No rest for the weary...

Ever been so stressed, so sleep deprived, so worn out on so many levels where you start to do things a bit out of the ordinary?

I feel like I'm running around with my head cut off.  Seriously.  Let's see... this weekend I went through two or maybe three serious fits in a store with Mary while one of my best friends was there to catch it all (by serious fit I mean, pearl necklace broke and pearls running all over the floor in a store...).  Yes, Mary throws fits.  But NOT AT ALL like these ones.  Ick.  She was hungry and very tired - shoulda known but didn't of course.

What else?  Today I spilled a smoothie all over the floor in Kohls.  Of course, the smoothie was brown.  Imagine that.  Geez.

Rick was at the house by himself today.  Tom and I came around 2ish.  Tom put in 7 hours - I only did a couple. 

But paint is going up!  Its amazing how long it takes.  Truly.  Especially with all the BIG windows we have!!  

Our master bedroom took 3 men 4 hours to paint.  Truly.  Now, should I do the math on how long it is going to take to paint THE REST OF THE ENTIRE HOUSE?!?!  :)

Check it out!!:

Master Bedroom - its a grayish/bluish white

Mary's room went from yellow to pink!!  Purple stripes to come later :)

Tata for now!  Pretty much painting the rest of this week and countertops installed next TUESDAY!!! Yahoo!  AND we get to go to Boston to see Tom's brother get married!! :)  

PARTY ON WAYNE!!

Stain baby STAIN! :)

ITS CRUNCH TIME.

Do you know why?

Thats a little hard to see...

21 DAYS UNTIL MOVE IN!!!  Thanks to Rick we have a reminder on the window in the kitchen :)

What we are working on today:

• Hired a babysitter for 6 hours today.  In that time, pretty much all I did was make a Lowe's run (I wanted to do a yoga class and also get some shopping in, but couldn't.  Tom's brother's wedding is next week and I don't have anything that fits!!).  
• $400 later and 3 hours later, I came back with some:
• wood glue
• recessed lighting
• rosin paper (to protect hardwood floor - a little late for that)
• toe kicks to cover kitchen cabinets
• nitrile gloves for all the staining
• marble mosaic for kitchen behind stove
• some hooks for the 'mudroom'
• and thats about it.
• Tom has put up almost ALL the quarter round and baseboards.  He had to make quite a bit.  Also, hung all the door casings.  Again, had to fabricate quite a bit. 
• Josh and Rick were staining interior doors.  THEY LOOK SO AWESOME!!

Schweet!  And that's just the first coat of stain!

I don't know how many interior doors we have, its a BOAT LOAD!

 Some walls are ready for paint... I can't hold in my excitement!!!  

Poor Tom.  Mary and I are going to Columbus this weekend to see friends, he is staying here to work on the house ALL weekend.  He said, pretty much he will stay at Noble all day until he needs to sleep.  :/

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND!  Another update coming before our Boston trip next Thurs.

MUCH LOVE TO YOU AND YOURS!!

What are you doing this Sunday morning? + VIDEO!!!

At 6:30am on a Sunday morning, Tom and I are already up and discussing the vanity top for the kids bathroom (what size, where the sink goes, etc).  I am SO ready for this to be over.

I'm ALSO ready for the stress to be over.  I feel very bad that I have a million sources of stress in my life.  Stress is not at all good for a baby in womb.  

We are approaching the FINAL days here.  We have a countdown - thanks to Rick - written on the window :)  26 days!!  I will be packing everything in our house the next few weeks!!! YAHOO!!!

Tom and his Dad worked hard yesterday.  (So did Josh and Mickey and Beth!)  They put up all the trim work in the kitchen - looks great!  Tom's mom also, literally, hand wiped every square inch of our master bedroom, master closet, and Mary's bedroom down with water, cleaning solution and a rag.  Whew. BUT ITS READY FOR PAINT!   

I could keep talking, but I think this video will say more!  Please excuse the pregnant, out-of-breath, depressed sounding voice behind the video (its been a rough week):

560 feet of quarter round

I mean, really?!?!?

Can you imagine how much quarter round is 560 feet?  I cant.  And its taken loads of man hours to stain!!!

Realities of a Rehab

Here are some realities of rehabbing an entire 3,000 sq. ft. house (while working full-time and taking care of a 2 yr old):

• We normally eat dinner between 6-7pm (to keep Mary's bedtime at 8pm).
• Last night we ate dinner at 9.
• The night before I met Tom straight from the airport at a diner and we ate at 9:30.
• A few nights before that, we ate dinner at 10 (Mary was at grandma's).
• I keep forgetting when the last time I showered was.  I've actually been smelling myself and realizing its been a while... :/
• I got 4 hours with Tom at home the other day (floors were being polyurethaned).  We were updating things with our new address, canceling utility service, and doing that type of 'stuff' at home.  Was totally quality time with each other though!  I was loving it!!
• I've heard you should add 30% to your estimated rehab budget, as well as 30% to your timeline.  Well, for us - it would be probably add 50% in costs and 100% to your time.  Do that math.  That SUCKS.

So, some updates on what we have been working on:

• It has taken 2 weeks to refinish the hardwood floors - originally estimated 1 week.  They look great!!  They don't look exactly like what I was hoping for, but I can be okay with that.
• Furnace installed upstairs.  YAHOO for a home warranty!
• So, the guys  have not been able to access the house.  They have spent two weeks stripping interior doors of paint and sanding.  Two doors have been stained - but two whole weeks from them was spent just stripping doors of paint!!!  Whew!!



The Noble Crew!  I FINALLY was there when all the guys + Tom were there.  They weren't too thrilled about taking a photo but I don't care.  Left to right:  Tom, Rick, Josh, and Dave!!  Rick has helped ~30 hours/week and here since Sept.  Josh has helped ~50 hours/week and here since July.  Dave has helped ~15 hours/week and been with us since Sept.  Don't know where we'd be without them, they are SO helpful.  But when I think about what I just typed - Holy Moly.  Do that math!!!!  This was the Fri. before Thanksgiving.

I have PICKED OUT countertops!!!  WOOT WOOT!!!  Thanks to Rick for being my 'designer' and helping make one of the most expensive purchases yet.  Yeah - actually THE most expensive.  I started looking about 1.5 months ago.  Visited all the granite 'stores' - or installers.  Visited quite a few of them but none had what I was looking for.  Granite is one of the hardest stones you can put in your kitchen so that is why we are going with it.  It will last a life time.

So, then I visited their suppliers.  Monte Granite was thankfully down the street!  Vangura was quite a drive, and they put on the dance when I showed up.  Don't care for that.  I had to wear safety glasses in their 'warehouse'... I am ALL about being safe, but there was NO reason for that.  PLUS, I couldn't even see the stone easily since they were so scratched.  Pft.

The granite suppliers warehouse.

Went to Dente - awesome experience.  Highly recommend them if you are picky like me - GREAT selection.  CHECK OUT WHAT OUR COUNTERTOPS ARE GOING TO BE!!!!!!!!!

That is Dennis.  There were 6 slabs of the color I liked - so we looked at them all!!

Blurry picture, sorry, but this is going in our new kitchen!!

I feel like once the countertops are in - it will feel SO much more complete.  I'm hoping 2-4 weeks.

Things are going to start flying by!  (I HOPE!  A little more than 1 month left, and STILL NO completely finished rooms.  Uh-oh).

Tom is working his tail off today.  Woke up at 6 on a Saturday.  Went to lumberyard, got $500 more worth of pine/poplar to make baseboards and went to Lowe's to pick up our 2 kitchen cabinets we had to order.  Whew!

I'm going to Giant Eagle today or tomorrow to get gift cards to spend at HD & Lowe's (20cents off fuel perks!).  Also going to buy the tile for the kitchen backsplash.

We ordered our stove too!!  AND our hood for over the stove!  Yippeeee!!!  (all these decisions are not easy.  I mean really - how many types of stoves are there?  TOO MANY)

Okay, I need to go shower.  Seriously.   :)

FLOORING

Kitchen floor is 90% installed!!  :)  Just need to put more under the fridge.  (also need to order some more - we had JUST enough to finish.  Whoops!)  Finished that at 9pm last night.  Yuck.

Tom is actually at home at 4pm on a Sunday - WEIRD!

Flooring got their second coat of polyeurethane today - so the smell was so strong he came home (plus I convinced him, I need all the help I can get around here!  SO much to do!)

Here are some shots from last night:

How sweet looking are those floors?!?!  YAHOO!!

MORE PROGRESS

This is happening as I type!  Can't wait to see it in person!!! :)

I hope this looks as great as it does in this picture!!!

That's all I got right now.  Two blog posts in one day - I'm feeling fabulous! :)

Leonardo DaVinci

We are painting the stencil in the powder room!!   Well, Josh is doing it.  It kind of looks like a bit much, but im hoping that the sink and toilet will tone it down.

Also, Tom and Evan laid the pre-floor surface down.  Tom said Evan was like Leonardo DaVinci with the utility knife.  :) 

We took a few days off for thanksgiving but wont take any more between now and move in day!!!  (Jan 18th)

Hardwood floors getting refinished this week and finalizing the kitchen countertops!!! :)  Walls getting cleaned and paint going in asap after floors are done!!!  We are rounding third base!!