This is Amy and Jace who kept us entertained all day long! :) I just love these two!
This is my dad hard at work removing all the tack strips.  He was a huge help!
This is Leslie hard at work scraping the wallpaper off.  She never once complained about the monotonous work.
This is one side of the kitchen when everything was removed.
This is Jack helping fix our wall that was not anchored.  He taught us a lot today!
This is my mom hard at work removing the wallpaper too!  Couldn't have done this much without her.  And Greg is helping remove the old refrigerator. He was a big help too since he re-did his kitchen a few years ago!

This is Jack, Jeff, and Greg hard at work laying the hearty backer board. 

Everyone did such a great job!!!!  

And so it begins....Day 1 and 2

Well, we finally closed on our home.  After a lot of scheduling and rescheduling of the closing, we got the keys Friday, May 22.  It was sure exciting.  And at the same time, a little scary.  No turning back now.  I will be using this blog to update daily (or as often as possible) on the progress of our home.  (This is Jeff's idea by the way...) That way, if we ever sell the house, we can link our blog and let future homeowners know all that we did (before and afters). 

Here's what our plan is for the house:

1. Gut the kitchen (new cabinets, countertop, sink, floor, appliances)

2. Refinish the hardwood floors

3. Replace the kitchen and dining room floors with ceramic tile

4. New carpet in the family room

5. Paint almost every room

6. And any kind of yard work we can fit in this summer...no set plans yet

7. Repair the chimney where an ineffective repair in the past caused a water leak.

8. New sliding glass patio door

Well we didn't waste any time on starting the work.  Friday, I went to Sherwin Williams and got a lot of paint supplies.  Then I went back and tested out the colors I had picked out. I liked 1 out of the 4!  Good thing I got the sample size.  But I think I have all my colors picked out.  I will be doing a Pale Earth in the living room and kitchen,  Kilm Beige in the dining and family room.  And probably Kilm Beige in another bedroom.  I will be keeping the other room the blue for now.  But our master bedroom - I haven't decided yet what to do.  I want to do some sort of tan since we have dark brown comforter with aqua accents. It should look really nice!  

So this past Saturday and today (Monday), we have got quite a bit done!  I spent most all day Saturday priming the living room.  Later that night after Jeff got back from a recruiting trip, we started taking down the cabinets.  We got all but 2 cabinets out!  Then today, we had a ton of help!!  My mom and dad (Scott and Teresa), and Jeff's mom and dad (Leslie and Jack) came down and REALLY helped us out.  And our awesome friends Greg and Amy (and Jace) came down the street to help us too!  We feel so blessed to have awesome friends and family! Thank you everyone! We really could not have gotten this far without everyone.  

Today, we got all of the cabinets out, ripped up all the old ceramic tile, scraped the wallpaper off until we couldn't stand to see that darn scraper anymore, ripped out the old carpet, removed all the tack strips and staples, laid some mortar and hearty backer for the new ceramic tile, fixed one of the walls in our kitchen that was not even anchored in, fixed an exterior light, and still had time to have a wonderful lunch (thanks to Amy!) and a great dinner (thanks to Jack and Leslie!).  After everyone left today, Jeff and I went back to Lowes (for the 5th time today...no kidding) and got all the ceramic tile and hearty backer board we would need to finish off all of the ceramic floors.  Then Jeff worked until 9:30 tonight to get the hearty backer board measured. Jeff is such a hard worker!  So it's now 10pm and we are EXHAUSTED!  

To top it off, I have an online anticoagulation course to do for the next 5 weeks.  What great timing.   I guess I just have to keep in in perspective. Thankfully we are still staying in our apartment for the month of June so we don't have to live among a mess!  Here are some pictures to show everyone what's going on:

This is the kitchen window to show the wallpaper.  We had 3 different layers of wallpaper!!!

This is the living room before I primed everything.  We will hopefully be getting a new ceiling fan. 

This is the kitchen cabinets before we ripped them out.  The were not in bad shape but the other side of the kitchen only had 1 cabinet and a lot of empty space.  So we are redoing it to make the kitchen more efficient. And we will also add a dishwasher since there was not one. 

This is Jeff ripping out the cabinets

This is the living room after I primed it. I will post more pictures...

We ARE......

BUYING A HOUSE!!!!  And we are very excited.  We should be closing on our house this Thursday. We have a lot of projects we will be doing on the house such as: refinishing the hardwood floors, gutting and redoing the kitchen, redoing the kitchen and dining room floors, painting, and then a few other maintenance issues.  But it should be a fun project for our first house!  I will post some pictures once we close and then I will be able to show before and after pictures.  I am starting an online course in a couple of weeks for work.  It will last 6 weeks so it will be a really busy time!  We are planning on staying in our apartment through the month of June so that we can work on the house but not have to live in the construction zone.  Hopefully we will be able to finish most of it before we move in.  I'll keep you all posted. 

I never get to bed on time...

I just wanted to let everyone know that blogs have become one (yes, just one) of the reasons that I do not get to bed on time. I'm not sure if anyone else feels like this but at about 9 or 10 at night, I suddenly feel like my house is a mess, nothing is done, and why not do everything now?!  But first, I have to look at my blogs. Poor Jeff, I have a terrible sense of time and never get to bed when I say I'd like to. Thank goodness he still loves me.  Have a great week!

A Secret Date!

Jeff took me on a secret date tonight! It was a very special time.  I came home from working out and was expecting us to have the typical discussion of "Where do you want to go?  I don't care, where do you want to go?  I don't care...."   But no!  Jeff says "You have 25 minutes until we are leaving on a date."  The anticipation was killing me. I don't do well with that.  I mean, it's fun but I was continually begging for clues or hints as to what's going on.  So anyways, he took me to the Olive Garden in Kokomo (He had the best dish I have had anywhere in a LONG time.  It was called braised beef tortellino.) After the Olive Garden, we went to WalMart where he gave each of us $5 to find a gift for the other person within 15 minutes. So fun!  We did that last year in Tennessee with my family.  After WalMart, he took me to Target and gave each of us $20 to find a gift for the other person.  This one took a little while longer but was still so much fun.  What a creative husband!  Then we went to Chili's to have dessert.  Each step of the date was a surprise and I didn't know where we were going until each place.  So anyways, just wanted to give kudos to my husband for being so thoughtful and creative!  We have a big game at St. Francis tomorrow.  Go Wildcats!  

Wow, how fast time flies!  We are into conference games now and each game seems to come quicker and quicker.  I realized at the last game that I may get into it a little too much.  I am really going to start trying not to shout my disappointment at the refs but only encouragement for our team (yeah right, huh Jeff?) But I will do my best. 

These past few weeks have been such a fun time with family and friends!   My sister and her boyfriend came home over Christmas and I got to see my cousin Cassie, who is doing missions in South Africa.  And of course my brother, Justin was there :) And my parents moved into their new home!  I'm so happy for them!

Back to basketball...we had a couple of the guys over tonight to eat homemade pizza, play dirty marbles and watch some of the Fiesta Bowl.  Amy and I both love to entertain people.  It makes for a fun time being coach's wives.  

How cute is this ornament that Jeff got me for Christmas?! A little snowman family!!! :)

This is Amy and I being silly with Photo Booth.
Jeff and I at my parents house.  Jeff hates to look at the camera or when he does, he makes some goofy face.
Me and my sis at the basketball game in California.  

And this is my niece, Emery who is soooooo cute and sweet!

Redeem the time,

Tiff

 

Oh my gosh...is this a post I see?!!!

Sorry for the long delay.  No excuse other than lack of energy. You'd think watching biggest loser would be a motivator for me to get off the couch and stop eating homemade cookies, but it's not looking too good.  I barely made the minimum 3/week 20 min workouts for IWU.  It's not like I don't like to workout, but there are like a 100,000 different things I'd rather do than change my clothes and go out in the cold to work up a sweat and then have to take my 2nd shower of the day. Doesn't that sound like fun? But now lets talk about food.

I haven't made many dishes lately but I did make one that I sampled before I gave to my friend, Amie, who just had a baby.  Why is it that I try out new dishes on other people before I ever try them myself?  It's like I'm compelled to make other people suffer too if the food doesn't taste good.  But really, I don't think I've ever made a bad meal. Oh wait, yes I did.  Jeff will agree that my first and only try at some homemade fries were a BUST!   Not enough oil and not enough cooking makes for a nasty raw potato.  And then I tried to get my friend Amy to sample them. Poor girl, she didn't know what was coming.  She's a trooper for trying my new recipes!

So here's the latest easy chicken recipe that I made.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cooked in the crockpot with seasoning and then shredded/chunked)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

1 cup uncooked rice

1/2 cup mayo

~ 1 cup of shredded cheddar (again, I never measure cheese)

Stir all ingredients together and put in a greased 9x13.  

Topping:

1 sleeve of crackers, crushed

1/4 to 1/2 stick of butter melted (I use less just so I don't add another 1000 calories to the dish)

Bake at 350 for about 35-40 min or until bubbly

An update on our lives:

My sweet friend Amy's birthday is tomorrow (Friday)! Happy Birthday Amy!! LOVE YOU TONS!!!

I only have a couple people to still by Christmas gifts for.

I am headed to my cousin's musical tomorrow in Fort Wayne.

Jeff is busy with basketball.

We are headed to California next week with the team, but I will get to see my sister, Natalie who lives in the same city that we are going to! What a co-inky-dink.  Can't wait!

Busy time but I love the Christmas time and love looking at our tree! I don't have a picture of it but hopefully I will post a picture soon.  

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and remember Jesus is the reason for the season! :)