A second to breathe

Preface: Don't ask me why the fonts are all different. I'm too tired to figure it out.

Sheetrock was finally done on Monday so we were able to start filling holes, taping, priming, etc. I would like to know why NOBODY told me how much prep work went into painting. Seriously, I think we prepped for hours. There were so many holes in the walls I was losing patience when I would find yet another hole that needed to be spackled and sanded. Thank you to my friends that came to help paint and Mom S and N for dedicating SOOOO much time to watching Sam and helping me paint. We were really hurrying to get the bathrooms and kitchen and dining room done so that the tiling could begin tonight. It was last minute but we did get all of those rooms painted. 

Tuesday night my mom and I cleaned up all of the mess from the sheetrock which is really dusty for those that don't know and from the texture on the ceilings. Just so you know, these before pictures do not do the dirty floors justice. We had actually already cleaned two bedrooms already and I decided to run and get the camera to show how dirty they were but we had already cleaned this last room a little. Anyway, they were filthy and it was so nice to get them cleaned up. 

I painted the ceiling and Mom S painted the half bath while my mom continued to clean. We were there until about 12:20ish and then I had to come home and clean all the paint brushes and rollers which totally stinks by the way. Danny did come out of the bedroom still kind of asleep asking me really weird things (he was clearly still half asleep) so that brought some much needed comical relief. We were going to start painting the kitchen/dining room but we had a little problem with the paint.

It took me forever to try to decide what color I wanted. Danny didn't have too much of an opinion. He told me to choose and I really struggled with choosing. Anyway, I got a color called 'toasted pine nut' and I thought I would really like it but once I put some on the wall it was way too dark for me. So after being up at the house painting and cleaning brushes until 1:30 in the morning Tuesday night I was up at 7 to run to the paint store to see if they could lighten the paint for me. They were able to lighten it a TINY bit but not much. I got a quart of the other color I was debating between before I originally chose toasted pine nut. So I ran home put a sample of the paint on the the wall and decided I would like it much better. My mom stopped on her way down to salt lake in the morning to watch Sam so I didn't have to take him to the paint store. Sam really is a nightmare to take anywhere at this point. He is so curious that he just gets into EVERYTHING!! I got home and got Sam so my mom could go to her meeting and then the fun really began, NOT! Mom S was coming down early in the morning to help me try to get all the painting done. I didn't have anything to do with Sam so I was pretty much just letting him run around the house and get into trouble. That lasted for about 20 minutes. The poor kid was ready for a nap at around 9 am. With all of the craziness this week he has been missing naps and is just tired. Anyway, I took him back to the paint store to get a gallon of the new paint 'chopsticks.' Back at the house I tried taking the pack and play up there so he could take a nap. That was a complete joke. He was really scared to be in the pack and play in one of the bedrooms. It was a cry of terror and it was killing me. After trying to get him to fall asleep for about 20 minutes I gave up and let him walk around until Mom S had to leave and I took him to the apartment to take a nap. It was such a busy morning and when he fell asleep it was nice to not chase him around and get the laundry done. I have had a lot of people offer to watch Sam while we work on the house but he doesn't know them and doesn't do well when I leave him with strangers. I guess if I would just do it he would get use to it but I don't want to so I guess it is my fault. 

My mom called me after her meeting and brought me a salad from one of my ultimate favorite salad placed "Plated and Palates". Pear/pecan salad with vinaigrette dressing= delicious. Thanks mom, I loved it. After we ate lunch she took Sam up with her to her house so I could continue to paint. That was at about 2 pm. Mom S came back after her quilting class around 3 or 3:30. We finished painting the hall bathroom and started the kitchen/dining room. She was doing all of the trim and cutting and I was doing the rolling. 6:30 rolls around and my mom brought Sam back down so he could go to bed. Seriously, I feel so bad for leaving him so much. My mom is an angel for watching him for us and Mom S is an angel for helping me paint.

Here is a picture of the half bath. You can't really see the color all the great but it is like a light gray/blue and I love it. It's just warm and yummy. It is the same color that will be in our bedroom. We still need to paint all the door trim and baseboards but that's okay right?

I took this picture when we had only painted one wall in the dining room. The whole thing is done now so I will have to go get a picture of it but it gives you the idea of the color. It is a yellow/tan and I like it.

After Camille and I finished painting the tile crew came in. We had so many helpers tonight and it was so great. There were 5 of Danny's friends and family that came to help. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you and thank you to the wives who let them spend all night at our house.

You can kind of see part of the painted kitchen/dining. The chopsticks color is also warm, yummy and cheery. I think it is going to look great when we get the tile, cupboards and countertops in. We are getting so excited as we continue to see things come together. Oh and here is a picture of the the textured ceilings below. I really like them, I'm glad we decided to pay to texture all the ceiling in our hosue. It is very forgiving of any blemishes that were on the ceiling. And being an old house, there were many. It's not painted or primed yet so you can still see the color through but that will soon be changing.

Tomorrow we aren't doing any painting during the day and I am SOOO excited to be able to play with Sam and get him down for normal naps. I really need to go to bed now b/c I think the next few nights will be very late. We have to get the rest of the upstairs painted by Saturday b/c they are going to be working on the wood floor starting Monday. I think we can do it but we are getting the closet organizers installed on Friday and we have to have those painted too. Those take a ton of time so I am a little nervous about that.

Our sheetrock guy called me and he is going to ask a friend if he can borrow his paint sprayer and in that case the primer on the closets, walls and ceilings will go on much faster. If you need any sheetrock work done and you live around Bountiful I will give you this guys number. He has been so great and so cheap (relatively).

I feel like our savings account is being drained and drained quickly. I am proud of the fact that we are able to pay for all of the renovations with our savings account and we didn't have to take a loan out but we of course still want plenty left in savings so I am hoping that we aren't draining it too low. There are a ton of things we didn't calculate in the budgeting like closet organizers, rain gutters, sheet-rocking a ton of different things, materials we didn't think about and much more. I'm sure it will all work out and I am pretty sure that we will never buy a fixer upper again. However, I know that we will have a lot of pride and satisfaction when it is all done. It really is a ton of work and we are coming along pretty great. Until next time, wish us luck because seriously we need it.