How do people do it?

I was very lucky to be able to take a weeks vacation after our closing. My boyfriend took two weeks. We were able to get a lot of projects done and the house is now livable. 

Had we not done that I don't know how we'd be coping. We both work and have the kids at home to care for. I work 10-11 hours a day, come home to make dinner and clean up and that leaves me about 2 hours a day to get anything done. After working all day I choose to relax on the sofa with my boyfriend for those couple of hours. 

Today was my day off and I squeezed in time with the kids and just a couple of projects. 

Hiking with the kiddos 

The roll-out garbage has been installed. We had to knock out the back half-shelf to make it fit. 

We put in motion sensing light switches in our master closet and the garage. The closet one also has a night light. Great for making our way to the restroom at night. There are no windows in the bathroom so it's DARK!

And I finally painted our powder room. Frog tape lives up to its reputation. 

The sacrifice was the kitchen didn't get cleaned and the laundry didn't get done. Now I get to spend my evening doing both. 

My suggestion to those building now... Try to get some time off to put your homes together. I would have pulled all my hair out while sitting in a pile of boxes had I not.  

Seriously, who has the time to move and put together a home while working full time?  I sure don't. 

"I'll be back"

I work with computers on a daily basis. We always have the newest smartphones. Heck, I've even kind of figured out this blogging thing. I would venture to say I am technologically inclined. That is, until I tried to do the laundry. 

These new "smart" appliances are a little scary. They beep at you, sing to you and have buttons I've never even heard of. 

Feeling clearly out of my league I begrudgingly opened the manuals. I read about each feature and the basics on how to use them. I loaded up my "he" detergent, chose the preferred cycle and pushed start. Then The Machine took over. I seriously had a major "Terminator" moment as it locked it's lid and did things I've never seen before. It agitated, twisted back and forth and went into a serious spin, sounding as though a plane were preparing to take off. This was the load sensor doing its job. (Whatever that really means). 

In the end The Machine was defeated and actually sang a sweet little song as it finished its cycle. But I am still watching them out of the corner of my eye. When they try to take over the world, I'll be ready. 

Today's projects

I cleaned out the mud room and painted it. Then I hung new hooks and some decor. I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I've been eyeing some metal baskets from The Container Store to line the top and the shelves.  

I also cleaned up the nook or as we call it, the dining room.  I have to thank my amazing boyfriend for the beautiful roses.  We are still debating on a rug. We have a boy who still gets half his food on the floor vs possible scratches on the floor.  We also need to get some curtains. 

The difficult part of the day was putting up AJ's giant fathead all by myself.  It was no easy task.  His room is now ready for his homecoming tomorrow.
 

 Oh! And I put up our lot sign!

My projects tomorrow are painting stripes in the powder room and painting the master bedroom. Cleaning up the house and tackling boxes with whatever time I have left in the day. 

We've been putting together a list for our 60 day. So far we have three items.  Not too shabby if you ask me. It really is a well built house. 

The flooring trim at the top of the stairs needs to be nailed down. It's very loose.  

The toilet in the powder room needs to be tightened down and caulked around the bottom. Somehow this was missed by all of us. I didn't think to sit down on the toilets during our walk-through lol. 

There is a missing piece of flooring trim under the sliding glass door. I didn't notice until I was putting the drop cloth in place and a metal piece jabbed me. I think they removed it when they had to fix our flooring and never put it back. 

Almost there

I painted the entryway and the back wall of our bedroom. (Just so we could push the headboard back against the wall). Then I just needed to take a break from painting. 

This house needed a thorough cleaning. 

I waited for all deliveries and servicemen to come through to clean the floors. We bought stainless steel cleaner, granite cleaner and a kit to clean the cooktop. Now the kitchen sparkles. I can also now say I used our dishwasher for the first time. 

Everything in the kitchen has found a home. There is so much more space here. I can put it all away and it still looks organized. In the old house it was all crammed in and looked cluttered. 

I started putting up some decor.  (My pantry door is delayed until Thursday)

The entryway is waiting on a bench that's being shipped. Then we need to pick out a rug. 

I rearranged the kids desks and hung one of my favorite pieces. 

The kids rooms are almost complete. They will be home Sunday to see them for the first time.

Zoe's mattress came in today. We will pick it up tomorrow. 

They get the honor of putting away their own stuff. 

AJs bed was missing a piece that won't be delivered until the end of August. Until then he gets a mattress on the floor. 

His fathead will be put up tomorrow. 

Our plantation shutters were installed WAY earlier than expected. Score!

The boyfriend hung the kids tv in the loft. 

He also installed the new shower head 

And a shelving unit for the shower 

I go back to work Monday night and I feel like we will be pretty close to a complete house by then. I need a vacation from my vacation. 

One room at a time? Or all at once?

I thought we would focus on one room at a time and make our way through the house until it was complete. Well, that plan fell apart. 

Each day I try to focus on one room, but I find myself opening boxes meant for one room that contain items for all over the house. Then I get distracted and start another project in another room. All I can say is there is no need for a gym. I travel up and down these stairs at least 100 times a day. 

Today I focused on piles of boxes. They exist all over the house. 

Then I pile the empty boxes in the entryway to monitor my progress.  When overwhelmed with the work left to do, it's nice to see that something was actually accomplished. 

Next, I worked on the kids office and kids bathroom. 

I finished painting the old cubbie cabinet. The office just needs the curtains hung, when I find them at the bottom of a box... somewhere. I purchased the rods today. 

The kids shower curtain and rug arrived from Bed Bath & Beyond. I installed the curved shower rod and hung everything up. "Bathroom Rules" is the theme. When I showed it to the kids they asked, "Do we have to follow ALL the rules?" Ha. 

All that's left is to finish installing the new faucets in here. 

The old 

The new

My boyfriend continues to care for the new sod and seed. The water company is still waiting for a release from Inverness to switch the water into our name, so we are keeping this new sod drenched thanks to Inverness. We have one bush in front fighting for its life but it looks like it's coming around. 

Our teenager-for-hire is almost done with the backyard. We are now thinking of putting more sod in. I don't think we realized how open it was going to be.  This picture only shows a portion of the yard. It really is huge. 

My boyfriend also started on the kids closets. He is putting shelving on the sides and a rod across for hanging. Zoe really wanted a walk-in closet so the double doors and shelves on the side give her that illusion. 

Then last night as we lounged on the new sofa we realized we should have bought a table set as well. So we took a quick trip to Morris Home Furniture and picked a set out. They blend with the gray/brown theme we have going and they are bulky which I like. 

That big blank wall needs to be filled. Sigh. Later... later.