New Lights

Saturday was another day full of home projects around here. It started with Justin loading up a bunch of trash from the porch that we had collected from the many demo projects and taking it to the dump.

When he got home, I ran to Menards to get some supplies for the afternoon project...changing out a bunch of light fixtures.

Justin started in the hallway upstairs. The previous owners had these horrible light fixtures that are maybe supposed to look like oil lamps...and they give off just about as much light as oil lamps.



So, Justin got to work switching those out.





The new hallway lights are simple but they have made a huge difference both in appearance and illumination!



Justin then moved on to the bathroom fixtures. The previous owners had these old school globe fixtures that only housed one light bulb each. So, again, it was fairly dark in the bathroom in certain areas. We ended up even taking the globe off the one in the center of the room several months back because it offered more light.





And here are the new fixtures.





You can see in both the pictures of the hallway and the pictures of the bathroom that we are in the middle of repainting those areas as well. I spent a good portion of last weekend painting and I just have to go touch up a few areas and then replace all the trim.

We still have some light fixtures to change out downstairs but the upstairs looks so much better!

And on a side note (and because I have a hard time not including some pictures of at least on of the boys), Garytt has started "parking" his toy trucks, cars, buses, etc. on our radiator. In fact, just last night when it was time to go to bed, I asked him to put his trucks away and he went and "parked" them there and then waved good-bye to them...so cute!









After a long day of work, it was time for all of us to park it and relax!

New Bathroom Sinks

Having two extra guys around the house prompted us to do some projects. We kind of bounced around some ideas about what we should tackle while my dad and Kyle were in town. In the end, we decided we should try to remodel the bathroom sinks because that is a job that I physically cannot help Justin with at this time (maybe ever).

Our bathroom sink area is a bit strange. The previous owners obviously built the cabinet themselves at a lower than average height because there is a window sill that prevents a normal size vanity from sitting there. Due to that restriction, we decided we would reface the vanity cabinet, which was awful because it really had no kick plate to speak of causing one to nearly take off a toe every time you stepped up to the sinks. Then we would just add a new countertop and more modern faucets. Seems like a simple plan...


The only before picture of the sink area that I have

So, the guys started with demo...


Sinks are gone


A view of the sink area from farther back

They also took out some more of the old wall boards and some of the lathe to accomidate drywall.







As with all home projects, there is always a kink...the plumbing proved to be a little more challenging than expected and took longer than expected.


The guys hard at work


Discussing the plumbing

In the end, we do have sinks that function but that is all they had time for. So, Justin and I still have to finish the cabinet and put up drywall...unfortunately for Justin, that will mostly fall on his shoulders due to my condition... I will be responsible for the painting and such once the drywall is up.

We have decided to just paint the rest of the paneling in the bathroom...not my favorite idea but considering how difficult the paneling was to removed from behind the radiator in Garytt's new room, it is probably not a bad idea as this radiator has even less room behind it to work.

I didn't get a final picture of just the sink area, but it pretty much looks like this still. I will get more pictures as the project continues.



The bathroom project is like a neverending project for us but each stage is an accomplishment. We really appreciated the help from my dad and Kyle!! I'm not sure they were totally aware of what they signed on for when they agreed to come to Wisconsin for Christmas.

While the activity was going on upstairs, my sister was very helpful in putting a thin coat of mud over some of the walls downstairs to help smooth out some issues in the walls. Kyle even helped some during times when the bathroom project didn't have room for everyone upstairs.


Working hard in the kitchen

So, all I have left to do in the kitchen and the wall in the family room is a light sanding and painting...awesome!

Maybe the best part of the new sinks is that Garytt got a new toy out of the project. The box that the sinks came in became a playhouse for him.


In he goes


Happy boy with his new toy

We even encouraged him to "decorate" the inside with crayons.


Busy coloring


Coloring the ceiling

Here are a couple of videos as well.





After a long day of work, everyone just wanted to chill.



So, the moral of the story is...be very cautious when the Brown family invites you to their house, they may just put you to work! Who wants to to come over on New Year's Day?

We're Back!

Ok, so we know we have been terrible about posting new blog posts. As many of you know, life has been a bit crazy for us over the past few months. Justin accepted a new position in Oshkosh, WI starting in February. We were very blessed to sell our house in Kansas and find a house here in Wisconsin. We were only separated for two weeks during this transition, which was also a huge blessing.

Our house here in Wisconsin is a diamond in the rough. It is a nice solid house with a good amount of space. However, the previous owners lived here for 47 years. Needless to say, there are a lot of updates needed. The carpeting is probably from the 70s. The previous owners really loved carpeting though! So, much so that they decided to put it on the walls in the hallway upstairs...yes, on the walls! We haven't tackled that project just yet, but I will be sure to include pictures when we do!







As with so many home projects, our first project took much longer than anticipated. We decided to strip the wallpaper in Garytt's room first so that we could get it painted and make it feel like a comfortable place for him. What we thought would take a few weekends, took a month. But we are very happy that we took the time to do it right and remove the wallpaper rather than just painting over it because it looks so much better now!


This is the before photo. You can't really tell but the wallpaper had very small flowers all over it. Not only is it totally not my style, it looked a bit girly for Garytt.


Pulling up the carpet.


Patching the wall.



We will be adding a green stripe and some wall decor. We'll have to post more pictures when it is totally done.