a vacation does a body (& spirit) good...

we are back! well, we've been home for about a week & a half...but you know what i mean. :-) we had a fabulous time in the city of nashville, tn. people are really nice there. but, we did notice less that 5% of cars had turn signals that worked. quite sad! oh, & we saw this speed limit sign that made us laugh out loud, & we just had to take a picture!

we had to take a picture for proof. speed limit 24!! hahahaha!!

it was so refreshing to get away. even though we were only gone 3 days, it was enough. :-) after all the work on the house, it was a nice break. we didn't keep a schedule. we just bummed around nashville & went to franklin, enjoyed the scenery, ate delicious food, slept in, & listened to some stellar musicians...it was great. :-)

when we got home, i worked at finishing the buffet we bought off craigslist. i sanded it down & painted it. i think it turned out really well. you can kind of see it in the picture of the dining room.

we also made a stop at ikea during our get-away. all i can say is - "wow!"...we had never been to an ikea, only browsed online. the store is a little overwhelming, to say the least, but oh-so-fun & affordable! we found some fun stuff to accent our new space. :-)

here are some pics of our continued progress...

still a work in-progress. but, it is so fun finding treasures to decorate our home with. :-)

until next time..."keep calm & carry on"

finally getting there...

okie dokie...well, sorry it has been a couple weeks since an update...but as you will see...we've been busy! :-)

first, since we decided to lay a new floor, we decided to take out the tile we had by the front door. we really liked the tile, but it was going to be a lot more work trying to work around it & make it look nice with the limited tools we have to work with. (don't worry mom. we saved the tile for you!) :-)

it was pretty messy trying to take the durock out...apparently mom & i did a good job putting it in a few years ago... :-)

*oscar working on chipping away the durock...

*finally! but even though it looks fairly clean here, the basement was a MESS from the pieces of durock that fell through the cracks...


*after we got all of the durock cleaned up we installed floor board...

*the process begins!! knee pads -check!, 34 boxes of floor -check!, new 8 1/4 saw blade (that apparently no one uses anymore! & we had to go to almost all the stores in omaha to find!) -check!

we started 2 weekends ago & finished putting on quarter round this last weekend. out of everything, installing the quarter round was the most trying...but we made it! :-) if we ever do this again, we will be renting or buying a table saw...it would have made our lives A LOT easier. :-)

here are a few pics of what it looks like now...still a work in process...but we are getting there!! :-) oscar & i are going to nashville this weekend for oscar's birthday, & we have a friend staying at our house with the dogs so we wanted to have most of it done by the time we left...(now i just need to work on the 5 loads of laundry that i let pile up!!)

*sorry about the pictures, it was already dark & i had something on my lens (hense the random fuzzy dots.

story about the couch...yesterday, we went to pick it up from nebraska furniture mart. it was so exciting because it was wrapped in plastic & new!! :-) BUT!! when we got home & unwrapped it we found they sent us only 3 legs. it was fabulous. so, i called the mart & told them about our 3 legged couch. they said we could bring the couch back (after we just hauled it home & into the house) or we could prop it up with books & wait 2 weeks for a new leg to come in from the manufacturer. we were tired, so we opted to prop it with books & wait. so, we propped it up, made sure it was even & stable, put the cushions on...then i sat down for the first time. the couch kind of creaked, but oscar said it was because it was new. ha! then oscar sat down & it BROKE straight down the center!!!! THE COUCH BROKE IN HALF!!! HA! we just sat there & looked at each other & i said "REALLY?". i then called the mart...AGAIN. they said we could bring it back & get a new one...i said they could come & get it because it was really quite ridiculous. they said they couldn't until thursday. i said, we will be gone. they said then next tuesday would be the soonest. i said, we would bring it back. (i'm such a push over.) anyway...oscar & his brother are taking it back today. we are going to try the same style again, but i told them if anything happens to the next one, i want a full refund. ha.

*the broken couch in our living room. :-)

*the new chair we got from craigslist! a wingback recliner! :-) the leather is a bit worn, but it was a good deal. (now i just need to learn how to upholster...ha!)

*i think lokita & ludwig like it... :-)

well that is the update for now...i need to work on laundry & get packed for our trip! :-) we are also making a stop at ikea...which i'm a little stoked about. :-)

some progress...

well, after being out of town almost every weekend in April, we finally had a weekend to start the process! it was a good thing we got started this last weekend, because i have been losing motivation fast. so this weekend we (with some amazing help!!) got almost all of the painting done!! :-)

*our friends lydia & lana came to help!!

*dining room primed!

*time for a break!!

we just have few trim touch ups left to do, but we are waiting on the floor...which was the LOW point of the weekend. sometimes when you pull up the carpet in an old house you get a nice surprise...& sometimes you get crap (excuse the term, but i can't think of a nice way to put it.). we were hoping for a nice surprise. we knew the floor the would need a little t.l.c. because i had pulled up a couple corners to try to get a glimpse of what we would have to work with. but once we started ripping away the carpet we found a ruined floor. :-( so now we are trying to find a new wood floor to lay down...& our knees are hurting at the thought (we installed a wood floor for my aunt & were soooo sore!) but we keep envisioning what it will look like once it's done...

here are some pics of the floor now. isn't it fabulous?

*all the dust from the carpet pad that basically disintegrated in parts

*the amazing random cut outs. (all the little dark circles are screws...)

so this is where we are at the moment. we are researching flooring right now. it's going to put an unexpected dent in our budget, but that's what happens with old houses. i just keep thinking of how nice it will look & how long it will last once we get it done! :-)

starting point...

i needed a starting point. so here we go! we are redoing our living room & dining room of our house. it should be fun!

a little background...

here are some pictures from when we first bought the house. the living room & dining room looked like this...

then after we stripped all the wall paper, painted, & recovered the chairs...it looked like this...

BUT! now we are ready for a change. we are tired of the red (it was nice for a while, but now it has to go). we also sold the dining set & couches. we bought a new couch & a different dining table (which are both in storage) so right now we have a big empty room & plenty of space to create! :) our plan is to paint the walls & rip up the carpet & refinish the wood floors.

here are some pics of the furniture we have bought so far. (we really enjoy thrift stores, sales, auctions, craigslist, etc...so only our couch is brand new...)

*the table (a craigslist find!!) expands to a square with the leaf in...which is something we really like...
*we got an amazing deal at NFM...the couch was on sale big time...let's just say the chair the that goes with the set was more than the couch! crazyness...& we actually liked it! :) points for the NFM!
*i plan to refinish this piece (another craigslist gem!! & practically a steal!)...the people who had it before tried to do a special finish on it, but it didn't really work...

anyway. this is where we are & what we are working on at the moment. the next couple weekends are super busy for us, so not sure we will be getting much done. but we are excited about our new project. :)