The Day that Got Better.

My Mom is visiting from out of town, and this gave me the opportunity to work on the house without the kids around. I went over with plans to roll out the bedroom ceiling with paint. The problem was when I started to do this ALL OF THE CEILING PAINT WAS STICKING TO THE ROLLER! So I spent the next hour painting the ceiling by hand with a paintbrush. Not exactly fun times. However the day did get better, as I was able to roll out the girl's ceiling, finish priming the trim in their room, put a final joint compound layer on the holes, and then ***JOY*** I got to paint the trim in the master bedroom with real official color. And by color I mean slightly off-white...
And while I was doing all of this, Jared was working on getting the beams installed in the kitchen, which is almost finished.

The first Beam installed.

second beam tied into first

Both Beams completely installed. Wow! I'm so glad we decided to take down that wall between the DR and Kitchen.

Bedroom

A different Before and after view. Note the skilled cover up job on the ugly chimney vent. (Gotta say, I am a little bit proud!)

Bedroom update

The before, of course

The Middle

All Primed and ready to paint

Trim Paint on

Sample paint on the wall, closets painted with 2 coats.

One big Lesson in Patience

Things are a bit slow right now. We have been back from our trip for two weeks (almost) and I think we are having trouble getting back into the swing of things. It didn't help that Jared's band had a show last weekend and that Helena, and now Odessa came down with the good old fashioned flu. I'm just praying that Jared and I stay healthy, because that will really put us back! I did manage to prime all the trim in the Master bedroom and roll out the walls with primer. I started to roll out the ceiling, but I was getting flaking, so I went back and painted over much of it with a paintbrush, which I hope will help the paint stick to the ceiling when I roll it with a roller. (Phew, that was a sentence!) I patched some holes in the closets, and finished patching and sanding the girls' room. And I filled some of the holes in the hall and stairway. It really sounds like more work than it was. It's always amazing to me that the prepping for painting is really the most time consuming thing! I always think "i'll be painting tomorrow" and then I have to put down tape, and vacuum the floors and walls, and use a tack cloth, and then I'm like "oops! I forgot all my painting supplies at the other house!" Renovating is just one big lesson in patience!

On a side note, I was getting kind of bummed out about the quality of the walls in the girls bedroom, and was starting to second guess myself, if I should be skim coating them. But, now that our room is finished I realized that perfect walls+two curious little girls=an unhappy mother! I will be able to worry less about them doing "damage" to all my hard work if I leave the walls in their bedroom the way they are!

We're Outta here!

Heading to Vermont this weekend for a weekend away from house work!  Painting the master bedroom will just have to wait!

The old door to the left, including the wall still in tact.

Door removed, and widened and wall gone!

Jared at work

Beautiful New Door!
New Door

What Jared's been up to

So while I have been laboring away in the bedrooms, Jared has been keeping himself busy with about a billion other projects. Last weekend his dad came over to help out, and they did a lot of discussing about how to properly remove the old studs, and replace with a header beam, so we would have a more open concept between the dining room, kitchen and the sunroom. They have so far successfully, removed one whole section of wall (beam still to come) and we have one more section to remove. It is so cool! Especially since it was getting hard for me to fit through the spaces between the 2x4's. Now I just breeze right through. : )

The Before! Looking into the dining room through to the kitchen.

What is under all that vinyl anyhow? REAL hard wood.

Same view but with less walls!

And the more open concept. The support beams will go once the header is in place. And then the studs between the sunroom and kitchen will come down too.

The job finished with two support headers in place, and all 2x4's removed!

Then today, he thought it would be good to install one of our new front doors. He started on the sun room door. Since the weather has gotten warmer we haven't been able to properly latch it, let alone dead bolt it! We replaced the old 32" nine light with a giant 36" one light, and it is so cool. I hate to put a privacy curtain on it, it look so good like it is! Pics to come!