Jan 24th...

We have heat and air installed. Yeah! Now we don't have to freeze our booties off when we go to the house. They are still working on the upstairs unit, but for now I'm so happy with heat that we don't have to add kerosene to and yell to be heard over (portable work heaters...). And mom, if you are thinking that you don't like the big, white PVC pipe that's coming out of the brick, yes, they will be painted so they'll be camouflaged. ;)


We have a few lights installed. Here's the lights in our bathroom. It's odd how the same paint color in the same room looks so different from different angles.


We have several plug-ins, light switches, and fire alarms installed. Here's a picture of a space that WOULD have been perfect for a pretty picture, but due to weird placement of the thermostat and fire alarm, I don't see how that's gonna work. Electric guys just don't think about important stuff like where to put pictures...hehe.


And last, but certainly not least, I need to post about concrete. Stained concrete. "Yeah, sure, anyone can stain concrete. It's easy!" PTHHHHBBBBBBB!!!!!!! Yeah, if you have done your own floor, feel free to come do mine because I QUIT! Let me explain. We got a sample from Sherwin Williams of "Black Coffee" acid etching stain and got after it yesterday. We chose Ty's bedroom and closet as our first attempt.
Step 1: Clean the floors so that they pass the "white glove" test. Okay. That took a lot of time. More time and agony than I wanted, but I'm still optimistic.
Step 2: Tape off the walls. Not bad, but doing a walking squat all the way around the room is getting old fast. Especially since I ran (I'm using the term ran loosely here...) bleachers yesterday and worked legs after that.
Step 3: Mix the stain 2 parts water: 1 part stain. Easy.
Step 4: Spray it on the floor with an ordinary garden sprayer. Easy.
Step 5: Wait for it to dry. So, we wait...and wait...and wait some more. Still not dry. We go eat because we are starving. We come back. Still not dry. We put the big box fan on it and wait some more...6 hours of waiting for it to dry. We give up and start cleaning the floor. (I guess we put it on a bit thick because it was only supposed to take 2-4 hours to dry.)
Step 6: We clean the floors again. And again. And again. And again. Until we can't clean any more. Again...walking squats have claimed my legs because I can hardly move.
Step 7: We QUIT! 10 hours is way too long to only get a bedroom and closet halfway finished. We still have to clean the floor some more and then seal it and wax it.
Step 8: We go to get Ty because Aunt Amanda and Uncle Michael have, again, graciously kept Ty while we worked today.
Want some pics? These were taken today after it had a chance to dry all night. We threw some water on it to get a better idea of what it would look like after the sealer and wax is on. Not bad. there are a few spots that didn't take the stain very good (not sure why because they soaked in the stuff for 6 hours...) but I really think the color and uneven texture is great. Exactly what I wanted.