Fireplace Perfection

I love fireplaces! Warm and cozy. Cup of tea in hand with a good book to read (although those moments are rare!) So glad to have this one thing totally finished! It took me a while playing with the decor to get it right but I love how it turned out in the end. Thank you sis (momdigity.wordpress.com) for helping!

Amidst the all the chaos of life, dirty dishes in the sink, piles of laundry on the couch, and tools cluttering the floor, there is now a place of tranquility in my house! I can sit on my couch and relax and let go of everything weighing down on me. Quick reminder of before:

And after:

My amazing Uncle Jerry put that awesome beam up for us and I love it! Thank you to him! Oh, and because of my less than professional photography skills, I can't get the lighting right with our giant windows on the other side. Hence, the differing colors of the rock from top to bottom.

  

6 year olds with nail guns

We may get some criticism for this one but Jonas let Bjorn try the nail gun out this weekend. We were working on the living room trim and Bjorn was sooooo bored. Mostly because I'm such a mean mom and wouldn't let him watch tv and play video games all day long! Mean right?

Bjorn using the nail gun

So he wanted to help daddy. I had no idea this was going on until I looked over and saw him with the nail gun. Let me just say he was completely supervised the WHOLE time! He shot a few nails in the baseboard and did really well!



It was short-lived however because he "forgot" that he had to wait for daddy to be there and picked the nail gun up when Jonas was doing something else. So he quickly lost that privilege which he didn't like and decided to sit on the couch and pout. Boy this boy! I thought girls were supposed to be the dramatic ones!
On to the trim. Jonas and I both like very simple trim with straight lines and not a lot of fancy details. Some people might call it boring but hey, it's our house. So we (I actually helped with this project) framed around the windows and I started caulking the windows while he finished up with the baseboards.

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We had great plans of getting further along with this project but my dear Uncle Andy called and invited us to go out on his boat with him at 4pm. So we decided to have a little fun and leave the project for another day. There's always another day right? It was quite a bit more fun and it was nice to get out of the house!

Faucet Update

Well, Jonas decided he better just buy a new faucet because he thought there may have been something missing from original one. He had taken it apart when he was doing the tiling and thought some of the pieces may have gotten lost (or thrown away, taken by one of the kids, etc. ) He was right! Two parts were missing! Crazy! He got the faucets switched out and the new one works like a charm! We are just so thankful that this happened when we were home!

Too Optimistic?

Do I dare say I may have been a little too optimistic? I really thought we were in the clear with this bathroom reno? Oh my, oh my! So, these little turkeys were enjoying their bath tonight. Anders having fun drinking from the faucet, and Bjorn, upset because Anders is in his way! Typical brotherly love here! Bjorn decided he needed to take a shower so I quickly got Anders out and turned the water on for the shower when, all of a sudden, water starts spewing out from the handle. Not just a trickle people, like gallons! Next thing, I'm screaming at Jonas, "Turn the water off!" and thinking to myself while trying not to cry, "Please not another flood!" Apparently, we need MORE drama in our life! Deep Breath! Deep Breath! My anxiety level was slightly elevated by this point.

So, after coming home from work completely exhausted and seeing over 20, very difficult, energy zapping patients, this guy gets to work on the bathroom! AGAIN! He, however, stays calm, while I try not to completely lose it. Trying to be a "good" mom, I get the kiddo's in their jammies and read them a few stories. By this time It is nearly 8 o'clock and I get the kids tucked into bed while Jonas decides he has to get a new part for the faucet so he runs to Home Depot. The next hour consists of us going back and forth, turning the water on and off. Yelling/screaming down the hall "Turn the water on!" and "Turn it off!" And let me just say, we were yelling! Our bathroom is on one side of the house and the water valve is on the other side of the house in the basement! Amazingly, the kids all fell asleep within minutes despite all of the chaos!

On a side note, in the midst of all this, Autzen (the puppy), decided he needed to pee on a rug in the laundry room even though he just went outside. I threw the rug in the washer and like a complete idiot, put soap on my hands to wash them. Oh. My. Word. Did I seriously just put soap on my hands? Good thing for baby wipes! Ahhh, super frustrated here! At least the puppy is cute or he may have ended up at the pound! (Joking!)

Well, Jonas thought he had everything fixed and then tried to turn the shower on and the pressure was just too much! Again, gallons of water spewing from the faucet. So, because sometimes you just don't care, we are taking a break for the night. No water 'til the morning.

Progress

Another long day! Apparently, I am a horrible painter because I can't seem to paint without getting it all over me. The bathroom ceiling is what I was blessed with painting today and I am glad it's done. Not too fun looking up, hours on end, with your neck and arm cramping, but hey, what can you do? So, Friday evening we had these tough guys come help us (us meaning Jonas) get the vanity into the bathroom.

Tight squeeze!

Thank you guys! Glad I didn't have to throw my back out trying to do it. Anyway, we did make quite a bit of progress on the reno today. Here's a rundown of what we accomplished:

• bathroom ceiling painted white
• tile grout sealed
• faucet installed (it even works!)
• vanity light installed
• outlets switched from the 70's cream color to white
• fan light cover spray painted (didn't want to buy a new one)
• door put back on (had to take it off to get the vanity in)
• 2 loads of laundry
• 4 feedings for the baby
• groceries
• and other motherly duties

And here's the man hard at work!

Working on the plumbing

Hanging the mirror

And here is the progress we've made so far:

    

So, we still need to do quite a bit:

• caulk all the trim
• paint all the trim
• paint the doors
• touch up paint
• and decorate, the fun part!

Hopefully, I can get it all done in a couple weeks. No more pictures until then! In the meantime, Jonas is going to start the living room trim and then start on the dungeon, a.k.a. basement.

Sneak Peak

I am super excited because I have been working on our fireplace this week and it is almost done! Woo hoo! The job is a tedious one as the rock has a lot of nooks and crannies and edges to paint. And...this was the second time we painted it! The first time we had painted it before our carpet was installed. Since we didn't actually have a carpet sample in hand, the colors were off and I'm too OCD to overlook it. So, I bit the bullet and did it again. I actually had done most of the painting a couple months ago but was procrastinating on doing all of the edges. I finally got up the energy to do it and now we are just about ready to show you the finished product! Just a reminder, here is the before picture (sorry I don't have a close up):

And here is a sneak peak of the transformation:

Can't wait to show you it all finished! I'll give all the details at that time!

On another exciting note, this dandy came today:

That right there is our vanity for the main bathroom! It's only 300 pounds so it will be super fun getting it from our driveway, down our long hallway, and into the bathroom! Jonas thought I could help him (he thinks so highly of me!), but he will be getting some guy to help him move it on Sunday. I may have to coerce them with pizza! Stay tuned! Exciting things are to come!

An "Oodle" Bit

It was time to take a break from our house renovation for a weekend. While we don't work every weekend on our house, most are filled with multiple tasks on our never ending to-do list. This weekend though, we were heading to our cabin with the family to celebrate the 4th of July. It had been over 100 degrees for a week or so where we live and we were looking forward to an escape from the heat. Jonas, myself, and the kids got up to the cabin early Friday afternoon before his parents and brothers and families came up. Ahhh, it was so peaceful hearing the birds chirp, swinging in a hammock with my boys, and looking out onto the lake.

 

Anders and mommy

Then, the phone rang. We had literally been there about 5 minutes when Jonas' phone rang and it was the hospital. Surprise! He was on call this weekend! Since he had just been on call the weekend before, he was caught off guard. Newbie! Got stuck with the holiday and didn't bother checking his schedule since it's always the same. We held our breath and hoped for the best. Saturday was filled up with kayaks, paddle boards, canoes, bikes, motorcycles, and lots of cousin time for the kiddos. Then midnight hit and that dreaded call came! Lucky for Jonas, he didn't have to go in until the morning which let us get a full nights sleep, however it did cut our weekend short.

Now, getting home by 8:30 in the morning may seem like a bad thing when you are supposed to be playing on the water, but we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and get some more work done around the house. We have a linen closet in the main bath that has been staring at me since we moved in, saying "Paint me!". So, after procrastinating for nearly a year, I did it. I will spare you the picture. It's painted white and looks so fresh from the gross 1970's dark brown wood which was apparently very popular back then. Jonas also made himself useful, (even without me nagging!). Woo hoo! He finished the bathroom floor tile and trim which makes it look so polished. I see numerous hours, however, filling nail holes, caulking, and painting the trim, which is a little daunting to me as it will be my job! We still haven't gotten our vanity or vanity lighting but it already is looking so much different. Once we get lighting in the first part of the bathroom it will be much brighter and I will get more detailed pictures up.

             

I'm so glad that it's almost a fully functional bathroom again! While the circumstances of this weekend were not ideal, in the words of my 3 year old Anders, we had an "oodle" (little) bit of fun this weekend and we got an "oodle" bit of work done. The best of both worlds I suppose!

What a handyman!

This hunk is a super dad/husband. Not only does he work full time, play with the kids, work on the yard, and a million other things, but he comes home from work and works on our house too! Today is his birthday and our 9 year anniversary (didn't want him to forget).

. 

Jonas is really great at just about everything. He recently finished tiling the bathroom tub/shower. It was his first time tiling and he did an awesome job! I love it!

Mosaic

I'm not going to write a tile how-to because they are all over the internet. You Tube has great tutorials. We got a basic white subway tile from Home Depot and got the mosaic from Cost Less Carpet. The mosaic is Rhino Organica Sugar in the Raw.

Toothpaste, toilets, and two year olds

We woke up one Sunday morning not too long ago with two inches of water in our main bathroom and down the hallway. Frantically trying to salvage what we could, we started ripping up the hardwood floor that Jonas had JUST finished laying the week before. We were quite regretting our house purchase at this point and wondering what else would go wrong while renovating this house.  Immediately, we called in O So Clean and they showed up within 30 minutes. This was somewhat nice, actually, because O So Clean did the floor demolition of the bathroom for us. They ripped out that pretty orange carpet which had even prettier linoleum under it. Boo, I didn't take a picture of that!

 

So after we had fixed the flood problem, I was scraping the wallpaper border off (click here for how-to) and Jonas came in to tell me there was sewage coming up in the unfinished part of the basement! Gross! Well, we then had our septic system pumped and they found a lovely tube of Tom's of Maine kids Strawberry toothpaste blocking the pipe. Apparently, this cute little kiddo thought it needed to be flushed down the toilet! Kids seem to cost a lot of money these days!

We somewhat breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it was our kid who caused the flood and not a major undetected house problem missed during inspection.

Home at Last

After 8 years and 4 states, it's good to be in one place for a while. Knowing we would be moving to Oregon after my husband, Jonas, finished his medical residency, we went ahead and bought a nice half acre lot to build on. We were pretty excited about building, especially since we were designing the house ourselves! 

Our plans changed, however, when my aunt called me one day asking if we would be interested in buying Grandma J's house. Grandma J was my uncle's mom, (other side of the family), and she had just passed away. Her house had a lot of memories for both Jonas and I, as we had grown up coming over and even had our wedding shower here! Yes, the house was a little dated, about 30 years or so, but it came with an acre and a half, fruit trees, and huge shade trees! Oh so rare in Northeastern Oregon! 

So when this opportunity came around, we thought it must be meant to be! Both Jonas and I like doing projects and thought it would be a fun thing to do together. So, after selling our land and getting over the idea of building new, we jumped in head first! With work, kids, and everything else, we MAY have bit off a little more than we can chew! Join us as we embark on a new journey! First stop, the main bathroom!