House projects...weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks of them!

This post is a glimpse into some of the projects we've been doing...it feels never ending!  I hope to do before/after pictures sometime soon.  We're now living in a very different house than we bought!  It was originally a contemporary house, then, in the course of 5 owners, became more and more traditional.  We loved the contemporary potential, and are excited by the transformation!  

There was wallpaper in 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and the living room/kitchen area.  Blah!  Removing it was a task!  Thankfully we had some helpers...

Brandon's neices and nephews helped with the wallpaper in the bathroom.  It was torn and glued on in little pieces, which made it a nightmare to take off.  It took me the better part of 2 days- after the kids had already done a bunch!

Brandon's mom and sister-in-law Becky helping remove wall paper and chair rail from the kitchen/family room, while the cousins picnicked on the floor.

My Dad fixing sheetrock--in lots of places!

We took off all the cupboard doors- they were oak-- and my  mother in law painted them...quiet a feat, we owe her big time!

My brave Dad painted all the vaulted walls, it made me really nervous seeing him balancing up so high on ladders.  We owe him big time too!  We did all the painting before Brandon came out; Brandon's Mom and my Dad did tons.

It's great having uncles (Uncle "Bug" here) and cousins to play with the kids

Brandon boldly decided to rip out the marble floor in the entryway (it didn't fit our color scheme) and the tile in the kitchen.  He'd barely been home from taking his boards for 15 minutes when he had a hammer and was pulling up tiles. It was a HUGE mess!  After he spent hours chipping it all off, we had to get a cement grinder to grind the mortar down to lay new tile.  It got dust EVERYWHERE even though we tented it off.  I had just finished unpacking and had to clean everything- even in the cupboards.  Glad we won't be doing that again!

Tile helpers to the rescue!  It was taking a lot longer than anticipated. Brandon's brother Chris and his wife Becky, along with my brother Tosh, saved the day!

Trying to make ice cream for our helpers, without being able to walk in the kitchen

The next project was painting the exterior of the house-- something I thought we'd wait on, but the peach color of the house drove us crazy, so we started a year before I had originally planned.

It was dark by the time we finished the front.  Brandon spent a couple Saturdays painting a side...and we don't want to think about how many Saturdays it will take to paint the back and other side!  This is a huge project that is taking months!  We love the gray exterior though, it's worth it!

The fireplace was another huge project- that's almost complete :)  My dad and Brandon did 2x4's and sheetrock, and laid modular tiles over the top.  Current pictures to come soon.

The house has been a lot of work, and we are so grateful for our families' help in getting it done, er, closer to done!  We're getting the house back to it's contemporary roots!