Monday, January 30, 2012

Last Fling!!

This past weekend, Ben and I both had our bachelor/bachlorette parties. Ben and his friend did their shananigans on Friday night and then a few of them went to the shooting range on Saturday morning. My bridesmaids arrived from LA, TX, and NC on Friday. On Saturday, they scheduled a fun day of brunch, "Sips n Strokes", and them all of my Atlanta friends joined us that night for a lingerie shower and karaoke! It was so much fun having girl time!

Ben and I met up at our new house on Sunday morning. To our surprise, the painter was there finishing priming. Everything was looking great until we got to our bedroom. Let's just say we had a blue room instead of a slate gray room, but all is fixed now! Since the priming is done, it's time to get the floors stained. The hearth room officially has hardwood floors now! Can't wait to see the whole house transformed with dark hardwood floors!

Crossing our fingers for plumbing, appliances, French doors, and stained hardwood floors this week!

Last, both Ben and I are officially homeless! Thanks to my friends Stacy and Reid (& Carter & Munson) as well as Ben's best friend Jared and his wife Nan for letting us shack with them!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Tile, Tile, & More Tile

Last night Ben and I had our third pre-marital counseling and the wedding is still a go!!
After meeting with the minister, we headed to our new frequent store...Home Depot. We had already picked out and bought the tile for the master bathroom, but we needed small tiles inside the shower so we would not slip. The tile that went with what we have already bought was expensive and were out of it in all Atlanta area Home Depot stores. We started looking at other tiles, but nothing was looking right. We decided that Ben would have the task of going to another store today to pick out the new tile. I am in Tampa for work so I had to trust his choice. He did text me some choices but I didn't get the text until later. In the picture he sent, the tile looks blue, but he promises it's not blue.
The tile layers are not only working on the master bath but also the guest bath and soon will lay the laundry room tile. The tile for the guest bath is a slate tile that we love. When they opened the slate to start laying, it was all broken, so off to Home Depot Ben went to exchange the tile. They were able to get some of the tub tile work done, but it still has a ways.
The crown molding and door guy was at the house yesterday working on this. We are adding molding on the top in the foyer, living room, study, and master bedroom. He still has work to do on this as well as add new French doors. He will be back on Monday to work more.
Ben officially starts his new job tomorrow so we will now just be going in at the end of the day to see what all has been done. 2 1/2 weeks left before I move in so we have to make sure things stay on schedule!!

Below is a picture of the master bath tile floor and then of the beginning work of the guest bath slate.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Chaos

(Written on 1/21/12 & never posted!)
This week has been busy for both Ben and I with work and the house. We did receive an answered prayer on Friday when Ben was offered a job as a project manager. Ben was still employed with his UAV company, but opportunities stateside were not panning out, so when this opportunity came up, we were so excited!

I was traveling for work on Thursday and Friday so Wednesday and Friday night, we started packing up my apartment because I have to be out next Friday. This morning, we took a big load over and then Jared, Ben's best friend, met us to help move all of our large stuff into the U-Haul. We were able to load everything except our beds. This will keep us from being homeless for one less week.
When we woke up this morning, it was storming and it continued until late afternoon, but we decided to keep on moving since our week is packed.
During the move, there was only one catastrophe and it was this hutch that my dad put together several years ago. Let's just say he rigged it together. When Ben picked it up, it completely fell apart!!
Everything else that made the move today is being stored in our basement/garage because the upstairs is still a construction zone! The next week will be filled with moving all the rest of our stuff and making sure the house is ready for plumbing so Ben can move in!
Let's just say I'm ready for moving to be done so I can relax! This is stressful on me! I like organized chaos and this is just plain chaos!!!

Not our Specialty...



This morning, Ben & I went to early church and then several of my girlfriends and I decided to celebrate our friend Kimberly and the upcoming arrival of her third baby, Abigail. I decided to attempt to make a diaper cake. I even got to use my cute new cake stand that I got last week at our shower.
After the shower, I met Ben and we headed to the house to paint the living room and study ceilings. I was concerned that paint would get all in my hair, so Ben splurged for these very stylish Home Depot paint hats.I have never painted ceilings before and lets just say they are not my specialty. I started off rolling and Ben was trimming and it was not going well, so we switched. Besides the occasional large drips, I didn't think it was going bad. When we finished with that room, we laid on the floor looked up and laughed! We are not master ceiling painters. After a bit, we decided to hire Ben's "friend" David he met in the parking lot of Home Depot for the day so he can paint the ceilings.
We then went downstairs and started purging alot of Ben's things that he has not seen out of boxes in a year! Combining households is an interested feat to say the least...


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Lots of Progress

Since Ben and I were in Louisiana all weekend, Ben asked the contractor to get the sheet rock up in all the areas. Ben and I got back from LA on Monday morning at 1:30 a.m., and headed to the house around noon to unload the gifts. Upon our arrival, we met Jose, the master "sheet rocker". He was a machine at putting up all of the sheet rock! It's so fun to see the transformation and the actual rooms coming to life!











Since I'm moving out of my place and and temporarily moving in with my friend Stacy, her husband Reid, and their cute little 2 year old, we decided to pile all of our new shower gifts up into the one room with a lock in the basement/garage area. The
upstairs is a construction zone, so we opted for the basement!

After we unloaded all the gifts, Ben had a few things to do "construction wise" with the main one being to finish framing out the pathway between the kitchen and what will be the study. I thought the pathway was going to be alot bigger, but the wall is a low baring wall AND because
of various other reasons, it worked out best to be this size. I told Ben, we just need to add sliding doors and it can be a drive thru window! I dare him to walk up and ask me for a cheeseburger ;)

Today, Ben worked on taking up all of the tile/slate that was in the hearth room. This room was the reason I was apprehensive on buying the house. The fireplace is in an awkward spot and it's so difficult to figure out
furniture placement. After Ben suggested that we take up the slate (like kitchen slate) and put down hardwoods, I was definitely more sold on the purchase. Granted, it's still not my favorite room
because of the layout, but the high beamed ceilings definitely make up for the awkwardness! The taking up process took Ben many hours and he's exhausted, but hopefully this is the last of really hard manual labor for awhile on the house.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Showered with Blessings

On Friday, Ben and I headed to Louisiana for a bridal shower that was at my hometown church on Sunday. My mom's friends were so kind to put a lot of love into the shower. I have not lived in Sterlington since I graduated high school so I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was definitely overwhelmed! A lot of the sweet ladies from the church attended, all of my aunts, several of my cousins, both of my grandmothers, my mom's teacher friends, my college roommates - Joanna & Allison, my bridesmaid Kendal & her mother, my bridesmaid Jennifer's mom & sister, and many other family friends. My mom and sister in law (Matron of Honor) were by my side to help. I was so afraid I was going to flash someone when I was opening up presents!!!

I think I opened presents for 1 1/2 hours solid and when it was over and got in the car with my mom I asked her what just happened because I was in a bubble of haze! Blessed, blessed, blessed! As someone put it, "your mom has thrown so many showers at the church we could never fully repay her."

I definitely have to say a huge thank you to Ms. Penny Roberson. I had many hostesses for the shower, but Ms. Penny spearheaded the crew and made it so special for me.

There's one thing I know for sure, you can never forget where you came from and I was reminded of that once again this weekend.

Because the day was such a blur, I didn't get many pictures with people and I didn't even get one with all my hostesses. My cousin Kelly did play photographer and got some pictures for us. Below is a picture of some of the gifts laid out after I unwrapped, me, Joanna, and Allison, and some of the decorations.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A Little Help from Family

Today, Ben's dad, Mr. Dan, came down from Ellijay to help with the house. Ellijay is located about 1 1/2 hours north of Atlanta in the North Georgia mountains. Ms. Geri, Ben's mom, wanted a picture of Mr. Dan actually working. I think Ben had to put the drill in his hand for the picture ;) We definitely appreciated the help!

Things are getting checked off the house "to-do" list! Ben built the framing for our new shower in the master bath. We decided to do half walls and then glass at the top so it's not so enclosed. So basically, I can be putting my make-up on, look to the right and Ben is hanging all out in the shower. (Insert mental picture, I know!)

I also got to see the new lighting in the living room that the electrician ran. Ben got all "fancy" and got the dimmers ;) There was no lighting in the living room and now we have 4 recessed lights.

Ben also framed out my closet. We extended my side of the master closet into the closet that was for the guest room and built new closets for the guest room.


In wedding news...I had my first dress fitting today!! My friend Stacy went with me right after Christmas to try it on for the first time and then today was the first fitting. Since I got a custom fit dress (my top and bottom were way different sizes - ha!), they are just having to "tweek" it, BUT it's alot of tweeking to make it fit perfectly! I didn't realize how many fittings I'd have to go to, but I'll be back at LaRaine's next week for my second fitting!!

BTW - I LOVE LaRaine's Bridal in the Highlands in Atlanta! GREAT customer service ;)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Divide & Conquer

Ben got back from National Guard last night, so this morning I said "you take care of making sure we have a house to live in and I'll make sure we walk down the aisle." This sounded like a good plan to both of us! With that being said, Ben headed to the house to see the progress and to start framing out the new closets for the two guest rooms. The electrician was there and finished the new electrical work for both bathrooms and is still working on the electrical work for the living room and kitchen. There is currently no lighting in the living room and one of those massive 1982 lights in the kitchen. Since I've been living in apartments, there has never been lighting in the living room and this was a "must" on my list of things needed!

Below are pictures of the frame-up that Ben got done today for the closets. There will be a door cut through the wall to go into the other room. The other is some of the electricity in the master bath.










My "conquering" part today was meeting with the wedding coordinators at the church. Since Ben and I go to a "mega" church, there is no sanctuary or chapel for us to get married in, therefore we had to use another church. The church we chose has the second longest center aisle in Atlanta!! (Yes, between my dad and I, one of us will trip!) When you reserve the church, it's like booking an all-inclusive package. You get the church, minister, organist, wedding coordinators, and clean-up crew. The wedding coordinators that I met today were so very sweet and we got all the details nailed out. They even told me I was a "Simple Bride"!! I need to tell my dad this, because he would beg to differ ;) One of the ladies was born and raised Southern Baptist, so when we got to the part of them telling me about the Prayer Bench, she giggled and explained what I'd have to do.

Now they started telling me to make sure my guests new to park in the back parking lot. For most of the guest, it will be the second one they come to, so naturally they will pull into the first lot. Now my St. Jude friends will understand why I asked "do you have directional signs pointing where they should go to park?" You would have thought I was a genius! Needless to say, I shot an e-mail to my work sign man and he's printing me up two yard signs for parking.

We ended the day with our second pre-marital counseling session. I don't want to brag, BUT, we got a "gold star" from the minister!! Our moms should be so proud!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

We have PLUMBING!! (& Bling!!)

Ben left for National Guard on Thursday and will be back tomorrow, so I've been missing my daily play-by-play of the renovations. Prior to Ben leaving on Thursday, he was able to work with the contractors to make sure we got the plumbing installed completely with the two new bathrooms and the electrical work that needs to be done throughout the house updated while he was gone. Now, I'm not sure if either are done correctly, BUT, I stopped in on Saturday and saw there were new pipes in the areas where our bath/shower/faucets should be.













Our guest bath now has a tub!! Our master bath is going to have a large shower and a double vanity.

During my little adventure to our new house by myself, I was a little scared! It's a cold empty house and I was trying to be brave. Can't wait to get in there and cozy it up and make it our home!!

Prior to Ben leaving on Thursday, we went to get our wedding bands. My wedding band outline was created at the same time as my engagement ring so we were just going to pay for it as well as make sure we had the right size. Long story short, apparently Ben had already paid for the wedding band when he got the engagement ring. That we definitely a GREAT surprise! Ben picked out his band, so I was the only one paying for jewelry on Thursday ;)

The weekend has been filled for me with a surprise birthday party for a friend and then I got to celebrate my FABULOUS friend Anna at her lingerie/bachlorette dinner on Saturday night.

My Saturday and Sunday were filled with checking things off the final wedding "to do" list. The main thing was JEWELRY!! For those that know me, you know I LOVE fun jewelry. You give me fun earrings or a ring and I'm a happy girl! With that being said, I wanted to find the perfect earrings for my bridesmaids and for myself. Trying to find the combination of sassy & classy was definitely harder than I thought. Let's just say after 6 hours and one return, I found the PERFECT earrings!!

6 weeks away and Ben will be my husband!! YIPPEE!!




Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Ben the Builder

Who needs Bob the Builder when you have Ben the Builder? Ben worked on the house for 12 hours today! Yes, I didn't make a typo. It was 12 long hours in the cold. Apparently because the hot water tank isn't connected and I'm sure some other things, he can't turn the heat on, but I think that will be resolved tomorrow.

The plumber came today and changed out all of our cast iron pipes to PVC pipes. Apparently this is better because cast iron clogs easily. Well, with this hair that I got, we'll see how good these PVC pipes are. My apartment complex probably has a file on me with how many times
they have to unclog my shower!

The plumber was also able to add all the new plumbing underneath the new bathroom but before he could run the plumbing throughout the bathrooms, Ben had to finish framing up the guest bathroom and add a little framing to the new master bath. Here is the finished frame up of the new guest bath. We can actually start seeing a home inside this house!


I'm so grateful for Ben. He is working so hard to get the house ready for us to move in and be perfect for us. I love that man!!

*Disclaimer - There might be things that are going on during the renovation that I don't say correctly or get wrong. I'm no builder, just the clean-up girl who ask questions to figure out what is happening.

In the world of all things girlie, I had my final meeting with the floral designer for the wedding today. I went in with a typed out list of things I need, photos of things I like and don't like, and we finalized everything today. It's great knowing that I don't have to worry about things like flowers! One more thing checked off the list!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Just another day...

This morning, Ben got his first dose of an early morning run to the pharmacy. He's definitely marrying someone who catches a sickness even if it's nowhere to be found! I was up all night with a terrible sore throat. I never call in sick, but was in so much pain and I didn't want to get the rest of the office sick.

Ben got to our house early this morning and completely finished gutting the new master bath, including the walls. It's definitely fun to see the pictures of the progress! We are VERY excited about the amount of space!!

The plumber also came today to do measurements and other things that plumbers need to do
to make 2 bathrooms. When we bought the house, the previous owner took all of the faucets and the hot water heater. The plumber told Ben he could get us one and install for a great price and while Ben was out checking on me and getting his hair cut, a hot water tank appeared!! Now if we only had faucets attached to turn the water on...


The demolition for the master closet is complete. Now Ben just has to frame it up, put some storage, add some doors, and the closet is done. Doesn't seem like too much of a task. HA!

Now for non-house related things, we were suppose to pick out our wedding bands today, but with me not feeling like a real person, we've postponed this "minor" task that is left on our wedding checklist. One thing that did get checked off the wedding check list - my dad mailed out our wedding invitations!! WooHoo!!!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Manual Labor


I had the day off today, so working on the house was the plan! We went to my new favorite store, Home Depot, to place our custom granite order for our double vanity in the master and then we went to the house to finish demolition. We had to get the bathroom gutted because the plumber is coming in the morning to measure, etc.

Ben started swung that sledge hammer way too much today! He is exhausted!! I became friends with the hammer, chisel, and the crowbar. Tile taking down is a very tedious task!! I helped take down the tile that was half way up all of the walls and Ben took up all of the flooring. The flooring was definitely the toughest task! Ben didn't rest all day and the only time I did was when he was sledging away at the bathtub (see photo) and there was stuff flying everywhere!

We worked for 6+ hours and got the bathroom almost all the way gutted except for a few more studs and the floor of the old shower (see photo). It's so fun to see the actual size of the new master bath. So glad we were able to combine the guest and master bath to make one big master bath!
Now, we did have to make one BIG decision today...
We were going to make a 1/2 storage wall segmenting off the toilet, but when we started looking at actual dimensions, we both agreed it was agreed it would take up too much room, therefore we would just buy a little hutch/standing shelves of some sort to put between the windows on the floor. Now was the decision...do we turn the toilet towards the vanity (original plan), or do we keep facing the way it is now since we aren't building a wall. After several demonstrations and me not particularly liking the fact that I'd be staring at myself in the mirror when I was on the throne, we decided to not change the direction of the toilet. This might sound minor, but it's the toilet! You don't want it to be awkward!!!

At the beginning of the day, we started demolition on the master closet.
We are expanding it into one of the guest bedroom closets and then building another closet in the guest room. This is as much as we got to today.

We are done for the day and are both exhausted!!! Ben will be back at the house tomorrow to meet the plumber, finish taking down the studs & shower floor tiles, and then begin framing the new guest bathroom. Lots to do!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Ringing in 2012

We woke up on New Year's Eve and headed straight to The Dump. The Dump is a high-end discounted furniture store in Atlanta and is in a few other large cities. Ben and I actually bought our mattress there a few weeks ago because they were having a big sale. We had to pick up the mattress on NYE and also discovered they were having a Clearance Sale. When we arrived, we determined the Clearance Sale was a Tent sale and people were standing at the tent waiting for them to load things in. These people were like furniture leaches! Needless to say, we decided not to stay in the tent and headed inside. Our experience at The Dump was terrible! To sum it up, we had a creepy sales lady following us around, poor customer service, and then waited 30 minutes to pick-up our mattress. Ben lost his patience (which seldom happens) and refuses to ever go back.

In the afternoon, we headed to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for Mr. and Mrs. Stanhope. Ben worked for Mr. Stanhope for several years in Ellijay and I was excited to meet him since I had heard many wonderful things. The Stanhope's are planning on making it down to Atlanta for our big day!

Now it was time to ring in the New Year. Our friend Sarah had a GREAT idea to throw a murder mystery party. Everyone received their character assignments earlier in the week and went all out with outfits!!
Meet Lola and Mario Talent... Lola is a Latin Pop Diva and Mario is an aspiring actor. Basically we were J-Lo and Marc Anthony. I think we played the part pretty well!

We rang in the new year with some wonderful friends. Ben said "Courtney, I can't wait to marry you next month!". NEXT MONTH!! Holy mess!! I am going to be a wife NEXT MONTH!! That just sounds crazy, but I'm so excited!

Today, New Year's Day, I thought would be a relaxing day, but Ben had other plans. We headed over to the house for a little while and cleaned up the demolition mess from Friday so we can be ready for tomorrow. I have the day off so I'm going to help Ben tear some walls down! This should be interesting!!

We wish everyone a wonderful New Year! Ben and I are so excited to see what this year has in store for us! We know one thing for sure....we are getting married and moving into our new home in 2012!!

Demolition Day 1...

The day after we closed, Ben and his best friend Jared headed to the house to get their hands a little dirty and start the demolition. I think they enjoyed knocking down walls and pulling up flooring.

I had to work, so I took them Chick-fil-A to keep their bellies full. When I walked into the front door, this is what I saw. Not going to lie, my mouth dropped, but I knew it was coming! This is what it looked like before...

We are moving our
guest bathroom to the other side of the hall in order to combine the current master bath and guest bath. Let's just say that if we kept the master bath that is in the house, Ben and I would probably not make it through 6 months of marriage :)

Below is the before and after of the master bathroom.



Below is the before and after of the guest bathroom.


It's so fun to really visualize what our new master bath is going to look like as well as the guest bath! I'm so lucky to have a fiance that's handy and has a vision!!

Our New Home...


On December 29, 2011, we finally closed on OUR first home!! The day was filled with excited emotions. We closed at 9 a.m. and our realtor Rachel joined us at the closing. She gave us the best "closing gift" - Tiffany Champagne glasses! A blue box on closing day was super fun!






Immediately after closing, Ben and I headed straight to OUR new home to walk around and for Ben to tell me the final details of the renovations. Renovations should be done 1 week prior to our wedding, but at this point, as long as there is running water, I'll be happy.



As you can see, we have LOTS of yard work to do, but that will come with time. Our first mission is to get the inside of the house renovated and then work on the outside.

I have already discovered that I will be shopping in Home Depot more than Macy's over the next 6 weeks. I can honestly say, I can maneuver my way through Home Depot just fine! Right after walking through our new home, we headed straight to Home Depot. We left with bathroom fixtures, tiles, light fixture, and several other things.

Not only do we need renovation materials, we also need furniture and appliances. We were able to score great deals on most of our appliances during the Black Friday sales, but still had a few things to purchase. Thursday evening (closing day), we purchased our dining table and a range & range hood. We just keep checking things off the list!