Getting Close! Updates As We Count Down...

I have officially been out of school for one week, and I have spent almost every minute of that time working on the house! I was hoping to have a break from working, but Matt had the week off and we decided to get some more stuff done!

We have officially moved the washer and dryer upstairs to the mudroom. We didn't realize how small they were, so we are planning on buying a shelf to put between the washer and dryer to hold dirty socks and wash rags and stuff. We still have to buy a gas hose for the dryer. It boggles my mind how you pay extra for a gas dryer and it doesn't even come with a freaking hose! Duh!

The last two weeks of my life have been devoted to tile. Ah. I walked into the bathroom at the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday night and the first thing I noticed was the grout on the tile floor. Kill me! I have been staring at tile and grout for too long! Thank heavens it is finally done. You really have no idea how much work tile is until you do it yourself. It isn't just putting the tile on. We first had to paint a layer of Aqua-guard on the walls. Then we had to lay out the plan for the tile. If you just go for it, stuff doesn't lay as nicely, and you have to make tricky cuts. Then you have to put mortar on the wall and on the tile, cutting the pieces as you go, using spacers to make sure they are the right distance apart. You also need to check that they are all laying flat, you don't want any sticking out farther than others. And on the walls, the tile really moves all over the place. Matt had a way hard time with the diagonal tiles. Then the tile had to set up before we could clean it. After cleaning, we (I) grouted all the tile. Then I cleaned again and re-grouted any spots that weren't done well enough. Then we had to clean again before we (I) could seal the grout. Then we cleaned again! I told Matt that I am not going to clean any tile for at least a month...

All in all, it was worth it! It looks so beautiful and is exactly what we wanted! I am so proud of all of Matt's hard work and great ideas. The designs are all his!

Guest bathroom...

Master bath... There are a ton of different views because it is hard to really see how awesome it looks in pictures...

The outside of the house has drastically changed in the past week! We got the painter over to paint the siding! I love the color! The paint makes a huge difference! It really is feeling more finished now that it is painted.

We also had the excavator over to help us build our rock retaining wall and move some dirt around for us. We need the retaining wall up against the porch so that we don't need a railing. Code says the ground must be no more than 30 inches below the porch so you don't need a railing. I don't want to close off the big porch!

We had to build up the dirt on the back of the house to prevent flooding in the spring. This is just the beginning of leveling off the lot, and definitely the beginning of landscaping.

We only used about half of the dirt we have, so we still have some left for leveling the lot.

Finally the interior of the garage is painted! Matt has already put in all the finish electrical in here, so we have all our outlets and lights in! We are all ready for a garage door now!