New Blog

Having realized that our reno moves far too slowly and isn't particularly my favorite thing to write about, I've started a brand new blog.  Head on over to my food & lifestyle blog: Lizery Business.  I'd love to have you continue to follow me there.  I'm sure there will be renovation posts mixed in. :)

Bats in the Belfry (or Basement...)

I don't think it was easy for Rachel to leave England and come back home. Just to make sure things were extra-lively back here in boring ol' Nebraska, a few bats decided to make their appearance in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure she definitely wanted to return to England after that!!

The first 2 showed up on the same night. Rachel knocked one out with a piece of drywall, and then called Adam who in turn called Animal Control. They caught the other bat, and in a few days we learned that they were rabies free. Yay! I should also note, that when Adam & I first moved in he saw a bat in the basement, but since we never saw them again until Rachel moved in, we thought the bat(s) were gone. Wow, we definitely thought wrong!

Later in the summer, another bat showed up, but the Animal Control person couldn't find it. Adam & Cyrus quickly finished putting Rachel's walls back together and sealed up all the holes that a bat potentially could have flown in through. It was a tedious process, but we were ready to be done with bats!!

In the fall, Amy & Mom came down for a shopping visit, and while they were carrying their bags up to Rachel's apartment, another bat flew in the open door and up to her floor. Animal Control came out again, but couldn't find the bat anywhere, so she left. Adam went up to check it out, opened the living room closet, and there it was!! Animal Control returned and collected the bat, and again it came back rabies-free...Yessssss! :)

Soon after that, Adam went down to the basement to check on a bucket that the furnace water was dripping into. Lo and behold, he found a DEAD BAT floating on top of the water. I had to see it with my own eyes, and it was definitely covered with white MOLD!! Congratulations to me, for not vomiting. Adam on the other hand.....just kidding.....or am I?

Finally, our bat woes were over!! We didn't see another bat for months, until Adam decided to clean the attic in early February. That's a story for another time though. Keep reading!! :)

Family Gatherings

One of the many great things that come from owning a home is the opportunity to entertain. Admittedly, Adam & I lead fairly boring social lives, but we also thoroughly enjoy hosting friends and family get-togethers.In September we invited some friends over for my 25th birthday for cards. It was fun (maybe too much fun for Adam, haha) to sit in real chairs around our crummy table instead of hanging out on the floor around our tiny coffee table! A few days later, my family came down from Columbus (Rachel came down from her apartment upstairs), and we had a good time eating pasta and cheesecake together.

These 2 events were child's play compared to what was looming around the corner in November.
We decided to host both our families for Thanksgiving!! Let me just say that having 2 kitchens is a major plus. Adam did "ruin Thanksgiving" with his rolls...., Dad was fairly certain we would be serving raw turkey, and Cyrus failed to peel the apples for his apple pie, but all-in-all, Rachel & I pulled off a perfect Thanksgiving with fully-cooked turkey and all the fixin's. Beginners luck? Maybe, but I think not.

It's Been Awhile...

Hello readers!!

Sorry (again) for being incredibly behind on this whole blogging thing. We have been busy busy busy these past 7 1/2 months. The only room we have left to paint is the sunroom as I have yet to find the perfect color.

We chose a cream color for the dining room, which I accented with satin navy blue curtains. I actually had to make them myself, and for my first sewing project, I think they came out alright! I finished them just in time for Thanksgiving!! :)





After the dining room was complete, I moved on to the living room. I chose a light sage green, which came out perfectly!! I love the mint-chocolate chip look of the room. :)

In the future, I hope to sand down our DVD cabinet and paint it, maybe a purple to match the orchids, but for now I've left it as is.

I really am going to try to get in the habit of blogging, so I will post again tomorrow *hopefully* with another update on what we've been up to here. :)

Painting, painting, and more painting!

First of all, I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to put together a post. I don't know how people find the time to sit down and make regular entries!!

Adam did a lot of the technical work around our house during summer and early fall. Hopefully he will get a chance to write about it later. :)

In late summer, I started working on painting the exterior, but the project has been put on hold now due to the cooler temps. We decided on a Husker palette: scarlet and cream! The house itself is white, and all the trim will be red. In the spring we plan on re-sodding the yard and doing lots of landscaping. I have a general idea of what I want to do. Stay tuned for more details!

I have spent the last few days trying out colors on our walls. It's been a lot of fun. I decided to go with ivory walls in the dining room. I'm still working on priming them. Adam had to go around and patch some cracks which took some time. On Halloween I managed to paint our entire bedroom. We picked out a very pretty blue for the walls to go with our blue/tan /chocolate curtains and our chocolate colored bedding. I think it turned out rather well!! I will try to update this post with pictures soon(ish)...

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to finish priming and painting the dining room and move onto the living room to finish taping off all the woodwork and begin priming. We're going with a sage green in the living room. Hopefully I'll have time to take some pics!!

Painting Party!

Rachel and her friend Machaela taking a break!

My sister (Rachel) made it back to good ol' Nebraska from her 7 months abroad last Wednesday, and on Friday she moved into our 2nd floor apartment, so we have been busy getting her place fixed up and painted. First, here are some shots of the new hardwoods in her dining room, hallways, and entryway. My dad and Adam's dad both helped out a lot with the dining room, and Adam & I were able to finish the rest on our own. Thank goodness for handy dads!!! :)This past weekend, we helped my sister get some of the walls primed and painted. It was nice to have a few of her friends come over to help out as well. Rachel ended up going with a cream color for the dining room and opted for a brick red in the hallway. She also picked out a yellow for the kitchen, but we still have to get to that. Here are a few pics from our party.

Rachel, me, and Karlee working on the dining room.


Rachel up on the ladder painting the dining room trim red.

SO Busy!

haven't had the time to put together a post! Here's a summary of what we've been up to this
Sorry for the lack of posts, everyone! We've been so, So, SO busy with the house, that I justsummer:

1) Finished painting the kitchen
2) Repaired the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom
3) Installed a new toilet in the upstairs bathroom
4) Ripped out all the hardwood floors in the upstairs dining room, hallways, and entryway (yes, the cat pee got all the way down to the wood, boo)


5) Installed new hardwood flooring upstairs

I will try to get some pictures up when I get a chance, but thanks for reading, even though I'm such a bad blogger!Here is Aaron working hard at pulling up some toe boards. He was such a BIG help!! He and Adam basically pulled up all the floors in the dining room after Aaron took the crowbar from Amy and told her it was too hard for her to do!!

This is the empty dining room after we got all the floorboards up.

Here is Adam tossing wood out the window into our backyard.

And here I am organizing the wood into one giant pile. :)