We're Making Progress - Part 1

I've missed you blog world!!! Every single waking minute of the day I am spending at our new house . . . trying to get it ready to move in. I would love to give an update every night when I get back to my current home . . . . but, I'm so exhausted and dirty and stinky . . . I get home, check email, get a shower, and hit the sack.

Here's how things are going so far.

One night, as Jon was tearing up the baseboard (we wanted to do a thicker baseboard b/c with the hardwood floors the 4-inch would look too small, so we're doing a 6-inch), he sees where the house had some termite damage. We got a clear termite letter so I wasn't overly worried. Our friends Tim and Lisa were over helping us. Tim is an excellent carpenter/builder, etc. Jon decided to cut the sheetrock to see if any further damage had been done to the house. I'm so glad Tim and Lisa were there!!!! There were active termites eating at the 2x4s and the paper of the insulation . . . YIKES!! Lisa and I were painting in the kitchen. I looked at her and said, "Is this a big deal?" She shook her head and said, "It can be." Again, I just wasn't overly worried.

Jon went into zone-out mode, which means he can't think enough to work. He and Tim and Lisa sat around the table and talked and laughed. I kept painting and told Lisa, "This house may be eaten alive by termites, but it's going to be a purty house." Ha!Ha! Tim is one of the nicest guys ever, and I was afraid he would be afraid of hurting our feelings by telling us how bad he thinks the damage is. I told Lisa I was going to call her and see what Tim really said once they got in the car.

I wish I would have had my camera. I told them they were our first dinner guests. Know what we had? Pretzels. We all just sat around the breakfast table and sat and talked and ate pretzels while the kids played with one another.

We all had such a great time together. We've been friends for a really long time and there will be times when we don't hang out for months or years, but when we do, it is as if we see one another every day.

Termite damage in the living room
Termite damage in the dining room

Jon's a little stressed

On Monday we went to pick out our granite. This is the fun part to me!!! We had an idea of what we were going to go with, but we wanted to make sure the granite slab didn't have any dark smudges. That is the bonus of being in the flipping business . . . we had a bad experience with dark smudges on the granite with one of the houses Jon flipped, so we knew to go and pick out the slab for ourselves.

The people there were so very nice. They moved the slab to the outside light and wiped it off so we could inspect it very closely.

Santa Cecilia was the color we chose.

Here the kids and I are in the sales office getting ready to put down a deposit. I also got to pick out a really cool sink. I'm so EXCITED!!! Granite counter tops are something I've been dreaming about for years!!!

On Wednesday morning the hardwood guys were coming. They told us we could just leave the linoleum in the kitchen and they'd just lay the hardwoods over it. But when Jon starting looking closer at the linoleum there were 3 layers . . . I guess that is to be expected from a house built in the mid-80s.

Jon calls me his worker bee all the time. I tease him back and say I'm definitely not the queen bee. In order to keep my status as worker bee and not queen bee I was going to get in there with him and get my hands dirty.

However, I had no stinkin' idea that this stuff would be so incredibly hard to pull up. Have I mentioned before that I work out and lift weights? I thought I could handle it. Girlfriend had to use some major leg and arm strength to pull this stuff up.

Jon got a monstrous toothache. . . the worst he has EVER had. He was in a LOT of pain. So I handled the rest of the linoleum by myself. I felt like Wonder Woman . . . if I could do this, I could certainly be a super hero and defeat the bad guys. I'm tellin' ya. . . this is HARD stuff to pull up.

See, in this picture, Jon's mouth? His tooth was really hurting him.

The girls were exhausted. Here we have this big house and they could have easily gone to their bedrooms to sleep. They wanted to be where the action was . . . so they laid on the hearth of the fireplace and sacked out. Hanna is under the blanket too. If you look carefully you'll see her blonde hair sticking out the side.

Alec decided he would do some of his homework from Homeschool School.

Jon's mom, Gigi, came over to help us. Jon thought he was going to be at the house until after midnight, so she was coming to be with him. I originally had planned on taking off around 9:00 and coming home and getting the kids in the bed. When Jon's tooth started hurting I couldn't leave him there, so I decided to stay. We didn't leave until after 11:00 (that is really late for this get-up-at 4:00 a.m. girl). When Jon's tooth started hurting Gigi went and got him some medicine. Thank you Gigi! She's so funny. She tried to help me pull up the linoleum. She told me, "Michele, I think you are stronger than me, and I don't think I like that."

Gigi and my Mom both are worker bees too. I'm honored to be apart of their hive.

Stay tuned for more updates . . .