Yikes!

Just got back from vacation a few days ago.
Will be posting pictures soon.

Just wanted everyone to know that we
are alive and well...and loving this rain!

I don't have our pictures uploaded
on the computer yet, or else I'd put
up a little appetizer. So, for now,
I guess you'll just have to be happy
with this:

:)

Progress...

Slowly but surely, we are making progress!
Here's just a quick glimpse of what we've been up
to these past few weeks:

My sweet parents, Jeff and Sandy, came
and helped us paint our living room and
master bedroom about two weeks ago.
We're still slowly getting to finish the
trim, 1/2 bath(which is the top picture
of John painting), and the laundry room.

And finally, I wanted to say congratulations to our good
friends Mark and Kara Stevens who got married
this weekend. Such an encouraging wedding...so
Christ-centered and just an overall joyous time as they
became one flesh and displayed such an awesome
picture of Christ and his bride, the church.

More to come on the house progress later...

Note From John

What up peeps! First off I am super pumped for two reasons: 1) Our blog now contains some do-it-yourself insight that will hopefully pay off to YOU (our readers); 2) Sharing our insights will encourage me (with Aya's permission) to tackle some big home renovations!

Alright, enough talk. Here is what I learned from ripping up the carpet:

Tools - safety glasses, dust mask, box cutter or sharp knife, a claw hammer, and a ripping hammer or pry bar, and a broom.

We already had safety glasses, dust mask, box cutter, and ripping hammer so that is what I used. I suggest that if you were going to have to buy some of these items you should buy a pry bar instead of a ripping hammer because a 15" pry bar is all you need and it is very useful and under 10 bucks (just search Lowe's website for "pry bar").

When removing carpet, start by making a little incision about 4 feet away from one corner. Then use your muscles to pull-up and cut more of the carpet until you have approximately a 4' x 4' section. Don't do what I did and remove the whole carpet at once. Getting it out the door is very hard and you track dirt everywhere (your woman doesn't like a dirty house). The matting may come up with the carpet but don't be alarmed; it is no big deal. Just work small and pile the sections up so you can take them out piece by piece with little to no mess.

There will be a lot of dust (or at least there was in our room) just sweep it up. Now for the last step...


Above are two different types of hammers. The left is the claw hammer and the right is the ripping hammer. You need two hammers because ripping up the tac strip is easy with TWO hammers but a pain with just one. Companies charge about 1 buck per linear foot to remove this but you can do it in 30 minutes or less. The key is to work slow and pry up a little at a time so that when you remove the tac strip it isn't bits and pieces but sections (less clean up).



Just copy this picture anywhere along the tac strip and slowly hit your hammer or pry bar until you get under the strip and then pry.

That's all folks! Sorry my writing isn't as sweet or flowy like Aya's but I just give it to ya straight.

Hasta la vista, baby!

For the most part, it's always a joy when I come home and John(who gets home an hour before I do) has done something exciting with the house. One day, it's replacing the toilet seats, the next, it's ripping up the carpet in the master bedroom. For those of you who have wanted to do this before, here are a few pics to help inspire you:

Make sure you use the right tools. Our carpet was the original from when the house was built(about 11 years old), therefore it was (and still is) quite dusty and dirty. These three guys are essential.

Ripping up the carpet is the easy part(especially if you're a muscle man like mine is)

Little tip: make sure that you know where the local dump is, or whether your regular trash guys will pick it up or not. Thankfully, getting rid of ours was easy, but we didn't think about that ahead of time, and it did have to sit in our garage for a day or so(not a pleasant smell).
This is the hard part, which I will have to get John to share more tips with you since I wasn't there for it. Isn't he amazing? This is no small room we're talking about. And, If you have back problems, I don't think I'd recommend this for you to try.

And this is our new carpet & smell-free room. See all the grey? Yea, that's leftover dirt. Super gross. We highly recommend a shop vac. Ours is a 9-gallon Ridgid, which you can find locally at Home Depot(or Craigslist, as we did) . Those things are amazing!

Now, here's the thing. After ripping out that carpet, and realizing what a big mess it makes, how you are the one who has to haul it away(unless you have teenagers or someone who owes you a favor), and how you can't really live in the room unless you replace it, we know that we've got to have a better plan for ripping up the rest of the carpet AND living here at the same time.

Thankfully, due to the smell of that room(tip: don't smoke, especially not inside your bedroom), we are already bunking in what will one day be the office, so this really isn't a problem for us right now. However, if you're thinking about doing this, make sure that you have your plan B ready to go in case you're not able to put carpet down right away.

Due to the bad shape of the carpet throughout our whole house, we are planning on ripping it all up(yikes!) after we finish painting all of the carpeted rooms/hallways. So, it's going to be a while. But, our goal is to let Lowe's install it for us when the time comes. They seem to be offering a great deal right now to install carpet in all of your house for only $97 buckeroos. Sweet! Now, obviously there are a few things to note here: 1)You have to buy both the carpet AND the padding from Lowe's 2) You have to have EVERYTHING moved out of the room, including all of the carpet, ahead of time. They'll charge extra if they have to do anything except install. 3) Beware if you have stairs. They charge extra for that, too. 4) ...not sure yet. I'll get back to you once we do some more investigating.

So, that's the latest for now.

Adios!

Backstreet's Back...alright!

Just got back home from a fun weekend in N. Wilkesboro with John's family. We forgot our camera, but still had a great time. Laura and I got roasted by their little brother Daniel and Gran in Trouble, a game which all of my life I have gotten flattened by my own grandmother and little sister. Even now that I'm older, nothing has changed. The entertainer of the weekend was definitely cute little Camille, who is definitely one of the cutest and most well-behaved babies in the world. No one could get enough of her, especially in her little swim suit. So cute!

And tonight...all you ladies who grew up in the late 90's/early 2000's are going to be sooo jealous:
Natalie and I are going to see the Backstreet Boys!
Yes, they are still a band. All 4 guys who make up the band are original members. And we were thrilled when our radio station announced that they were bringing their tour here(who knew!). They are coming to the brand new Raleigh amphitheater tonight at 7pm, and we are so psyched! Don't worry, we got permission from our sweet husbands who I think are just thankful that we didn't ask them to come with us :)

I am definitely planning on bringing my camera for this once in a lifetime event. T-minus 4 hours...

Oh, and John "on the ball" McNeill ripped out the nasty, musty smelling carpet on Thursday afternoon. He's so great at jumping on the "to-do" list and getting it done pronto. I'll be sharing some pictures and some of his tips in case you may be planning to rip up your own old carpet anytime soon.

Later taters!

And so it begins...

So, we're in the house and things are going well. We still have all the colors of the rainbow going on in each room, but we're slowly getting around to changing everything to be the way we want it. It's going to take time and a lot of patience and elbow grease, but overall the chaos has lessened a small degree, which is enough to help our sanity.

Room numero uno:
The Bonus room

This "lovely", bright, overwhelming orange has
seen its last day. We're just about ready to
starting priming this giant citrus fruit, which
we decided to start in first to work out the
kinks in our painting skills. As you can see,
we're just about ready to go!

This baseboard pic is just an example of the current
horrible paint job that is displayed over our house. More pictures will come as the room continues its
slow makeover. Who knew how tiring even thinking
about painting a whole house can be. But, I have
been encouraged and inspired by Sherry and John
and all of their great tips and designs. The "how-to"
section has already come in handy, and we've only
been here a little over a week. :)

A big thanks to our friends Mowgli and Becky, and my brother Jeremy
for coming to visit and help out this weekend. John and Mowgli,
among many other things, added a light for my sake
inside the garage so I didn't get creeped out or stumble over our
many boxes which are currently lying in the floor.

Finally, my favorite upgrade/new addition to our
house: a toilet seat! I know it may not seem like
that big of deal to you, however if you could feel
these nasty things, you would certainly be grossed
out by the roughness and certain exfoliation it
brings. 1 down, 2 to go! We're testing this one
out before we buy the rest of them, but so far
so good: only $13 and some change at Home Depot.

This is actually the current seat in the upstairs
bathroom. The guys tossed the other old nasty one
out the door before I had a chance to get a "before" pic.
And this is the new seat! It's so clean and bright
and isn't looking like a camouflage failure with the floor.
And that's just one little way we're sprucing up the place!

Until later... :)

New Garner Residents

Today, John and I bought are first house:

We signed all the papers and got the keys today!
And, we start the moving in process tomorrow,
which we're not too thrilled about moving all
of those boxes again! Oh well

My sweet parents and sister Meredith are
coming up tomorrow to help us clean before we
start moving stuff in on Saturday. My family is
so sweet to do this for us, especially since we'll
both be at work for most of the day. More
pictures to come, and of our 1 year anniversary
excursion, but I discovered the other day that the
camera cord is packed away so it'll have to wait.

This house is such a gift from the Lord. We're so excited!


(This picture might be a little fuzzy, but I'm not sure why)