THE NEWTON'S

With the flooring pulled up in the kitchen, we chose the replacements and then had to wait for installation thanks to the floods that had happened in May and the back log of work installers had scheduled.   While I took a trip out west to see family with the girls, Rich and Alex were home and kept working on projects.   Some electrical work to add another outlet in the kitchen.   At this point I feel like our demo'ing was mostly done and we started to see some progress and the vision of the new space.  The day finally came and we got our new countertops installed!  A new sink- one large deep bowl instead of the shallow double small bowls we had before -  And the plumbing jigsaw that we hadn't thought through beforehand- was a "fun" little wrench in the project- but we figured it out and love the new sink/faucet and counters!  Next was the backsplash-  We still had the stud wall in between the two rooms- and it had to be taken care of before the fl...

The next few months focused on our kitchen.  With the wallpaper removed- Rich skim coated the entire kitchen to repair the walls from where the wallpaper pulled off the top layer of paper on the drywall.   The stud wall in between the kitchen and the living room stayed as a stud wall for a few month while we figured out if we wanted to do the work to frame it- or find someone else to.   The theme of my summer was that I would be gone traveling- taking the girls to visit with friends and family- and Rich would dive into projects at home.  Rich started with the flooring in the kitchen- bye bye old work out pine floors!  They went out pretty smoothly- a few hours of hard work and he had everything out through the laundry room.  The next day he rented the concrete polishing machine to grind down the black glue that had been under the wood.   The next day he spent most of the day cleaning from the dust that it kicked up!  I was happy to be away from th...

With the main area's of the house all painted... we focused our attention on the kitchen: We Started with white appliances, white laminate countertops, white square backsplash, and a white shallow bowl sink. Pine wood floors with worn spots, and a narrow doorway from the kitchen to the living room. First... we started pulling off wallpaper... We got "lucky" and not only did we have one layer of wallpaper with a border on top- but two layers below the first layer! With the wallpaper pulled off, we had torrential rains here and flooding that caused schools to be closed one day.  I came out of my room where I had been talking to a friend to find Rich was bored and had started pulling off the backsplash. A few more weeks went by, and then Rich decided to see what was in the wall between the kitchen and living room.

Amazingly Spring Break in The Woodlands, and spring break in Edmond were on the same week.  By the time it rolled around- our girls were really missing friends, and we all needed a break from the house projects.  We decided some time up with friends would be just the right thing. Happy to be seeing friends: Breakfast lovingly made by Alyssa and her friend Brenna as we stayed at Brenna's house: We managed to surprise Ashley's best friend- she didn't know we were visiting... :) Ashley and Alyssa were willing to have an Easter Egg hunt with Angela on Easter.

January brought new schools, new wards, new houses...  We lived in a temporary rental for the month of January, and a few days in February.  The new schools had different time schedules, different expectations and rules.  We had a lot of family time though and lots of time to help with homework (which seemed to be a lot more) and to fit in some fun stuff... Movie nights, and house hunting. In February we bought a house, and camped out in it for a weekend and then got our stuff delivered.   Then the fun(?) began... First we started with painting the upstairs rooms... Ashley's bedroom, bathroom, the Family Room, Hallway, Alyssa's bedroom, Jack and Jill Bathroom, and Angela's bathroom. We actually got lucky and liked most of the paint samples we bought... so we didn't have to go back too many times to decide on colors.  Each of the kids got to choose their own color for their room/bathroom area's.  Ashley showed an amazing sense of color and he...

So I haven't posted on here since we announced we were moving!!  Major updates are needed on what our family has gone through in the last 8 months.  I'll try and start updating here, and keep to chronological order- just to document things a little better. The month of December looked like this for us.  Rich started a new job in The Woodlands, Tx.  He lived in a hotel, while the kids and I were up in Edmond finishing out the School Semester before Christmas. December is always a busy month.  To make it even more emotional- our little dog Jojo went missing, and we searched and searched for him, but never found him.  Add Moving, and Rich being gone into the mix, and I relied on help from friends a lot!  The kids could not handle us not pulling things out and decorating for our last christmas in the house in Edmond, so we went to work- I was incredibly happy when Rich was able to come back a week before Christmas to help us wrap up loose e...

We are moving!!   For more details check this out: http://juleschattin.blogspot.com/2015/12/home-is-where-heart-is.html