All Hallows Eve, Homecoming, Etc.

So this past weekend was quite eventful. Friday night was Halloween. Saturday was Western Kentucky Universities Homecoming and Sunday was a visit with my family in Springfield, TN and a birthday dinner for Mariah Step-Grandmother Sunday night. And we got a little work done on the house too.

First off lets talk about Halloween. Mariah and I had been invited to a costume party at a friend of ours house Friday night. Since WKU's Homecoming was the next day I knew that a lot of the poeple that I went to college with would be in attendence so we were pretty excited about it, but we had to find a costume. One night Mariah and I were talking about what we could be and it hit me.....I said "Let's be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and all six of their kids!" Needless to say Mariah thought I was brilient and so that's what we went as. Mariah found a great wig and a dragon tattoo at the local Halloween costume tent and she also ordered this paper off the internet that you can print whatever you'd like on and it peels off and has an adhesive that sticks to your skin so it looks like a real tattoo. Genious! My outfit was pretty easy I just bought a hat like I've seen Brad wear, got some sunglasses and threw on a white sports coat. Oh yeah and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a baby carrier that goes on like a backwards back pack. See pictures below. We had a great time and won a trophy for "Best Costume!"

This next picture is of all the award winners that night. On the left is the winner for "Funniest Costume," Daisy and Donald Duck. On the right is the winner for "Scariest Costume," Gomez & Morticia Addams. And in the center is us Brad and Angelina.

The next day, Saturday, I went and worked on the house that morning and then we went tailgating and met up with a bunch of our college friends. That night we went to a bar where Mariah's cousin was playing and then called it an early night.

Great, great, fun weekend!!!

An update on the house:
We've got a little more tile to lay in the hallway, then we've got to finish some of the trim painting, put a little Bead Board in the kitchen and stain the floors before we move in. There are a few little projects that we're probably not going to get to before we move in, but we're so ready to be in the house that we'll just have to manage.

Hallway Tile & New Wall

While Adam and I were out celebrating, Harold and Scott were kind enough to work some more on the hallway tile. Adam and the guys were able to get about 1/4 done on Thursday night, and the guys got about half of the job complete on Friday night. We used a simple 12x12 travertine style tile for the hallway placed in a diamond pattern. So far it looks great!

Then my always thinking husband decided to take on another project. Since our living room had so many doorways (5 to be exact) he thought it would be a great idea to board up the door that leads into the hall (since it doesn't make a lot of sense anyways) and create more wall space. I was hesitent at first, since I just couldn't imagine taking on another huge, messy project. But he assured me the project would be quick, painless, and cheap. So Saturday morning he went to the house while I stayed behind and did laundry. He tore out the facing to the door, nailed up a 1x6 board as the stud, and purchased the 1/4 inch drywayll. Sunday and Monday he was was able to hang the drywall, mud, and tape the new wall. Check it out!

Bathroom Tile!!

Tuesday night, Adam and the 2 gentleman from church were able to lay the bathroom tile, which we are super pleased with! It took approximately 5 hours for them to complete this task, taking the first hour to plan out exactly where the tile would start and end. Laying tile (especially tile this small and intricate) I would definintely recommend having someone who knows what they are doing on hand. You don't realize how much planning goes into everything to make the tiles line up just right. We still need to lay the tile in the hall, and then grout and seal both rooms, but check out the progress so far!!

Insulation Blows & Backerboard Bites

We had another productive weekend when it came to the house. Adam and I were able to install blown-in insultaion to our attic (which had virtually none to begin with). After a week long struggle to actually obtain the blower from Home Depot, we were finally able to complete our task. While blowing insultation is not a difficult task, it definitely will wear you out. I stood outside and loaded in the insulation in the machine while Adam crawled around the attic and controlled the hose. It took us roughly 4 hours to blow in 25 bags, which with what little existing insulation there was, gave us a R30 factor. If you choose to do blown in insulation, we HIGHLY recommend masks, because you will be covered in the stuff, as seen here:

Here is the final product: (not the most exciting, but definitely will save on the energy bills, and very cost effective to install!)

Well last night, we had 2 wonderful gentleman from our church come over and help us being the tile installation process. Adam helped and learned the art of installing backerboard. Backerboard is installed in protect from moisture and provide the tile with an even, supportive surface. Once they got a good start and had all the supplies, it took roughly 4 hours for them to install the backerboard in the bathroom and hallway. Here is what that turned out like:

Lilly, always trying to hog the limelight...

So tonight the plan is to install the tile, which will just be mind blowing! And if all goes as plans, then Wednesday the plan should be to grout and seal the tile! :)))))

Will update again soon!

Bathrooms, Beadboard, and Inspiration..

We are still working hard on the house, but we are starting to see it come together. One of the big excitements is the bathroom. If you have looked at the BEFORE pics (which I highly recommend you do http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamandmariahshouse/) then you can see the bathroom was a disaster. It still has quite a bit to go, but we have made some big progress. Here are the inspiration pics that we have worked from:

As far as paint color, decor, and beadboard, we took inspiration from this bathroom

We also liked the way the tile and beadboard looked in this bathroom. The dark grout looks good with the black and white tile, which is what we plan to do. We also liked the painted tub, so we plan to paint our tub black.

This is the tile we ended up choosing, the brand is Daltile and can be obtained or ordered from almost any tile company.

So last night we put up the beadboard. The boards have the 1st coat of paint, which was applied with a power painter. The walls have 2 coats of Meadow Lane paint from Porter Paints. Check out our progress!

If you want to look at all the bathroom before, demo, and remodel pics go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamandmariahshouse/ and check out "Best of Before" album and "Bathroom" albums! Thanks for stopping by!!

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!! (Like a month ago, lol)

So Adam and I are now officially first time home owners!! We have been so excited and busy with our house, that we are just now getting around to putting up a blog about it. But we have not just taken on the adventure of being first time home owners, but also first time home re-modelers. Our home is what you call a "fixer upper" built back in the late 1800's, you could say it needs a few updates. The house is sound, has more character than you could ask for, plenty of space, and an ideal location for us. It's located in historic downtown Bowling Green. Thankfully, the major aspects of the home have been updated (roof, windows, heating/ac, garage,

etc.) So mainly what we are doing is making the home more ours and also more functional. So if you would like to join us on our adventure, feel free to drop in and check out our progress (or even better, give us a call and I'm sure we have a job for you to help with!)

These are pics we took the night we got the sales contract signed...

And these are from when we closed on the house...can you tell we were excited?!?

Seeing the Before Pics....

Well we have been working on the house for about a month or so now, and have made a lot of progress, but for you to fully appreciate where we have been, you must understand where we came from. These are the BEFORE pics (not how it will be when we live in it, lol) I have included a link to an album that has all the before pics, because quite frankly, it's a pain to put pics on here, lol. But I will post more directly to the blog once we get to finished products (and I become more skilled in my blogging). Enjoy!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamandmariahshouse/

Randy Pausch

Life is funny sometimes.....for instance. I had heard the name Randy Pausch a few months back on Good Morning America and thought that he was pretty interesting but hadn't given him much thought until yesterday. I knew that he was famous for a lecture and a book but that was about it. For whatever reason I couldn't get his name out of my head yesterday so I did a little research on him and tracked down his "The Last Lecture" he gave for his students (headfake....his children) on September 18, 2007. If you've got about 1:16:27 I would highly recommend that you check it out. This lecture is from a man that one month prior had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told that he had 3-6 months to live. As humans we tend to listen to those folks that are dieing much more intensely. Maybe it's because we think that what they have to say is much more important or maybe it's because we do it simply out of respect for the dead (or in this case the dieing) but whatever the reason I am so glad that we live in such a tech savy era that his words can be captured on websites like Youtube.

If I were to go on with this blog part of it would be babbling and the other part would just do Randy and injustice so check out his Lecture and see if it doens't give you a differnt/better perspective on your day and your life.

:)
ADAM