Remodel Junkie Bliss...For Now

Anyone who knows me knows that I am someone who likes to make plans.  Now, if you know anything about my life - my plans never pan out the way I want them to.

So plan #1 - Brian and I decided a long time ago that we would rent our apartments/duplexes/houses for a while until we were ready (and had the money saved) to build our dream house. I never wanted to buy a house before then because I knew that I wouldn't like parts of it and I would have to do some major remodeling.  I grew up around remodeling and knew how much of a pain it is to remodel a house while we live in it.

Change of Plans to Plan #1 - Brian and I bought our first house this past March.  Now, the reason for buying the house is because we wanted to move to Lee's Summit to get closer to Brian's new job and still keep me somewhat close to Oak Grove.  Well the houses/duplexes that are for rent around here are crazy expensive for what you get with it.  Also - no landlord really wants an 85 lb lab/rot mix in their place. Way to go Jack for being so big. So we started looking into buying a house - a month and a half later we signed the papers for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like then:

Front of house

The back of the house with the deck.

When you first walk in the front door, you have the dining room all the way back and the formal living room is closer.

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook right off the kitchen

Standing in the breakfast nook...looking at the actual living room and the stairs that go up to the main master bedroom/stairs that go down to the basement.

Hall Bathroom

Bedroom #1 (there is another that looks pretty identical but we didn't take a picture of it.)

2nd Master Bedroom

Bathroom for the 2nd Master

Upstairs Master bedroom

Attic access from the upstairs master - EVENTUALLY this will become a big walk in closet

Bathroom for upstairs master.

So these areas are still pretty much the same - just now filled with our stuff.  Now for the good part - the basement.  The basement was originally divided into two sides.  The finished side and the semi-finshed side.

The finished side

The semi-finished side (divided into three rooms)

Now, when we bought the house - I knew i wanted to make some changes the the basement....

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #1:  On the finished side, take down all the mini walls they put up because they made the space seem smaller.  Open it up and patch in the carpet (the sellers left us extra).  On the semi-finished side, take down all their mini shelves. Then put a door on the farthest room and tile it to make it the dogs room.  Then get rid of the walls separating the other 2 parts of that room and it is now one big storage/laundry room. Bada Bing Bada Boom  - easy right?? So we get our keys to the house and head up that night to start some demolition.

Basement Remodel Problem #1:  It just so happens that these walls are here for a reason.  Reason being - there is a beam support column hidden in that wall. Oh shit.  Well by the time we had found this out - we had taken off all the trim and put some major damage in the walls.  Well that led to...

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #2:  Still knock out all the stupid walls in the finished side and just have a column in the middle of the room.  So we continued demolition.

Basement Remodel Changes #2: We decided we didn't like the idea of the column.  It would look dumb.  So my Dad gives us some advice - he says...why don't you just open up the whole room?  Yeah, you will still have a column, but it will give you a lot more space.  Now - if you don't know, my Dad owned his own construction company for years...and he remodeled our house over and over again for the majority of my childhood.  As Brian would say, "when your Dad says it will be simple, easy, no problem, or will take no time at all,  that actually means that we are in for a ridiculously long process that the rest of the world normally wouldn't attempt unless they are on some serious mind control meds." This time - Brian was right. But being naive and hopefully for a freaking awesome basement...we replied "SIGN US UP!!!"  So we continued the demolition....

Now, to get the full picture here - you need to realize that as we were making all these decisions - we were moving in at the same time.  Now our move wasn't planned for 2 more weekends but as impulsive as we are, we decided we wanted to move in that same weekend we started demolition.  So as my mom helped me pack up our place in Grain Valley, my Dad, Brian and Brian's Parents were at the house setting up the fence for the dogs and moving the washer/dryer connections into the basement so we could wash our clothes.

Needless to say, when my mom's facebook status stated that she was "past exhausted"  after that weekend, we couldn't have agreed more.  But that's when the real work started.  Here are some progress pictures.

Building the new walls for the future laundry room

Adding Drywall

Mudding and Taping = WORST THING EVER

Painting the Laundry Room

Tiling the Laundry Room

More tile = INSANELY PAINFUL TO THE BACK AND KNEES

Adding the washer and dryer and the cabinets (dogs kennels are now on the opposite wall)

Painting the downstairs living room.

 Getting closer to the end..........................................

CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this looks like a very simple process...it wasn't even close.  But it was totally worth the work.  It may have not been our original plan or close to it.  It may have taken much longer than we planned but now we are finally enjoying the benefits of our hard work in our new awesome laundry room and basement fun room. :)

So the only thing left to do is refinish the ping pong table and fooseball table to make them black - but that can wait.  We need a break from finishing off things. So very minimal things to do in the basement. 

Next project - the closet in the upstairs master so we can move in up there and then have a guest bedroom.

Bottom line - we love our house and love the time we have gotten to spend together changing it. This remodel junkie has had her fill of remodels for a few weeks. Now we get to enjoy the payoff of our hard work.

Updates

Well...so its been a while since I blogged...but I've been busy lately. Really Busy.

First off, SCHOOL STARTED!!!!! I can't believe I had my third first day of school this year!   I feel like i've learned so much in my past years but I am absolutely thrilled to finally have a year where I have done everything before!!! There is no more learning things the night before I teach them or coming up with every brand new worksheet or test.  I have resources! I am so happy.  I have already learned that I can throw something together in the morning and have it work out really well.  Its amazing.

So this year I have five classes of Physical Science (Freshmen) and one class of Anatomy & Physiology (Juniors/Seniors). I seriously miss having more A&P classes but since my enrollment went from 52 last year to 18 this year..there isn't much that I can do about it.  I guess that's what happens when it actually becomes a real weighted class and not a blow off class. The class I do have this year is completely SILENT compared to last year.  Friday they finally started to open up a bit, but hardly any.  Hopefully  I get to see a bit more of their personalities as the year progresses.  My freshmen are great so far! They are entertaining as well as intelligent.

So for those of you that have not seen my classroom yet - here are some pictures. (I apologize for the quality)

My view from the front of the room.

The front of the room - the crates are for the kid's bell work.

My front white board.

Right next to the door.

 I love my room!  Now, on the first day of school - I was making some copies, left my door open and came back to these:

It was stinkin cute!! I loved being able to see the same kids multiple years in a row!  Its awesome! All my previous freshmen are now sophomores and their lockers are right in front of my room!  They walk past me all the time and give me high fives.  I love it!  If you didn't know - I give my kids high fives everyday when they leave my room.  Its my way of saying goodbye and giving them reminders. Its really cool now when my last years kids walk past me and want a high five. Its fantastic!

Well - thats the new updates for school.  On tuesday when we get couches for downstairs, I will take new pictures and update on the renovations downstairs!

Feelin Crafty

So this past week I feel like I have accomplished more than I have all summer.  Its like Brian said "Get the last 95% of the work done in the last 5% of the time."  Oh well, it all got done right?

First and foremost, I am thrilled to say that we now have completed drywall (mudded and taped), paint and tile in the laundry room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I may have hardly been able to walk yesterday,  but I am thrilled to see this much progress.  And I have to say, not too shabby of a job for it being my first time ever trying to do these things without my just aiding my parents when they did it all.  So now, my goal for this week is to get the rest of the basement mudded and taped, then painted and hopefully we can get the carpet installed next week.  Then, it could be all done before school starts!

After I had spent my days working on the basement, I also had time left over in the evenings to get crafty!  I've had all these projects on my pinterest boards just begging me to do them...so I finally knocked some out.  Some came directly from pinterest, others came in my birthday bag of pinterest goodies from a Taryn! :)

My new button bowl!  Now, people of pinterest, don't be shocked if you read instructions on pinterest and you think "Hey, this will be really quick and easy!"  Because if its like the button bowl, its NOT! But I do think the finished product turned out nicely.  It will be a great addition to my desk at school to hold my school keys during class.  That way I have a specific place to look for them at the end of each hour...just to make sure they don't end up in the wrong place/hands. ;)

(Don't judge the pictures too harshly, my camera on my phone still hasn't recovered from its nice swim in Lake Jocomo when Brian decided that standing and trying to cast his fishing line in a CANOE sounded like a good idea).

Top View

Bottom View

My next craft was for school as well...surprise, surprise...This is for all those papers that have no name on them.  (Even though last year they would rarely come in spurts).  But now instead of chasing kids down, I can make them responsible for going up to the board and seeing if its theirs - then come see me to get their score recorded.  I like it.

My almost favorite is my new "Dates to Remember" Board.  I have always had the desire to keep all the birthdays of immediate family members and close friends in my head so that I can send out cards to them, but I can never remember in time and then end up getting busy and completely forgetting.  But, now that it looks all organized and pretty sitting in my office, hopefully I can remember now!!! I have already had the chance to make cards for the next two months of birthdays (Aug & Sep)...lucky me that no one is born in September! hahaha!  So cross your fingers that if you are immediate family or a very close friend, you will get a home-made card in the mail for your birthday!

And last but definitely not least, the easiest craft I made comes with a funny story.

The set up:  Over the summer, I do not have to get up as early as Brian, so being the lovely person he is, he does everything in the morning so that he will not wake me up.  He even takes a shower in the hall bathroom so that he doesn't have to turn on the light in our bathroom - freaking sweet right??  Well he also will wake up, feed the dogs and let them out, then put them back in the room with me.  Our dogs, (being the cuddle bugs that they are) feel free to hop up on the bed with me and get a few more hours of sleep in (as if they don't get enough sleep during the day).  Jack sticks to the edge of the bed, but Ally will usually lay right next to me, if not completely on me. I'll get up around 8 and then proceed to get ready for my workout class in the morning and the dogs will stay on the bed till its time to go in the kennels while i'm sweating it out at the gym.

The actual story: This morning was like every other morning.  My alarm goes off (it seemed darker in the room than usual)  I thought that it was Brian's early morning alarm going off because a warm area was laying across my stomach.  I rolled over to shut off my alarm saw that the clock read 7:26 (brian has to leave for work by 6:50)!  I had that "OH SHIT, YOU'RE LATE" freak out moment and literally threw off the covers and jumped out of bed....only to find Jack and Ally as my only companions in the bed with me.  Ally was giving me the "WTF Mom????????" look and Jack barely raised his head before falling back asleep.

So from what I can piece together, Ally was the one laying her head on my stomach that I assumed was Brian's arm and he wasn't late for work at all, it was just my head not really thinking that early.  Needless to say, I was awake before I needed to be and that early occurrence lead to you getting to read this lovely blog before I head to the gym. 

I seem to have gotten a little side-tracked...here is the actual craft that led to that lovely early morning event tangent:

The glass acts as a dry-erase board that we can take turns writting on it.  :) 

 Well, on that note,  its time to leave for zumba.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day that started a little less eventful than mine, but ends just as productive!

A Weekend to Remember

Normally when I walk into my classroom on Monday morning, I will ask my students how their weekend went.  I will get the usual responses of "eh, good, fun, boring, not long enough."  Well based on this past weekend, my response would have been "AWESOME, AMAZING, FANTASTIC, WONDERFUL, SO SAD ITS MONDAY!!!!!!"

Sounds a little excentric; but really - it was that good of a weekend.

Friday started out fun when I got to go with my mom and some of her friends to the titanic exhibit down at union station.  Let me just tell you - uber cool!!! I have always enjoyed reading/watching anything referring to that tragic night and seeing the exhibit just really reinforced my feelings that it was nothing short of amazing.  Now, this sounds a bit morbid that i 'enjoy' reading all those facts and seeing the artifacts that sat on the ocean floor for about 80 years - but the history in it is SO COOL!!! Reading all the stories and all the facts about how the titanic was developed to its final moments afloat to salvaging the artifacts was totally worth the money to go see it.  What a great way to start my day.  When Brian got home he cooked a new meal for us - quesidillas. Not so original but its outside of our normal range of food choices. Then we went and saw the new Batman movie.  Epic.  That's all I really have to say to protray my feelings on the movie.

Saturday was a modge podge of events.  We had some contractors come out and bid the main floor remodel we are hoping to do.  Now we are realizing that I am going to have to use some of my stored patience (limited supply here!) to get this remodel done.  Its going to be a longer process than I had hoped - but eventually it will be worth it.  Its just going to take some time.  At least now we will have a goal to save up for.  Then we went to one of my most favorite places - Nebraska Furniture Mart.  I could walk around that place for days!!!! There are just so many cool things!  We think we picked out a new couch for downstairs and we got a printer that actually works and a vaccum that doesn't sound like its going to blow up when it touches our frissae carpet.  :)

Saturday night was most definently a highlight of the weekend.  We got to stop by Andrew and Taryn's housewarming party and we are so glad they are such good friends. We always have a great time with great food and fun conversation.  We reminisced of all the TV shows we used to watch when we were kids.  Also made us feel old when we saw the dates they started.  Ugh!  Why does time always move too fast??  I also got my bday present from Taryn - a bag of everything needed for multiple Pinterest craft ideas - does she know me or what???? I am delighted to get started on those.  We then left there to head up to Denim and Diamonds for Kristi's 30th birthday.  It was so much fun.  The company and the music was good and we loved watching all the line dancing.  How do they know all those different dances!???!!?? I had to give them props because some of those people were really rocking in out (country style of course).  By the end of the night I finally convienced Brian to dance with me.  Trust me - its not as easy as it seems.

You see - when we first got together (5 years ago) I was the one who told Brian that I didn't really dance unless you really loaded me up with some influential drinks ;) He said that it was dissapointing because he liked to dance.  Then as time went on, and numerous zumba classes later for me that taught me a minimal amount of rythum - i like to dance.  I no longer care how stupid I look - I just enjoy myself.  So this one - really applies to me:

But now that I like to dance - Brian doesn't!   Psh - figures.  Anyways - he finally got out there with me and I had a blast.  Once the music slowed down a bit, I had one of those moments where I couldn't be more happy.  I was surrounded by great friends and I had a wonderful man on my arms. It was a great ending to that night.

Sunday we got back to the real world and did some small things around the house.  My dad came over and helped us fix some electrical in the basement.  We finished off the night with some Big Bang Theory and relaxation.

The only downfall to a few perfect days - the alarm clock going off Monday morning.  Guess we are just going to have to wait a few more days for another weekend.

Top-Pusher VS Bottom-Pusher

A common debate in our house is when the toothpaste is actually empty.

Personally, I think that when it gets too difficult to squeeze toothpaste out of the bottle, it's time to throw it away.  Brian on the other hand is the complete opposite.  He will squeeze the dang bottle until there is absolutely nothing left! So a few nights ago we were having the common conversation of me complaining that it was time to get rid of the bottle and he finally agreed!  Moment of success for me!  He then went on to explain how your attitude towards toothpaste could be labeled at being a "top-pusher" or a "bottom-pusher."

Brian is definently a bottom-pusher.  He will use every ounce of toothpaste and will not give up unless he is satisfied with the results of the empty bottle.  I, on the other hand am a top-pusher.  I get enough but I don't think the time invested is worth that last night of toothpaste pushing agony when I have a fresh bottle just down the hall.  Brian then went on to relate it to not only toothpaste, but in all aspects in our lives.  Before I could label Brian as a bottom-pusher, I would often call him a "wanna-be hoarder."  This discovery all stems back to our move from Warrensburg to Grain Valley...

In a move you commonly find items that you haven't looked at in many, many months.  In our apartment we had a coat closet that had the movable white storage like this:

In the bottom drawer we found a few nerf guns.  I had no idea we even had those and Brian didn't know where they came from either. I wanted to trash them and Brian wanted to lug them all the way to Grain Valley for the possibility that they may become useful in the future.  Like i said - wanna-be hoarder.  Anyways, I won the arguement and I got to trash the nerf guns.

I don't like having a lot of excess.  I get rid of anything possible at any time.  I don't like clutter,  I am a very organized person.  If there are piles of paper from the mail, I get rid of them asap.  During the remodel I am constantly cleaning because I don't like the mess it leaves behind. I have a fully devoted top-pusher type of mindset.  Brian does not.  He wants to keep everything just in case he might use it sometime.  He will take things from his parents (ie a meat grinder) and I know we will never use the dang thing, but he thinks we will.  Currently it is sitting in the same box it came in, in our garage.  He will also keep scraps of wood that might be useful or old work jeans that have so many holes and patches in them that I'm surprised they even stay of his hips!  But our differences are what make us unique.  I guess if we agreed on everything, life would get boring.  So here I am, dealing with Brian's bottom-pusher attitude as I slowly throw things away.

So what do you think?  Is it better to be a top-pusher or a bottom-pusher?  Or is there even one way that is better than the other?

I just know what I prefer and to me, throw the dang toothpaste away!