First of many updates on the new house

The very first thing we did upon getting the keys to the house was rip out the existing carpet and pad. It was old, faded, matted, and reeked of cat pee. This job went much quicker than we had expected. Fortunately my mom was in town, so she took the kiddos while we went to work. Here are some photos taken after the carpet removal:   Actually, we’re not removing the carpet on the main floor until we do our kitchen reno and put in cork flooring. So that horrible carpet you see above stays there for now. But it’s getting a good cleaning. And I’ve got plans for the fireplace (at least as a temporary measure until we can rip out that awful stone).   View from downstairs to the loft. Prepping for paint.   Testing out paint colors. For most of the house we decided on Wheat Bread by Behr, but lightened a bit. The full-strength was too dark for me.   Kitchen with lovely mauve tile backsplash and tiny orangey cabinets. Here you can see the wall with the stove that we’ll be knocking down. Aaron’s taught himself Google Sketch-Up, and we’ve got great plans for this space. Cross your fingers that we sell our house soon so I can get a decent kitchen with the proceeds! As you can see, we have no fridge at the moment, which makes making dinners at this house rather difficult. We have purchased a new fridge, but Lowes just called this weekend to tell us it won’t arrive until the end of April. Nice. Fortunately we still have a good kitchen at the old house, and I can do dinner in the crockpot when we’re at the new one (as evidenced by the crockpot on the counter). View into the loft before painting. Taken with my point-and-shoot, so the lighting isn’t great. Looking down the hallway to the loft and master bedroom. We did put some Wheat Bread up on the wall (that big gray patch), but it was too dark. It’s now been painted the lighter shade.   View from the upstairs walkway to the main entrance. I’m trying to convince Aaron that we need to paint those doors a bright turquoise, at least on the outside. We’ll need new lighting, but unfortunately, that’s way down on the priority list. Upstairs stairs with the carpet gone. We need to replace the banister and railings. They’re so widely spaced that Averi can fit her entire body through. She nearly plummeted to her death when we came to see the house the first time. Until they’re fixed, no one but Mom and Dad is allowed upstairs. Walkway on the top floor that looks down into the entryway and the living room. Master bedroom without carpet. We’re in the middle of painting this Sherwin Williams Analytical Gray. Notice a theme here? Apparently I’m fond of grays and blues. Who would have guessed? Lovely tub surround, complete with spots to place our faux plants for our bathing enjoyment. Ultra-long sink area with huge mirrored wall. More of that great tile in the shower.   The bathroom is not happening for a long time, but we did rip up the carpet in here. And, boy, did it STINK around that toilet! Why on earth did anyone think carpet around a toilet was a good idea? Master bedroom closet. It’s a very good size. You can’t see much of it because I didn’t have a wide-angled lens on this camera. All the trim in the house will be painted Benjamin Moore White Dove.   Aaron working on repairing cracks and drywall seams. The drywall seams are showing all over the main floor. I’m sure that once you know how to repair them, it goes quickly, but it’s sure been a tedious process for us.   The lovely sconces in the hallway. Those are getting replaced with the money I got from selling the koi (although we were strangely sad to see the fish go. We had only owned them for a week!). Removing the sliding doors (one of four sets in the house) to prepare for painting. Trying to figure out how to cover up the empty doorway. After the tarp blew down, we just gave up and left it as a gaping hole for a few days. Luckily the weather was amazing. Preparing the four french doors upstairs for glass etching. There was no way we were going to be living in this house with an unobstructed view into our bedroom. The glass etching definitely worked, but it was such a time consuming process that we decided to put it off until we a) could buy more glass etching cream, and b) had more pressing matters taken care of. A sheet over the door may have to do for now. Patching drywall seams and the numerous cracks.   After the gray paint and white trim went up. It’s MUCH lighter in person. I’m in love. The trim was a pain in the rear to paint (one coat of primer and three coats of paint), but it looks SOOOOO much better.   Trying to compare the clean look of the upstairs with the dinginess of the main floor.   Shadowy shot of the loft. It’s our concept room that we can be inspired by, since we can see it from much of the house. It just needs baseboards installed now, which we’ll be doing on Tuesday. Aaron doing some touchup. We got a lot done this week, thanks to my mom and her generosity. The week before we closed on the house Aaron and I took a trip to Seattle, the calm before the storm, you might say. She was scheduled to leave on Sunday morning, and at 10:30 at night she offered to take the three oldest kids back to Utah with her so that we could get some real work done. After checking to make sure that she really did mean it, we made a last minute decision to send them with her. We told them when we woke up Sunday morning, and the kids were thrilled beyond belief. We rushed to get them packed, and we even made it to 9:00 church in time for me to play the organ. There’s no way we could have gotten everything done with kids around, and we are so incredibly grateful our parents for taking care of our children for us while we work like crazy to get this done. And in case you’re wondering, they don’t miss me a bit. It seems I’m the only one who’s lonely. Such is the life of Mom.