Remodel, day 1.

I forgot, or maybe blocked out, just how much work it is to remodel a house. When we bought our current house it needed a lot of work too...but that was 7 years ago, I think just how sucky it was faded from memory. It took 2 months to make it official on this new house, I had posted some before pics of it here. Today we got to start the pretty massive remodel project. The list of stuff to do is long, there is not a single room that is being left as is. New hardwoods, new tile, new sinks & vanites, new tub and showers, new granite, new french doors and lots of paint...it is almost a total gut and fix up. We are hoping to have it done in the next 8-12 weeks, we are doing all the work ourselves...along with a couple friends, so it will not be super speedy.
We spent about 7 hours working on it today...I just can't wait to get it all done so I can get to decorating :) Grandma was nice enough to hang out with the kiddos all day so we could get a good start.

The place still had a good deal of left over crap in it from the previous owners, 1 ton, yes TON, of junk has already been dropped off at the dump....and after today we have another 2,000 pounds to drop, and we still aren't done with getting the old vanities and subfloors out yet.

I took a couple pics before we got started, since all the junk was cleared out now. The kitchen will be getting granite counter tops...I have fallen in love with the stuff since we put it in our current house during our kitchen remodel almost 3 years ago.

The bonus room will be getting tile and a new wall...buy buy brick and wood LOL.

Total new bathrooms are coming...they need it bad.

Time to get busy!

Time to start pulling up the old carpet.

This is about where we decided we needed masks. Ewww.

My brother Scott and I modeling our lovely demo gear. Carpet is so nasty...you just don't know how dirty it really is, even when trying to keep it clean. I will NEVER EVER have carpet in any room of any home I own again. I had already made that proclamation when we tore the carpet out of our current house and went with hardwood 6 years ago. Today just reaffirmed my decision. Nasty dirty stuff, no matter how hard you try. Not to mention with 4 little kids, 2 dogs and 3 cats...we could never keep it clean anyway LOL.

Auntie Amber is ready to get down to business!

Master bath shower gone...we are hoping to remove that wall there and put a larger shower in.

Carpet out!

Getting tile and carpet and some God awful wallpaper removed.

Mmm lunch!

Carpet and subfloor gone!

Bath on it's way out too. Demo is kinda fun...just banging away at stuff is great to get any frustrations out LOL.

Another full load off to the dump.

It was a good start, Jason and Scott are hitting it again tomorrow...no pics though, I will be chilling at home with the munchkins. More to come soon.

I will be linking all the posts involved in the remodel.

Project start to finish

Walk through.

Day 1 remodel.

Shopping trip.
2 week mark
Painting
Kids get to see house finally
More painting
Adding another project
Fiasco
Sanding start
Bathrooms just about done
Granite installed
1st coat of stain in kitchen
Kitchen cabinet bases done!
Week 7
Hardwood floor sanding round 1
Floor sanding not going so great
Floor finishing started
Floors, floors, floors
8 1/2 weeks in
Trim and doors started
Closets done
Kitchen put back together
Odds and ends
Adding the purple
Kitchen DONE before and afters
All the afters.

What's cookin', Good lookin'?

It took forever, but I back tracked through my blog and picked out most of my posts with recipes. Of course most were from just the last year and a half or so since I became a Pinterest addict LOL. You can find links to lots and lots of yummy meal ideas at the very top of the blog, where it says What's cookin', Good lookin'? I will keep adding as we go!

Tonights crock pot deliciousness did not go over well with the girls. Everyone else loved it, but as you can see Lily was so unimpressed she pouted and stirred her milk with her finger all through dinner. Even a warning about no dessert didn't prompt her to eat her dinner...and this is a girl who starts talking about dessert when she wakes up in the morning LOL.

She is lucky that dinner was super easy or I may have been put out by her tude.

I just had to take a couple pics...she looked like such an angry, yet adorable, little Bug Hehehe.

Hayden copied her and then asked me to take her picture...what am I creating?!

What was this awful gruel you may ask...Crock pot Chick and dumplings.
4 to 5 chicken breasts (boneless)
2 family size Campbell Cream of Chicken Soup
onion - diced fine
frozen bag of mixed veggies
2 tablespoons butter
2 10 oz tube biscuits
 Put everything but the biscuits in the crock pot on high for 4-5 hours. 30 minutes before eating, tear biscuits up into small pieces and place on top and cover for last 30 minutes of cooking.

So easy, and despite my picky girls feelings, yummy too!

A first...and a last.

The kiddos enjoyed a Hostess Cupcake today for the first time. We managed to buy a box of cupcakes and ding dongs just before the shelves went totally bare a while back...still wish we would have found some Twinkies LOL.

They were so excited...I had to take some pics, so later they would see that they got to enjoy some Hostess even though they won't remember :)

They were a hit!

Later we were practicing our letters. Xander is not a big fan yet, but he does enjoy drawing. Hmm what have you drawn there son. Jason saw it and busted out laughing, I looked over and had to grab my camera to take a picture Hahaha. I guess Jason and I are just gutter balls...Xan said it was a mouse :)

Good news...the new house is finally ours! That only took 2 months. Remodel starts Thursday, hopefully we can be moved in sometime this May!

I am going to start a project of getting a page put up above, by my Arts & Crafts page at the top, of all the recipes I have posted over the years...that should be fun. It will be helpful though, I hate searching through tons of posts to find something I made a year ago.

Fun with our Irish triplet friends.

We had a fun evening planned with our good friends...the "Irish" trio T,J and N. I made the mistake of telling the munchkins this morning. Can you guess how many times I was asked "are they going to be here soon?" LOL.
A yummy new twist on lunch helped pass a little time. Ever had a grilled cheese mac&cheese sandwich? Mmm tasty!

Then my girls had some fun being pillow case caterpillars :)

She sure is cute!

My baby bug is growing up...I can't believe how mature the trio are looking these days.

Haddie had to have a turn too.

Then our friends arrived...it is always so much fun, loud fun LOL, when we get this bunch together. Dinner and a movie in your PJ's, is there anything more fun?

The girls are so cute.

Hahaha funny height difference here...Tally is 8 months older, such an adorable lil peanut!

Jericho had fun, until he took a little spill out of the "wagon of death." Curious about that name...it comes from the "basket of death," and an earlier get together with T,J and N.

After a super hands on dinner of pizza and salad, everyone got comfy and watched Brave for the first time. The trio enjoyed their very first "Ring pops" they were immediate fans!

We had such a great time...must do it again soon. Though this time without J getting sick on the drive home, sorry Dina...hope he is feeling better tomorrow.

In other news...we plan to get started on the remodel job of the new house late this week...can't wait to get it done so we can move! I will be posting pics as we go...Pinterest, don't fail me now :)