Let there be light fixtures!

It's been about a month or so since Josh began his electrical work journey. As much as I've enjoyed trying not to trip walking over these (below) for the past few weeks, I am so glad I can finally walk around at night without a flashlight!!! It's the little things. 

Try waking up in the middle of the night and NOT tripping on that. 

I'm not sad to roll up those cords and walk on unfinished floors. Unfinished floors, sigh. Again, it's the little things! The goal for this weekend was to get the electrical work semi-wrapped up for the right side of the house. Aka the side with the bedrooms and bathrooms. Josh had 2 fixtures and 2 fans to hang as well as putting outlets together. The outlets are pretty boring. Here is a before and after. I didn't get a chance to wipe down the walls yet so excuse the nasty smudges.

The middle bedroom and our bedroom each got fans. I know most people nowadays like to put fancy chandeliers or cool light fixtures, but in this old house with no insulation you NEED a fan. It's hot! In the front bedroom we put a light fixture - it's my dressing room, remember? I'll save that reveal for another post because I love how it turned out. Here's some before and after shots of the two bedroom fixtures.  Let's start with the master bedroom... P.S. The master bedroom isn't finished being decorated :)

Don't you love a ceiling fan that has a light bulb hanging down 3 feet from it? 

Maybe we can say goodbye to that little fan on the nightstand!  And the pink  blanket is on the bed for catching dust, not decorative purposes :)

And the middle bedroom.. I couldn't find a picture of the actual fixture all together because it broke the day we moved in. So, this is the best I could do. And, all I care to remember :) Who ever thought looking at ceiling fans could be so exciting to me?!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be sleeping with ceiling fans once again!! Josh is back under the house doing one more thing and then we can turn them all on. Music to my ears! The best part of the whole thing was that we got the fans really cheap. I got one from overstock that was $90 and ended up getting it for $60. And we got the other from Lowe's for the same price. Gotta love watching sales!

We also went to a wedding this weekend. I love this picture of us :) Hope everyone had a good weekend!!

Everyone needs a Vacation

It's true. Everyone needs a vacation. We were getting to the point where we were getting burnt out. We're 3 months in and I feel like we've done so much looking back, but when I look around it seems less apparent. Anyway, focus on the positive.

I have lots of pictures to share with you from my week of vacation. Ironically, I did miss my once-pink house. Now that I'm back, I feel ready to start a new project. I think the winner just might be the staircase. So here's what I have been up to for the past week and a few days.

Charles got a haircut, we went to a wedding, and then we vacation'ed.

Isn't he the cutest? :)

I thought this was hysterical. Libby and my Dad were clueless. So funny!

Group shot! Again, iPhone pics are terrible. 

The girls in my family :)

We had fun, Katherine! Congrats again! 

First stop, family vacation to Orange Beach.

My Mom and Dad sitting by the pool listening to the band. 

 Don't worry, we never lost sight of the house :) Josh's beach reading...

Last night before my family left. Dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe. 

Then, beach trip with my friends.

Couldn't you die over that water?

Then, I walked into my house to this....

Josh and his Dad looking at electrical once again. Update on electrical: Josh says he needs about 3 more weekends and it should be complete. I'm going to estimate we will need at least a little more time than that :) I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. One more short month of time "off" before I go back to work. 

Now, let me shift gears and figure how I will decorate my classroom. And maaaaybe do a few lesson plans. Cross your fingers for an update soon! I know I am :)

A "before" tour

As you may have noticed, we have taken a little break this week. Josh is still at it with his electrical work, while I was busy cleaning and organizing... and packing for the beach! We leave Sunday for a week with my family. We so need this break. It'll be our only vacation this summer, so we are really excited about it! Thanks Mom and Dad :) So, I've decided to do a little "before" tour. Rather, a before tour of most of the house.

A lot of these pictures, I took on that very first day we got the keys to the house. You may have seen a few of these befores through some of the other projects I've shown. One thing you haven't seen... the bathrooms. Get excited!!!

Let's start with the main living areas of the house. When you walk into our back door, this is what you see. (You used to see that wall heater on the left wall as well, but that sucker is gone now!) Those little cabinets to the left are our pantry. I actually really like those cute little cabinets. If you were to look across the street from those little cabinets, you would find our laundry closet. What a view :)

And a little closeup of that snazzy tile. We have an entire box of these puppies left with the house. Woo hoo!

Here is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in. And this is what it still looks like. Minus new appliances and we pulled up the blue carpet in the keeping area. Fun fact - this is actually an update to the kitchen. It didn't always have this modern look. (Anyone catch my sarcasm?) The previous owner decided she wanted this galley kitchen feel. Personally, I can't wait to see it all gone. Except for the purse.

Anyone notice those nifty little fold up and down counter tops? Oh yes, they even have a little stand underneath them. Jealous?

And, if you thought I was exaggerating about the blue carpets. Here is your up close and personal. Brown stains, anyone?

Next up, we have the dining room. Not really sure why I only took a picture of this one wall. Maybe it's because I wanted to show this "feature wall" that has this wallpaper and molding. One thing I do love is that mirror. It stayed with the house. Can't wait to re-purpose it. 

Then, we have the living room. The living room is at the very front of the house. As you may notice, you can see some of the neighboring houses through the windows. Look closely in the second picture, see where the dead bolt is?

Next up, the hall bathroom. The hall bathroom is actually quite spacious. Once it's renovated, it'll be a great space. Doesn't everyone love a good carpet in the bathroom? I think I only have this one photo because I was scared to death of those drapes and that fringe. Partly kidding. I probably have a few more but I will save those for the future. 

We also have an en-suite bathroom. Usually when I think en-suite bath, I think luxury. In this case, I think more blue carpet and brass. Can't wait to do this bathroom soon. We pretty much have the door closed on this bathroom and pretend it isn't there for now. It's so compact. I guess its really all you need, right? :)

Side note, if you're in our kitchen, you can see our master bedroom. I wasn't sure how I felt about this, but after living with it, it's perfect that glass of water I seem to want every night. 

As for the upstairs, that deserves an entire post of its own. Stay tuned!

Painted furniture, Staircase Update, and more Electrical

I'm exhausted. We're exhausted. As we speak, Josh is on a race against the clock to get outlets to go from this... (makes you envious that you aren't here to live in this mess, right? :))

To this

Why the race against the clock? Because I have 4 shows set to record on my DVR. Duh. 

Anyway, back to our weekend events. So, the weekend plan was to get the lighting done in the 3 bedrooms. Lets just say, here we are Sunday evening and they're still in their boxes. But that's okay. I'm focusing on the positive. Here's what I did. 

My mom gave me this piece of furniture when we moved into our first house. It was in her house before that. I love hand-me-down furniture. In this house, it was too dark. Put a big tv on top of it, and it's even darker. So I bought some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Have you ever used it? The color I chose was "Paris Grey". It's a great paint for sticking to furniture or anything really. Best part... No sanding necessary! Hallelujah. It's the type of paint that leaves that antique/vintage feel. 

Here I am painting...

And here is the after...

I ended up changing out the hardware as well. Kinda reminds me of a granite eyeball. Originally, I wanted glass hardware. But, I have glass knobs in every room and in the bathroom. Overkill. Like these pink walls. 

My other project for the weekend was to FINISH sanding the staircase. I did it!!!! Took me about 5 more hours this weekend. Here's the pre-sanding shot (after we removed the carpet). Side note: the bannister never matched the stain of the floors... But it does match what we chose. Bonus! Because I did NOT want to have to sand that bannister. 

As you can see, this project has been in the works for quite some time. Two months to be exact. 

I only sanded the treads because that's the only place getting stained. The risers will be painted white. As for my technique, I sanded them initially with 40 grit sandpaper, then 80, then 220. Boy was I happy when I got to switch to 220. I used a belt sander and then switched to a detail sander. This was honestly one of the hardest jobs I've ever done! My plan for this week is to start the stain. Don't you love a staircase? Hopefully it's done soon so I can share!!! And enjoy. 

As for Josh, he was back at it with the electrical. Bye bye old pink outlets! Yep, even the outlets were pink :) 

Josh had to go back under the house a few times. I thought this was hysterical. He takes this spatula with him to squash the spiders :) 

As for all these wires that are hanging out of the wall, Josh would crawl in the attic and send them down through the wall. I had to stick my hand in the walls to catch them! I didn't have a spatula to squash anything either! We made a good team :) 

I think we had quite the productive weekend. One of my favorite things to do is to make old things look new or at the least, more like me. I've redone a few things that were original to this house. I think that makes things special. I love when things have a story or when they're sentimental :) you'll see them soon... I hope. And one of Josh's favorite things to do is the electrical work. He's so patient with it (and me) and he truly enjoys it. 

Oh and as for those fancy tools in the picture above, thank you Joe for letting Josh borrow them. He's obsessed. 

Where that hole comes from

So I realized after the fact, that I hadn't really explained where the big hole in the middle of our hallway came from. Well, I've come to answer your question! So, we had no central AC when we bought the house. Therefore, those huge heaters were all over the house. We had one in the kitchen wall as well but that one isn't nearly as interesting as this one. Here is what it looked like. See that big grill in the center of the floor?

Fun fact: we sanded the floors with that thing still in the floor. IMAGINE the dust that was trapped in there. Woof. I was so excited when Josh said we could finally take it out. Now, it didn't exactly just pop out. This thing was a beast. Who helped Josh? Me! Gloves and all. Here is Josh trying to remove screws and nails. Can you see the dust?

Here he is seeing how heavy it's going to be... Don't you love his work attire? Haha.

And voila.

This is what it looked like once we took it out. Then, we put it by the road and it was gone in 10 minutes. Apparently people must've caught on to the fact that we are constantly putting things at the road. Someone even picked up our carpet. With brown stains. 

 Anyway, back to the hole. And this is where Josh's most favorite activity started. Crawling in this hole and playing fixing electrical wires. If that's not a grin, I don't know what is. :)

 Lucky for you, I snapped some pictures of what was INSIDE of that hole - or under it, whatever. Brace yourself. Be thankful you weren't here to smell it.

Guess who had to scoop that out bucket by bucket? Not this girl.

After all that nastiness was out, Josh laid down some dirt to get rid of the water issue. Then, he put some supports in the hole to get it ready for the new wood floors. I have a feeling Josh will miss his little crawl space.

Don't you love a good photo story? I do. I have a feeling that one day I will forget all of these little details and all the steps we went through to get to the finished product. Luckily, I'll have this to look back on :)