Moving...

Alright, folks. The next 2 days are moving days. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse in the last 24 hours, but we are moving nevertheless :). The cable guy comes Monday evening so hopefully we'll be back then. Pray people, PRAY!

Days 12 & 13

This post has a lot of different subjects, so bear with me as I jump around.

First of all we took Sunday off for the most part since it was Father's Day.

Yesterday I worked at the house for a few hours painting the master bedroom and doing kitchen cabinet touch-ups. We went to dinner at Ray's the Steaks (yummy!) because it was Joe's birthday!

We had great steaks and Grayson enjoyed his fingers.

After dinner we made one of our many trips to Home Depot to buy more paint, light fixtures (I'm telling you, EVERYTHING has to be replaced in this house) and order appliances. I was hot, I still had a dress on from dinner, and the guy doing the order didn't really know how to use the computer. And it took a long time. AND, worst of all, because we are such geniuses and waited until the last minute, the appliances won't be delivered until a week after we move in. Way to go Team Dickerson.

I don't think I've mentioned that Donnette, Joe's mom, has been here since Friday watching Grayson while we work. What a luxury! But somehow, I didn't snap one picture of Grayson and Donnette the entire time. They did some great bonding though and now a tired Ami D is off to the airport.

I do feel like I need to apologize to the public of Reston, VA for all the places I have been in dirty paint clothes. It is of course kosher to do this in Home Depot, but I have extended the list to include Target, Potbelly, Santini's, bakery, etc. I want you to know that the paint on me is dry already and I know how ridiculous I look. The shorts are so bad that they look two-toned on purpose. Solid paint. In fact, I don't really remember how long it has been since I got up in the morning and put on normal clothing.

However, in Target today I saw something I never thought I'd see:

Leather (faux-leather) MATERNITY pants. Really, Liz Lange? Leather pants shouldn't be worn period. However, ultra-skinny people MIGHT get away with it on a motorcycle or if they play in a heavy metal band. But a PREGNANT woman? I don't think I even need to explain why this is wrong on SO many levels.

Tonight, Joe and our good friend Jason (from Joe's work) are working on the house together. Jason is like the handiest man of all time and has basically redone his whole house by himself. His wife Megan and little baby girl are home in Ohio for the week, so we are thrilled to have his help! Plus, since he lives an hour away from work he's going to stay with us! yea!

Hope you're having a good week!

Days 9,10,11

Sorry for the delay the past few days. The work schedule is starting to wear on us, but hopefully this time next week we will be in the house! AND tonight I am showing you the kitchen cabinets.

We have:

finished hanging all the cabinets
drilled new holes and installed new hardware on cabinets and drawers
finished ALL the painting downstairs (kitchen, trim, chair rail)
began switching out electrical outlets (plates and sockets)
began laying hardwood floors
painted master bedroom walls (Kyle)

Total time spent: who knows?

Joe doing the electrical work. I was banned from this jurisdiction after I shocked myself the second time. There were serious sparks people. (And I was only unscrewing the plate!)

Before: previous owner painted over wall plates and sockets. AWESOME.

After. Joe is pretty amazing. And, even more amazing, those sockets are only $.22 a piece at Home Depot! Who knew? (Well, maybe Allen)

Kyle painted over the pink in the master bedroom today! A beautiful thing.

TA DA!

Up close so you can see the "distressed" look

The beginning of the floor installation. Joe was doing a GREAT job. However, due to time constraints we will be paying to have most of it installed later in the week.

Finished chair rail

Tomorrow we are going appliance shopping- yea!

And a happy early first Father's Day to my sweet Joey!

Oh, and a HUGE, SUPER-DUPER thanks to Kyle for your hard work!!!!!

Too tired

....to post the last 2 days of work. Soon....

Day 8

Have I mentioned how excited I am about my kitchen cabinets????!!! I hung a couple of them tonight before I left just to see how they looked- woohoo!!

-2nd coat of paint on trim downstairs
-removed kitchen cabinets that will get in the way of new refrigerator
-final coat of poly on kitchen cabinets
-removed old oven and refrigerator
-patched wall behind refrigerator
-fitted shelf paper in kitchen

Time spent: 4 hours

(Pics aren't too exciting today)

Nasty wall behind fridge that is roughly the same age as me

Hopefully tomorrow will be the last day of painting downstairs. (please!!) We need to roll the kitchen one more time and one more coat on the chair rail in the den. Then we prep for floors!

Day 7

Oh my heavenly stars, I am so excited about my kitchen cabinets!! But no pictures yet- they have to be completely finished...maybe today!

- Painted stairwell
- Final coat of paint on cabinets
- "Distressed" kitchen cabinets and drawers and applied polyurethane to the front side
-Painted first coat of trim downstairs

Time spent:

Joe- 3.5 hours
Nick- 3 hours
Ash- 8 hours

Nancy kept Grayson during the day. She is John's mom and was also the room mom for my class this year.

Our patio furniture before....

Our new patio furniture from Chris and Noel! It is WONDERFUL. They got it at a garage sale this last weekend, but the more we think about it and look at it, the more we are suspicious of the price they told us they paid for it....so we may have to have a discussion about that...

Nick showed up and saved us HUNDREDS of dollars when he brought his "Little Giant" ladder and helped Joe paint the stairwell last night. We gave him Chick-Fil-A for dinner- not exactly an even trade. You're the BEST Nick!!!

And while the 3 of us worked, Maren kept Grayson at our house. She has a new camera and I hear they had a photo shoot, so hopefully we'll see those pics soon!

Day 6

Forgot to take pictures today...sorry, I know that's no fun!

-Taped off to paint trim
-2nd coat of paint on cabinets and doors
-"Distressed" kitchen drawers

Time Spent: 3 hours

Also, our friends Chris and Noel found some AWESOME Crate & Barrel patio furniture at a garage sale this weekend and gave it to us as a housewarming gift (and went through a big mess to get it to us). It is BEAUTIFUL and there will be pictures tomorrow!

(I am currently moving out of my classroom as well at the moment, so that takes extra time!)

Days 4&5

Whew! What a weekend. We are exhausted and unfortunately this is only the beginning.

Saturday:

2nd and final coat of living and dining room paint
Painted den
Sanded and primed kitchen cabinets and doors
Painted kitchen walls (1st coat)

Visitors: Hope, Billy, Susie, Grant, and JJ (Hope and Billy kept Grayson all day!)

Sunday:

2nd and final coat of den paint
Sanded and painted kitchen cabinets, doors and drawer fronts
Filled in awkwardly placed holes on cabinet doors

Total weekend time spent: 15 hours (is that all??!)

"Sagey" paint in the kitchen

Kitchen cabinet doors in the process of being painted "Oyster"

Hank has staked out a spot to lay in the backyard. I think the monkey grass is cool to the touch and all of it is now flat in that area.

Melissa kept Grayson all day Sunday- thank you!!!

To end the weekend, our friends Nick and Maren brought Chipotle for dinner! It was nice to have something so yummy to work towards all afternoon. Thanks Gazuli!

We also had a quick visit from our friend Carolyn, but we forgot to take a picture!

And now we are going to fall into bed....

Day 3

-Taped off and painted first coat of living room, dining room and entry way.
-Primed den

Time spent:
Ash- 7 hours
Joe- 2 hours (after work)
Victoria- 5 hours

Jonah (Victoria's son) and Grayson spent time together outside on the activity "gym"
Victoria painted 2 walls when Jonah and Grayson slept at the same time- Thank you!!
I took this shot with the white chair next to the wall so you can sort of see the new paint color

I'm taking the day off today. :)

Day 2

First of all, today our friend Noel called to tell us she was working from home and could keep Grayson all day. What a blessing! They both had a fun time- although I'm not sure how much work she got done. And it was a great surprise for Chris when she got home from work.

Today we:

-Painted the (peach) ceiling in the living and dining rooms (2 coats)
-Sanded the ridiculous texture in the den
-Removed hardware and cabinet doors in kitchen
-Began sanding the kitchen cabinet shelving

Time: 6 hours

Grayson with Noel (Thanks again, Chris and Noel!!)

Part of the hardware removed from the kitchen

Our visitor of the day, Victoria. She tried to tell Joe that she "had" to take me for a cup of coffee to talk about something really important (to get me out of the work), but he saw right through it!

Day 1

We've decided to do a quick post each day of work on the house-there is a lot to be done. We have our current rental until the 28th of this month so that hopefully we can get most of the work done before we move in with a 3-month old.

Yesterday, 2 hours after closing we started on the list.
- Removed all light and outlet plates and vents. This took a LONG time because they had all been painted over. Don't EVER do that to yourself.
- Patched walls and sanded down spots
- Removed the original baseboards (1971) on the entire first floor
-Did 2 coats of primer in the living room and dining room. 2 coats of primer, you say? Yes, when the walls are ORANGE.

Time spent: 6 hours

Once the white primer was on we we able to tell that alas, the ceiling was painted PEACH. Awesome.

Yesterday our friends Chris and Noel were our first visitors- I meant to take a picture of that but forgot. Grayson had a GREAT time with them!

We tried to keep Grayson out of the fumes as much as possible- on the patio he was able to play only about 5 feet away from us- sometimes less. The patio is shaded all day long- awesome!

This picture doesn't really show the true brightness of the orange paint color.

A Home for Team Dickerson

Today we bought a home!!! We have rented since moving up to the DC area 3 years ago because the housing prices were so overinflated that we knew the bubble would soon burst and then we would pick up the pieces. Mission accomplished!! We have waited and prayed and waited and prayed before finding the perfect place for us. The place we bought is in an area of townhouses that we lived in when we first moved up. We bought our place for roughly half of what they were selling it for 3 years ago. Thank you Lord, what a blessing!

The funny thing is that this place is not new, not cute on the outside, not a single family home with huge backyard...all things we had in our home we owned in South Carolina. And yet, I can safely say that we are 10x more excited about this purchase! Renting again and high house prices makes this time around so much sweeter.

This was our first home, for those of you who never saw it:



This is the townhouse we bought today:


It is located in Reston, VA within walking distance of the town center and the W&OD trail. The commute is great for Joe and it does have a small fenced-in backyard for Grayson and Hank.

We have a lot of work to do inside before we move in at the end of the month. Check back for before and after pictures.

Antiques

Jenny Meredith, this post is dedicated to you...

Oh my heavenly stars did I have a great day on Sunday! Mom and I packed up the babe and took a trip to Lucketts, VA, a small village about 30 minutes west of here. They pride themselves on their antiques out there- and they always have GREAT prices. I LOVE looking for antiques and vintage stuff in general, but I have never found the right things at the right time. Until Sunday!!!

My new pride and joys-

This is a dresser I will be using as a buffet in my dining room. My mom and I seriously expected the lady to quote me a price $300 above what she said- it took me less than a second to say, "sold!"

This dresser will go in our bedroom (try to imagine it without the pink decor in the store). We have 2 other pieces we have painted antique white and put glass knobs on in our room already. Notice the TILT mirror and extra deep drawers. I am considering letting Joe have the bottom drawer. What do you think? Don't you just LOVE that sold sticker?

Mom got some great old books and blue and white china to add to her everyday collection. And Grayson, well, he had a great nap in the Ergo carrier.

And now a sweet picture of my boy.


Hope everyone is having a great week!