Fixer Upper Week 3

This was the week of bathroom reconstruction! Ben spent hours getting the bathroom framed out, replacing the old flooring (we may have done a major high 5 when we finally got that piece of plywood to fit the weird shape it needed to cover), hanging the correct kind of backerboard (one of the reasons it was covered in mold in the first place), and having the cement pad poured for the shower! (We hired that one out from a guy Ben works with.)

Starting on Saturday I went to town on the cabinets. I started sanding them- I was using a palm sander. This got frustrating because it seemed like the paint was um, melting, or something under it. I think it was oil based paint and it kind of congealed/melted under the heat of the sander. So it was back to sanding by hand. Yay. There was so much grime on them it took forever to clean it all off, I'm still not sure I've got them clean enough to paint...

Then I got the flu. It was the sickest I've ever been in my life. Worst day ever. So between that and recovering (I was pretty weak for the next few days) I didn't work much on the house this week. Ben also worked on the wall that we cut out between the dining and family room. He tiled a small section of one of the basement bedrooms. There is a sliding glass door to the backyard there and Ben wanted a barrier between the outdoors and our new carpet. He also tore out some of the damaged dry wall in that room and replaced it.

This isn't work we did ourselves, but this week we had the furnace and water heater replaced. We knew they were old and could die at any time. There is a risk of Carbon Monoxide leaking from them, which just wasn't worth the couple of months that we may have gotten out of the old ones, so we opted to just replace them both now. One of my dad's friends, Jeff Clarkson* did it for us and gave us a great deal. He also installed a gas line for our dryer. We had a few other bids to do this which came in at almost $500 just to install the gas line! (We figured for that price we'd just get a new dryer). Jeff installed the gas line for $100! We are so grateful for his help and expertise and now we'll have perfectly functioned furnace and water heater that should be much more energy efficient as well.

It's kind of nice to write here what we did each week, because when you look around the house you don't really see a lot of visible progress.

Fixer Upper Week 2

On Saturday I spent 6 hours at the house and Ben spent about 9. Ben spent most of the day demolishing the bathroom. We had toyed around with the idea of doing something different with it- the shower was just gross- black mold everywhere. And then there was this huge tub, but the tub itself was actually really small and shallow, just the setting around it took up a ton of space. We had gone back and forth on if it was worth spending the money to do it now rather than later, but we kind of had a feeling that the mold might be worse than just lack of cleaning on the previous owners part. We felt even better about the decision when we found a small amount of water damage directly below the bathroom in the family room ceiling and crown molding. So it definitely had to go! As Ben was demolishing it he found more and more mold- something in the water fixtures there just wasn't correct. I felt a little uneasy tearing it all apart when we didn't really have a solid plan of how to rebuild it (we have the start of the plan now) but that's a moot point now because it's definitely out!

I spent a big part of my day finishing the spackling and sanding on the walls! I'm finally done (I hope!) with wall prep. Holy cow, I had no idea going into it what a huge job that would be! Our friend Dan, who is a professional commercial painter and is helping us with our paint job, validated my efforts saying that if he were doing the house he would have brought in a team of 4 guys and they could have spent three solid days just doing the spackling and sanding. It took forever. I also spent 3 hours on Saturday pulling the staples out of the wood where the carpet was. I'm realizing how many little jobs (like that one) that you don't even realize you have to do until you are in the middle of it!

On Monday I had my first "I didn't do it the right way the first time so I had to redo it" moment of this remodel. Last week I had been working on filling the nail holes in the newly installed baseboards. At first I was smoothing the caulk on very carefully- trying not to leave any sign that a hole was ever there. When I checked the work I'd done on Saturday I realized that as the caulk dried it settled into the holes leaving a noticeable depression there. So I decided that I would just put a big chunk of caulk over each hole and then sand it away to create a smooth finish. Monday I started "sanding" those spots quickly realizing that they didn't sand! We didn't buy sandable caulk. SO FRUSTRATING! So then I spent some time digging and scraping all that caulk away so I could refill the holes for a third time! The third time I used a wood filler putty that I scraped on with a putty knife and dried quickly to sand away to a beautiful smooth finish. I probably wasted 4 hours of work doing this the wrong way (twice). Live and learn.

This picture shows just one of the places we had to add baseboards- 

these angles were really difficult to cut (for us rookies)

This week Ben and I have also both worked on filling the old swamp cooler holes in the ceilings upstairs. We've got it all done and mudded and ready to paint! Ben and Will also started taking down a wall that was bugging me and I didn't want. But it turns out that that wall is load bearing (darn it!) so we have to leave some of it- we are still working out the design for it. Hopefully it looks okay when it is done and doesn't take too long! I also officially completed all the spackling and sanding of walls. I snapped a pic of one wall- because this wall was so dark it shows just how many holes there were to spackle. This was not even the worst wall in the house- I'd say this one was average.

My goal this week was to get the kitchen cabinets all washed and sanded and ready to paint (doors and hinges removed, etc) Well late Friday night I finally just started washing them! Needless to say the week didn't really go as planned (sick kids, my dad's surgery and a few other responsibilities took over a little bit and I didn't spend as much time there as planned).

Overall, week 2 of the project was a success. Of course we wished we'd gotten more done, but since we are basically learning everything as we go, it's bound to be a little slow. Also, I think we made 8 trips to Home Depot just this week. Between Ben and I we actually made five trips to home depot in a 24 hour period (Fri night to Sat night). By the time we actually move in I'm sure we'll feel like we've put plenty of blood (Ben did cut his finger over there the other day), sweat (lots of it!) and tears (I'm likely to have a melt down at some point during this process- hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time) into the place!

Out of the Mouth of Hudson

Right as he takes a toy away from Nora, "Actu-awee Nowa, that's mine." (Actually Nora, that's mine)
We had never heard him say "actually" before and it took us off guard!

I call him "baby" all the time, and he's always been fine with it until today. He looked right at me and said, "I not baby. I Hudson." (while nodding his little head the whole time, just to make sure he made his point.)

Hudson came upstairs holding a magnet saying "I got Jesus. I got Jesus." (Upon closer inspection, the magnet actually has a picture of Jesus on it, a gift from the Primary for their birthdays.) Since he's been saying phrases like "I go hang up Jesus. I got Jesus." "I lost Jesus!"

He brought me a diaper one day and promptly laid down on the floor- implying I should change him. As I was changing him I said, "Oh, looks like we need some diaper cream." Hudson immediately yelled out, "CHASE! GET DIAPER CREAM!" I started laughing- he already is bossing around big brother!

Hudson threw up the other day (gross I know) and immediately said to me in the calmest voice "I need a baff (bath)." And then proceeded to head right down the hall to the bathroom and turned on the water.

One day in the car we were preparing to go in somewhere and Hudson was saying to himself confidently "No whining, no crying." over and over again. I think he was giving himself a pep-talk. Spoiler alert- it didn't work. He definitely whined, cried and threw a huge tantrum that errand.

Hudson handed me the dirtiest napkin during dinner one night (spaghetti) and I said, "holy cow! That's one dirty napkin!" Then Hudson kept handing me dirty napkin after dirty napkin saying "Here's a holy cow!"

After refusing to eat any dinner last night I told Ben it was probably due to the fact that he'd made cookies with Nana in the late afternoon. Hudson turns to us with a huge mischievous smile and says "I snuck a cookie!" He was so proud of himself.

Fixer Upper #1

I think I'll try to write once a week as we are going through this remodel project, because I want to document how it's going and what we are doing and how we are feeling while we are doing it!

After we closed on Friday afternoon Ben spent the night over there changing all the locks, installing locks on the windows and installing the toilet seats.

We got up early on Saturday and spent a big portion o the day over there. It was conference weekend and we just listened to conference while we worked (my parents babysat the kids). We spent the whole day shopping at Home Depot, spackling the 1 million holes in the walls, and repairing the dry wall under the stairs. The dry wall there took forever to get out and then lots of tricky cuts to get the new stuff installed. That's nine straight hours of work. Glad we got that accomplished, but feeling like we wished we'd gotten more done.

Through the week I had a few friends offer to babysit my kids so I could work on the house, so I probably spent a total of 8 hours over three mornings there just working on wall prep. There is so much to do! These walls don't look too bad from a distance, but there are literally at least 50 spots to patch on each individual wall. I want the finished product to look good! I felt a little frustrated that after my initial spackle/sand many of the spots still didn't feel smooth! So frustrating. So I went through round 2 and in some places even round three. Going through each room I always found little holes that I missed the first time, and spent a lot of time filling little dings in the walls, especially in the high traffic areas.

Ben spent every evening there after work this week, and I joined him on Tuesday evening after young womens. He got about half of the baseboards installed and 3 of the 4 door frames we needed to do. We both worked on filling holes and seams with caulk. Then he spent a lot of time tearing up the hardwood upstairs that we are getting rid of and tearing out the old stinky carpet. When you first walk into the house right now it smells musty and like animals- we are hoping with the carpet gone that will go away. The hardwood floor was not only nailed down, but the whole dang thing was glued as well! It did not come out easily or quickly! He got some help from Will and our friend Blair and over a few nights got it all out. His arms and back were sore and aching after that- we are glad that's done!

Ben has also gone to work on fixing the stairs. He pulled the old (makeshift) banister out and repaired the treads on the stairs. Next week he's going to work on building the railing.

I'd say this first week was very overwhelming. All this work we've done and the house doesn't actually feel any better/nicer- mostly because it's all the prep work so that the stuff that will actually make the house look better and nicer (like paint and carpet) can be done. 

Easter

Easter- what a beautiful holiday! We had a more low-key holiday this year. Since we closed on the house on Friday and spent all day Saturday over there working on it, Easter Sunday snuck up on me a little bit. I really didn't put together Easter baskets for the boys from us. I did fill some eggs for the Easter bunny to hide for the boys and they loved it! Hudson actually woke up with "chowate" on his mind and did try to stop several times during the hunt to eat! It ended up being okay that I didn't really do much for my boys for Easter because my mom had new outfits for them, new swimsuits, a book and stuffed animal for each kid and a toy to share. They loved it all!

 Easter fell on General Conference Sunday. The boys were actually so good and let us watch conference this time! And I was so glad, because there were so many wonderful talks. Nothing better on Easter than listening to those closest to the Lord speak about him on this holy weekend. I am so thankful for my Savior and His life. I felt inspired and uplifted all day long! We tried to talk to Chase several times about Jesus and the resurrection and what it is all about- I think he got it a tiny bit this year. He was mostly all about chocolate.

We Bought a HOUSE!

The biggest (literally) thing going on in our lives over the last two months has been that we bought a house! We started house hunting the first part of February and immediately found out that house hunting is kind of stressful and frustrating, I was feeling kind of drained after only 5 days! We were looking online every night and seeing a few houses each day. I saw one online, a serious fixer-upper, and suggested we look at it. Timing worked out that only Ben was able to go see it, but he came back feeling pretty good about that house- if we could get it at a good price. It was on forclosure, so the online auction closed that night at midnight. An hour before the auction closed we submitted a totally low-ball offer and decided if it was meant to be then it would happen. The next morning while I was running I just daydreamed about the house and all it's potential- I realized I really wanted it (and I hadn't even seen it in person yet). A few hours later they called to say our offer was accepted- we were ecstatic!

The next 2 months were spent going through lots and lots of red tape and submitting more paper work than I ever could have imagined they would need. Since the house is in rough shape (all cosmetic, thankfully) we had to sneak in and fix a few things so that our loan could be approved- and then undo the work we'd done so that HUD (the government agency that owns the home now) wouldn't know we'd been there. So crazy! Every few days they would tell us it was almost ready to close, only to have them need "one more thing" to approve everything that would take a few more days. Each weekend that went by without closing got frustrating- especially since we knew it was going to be SO MUCH WORK, we just wanted to get started so badly. Last Tuesday we finally got the go ahead and had everything ready to close. We were at the title office signing papers when they came in and announced that the party was over and we had to stop! There was a minor discrepancy in our paperwork on the purchase agreement vs the loan documents and HUD would not allow it. So we had to stop and wait 3 more days for HUD to redo the paperwork and send it back. It was so frustrating! Finally this afternoon we signed papers and the house is ours!

We knew going into house hunting that we wouldn't be able to afford everything we wanted- and we were okay with that. Each house we saw we'd talk through the pros and cons of that home, and honestly this house had by far the best of what was most important to us. It is in an excellent school system. It's big enough that we could stay forever if we wanted (5 bedrooms, 4 baths). It seems like it's in a really nice area. The yard is a decent size. We are just so happy with it! The big thing is that it just needs a lot of cosmetic work- we have to paint every surface of the house (walls, baseboards, ceilings, doors, cabinets- everything!) and clean a lot- it is so so dirty! We are recarpetting the whole house (the previous owners had animals) and we have a few spots in the walls that need to be repaired. We have to build a new railing for the open staircase (only a temporary one is there now) and install some of the baseboards/moldings. It's definitely going to be a big project- but one we are so excited to take on!

Here is a picture of the outside of the house- we will wait to show the inside until we get the work done, then you can see the before and after pics!

Out of the mouth of Chase

After telling him he needed to take one more bite of his dinner, he puts his head down and under his breath says, "You have GOT to be kidding me!"

I came downstairs to find Chase trying to play and Hudson sitting on top of the toys Chase was playing with. Chase said, "Mom, a little help here! I'm just having a pwoblem with this baby!"

Heidi: What happened to your chin Chase?
Chase: Well I just built a bridge out of pillows and I tried to walk on it and I just fell. (shocking that the pillows didn't support his weight)
Heidi: Where did you get that idea from?
Chase: Oh I got it from facebook!
Heidi: Facebook?
Chase: Well, obviously I don't have a facebook.

Chase came running out of preschool and in the most excited voice said, "Did Hudson miss me?!" Then threw open the car door and cutely exclaimed "Well hi there Huds!"

Randomly in the car one day (right after he had a lesson in primary about how Heavenly Father made fish)- "Mom did you know that fish is good? It is mom! And so now we can go to Red Lobster! They have fish for little kids and just lobster for adults. Do you want to go to Red Lobster Huds? We can see if they have fish available!"
What the heck! He has their weird obsession with wanting to eat at Red Lobster and he's told many people about it. I am SO not a fish person and I'm not really even sure how he knows about Red Lobster, but he's sure intrigued.

At the museum another Mom came up and asked me if I was Chase's mom. She said she thought he was cute and that he kept asking her little girl to go on a date with him to the farm! In Chase's defense, a "date" in our house is any special little outing, like when Ben takes him to ice cream or something. Then later I overheard him saying to a random child "Hi! Do you want to be my construction friend? We are building something new today!"

While picking up toys Ben said, "Hey buddy, it looks like you are making good progress."
Chase: Yeah, progress is another word for earning back screen time!

While my mom was babysitting:
Nana: Okay Chase, it's time for bed!
Chase: No, my bedtime is at 8:00.
Nana: It's 8:06
Chase: Actually my bedtime is 8:07