IttyBitty Blog

I’ve  had this “nest” done for quite a while now, but because of my other nesting instincts, I haven’t had time to do much blogging to share it with anyone! 

I have been a crazy, cleaning, organizing freak for the last few weeks.  I officially apologize to my family for my mood swings related to this nesting frenzy.  I can’t help myself. 

On the bright side, every drawer and cupboard in my house is spick and span and the house is very ready for a new baby. 

The kids are both very excited.  Tessa has even participated in the nesting rituals, placing all the new clothes in the drawers and organizing his closet.  She helped me with almost every part of his room. 

So, I guess we’re ready? 

I sure hope so…..

Thanks to the help of our family and friends we were BARELY able to pull off all of the projects that we needed to get done to put our house on the market.  We still have a few minor things to get done, but it is officially listed. 

Shout outs to:

Jason Dalton- for his AWESOME drywall skills to help us fix the hole in our ceiling and re-texture the entire upstairs.  He is truly gifted and amazing with the mud.  If you are in need of drywall anyone, he’s the one to get!  On top of the drywall, he also helped with some yard work as well.  Thanks Jason!

Jeremy Holmes- my handyman cousin for hanging several doors for us!  He really did a great job and we appreciate the terrific deal that he gave us.  If you’re in need of a handyman, he’s a great one!  Thanks for your help, Jeremy!

Katie and Trevor Bailey-  for helping us rake and a haul A LOT of crap out of our back and side yards.  We surely would not have finished it all on our own!  Thanks for taking time to come help us!

Kris & Bob Geier-  For helping us start our front rock project and for other yard work projects.  I know that we can always count on Kris to jump right in to help us, she’s never afraid to get her hands dirty.  They also bought us some awesome hanging baskets for the front yard.  Thanks!!

Anne Allred-  my good friend, for taking a few hours to help me weed our back planter and scrape the wall for painting.  Even though she was just getting over a terrible illness, she still came down to help me.  I really appreciate her willingness to help us out.

Even if we don’t sell it, the house is looking great!  We will definitely have to have a few pool parties this summer.

I have an obsession with Home Improvement/Real Estate Reality Shows.  I just can’t get enough of them.  I am automatically drawn to HGTV and it would be my dream job to be a part of one of those shows. 

I’ve recently been watching “Clean House”, a show where they find some disgusting pigs and then make them throw out their stuff and makeover their house.  I am ashamed to admit that I wake up at 2 am and watch this show when I can’t sleep.  It’s mostly embarrassing because I don’t even like the show, but still can’t look away from it.  I don’t think it’s fair that people get rewarded with home makeovers when they live like pigs.  And, they are usually not even grateful to boot! 

During the last month, Joey and I have been working our fingers to the bone trying to get our house ready for the market.  Our deadline is next Friday…June 6th.  It is now that I’m grateful that I also watched all those staging shows. 

If anyone is looking for a service project, show up to our house this Saturday morning.  We need some help with raking and cleaning up parts of our yard and some painting projects inside too.   Bring some work gloves and a rake if you have them.  We will BBQ afterwards and will be forever in your debt.  I am good for painting (as long as it’s in color) and tiling.

Well, my bathroom is finished, all but the door…just a minor detail.  I have been enjoying my jetted tub, but Joey refused to take my picture, even with bubbles strategically placed.  So, I decided to take my own photo. 

I finally finished the photo display, the idea that I stole from my sister.  Joey still disapproves of this, but admitted that it looked FABULOUS.  Okay, he didn’t use the word fabulous.  Here are the final results of our 7 months of hard labor:

We have finished our bathroom (all except for a door!)  and have been enjoying our new jetted tub ever so much.  At first, the kids were scared to turn on the jets, but have since calmed their fears. 

My sister has a cute wall display in her bathroom that includes three close-ups of her kids in the bathtub, printed in black and white.  I liked it so much that I decided to copy her.  Joey is very much against this because he would like to put something more original on the wall and calls me a copy cat.  Well, forget him…I’m doing it anyway!

Joey and I spent the better half of two days tiling our tub surround.  I think that if our marriage survives this remodeling project, it will survive anything.  We were driving each other crazy the entire time. I spread the thinset and laid the tiles, while Joey measured and cut the tiles.  We make a pretty good team when we’re not yelling at each other.

Things would have been much easier if our house was not so crooked.  I don’t think that any of our walls are straight or level, which made laying the tile a huge pain in the neck.  We still have a few stray tiles to get done and the ceiling still to go.  We had to put an end to it because the water in the tile saw kept freezing.

We’ve also had a problem getting the cabinet company to come back to finish installing the cabinets.  The guy came to start and never has come back.  He makes appointments and then never shows up.  I’m getting very frustrated with them.

One day, this will all be over and I will look back and laugh….I hope.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love to paint colors on my walls.  A few years ago, I painted my Grandma Butcher’s kitchen and she made me paint it WHITE!  It wasn’t any fun at all.  It physically pained me to do it.  I told her that’s how she knows that I really love her.  I won’t paint white walls for just anyone. 

We are getting very close to finishing this damn bathroom.  (pardon my french)  The walls are done (and pretty smooth, I must say) and I finished up the painting last night.  The walls are a pretty blue-green called “tide pools”.  It matches the color of the accent tiles very nicely.  Tessa calls it “pretty green”. 

Our final list of things to do before we are finished with this project:  put up the bead board and trim, tile the tub surround, put up the light fixture, and put up the mirror.  Oh, I feel my long bath in my jetted tub now.

My brother-in-law, Jason, came over to help us finish the sheet rock in our bathroom.  I never realized how much work a little sheet rock would be.  Although Jason says that my skills are pretty good, I don’t think that I’ll be quitting my day job any time soon. 

At any rate, I am VERY thankful to Jason for helping us out.  He’s driven to our house about four times to help/teach us how to do it.  One day, he even took my kids home with him!!  Jason is my new hero.  He IS a sheet rock nazi, though.

We have had our bathroom “under construction” for going on five months.  We gutted it during the summer and then realized that we didn’t have the money to fix it.  I spent months looking for a jetted tub on KSL.com.  It was very difficult to find one that was close by, the right color, and the right size.  I finally found one in North Salt Lake for $300. 

My sainted brother-in-law, Trevor, came over to help us install it.  Thanks to Trev, we didn’t have to hire a plumber!  We are so excited to finally get this bathroom done!  Now….here comes the tile.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep you all posted.