It is FINISHED!!

Our house in finally DONE.  Completely DONE.  Of course there are always going to be things we could improve, but we are DONE!!  It has taken a lot of work and time, but hopefully when we sell the house it will be worth it.  Kenney has really done so much work; I am amazed.  I never knew he could do half the things he did.  We have decided YouTube actually has a useful purpose.  We saved thousands of dollars doing things ourselves rather than hiring it out.  I can honestly say that I am proud of our house.  I had many MANY doubts in the beginning, but I think it looks pretty awesome!

This is one of the back bedrooms.  All of the windows and doors were painted red and white.  We aren't quite sure if they were just really excited to try out new colors or what, but the paint was new and the room was a complete mess.  We decided to paint after the ceiling was in place!  Half of this wall was super thin and half was solid wood.  We had to reinforce the wall on the other side.

Sorry about the boxes.  This is the other side of that same room.

The unfinished ceiling and lovely blue stripe they had going in the room with red doors and windows.

Another corner of the same room.  We framed over all of this mess and painted to make it look much nicer.

 AFTER

This is one of my favorite paint colors in all of the house.  Those red windows just had to go!

We discovered in this room how much we hated doors.  It was awful installing doors!

BEFORE

 

This used to be a kitchen when the houses were separated.  We had to remove the rest of the kitchen and sheet-rock the entire room.

The doorway here went into the previous bedroom, and this wall was super thin.  Kenney framed the wall and closed the doorway.

This beautiful fabric wallpaper was in random sections throughout this room.  The horrible ugly window was supposed to be replaced, but there is a long story behind that so we just had to take it out completely.

We tried to save the beadboard and paint over it, but we couldn't.  Kenney had to tear it all down and reinforce the rafters in the roof.  Needless to say, he officially hates insulation!

This shows how thin some of the wall were.  We are still amazed they were still standing.  The house is much more solid now!

 AFTER

The kitchen is no longer!  This room is completely new.  The walls, carpet, ceiling, fan, windows, etc. 

That door was a pain too.  Kenney actually built the door frame himself!  He chiseled the wood to make the hinges fit and everything.  I was amazed.  The door opens perfectly and hangs level.  What more could you ask for?

This room is huge!  I still have nightmares of painting it.  Kyler loves to run in this room because there is so much space.

 BEFORE

We were told by one of our friends that this was the scary room.  It was pretty horrible.  The floor was pretty much nonexistent. 

Basically everything in this room was falling apart.

The wood around the windows was rotten, and we have no idea how all of the glass panes were still in place.  The wood underneath the windows was beautiful, but we were not able to keep it visible.

These are the pipes from the kitchen that used to be on the other side of the wall.  They were just exposed and hanging out everywhere.

There was pretty much not a ceiling to speak of, and wires were dangling everywhere.

 AFTER

Look there is a floor and a ceiling and walls!!  What a difference those things make!

We really didn't put a whole lot of effort into this room; we just wanted to make sure it was sealed and useable.  I painted everything white because I was so tired to two different colors!

I don't know if you can really tell, but in the middle where it sticks out a little is where the pipes are.  We didn't want to take them out in case someone wanted to put a kitchen in again or make a bigger laundry room, but at least it is much cleaner now.

Getting Closer

Our days in Childress are officially numbered!!  I can't believe our big house will no longer our home.  We have put a lot of sweat, frustrations and work into our house, but it's time to move on.  We just hope that it sells quick!!  Say a prayer for us.  The boys are silly and busy as ever.  Damon is growing like crazy, and Kyler is starting to talk a lot more.  The next few weeks are going to be a little crazy, but I hope to get pictures of the house posted before we leave.  We'll see how that goes between all the packing, cleaning, etc.!

This is where I find Damon every time I come to the kitchen.  He is actually holding on to Kenney in this picture, but he'll try and get anyone to pick him up.

I thought showing Kyler how to put olives on his fingers would intrigue him to eat the olives, but that was assuming way too much!

These are my Mother's Day flowers.  Aren't they pretty?  I was so proud of Kenney for getting flowers that went perfectly with the colors of our kitchen.  (He's not the best with colors!)  He did an excellent job don't ya think?

Kyler is so funny when he gives kisses now. He tries to pucker his lips and then starts laughing in the process. It is so adorable. We didn't get the best part recorded, but I think you can get the idea. Although he is a bit crazy, he makes up for it in so many ways!!  Poor Damon is not happy in the video, but that's how it goes!

Standing Taller

 This last week and the next few weeks are all going to be CRAZY!!  We have been working on the house nonstop.  Kenney is over there all day, and I am over there as much as possible.  After the boys go to sleep we are both there til about 12 every night.  So needless to say, the boys are probably feeling slightly neglected.  We have been trying to give them am much attention as possible, but they know things are happening. 

Look who's standing all by himself!!  I'm sure if we worked with him a little more he would probably start walking, but to be honest, I'm kinda glad he's not walking yet!  The less mobile right now the better!!  Plus he's not even 9 months.

Damon thinks he's cool, and Kyler doesn't understand what the big deal is.  He stands up all the time and no one claps for him.

This is right after Kyler hit him with the blanket.  I missed the super sad face, but you get the idea!

The other morning this is how Kyler woke up.  We are not quite sure what he did to his shirt, but I don't know how he slept like that all night.

It is not unusual for me to find something dangling in midair when I go get one of the boys from their nap.  Kyler's new favorite thing is to throw anything he can at a light fixture or fan. I am still working on figuring out how to break that new habit.

All ready for church

The shirt is already untucked.  Somehow I'm not surprised!

I love this cute little boy!!

Walks are the best because both boys are happy and contained!  What more could ya want?!?

Damon is super excited for himself!! Of course once the camera came out he kept falling, but he really can stand pretty well by himself.

Destruction

I always knew my boys were more active than most kids, but I am running out of energy!  Kyler is wearing me out.  He never stops!  Every time I turn around he is getting into something new, usually while I am trying to clean up the previous disaster.  The boys have spent some time with Nana lately because I have been trying to work on the house.  She attempted to put them down for a nap at her house.  We thought it might be kinda difficult, but she thought it would be worth a try.  Well, Kyler had other ideas than sleeping.  He got into her mascara and had it all over, unwrapped all of her wrapping paper rolls, etc.  He found plenty of things to keep him awake.  Needless to say, he didn't take a nap!  Papa (Kenney's dad) looked at me and said, "Just wait til Damon is playing with him."  Yeah, I'm not real excited for that.  Here are some pictures of some recent destruction at our house.

I was making Damon's breakfast and then looked out in the living room to find this!  He did this in less than 2 mins.  I made the mistake of letting Kyler help me clean the couch the other day, and now he wants to do it every day.  He also 'helps' with the dishes and gets water everywhere.

 

Jump high!  Damon likes to climb on the cushions too.

This only takes about 10 mins

Bucket Head!!

I think Kyler's face in the picture is absolutely hilarious!!  It looks nothing like him, but it's so funny!

Sitting in the blanket bucket!

Yes, that giraffe in his hands went flying into my face right after I took this picture.  Doesn't he look so innocent?!

Damon is learning quickly to make messes too.  He has an amazing teacher so I'm not surprised!

I'm not quite sure what this face is saying

Nap time has been the most challenging part of the day lately.  Not only does Kyler get into things, but he climbs into Damon's bed and gets him involved too.  This is how I found his room one day.  I promise it was clean when I put him in there!

The other day I was trying to paint and the boys were supposed to be taking a nap.  I had the monitor in the room with me so I could hear them playing.  I went to go check on them and try to settle things down, and I could not believe what I saw when I opened the door. (That's what I should have taken a picture of)  First, Kyler was once again in Damon's bed; his giraffe was hanging in mid-air from the pull-strings of the ceiling fan; the growth chart on the wall behind the crib was pulled off the wall and torn into shreds; shoes, clothes, and blankets were thrown everywhere; curtains were pulled down; do I need to keep going?  I have found his room like this several times now.  What do I do?  What am I going to do when we move and his toys are in the same room?  It's going to be interesting for sure!!