Update for Week of March 21 - 28

We are so close to having a living room that I am beyond excited.  I just wish I could blink my eyes and have the lingering tasks complete!  But, since I can't do that - I will just revel in the fact that we ALMOST have a living room!

Last week was all about (or almost all about) prepping the living room for the carpet install which happened on Saturday morning.  Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights were focused on painting the walls and repainting the ceiling.  For some reason we really struggled with our ceiling.  After 3 gallons of ceiling paint (and this was after we primed it) we finally gave up.  Fortunately the painting of our walls went much smoother!  We hope the remaining 1,600 sq feet of ceilings don't give us nearly as much trouble.

Lee broke out his table saw, miter saw and another fancy saw to build us a brand-new step for the living room. Our living room is sunken and we needed a step to take us from the entry down to the living room.  He put his engineering mind to use and designed a step that is indestructible and immovable.  It looks great.  And once we cover the plywood with the oak hardwood floors will be installing at some point this summer - it will look fabulous!

We had a nice streak of sunny weather that inspired us to need to do something about caring for our lawn.  Turns out the previous owner installed a sprinkler system in the front yard.  The timer function wasn't operating - but my Mr. Fix-It got it up and running one night.  We're really grateful that it's one less thing we have to worry about.   Our backyard isn't as well-equipped, but thank heavens for timers that you can put on hose-operated sprinklers!  We also inherited a push-mower from a friend of Lee's.  She no longer has a yard and generously offered to give us her push-mower.   I tested it out on Friday night after work and it did a great job!  The grass was so long in our backyard that it was quite the workout - but it was such a pleasant change from being cooped up in the office all week!

Saturday morning was the big day! While I was at a car wash (fund raiser for the teenage girls I am privileged to work with at church) our living room carpet was installed.  And we LOVE it.  I can't even begin to tell you how nice it feels to have the ratty old carpet out of the house and a clean room!  Next step is installing the trim we painted on Saturday night....

Sunday we had our first official dinner guests.  (Official meaning they didn't have to work for their food.)  On Saturday we found a steal-of-a-deal on a set of patio furniture and so we even had a table to sit at!  Although a bit windy, it was such a great to be able to grill out back and serve dinner on the patio.  I can't wait for summer to come!  Thanks Smoots for coming and braving the construction zone with your boys!  :)