The Clean-Up Crew

James spends most weekends working on the house, and in the process, makes a few messes. :-) He is GREAT about cleaning up!  But on Monday mornings, we girls get to work finishing up -- putting things back in place (sometimes new places), dusting...

 And everyone's favorite: removing sheet rock mud from the carpet

This Monday, we emptied and bookshelves to rearrange the living room. 

And then spent time putting everything back in place in the playroom!

Fixtures

Checking out the new fans!

 My favorite part: saying bye-bye to the (9yo) "temporary" blinds!

 Getting there!

Tape, Bed, Texture, Paint, Repeat.

For a month, James has spent every possible moment taping, bedding, texturing, and painting in the living areas, dining room and kitchen ceiling. SO MUCH WORK.  I so admire his determination.

Monkey see, monkey do...

It feels SO good to have the walls and ceilings nice and PLAIN. :-)

Little Details

With the big chunks of this step done, time for the details.  Switches, plugs...

And a plan.  We were all having a hard time visualizing the kitchen layout, so masking tape to the rescue!

Can't wait to recreate this pic -- Darcy on the island. Hopefully she won't be too old when we do. :-)

Date Day

Time for some new ceilings! My parents sweetly took the girls for the day, and I stayed busy with laundry while James got everything ready. 

Sheet rock is here!

The befores...

We had to finalize the placement of the (future) kitchen lighting before we could start sheet-rocking, so that meant I spent lots of time measuring and deciding. Kinda stressful. It's all been so theoretical to this point, but now. This is real.  Exciting, but sobering.

We have lights!

So, it's time for sheet rock!

And HOURS later, it's done.

Oops, forgot one of the vent holes!

I can't get over how calm it looks in here.  

BEFORE

AFTER

We've been married almost 16 years, and for the last 9+, this house has been a huge part of our conversations, decisions, arguments, stresses, and joys.  Today was a joy.  So much work, so many decisions, but man, we had fun together.  

Down Come the Ceilings

With the wall gone, ceilings were next.  But first, draping. EVERYTHING. 

Coming down fast! And messy!

Darcy's a little confused after her nap. " How long was I asleep?!"

Done.

Surveying the work. Planning for tomorrow.