Living in a construction zone - Part II

Here is a little background on our refurbishing: Eric (Rod's oldest son) and his wife, Em, had come for a visit in March. While they were here, Eric said they wanted to do something for us and he said they would come and lay some new tile floors for us. We had wanted to do this, but it is quite cost prohibitive to remove the old floor and have someone lay new tile. Because they were willing to do this, we decided to go for it! We set the date for the last week of June. Eric measured the rooms and let us know how much tile we would need to buy. We got more and more excited about the project and decided to paint several rooms, carpet the living room, and get new counters in the kitchen. Our counters were awful!! We have been in this house for 5 years and never done anything like this, so we were anxious to redecorate and make it ours. Now back to the project:

So .... we lived with concrete floors for two months, with tons of dust from the tile removal and painting. Nothing was where it should have been. During that time we did the painting, picked out new carpet and hired a cabinet maker to do our counter tops. At the end June, we had two wonderful visitors that came and went right to work! Eric and Em did not waste any time in starting in on getting things ready to lay the tile. The family room was so bare, and it would echo when we talked.

After all the thin set was chipped off the floor it had to be swept, vacuumed, mopped and then all of that done again so there wouldn't be any dust or sandy particles anywhere. Then they painted on the sealer. I was shocked that it was bright red!

This is what lies beneath...

Once the sealer was dry, they started in on laying the tile. Allen and Nick helped. They all worked so hard! They did a fantastic job! Here is what the entry way looked like right after the grout was done, before the tile was cleaned off and the mop boards replaced:

While the boys and Em were busy with the tile, Rod replaced some boards under the eve of the house in back. Actually it was sheet rock that should have been plywood. It was a mess! There had been some water damage, and when he pulled it down, there was a HUGE bird's nest. Those dang pigeons!

Rod did a really nice job on that little project. It turned out very nice.

Here is a close up of the carpet and tile:

This is a shot of the family room. Just look at that gorgeous floor - thanks Eric! I will never have to hide that with a rug like I did the one before! I also love the picture of the temple - thank you to my girls for the lovely gift!

Here is the living room right after the carpet was installed. They had to take off all the doors and we had to trim them to fit because the carpet was way more plush than the old one. It is way fun to walk barefoot in this thick, soft and amazing carpet!

Now all of the furniture is back where it belongs and there are actually some pictures back on the walls. I really hated to put nails into the beautiful paint job! Ha!

Truly - home, sweet home, my place of peace. I love to sit in here. It is so clean, and beautiful. I love the peach paint on the walls and how there is no clutter anywhere! Yes!

Here is the kitchen counter, and the new stainless sink. I love it!

I really wanted a sink that had one side bigger than the other so it would be easier to wash the big pots and pans. And did I mention that I love a stainless steel sink?

I am so pleased at how the tile matches the counters, the wood and the walls! And it is so wonderful to not have that nasty white tile anymore! We can never thank Eric and Em enough! And Allen and Nick, too! We always think of you when we comment on how nice our home now looks. You have totally blessed our family!

Be it ever so humble....

Truly my cup runneth o'er.