One BAD paint color

Throughout our experience as homeowners we have, for the most part, picked fairly good paint colors...this luck was bound to end one day. But it was much to my surprise when I came home from work to find our den/dining room painted a bright neon green...it was the classic... "THAT IS NOT THE COLOR THAT WAS ON THE CARD!" Paul tried to pretend that the color would work, but we new in the end it would have to go. We are much happier with the final product..."maple" from Miller paints line of "historic colors". Yummy!:-)

The floors and doors...sort of.

Paul installed hardwood floor for the first time - he did a great job. It was pretty intense. We love the lighter wood compared to the old dark pergo floors. And of course the doors - much better I must say!:->

Getting closer...

Alrighty, these are not perfect before and after pictures but it gives you an idea of how things are going at the "purple palace". I knew I was a delinquent when I saw Kathy Burns at my five year reunion and she said, "You need to update your blog!!" Thank you Kathy for keeping me on top o' things:->. The kitchen before (with a nice shot of our realtor) and the kitchen now - minus the counters and sink. Hopefully these will be added next week - I'm so excited! We also decided we don't like the dark blue in the kitchen so that will be fixed at some point. The fireplace before and the fireplace now. Sorry about the mess...just a glimpse of life at the "purple palace".

French!

Another change! Paul, along with Regan, who is a very talented man from our Church (can do just about anything) took out the old back door, cut a bigger opening and put in a french door today. We really like the difference it makes - but now it puts more pressure on us to have a "nice" backyard - now you can actually see it.
Photo 1: The back door way, way before we got a hold of the house
Photo 2: Scout monitoring todays progress
Photo 3: They're done! Well at least the door is in - it needs to be fixed up a little:->

Welcome Home.

Our first night in our new house and our first family photo in our "new" lil' living room. The buyers for our old house asked if we could close a week early, so Sunday and Monday we began packing the items we would live with for the next few months...everything else will be moved over this weekend. We have moved into a couple of the upstairs bedrooms and will continue to work on the downstairs and then move up. Four weeks without a kitchen...hopefully we don't look 50 pounds heavier by the time these kitchenless weeks are over. Scout is having a difficult time adjusting- the first night none of us slept because he just roamed the house all night with his nails "clip-clapping" on the floor. We were all miserable! Hopefully things will begin to improve soon!:->

The First Improvement

It is amazing how fast things change when you pay someone to do the work. In one afternoon we had a brand new garage door (thank you Home Depot)...the purple palace is better already! Paul told me not to get use to it - we are all about "sweat equity":->.

More demolition

Where once stood a kitchen is now an empty room. The great thing about it is we sold practically everything in the kitchen - all the appliances and cabinets (thank you craigslist.com). As I mentioned before we are trying to decide on new cabinets this week - and I think we probably need a new wall color as well.

The first casualty

Paul's middle finger on his left hand has suffered the first casualty of the remodel. On Thursday he was tearing out the bathroom tile and he sliced his finger (he was wearing gloves) and being a responsible firefighter he drove himself to the hospital and got four stitches. When his hospital visit was finished he returned to the house to finish tearing out the tile:->. He should be recovered in ten days. We call him "Stitch" for short.

Toliet anyone?

We are definitely in demo phase! Paul has been hard at work (and waiting for school to get out so that I can be more helpful) pulling out carpet, flooring, bathrooms, doors, cabinets, trim...the list goes on and on. We are going to try and sell the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and maybe even the toliets (hey, who doesn't want a good deal on a used toliet)! We picked carpet on Wednesday (for the upstairs) but it is hard to think it may not be installed until NOVEMBER! We have a lot of work ahead of us. The next big choices are kitchen cabinets and counter tops. Those of you who know me realize that I am a terrible decision maker...so making these choices will give me good practice. :->

SOLD

It is official! Wednesday morning Paul picked up the keys to our "new" house. We have been searching for about six months and we finally found our next project. We are in the process of selling our current home and hope to be moving in to the new house in early June. Our home is affectionately known as the "purple house". People that are familiar with the area always say, "oh, is it the purple house?" I guess it is already famous:-). Fortunately it won't be purple for long - one of the many projects will be putting new siding on the house and new paint. All in good time, as Paul always reminds me. He is so good at keeping things in perspective! We have created this separate blog to track the progress on the house...so stay tuned. It will be a long ride:-). PS: We are holding a "sold" sign, but the picture didn't quite turn out.