Flooring

Since before we even found this house we knew we wanted wood floors.

When we found this house the whole house minus the bedrooms were ceramic tile. The house had BRAND new carpet in the bedrooms so we found no need to replace it right away.

On moving day we had Gracee in her kennel in one of the rooms. Some how she was able to move the kennel in such a way that she could tear at the carpet. This left us with a giant whole in our carpet in the middle of the room. We got this replaced when we were turning this room into a nursery for TJ. My parents wanted to get us started with our laminate wood floors.

We knew with our tax return this year that we wanted to get the other rooms laminated. We got our tax return yesterday so this morning we headed out to floor & decor and got our flooring. It was awesome because the same flooring we got for TJ two years before was still there so the rooms will match.

We were not planning on doing this for a while because we knew it would be major. Well Tim said "hey, I bet we could get our room done today" so at about 12 pm we started to take all the "stuff" out of our room.

The steps to our project:

• empty room
• gather tools
• tear up carpet
• tear up padding
• sweep
• pull up the tack strips around the border of the room
• sweep again
• pull up left over nails
• sweep again
• carefully take baseboards off
• sweep again
• lay down plastic insulation stuff
• lay flooring
• put baseboards back on
• load furniture and everything back in the room
• pass out
• then when you wake up....sweep 500 more times

We finished with sheets back on our bed  at about 10pm.....LONG DAY!

here are some pictures from the day:

before

before

plastic insulation stuff

TJ helping

before the base boards got up

so pretty

we LOVE it!!

We did buy enough flooring to do the guest bedroom also. We will be getting that room done with in the next few weeks...hopefuly

What I've Learned

Over the past few years I've learned a few things about home repairs/ improvements. We have done a bunch of projects around our house. From just painting to flooring to building in to updating.

Here it is...

1. I can pick out something quicker for someone elses house than I can for my own

I know what looks good and what will look good. When I'm picking a wall color for someone I look at it in a different way than I do with my own house. I see it in a visitors eye and not a home owners eye...I guess. I love helping people by being the deciding factor, but then I also love to help get the ball rolling.

Now in my own house. I see tons of things that will look good and will be very nice. BUT I can't ever seem to make a decision quickly. Some of that is I don't see this house as a long term house. I see it as my home and a place that we are creating wonderful memories but not a place to stay forever. When it comes time for decisions I have to look at it as, is this a good investment in this house? Is this something a new owner would like? I don't have to think this way with everything but with major changes to the house I always have that thought in the back of my mind.

2. It seems to NEVER be as easy as it seems.

I think with almost every project we have taken on, its been more difficult than we thought. Now that can be more expensive, takes longer to complete, and so on.

We start out a project with a list, than the cost of all the items on the list, ok...we are set lets go to the store buy all the stuff and tada! we are ready to go. No more costs, the room gets completed and its beautiful. Nope. Never happens that way. We go with a list and can't find something, then the ticket rings up more than what we have planned, than we start working, a product doesn't work right, or we go back because we forgot something, and blah blah blah.

Basically have cushion in your budget and in your time.  And don't always trust what they say.

3. Classes that stores offer for free that teach you techniques are worth it.

Tim went to a class that was how to lay tile. Totally worth it. It saved us tons of money on having to pay someone to install tile. All we had to do was pay for the tools and materials and boom. Done


 
4. Paint makes a home feel like a home.

I know this is my opinion but I think its a very good opinion. Before we even moved into the house we were painting. I think the colors on the wall make it feel warm and inviting. With paint you can bring out our personality and brighten up a room. A kitchen can look bland and outdated but you paint it a nice pretty color and it changes the whole feel. Paint your living room a fun color and people feel happy when they walk in. Its a cheep way to change the look of a room and get a great feeling of acomplishment.

5. Home projects with a toddler.

Not so fun! But we had to get some projects done so we had to figure out how to make it work. First of all, working in a bathroom. TJ loves the bathroom. He gets his baths in there and he gets to brush his teeth. These are like his most favorite things to do. So while we are trying to tear things out our little boy doesn't want to play with blocks or his guitar he wants to get in the bathtub. Makes sense.

Ok so what we had to do is get a lot od the preperation stuff done while he was awake and get the work done while he was asleep. Please note...we have a very good sleeper who sleeps through anything. This may not work for everyone.

6. Try not to fight.

All fighting does is gets you in bad mood and delays the project. And if you didn't cushion your time than this will not be good. Laugh at the mistakes and accept that you are not a pro (unless you are) at home improvements and this to shall pass.

Granite Fun

I can NOT express enough how relieved I am at this very moment.

We have spent the last 41 days with our house in absolute chaos. It all started with a simple trip to Home Depot. We were there picking up a few items to fix the ceiling in our kitchen because of the leak in our roof. For a little history, we had a leak in our roof which led to damage in our kitchen. With getting the roof fixed we had some money left over after the roof was fixed and the kitchen supplies were paid for. During this quick trip to Home Depot we decide to go look into costs of counter tops. HA! This nice lady who works for Home Depot comes over and starts talking to us. We had always wanted granite but didn't think that it would be in our budget at all and weren't sure if its something we wanted to put into this house. Anyways. She comes over and tells us that the granite has specials going on. $39 a sq ft (with install) 10% off, $300 off, and a free sink. OK wait a second. We should figure this out. To make a super long story shorter. Here are the points:

1. Ended up not being able to get that deal
2. they met us half way
3. we paid extra to cover if our measurements were off
4. told us we would get a call in a couple of days for a guy to come measure
5. he called a few days later and scheduled to come out a week after that
6. We never got a call from Home Depot saying all was good and that our granite was being manufactured
7. We went to the store
8. We owe more $$$
9. We shopped for a better deal. We wanted SO bad to go somewhere else
10. Found NO ONE who could meet or beat that deal
11. We went back to Home Depot
12. Tim talked calmly to a manager and expressed that he was unhappy
13. Manager took off the extra charges
14. Waited a week and a half.
15. Got a call that our granite was ready
16. Was given a date (a week from then), couldn’t come that day, gave us a date a week later (2 wks from call)
17. They came yesterday and INSTALLED the granite

It has been a very long process and not fun! I wouldn’t recommend going to Home Depot to get your countertops. If you got a good deal then you might want to determine if your deal is worth going through bad service. We are talking a 6 week ordeal. They told us from the beginning it would be a 3- 3 1/2 week process.

Right after we moved into the house and got our kitchen set up. It worked fine. Nothing wrong. counters were a little out dated but we had all new appliances and new floors.

Then the roof started leaking and after a while we decided to get started on the kitchen. Here is Tim tearing out the messed up wall and cealing.

getting the job done!

done! wall and ceiling replaced, textured and painted. My husband rocks! we even got a new light fixture. We got it for $5 at Park Row Lighting's clearance sale. 

Old counter tops are out and ready for the new ones to come in.

another view

old backsplash. since the new countertops were going to be put in we needed to do something here. putting the granite behind hte stove was not an option because of cost.

after! I am so proud of myself. I did it mostly on my own. I measured and cut myself. The only thing Tim had to help me with is keep the back from hitting the wall before I lined it up.

YAH! The granite is getting installed. We had actually prepared ourselves for the installers not to show up.

DONE!!

I'm so excited! It looks so good and I'm looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving at my house and cooking many meals here

AHHHH! Stress of the kitchen is OVER!

Home Repairs...UGH!

Well as the last week has passed I knew I would need to post a little blippit about what's going on with the HOME of the Leckie's but as I was writing about The Donut Man, I got a notice that Timothy posted a blog. WHAT?? WAIT. Timothy has a blog? You read that right. He is blogging. Its kinda funny he started blogging by accident. He found a site that he could use with his iPhone to post videos and pictures and just started blogging...Check it out Timothy's Blog!


Well anyways...the reason I got on that tangent was to say that he pretty much summed it up with his blog except...the insurance company gave us more money back then what it cost to get the roof fixed. So we are trying to think of a good way to spend the money. Ya know people are giving away home improvements these days.

Productive Father's Day Weekend

Man alive! I can’t believe we just had that weekend. A couple weeks back we decided that this weekend is when we were going to start/finish the guest bathroom. Sorry it was Father’s Day weekend. Oh well
Friday we went up to Garden Ridge to get some frames for the autographs for TJ’s room, new pillows, and curtains for the living room.
Saturday was the crazy day. We bought sinks and counter tops for both the bathrooms last year but only got our bathroom done. We had to get this other counter top installed. Well after demo on Saturday the mirror that we were just going to hang back up broke a little on the corner, which required us to buy a new one and also some texture to make the area that wouldn’t be covered pretty. Since that had to dry we started working on the curtains and new rod that we decided to buy with some of our garage sale money. We had to stain the rod and get it hung up. I got the curtains looking nice and hung. Then we forgot about getting ties to pull the curtains back. Tim put a coat of white paint on the newly textured wall, then we headed out to Joann’s. Bought the ties and headed back home. Got the curtains fixed and pretty then proceeded to finish the bathroom. I started painting the yellow while Tim started to mow the yard. One he was done we went outside to cook and let TJ swim. After dinner and getting TJ in bed we hung the mirror and cleaned everything up. It was such an insane day with moving back and forth between projects. There were messes that needed to be picked up, trips to the store, laundry started and chancing a toddler around that made it even more exciting.
Sunday Tim planned to do nothing. Well laundry still needed to be finished, folded and put away and some of the rooms still needed to be cleaned and things all ready to go for the week. Since Tim folded all the laundry on Mother’s day, I did all the laundry by myself. I took a short nap during the US Open then got to work. I got the kitchen cleaned, TJ’s room cleaned, laundry finished and put all away, dinner made, our room cleaned, swept the floors, and re cleaned the kitchen from dinner. Ahhhh. I was SOOO glad to sit down that evening. It’s a good thing I got a nap in there or I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

I’ve got more cleaning planned tonight and more projects planned for the weekends ahead.

I think all in all Tim had a good Father’s day. He got the new iPhone on Friday and new shoes for Father’s day. He got to play with TJ a lot and relax a ton.

Here are some pictures:

New bathroom

 

New pillows and curtains

another view

and TJ's LSU onsie signed by Brady James

New Living Room

Well for a while now Tim and I have talked about getting new furniture. We have had this same furniture for a while and with a dog and child they were starting to look bad. We have really wanted leather, more for Gracee then TJ. The Microfiber has been great don’t get me wrong but after a while of vacuuming and cleaning the microfiber I wanted to get something a lot easier. We mentioned it to each other and Tim got on the computer and immediately found a couch at a good price that we liked.

The only problem with this couch is it puts us back in the same situation, microfiber. Although its darker and would hide dog hair a lot better. I didn’t necessarily like that part because do I really want the dog hair hidden. NO!

But being smart shoppers we went to numerous stores trying to see if we found anything better. After about 4 stores and 4-5 different websites we went to Rooms To Go Outlet. And we found our couch. Its leather and a sectional which is what we originally wanted. Its brand new. I think the only reason it was in the outlet was because someone returned it. The tags were even still on it. We got it for half off of what we would have paid in the store and had it in our house within 30 minutes. We got the old furniture to Rodney and Virginia’s house last night so I took some pictures for you so you can see!

Pictures of the Office Makeover

Here are the pictures I said I would post:

This is the wall that the door is on.

Obviously here is the desk top.

Here is looking in the room from the door.

Here is another view from the door. We will be making the curtains and getting those put up soon.

Slight Change of Plans

Original plan out the window. We woke up on Saturday and I went to a Pampered Chef party while Tim got some of the stuff ready to paint. We realized that we didn’t have enough of the left over paint to paint both rooms. After sitting there trying to think of something to do in the office I went and got online and found a color that was very pretty and Tim loved it. I sent Tim off to the store while I got some more things ready to go and TJ down for his nap.

Now this color is a blue/green color. It’s called Cathedral, the best way to describe it is a dark lagoon or harbor color. Right before he left we were talking about how we wanted to get a real office desk and not a dinky little computer desk. I got on craigslist while we were discussing the plan and found a desk that was just listed that day. Tim called and arranged for him to go look at it the next day. We got the room painted with 2 coats and the cut in done.

Sunday after Church Tim and Rodney went out to Lancaster to look at the desk and load it up if Tim liked it. I stayed behind and got the room re arranged for the desk and let TJ nap. Once they got back we got the rest of the room cleaned up and Tim and I started to move the desk down the hall. Woops the desk didn’t fit. Tim had to take off the door along with the jams. It barely fit. After we got the desk arranged and the computer set up we went up to Garden Ridge and bought some art and frames that were on sale.

The room is all done and looks good. Of course I forgot to take pictures. I’ll have Tim take some when he gets home and I’ll have to post anther blog later. Sorry.


Also. Last night one of our friends little brother was shot in the face by a drive by shooter. He called 911 himself and is at the hospital now. He is planned to have surgery today to get the fragments out of his face. For the full update from his sister you can go to her blog. http://www.belgexan.com/ Keep him and his family in your prayers.

Working On The House

Right before we moved into our house we spent a couple of nights getting all the rooms painted. We got the kitchen, living room, hall, and our room painted that week. Once we moved in we got the entry, bathrooms, and game room painted. Once we found out we were having a boy we got TJ’s room painted. Now all that is left in the house is the office and guest bedroom. If you couldn’t tell, I hate white walls in my house. I want the house to feel lived in as much as possible.

When Bill and Debra were in there house in Cedar Hill I bugged them for forever to paint rooms in their house. By the time they moved out they had lots of the rooms painted I even helped with a lot of the paint choices. I just love paint.

So back to my story we are planning to paint this weekend. We got a webcam last week and having that room on video is not a pretty site. It’s boring. I have some left over paint from all the painting we have done in the rest of the house that we are going to get some done this weekend. I think I even have some curtains that we used in our apartment that have never been hung in the house. We’ll see. Since the hurricane is suppose to come through North Texas we’ll see how long it takes for the paint to dry. Oh well.

We are planning on painting the guest bedroom green. Most of the colors in the room are red but I have accents in green so I think it will look great and it will definitely warm up the room. And then in the office we aren’t really sure on the color yet but we are planning on doing some cool pattern on the main wall. Maybe some stars or something. If it doesn’t look good we can always just fill it in with the paint. I’ll post some pictures when it’s done.

Have a wonderful, safe, and blessed weekend.

Pictures of TJ's Room

FYI... I do have pictures of TJ’s room but...
Our computers are down and I’ve been blogging on Tim’s Iphone
and
today I’m at my parents house and have no way of getting the pictures off of my camera onto the computer to show you pictures. We are done with his room we just need a matress...it is being given to us by my manager we just need to go over and get it.  We are all packed and ready to go. I got the car seat base put in the car and all the bags are right by the door. WOO HOO!!!

I go to the doctor again on weds. She’ll check me again and hopefully we will have progressed more. I’ll keep you posted.
Oh Rick and Sarah are going to bring their computer up to the hospital so we can post blogs with pictures while we are there. So keep your eyes open for blogs.

love ya

More on the Nursery

Sorry for those on my RSS feed. I was going through my drafts and saw that this wasn't posted because the pictures were messed up. Here you go, this is TJ's room partially done.

Okay so we have gotten a little more done on the nursery. I'll show you some pics of the decor so you can get the idea of what it will look like.

here are the pictures that will be above his bed. 

this is the wall directly across from where his crib will be. The floors are done yet. We have just been painting and getting the decor up.

here is the really cool light switch

here is a picture of just his dresser before we got the TJ up. the nobs on the dresser are texas stars

 and then here is his toy box that my brother Josh made. its pretty heavy duty and he'll be able to take this to college with him.

well that's it for now. I'll post more when more is done. see ya

TJ’s Nursery

Okay so we finally started working on the nursery this weekend....

I started getting stressed out about it because I always need a plan in place and when we started figuring out what all we needed to get started all we needed was paint and some supplies so we headed out to Home Depot.

Here are some before pictures with the carpet taken out. (My parents are going to put in lamenate floors. The carpet was pretty bad in there)

Here's what I looked like while I was painting. I couldn't smell a thing. I look pretty silly huh?

Tim painting. we didn't take any pictures of me painting because I looked pretty ridiculous. 

And here is the after shots I took when it dried. We will be putting the molding up on tuesday so it will look a lot better then. We know it doesn't look like a little boy's room but we aren't very typical and it will be super cute and grow with him as he gets older. He will have black furniture and some pretty cool decorations. I'll post more once we get more done.