Sunday, March 20, 2016

We Bought a House!!

Today is officially the first day of Spring!  Yeah!  The past few weeks have been warming up, and so have I!  I have gotten out my short sleeve shirts and shorts and still am rather warm most times.  Last time w/ Nyles I don't remember being this warm, probably because it was Summer time and it really was HOT outside!  This little guy is getting bigger and sure moves around a lot lately too!  The other day at work he did a full rollover on my whole stomach moved w/ him.  We had another Dr appointment this past Wednesday.  Today we are 28 weeks, which now the 3rd trimester.  Things went well w/ the appointment, just a little nausea and almost fainting while they drew my blood to test my glucose, then to give me the Rhogam shot.  I'll have to get another Rhogam shot after deliver again, just like we did w/ Nyles.  They do this just in case the baby is a positive blood type, since I am a negative type.  Nyles and Steve are both positive.  In some ways this pregnancy has gone by rather quickly.  I guess we've had a lot going on lately......listing and selling our condo, packing up, moving, and now we are officially home owners!

Monday, March 7th we signed the official papers and closed on our house!  It then officially became ours the next day and we started the demolition.  We first we worked on getting the carpet and pad out.  Dave and I also started taking some of the wallpaper down.   The couple we bought the house from had lived in the house almost 20 years.  They were the 2nd owners and mentioned they loved things the way they were, so they hadn't make any updates.  You could definitely tell unfortunately.  As we started taking the carpet out there was LOTS and LOTS of dirt underneath, gross!  The wallpaper in the kitchen had several layers of wallpaper on it as well.  This house is definitely in need of some TLC and updates, inside and out.  

The house



House demolition time.....Day 1.  Taking out carpet and starting to take the wallpaper down in kitchen.

Steve working on taking the carpet off the stairs and vacuuming up all the dirt underneath.
 

Old carpet still in fireplace room.  Rob taking carpet out of our guest room.  Notice the lovely pink and flowered wallpaper in this room?  Luckily this wallpaper came out a little easier than the kitchen or master bathroom.

Dave getting things ready to start taking the wallpaper down in the kitchen.

Oh the wallpaper and shelves in the kitchen.
Nyles taking some "selfies" while being watched by Grandma McGrath.


 Day 2- Carrie came over to help w/ Nyles while Steve and Zach continued to take out carpet the next day.

Zach taking the pad out of the master bedroom.

And now the fireplace room.

Zach getting the shelves out of the master closet in order to paint and get ready for carpet.

Finally, all the carpet is out of the house!  There was a lot of it needless to say, not to mention it was at least 20 years old!  We took down lots of random shelves too.

Nyles and Lynsie played w/ trucks and gathered rocks.  Then took a bath :)


When I got home from work Nyles had crashed on Grandma/Grandpa's bed (since he was having too much fun w/ Lynsie and didn't take a nap earlier).

After changing, we went down to check on the progress and help do the wallpaper some more.  
No more old carpet yeah!

Working on taking the shelves down and the wallpaper in the kitchen.


Day 3

The shelves are down in the kitchen.

Still working on the wallpaper.

The top layer of the wallpaper in guest bedroom is down.

Nyles room getting closer to being ready to paint.

The nursery room.

The master bedroom....lovely blue paint huh?

Day 4-starting to paint the ceilings and closets white.  Again the house hasn't been painted in 20 years easily, so everything ended up needing 2 coats of paint since the old stuff wasn't "white" anymore.

Dave helping Nyles do our paint samples, then starting the white in the closet in the nursery.  The paint colors we chose so far are Revere Pewter (Pauline has it in her house) and Edgecomb Grey, both by Benjamin Moore.  They are nice neutral colors.  We put the Revere in the bedrooms and Edgecomb in hallway and fireplace room so far.

Dave and Rob working on painting the closet white in Nyles room.

Dave and Steve assessing the fireplace room and where to start painting the ceiling.

Day 5-Saturday, March 12th, we had people over to help.  We thought we'd be painting the walls by now, but since the ceilings took 2 coats of paint and we needed to repair some of the walls, we ended up working on those things instead.  Pauline and Chris came to help that afternoon as well.  Charlotte watched Nyles and Ezra and played outside in the yard mostly while we worked on the rest of the wallpaper in the kitchen.  Their extra height really helped so I didn't have to use a ladder on the tall spots :)

We REALLY appreciated everyone who has come to help w/ the house so far.  The house definitely is a lot more square footage than our condo.  So as they say, "many hands might light work."  Thanks everyone, you've been a great blessing!

Nyles checking out his room w/ white ceilings.

Dave working on painting the ceilings w/ a spray machine.  It got a little messy ;)

Steve doing his favorite job of masking off tape in preparation of painting.

Dave Thomas getting ready to roll paint.

Rob working in the master bathroom.

Jeff working in the master bathroom, getting the worst wallpaper off!

Phill working on the wallpaper also.  He ended up being there all afternoon, bless his heart :)  
It was the most horrible, stubborn wallpaper out there, and wouldn't come off the wall at all! 

Getting the wallpaper down in the kitchen.

And over here too.

And over here....luckily Chris could reach much easier than I to get the last little bits.

The guest bedroom getting closer to painting the walls.  Ceilings are done, finally white!

Jeff working on the nasty wallpaper in the master bathroom.

Nursery ceiling done.

Charlotte pretending to be horse w/ Nyles riding her.  Ezra playing w/ his bucket in the dirt.

Steve, Chris and Pauline in the kitchen.

Rob and Jeff chatting about the progress.


This past week, our 2nd week of renovations, we've had a lot of wall prepping, and finally got to paint the walls.  We have all the bedroom but the guest bedroom done w/ the 2nd coat of paint.  This week we just need to make sure all the rooms are ready for carpet, which will be installed on Wednesday.  

Ironically Sandy City has an annual city clean up where they come pick up wastes from around the city, and ours will be this coming Tuesday.  We've piled up all the carpet, shelves, a toilet, and now some bushes from around the yard.  We took out the old oven as well, and someone already came and got it for scrap metal.  We also cleaned out the garage on Saturday.  Good timing and a few less trips to the dump for us!  

We are also going to work on getting our formal living room and dining room ready to paint, then we'll put the new hardwood floors in there.  We also need to paint the kitchen and entry way.  Then, not this week, we'll put new tile in the master bath and guest bathrooms upstairs.  Here are some pics from this week.

Wednesday we had some people over to help again.  You guys are great!  Thanks again!

Dave working on the ceiling in the master bedroom.

Nice paint on the ceiling.

Nyles checking out the paint job around the windows in the Master bedroom.

Phill after finishing the master bathroom and working on masking off areas.

Chris getting painters tape ready to put on the paper for the ceilings. 

Good work Chris!  He was able to reach the tall spots pretty easily as well ;)

And a couple days later.......new paint and no more blue!


Steve working on the fireplace room paint.

Joann, Nyles and I stopped by to check on the progress.  Nyles thinks the tools are fun to play w/ though.  There wasn't as much I nor Nyles could do this week since they were painting.


 All done now!  Looking good :)

Nyles eating a granola bar sitting on a our lawn chairs.  
Steve brought them over so we'd have something to sit on.
The hallway done being painted.

Our fridge arrived!  Nyles helping get cobwebs out of the window w/ a broom.
 

This last Tuesday, the 15th, was also Joann's birthday.  So Nyles and I made a cake and we all had ice cream.  Carrie and Lynsie stopped by as well, and Ryan too, just as we were about to sing to Joann.

Happy Birthday Joann! 

Nyles and Lynsie helping to blow the candles out!

Carrie took Nyles and Lynsie to the Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving Point on Thursday.  
They had a LOT of fun!
 

 And they had a picnic w/ Ryan and a little game of chase.

Unfortunately Nyles isn't feeling too well today.  He's had a fever since last night and a snotty nose.  Hopefully whatever he has will pass quickly.  We put Nyles down for a nap and went over to the Provo City Center Temple Dedication today around noon.  It was a really great session.  We are so blessed to have temples today and are blessed to have the covenants in our lives so we can return to live w/ our Heavenly Father. 

Well, we'll keep you posted on how things are going.  There is still a lot to do before moving in, but I guess we're getting closer.  One step at a time :)





Saturday, March 12, 2016

March Adventures

Spring is knocking at the door, but Steve has taken many opportunities to enjoy the last few "winter" activities that he could.  Here are a few of his fun adventures.

Tuesday, March 1st Steve went ice fishing w/ Zach at Jordanelle.  They had a good time and caught a lot of little perch.

Then that Friday Steve took Nyles, Dave Thomas and his son Calvin ice fishing again at Jordanelle.  They had a blast!  Nyles and Calvin entertained themselves the whole time, even w/out catching much fish. It was the first time Dave took Calvin ice fishing (he's 18 months old) and he loved it!  I'm sure they'll go back again next winter too.

Nyles and Calvin fishing.

Calvin and Dave.

Nyles pulling Calvin in the wagon.

Dave, Calvin and Nyles.

Steve enjoying the "winter" in short sleeves :)

Calvin and Nyles playing in ice puddles.

Calvin and Dave.
 

Nyles pulling over all the gear

Until next time....


Later that week on another bright sunny day, Steve decided to take the car to a carwash.  They missed a couple spots vacuuming at the carwash since we had some stuff in the way, so when they got home they finished it up.  Nyles also got to help Steve vacuum the Edge out.  He thought it was a lot of fun actually!


Nyles so focused on vacuuming the back.

And washing off the Thule. 

Driving in the car.  Nyles loving the Easter chicks. 

Dave and Joann noticed their toilet was leaking.  After taking it out though, they noticed the floor was wetter than expected and ended up taking out the whole floor and sink as well.

Nyles watching Grandpa McGrath and Steve tear out their bathroom.

The next day, Saturday March 5th Steve went w/ Zach, Rob and Evan Field to go Snow Goose hunting up around Corinne, Utah (where Evan's dad lives).  They didn't have much success, but still had a good time.  According to Steve another larger group of hunters were in the field next to them and they just couldn't compete.  Maybe next time....

 Steve, Rob, Zach, and Evan.

Rob, Evan, Jesse Zach's dog and Zach.

Jesse getting a few birds that fell on their field.


The few they "got" were actually shot by the other hunters and the geese landed in their field, so they had Jesse go get them :)

While they were out goose hunting, Nyles and I went to the park and played.

Sunday, March 6th we got together for our McGrath family dinner.  We also celebrated Easter, since it's at the end of the month.  Just as we were driving over to Melanie's place, it started to rain, then hail, and later turned into snow.  Due to the weather and since it got dark, we decided to move our Easter Egg Hunt inside.  The kids still had a great time finding the eggs though.

Nyles and Steve helped to decorate the cupcakes.

Nyles starting to find his eggs.  This year his eggs were orange and looked like carrots.  Each kid has their own color of egg that they are to find, that way every one gets equal amount of eggs :)





 Ohhh another one says Nyles!


I'll update you on the house next....