The progress so far

Here is a little bit of progress...

 Dad really wanted to paint my stairs.  :)  He really enjoys things like that.

 Hey, Jared, you have something on your pants...

 Randy replacing the ceiling tiles.

 Jared spraying the ceilings.

 Holly helping my Dad paint. 

 I think I was painting.

 Dad painting the stairs. 

 The hallway upstairs almost done.

 Mounting the microwave.

 The stove and cupboard we added to the one wall of the kitchen.  Next thing we need to do is add the fridge.

 The other cupboards we added to the kitchen.

 The patching Jared had to do in the dining room ceiling.

 A big mess.

 We had this flooring left over from rooms we did in our house.  So, Jared used it to put in the office.  This was originally the laundry room, but after a lot of consideration we decided to put the office here and the laundry room in the spare bedroom on the main floor.

 The floor in our bedroom.  Not quite what we were hoping for.

 Nana and Nathan working.

 Me painting.

 The lovely gross stairs.

 Nana cleaning the wood work in the laundry room.

 Grandpa Dave came down yesterday and mowed.  It's amazing to see the property all mowed.  It looks so nice!!

 The barn from an angle we couldn't get before since the weeds were over our head.

 Another angle of the house and barn we couldn't get before. 

 The dining room with the old carpet pulled out.  The floors are... well disappointing.  But we are going to have to put up with them for now.

 The old piano found a new place to sit.  This thing is HEAVY!!

 Matthew standing in the living room.

 Abby's room painted and new carpet.

 Nate and Jake's room painted and new carpet.

 Luke and Matt's room painted and new carpet.

 Some of the floor in the dining room.  It had some water damage at some point.  Lovely.

 Our bedroom.

 Abby checking out the kitchen.

The laundry almost done painting.  It's the last room to finish. 

Day 1 and 2

We were able to finally close on the house on Friday! YAY! Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Dave took us out to lunch to celebrate and then we headed home to begin work. Jared ended up having to go to the office for a little while, so I headed on out to the house to unload the paint and get started. On my way out to the house there were wild turkeys on the bridge right before our house. I was pretty sure that was a sign of how much we were going to enjoy being out in the country. So, I get out there and start unloading the paint and as I'm carrying one of the five gallons of paint the screen door slammed shut on me and caught my heal right above my shoe. I managed to not drop the paint, got in the house and looked down and it was bleeding. Thanks to where it hit me I wasn't able to wear shoes while I was out there without it rubbing it. So, I shook it off and started getting prepped to paint. Here are some before pictures...

I primed the kitchen on Friday. Since we are adding cupboards and need to get the appliances set we thought it should be the first room done so we can put them in as we get them. I also firmly believe you should start in the hardest rooms and finish with the easiest. By the time I am done painting I'm going to need the easy rooms for last.

Well, while I was priming the walls Jared was working on getting the furnace and water working. We weren't able to check any of these things before hand so we were hoping there was nothing wrong. So, he turned the water on and went outside to take a call. I could hear something in the basement so I went down there and there was water leaking all over. I ran out and told Jared and he ran in and had to fix a leak in the basement. He turned the water back on and asked me to go upstairs to make sure the upstairs bathroom wasn't leaking. I came back down and told him I couldn't hear or see anything. So we stood in the kitchen listening for any leaks and all of a sudden water started coming out of the ceiling tiles all over the floor. Needless to say we ended up with 11 seperate leaks. Jared spent the entire first day fixing the water lines.

 If you click on this picture you can see the water coming out of the ceiling tiles.

On the second day I painted the kitchen with the actual color. I like it. I think I'll like it even more when I get some stuff out here. I love the windows in this kitchen and the light is great.

A little history of the house. I could see marker and crayon marks on the wall in my future office. I was trying to figure out what kids would have been young enough that lived there. Then I look up and find "Stacy Alberts" on the wall.

Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Dave came down on day 2. They brought some much needed plumbing supplies and Grandma brought flowers for the boys to help her plant. I must say the house already looks better with some flowers out there!

They planted a flower for each of us. Mom, Dad, Kenna, Luke, Maya, Matthew, Nathan, Jacob and Abby. That's a lot of flowers! Thank you Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Dave!! Every little thing makes it feel more like home!

Jared and Grandpa Dave working on the plumbing under the dishwasher.

My dear dog, Holly, managed to walk through the paint on the first day. Silly dog.

On the second day we were also able to move the chickens out to the chicken coop after cleaning it out and making a door for it. The chickens were very happy to have room to run and make their own little beds.

After day 1 of broken pipes and wondering if we might have bought a money pit I looked out and saw this beautiful sunset from my kitchen windows. Perfect!