House Update: January 15, 2010

The hardwood floors are underway. They look absolutely amazing. George should be done with them by the end of the week.

Remember the spot in the Master Bedroom, this is it now. It should come out completely before it is all over.

Here are the possible stains for the white oak. The one on the left is just poly and the one on the right is a mix George had used on another job. We decided to go with the three coats of poly.
This is Bethany's room with the coarse sanding done. All it needs now is a fine sanding and some poly.
Sarah's room is almost done also. Still needs the fine sanding and poly.
Here is a picture of the dust containment system. I have been assured that it will collect about 90% of the dust that sanding the floors creates.

The kitchen floors are cleaning up so nicely. If you remember, there was some yucky, yucky black tar on these floors at one time. We are so excited to see them finished. We decided to go with a darker stain in the kitchen than the rest of the house. We have chosen Cabot Sangria. It is a rich red color. It is going to be beautiful ... I hope ... hee hee.

Another view of the kitchen floors.

Unfortunately, there will not be too many more pictures of the floor refinishing process until they are completely finished. Myron and George have banned me from entering the house until it is all finished ... spoiled sports. No, really I don't want to take any chances of messing anything up for George. I want him to be able to do the floors right and without any disturbances from us.

Need a GOOD floor refinisher ... I have just the man. Need a GOOD Handyman ... I know that man too.

Bethany at the Spelling Bee

Some time back before Christmas, both girls had a class spelling bee. Bethany was one of two winners in her class. Therefore she got to go to the Regional Spelling Bee where she competed with six other 3rd grade classes which was held yesterday.

Myron took off work so he could be there with her. We were so proud of her. She was very nervous. She drew seat 11 and there were only 12 contestants in her group. We had been practicing different words but we were using words like: casserole, machinery, college, etc. We were SO surprised that the words were only four to five letters long. There was one that was six letters: ribbon. Bethany got beef, skim, pants, lasso and there may have been another but those were the only ones I could remember. The one she got stuck on was sense/cents. She didn't think about it until she started to spell it that it could have been the other one. So she said "s" and couldn't change it once she started. She just finished spelling the word and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, she didn't pick the right word and was disqualified. She DID spell the word correctly just not the right word. She made it to the Top 5. She was SO close. She was devastated.

Again, we were SO proud of both the girls that represented Prince of Peace's 3rd grade classes.

House Update

There have been many changes since the last update. I started getting quotes for having the floors refinished when we realized there were some plumbing issues that needed to be addressed. So we took a step back and I tried to find a plumber that would come out and give us an estimate. But here is the kicker, they don't give free estimates; they charge a service fee which ranged from $29 to $65. FORGET THAT!

Then I turned to the Handymen in the yellow pages. They do it ALL ... plumbing, electrical, home improvements, etc. So I found Mark. I showed him where we wanted the washer/dryer combo to go. He looks at me and says, "You are going to HATE that. You do NOT want your washer/dryer in your bathroom." So I show him the hallway closet where it could go after a little modification. He said "you will like it here much better." The next guy came in. I showed him the bathroom then I showed him the closet. He looks at me and says, I swear he said this, "That is TOO much work." (regarding the closet area). He then proceeds to quote for the bathroom and leaves. I knew right then I would NOT be hiring him. Mark it is!!! He started on Thursday. Here are some pictures showing what all he did over the course of 4 days.

Before picture of the closet. There is a storage space just above the closet. You can barely see it in the picture. It was pretty much useless to me because I couldn't reach nor see up there. Mark knocked all that out and made it one open space.

Closet is taken out and Mark has started rebuilding the frame. He has also installed the plumbing for the washer.

Here is another picture to show the electrical in and drywall installed.

Another view of the closet in progress.

The closet is finished and the baseboard is in place. The thermostat was moved from the inside of the closet to this outer wall. Granted it wasn't inside the closet until Mark rebuilt it.

The floors are coming along nicely. I just don't have a lot of time to be posting right now. My in-laws are on their way for a visit and I still have LOTS to do. Although, I am going to make one more post.

House Update: January 2, 2010

I almost typed 2009 ... ha ha ha.
Today we spent the WHOLE day pulling up carpet, padding, tack strips and staples. OMGosh ... the staples. It was SO hard to get all those staples up. Myron even had a blister on his hand. I felt so bad for him. But I just couldn't get some of them.
Here are the floors completely exposed:
Living Room

Hallway with Telephone Booth

Bethany is vacuuming her room and yes those are earmuffs. She is so funny.


Master Bedroom. Don't ask me what that spot is ... I have no idea.

Sarah's Room. She has agreed to the smaller room.

On Sunday, we finished pulling up the tack strips and staples in the Living Room. It was the only room we didn't completely finish on Saturday.

After all the carpet, tack strips and staples were removed; we moved into the kitchen. We were trying to get as much of the tar/glue up as we could. The girls just had to have a try at the sander.

End of 2009 ... Beginning of 2010

Thursday afternoon we went to the NC house. We knew that the fish tank was probably a goner after the 4 to 5 day power outage during the 2009 Snow Storm. After Myron unlocked the door, he came out and said "Ewwww!!!" It smelled SO bad. There was not one room in the house that was not affected by the stench. While I washed clothes, Myron cleaned out the fish tank. We loaded the tank into the back of the car and brought it with us. The stand was left for the next trip.
Although this is not the most recent picture, it gives you and idea of how the tank was set up. Some of these things died and there were some new things added.

This is what we found on Thursday. YUCK!!!

For now, the tank is disassembled. It is one less thing we have to deal with in North Carolina. Now if we don't want to go up there, we don't have to.

We had planned to leave around lunch time on New Year's Day. At around 6 p.m. that night, we headed back to SC. Between the tank and laundry, it took the whole day to get every thing done.

Saturday morning, we took our time and headed to the Little House.