Carpet!

As promised, here are the pictures of our carpet! It's amazing how just adding carpet makes it feel like it's complete (even though it's not yet). Today I'm working on painting the window sills in the master bedroom and prepping the stair hand rail for painting that we had removed. Our bed was also delivered this afternoon, so we'll be able to set that up tonight and it will feel even more complete. We're adding things here and there and still need to finish our bathroom.

Garrett's room with the padding.

Stairs with the padding.

Finished master bedroom. It looks stretched out because it was zoomed out on the camera.

Finished closet.

The doorway from our master bedroom, showing the carpet meeting the existing floor in the hallway.

Garrett's room finished.

Garrett's room.

The finished stairs.

And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of our kitchen with everything back in it. It's so nice to be able to put some of that stuff in our pantry now, including our recycle bin. After we get shelves in the pantry, we'll be moving the food from the top of that hutch also.

Last night we bought closet shelves for our new closet and Curtis built them while I helped Alice with homework. We moved some of our stuff. It fills up fast!

I think I may want to move the dresser out to the bedroom but for now it's in the closet because that's where Curtis wants it.

I emptied out the remainder of our things from Garrett's room this morning, except the ties because Curtis needs to hang up our other tie holder in the new closet first. Garrett will get to sleep in his new bed in his new room, as will we! We're all excited!

Cancelled Trip

We were headed to Nampa around 4:30 or so on Thursday because Garrett had an orthodontist appointment the next morning but after driving just past Pendleton (a little over an hour from our house) we were forced to get off the freeway because it was closed. After waiting a little bit and trying to find out online what was going on, I went inside with the girls and talked to the gal at the register to see if she knew what was going on. Apparently, because of fog and drivers not slowing down to be careful, there was a huge crash pile up that involved around 30 cars and two semi trucks caught fire. It happened in the afternoon and even at 6pm they were still a long way from getting it cleaned up. They had Haz Mat out there cleaning up spills and what not. She said it would be a long time before the freeway gets open. I finally decided it wasn't worth it and we would just have to reschedule Garrett's appointment and just head back home. I later learned that there was another highway I might have been able to take but at the time I guess it had only been open to locals. I also learned they didn't open up the freeway again until around 11pm. So glad we didn't wait! The kids were bummed they didn't get to see their friends we had made plans with but I bought them a little treat and toy at the gas station to make up for it (well, the girls).

It turned out to be a good thing that I cancelled the trip because we were able to get a lot of prep things done over the weekend AND picked out our new bed! It will be delivered tomorrow. We are so burned out though. We can't wait to stop working so much on this house! After doing some prep on Friday I had seen a message on our ward Facebook page about a free event going on for young kids at the Carousel. It's only about a 2 minute drive for us so I said why not. I took the girls over and they played some simple carnival games, got special balloons made for them and rode the carousel twice (the carousel was not free). This was the first time we have been over there. I have driven by it and wondered what the carousel was all about. I still don't know a lot about it, but there's definitely a carousel inside that building! They also had a game where the riders can reach out and grab small rings from a fishes' mouth. The attendants would also pass out rings to riders as they went around. On the other side of the carousel is a target and bucket for the riders to throw their rings into as they go by. If you were lucky enough to get a brass colored ring they you would get a free carousel ride. I read something on the wall about the ring thing and I guess it's something that's been around for a long time but few carousels still do it. It made the ride that much more fun!

Charlotte with her golden retriever and Alice with her unicorn.

After we got home, Curtis called and suggested going out to eat. He picked up chicken and potatoes for the kids and then we took off. I also wanted to do our bed shopping. I decided I was in the mood for Mexican, so Curtis drove while I googled restaurants. We found one that was pretty good (I don't remember the name of it after looking at so many other restaurant names, lol). Their burritos are huge and both of us could only eat half of it. 

Time out. I'm done!

After we finished eating we then googled mattress stores and ended up going to Denver Mattress. We did end up finding one we like and got a 30% discount for taking the one on display. It will be delivered tomorrow! Now the excitement is starting to set in of being so close to finishing this big project!

Curtis started hanging up light fixtures on Thursday night after work and then we did the majority of it on Saturday. I assisted him mostly and then I did some painting on the urine stain. I had already done one coat on Thursday but did another on Saturday. Even after two coats you could still barely smell it right in the corner. I added another two coats on Sunday evening and just finished off our little can of primer that we had. I didn't remember to sniff it again before the carpet guy showed up this morning but I was pretty sure it was covered well enough by now and I was out of time anyway.

Hanging lights in our bathroom.

Curtis had to replace this step this morning before going to work. It had a notch cut out in the old stair to go around the white rock.

The master bedroom before carpet with all of the pretty lights.

Other angle.

Closet

After we moved things out of Garrett's room (where we're currently sleeping), Curtis had to add some screws to the floor to get rid of squeaky noises.

The carpet guy showed up around 9:30 this morning and got right to work. He finished around 2:30pm just in time for me to leave to pick up boys from school. We are loving the carpet. Only problem now is that the doors are too long with the new carpet and will need to be trimmed at the bottom/or top. I will post carpet pictures tomorrow because it's late now and I'm tired. However, I did want to post that the girls gave Garrett one of his birthday presents early yesterday and he loves it! Charlotte was too excited to give it to him and didn't want to wait until Friday.

Another Zelda necklace and matching keychain from the newest game taped inside a homemade card by Charlotte and Alice. Everyone signed it though.

He loves it!

He won't get any more gifts from us until his birthday, which is Friday. 

New Floors!

The time has finally arrived for the installation of our new floors! We got finished what we needed to for prepping for floors but we actually still have some things to do before carpet comes on Monday. The people who are doing our floors are a husband and wife team who contract with Home Depot. Home Depot originally told us they would be here on Wednesday but then later changed it to Tuesday. We pulled out the toilet Monday night so we could have them do the bathrooms first. Well, we anxiously waited for them or for a message from them all day Tuesday and nothing. Then Tuesday afternoon Curtis finally gets a text that they are coming the next day. So Home Depot told us wrong and we had to all share one toilet for two days. It wasn't too bad though because everyone woke up at different times and went to school or work. 

The flooring people were able to finish the landing by the front door and the two bathrooms. They had to wait to start the kitchen because there were a few areas that needed some leveling compound on it that needed to dry overnight. So our fridge, oven, dishwasher and pantry items are hanging out in the dining room.

The master bathroom.

The hall bathroom.

The front landing.

All with the freshly painted walls and chandelier.

Here's what our dining room looks like right now.

While they were working on the floors yesterday, I was working in the corner of the master bedroom where the urine smell is. It had two coats of primer on it but that wasn't working to keep the smell out. We were told about another product to put on top of the primer and so I was prepping the area for that. I saw some bumps on the floor that had gotten there during other phases of the project and I wanted to level them out so that the carpet guy wouldn't do it later and expose the wood. Well, the paint came off pretty easy around those bumps with our floor scraping tool, so I decided to scrape all of the paint off. We were told that an oil base primer would work better but because we had the primer on, we couldn't use it. With the primer removed we can get the oil base stuff and hopefully rid ourselves of the odor. 

The paint chipped off easy in some places but not so easy in other places. I accidentally chipped the blade because of running into nails. Sometimes the blade would dig down too deep and would pull up splinters of wood. That's not what I wanted to do. I finally had to take a break and come back to it later. After chipping up most of it, I decided to grab the sander. I would say I was able remove about 99.9% of the primer paint. Whew, what a job that turned out to be! But, since I was in sanding mode, I decided to sand down the window sills because I was going to do it later anyway. After sanding those I had to leave the mess to help Charlotte with homework, etc. I never got around to finishing the clean up. I was so exhausted by the end of the day.

The gray stuff is the leveling compound in the kitchen.

The corner in the bedroom where I removed the primer.

It's the worst right in the corner.

Window sill before sanding. They had tile here before in both windows.

After sanding.

Today they came in to finish up the flooring in the kitchen and pantry. They were done just before 3pm so I was able to get some pictures and post this before most of the kids and I head to Idaho tonight for an orthodontist appt for Garrett tomorrow morning. I was so tired from working so much yesterday that I rested today. I also started getting the sniffles but I think that's from all of the dust from sanding yesterday. But yay, it's finished!

I wonder how long it will take us to get the trim work done. We have the whole house to do!

Fun and Busy Week

Last week Alice had a fun school assignment about her favorite hat. They wrote a poem about their favorite hat, but if they didn't have one, then they could make a hat. Alice has some hats but she wanted to make her own and of course it had to be a unicorn with wings, which is also called an alicorn. I found a simple tutorial on how to make one out of paper. It took me awhile though to figure out how to curl up the paper the right way, but I finally got it. Charlotte wanted to make one as well, so she was right there with me making her own. Alice then got to wear her hat at school last Friday.

We stayed up late to make these even though she had an extra day we could have worked on it. She was just too excited and wanted to finish it that night (last Wednesday).

Friday night was Jack's 2nd football game band performance and this time Curtis and the girls came along. I didn't volunteer to do anything this time so we did pay to get in, but I could at least sit with Curtis and the girls. Unfortunately, there were some teenagers behind us using a lot of bad language. After half time, we got up and moved. Charlotte saw some kids with pom poms and really wanted one for her and Alice. One of the kids gave her one and then after the game was over they found some in the stands that people left behind. They each had two and had so much fun doing some cheers. 

Jack is right in front on the 40 yd line in this shot.

Alice was having fun on the hand rail. I zoomed in to get this picture because she was down low. There were other kids playing on them too so I decided not to worry about it.

The girls came up with their own cheers as we were waiting for Jack to finish up with the band after the game. They are excited to go to the next game with their pom poms!

I also bought myself some Southridge shirts while at the game because I wanted to show support for Jack and the band. I was wearing my Skyview band parent shirt to this game but next time I'll get to wear one of my new shirts. Their school colors are blue and yellow.

The next morning was our ward's super Saturday activity. I had to be there at 8am to help set up and bring a bunch of stuff with me. Thank goodness I had a wagon to use or I would have made multiple trips out to the van! We did not have a huge turn out. At one point I counted 21 but it was still a good time for those who did come. There were multiple other events going on the same weekend.

We had a baked potato bar for our luncheon in the young women's room, right next to the kitchen.

Some of the delicious pumpkin dessert items! I made the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and pumpkin bread.

Here are two of the ornaments that I made. They are really easy. I made a pumpkin also but forgot to get a picture. (I forgot to rotate the picture before adding it also, so it's sideways.)

We had the option to make either a Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas gnome. The girls wanted me to make a Halloween one so I did. It turned out pretty cute. 

While I was at the activity, the boys were at home ripping up our old flooring in the kitchen and the hall bathroom, getting ready for new floors this week.

Later that same day we went and picked out a spray paint to update our brass chandelier. We don't like the brass so it was either buy a new one, or paint the old one. It was a lot cheaper to paint the old one so we decided to try it. Charlotte helped a little by wiping dust off of the screws and stuffing paper towels in the sockets.

Curtis set it all up on the deck.

It was dark by the time I finished so we got a picture of it hanging up in it's place. There are 3 light bulbs that need replacing though.

Even though it was late, Curtis didn't want to wait to hang up the chandelier. It was painted a shining armor satin color. We are pretty happy with how it turned out.

Just when I thought our van problems might be over with the installment of a used star connector (for testing), our light turned on again Sunday morning. The van sliding door wouldn't operate either and so I'm not sure if they are connected but the van didn't tell me any other messages. The door now works again (this is something that has happened since shortly after buying the van) but the light continues to come on with no other messages. Maybe it just needs a brand new star connector instead of a used one. I don't know. The van works fine even though the light is on so I'll keep driving it and see what happens.

Alice was chosen to be "Camper of the Week" in her class, which means that she got to pick out some favorite items and bring them to school as well as fill out a big poster about herself. Each day at school this week she gets to tell about a different item. One thing was her favorite outfit, so she wore that on Monday.

She loves alicorns, which are on her favorite shirt.

Tuesday was mowing day and since the boys are busy with school and Jack with band, Charlotte wanted to help me mow this week. We did some with the push mower and then with the riding mower. Alice wanted a turn also on the riding mower so I gave both girls a turn. Technically, we're not supposed to have two people on it but we did it anyway and it was fun for all of us.

Lots of stuff going on this week and we're excited for our new floors to be installed, FINALLY!!!!!