home renovation

Really, what haven't we been up to. The last few weeks have been a blur of activities--most of which have centered around home renovation, but not all. Let's start with the exciting things, and then we'll move on to the boring stuff. That way, if you get bored, you can stop reading.

The first weekend in March, Chad and I went to Charlotte. Chad attended a mini-lypse for i-Stock (the online company he uses to sell his stock photography). While he was taking pictures like this:

I was doing this:

One of my best friends from college just happens to now live in Charlotte with her husband and adorable little boy. Katy, Jacob, and I spent some quality time together on Friday, and Andy joined us for a trolley ride and trip to the children's museum in uptown Charlotte on Saturday. We had a great time. The Burches were the perfect hosts, and it was a blast catching up with Katy. Although, reminiscing with her did make me feel old: I realized our freshman year of college was SEVEN years ago. Wow. It feels like just yesterday we were doing crazy things like riding a greyhound bus to Las Vegas, watching Spanish soap operas together during lunch, riding our mattresses down the dormitory stairs, and sledding on pizza boxes on campus (just to name a few of the memories I share with la otra Katy.) I am so thankful for friends that you can be apart from for years, but when you get together your friendship feels the same.

The same weekend that we went to Charlotte, Santa decided to pay us a visit. "It's not Christmas!" you say? Oh, I fear you must be mistaken, because why else would a little gem like this decide to show up in our mailbox?

Yes, those are concert tickets, my friend. And no, you aren't mistaken, they most definitely do say COLDPLAY! Chad and I are going to meet one of my best friends, Lacey, for this concert in August. They're coming to Raleigh, and we'll be there. This was very exciting news since they are on my list of people to see in concert before I die. The only thing that could make this better would be seeing them in the UK, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Of course, even when it's Christmas, we can't stop pretending to be on HGTV, so we've continued our own version of My Big, Amazing Renovation. If you've ever seen the show, you've witnessed the frustrations people go through while remodeling. I can't watch this show without shouting out a sympathetic, "I FEEL YOUR PAIN!" every few minutes. If we were on the show, our episode would look/sound something like this:

Katie: "Wow, this bathroom is really ugly."

Chad: "At least it's a good size."

Katie: "With a little updating, it might not be too bad."

Chad: "Katie, hold this mirror while I unscrew it, so we can keep peeling off the layers of wall paper stuck to the sheet rock while you try not to swear."

Katie: "Of course, darling."

Katie (after the mirror shatters all over the bathroom vanity and floor): "Are you OK?!

Katie, again (after noticing the interesting wiring that had been hidden behind the mirror): "Wow. That's up to code."

Katie (around the time that she foolishly thought she might be able to move into her house by Christmas. . . at this point in the show some dramatic music would begin playing, and the narrator would be saying something like "Chad and Katie are now ____ months behind schedule and $_____ over their original budget. In a moment of desperation, Katie has a tear-felt conversation with Chad"): "Let's hire someone to come finish part of the bathroom because I am going to have a nervous breakdown."

Chad: "Because you won't stop crying, I will let you continue to fantasize that we might be able to move into this house soon. You're wrong, but whatever you want to think is fine. We'll call the handyman to come knock some of this out."

Katie: "You know what sounds like fun? Being on my hands and knees for hours! Let's learn to tile our bathroom floor!"

Chad: "Nothing would thrill me more!"

Katie (after tiling for a few hours): "The lines aren't matching up right!"

Chad: "Some of these tile are different sizes."

Katie: "I don't care! JUST FINISH IT!"

(Flash to a few days later)

Katie: "Now that our tile job is done, and the grout makes most of our mistakes not noticeable, let's call a plumber to install a new toilet, without a sea-shell seat. He can also hook up our gorgeous new vanity from Home Depot."

(You've got to admit, folks, it DOES look pretty, darn good.)

Katie: "We will have to do something about the laundry area, because this is going to be an issue."

After handyman, sheet rock man, electrician, and plumber combine, this is the result:

Katie: "After we knock out the window air conditioning unit, remove the jungle vine growing into our house, scrape the popcorn off the ceiling, and paint the walls, this will make a great guest room."

Chad: "Agreed. Let's buy our paint from Lowe's."

Katie: "Let's go back to Lowe's, because the lady who mixed the paint and said, 'I hope this works,' clearly had no idea what she was doing, and our walls now look like a child has finger painted with chocolate pudding for a few hours.

(At this point in the show, there would be one of those dramatic fast-forward techniques used where you would see people going in and out of the room painting, but it would be like they were moving at 10 times the pace of a normal human. Then the room would magically look like the image below.)

Katie: "It would be a punishment to our child if we made him or her sleep in a room that looks like this."

Chad: "Agreed. Let's paint it and make it an office."

Katie: "You're a genius!"

Katie: "Wow, I thought wall paper was bad until I realized the agony that is sanding walls that have been sponge painted."

Katie: "Let's play a guessing game! How many coats of white paint will it take to cover this hideous, green trim?"

(I'm not sure, because I lost count at four.)

Katie: "Wouldn't it be a great idea to tile this room so it feels like an extension of the kitchen?"

Chad: "Because neither of us have tiled before, and we are stupid, I'm going to have to say yes!"

(Again, looks fabulous, if I do say so myself.)

Katie: "Remember that crazy lady at Lowe's who mixed the paint for the guest room? Well, it turns out she's not the only incompetent employee in the paint department. Let's run out of paint, so we can find that out."

Chad: "Great idea. Once they tell us they can match the exact color, and fail, we can repaint our den multiple times!"

Katie: "How grand!"

Katie: "Wow, now that the end is in sight, this looks like a completely different house!"

(Do our floors not look smashing?"

It turns out, our episode would have to be more than an hour long. So tune in later for a look at the finished product.

That's what we've been up to over the last little while. If you're not still reading, I understand!

I love this. I love even more that UNC beat Duke last night.

A colleague of mine recently expressed that the reason she doesn't want to have children is because she's lost all faith in the human race.

Here are a few things that have happened to me lately that have helped me keep my faith in the human race:

--A pair of strangers at Lowe's rescuing us when Mr. 4-Runner decided not to start, despite the fact that we have recently invested a crap load (pardon my French) of money into giving him a new transmission. Sure, they probably mostly did this because we looked like we'd literally wandered off the street of some third world country (Note to self: try not to meet new people when dressed in painting garb), but still, they didn't HAVE to be so nice about it. They were.

--Cute lady in the Big Lots' parking lot taking my cart back in for me. It may seem like a small thing, but when the store has no cart return, it's a pain to take it all the way back to the store.

--The ridiculous amount of help we've been getting on our house. While some of it may be because my in-laws are probably wondering when exactly they will get their guest room back, I know it isn't all because of that. They have done so much to help us, as have many others. I am so thankful.

--A good start to a new semester. My classes are wonderful! I have smaller class sizes, kind students, and a promising semester. I think I will be able to plan on teaching again next year, instead of searching for a new profession.

Progress. It's being made, and despite feeling like we're never going to be finished with this project that has convinced me we are not "do it-yourself-ers," these photos suggest that we are getting there.

Before: The kitchen had some NICE wall paper. Enough said.

Now: Yes, I realize that the kitchen looks like more of a mess than before, and it is, but the wall paper is gone. A lot of dish soap, water, fabric softener, and putty-knife scraping made that feat possible. Also, you'll notice there's a new wall where there used to be cabinetry. That made a laundry closet possible in the hallway. A loss of some counter space, but completely worth it.


Before: The master bedroom had a "lovely" wall-paper border, and the walls were a cool shade of BLAH.Now: Wall paper border gone. Walls? A warm amber.


Before: The living room matched the dining room in a bright fuchsia. A fireplace attachment made a nice addition to the space, and our floors glistened like a gymnasium.

After: Walls a warm neutral. Fireplace attachment non-existent. Mantel being prepped for paint. Floors refinished, but covered until all the painting's done (but don't worry . . . the shiny finish is gone, and they're a beautiful shade).


Before: The breakfast room had, yet again, a fantastic border, which concealed a nice patch of water damage. Carpet that looked like it had seen some better days.


After: Border gone. Water damage fixed. Carpet out, and floors awaiting tile. Walls? A shade of green that was meant to be sage. It's not. It's a beautiful color, but it looks nothing like the sample I put on the wall. It might be changing. We shall see.


Before: The guest bedroom had a vine growing through the window, and was an unidentifiable shade of dirty white.

Now: Plant and air conditioning unit have been removed, and the wall color is a deep taupe.


Oh, and P.S., the bedspread that will be accompanying this room looks like this:
Despite finding a shower curtain that looks like this:

I decided against going with that wild horses theme we discussed in a previous post.

Before:

The previous owner had planted spruce trees right next to the house. They were obviously much too large to be so close to the house, to the point that one was about to block the front door. Chad's dad was kind enough to rip them out for us one Saturday while we were working inside.

Here's the result:I think it's a huge improvement! Plus, you will notice that all of those ugly papers announcing to the world that our house was a foreclosure are now also gone. The yard is obviously far from done, but at least you can see our front door now.

Before:

An obnoxious flower border wrapped around the entire dining room, in between cheap molding to create a make-shift chair rail.


Now:

The wall paper border has been removed, along with the cheap, imitation chair rail.


And, the outrageous fuchsia has been replaced with a classy, deep red.


Before: The laundry area was an accordion-doored closet with exposed piping that could only house a stack-able washer and dryer.



Now: Not at all a photo that really shows the progress that has been made, but do you see those little folding doors jetting out in the hallway? Those one up to a full-size laundry closet.

More improvements not yet pictured coming soon. All the ceilings are painted. All the hardwood is refinished. Bathrooms are prepped for the final renovations. Crown molding being installed this week. We're getting there!

I've discovered another difference between Utah and North Carolina. It deals with something white that falls from the sky. You guessed it, snow. On Tuesday, we woke up to this:

In Utah, if I woke up to that on a Tuesday it would mean one thing: Leave for work extra early, try to avoid imperative death on the freeway, and pray it didn't get any worse before my commute home. Last year, when I taught in Lehi, there was a day they closed the freeway at the point of the mountain, none of the buses were running, and we STILL had school. Real safe.

In North Carolina, waking up to snow meant a phone call from the superintendent telling me to stay home, even though it was a teacher work day. That meant we could do this:





We had a blast playing in the snow, enjoying hot apple cider, and curling up in front of the fireplace.

Oh, and don't worry. Work was canceled on Wednesday too. It felt like extended Christmas Vacation. I could get used to this. Here's our house in the winter wonderland:

It feels strange to blog about Christmas when it was a whole month ago. If you want details, you can visit my sister-in-law's blog here for a play by play. In a word it was wonderful. What's not to love about fudge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Add a few handfuls of peanut-butter balls, and some other fabulous goodies, and you've got one great Christmas vacation. We did eat, but that's not all we did of course. There was sleeping in, movie watching, reading curled up in front of the fireplace, gazing at the Christmas tree, and baby holding.

This is all of us on Christmas morning, waiting to come downstairs and see what Santa brought.

This is our favorite present from Santa, our painting from Rome framed. Now if we can just finish our house so we have a place to hang it!



And this is us with our beautiful niece, Mackenzie Joy on her blessing day. Is she not the MOST ADORABLE THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE? I know. I miss her little coos, giggles, and smiles.


We had a great Christmas, filled with family, peace, and rest. We have so much to be thankful for.

Chad and I have been married for more than three years now. In those three years of marriage, we have only spent one Thanksgiving together. Our first Thanksgiving I spent in North Carolina, while Chad sat aboard a plane bound for Utah, so he'd be back to work at Best Buy on Black Friday. This year, was reversed. Chad stayed in North Carolina, because he hasn't been working long enough to have accumulated any time off, and I few out to Utah to spend a few days with my family. It's beginning to feel like Thanksgiving isn't a real holiday, since we never spend it together. Anyway, my trip to Utah left me with a series of questions:

Question One - Why is it that around the Holidays I begin to eat just for the sake of eating?

Not hungry? No problem. Consume massive amounts of calories anyway. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, but that wasn't the only calorie fest I indulged in on the trip. There were episodes involving spinach and artichoke dip, my mom and dad's amazing chicken salad that no one else can make just right, about a dozen Costco poppy seed muffins, Stephen's peppermint hot chocolate smothered in whipped cream, Cafe Rio (oh how my heart had missed thee!), and at least an entire jar full of chocolate/macadamia nut/caramel clusters (I want to personally meet the person who created these and not only shake her hand, but give her a hug), and much more.

This is our pretty Thanksgiving table, although I never got a picture with all the food on it . . . sad day, but it was yummy:

Here's my dad carving the turkey:

Question Two - Does every family have those relatives who are just crazies?

These are two of mine. I love them dearly, but I affectionately refer to them as the crazies:

During dinner I had a laughing fit that I had to try to conceal when crazy on the left decided to begin impersonating her dog. Yes, she was barking at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Luckily, I wasn't sitting across from Jared this year. The last time this happened, I wasn't able to control myself because every time I'd look at him it would set off the laughter again. She also had some interesting comments to make about the school where I teach . . . but that's a story for another time.

Question Three - Why doesn't my family live closer?

Spending time with my Mom, Dad, Bryan, and Jared was wonderful. I love them all so much, and it is very hard being so far away. We had a great time, though.

Jared can always make me laugh. This kid has the best sense of humor, and he always has cool, new music to share.

Even though this picture is terrible of me, I have to post it, because this so sums up the fact that brothers will always torment sisters, no matter how old they get. Constantly trying to pester, but out of love. I am going to miss Bryan so much when he leaves for Iraq after the new year.

It was so much fun to have time to spend with my mom. She didn't have to work the entire time I was there, so we had a lot of time to be together. Best of all, we got to exercise our traditional, yearly, eight hours of insanity: shopping on Black Friday. I think the lady who scowled at all us suckers, waiting in line at Kohl's, put it best: "Nothing in this store is worth waiting in THAT line for." You were right lady. But wait we did. Why? Because it's just wrong not to.

Question Four - Isn't it amazing how some friendships are made to last a lifetime?

I've known Callie since the sixth grade, when she forced me to jump off the rope swing at Lybbert's Pond. I've known Crystal since the seventh, when Callie introduced us. We've made a lot of fun memories together over the years. From school dances, to dancing the night away in Mexico, I always smile when I think of these two. It's always fun to get together to catch up. It's even more fun now that she has two adorable daughters. It was great to play with Aubrey and Olivia. I feel so blessed to have such good friends!

Question Five - Why is it, when I WANT it to snow in Utah, it doesn't?

Because North Carolina is my home now, I've adjusted to the fact that my days of white Christmases are pretty much over. There might be one fluke Christmas where I luck out and see a dusting of white, but chances are slim. As much as I complained about the snow in Utah, I do like a white Christmas. Since I won't have one of those, I was hoping for some Thanksgiving flurries. I got nothing. Nada. It wasn't even COLD while I was there. What's with that?

Question Six - How awesome is my husband to let me leave for a week to see my family?

Question Seven - How much more awesome is it that he missed me while I was gone?

As much as I loved spending time with family and friends in Utah, I really missed my husband. It was pretty hard to fall asleep without him beside me, not to mention the fact that I just enjoy having him around. I was so happy to see him again when he picked me up from the airport. I figured he would probably have enjoyed bachelorhood a little too much while I was away, but by some miracle he missed me too! I am so thankful for him and all he does for me.

It feels like my Thanksgiving trip just ended, and already we are getting geared up for Christmas. Time sure does fly! I know I've slacked as a blogger lately, but with Christmas approaching, that means there's a new year just around the corner. One of my resolutions? More blogging!