Finally living IN our new house!

We have worked like MAD to get our house ready for us to move in. Once all the carpet and laminate flooring was put in it really started make all of our hard work shine! It took us nearly 7 weeks to get it prepped for our official move-in, but there is still a bit more painting and patch work to do in addition to all the unpacking.

Our work on the house includes, but is not limited to:

1. Painting ALL baseboards in the house (including new and existing baseboards)
2. Painting the ceilings of the 4 upstairs bedrooms
3. Removing all carpets/pads/staples from the main and upper floors
4. Painting the 4 upstairs bedrooms and closets
5. Painting the entire basement (family room, bedroom, stairway)
6. Painting the 6 basement doors
7. Painting the Kitchen
8. Patching, re-texturing, and painting 3 holes in the walls
9. Pulling 1+ years of weeds surrounding the house
10. Sanding and painting all windowsills
11. Re-screening all windows and screened doors throughout the house
12. Installing a new water heater
13. Touch up paint throughout the main floor and hallways
14. Setting all baseboards on the main floor as well as the basement (It's nice to have a 'finish work' man in the family - thanks Kelsey!)
15. Setting all boards lining the door jams in the basement
16. Creating beautiful windowsills for the basement windows with rounded edges and everything (Kelsey!)
17. Washing every little nook and cranny... I don't think this place has been this clean since it was first built 15 years ago!
18. Installation of new carpet in entire house (Carpet One)
19. Installation of beautiful laminate wood floors in the front room, kitchen, and dining area (Carpet One)
20. Installation of new appliances (washer/dryer/microwave/refrigerator/range)

It's crazy for me to look at this list of what we've accomplished and realize it doesn't even include any of the "smaller" jobs like taping, priming, caulking, removing hardware, etc.

We have had so much help and are so grateful to have people who know what they are doing and are willing to help us make this wonderful find our home. We owe a huge thanks to my Mom, who spent numerous days helping us with the majority of the list above. She even stayed the night at the house when we had no running water and no refrigerator. I really enjoyed being able to work with my mom so much. She knew so much about everything we had to do - which she attributes to having 4 boys in the house. She's a real life Wonder Woman and I learned so much from her that will help us maintain our new home. My brother, Kelsey, was also a major help. He worked on the house for nearly a week and did all of the finish work in the basement, set all the baseboards on the main floor once the new flooring was in, and cut down the bases of all but about 6 doors because they wouldn't clear the new carpeting. Our plumber, Doug, cannot be forgotten. He's been over a few times and is always so nice. We still have a couple jobs for him to do...and though he's been a great man to work with, I hope we don't have to see him for a while once these next couple projects are finished. I also want to thank Scott Mayer (my sister-in-laws, Jamie, brother) for spraying the doors, ceilings and baseboards upstairs; my Dad for pulling out the old appliances, hauling down a few truck loads of stuff for us from Johnstown, and being willing to do odds and ends while he was over; and Jamie, who helped my family watch Austin for a few days while we moved in.

We finally moved in August 20th and have been enjoying living in a place that we've made our own. There is still a lot to unpack and a some projects to complete, but for the most part we are settled and glad to have more space!

(I'm compiling photos of each space we worked on so you can see before, during, and after photos.  Stay tuned for a plethora of picture posts!)