I Heart Faces: Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

I was going to enter another picture on a friends suggestion but then this picture happened yesterday. And I couldn't help myself. This is the line up before the big race!! There were several races and several crashes...no one was hurt in the taking of these picture.

He's all boy...all the time!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge: Yellow

I don't get a chance to do these very often. Turns out a full time job, a new house and a 3 year old take up alot of time. But this picture was fresh on my mind, taken last week and I had to make time. :)

This is what Will wore to help daddy with the yard work. Sadly, daddy was wearing something very similar. Hahaha!



Interior Paint...Check!

Gray is the new turquiose. I read that on Cote de Texas. In our previous house I made a terrible attempt at painting the master bathroom turquoise. It was horrible. But it was done so I didn't feel like having it repainted. Luke informed me after a visit to the house, that it was the first thing the buyer changed. Can't say I blame her. But here is the bathroom painted at the new house. Picture doesn't do it justice but you get the idea. And if you don't...well, you'll just have to come over and see for yourself.

We used the same gray in the kitchen. There isn't alot of wall space, mostly cabinets. I think the white, gray and black counter tops compliment each other very well.

I am very happy with the PB Manchester Tan. It keeps the house bright while keeping a warm feel. I have no idea what curtains are going to go with the color...so be ready for a distressed post about curtains in the future.

MAIL CALL! Such a cool feature of the house. The seller let us know that a squirrel got through it once so we made some modifications that I hope will keep the rats with fur, because isn't that really what a squirrel is, out of the house.

House Update

As you know from a previous post, I absolutely hate picking paint. We meet Felipe at the house yesterday and thank goodness the Manchester Tan (primary interior color) is perfect. Will's room is being painted but there is no turning back at this point so fingers crossed. The laundry room/bathroom paint - FAIL! It wasn't gray at all! So I had to rush over to Ace Hardware and get 5 more samples. And we have a winner!!!

Coventry Gray was the perfect shade of gray to contrast with the white trim.

Granite was installed today but I didn't have my camera to take any good pictures. So I'll post this weekend.

Tonight, Luke spent a very exciting night polishing door knobs. I know, the Hammonds are such party animals!! These are the original door knobs. They look new after the polish.

We interrupt this blog to bring you the World Series!

Well, by now you know the outcome...but who cares! The Rangers made it to the World Series! That alone was enough for me but going to the game was pretty cool too!!

Luke and I - Lot 4, Cowboy Staduim. The walk wasn't bad at all. Neither was the traffic. Weird.

Tracie got us these shirts from these two kids in Denton. They were making tons of shirt. Paying for college no doubt until they got a phone call from Texas Rangers Legal Team. Bummer.

Jose and Shandra joined us for the game. So happy we could share the experience with them!

Laura and Jeff joined as well. Laura was originally scheduled to watch Will that night but since she is the best roommate in the world, I thought it would be the perfect THANK YOU! And I think she'd agree!

 Tracie and Jeff. Straight from a road trip from Midland.

I kept trying to get action shots but this was not one of them. Notice that no one in the background is cheering? Dead give away. But I still like the picture.

"That's the way baseball go"

Amazing experience!!!!

Halloween - minus the costume

Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Luke and I should have been more responsible with keeping track of Will's costume. There is no excuse at this point.

Here are the events leading up to lost costume.

1. Boo at the Zoo - hot that day. Will decided he didn't want to wear costume. Fair enough. But we bring it anyway just in case.
2. Panera - No real reason to wear costume while eating. No action taken.
3. Tracie's - Had time between eating and a birthday party. No action taken. Well...that I remember.
4. New house - Did Will even get out of the car?
5. Kate's party - open door to get costume, get Will out. WAIT! WHERE IS THE COSTUME?!?!? Only the head of "Dinosaur Rex" remained.

And that was it. I tried to convince Will to be a baseball player since he wears a batters helmet every chance he gets but he wouldn't budge. But he finally gave in on Halloween night. -Sigh-

The group picture. As you can see, there is no organization here. Oh well.



Fraken-Luke and Witchy Pooh



What? It's the best I could do!



We have a drive way people!

Ok, so probably not something most people get excited about...unless your driveway has been a big, long pile of dirt for the last 1-2 months. My neighbors might be more excited than I am since they had to look at that mess every day. Kudos to Luke and his crews for keeping the house as clean as possible. Kudos to our neighbors for putting up with us.

Reggie is the first car to park in the driveway - officially. The pea gravel is still pretty loose in this picture. Luke packed it down the next day.

Aaaaaahhhhhh....the driveway.

I hate picking paint

I have finalized the interior paint color for the house and I've been second guessing every since. Is it too brown, is it too dark, is it too light, am I going to hate it?

The colors below don't really even look like the samples we painted so I have no idea if I've made the right decisions or not. I guess if I hate them...then I'll be spending a weekend painting after we move in. :)

Primary Manchester Tan

Bathroom/Laundry/Kitchen Cedar Key

Will's Room Wheeling Nuetral 

More and more progress!

Seems like things are moving pretty quick now. Or maybe its just that its starting to look like a real house again. Either way, I'm a happy girl (most of the time).

Here are a few pictures of the progress that occurred last week and over the weekend.

This is the downstairs bathroom. The shower tile is complete with white subway tile and the wainscoting has been installed. The paneling for the wainscoting was originally used in the laundry room for the walls and ceiling.

Here is the built in cabinet in the master bathroom. The green doors were originally part of a beautiful built in cabinet that I really wanted to keep but didn't work out. I'm so thrilled we were able to save the doors. The other set of doors were saved too. Just not sure where I will use them yet. Eventually, they will be painted white. Keeping the glass knobs but unsure of the hardware for the drawers. More to come on that.



Awww...my shower. So pretty and bright!

Laundry room cabinets. You will notice the framed in counter top. That is where the granite will go and the washer/dryer will go underneath that.

When we first started the house, the garage was questionable. Do we tear it down or repair? Luke had the genius idea to reframe it from the inside out. And now it looks like a brand new garage. Well, I guess it is really. Also, the drive was poured last week. I really didn't understand it when I saw it. The cement is there so that no matter what side of the car you get out on you will be on cement. The middle will be filled with crushed granite so the ground will obsord water when it rains. Good idea!

We took the opportunity to make things permenant.

Luke trimmed all the windows in the house then had someone come in and finish them off with finishing trim. He did an amazing job. He's very talented.

Next on the list, paint. Ugh, paint! I picked out 3 samples this week and they look identical. This is not going to be fun. Wish me luck!

And 24 hours later...

Our beautiful pedistal tub. Luke has been working on a house and that is where he found this tub. It was going to be thrown out so he kept it and had it refinished. Much better for the budget than buying the new tub we wanted. How lucky did we get?!?!?!

The gorgeous French doors that go into the dining room from the living room. This picture is taken from the back of the dining room looking to the living room.

Kitchen cabinets: This is the wall that we added the 3 windows on. The sink will sit in the center of the middle window with the dishwasher on the right and a drawer that will hide the trash can (thank goodness!). All upper cabinets on this side will have glass doors.

This side of the kitchen will have the refridgerator, drop-in stove/oven with microwave/vent above it, and pantry.

And the laundry room cabinets. The washer and dryer will slide in under a countertop.

Here is a cabinet in our master bath. The doors will be a set of original glass doors that were in a built in downstairs that I wasn't able to keep.

The vanity. It will be interesting to share counter space with Luke since I'm a counter top hog.

What's the latest?

It's been awhile but trust me things are happening. Mostly things like plumbing, wiring and stuff like that. Yeah, I know...BORING! All good though. BUT now the fun starts! Here are the latest pictures from the house as of today. I wanted to be sure and capture them today b/c next week things will look completely different and I'll have a whole other set of pictures to blab about.

Let's start with Luke. He is doing an incredible job. He's doing alot of work himself and spending hours and hours over at the house. He pulled all the base boards off and used some tool called a planer to shave a layer of the wood off. Sanded them and now they look new. You may ask...why not just buy new base boards. I'm glad you asked. The base boards are made out of long leaf pine. The tree is basically extinct and is no longer available for use on stuff like base boards. Ok, so this is what I was told and I believe it. I love the idea that we are keeping the original base boards.

Here is the living room. The floors were scraped throughout the house today. Luke did all the window trim himself last weekend.

Will checking the mail in the old mail shoot.

The dining room has two doors (the originals) leading in. There is a passage way into the kitchen as well as to hall the leads to the back bedrooms.

There is a pass thru from the kitchen to the back bedrooms. This was already in place however I think we moved it a little b/c of the stair placement. I finally got my tornado closet under the stairs.

  

The kitchen has so much more light since we added the three windows. The upper cabinets on this side of the wall will have glass doors to open it up even more. Guess I need all new dishes...right?

There used to be a linen cabinet where the stairs start.

The floors in the bathrooms are finished. We did the hex-dot pattern. There is a plastic layer over it in this picture to protect it.

The upstairs bedroom. It's longer than our current bedroom and 2 inches skinner. Does that make sense?

The walls are textured in a light "skip trow". I didn't know what that meant. But I do now and I love love love it!

Oh the garage. The garage! This has been a huge eye soar for us and no doubt our neighbors. The driveway had to be dug out last week to add a new water line to support the plumbing on the upstairs bathroom (yeah, that sounds right). I was thrilled today to see Luke parked in the driveway but still just dirt. The garage project started today. It was in such bad shape but Luke had the idea to lift it from the inside out and reframe. I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff but I'll just be so happy when its looks like a real garage again.

And there ya have it. That's the latest in the Hammy Fammy Adventure that is our new house.