Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Hockey Boards go up




hallway

Awesome Paint, grey is going on top

Cabinets before the primer


John is off work, and off to a fast start on the house. With the chair rail chalk lines up, the bottom portion got painted since the 3rd coat of ceiling paint was drying. John seems to think that our house now looks like a hockey rink. Something about the blue bottom and white top makes him feel like he is in a hockey rink. I tried to explain to him that the living room will not an indoor rink for him and Jordan!!

The walls look great. The Kitchen cabinets also got primed and the electric range got taken out, and almost shocked John. Live wires = inexperienced DIYers!

Today the Sliding glass door is going in and the rest of the windows go in tomorrow. We pushed the floors back till next week which will by us more time to paint and tile! Can't wait to see the floors though!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Weekend Recap

With John away this past weekend riding bikes with my brothers and his teammates, I was at home tackling the house projects. I had tons of help that I was so thankful to have.

Friday: Pat (Mother-in-Law) and I Painted Ceilings in Bedrooms. Left at 11:15pm

Saturday AM: Pat (brother) and I put second coat on bedroom ceilings and first coat in Family room and bathroom and got my new best friend as a house warming gift...a SHOP VAC!!!!!!! Pat sucked up nasty stuff in the hall vent and started on the floors

Saturday PM: Frank and Pat (Mother-in-Law) finished second coat on family room and bathroom and fixed and Spackled large holes in front closet. Joe brought us dinner, Pizza, yum.

Sunday AM: Frank and I painted first coat on all three bedrooms.

Sunday PM: Pat (M-I-L) and I finished second coat on bedrooms, layed out tile for bathroom, tested paint samples on walls and patted ourselves on the back for a long weekend of hard work.

I am sore from the wast up. My wrists, neck, shoulders, oh boy. I give mad props to those who work construction, it is HARD work.

John is off work this week and has a long "Honey to MUST do list!!"

BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR HELPING THIS WEEKEND. Thanks to Pat and Helena for the Shop Vac and Pat Marshall for the smoke detectors!

Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom in Almond Mist

Pat (M-I-L) Painting

Dining Room Paint Samples
New Best Friend. Wall mounting Shop Vac
Frank and Puma in Office working hard

Office in Almond Mist

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Friday Night Paint!



5 Gallons of paint doesn't seem like it will be heavy until you try to lift it into your shopping cart...I had to ask for help!

The painting began Friday night with the help of my Mother-in-Law, Pat. We painted all 3 bedrooms and all 3 closets with 1 coat of paint. More later!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Remove Carpets...Check




We have mad so much progress in the past 4 days. John has been going to the house after work each day and our friend Terrance has been joining John in all the nasty jobs that I don't want to do! So far they have ripped up all the carpet from the 1970's, removed all trim that had about 5 coats of paint on, and the yellow stained laminate kitchen flooring is gone. There was about 2 inches of dirt and grim behind the appliances, I don't think it ever got cleaned.

We have had some awesome help so far. Our friend Mike (a.k.a Carwash) installed our new locks, fixed our gate to the fence so Puma can't escape, and helped remove the laminate/cork closet doors. My Mother-in-Law Pat has been there helping as well with the sanding, spackling and therapist. So far a good go at the house. Even our contractor Pete was impressed with the progress we have made in such a short time. Tonight the painting will start. First the ceilings. Currently they are painted pink, blue and yellow. And the Closets have a 3 color system going on, awesome! It's amazing how much larger the space looks without the carpet, not to mention it smells a whole heck of a lot better! Our before and after transformations are going to be stunning!!!!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Marathon...Check!

Saturday was the National Marathon. The weather was forcasted to be in the low 30's with rain or snow! Not fun. I left work early on Friday to drive to my sisters, no traffic and only one pit stop. Got to DC just in time to see Izzy and Davis before they went to bed.

Saturday morning was an early rise at 5am for a plate of tasty french toast. Travis was nice enough to get up early on his day off to drop me off by the stadium. The temps were better than expected and I was able to wear my favorite race day shorts. I also pimped out my Boston Marathon running shirt...bragging rights!

The race start was setup in corals, based on your entry time. I was in the 2nd Coral. The first only had about 50 runners, so that meant I was right at the front.

As the race got underway, I looked for the first mile marker, did not see it. I did not see it until 5, then i think I saw it at mile 11. I was not able to know what my pace was, not good. At the halfway point I saw Michele, Alycia, Izzy and Davis, that was the best halfway point cheering section ever. Just a few miles down, Cara, Crista and Sammy Davis Jr, Jr. were out cheering as well.

For a wrap up without going into boring details, the race did not go as well as I hoped. I was shooting for a 3:23 but ended up with a 3:32. It would be easy to blame the course for not having mile markers each mile, or the rolling hills and bad wind, but I just didn't race smart. I went out to fast to early and I wouldn't say I hit a wall, I just couldn't go any faster. I felt fine for the most part, ate plenty, it just wasn't my day. This race taught me that it's ok to have a bad day, except it and move on. It is hard to do that but I have to.

With the Marathon behind me, it was now time to focus on the house! John and I closed on the house on Monday. With a few minor setbacks..like the people not being moved out, closing went well. We started Reno on the house Tuesday after work. So far we have spackled most of the holes in the walls, ripped out the 100year old security system, removed all the blue carpet, switch faceplates, vents, closets and more. With the house sitting for over a year empty, I was surprised to not find to many bugs. Hopefully this is a good sign that we won't have problems with bugs when we live here.
I am taking this week off from "scheduled" training, but will workout when I want to. Next week will be back to Chesapeakman training in full force. Oh and did I mention we are supposed to get snow this weekend!!! Oh geez.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We Got the Keys

We closed on the house late yesterday afternoon. With some early stress, watching the previous owner's daughter still moving furniture and such out of the house, we were finally able to open the door to our new home! It feels great to be a homeowner, but very scary all at the same time. John will start removing any nails in the walls, taking down broken shelves and all the hideous vinyl closet doors. A ton of prep work will be going into making this house exactly what we want it to be. Stay tuned for our journey to make Hanover street just HOWE we want it! I might even through in some tutorials!