It's hard to believe, but one year ago today, on Valentine's Day of 2012, we closed on the new house and it became ours, and we haven't spent a night in it yet.
Also hard to believe is that we are still working on it a year later, and we still have a lot to do. Don't get me wrong...we have done a lot, but there is more to go. All the walls are textured and painted, all of the crown molding is in, most of the base molding is in, we just installed all new blinds in all the rooms, which really makes the place look great, and many other items completed. The main areas of concern right now are tile on the floors, then finish the baseboards, then carpet, as well as all the cabinets in the kitchen and both bathrooms, and new counter tops.
The only new appliance we have purchased, other then the washer and dryer when we first got the house, is a new microwave. We're still using the refrigerator that came with the house, but that will be replaced sometime in the future.
We had plans for Lawrence's parents flying down from Minnesota in June to see the house and vacation around Texas for a week, but we are holding off until maybe October. There's just too much to do, and we didn't want that close deadline looming over us.
As usual, Lawrence is doing all the work, and I help when I can. I commented the other day that he seems to get so much more done when I'm not there so he doesn't have to babysit me. When I am at work he sends me updates throughout the day as to what he has finished, and it amazes me what he can do by himself. I just slow him down. I think he's good with the arrangement.
Back to the tile and carpet for a second. We have decided it would be best if we hired someone to do the tile work instead of us. We have participated in demonstrations at Home Depot on how to lay tile, mix the mortar, do the grouting, etc. and in fact we have purchased a bunch of tile and everything to go with it, even a tile saw! The only thing we are missing is the hands-on knowledge and willingness to take that first step. Once the tile is down, it's down. There's no going back, and that's intimidating as hell. I'm currently getting bids for the work. I figured we saved so much money doing the work ourselves for a year, we can spend some of it to have the tile done right. We planned all along to have someone else do the carpet. We didn't even discuss doing it ourselves. We pulled up and threw out all of the old carpet a long time ago, so it's all concrete floors under our feet. We're so used to it now, it's gonna be weird to feel carpet under our feet one day.
On the funny side....we installed a huge heavy-duty wall mount system to hold our future new monstrous LED TV that will be mounted on the living room wall. We're thinking something between 65-80 inches of pure television bliss. In the meantime, we mounted a very small TV that's about 24 inches or so, and it looks like a postage stamp on that huge wall. It doesn't even cover the wall mount! It does the trick for now.
Once the inside is done, whenever that will be, Lawrence will start on the outside. I'm getting the feeling that our backyard is going to look something like an English castle garden. Trees, flowers, shrubs, birdbaths, bird feeders, bees everywhere, and Lawrence is talking about digging a small pond in the backyard with fish in it!
I guess I'll be in the poor house a while longer, but it's all worth it. It makes him happy.
