Where's Mom When You Need Her?

Last night, Ben and I had great plans to get the 2 guest room walls and trim painted. That was the plan....

Yesterday, while we were at work, our bathrooms were painted, so we were excited to get the lights and mirrors up and have real working bathrooms. Unfortunately, the wrong kind of paint was used, therefore they will hopefully be back to paint next week. Until then, I guess I can use my hand mirror :(

After work and before we started painting, Ben had some items to get done before the renovation loan inspector comes today, so he was busy all over the house. Our contractor, Joe, came and helped get all the inspection stuff completed. I started painting one of the guest rooms. After many hours, and a brief chocolate break, we got the paint on ONE room wall, but not the trim. That will be tonight's project.

While Ben was doing some of the "detail" painting work, I decided that the bathrooms needed scrubbing if either of us were going to use them. We can only use the shower/tub in the guest right now because the glass will not be in until next week for the master shower. I tackled the shower/tub and then there were the toilets...

The toilets were new when we bought the house, but they had been sitting outside for 4 1/2 weeks and I'm sure have been used by a contractor or two, so they were disgusting!!! In the middle I shouted "where is my momma"?? She always makes sure that wherever I move, it is clean - especially the bathroom!! I disinfected both toilets twice!! It was no joke cleaning going on!!

Today, Ben and I both feel like we've been hit by mack trucks as we are running off of little sleep. I don't know about Ben, but my body is aching and we only painted ONE room! Six rooms, a foyer, and hallway is still left to tackle. WOW!! We are on a mission to get it all done over the weekend. I also want to have all of our stuff out of the basement so we can start organizing - or at least have my mom help organize when her and dad get in on Wednesday.

Happy Decision

Through this whole house hunting, house buying, renovating process, there are always times when you think, "Did we make the right decision?". One of our big "did we make the right decision" moments was this past weekend when the stain of the floors that were done were not what we wanted. We made the decision to have them re-stained (very thankful they were having to re-sand most of the house anyway because they had messed up) to the color that we wanted. Today, they put the final coat on and they are done.

We still can't move and walk on them with shoes on, but we were able to quickly peak throughout the house tonight and we are so very happy that we made the decision to have them re-stained with a different stain. We LOVE them! Ben said he won't wear shoes in the house for at least a year - HA!

After we peaked at the floors, we head to Sherwin Williams to purchase the paint for a china buffet that we are painting & staining. We saw it in Ben's parent's basement and they said we could have it. We started refinishing it tonight, but I will post a picture as soon as it's done.

We also headed to our daily place, The Home Depot. The "trim guy" is coming tomorrow so we had to get 400 feet of Quarter Round. This is basically shoe molding that goes below the base boards. We popped all of the old ones up prior to them staining the floors because it was yellow and cheap looking. I thought I'd catch Ben in action at Home Depot...

By the way...once again, we looked like the Clampett's going back to our house with 16 feet of Quarter Rounds strapped to the top of Ben's truck.

The Buffington family has great news to report today! My cousin Maggie and her husband Thomas had their second baby girl and named her Caitlin Hope. She looks just like a Buffington :) My mamaw is also doing better from her stroke. She should come home tomorrow, but will have a good bit of rehab to do because of the side effects from the stroke.

Last, we finished our last session of pre-marital counseling today and we PASSED! HA! Not sure if there is a pass/fail grade but our minister is excited to marry us in 11 days!!

Survival mode...

My friend Jessica tweeted me today and said I was in "survival mode". That is the perfect way to describe my little homeless self right now! Yes, I'm in survival mode right now, but it will all be worth it!

Yesterday Ben and I went to early church followed by our daily trip to Home Depot. I had an "ah-ha" moment while leaving Home Depot. The HD is the Chick-fil-A of customer service for home improvement stores. We are both kind of obsessed with Home Depot. I mean, I've been in there more than I've been in Macy's, Ann Taylor Loft, and Target!!!

The floor guys re-sanded the floors and put down the new stain color and it looks FANTASTIC!! We are super excited! We peeked in the door today to see how they were coming along and we are so glad we decided to change the color. One more coat of poly (something) tomorrow and they will be done!!

Yesterday before the Super Bowl, we were able to paint our laundry room since it's in the basement and we don't have to walk on the hardwood floors. We currently only have 2 walls that can be painted because the other 2 are still "under construction". That will be another project Ben will need to finish at some point :)

In wedding news....our wedding gifts are shipped to my office since we were in transition for awhile. Today was like a day full of goodies arriving!! While opening the presents, I discovered that there really are a few people who read the blog and it made me so happy!! My friend Jill and her husband Matt who live in Boston wrote a little note with our gift saying the blog inspired them to get us stuff to finish off our new bathroom!! LOVE IT!! They got us our cute master bathroom accessories!! So thoughtful!!

On a completely different note, my mamaw had a stroke today and is in the hospital. Please pray for strength and healing as she gets through this hurdle. She is going to need therapy, but with time, things should strengthen. For those that live very far away from family, you know that feeling you get when something happens to your family and you are so far away and you can't do anything...well, I was definitely having that feeling today.

*Sorry for no photo updates of the house. Will hopefully be able to get some tomorrow of the finished floors!

The Deceiving Clampett's

The past 2 days have been eventful days for the Worlington's. We were crossing our fingers that the house would be ready to move in on Sun/Mon, but Ben got a call from our contractor on Friday saying that the hardwood floor guys had messed up a few spots so they were redoing parts of the floor so it would not be ready until Wed/Thurs.

On Friday evening Ben and I went and peaked at our newly stained hardwood floors even though they weren't complete. The floors looked good, but not the stain we were hoping for. Note to anyone that plans on re-staining their hardwood floors, the colors on the cans are deceiving!!!

I met Ben and the floor guys at the house this morning. They had re-sanded down 1/3 of the living room floor and had 7 different new stains to choose from. After much confusion, nausea from the fumes, and another stain combination, we found a stain we like. Starting tomorrow, our floors will be re-sanded again and stained with the new stain color.

This afternoon, we had to pick up the remainder of the furniture that we bought earlier in January. After everything was loaded into my car and his truck, we looked like the Clampett's.
Oh, the "luxury" of home ownership...

We can see a light...

...at the end of a very long tunnel.

I was in Charlotte this week working and I got to stay with my friends Jennie and Les. It is always a great time when I'm with them and I hope they feel the same way because I'll be in Charlotte alot over the next few months.

Ben and I had planned on picking up our furniture that we ordered a month ago on Wednesday evening when I returned. Like everytime we have tried to move something over the past few weeks, it was pouring rain, so we had to change our pick-up day to Saturday.

When I returned, I met Ben at our house and was so excited to see all the progress!! So much has happened over the past few days! Our bathrooms are starting to look more and more complete, which is exciting since those where the 2 major projects in the house!

The back door to our house was this old 1960 sliding glass door that if you jiggled it just right, it could easily be opened. Ben suggested putting in French Doors and even though they are not completely done, you can see how AWESOME they look! The sides are boarded up with wood because they are inserting glass panels into the side.

In the photo, you can also see that the hard wood floors are being sanded down! The room in the picture was the only room without hard wood floors so those are new, but they are sanding them as well as the remainder of the house so it can be stained a walnut color. We are not allowed in the house for a day, but last night, Ben and I snuck back to the house to see what "Coat 1" looked like and from looking from the outside in, it looks GREAT!

On Tuesday, all of our appliances arrived! WOOHOO!! The only appliance that was even in the house was probably the first dishwasher ever invented! All of the kitchen appliances are just hanging out in the kitchen right now and we believe will be able to go into their little "spots" next week.

They were sanding down the floors while I was taking these photos, that's why there are little things flying all through the air!

Our laundry room is downstairs in the basement area and it was not a room when we bought the house, but Ben framed out a portion that was "designated" the laundry area. This room definitely has lots of work still left to do, but we did get our washer & dryer as well as the tile guys put down the tile. Ben is still trying to figure out what we need to do to cover up all that messy/gross stuff. I told him that if it looks scary, then he'll just have to do the laundry ;)

In wedding/girlie news, we are almost 2 weeks away from the BIG day!! Stacy is going with me today to my "final detailing" with the reception venue. I then get to call my dad and tell him the damage. Oh the joys.... :)