trevor was his new teddy bear that he got from his Margie!! That just cracked me up he did not refer to her as great grandma but as his Margie. Thanks to everyone who intertained him at the fishing tournament I am sure he was a hand full. Thanks Kelsi for taking some pictures!!

Trevor liked to play with the bait the most but you could never tell that by looking at this picture.

Update on Laundry Room

Well I have a full update for everyone wondering about our laundry room project. We have 3 coats of mud and tape on and Jon will sand it all down tonight and apply the 4th and final coat. Then we will roll up our sleeves and attempt to do something we have never done ourselves before....texturing. My brother has the gun and equipment to do it and we bought the texture so we will see what happens. Jon also talked to some guys at work and they told us to mix a coat of primer in with the texture so we will be doing 2 things at once. Then I will be ready to paint on Saturday, YEAH!! Oh but that is not it, we will then attempt to lay down tile on the floor and hopefully Sunday move the washer and dryer back in. The final step of the whole project will be the ceiling, we are doing a drop ceiling because of all the wires we may eventually need to get to and Jon put a drop ceiling in our last laundry room and it looked great.

So we are on the home stretch with just a few more days to go, I am so excited for the finished look and I will definatly post some pictures. If anyone has FREE time this weekend go ahead and stop by we will put you to work!!

Successful Weekend

Well we had another successful weekend at the Healy home. Saturday Trevor spent the day with grandma Diane and grandpa Dennis so Jon and I could do some work in the basement. Jon got all the walls up, sheet rocked and 1 coat of tape and mud on. Wow that is good if you ask me!! Saturday we took a break and went to Nick's Hamburgers and my grandma and grandpa where there and they bought us lunch.....thank you!! Then we spent the rest of the weekend cleaning out the garage since it was so nice out. We have an attic in our garage so Jon got some boards to lay down up there so we could use it for storage and I helped him haul up the Christmas tree, Christmas decor and tons of hunting stuff. I was so excited to get all of this done because it has been on your list since we have moved in. Trevor was also busy helping us and playing in the snow!!

This first picture is of Trevor on Sunday afternoon watching Chicken Little he feel asleep, I guess grandma and grandpa Healy really wore him out!!

These next 3 pictures are of our laundry room, we have decided to make a closet in there for more storage so it makes the room look smaller but who needs a huge laundry room?? The pedestal below the window is for the washer and dryer and Jon will tile that to match the floor.

Pedestal for washer and dryer and sump pump closet

The pictures are kind of blurry because of all the sheet rock dust in the air. And this is a picture of the closet we added.

And the last 2 pictures are of Trevor having some fun in the snow.

New Washer & Dryer

Thanks to my great sister-in-law we are getting a new washer and dryer!!! Since we are finishing our laundry room we thought it was time to update also so last night I ordered a new front load washer and dryer and it will be here next Wednesday and I can not wait! Jennifer gets a great discount through work and she let us take advantage of it, we saved over half the money that we would of spent if we would of bought from Lowe's or anywhere else. My brother bought our old set since his blew up and so it is a win win situation for all. Jennifer, thanks again Jon and I can not thank you enough.

Update

Well not much of an update to report today. Jon is still working on the laundry room and yet we have dug ourselves another hole deeper. Meaning we have changed our minds on where are washing machine and dryer will go so back to rerouting pipes and dryer vents again. With moving the washing machine and dryer it will create lots more space for cabinets and counter tops and will also make our laundry room look lots bigger. Now I am even more excited to see the finished project but I think it will be awhile because we have not even started putting up walls. At least Jon knows what he is doing and we do not have to pay someone to change things again.

The Transformation

Well here are the pictures of our finished basement. The whole project started on Friday with all the painting and then Saturday we went to Sioux Falls to pick up new light fixtures, outlets, curtains and everything to finish up. When we got home Jon put the new trim up and Sunday we moved the furniture in. Dennis and Diane I know you will be wondering what we decided to do with the furniture since Sunday most of the afternoon was spent moving things around and non of them worked. To fill everyone in we had a sectional couch and it would not fit right no matter where we put it or what we did. So after everyone left I played around with things and came up with this....I took the corner piece out of the couch and made one extra long couch instead.

Since Jon had to work on Monday everything went on hold and then yesterday we hooked the surround sound up and hung some pictures. We both can not believe how well things turned out! Just last week that was the last place we wanted to be and now it is the first place we go. Let me know what you think!

BEFORE

Phase 2

Well today I hit it hard again and got the whole first coat on in the basement. Yep that includes trimming everything out and rolling everything. This took at 2 hours to do everything and about 1 gallon of paint. It is taking forever to dry so I will slap the second coat on later this evening and then we will be ready to put the trim on.

I really like the color (coffee kiss) because it is a little dark but yet a natural color that will match with almost anything. Our couch is a leather cranberry sectional so I am excited to see those two pieces compliment each other. What a successful day!! I was missing my side kick painting partner KELSI......what do you say Kelsi want to help with the second coat??

PS...there was not taping involved it was all free handed!

You can still see it is wet from the paint lines.

What did I get into?

Well I guess I was feeling brave today because I started a huge project that I did not think would turn out to be very big, I hope that made sense. Yesterday (my first day off) I cleaned the whole house, did tons of laundry and got organized from all the Christmas hassle. So last night my mom called and said she would like to come over today and help me take down the wallpaper border in the family room downstairs. I surely could not turn down help and said "come on over".

We started the long day at 8:30am hard at work and within 45 minutes we were both swearing because I am telling you that wallpaper was on with super glue. My mom has taken down a lot of wallpaper in her time and she has never seen anything like this before. She said "you call someone in town and find a steamer because there is no other way this is coming down". So we got in the car and went to the Rental Depot and rented a steamer for $26 for a day and back home we went. It still took a very long time to get it all down (4.5 hours to be exact) and we were both ready to die when we got done!! This is the funniest quote of the day, we were almost done and my mom looks at me and said "it is a good thing we got that steamer because if not we would of killed each other by now", that cracked me up!!

So you think that would end the day, yeah right!! After ALL the wallpaper was down I cleaned everything up and decided to get more dirty. I called around town and found a great deal on base board for the whole LL and our old neighbor has a business staining and so I gave him a call and he is going to do it all tomorrow for me so we can put it up tomorrow night. So we just got back from Lowe's with a crap load of stuff, not to mention everything to finish the laundry room yep we are moving into high power now, look out!! Tomorrow my project is to paint the whole LL so Jon can put trim on tomorrow night and we should have things moved in by Sunday.

Here are a few pictures of before and after today and I will post more of the final project when we are done.

Notice how high that border is?? My arms feel like they are going to fall off!!

Trevor is always a good helper!!

You can still see where it was but they make a paint product to use to paint over that first before you apply the actual paint.

Likes and Dislikes

Well we have now been in our new house for 3 weeks and I have developed a list of likes and dislikes. First I will start with the dislikes:

1. Hardwood floor is very noisy to walk on compared to carpet
2. Garage not attached to the house but very close
3. Being able to hear the train go through town (although Trevor loves it, he goes nuts)
4. Old dishwasher is very noisy (I can eventually fix this)

Now I will move to the likes:

1. Love the central location (blocks away from Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart)
2. Love our long driveway--our old house did not have much of a driveway and was right in front of the house, I hated that
3. Love the mailbox attached to the house (very convenient)
4. Love 3 bedrooms on the ML
5. Love the sliding closet doors as opposed to the bi-fold doors
6. Love the hardwood floors, much more easier to clean and then I suddenly realized how dirty carpet actually gets....YUCK
7. Love the pantry in our kitchen.....do you know how much stuff you can fit into a pantry?
8. Love that our back door comes into our kitchen. We have never had a back door just a front entry.
9. Love the small heat and utility bill
10. Love that the laundry room is downstairs otherwise it gets too noisy
11. Love having a medicine cabinet....we have never had one of these (very convenient to keep Trevor out of)
12. Love all the closet space.....our last house being new construction did not any closet space this house has tons! Who would of thought?
13. Love having a back yard and a front yard.....our last house the back yard was soooo small
14. Love having bushes so our yard is private and not wide open like our last house
15. Love having a storage shed
16. Love having 2 garage doors and not just one

I could keep going on about the positives but I am sure you would all get very bord. As you can see my likes out weight the dislikes by a long shot, we LOVE our new home! I can not wait to decorate with Christmas lights, Jon has already commented on this. Our last house was impossible to put lights on being so high but now it will be no problem.

Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves!

So this weekend we got all moved in and spent out first night in our new home on Friday night! It feels good to be all moved in but there is still tons of unpacking to do.

The last home that we owned was in a new construction development so there were hardly any trees and so because of that we have never experienced any raking or mowing up leaves. Well that is no longer the case in our new home. The temperature got pretty low on Saturday night so by Sunday every leave in town was on our yard. There were so many leaves that you could not tell where are driveway was. The upside to this was Trevor had a blast scooping them into a big pile and then jumping in them. He would also ride his bike and say "mommy now where do I go" because you could not see the driveway. I took some pictures of the little squirt having some fun yesterday and I also took pictures of the big trees around us causing all the trouble.