After having nothing, except back pain, a drywall finisher (I guess that’s his job title) showed up at 7:30 this morning and got to work. He got done in time that I was able to scoot the kids out the door and get some much needed errands run (a MOPS thing on Friday and our last MOPS meeting on Monday are warranting a lot of my time and errand running).

The window guy came today and we put a deposit down and he measured the windows. We should get those in about 4 weeks (right when we’re on vacation). They also dropped off a dumpster/wagon to tow away debris.

My house is a wreck!!!! I’m to the point of wanting everything cleaned up but I’m trying to be patient and know that it’s just around the corner! We should be on for painting this weekend and the tile guy is coming tomorrow to do the shower area and the boys’ bathroom floor. Mark talked with Mr. Bill and they seem to think that we’ll have more than enough tile to do the bathroom, with plenty to return! YIPPEEEEE!

I’ll get pictures tonight and try to post them tomorrow.

My best friend is taking the kids in the morning so they won’t have to be trapped in the playroom all morning again. Hopefully, Friday, it’ll be warm enough I can throw them in the pool for the first time.

Going off now to rest my back!

Nothing! Not sure what happened.

However, that may have been a good thing. While walking from the bathroom to the kitchen to start supper while the kids were asleep, my back went out…literally. I was hurting so bad, I found myself lying on the kitchen floor. Luckily, Zoe wasn’t asleep and I was able to get her to find the phone so I could call Mark. I eventually (after much grunting and crying) made it to the couch and stayed there till Mark got home. After laying on my side for about three or four hours, I was able to sit up and then eventually get up without much pain. I had a little bit of pain throughout the night, but woke up feeling okay.

I’ve been extra cautious today (Wednesday). I think a lot of the pain is from sitting on the floor and getting up so much with Liam as well as picking him up. I’ve noticed it feels a little strained when I pick him up today. I also could tell it started hurting when I was leaning over the sink doing dishes (yippee! no more dishwashing 🙂

Today the drywall finishers came and taped and mudded. The a/c and heat guy came and hooked everything up and that’s all…that was enough for me. I had the kids down in the playroom watching a movie on Mark’s computer. Our attic access is in the playroom, so I spent a good 45 minutes trying to distract Liam from climbing up the attic stairs while the a/c guy was here. Phew! I’m tired.

Our schedule for the rest of the week includes drywall finishers for two more days and then one day of sanding and the tile guy coming Thursday or Friday to tile.

Mark is hoping to get the primer up on Thursday night and then finish painting on Saturday.

We have some great friends who happen to be opening up a garage after a year as a playroom and they have said we could have their carpet that was in there. So, Mark is going to arrange a time to pull up carpet and put it back down this weekend, I believe.

Pictures to come later in the week.

Yesterday, we were still on the search for the perfect tile…I found several at Lowe’s and Mark and I picked through them and choose the one that would work best…the cost $1.68 a square foot!!! Yippee! Good price. We also picked out a floor tile that we thought would work good too. It’s a stone looking vinyl and should work great. Mark is all for vinyl…it won’t be cold, if we get tired of it it’s easy to replace and cheap!

We didn’t get the insulation today. Apparently, the drywall guys are extremely busy but are working us in Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. The insulation guys are coming tomorrow morning first thing. I would really like to start painting and getting the floor laid this weekend so that we can get the rest of the stuff finished up next week…wishful thinking, I know.

I’m ready to get my house back in order and to have doors and a wall on both the hall bathrooms. I worry that Liam will try and take a dive down the toilet. He loves water.

To curb my frustration, I cleaned out Josiah’s crib and got all of that organized…I feel a little bit better!

Gotta run get snack for my sweet ones.

Well, Saturday we all headed out to pick out tile for the bathroom and something to match the existing bathroom…it was expensive!!! We got back to the house, and lo and behold, the siding guys were there finishing up! They, of course, worked on Friday but only for an hour…took an hour and half break…and then worked until two again (putting in about 4 hours)…not sure what was going on. Mark went out to check on the progress. They had just finished and were “cleaning up.” However, when I went out there later to see how it looked, there were boards scattered all over the yard and they all had nails in them. Not very good for my little daring toddler named Liam!

Shortly after the siding guys left, Mr. Bill showed up unexpectedly. I told him the siding guys left and he smiled really big. I’m guessing he called them and discussed the fact that a 10X15 addition shouldn’t take 3 days to complete. So, we discussed our tile choice and he informed us that “just the tile” would cost over $200! Eek! I fretted all weekend about how to cut costs and Mark and I both came up with the idea that to keep labor costs down, we could tile the shower and floor our selves. We just had to check with Bill. I also told him I would head to another hardware store to look for tile to match the boys bathroom. We only needed 12 tiles.

Yesterday, I headed over to the hardware store and looked for tile. I knew that it had been purchased at this store because we were told that pretty much everything in the house that had been renovated from the previous owners was purchased there. Lo, and behold, I found it!! And there were 15 tiles in a box (giving them three to mess up on when they install it). I also found some waaaay cheaper tiles for the shower and started looking at vinyl for the floor. I picked up some pieces and got those for Mark to look at. Mark talked with Bill and they decided that we could do the insulation installation and tiling and that would save a lot of money. He was in agreement with us finding cheaper tiles, too! Hopefully, though, he can get the contractors discount at the hardware stores. He told us he would supply us with the tools and supplies, we would just supply the labor.

So, it looks like we are going to be installing insulation tonight if it gets delivered today.

Oh yeah, Saturday afternoon while the kids were sleeping we started the painting process. We got the hallway through one side of the kitchen wall completed, along with the trim for that. I would show a picture but it’s the exact same color it was…or very, very close…maybe a little more lighter. But the trim and molding look soooo much better. We’ve needed to paint that area for such a long time…finally started! We were going to try and finish that this week after the kids were in bed, but since we’ll be doing the insulation, that takes top priority. We only have a little bit of the painting left in the kitchen.

We also went to Michael’s and got Mark’s Denny Chimes print ordered for framing. I’m super excited about that. I started work on the boys shower curtain this weekend too. It’s a plain white shower curtain, and I’m adding a red and white gingham ribbon to it to help with the Alabama theme. I think it’ll look good in the boys room. Unfortunately, their room will be the last to be finished since, painting it will be on the bottom of the list (along with our bedroom). We’ll have to paint the addition after the drywall is up to make room for the vanity, toilet, etc.

Wish us luck as we’ve never tiled before!!