The Project - Week 8: Whee....Are We Having Fun Yet?!

We met one of our neighbors this week. He knew the folks who used to live in the house, and they moved over two years ago! We knew the house had been vacant for a while, but even our Realtor didn't realize it had been that long. I invited him in to see what we had accomplished. When I looked at our home that we have been working on for 8 weeks with a "newcomer's" eye, I realized how unfinished it all looks. Oh, how sad!

 This week:

• The walls and ceilings were textured by the drywall company.
  
• We painted the ceiling (two coats) and the walls in the great room, kitchen, laundry room and eating nook.
  
• We touched-up spots where we chose not to repaint the entire wall. We took a piece of the existing sheet rock to a paint store. Chuck tried three times to match the paint. He did such a fabulous job that we don't have to paint the two-story entry. We were able to touch up spots and they blend in...even we don't know where they are! 
• We bought five trees to replace some of the 25 or more dead trees on the property. A local nursery has a field of trees on land that they can no longer lease. They opened the field to customers who could tag trees that are 2-3" in caliper. The trees will be dug, caged and burlapped at the end of March or the beginning of April.
  
• I learned to 'scaffold scoot' - I found I am very adept at moving the scaffold while on top of it. I can even go around corners! I'm sure this activity is not endorsed by the scaffold manufacturer!
• My hubby worked on prepping the floors for installing the wood. He had to clean up splots of sheet rock mud and sand high spots where staples had pulled up the sub floor when the original flooring was pulled up.
• We began to put down sub flooring under the soon-to-be delivered kitchen cabinets. No sense putting pricey wood floor down when sub floor will do.
• We walked around the yard and discovered that we have some perennials that have survived years of neglect! We have some tulips and hyacinths peeking above the ground and some patches of iris are turning green.
• Our master bath tile was finally purchased and is now stacked in neat piles in the garage. A conversation with the salesman as he helped us load tile sums up how difficult it has been to settle on a tile, plan a pattern and purchase it: "How long have you been here?" he asked. I responded, "Which visit?" We looked at tile at 6 different stores and went back for multiple visits before we finally made a decision. I think there are just too many choices out there!