Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Praying for each and every one of you today, and always. Please enjoy this Christmas and savor the things that really matter.

Man Cave Project

Before the LAN party in October we painted the man cave the turquoise color. This week, our project is to rip up all the carpet and paint the cement floor with Epoxy Shield. That way, it's more like a 'garage'. Steve has to park his motorcycles inside in the winter because we don't have a garage yet, so having a cement floor is a lot easier than carpet. Plus the carpet that was in there was REALLY nasty...

Baseboard trim!

The trim is finally going up around the house! Ya! :)
You can see in the lower left hand corner a small square of carpet. We've ordered our new stair and downstairs carpet - very exciting!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This was the first time I can ever remember actually going to a tree farm and cutting down a tree. It was so much fun walking around in the pouring rain (and mud) to find the 'perfect' tree!

We went to Reades U Cut Christmas tree farm just about 10 minutes from our house. We found our 'perfect' tree, a Grand Fir. It is a little large for our ceiling height, so no star on top this year!
Searching for the tree...
found it!
all up!

The House

We bought our house right before the wedding. We knew it would need A LOT of work. It was a bank owned home, and the previous owners (obviously told by the condition of the house) didn't really care much about this place. They smoked inside, their animals soiled the carpets. Things were not updated at ALL. We were very fortunate to get a GREAT deal on the house, and to have wonderful families members who gave gifts of money and gift cards and labor to help us get the house to this point.

Our house was built in 1976 (Kla Ha Ya Village is the neighborhood name) and it is a 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath, split level. We're lucky to have found this gem (in the rough), we back up to woods/greenbelt and have a huge yard!!!

Besides having to paint every square inch of surface in the house (due to the smoker smell) the projects we've completed thus far are:

1. Upstairs Bathroom - completely gutted everything. We had to remove the sheetrock and insulation and start over at the studs. We put in a new window, new tub, all new tile (above the tub to the ceiling), new cabinets, new counter top, new toilet and new floor!


2.Kitchen - painted all cabinets, new counter tops, new cabinet hardware, new flooring, new sink and faucet... everything else DEEP Cleaned!
BEFORE
AFTER

3.Flooring - the carpet was VERY nasty in the living room and the linoleum in the kitchen/dining was ghetto, so we replaced everything (even the hallway) with maple pergo. (and we got a new couch!)


The upcoming projects include (yes we're going to be VERY busy):
1. New chain-link fence around the backyard
2. New carpet downstairs
3. Pergo installed at the landing
4. New roof
5. finish installation of all the baseboard trim and door trim.

Lots of Updates...

We haven't had a website for quite some time now, but I've finally decided to get a blog going to keep things up-to-date until we've got our 'real' website finished!

Since the wedding, we've been keeping ourselves busy with remodeling our house, working (a lot), and spending time with our friends and family. I'll detail more later on the remodels in another blog with lots of pictures.

We spent 2 lovely weeks in Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon - I must say, it was probably the funnest vacation I've ever been on. The weather was hot and humid, and since it was off season in Mexico, there were barely any tourists and things were very very inexpensive.

We stayed in the older downtown portion for a week and in the touristy Nuevo Vallarta (New Vallarta) for a week. The resort in Nuevo was very swanky and held any amenity that could possibly be desired (including couples massage with a jacuzzi!). We were very fortunate to stay there (thanks Mom for letting us use your timeshare!!). The beach was beautiful and the water was so warm, it was amazing. I must say though, my favorite part was staying in downtown.

Puerto Vallarta is rich in culture and tradition. Staying in the downtown we got to meet civilians - we were able to communicate with them using our Spanish; the ability to walk to the local markets, eat food at small family owned restaurants, horseback riding, smoking Cuban cigars, and even participate in Tequila tasting! It was a trip that is surely not to be forgotten!