calling it quits

we are not necessarily 

q u i t t i n g

on our house,

but we have decided to not DIY the whole darn thing.

originally, our plan was:

do the ceiling.

lay the floors.

move in.

we were going to paint after we moved in.

but when we found out that wallpaper covered

every single square inch of the house,

it became a whole new ballgame.

we went back and forth between taking it all down,

skimcoating over it and trying to mud and tape the seams.

in the end, ronnie's perfectionist ways won out.

take it all down. 

have you ever taken down wallpaper?

its horrible.

we bought two steamers and went to town.

by we, i mean, my mom, dad and myself.

ronnie has somehow managed to avoid the wallpaper process.

interesting...

unfortunately, it still takes us 3 days per room,

but we are only three rooms away from having the upstairs done.

that's right people, the downstairs remains untouched. 

we have brette's room, the play room, the guest room, the master

and the hallway bathroom all done.

we still have to do the laundry room, the hallway and the master bath/closet.

but when we ripped off the wallpaper,

the sheet rock beneath was damaged in the process.

this is where we decided to wave the white flag.

its taken us SO long just to get here,

that i talked ronnie into getting some professionals in 

here to finish it off.

we have HIRED (yes!) a sheet rock crew and painters.

sweet mother of jesus,

that's such a relief.

i can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

so basically, all we have to do is finish with the wallpaper

and then they will take care of the rest.

in fact, after the painter is done,

another crew will lay the new carpet in the bedrooms and 

we will FINALLY move in.

i hope to be living there by december 7th,

but i know how construction goes,

so as long as we're in by the 21st,

i'm happy.

as you've probably realized,

we will be moving in with the downstairs unfinished.
however, the painters will paint our kitchen cabinets,

so at least that will be done.

ronnie said he and cale

 can lay the wood floors.

but we were still both struggling with the idea of taking 

down all that wallpaper downstairs. 

 i can't imagine doing weeks and weeks of this again

and neither ronnie or i would do well living in that mess.

so ronnie came up with an idea

that i love.

we haven't priced it out,

but seriously,

since it gets me out of taking down all the downstairs wallpaper,

i'm pretty willing to pay whatever.

we are going to wood plank the walls in

the living room, the dining room and the family room.

please removed the word paneling from your mind.

we. are. not. paneling.

i hate paneling.

this will be actual boards running horizontal across the walls and then painted.

here are a few example from the internet:

not only do i like it because it covers the wallpaper,

but it also has that farmhouse feel that we are going for.

in fact, we left one long wall in the master untouched

so we can do the same thing in there.

our plan is to completely finish one room at a time (floors and walls)

and hopefully have this cranked out in a few months (depending on ronnie's schedule).

 i'm trying to talk him into getting started while the 

drywall guys start on the upstairs.

i would love to have at least one room downstairs done before move-in,

but ronnie's timeline and my timeline never seem to match up.

go figure.

  but nonetheless, i'm excited.

start a freaking countdown.