We are IN!!!!

So we are finally IN!!! We moved in last Sunday with the help of our in-laws. And it has been an amazing week here so far. It still feels weird to finally be in here. I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up. I just keep praying over & over again throughout my days "Oh thank you Lord for your many blessings." We feel soooo blessed and so honored to receive such blessings. 

Ok so I'm going to rewind a little. Here are several shots of the railing/banister that Joel built. I took several angles of it so you could get the feel of where it is. 

 We hope to stain the railing, the post & beams, the open shelving and the doors soonish. And as you can see in this picture we have not finished putting hardwood on the stairs. All in good time. It's just not at the top of the list right now. Poor Joel..the never ending list. 

Brandon (Joel's brother)..randomly called on our move in day and asked if he could help. What a good brother! He came over and started installing the baseboards & door trim.

And so the brothers worked together and they got most of them installed.

Check it out! Cloud White with a semi gloss finish (boards)..surrounded by Cloud White walls & dark hardwood floors...mmmmmmm!! (Oh and notice the brand new light switches...it's the little things that pull everything together)

Here's Brandon's handy-work in the boys room. (p.s. I absolutely love seeing my boys clothes all hanging up neatly..displayed nicely where I can see it all....a.k.a..you know you're a mom when you get excited about a kids closet) 

Here's the view from their bedroom to ours. I cannot even express how amazing it is to be steps away from them. Especially since Jake does not sleep through the night still. 

Haha...oh what a depressing pic this is. This is our "Master bedroom." I finally brought our side tables up so at least it feels a little homier. Joel will eventually be making our sconces for the wall (where those silver plates are). And look at our awesome window covering right now...a blue blanket. I really don't mind for now. It keeps the sunlight at bay when I'm trying to sleep. But this room does need some TLC.. it's just on the back burner.

So after we moved in our stuff and Joel & Brandon finished most of the boarding. We took a little break, had some yummy supper that my mother-in-law sent over. (Split Pea Soup with homemade buns) Thanks Momma H.!! And then I got to bust out the celebration dessert! Oh my goodness..if you live in Canada..you must try it. Sooo delicious! Kinda pricey but oh so worth it!!

 This week Joel has been doing a bunch of little jobs to help the place feel more like home. So here are a bunch of before and afters of when Joel put on the hardware/pulls on the cabinets. (Which I bought ages ago and have been dreaming about finally seeing them in my kitchen)

Look at it! Love it soo much!! (Everytime I pull on them I want to giggle and dance and sing all at the same time..but then Joel would probably want to kill me)

 Joel got the entry light installed. We can actually see going up the stairs now. 

 I ordered some sweet vintage style bulbs from Amazon to go in our pendants.

 Aren't they just the coolest pendants you've ever seen!! Scored these at Ikea believe-it-or-not. They came with an ugly glass piece that I conveniently "forgot" to attach. I refused to put in plain bulbs and opted for some vintage ones...and bada-boom...awesome industrial pendants with a vintage flare!!

 Oh and here is a random shot that I thought I would include. This is the view from our dining room onto our going-to-rip-out-deck. I forgot to get a before picture. But imagine if you will, piles upon piles of garbage, bits of steel, a rolled up old carpet from one of the bedrooms, saw dust in muddy gooiness everywhere, and chunks of flooring scattered about. Now maybe you can appreciate this picture. I took advantage of Jake's naptime to tackle that disaster and now we don't have to be staring at a depressing site when we're sitting down for any type of meal. 

The Kitchen as it stands now. Joel is currently working on building the forms for our concrete countertops.  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Here's my view from the kitchen into the living & dining..to the entrance and then to the hallway. It's a great view!

 And here is a little something to brighten your day. A little scrunched nosed smile, twinkly eyes and a Peruvian hat. What more could you want? Take it & go! And may you be blessed by it!

Oh...we are so close..

So...we are still not moved in. We'll definitely be moving in this weekend though. Oh yes we will! A must for moving in is... the banister so we can put up the baby gate. Otherwise it's the "Stairs of Death" for Jake. Definitely not cool. 

The flooring is officially done though! YAY! You'll catch a few glimpses of it in these pics. 

Here is the kitchen area BEFORE:

And here is the AFTER:

Let me just brag a little bit on how God has provided for us. The dishwasher (which you don't really see pictured here) and the gas range we got both together for $400. That's right. (Thanks Justin & Alison & Rita for the contact). You can't even get 1 appliance for that price.  We also found that awesome fridge through Craigslist for only $400. Say WHAT?  The freezer was just taken out in pieces here for me to clean. I will continue bragging in a few....

Here is another BEFORE pic:

And the AFTER:

Joel installed some temporary countertops till we get the concrete ones made. The sink & faucet..which are AWESOME..we got for a steal of a deal at Costco. Thanks Denise for finding those for us!

Not a lot of people know what that crazy-arm-looking-stainless thing is. But it is called a "Pot Filler". It's awesome because the arm swings out in all different directions and I can fill up my pots right there on the stove instead of walking back & forth from the kitchen sink to the stove. (I know everyone does it, but this is just a luxury item that we found again for a great deal online) I am happy to report that my sister-in-law, Devan, giggled with delight when she saw how it swings around. ;) It is quite fun! It can also swing over the bar area and people can top up their glasses with water if need be.

Here's a close up of the pantry & fridge. Don't worry.. that's not a scratch on the front, it's just dirty. I need to clean the outside once we move in. This pic is of Joel taking the freezer all apart so I can properly clean it. Also the pantry is missing a side piece (matching black/brown) and none of the cabinets have hardware on them...yet.

Joel hooking up the range hood electrical.

And here is the sad story of our range hood. Well it started out happy. I scored this on ebay for $340! Ah-mazing price!! And when we received it we thought we had done a good once over to make sure that it had no dents. But we missed this one that is on the edge there..closest to the screen. It's hard to see in this pic....

 There it is. So it had already passed the 30 day return policy. So we are stuck with it. But instead of getting too upset we are now coming up with exciting ways to cover it up (without looking tacky). So that will be our challenge/project in the months ahead. We are still so thankful to God for providing all our appliances for us at such affordable prices! Makes me feel especially like a beloved child when He takes care of ALL the details. 

 Here are some of our lighting that we still need to install. The black one will hang in the entry and the pendants will hang above the island.

 Here's Kai's big boy bed all set up & ready for him. Joel made it awhile ago. It's so nice to finally see it set up. It's looking WAY red in this pic for some reason (it's just a nice warm brown stain). Kai loves it already and can't wait to move in!

 Here's a new light that we got from Restoration Hardware. We got 3 of them. One for the hallway and the other 2 for the bedrooms. They were having a lighting sale so we got them for a pretty good price. Also as you can see Joel has all the door trim set up to go in. 

And that's basically how far we've come. This week Joel is working on hooking the kitchen all up. And then of course getting the banister done.

Special thanks to Carl & Denise Huber for not only helping us here & there with the house, but taking us in, cooking for us,  & watching the kids. Having such supportive family is HUGE! Also thanks to Brad for stopping by and helping with the flooring.

We have accomplished A LOT in the past 2 months, but we have also had A LOT of help. Thanks to all our friends & family! We could not have gotten this far without you!!

Crazy Crunch time

Ok so I know I have been slack with this blog. But we literally have NO time. Plus there wasn't too much to post in the last week or so b/c we were waiting for the drywall guy to finish up in the kitchen so we could get back in there and work. 

Let me just share a few changes that we made in the "down" time. I bought these sweet closet kits for $35 each. Total steal!

And I installed them by myself. What do you think? This is in "master" closet.

And since we can't afford to do any major changes to the front door. Here is the pic of the before:

And the after. I think that new lock and handle make quite the difference..for now.

And some of you might be wondering (maybe not all)..what we do with our kids when we are hard at work. Well..a lot of the time my mother-in-law is kind enough to look after them for us. But sometimes we bring them along...

That styrofoam piece kept Kai entertained for hours. At first it was a flying ship...

..and then it was a snack station.

For the last 3 days I have brought both boys in the mornings, put them in their bedroom, turned on a movie for them on the computer and they have mostly done rather well. Kai even put this Ikea pot lid holder together all by himself. Oh and those are our doors in the background. Just need to stain, add the hinges, add the new knobs and install.

 Ok..so once the drywall was finally done. We were able to get in there & paint. We had a major set back though. The drywall guy (Dwayne), ended up spraying the ceiling twice but the yellow stain from Nicotine (I guess) kept leaking through. So Chad came and SAVED THE DAY!! He got an oil based paint that thankfully fixed the problem. But it was a lot of hard work and time. And we had to wait to finish painting the walls till the ceiling was done. A million thanks to Chad though! Seriously! He was there from 10am to almost 7pm! Talk about an AMAZING friend!! Chad we are taking you & Laura out to dinner whether you like it or not!!

 Alison & Amanda also helped a bit that day with painting and odd jobs. Alison and I had the fun job of taping up that plastic onto the beams (so they were protected when Chad painted the ceiling). It was a lot harder than it looks. Stupid things kept falling down. Haha! Thanks Alison!

 Ok this is a horrid picture..but this is Joel and I downstairs in our basement putting together the Ikea cabinet boxes while Chad was painting the ceiling. 

 And then....we finally got to finish painting!! Here is the entry way. The color is "Graphite". What do you think? It looks amazing with our new hardwood floors going in.

 And then there's the dining room wall. It's called "Slate". This is a really horrible picture b/c it's not showing their true colors. The "Slate" is slightly darker and it doesn't look green at all like it does on my screen right now. Everything else is "Cloud White" - the hallway, kitchen & living room. I know most of you are probably thinking...boring white. Well it's going to look crisp & clean and a great back drop for all my colorful decorations. 

 Justin came over to help install the hardwood. Thanks Justin! I think it's funny that he looks like he's checking out Joel's bum in this pic. hehe!

 Joel setting down the first several boards. Soo exciting!! We have been waiting to see this for 2 months!!

 And then Jason came over (Joel's brother) and helped out as well. Thanks Jason! The entire living room was done and now were just starting to work into the kitchen here. Oh and thanks to our nice neighbor who let us borrow his flooring staple gun.

 Looking good! Flooring & husband.  Haha..minus the drywall dust. 

 And here's a shot of the nosing that I stained. Looks pretty awesome huh?

 Oh and this is what I was doing while the men worked hard on the flooring. Putting together all those Ikea drawers for the cabinets. Fun...let me tell you. 

 And what do we do with our evenings...you might ask. Well we put on silly hats and make our own window treatments. Joel is in charge of sewing the straight seams. I am in charge of cutting, ironing & then sewing on all the brass rings (to make roman shades). 

 We got a little loopy that night. This is possibly the best pic I have ever captured of Joel...ever. Let's think of a name for this face...hmmm....any suggestions? 

 I look a little bit like a fruity Peter Pan in this pic.

  Well that's it for now. We will be moving in this weekend. Hopefully Joel will get the flooring done by Saturday. Then we can start installing the cabinets, drawers & doors. Hook up the dishwasher, plug in the fridge, plumb in the sink, install the range hood, & hook the oven up to the gas line. The goal being: to have a mostly function kitchen (minus the countertops..which Joel will be making as well). Super husband...yes..yes I know. I know it, love him, thankful for him and like to brag on him. And also post funny pics of him. ;) Ok...back to work.