My Superman

I offered you a sneak peak last week of the bathtub surround. Let me fill you in on how it's going!
My husband got one day off this week and he spent the entire day crammed in our bathtub.





Okay, so he laid the first couple of rows, let them dry while he got a haircut and then continued :)





Steady as she goes Danny boy! Okay so it's not finished, but it's a start, and to me it looks like a warm spa... mmmmm I'll do before and afters once the grout is up.

Eh What's Up Doc?

We have a bunny friend! I'd noticed for several weeks our little dog pawing and sniffing at the bottom of the shed. I figured a cat had had kittens but never saw anything under there. I'm sitting there telling my dad about it and saying I've never seen anything go under the shed when I look over and see this tiny cutie pie! He's only the size of my hand the tiny guy. But he's my buddy now and I watch him all morning and every evening as he hops about mowing my lawn. I make careful when I let the dog out to make sure he's in his house and am so excited!

Big news here at the Beals house! Dad came over and drilled some holes in my ceiling.

You see, I couldn't see if my dishes were clean or dirty.

Voila! Let there be light!

Todays project? Tiling the bathtub!!!!! Go Dan Go Dan Go!!!

I can't wait for a shower.

Camera?

Forgive me, I temporarily lost my camera and just found it a few minutes ago and snapped some new photos!

The past couple of weeks have been hectic and full of all kinds of surprises. First the new cook top was installed and didn't work. We had to wait for a week for new circuit boards to be ordered. A day before the parts came in our new refrigerator ice machine seized, blowing out two outlets and a breaker. The Appliance and Refrigeration Hospital has been wonderful and is going to look at that when they come to fix the stove on Tuesday. Our new dishwasher also started having some issues, it doesn't always want to drain properly and leaves about 2 inches of scuzzy water in the bottom. We are having very bad appliance juju over here.

We did however color our first Easter eggs.

Bake our first Pretzels

We started potty training, and big girl bedding.
And I finally organized my office and unpacked almost all the boxes.

The drywall in the bathroom is all put up and mudded. The fan is in place but needs a little patching before I can paint the ceiling.

Our tile finally came in and is absolutely gorgeous. Today Dan bought the rest of the supplies and grout needed to finally tile the bathroom! The 12x12's are for the floor, 4x4's for the shower and bath backsplashes, and the 2x2 mosaics will be placed on the diagonal for the kitchen backsplash.

Our dining area is primitive but functional. Boy I can't wait to get the new floor in, the door framed and the shades put back up. I also have great plans for that old picnic table to be repainted, and need to do some garage saleing for some chairs!

We set up this neat little reading nook for Nemi. Yes, those are all her books. Well, some of them were mine when I was little. You can usually catch her either in that rocking chair on top of the cat with a book, or on the floor surrounded by books.

And I decoupaged my first thing! These pretty letters for baby girls room. I hung them above her window.


The best news of all is that Dan's boss called and he goes back to work on Monday morning.

Bathroom

This week we moved on to the main bathroom. Let's start with a before photo!

I especially loved taking this photo. I walked around the corner to find my hubby and dad tag teaming the sinks :)

Yes it's a mess, but boy what plumbers they are!

And, here's what it looks like now! This is the mirror from our bedroom set and is not permanent. We have the frames for the new matching mirrors, but have not cut the mirrors for them yet. I'm dying to finish the drywall and slap up a coat of paint!!! Tile should be in soon too!
Question of the Day. What color would you paint this bathroom? The back splash and floor tiles are all going to be a creamy variegated tile to match the counter tops.

And just to make him happy, I have to mention my awesome brother. He was interested in making a little cash, so I put him to work on the raised planters.
Before

After! Great job baby brother. I can't wait to fill them full of veggies... after a few repairs.

Oh, I forgot to mention... I did all the blackberry removal. I have all of the cuts and scrapes and scars to prove it!
This house has proved to be more work than I ever imagined. We could never have taken it all on without so much love, support, and back breaking labor from all of our friends and family.
Thanks guys.
Thanks to all of you, this house is starting to feel like a home.

Kitchen Montage!

Today was so right in so many ways. I feel the need for a kitchen montage! We'll start at the beginning so you can watch our progress step by step.
This photo was taken on 10-24-09 The day we made an offer on the house.


On Nov. 7th we started Demo. We kept all of the old cabinet's in tact intending on donating them. We ended up keeping them to install in the garage instead. Note the original blue color!

The sink cabinet gave us some problems as the plumbing had been installed over it. We had to rip this cabinet up completely.

We took hammers to the soffit boxes. They exposed a bunch of bad wiring, and tons of insulation fell onto the floor.

My dad rewired the entire kitchen.

We removed the glass slider and our contractor Tim installed a new one.

My husband and brother in law recovered the entire ceiling and areas where the cabinet's wouldn't cover.

There was originally a door to the family room which we immediately took out. It bumped up against the kitchen counters. We then tore into the wall to create an inviting opening.

With the new header in place we moved onto installing our first cabinets. Dan and I worked together to hang every one of these cabinets. The lower ones were a pain. The walls were neither level, plumb nor square. In some places the cabinet's had 3/4" shims.

But we kept at it.

We may have even gotten a little cocky at our power tool prowess.

I helped drywall in the new doorway.

As more cabinet's lined up I got more excited.

Until my hubby decided to texturize the ceiling. It was a nightmare. It's still not finished. He dreads trying again.

I eventually primed all of the walls and ceiling. Bye Bye robins egg blue paint from the 70's!

It took me weeks, but I finally picked out a beautiful shade of brown. The doorway is looking nice also.

We even put in a fridge!

As we realized we'd have to move in earlier than we'd thought the mess started piling up.

I scraped the old linoleum off the floors. Gizmo helped.

Oh glorious day. When we installed the upper cabinet's and shelving, the upper half of the wall was straight! Plumb, square, level! It was so easy! I knew something had to go wrong.

I was right. We had a terrible time putting in this fridge alcove wall.

And then we realized we had to cut out a much bigger whole in the brick than we originally thought. The smallest oven we could find was still not as small as the old one.

But once again, my hubby pulled through.

And it's absolutely amazing looking.

Then we realized that the cabinet we'd purchased for the stove top wouldn't fit the stove top. We freaked, and I may have cried. Then we brainstormed with the parental units, and realized I had purchased kitchen height cabinet's for the laundry room and one of them was big enough for the stove. It's an incredibly tight fit, but it works. We'll just have a super skinny bathroom cabinet that will only hold toilet paper rolls instead of cookie sheets.

My gosh. I can't tell you. Last night when I went in my kitchen and saw the valance. I nearly lost it. I remember the day we saw the house for the first time. I immediately started emailing my mom ideas on how I was going to remodel this kitchen. The first thing I thought of was that valance and shelf. My mom brought me back a bowl from Mexico last month. I can't wait to buy a stand for it and give it a seat on that shelf. This really is a dream come true for me.

Today the guy from Precision Countertops came and started installing. I can't believe how they attached the sink seamlessly to the counter top!

Step two. Do you see the seam by the dishwasher? He took the neatest suction cup vice grips, then glued and melted the seam down. You can hardly tell it was ever there. It looks like it's all one piece!

We had some fun cutting out the stove top whole with him. But the guy was so nice and worked so hard. He even told Dan exactly how he was doing everything and offered us the option of buying some extra supplies he had left over for our laundry room so Dan could install it himself.

It's not perfect. But it's home. As I type, my dad, brother, and husband are hooking up the garbage disposal, sink drains, stove and downdraft. In the morning I'm cooking the biggest breakfast you've ever seen.