Where We Are.

Y'all, so much has been happening lately and yet the end seems forever away. I guess this is how remodeling goes. It's funny, so many people gave me advice about this process but it's like becoming parents for the first time, you don't understand it until you live it.  It can drain me completely but then the next day something exciting will happen and you get filled back up. It is such a roller coaster we are on.

I'm learning so much about myself and I feel like I've grown a lot these past 4 months.  The verse I've been repeating in my head lately is Probverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding."  Yup...you got this God! Here are two things that I've felt God showing me...

1. I am a stronger mom, woman, wife, daughter (in-law) then I ever knew I was. I am a person who, under normal cirumstances, loves structure as well as clear communication and timeliness.  These things very often do not happen while remodeling. People show up late (like 1 day-2 weeks late), they don't call, and clarity isn't always valued as much as I think it should be. 

2. I also value structure in our families life which can be hard when you're living out of boxes and can't remember where your winter boots are...the struggle is real people!! But through all of this my relationship with God has grown, my relationship with my husband has gotten stronger as well as my relationship with my kids and in-laws! Now how cool is all that!!! I don't think that a lot of people can say that.  I am SO thankful for the people around me!! 

So here's what's happening at the house...

The past few weeks we've installed the wood tile flooring in the kitchen, butlers pantry and downstairs bathroom. We've also begun to install the cabinets in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom as well as flooring in the upstairs bathroom.  The kitchen hardware has been attached to the cabinets that are installed (the rest of the cabinets are waiting on the countertops), and crown molding and framing has begun. 

Some of the cabinets beginning to be installed.

The fridge will fit in the whole on this wall.

I can't wait to wash dishes in this beautiful sink!!!

This is a blurry picture (Morgan took it). I bought this door off Craigslist and it's still a work in progress. I wanted this house to have old and new mixed together so I'm really excited about this!

Upstairs bathroom vanity and funky octogon tile! Throwing it back...vintage style!

So last weekend I was gone for a long weekend away in Nashville and while I was away Morgan built a vanity for our downstairs bathroom. He continually amazes me with his craftsmanship and I'm so excited to see it in our new place! Disclaimer this picture was taken before it was complete! More pics to come on that!

Paint Colors

This post is dedicated to paint colors.  Some people might think this is the easy part, but I disagree. I spent so much time researching (stalking everything Joanna Gaines) and getting samples etc because I wanted to get it all right the first time! We will see when everything gets put in if the paint colors stay the same, but for now I love them! I've also included a few pictures of Pinterest that show the colors in better lighting.

All of these colors are from Lowes and are Sherwin Williams. Inspired from the TV show fixer upper on HGTV. Joanna Gaines is my designing inspiration! She is amazing!

Kitchen- Silver Strand

Butlers Pantry and Hallway

Mindful Gray

Ps. Isn't my assistant the cutest there is!

Brodyns Room

Intellectual Gray

This gray is a little darker then the mindful gray. It goes well with both white and wood colors so it'll make a cool big boy room.

Upstairs bathroom

Sea Salt

The lighting and picture don't do this color justice. It's a soft blueish green. Perfect for a bathroom space.

And one more of this cutie modeling some of our freshly sanded original floors!  Can't wait to get these babies stained. They're going to be amazing!

Drywall and Texture

So I'm a little behind on house updating posts! Our fall activities have kicked back up into high gear and I'm trying to figure out our families balance in this season of life! 

It's amazing how quickly the drywall went up once we finally got the drywall guy there! Man, the waiting for these subcontractors is NO JOKE! That's probably been the most frustrating thing so far. But once we got through that and the texturizing, things are really coming together! Our house is looking like a home, finally! 

This is the dining and kitchen area! Probably my favorite area of the house!

I kinda forgot to take pictures before we started painting! This is another view from the kitchen.

Morgan is standing by the back entrance to the kitchen and the doorway to the left is the butlers pantry. The little area in the wall is a cutout that will fit the fridge. I'm so excited for my fridge...probably my favorite appliance.

This is taken in the butlers pantry. We created this hallway to connect the living room and kitchen to the main floor bathroom, which is to the right in the hallway.

Upstairs from the kitchen.

Our hallway upstairs! All fresh and clean!

Brodyns room! I'm so excited to see his boy space come together!

Sawyers room that we will leave white until I know what direction to go. But white can be so refreshing right?

Two weekends ago we, along with my family got all the painting done!! I couldn't believe how quickly we knocked that out. Then this past weekend Morgan's family helped sand all the original wood floors and pulled nails from the original wood trim. Have I mentioned our families rock!!! We seriously could not do this without their support!  Blog posts on those projects to come!

Well, Electricity and Windows!! Oh my!!

Morgan and his co-worker Clint got right down to business and took down the well house the night before we left on our family vacation to St. Louis. 

Unfortunately after trying for most of the day the well guys were unable to repair the well and a new well will have to be dug. This is not what we were hoping for but its something that needs to be done. I would explain to you what all the issues are but that would mean I understood what the issues are. Bless the well guys who tried to explain to me what they were doing by drawing a picture on the side of his dusty truck. This momma doesn't know a thing about wells!! 

I also drove to Iowa City to look for Quartz for the kitchen counters. I totally struck out and had about the most awkward meeting with the distributors ever possible. First they called their warehouse "candy land". What?!? I am not joking people. Then the guy asked me if I had allergies because my eyes were read..."ummm excuse me? I woke up at 5:30am ...thank you sir!" I could not get out of their fast enough...weirdest experience ever! 

Last week I also got this bright idea to put Transom Windows in the kitchen above a few of the doors. So this week our contractors framed the doors and...wow! It makes the room look so much bigger! 

This is the doorway leading into the butlers pantry. The fridge will go in the space to the right of the doorway.

Here's what the transom windows will look like! I think it will really open up the room and let a lot more light in!

We then packed up and left for St. Louis on Friday and spent some time at the Magic House, which is basically an enormous old house renovated into a children's museum. Brodyn had no fun at all!

We then spent Saturday at the St. Louis Zoo. We had so much fun exploring and seeing so many animals!

We then had a fun night at the hotel swimming and eating way too much! We headed back to Cedar Falls mid morning on Sunday and about an hour into our trip this was our view...

To bad it didn't last the whole way...driving long distances with small children is not healthy for this momma!! But we made it and had a fun time!

Now back to work...

Learning to be Patient!

We've been asked a lot lately how things are going at the house. To be honest, we've been at a little bit of a standstill for a few weeks. It's been a little bit frustrating but we understand that people have lives and are busy with other things. But the electrician started this week and should be wrapping things up by next Monday so the insulation crew can begin.   Yay! 

We also had to replace some of the windows so that's being done this week! We were able to get windows that match the style of the old windows and so you can hardly notice the difference! Yay!

While we were waiting for the electrician we got a lot small projects done. One of those random projects was getting the well checked out, just to be sure things were a-okay!  We found a few issues there and will have to take down the well house so they can be fixed. It's not something we were planning on but it goes with the territory of fixing up an old house.  Praying that everything goes smoothly and that we can keep expenses low!

We also moved into Morgan's parents house the last week of July. We are so grateful they are willing to have us invade their home, because let's be real when you have two boys invadeing is the correct term. We are planning to be here until the renovations are finished. The boys are LOVING the extra attention and all of Grandmas fun toys! We are trying to stick to our schedule and the boys are doing awesome!

We've crammed all of our essentials into the upstairs! And are starting to settle in. I know it's probably not ideal but everything has been going SO well and I know we will look back on this time as a fun adventure! 

Our stuff finding its place in Morgan's old room. It's kinda fun staying in your husbands old room. Since we've always lived close by we have never have stayed here so it's funny to go through some of his old stuff.

More of the essentials stacked up in the spare room.

We've been enjoying some fun activities at grandmas including washing mommy's car.

We also had the chance to spend the weekend up at Morgan's parents house near Decorah a few weeks ago! I love this picture because everyone was playing nicely for once! A mothers dream...

Sawyer is learning so much lately!! It's amazing to see your kids grow. He has also become our climber...he got into this chair all on his own and as you can see is pretty happy with himself! Mommy on the other hand almost had a heart attack!

We are so excited to keep things going on our house but we love this time to be by family.  We also are excited to be close to our new house so we can pop over whenever and only having one house to worry about is bliss! 

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Wow the last few weeks have gone by so quickly! You can really start to see things beginning to take shape! We've been busy with meetings, framing, plumbing, mowing, mowing and mowing. 

Here are some pictures on the progress!

This will be the coat closet when you walk in. There's a old door in the picture that we will use as the door to the closet! And yes the ship lap is staying!! Woot woot!

Here's the look I'm shooting for!

A new shower stall all set in the main floor bathroom!

Plumbing for my kitchen sink! We are doing a white apron sink with a double basin. Is it weird I'm excited to wash dishes? 

Upstairs shower/bath was also put in this week.

And I had to sit in it just to make sure it passed the test! Baths are my favorite!

Plumbing all ready to go for the double sink vanity!

Listen, it looks about the same but there's really been a lot done! A lot of structure stuff to make sure no one falls through the ceiling and also getting everything level.  It takes some time but it's sure coming along! We ordered the cabinets this week and I am so excited to see them set up in this kitchen!