December 21st...Ceiling paint, shower, drywall...

We are finally out for Christmas Break. Yeah! We've been going out to the house to cut wood and burn brush. Yesterday we went to Lowe's and picked up some CWF for the soffits. Then we went to Morrilton to pick up our rock. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the rock, so I'll have to post pictures of that later. Doyle swung a hammer today and put up the lath where the rock will go on the gables. Now for the latest pictures...

The ceiling in the living room and foyer is painted the same color that the walls will be. Sorry for the blurry pictures. Ceiling in the living room.Another shower/tub came in and is now installed upstairs.Drywall is ready to be hung upstairs. This is the playroom. This is the room that Doyle has claimed as his man-nest. The doors came in and most of them are installed. The only ones left are two pocket doors downstairs and the ones upstairs, but the drywall needs to go up first before they can go in. Some of the soffits were stained a color that matched the brick really well, but we didn't really like how they just blended in. So, our wonderful contractor ripped them out and replaced them for us. We decided that clear CFW was the way to go. Here's a picture of the darker stain. (In the back you can see a soffit that is the natural color)
In this picture, you can see the soffits in the natural wood color. It hasn't been sprayed yet, but it brings out the natural color of the wood and is a great contrast to the brick and roof. You can see the progress that the brick-layers have made in the above picture. At the end of the day today, they were almost to the very top of the garage gable. (I think you can see that in the very last pic.) They still have to brick around the windows on the deck, part of the north side of the house, and some on the front of the house. Oh, and a couple of spots below the covered porch. After they finish with the brick they are also going to lay our rock for us. Doyle and I thought about trying to do it ourselves, but decided that we wanted it to look good...so we're going to let them do it.

My last picture today is a front view of the house from a different viewpoint. If you look over the top of the front porch, you can see Lake Ludwig in the distance.

December 11th...Appliances and playing hooky

Doyle and I played hooky from work today and went appliance shopping. I've been wanting to go to this scratch and dent place called "Nino's" in Tontitown, so we took off of work and went. But first we stopped at Cracker Barrel in Alma to have a yummy breakfast to start our day off right. We were on our way to a table when we saw my mom and dad sitting there! So, of course, we sat down and had breakfast with them and chatted for a bit before we headed to Tontitown. We got to Nino's and found a refrigerator, dishwasher, and washer dryer set.

Here's our refrigerator. LG stainless steel with bottom mount freezer. Regular price...$1299. Our price...$530. I can't see anything wrong with it. Whatever scratch is on it must be in the back or side where you can't see it. LG stainless steel dishwasher with stainless tub. Regular price...$850. Our price...$315. There is a scuff on the inside of the dishwasher, but it is very minor. Samsung front-load washer. Regular price...$899. Our price...$371. There is a small dent on the top where it looks like something was dropped on it. There's going to be laundry baskets on top of it anyway, so you won't be able tell. Samsung front-load dryer. Regular price...$899. Our price...$371. The dryer must have been sitting next to the washer, because it has the same little dent on top where something must have been dropped. Again...laundry basket on top covers it. After leaving Nino's, we were very happy with what we found and decided to go to Sears at the Fayetteville mall to check out their appliances and then on to Lowe's. They didn't have any great deals, so I decided to call the Fort Smith Sears to see if they still had the wall oven on clearance that I saw there on Black Friday. They did, so we decided to go get it. I'm glad we went because we found all of our cooking appliances there on clearance! No scratches or dents...just new appliances. Check out these deals...

Kenmore Elite 5 burner cooktop. Black and stainless steel smooth top. It is a much better cooktop than I thought I could afford. I got a warming burner and a rapid boil burner with the extra large surface. Yeah! Regular price...$1050. Our price...$630.KitchenAid microwave/hood. Regular price...$530. Our price...$397.And for my favorite deal of the day!!!! Jenn-Air convection wall oven. Regular price...$2210. Our price...$441. That's right....80% off! The salesman didn't even know it was over there in the corner because he said he could have sold it a long time ago for that price. In fact, when I saw it on Black Friday, it was $500-$600. So, the price had come down from 2 weeks ago! Yeah for me. Plus, it is a convection oven! Yes...I wanted one but knew I couldn't afford one, so when I found out that I could get this oven for such a steal, I was ecstatic!

Here's our truck and trailer at the end of the day. And if you are looking in the back of the truck and thinking that we shouldn't have put the fridge in that way and to make sure we stand it up for at least 24 hours before we plug it in, (just like the lady in the parking lot wanted to make sure we knew) yes, we know. We had it sitting up for a while, but it kept wanting to tip over, even strapped down. So, we stopped and fixed it by putting it on its back and moving the dishwasher to the trailer. So rest assured...it will be standing up for a month before we plug it in.
So, you ask, how did we do overall today? We got a refrigerator, dishwasher, wall oven, cooktop, microwave/hood, washer, and dryer all for $3063. Retail price? Around $8000!!! Pretty good huh?I also have to give a huge thank you to Stephanie for picking up Ty from daycare and letting him play at her house since we didn't make it back in time. She told us to take our time so we were able to eat a meal all by ourselves at Red Lobster. Wow. We tried to remember the last time that we had a meal out by ourselves and couldn't remember. Thanks, Stephanie! I owe you.

December 10th...Paint

We have a little bit of paint up! One of the kitchen walls and one of the walls in our bedroom has some paint on it and I really like it!
Here's the "Fired Brick" in the kitchen.Here's the "Jute Brown" in our bedroom.

December 9th...Paint Colors, Ceiling Paint and More Brick

The texture is on the walls, they are primed, and now most of the ceiling is painted. I chose the color "Bagel" for the majority of the ceilings. Let me give credit where credit is due, though. My wonderful friend RaeLynn listened to what I had in mind and helped me pick out colors since I'm totally and completely colorblind. Here's some actual pictures from today. The lighting isn't great, but you can see the difference in color because of the over-spray on the walls.

Our room:Kitchen looking towards the hall that leads to Ty's room:This is the master bath. It was getting pretty dark, so you can't tell a lot with this picture. Since the pictures aren't great, I decided to post photo's of the colors we chose from Sherwin William's website. Here's "Bagel SW6114". It is the ceiling color everywhere except for the living room and entry. It will also be on the walls of the master bath, laundry, 1/2 bath, and upstairs.

Here's "Smokey Topaz SW 6117". It will be on the walls of the entry and living room. It will also be on the ceiling, but in a flat paint.This is "Fired Brick SW6335" and it will be in the kitchen and dining room."Jute Brown SW6096" will go in the master bedroom."Dover White SW6385" is the trim color. It is a creamy color that will go excellent with the warm colors in the house.I'm having trouble deciding on a color for Ty's bedroom. I'd like to paint it a grey to match the bedding I bought for him. I know...grey doesn't sound exciting by itself (there's also red and charcoal black in his bedding, so I'll have red accents here and there...), but I'd like to do a fun wall sticker with the white jeep as inspiration. There's a company that will take the photo you send them and make a wall transfer as big as you want. Here's a couple of examples of their work. Keep in mind that we will do a JEEP...not a VW or airplane. So, whatta ya think?


Here's the latest progress on the brick. They have completed two walls and are getting higher on the others. They are almost to the covered porch. The weather has not been cooperating, so they've only been able to lay brick 2 days. Too cold....raining...yucky weather.

December 2nd and 3rd...Brick, Framing, Insulation

Tuesday's progress on the upstairs. We've got some insulation and some extra wood installed so we can hang drywall and have room for more insulation. This is the bonus room over the garage (what we are now calling the play room). This is the other room upstairs (what we are now calling Doyle's man-cave...except that it is upstairs instead of down, so does that make it a man-nest?)Wednesday's progress on the upstairs. The bathroom is on the left and Doyle's man-nest (hehe) is on the right. I don't know what all of the spots are...I even cleaned my camera lens. I know...maybe they are orbs! Think we have EVP's???? Should we call in the ghost hunters? I know...too much TV Mandy. This is the playroom. All ready for some drywall here boss!
Tuesday's delivery of more bricks. It looks like the delivery guy didn't want to chance getting stuck in the back yard again. I think all of the brick is in the front yard, even though almost none of it is going on the front of the house. I guess there will be lots of carrying bricks, huh? Wait for it...




Wait for it...





Okay, here's what we've been waiting on for a LONG time.
Wednesday's first day of brick installation. Isn't it pretty?????
I'm just lovin' the dark mortar. I think it will lighten up a little because it is still wet...but that's okay!!!! I'm thrilled to see it going up!

November 28th...Trees, Bricks, Electricity, and Concrete Stain

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Let me start off by saying how thankful I am for everything that God has blessed me with...my family, friends, health, and my home. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving and I had a great Black Friday shopping with family and friends. We found some great deals and had a lot of fun.

Now for house updates. The day before Thanksgiving we went out to the house and cut trees. We have lots that were bulldozed and needed cut up and stacked for firewood. We also piled up the brush so that we can burn it. We went back out to the house today and cut some more and burned some brush. I think we'll be doing this for years. The area that we worked on looks so much better than it did before, though. Here's some pictures that I took today to show what we are working on.
Wood we cut and piled up.At the end of the day today! There's still some brush to burn and a lot more to do, but this area is really looking good!
While we were there on Wednesday, one of the brick trucks showed up! Yeah!!!!!Forklift unloading the bricks. The forklift driver had a little trouble getting stuck in the mud, but they eventually got the brick close to where it needed to be. Here's a closer look at the brick. We chose "St. Augustine" as our brick. This is a queen size brick as opposed to a king size brick. Before we started building the house, I had no idea they came in different sizes, but apparently they do. Queen bricks are a little smaller than king bricks, so it takes a few more bricks to cover the same area.There should be about 2 more trucks coming. 15,000 bricks total!

Our electrician was at the house working on the upstairs wiring on Wednesday and Friday. After the wiring is done, a little bit of framing needs to be done and then the drywall can be delivered, hung, and mudded. We didn't do this initially because we weren't planning on finishing it until Ty is older. But...things change. Many times. Plan on it. But it will be worth it. Right? Ask me in 60 days. That's our goal. 60 days. Can't come quick enough. The rent house is getting mighty tiny. By the way of comparison, our rent house is around 900 sq. ft total. In comparison, the upstairs that we are now finishing is 800 sq. ft. Hmmm.....

Our contractor taped off an area where the cabinets will be so that he could try the concrete stain to see what the color will look like. This is what it looks like after the first application. There's still some other steps, but I think it will look great once we spray it on instead of wiping it on.

November 23rd...Today's post is brought to you by the letter "S"

Since "S"tephanie is the only one who regularly leaves comments on my blog, I'm dedicating today's work picture totally to her....this one's for you Stephanie!Yep...that's what we got accomplished at the house today. A stake was driven in the ground so that the sand-man would know where to deliver the sand. Sorry Stephanie. I wish it could have been a better post for you.

November 22nd....mud

Not much more here. We've been working on budget stuff (yuk....I don't think I'll get my fireplaces or rock) and waiting, waiting, and a little more waiting. Oh...we did finally get the outside corners of the drywall mudded (we, as in the guys we hired to do it). They still have to do more coats of mud and sand. Plus, we I think we decided to go ahead and finish the upstairs so that we can remain under 80% of our loan. Huh? Yeah, apparently we can finish the upstairs for around $18,000, but it will add a LOT to the appraisal of the house because we'll be adding like 800 sq. ft. (which keeps the loan to appraisal value below 80%). So now, we'll have a 3000+ sq. ft. house, but it won't have rock on the front or fireplaces. The good news is that we can add the fireplaces at a later date. The bad news is we can't go back and add the rock to the front of our house without shelling out major cash, which we won't do.
I hate to end with a bad vibe, so I'm going to brag on my husband for a bit. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up December 28th. Yeah! Saturday, he took me to a bunch of jewelry stores and let me pick out exactly what I wanted. Not only did I get to pick it out, but he went ahead and bought it for me and I get to keep my diamond out of my original set so that we can have it made into something else later. Here's a picture!