Face-lifts and Lipstick

Hello! 

You must be thinking that we have abandoned the house project!  I was so faithful about posting every couple of days and sharing our rapid progress!  We are still moving forward, but things have slowed down a bit for the time being.  

Here are the projects that we are working on that have slowed things down:

The Fireplace.  Like how I officially made it a Proper Noun?  

The rocks are now gone.  We were totally blessed by a co-worker who helped to remove the rocks for FREE!  And I mean, ALL 3,100 pounds of them.  This is not an exaggeration.  Can I get an amen up in here?!

 

We can't move forward until we hire a mason to come out and help us frame and restructure the new fireplace.  We don't want to mess around with a hole in our wall that will eventually hold FIRE!!  I'm all about "doing it ourselves", but there are certain things where you have to be wise and hire out!

While the boys do big demolition jobs and manly-man things, I have kept busy by pulling this gorgeous contact paper out of all the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  Contact paper is much like wallpaper.  Sometimes it just peels off (and you do a little happy dance) or it comes off in little chunks (and you remind yourself that kicking cabinets will cause you more work in the long run).  

Once I finish this task, our cabinets are getting painted!!  Having the cabinets painted is going to help the kitchen appearance tremendously!  Also, having an amazing Dad who happens to own a painting and decorating business is pretty much the coolest thing ever in my book. 

                                     

    

                               This is the project I am probably most excited about.....

The master bathroom!!!!  The master bathroom is great, but it's needs a little face-lift and quite possibility a little lipstick.  Once we update her, she's gonna be a beauty!!  

The front part of the bathroom that you can see is the vanity and the walk-in closet.  Through that little door is the shower and toilet room.  (We have already stripped wallpaper and taken down the mirror).

Here is the plan:

See that wall with the metal towel rack?  It's a goner.  The whole thing.  We like open spaces and the feeling of an open bathroom (little toilet rooms have always freaked me out... this had a toilet room with a shower... oh please, help me!!)

Since we are taking out the whole wall, we decided to expand the shower too.  It's quite small.  Here is where the dilemma came in: Expanding the shower meant losing space somewhere else.  BINGO.... my walk-in closet.  *Boo-hoo*  The good news... I am only losing 18 inches.  I decided to sacrifice those precious 18 inches all in the name of a decent-sized, newly tiled shower! 

The shower is another project that requires hired help.  Hubby is VERY handy and quite brilliant, however, he has a lot of other projects (like the whole house), so we figured this was an area that was worth paying someone for. 

That's the house update.  We are scheduled to have floors installed in three weeks.  That means we have a lot of work to do in the meantime!!

In between ALL the house projects and real life (work and such), we are trying to remember to take time for ourselves and do fun things.  Renovating a house is a big task and can be quite consuming at times! The house will continue to stand and will wait for us.    

In the meantime, we plan on continuing to live the good life and having fun through it all!

   Bowling with friends.  Nick was doing a creeper face and I missed the memo.

I was attempting to do a creeper face, but instead... I look like I am going to take a bite out of him or something weird like that!!

                                                     The good life, indeed! :)