staining

Sunday after finishing sanding, vacuuming really thoroughly and then mopping, we decided to stain the floors. This wasn't a long process at all, but a huge payoff visually. Previously, you might have thought the floors were pretty nice without stain (as they were originally). They were fine with just a varnish, but we wanted them darker. Darker hardwood floors were the idea when we decided on paint colors in the beginning. One problem we encountered was that Lowe's only had 4 quarts of the stain we wanted. Even the other Lowe's in town were completely out of stock. We did get a small discount, but we had to be sure that that was enough for the whole space. God is so good. We ended up with EXACTLY enough. Not too much, not too little.

Gloves for staining.

The color of stain: English Chestnut. Pretty.

The first swipe.
Katy: "Wow, that is quite darker, isn't it."

Deron's room all done. And a dirty camera lens apparently.

Master bedroom in the process.

I decided to give it a try.

I actually thought it was kinda fun. Call me an artsy fartsy...

Pre and post.

Almost done!!

New stain down the hall. (don't worry, I didn't walk on it.)

English chestnut on red oak floors.

more hard work - sanding

Saturday we decided to tackle sanding the hardwood floors. It took a lot more time and "elbow grease" (as my mom would say) than we were expecting, but thankfully that step is over and we will be able to enjoy these floors and this house very soon! One major hurdle: I guess because the floors are older, the sander (despite 3 times over with decreasing grits) wouldn't get between all of the planks (or the sides and corners... but we kind of expected that).

The sander. Very heavy, but didn't do as good of a job as we were expecting.

A shot of one of the discolored spots in the hallway. We were counting on being able to sand enough to get under it.

Pre-sand.

Let's do it!

Post-sand. Pre-vacuum and mop. And Philip's jeans. Cool.

The discolored spot in the hallway. It mostly came up, but we weren't completely successful. I think the stain will cover it.


The clean and mopped floor.

Deron... such a trooper. We had to contain him when we started staining. He can climb out of the pack'n'play, but he knew better. He's had many days of no naps and late nights. And still smiling!

painting done, floors exposed

We worked so hard this last week! We at first planned on moving in on Saturday. Then we moved it to Sunday afternoon. After ripping up the carpet and revealing the beautiful floors underneath, we decided to finish everything off before getting all of our stuff in the house and go ahead and refinish the floors. We'll probably stain them a shade darker to match the doors. With a little extra time, we can finish off the baseboards, replace ceiling fans and lights, kitchen hardware, etc. It will be wonderful moving and settling in without more work to think about doing in the future.

The kitchen almost completely painted. It's done now, but I forgot to take a picture of it all done. You'll see it sooner or later.

Deron's room in the process of taking off the masking for the stripes.

Just after ripping up the carpet in the front room. That's Philip's dad, David. Thanks to him, they were able to get the floors all cleaned up and to this point in only a few hours! It would have taken Philip and I days, I'm sure. A little wisdom in this area sure helped!

The stripes on Deron's wall. They turned out awesome! I'm so proud. :)

The beautiful floors in the master bedroom. And finished walls, too.

The room we don't quite know what to do with yet.

The front room all painted and floors revealed!

Tuesday-Thursday progress

Here are some pictures I took Thursday night from the new house. Lots of color...

This is Deron's room. This white wall will have small white stripes on a blue wall when it's done.

Front room. That's the front door. Love it!

From the front door looking into the kitchen and dining room.

The white brick wall that we had no idea what to do with. Now it looks kinda cool!

The master bedroom. Small, but will be romantic!

Very quaint master bathroom.


Well, there you go! More pictures to come!

ultra green

this is the name of the color we chose for the front room of the new house that we bought last night!!! I wouldn't really call it "ultra green"... it's more like a light teal color. Oh well, I am so excited this is really happening. Philip and I are officially the owners of a house! God is so good. He amazes me over and over again. I will keep everyone (all one, maybe two of you) updated as to how the house looks as we work on it. We're going to hit painting hard this week and have a desire to get moved in before Christmas, but we shall surely see if that happens. It might end up being late next week, but it'll be fun whenever it happens.

Deron knows his ABC's. And it is scrumptrulescently adorable. I wanted everyone to see...

my cykochik tote

I got in contact with an old friend of mine I was in high school art and tennis with through facebook. She was always so talented and now she's living in NYC and successfully pursuing a career in graphic design. She has a business on the side, creating these awesome and beautiful totes. She wanted to make me one with Deron's face on it, and here it is!gorgeous, isn't it?

check out her website at www.cykochik.com

thanksgiving pictures!

We went to Irving for Thanksgiving to see my family... enjoy!

Deron's first carousel ride! He loved it!

We found a projector mounted on the ceiling at the mall. The mat on the floor had sensors in it so kids could "kick" a ball around or play pinball. It was pretty neato.

This is not NY. It was a gigantic train display at Northpark mall. I'm not so into trains, but this was pretty spectacular. (I must mention we were all full from eating at P.F. Chang's..yumm)

No need for a comment. :)

A very very sweet 2 1/2 year old and daddy.

It started snowing in Dallas as we left town on Thursday night. And this is what we saw when we got into Abilene!

Then it snowed again Sunday afternoon! This was as we got home from church. Right before a big roaring fire, football and enjoying the Christmas tree being up!

don't worry...

hey, i know it's been 2 weeks since my last post... just be patient.

2 pink lines

    
I guess the third room isn't a guest room anymore...

We're having another baby!! Philip and I are so excited about the news! I'm about 6 weeks along now and feeling fantastic. The due date for the little one is June 26th, which happens to be Jedidiah's (our son that we lost at 20 weeks a year and a half ago) birthday. How sweet the Lord is.

I am so ecstatic to see the new season God has in store for our family. I am still planning on finishing school, but cutting out some things like cleaning the church. It will be so great to spend more time with my son, and preparing for our new little joy.

Oktubafest

Yes, I spelled that right. Last night was a momentous occasion. Since Philip and I are still in school as music majors, we have to meet a requirement of so many recital attendances each semester. This can be quite a feat, not so much while you're living the typical college lifestyle, but when you've got a kid to find a babysitter for a couple of times a week... that's a lot.

So last night there was a recital composed of 4 tubas and 2 euphonium- a tuba ensemble. The recital was appropriately named "Oktubafest". Nice. Anyway, I thought with this surely not being a long recital, and since the music was sure to be entertaining, maybe we should just try to bring Deron along. Hopefully he'd enjoy it and sit still and quiet.

Long story short, it was a success!! I can't believe my 2 1/2 year old sit still (sitting on daddy's lap) and stayed absolutely quiet for what ended up being over and hour! And the thing started at his bedtime. There was, thankfully an intermission that allowed all of us to stretch our legs a little bit. I was so proud, Philip had to wake me up in the middle of the night because I was sleeping really "restlessly". All I can remember is that I was still thinking... "I can't believe he sat through that whole recital!! That was awesome! Sweet! Yeah! etc, etc."

one part lasagna...

sorry if this is gross. you know that day when you have to clean out the refrigerator. maybe you need room for other food, maybe the stuff in there has just been in there... a little too long. well, yesterday was that day. our procedure for this event is to get a large ziploc bag, throw everything in it -moldy or not- and then throw it away. this prevents having open, nasty smelling food sitting in the kitchen trash before it gets taken to the dumpster. this week's entree looked especially appetizing, so i decided to take pictures. i'll give you the recipe...

1 slice leftover spinach lasagna
3 servings beef stew
1 cup jambalaya
1/2 cup tuna salad
1 helping caesar salad

Yumm...