Tiling 101

So... this is the guest bathroom and what we started with. Yes, we live in Tennessee. No, we do not want "Go Vols" orange in our bathroom.

The tub and the shower wall were both cracked, so we took those out. Because we took those out, the tile had to be pulled up too.

So, we decided that we could tile the bathroom ourselves.

With a little advice from a friend and a "Home Improvement 1-2-3" book, we were ready...

Half-way done.



Workin' the tile saw which saved us.

8 hours later...

The almost finished product! We still have to grout it. And then we'll have to tackle the shower walls with gravity fighting against us.

Our moral support was painting in the other room cheering us on and keeping us from yelling at each other:)

Cracks galore

A whole lot of our walls were cracked. And the ceilings were either cracked or sagging or discolored from nicotine or all of the above. So we are redoing all of them. We decided to paint all of the old ceilings to "lock in" the smoke smell before we put up new ones. Once we started putting up the white paint, it really contrasted the yellow/orange. This picture doesn't do it justice. The sheetrockers are really good and fast. They don't speak a lick of English though. It took me a few blank stares in response to my questions to figure that out. When I work around the house with them, I feel like I've been in Acapulco all day due to the fact that they blare Mexican pop/fiesta/salsa music. So, it's a nice break. And the ceilings are looking dang good now.

They walk around on these stilt things. I watched them all day the frist day and thought it looked pretty easy. So, when Carson and I were over there one night, I snuck a turn. It's not easy. Carson didn't get to try because his head would've gone through the roof.

the slopes of 507

Our house isn't level. We knew that when we bought it. The first time I walked through the kitchen, I tripped. Not on an ashtray like one would assume, but on the ski slope in the floor. Given the fact that it would provide endless hours of entertainment, you'd think we'd leave it... but we're not.

So, Jesse said we should attempt to jack it up and fix the problem at it's root.. A few walls might crack, but they'd fit right in with the other ones (and could be easily fixed). There are three bigger slopes that we'll attempt to fix. They've been pouring concrete slabs under the house and waiting for them to dry. Yesterday, I was at the house painting some windows and Ty asked if I could lend them a hand. So, I got to get on hands and knees in the crawl space and be "one of the guys". Granted, all I did was help hold some beams in place while they did all the work. But it felt pretty cool to be be up under our house doing that. Once we got the jacks perfectly in place, they started pumping it up. It was very slow, but you could hear the house popping and cracking. It was pretty sweet. So, then we went up and checked it out and you could tell a definite difference. It isn't perfect, but it's much better. We can just say that it adds charm, right?

By the way... meet Jesse. He's our contractor and he's doing an amazing job. A few weeks ago, we had a party on our roof and he and his wife, Stephanie came.

A community affair

Thanks to the many who have helped us paint, and to the many more who have offered. Your day will come soon:) Bagels just don't quite say "thanks" enough. We hope you believe us when we say we are truly appreciative.

Gratitude

I say that I am overwhelmed by how much time and energy this house is taking, but more than anything I'm overwhlemed with how much people have loved us and helped us. For instance, my parents. They're pretty much the bomb. They've helped us so much ever since the start. While wandering through Lowe's looking at trim, cabinets, lighting, and boring things like switchplates and window hardware, I have often been in awe. In awe of their talents when it comes to construction and decorating. But mostly in awe of their selfless love towards me and Carson.

My dad came up with a Pyles Plumbing truck-full of pipes, sinks, and toilets, and brought two of his guys, Paul and Al, with him to help. Ummmm... they completely redid all of the plumbing. I mean all of it. Dad pulled out all the stops and even put two shower heads in our shower. Don't think Mom just sat there either. She was busy making sure every angle of our kitchen cabinet design was symmetrical and helping decide which color she liked better in the den. Fairview Taupe or Kingsport Gray. I can't tell a dang difference. But I'm glad she can. It'll be nice to have Nancy's touch in our place.



It made me smile to have a Pyles Plumbing truck in our Chattanooga driveway.

Carson helping Paul and Al bring the guest bathroom tub in.

Master Bath

This is the before shot. There's dust in the air bc I had just swept and cleaned it. There was only a stand-up shower, toilet and vanity. So...

... we took it out...

... and moved the toilet and added a tub. A new vanity will go back where the old one was. The vertical part on the left will be a linen closet and we'll do glass doors on the tub. And we're keeping the orginal hardwoods in here instead of tiling it. One good thing about picking stuff out yourself is that you can custom fit it to your liking (or your husband's ogre height). The tub is extra long (6 ft), the vanity will be 6 inches higher than the norm, and we got an extra-tall toilet:)

This is the before shot of the den looking into the dining room. the kitchen is through the doorway. We wanted it to be more open, so...

... we knocked down the wall! We're gonna put a half-wall and bartop with bar stools. But we think it'll feel pretty open.

Ok... it's taken me long enough to figure out how to post stuff on here. There's lots of work to do at the house, so i gotta go. I'll try to post updates on one room every few days so I don't get too overwhelmed with this thing.

Overwhelmed

This is our first night as owners of a house. The house became officially ours that afternoon, so we cleaned that night and then had dinner on the den floor.

Sorry for the hiatus. I lost my blog:) A friend at work asked to see some pictures of the house and when I went to show her, I couldn't remember the address. I seemed to try every combination of "carson and kate" and "kateandcarsonroyal" with no luck. Well, friends, I finally found it. As you can tell, I'm not a blogger yet. I'm a little nervous about entering the blogging world too. So it'll pretty much be pictures of the house so you can see updates. That's the sole purpose of this thing.

We have been very busy sanding, caulking, priming and scraping. I've never had callouses on my hands like these. And I pretty much always have paint on my hands wherever I go. Along with paint in my hair. It looks pretty nasty. So... this is our life right now.

The first post I made 2 months ago was all the "before" shots with all their stuff still in the house. Hopefully you can tell what is what in these...