Fun With Ella

Ella has been fun to have around the house! She doesn't like to help with the housework though!!!



I think Mike likes to play with her too!

Getting rid of the stink

We have been spending much of our spare time working on our house. It is coming along quite well. The biggest project we have tackled so far was ripping out all the flooring. Mike and his dad got the carpet out in one night. The dining room and kitchen were another story. There were 2 layers of laminate on those floors and they were glued and stapled down very well!

If you look in the corner behind my dad, you can see the white laminate that was in the dining room and kitchen. After that was pulled up, we had the not-so-pleasant surprise of all the thin brown laminate under it. The brown stuff was so hard to get off, as you can see; it took shovels, crowbars, and lots of muscle to get up!

This was about the halfway point for the dining room. I think right now it is about 95% up and the sub-floor is visible. There were a few places that we were unable to get the white gunk up from, so we have to see if we can leave it or if we need to sand it down or something before having the new wood floors installed.

Here is the living room after the carpet was torn out. Our house still kind of stunk after the carpet was all removed so we figured better safe than sorry, and decided to cover the floors with BIN. It's a neat product that you just paint onto the floor and it will get rid of/cover up/kill the stinky pet smell. We put it into the rooms that smelled the worst and had the least amount of floor covering (the office, bathrooms, kitchen, and dining room all had at least 2 layers of flooring so we don't think urine got into the sub-floor).

It was pretty simple to do, just roll the paint onto the floor. I felt kind of silly painting floors instead of walls! Thanks to some help from Mike's mom, it only took a couple hours to do the 3 rooms and hallway.

This is the living room after the floors were painted. We are glad that we took the time to do this step because we can already tell that our house no longer smells like animal urine!

I spent some time yesterday patching a few missed holes in the master bedroom and sanding down the ones I did last week. Today and tomorrow I hope to get in there and put the tape where it needs to be because Saturday I start painting!!!

Ella

I am housesitting for some friends this summer while they are doing mission work in Haiti. They have a puppy named Ella who I get to play with all summer too. I told the kids that I would occasionally post pictures on my blog of Ella and the different things we do and places I take her. Kind of like a Flat Stanley, except Ella is real. Here she is, making her debut on my blog...
I just love her crooked smile...isn't she cute? :)

Best Candle Ever!

This was one of the presents in my enormous stocking Mike gave me this past Christmas. I haven't used it yet, but decided to use it today. It's really unique, it's like a gel candle. When you touch it, it is like touching gelly, my finger actually was kind of sticky/wet. It smells so good, just like a Watermelon Jolly Rancher. This is probably one of the best smelling candles I've ever had, and I've had a lot!!!

On a more interesting and exciting note, Mike and I are getting married in exactly 4 months!!!
I'll post an update on our wedding plans soon!

Finally!

For probably 2 years now I have been looking for a sugar cookie recipe that tastes like some cookies I made for some friends. The only problem was, the ones I made were really those break and bake cookies, and I wanted something I could make from scratch. I thought I had found the perfect recipe when I had some cookies from the nursing home, but when I made them, the texture just wasn't right. I have tried recipe upon recipe and I just haven't found one that is what I am looking for. Today I was reading blogs and I came across a recipe that looked like it was "the recipe". I couldn't wait, so I made the cookies this afternoon...and, the verdict is in...these are he closest I have come to "the recipe"!!!! I am so happy! Here is the recipe.

One year

Today marks one year since Heather and I were in our car accident. It doesn't really seem like a day one would want to look back upon and remember, but I remember it with gratitude. When we saw the car, and especially when others saw the pictures, we were reminded again and again how lucky we were to have survived as uninjured as we were. God was truly watching over us that day. I am thankful that he blessed us with life and for all the things that have happened in the past year!

New Job

I started a new part-time job today. I am working as a receptionist at a photography studio, Marc Photography. For right now I am only working 1 afternoon a week with the hopes of getting more hours at some point. We'll have to see what happens. But for now, it's a step towards another job I enjoy!!!

Progress

As of today, we have had our house for exactly 1 week. There is no longer any carpet in our house!!! That was our first project as it stunk so badly. Mike and his Dad pulled most of it out by time I got there Wednesday and then I helped in 1 room. The office actually had the original carpet--blue shag! The worst room so far is the dining room. There was a layer of laminate under the carpet and that is proving to be a p-a-i-n in the you-know-what to remove! The next step is to pull out the laminate in the kitchen.

I picked out the paint colors on Saturday. Mike liked what I chose, so now I am looking for paint sales :) Now we plan to spend Saturday cleaning and then the fun (painting) will start. It's fun to see the progress already!!!

More of our house

Here are the movies I mentioned of our house!


This is the front of our house



This is our strange deck with a deck over the pool



And, this is inside our house!!!

House Pictures

We got the keys to our house yesterday!!! Today I went there to take some "before" pictures. I will try to put up a movie later, but for now it was faster to upload pictures! In no particular order...Mike, removing the realtor's sign from our yard!!!

Our office

"His" and "Hers" closets in our master bedroom

Our master bedroom

The guest room (can't you tell that it is our favorite room?)

The main bathroom (the tub is to the left)

The pantry and hallway heading to the bedrooms (picture taken from the dining room)

Our dining room with a lovely bay window

The view from our living room looking toward the dining room

Our living room

The half-bath and laundry room

Our kitchen

The unfinished half of the basement, notice the shower on the right side!

The right side of the basement, this eventually will be our workout room

The left side of the basement, this will eventually be our hangout room