The Living Room

Before

Before

After

Onto the next room- the living room/hallway. We don’t have a picture of the hallway yet, but we will work on that. In the living room we changed out the ceiling fan/light fixture in the main room and above the entry way. We were tired of the old 70’s looking waffle fans and decided and upgrade was due. We painted all the walls, ceiling, and put in new carpet, as well as vinyl in the entryway. We also changed out the window covering over the big window and added wall decorations. The one you can see is a collage of pictures we took on our honeymoon, an everyday reminder of the fun we had in Antigua. This room wasn’t bad to do, although the light fixture over the entry way was not the most fun- that is how we spent our 4th of July weekend.

The Bathroom

What was supposed to be a change in flooring and paint turned into a bigger project! In July we set aside a weekend to replace some of the drywall that was bad behind the toilet and recaulk the tub. Little did we know that our 4 hour project would soon turn into a 24 hour project that would take 2 full days and prevent us from showering the entire time! After it was all said and done we removed the old tub, replaced the sub floor, and put in an entirely new tub. We also became amateur plumbers (not by choice) and decided that we would NEVER replace a tub on our own again. We now have new paint, a new tub, new flooring, new baseboard and pretty much a whole new bathroom. We don’t have before pictures on this room, but do have some action shots and the final product. The action shot is when we were replacing the tub.

After

Before

The Improved House!

It is our goal this week to ‘unveil’ a room a day. We will try to show before and after, with some progress pictures as we have them available. Get excited- we are!

The merging of households!

Who knew we had so much stuff! Our project for the next couple of weeks is reducing this down and organizing it a bit more. If you want to help, let us know!

Fun note: the cats think it is a great little jungle gym and the dogs cannot get to them (as easily)!

Let’s Dig- AGAIN!

The hole they dug to access the sewer line. If you look closely you can see one of the holes in the line.

One of the issues with the sewer line- a HUGE root that had grown into the line. The picture does not do it justice.

We thought we were finally getting somewhere on the house issues, but we were wrong. The same day we got new carpet we also discovered that the sewer line was backing up again. Luckily nothing got on the carpet and we were proactive verses reactive on the situation. On Monday and Tuesday of this week we had the diggers out again and they proceeded to dig up more of the sewer line. We found another issue and it has been now been replaced. We also had them run a camera down the line to where it meets the city line and everything looks good (we should have done this the first time around, but we cannot go back and change that.) From what we can tell, that problem is fixed.

Also, Lowes came out and did some touch up work on the house so it looks better as well! Now we just have to get everything put away and the baseboard in.

With that big of a root growing in the line we are not sure how anything passed through!

Lowes Professionals- are you sure???

We just purchased new flooring for the house from Lowes. While they claim to have professional installers, we beg to differ. Not only did the installers completely bang up the recently painted walls and baseboards (more than normal wear and tear that we expected) WE had to point out the problems to them to get them to notice. They also managed to tear the weather stripping off the front door, and knock off the corner protector between the living room and kitchen (which resulted in them totally wreaking the paint job on the corner as well).

Could this lack of care and professionalism be a result of having a drink while working? Maybe- because we found a beer can in the just emptied garbage as well (along with an energy drink container that matched another energy drink container found in the house). And while they deny the drinking on the job- I think it is a HUGE coincidence that a beer can ended up in our garbage on the same day they were working on the house (and it isn’t a beer Nick or I would drink, nor have we noticed our neighbors walking down the street with a beer and then choosing our garbage to put it in). They were also kind enough to consider us their ‘mothers’ and leave their lunch/snack wrappers around the house.

In additional, the ONE room we asked them to do on the first day didn’t get done and they did other rooms instead (which meant moving everything we had cleared out of one room back into the room before laying the carpet). I have already made a call to Lowes (who contracts the installers) and we will see how much gets fixed. They claim to have guaranteed satisfaction and they have not achieved that yet.

Our recommendation- stay away from Lowes ‘professional’ installers because in our opinion they are not worth the hassle no matter how inexpensive they are.

On the positive note, the flooring is now in and we can try to get back to normal. Once we get things reorganized we will post pictures (maybe as early as tonight)! We also hope to add a few pictures of Nick attempting to play Wii Fit in the newly remodeled basement.

It's Official- Almost!

After 2 ½ years, I am finally done with my MBA classes. We are just awaiting the final report card, which I am not too worried about given the class was Investments and I know a thing or two about the topic. I took my last final on Thursday night and proceeded to celebrate all weekend by painting the house and Emily and Brock’s wedding. Congrats to the two of them as well, we had a great time and they make a most wonderful couple (and we can say we were there when…) Anyway, the studying is done (until it kicks into full gear again for CFA starting in December/January). Now we just have to finish up on the house (due to be done Thursday!)