Tiling the Sunroom

I know, I know, I haven't updated this blog is such a long time and I apologize for that! We have been certainly keeping busy around the house but there have not been any recent projects that have seemed "picture worthy" but that doesn't mean that our progress has waned. However, the most recent project that has been occupying Andrew's time since early July is finishing up the tiling in the sunroom. This is the last major project in the main part of the house and the last one on the first floor. After this is complete, I will feel so much cleaner since we will have flooring in all rooms! :)

What a project this has been, though. The room used to be an outdoor porch (prior to our living there) so it is very drafty and cold. So, Andrew installed radiant flooring underneath and also had to do some leveling out of the concrete before he even thought about tiling. Prep work is always so time-consuming and never gets the credit it deserves since it's not really seen in the final product. And then, of course, Andrew opted to take the "easy route" by laying the tiles on the diagonal, adding a decorative border and a small pattern throughout the room. He's always looking for the shortcut when doing these things (ahem, not!) :). It looks great, though, and we are excited that the end is in sight. He is nearly done with the laying of tile and will then just need to grout and seal it.

Here is a photo of Andrew and his helper Ben :) working recently. Ben is very serious about his apprentice job and always changes into his work jeans and gets the appropriate tools for the job :)

Andrew, hard at work!

Ben, doing his very important job of picking up the tile spacers and scraping off large chunks of dried mortar.

Bathroom, Part 2

I wanted to post one more picture of our hall bathroom since Andrew and I primed it white this weekend. What a world of difference! It now actually doesn't look like it's under construction anymore even though we still have to put the final coat of paint on and Andrew has to do the tile surround in the tub. We will paint it a light smokey blue color but for now, here's the kids' bathroom (aka our guest bathroom).

Hall Bathroom

Well, I haven't posted to this blog in quite some time but that doesn't mean that we have not been busy working on our seemingly endless list of tasks to do around the house. Andrew has particularly been busy with yardwork, odd jobs around the house and especially, with refinishing our upstairs hall bathroom. This was one of the rooms that will be up for the greatest improvement award once complete :) since it was totally gutted and redone from, literally, the floor up.

We are not done with the entire room yet but the toilet and sink are functional, we now have storage in there and we are hoping to prime it next weekend so that Andrew can then begin work on the tile backsplash in the tub (which will give us a second shower when guests come!). The plumbing is complete for the entire room and the tile is about 3/4 of the way done on the floor. Here are a few photos. The boys are excited to have their "monkey room" back again :)

Spring Yard Cleanup

Now that the weather has been starting to get nice, we have prioritized getting our yard cleaned up so that our house can hopefully move away from that rundown and overgrown look in time for us to enjoy the great outdoors this spring and summer. This is a large project so what a blessing it was that we did close on the house in the middle of the winter, given that there was so much inside to be tackled before we even thought about gardening. We truly would have been quite overwhelmed!

We rented one final commercial dumpster to really clean up the last of the debris in the yard and that just left this morning. Andrew and Ben have also been busy puttering around the yard gardening, mulching and weeding. My dad helped out when he visited last weekend as well. The majority of our progress, however, is thanks to a landscaping friend of ours from Bible study, Mike. He has really added that professional touch to the landscape and has made great progress the few days he has been here working. There is a long way to go, but we are on the right track!

Here are some photos of our new and improved land!

Craft Room

Andrew has been diligently working through yet another home improvement project around here and to my delight, has completed much of my craft room! Okay, I guess I should state that this room is also our laundry room and utility room...and that technically I'm supposed to share the space with the other family members. But... I'm being greedy and referring it to as my room since I have been so eagerly awaiting it :).

Despite feeling ill this weekend, I went through with hosting my annual scrapbooking weekend with the group of ladies I regularly scrapbook with since everyone had been looking forward to it and it was nice to have a break from the kids for two days. So, my room was useable in time for that and we all were able to really christen it. I love my Handy Andy! :)

Here's Handy Andy himself with Mini Me, working on installing the utility sink:



Oops! How did Natey wind up in the cabinet?



And voila! The finished masterpiece...

Here is one other photo of the opposite side of the room, showing my own work table in the bay window and the tall white cabinet that I have filled entirely with kids craft supplies. Ben loves this!

More Photos

I've finally remembered (several days late) that I promised more photos of the house as we've been getting things set up and in order. Here are a few more. We're really getting situated and at this point feeling very moved in and comfortable here. There are still many more projects to do but they'll get done when they get done. At least the boxes are out of the way and most of the house is unpacked.

The dining room. I found the best picture hangers for use on plaster walls so I hung up pictures everywhere with minimal glitches. I even found some hangers that were specially for brick and concrete. I needed to use these when I discovered that a brick wall is embedded in a few of our interior (once exterior, prior to an addition) walls. Oh, the surprises never end with a 160-year-old house!



Don't you just love this little sitting area in the bay window? We have two extra dining room chairs for when the leaves are in the table so the extra space in the large window just beckoned them and a glass end table I no longer needed in the living room. Curtains are next up on our to-do list throughout the house. Hanging pictures in plaster is one thing; having to drill holes to hang curtain rods is quite another and I have just not gotten around to it. Hopefully this weekend!

The living room. I also have a bookshelf on backorder for one wall in the living room to hold all of the random picture frames and tchotchkes that you may see laying around in some of these photos. If you look closely at the mantel, you'll see an oil painting...of our house! It was in the house when we purchased it and we thought that was pretty neat since this house has lineage that can be traced back to William Penn! So, I decided to showcase it on the mantle. As a good friend said the other night while visiting, "How very Jane Austen of you!" LOL!

Finally, the family room. This is where we spend most of our time during the day (well, the kitchen and the playroom follow closely behind). Again, curtains are needed here.

Tiling With Daddy...

There are four rooms to be tiled at our house and Andrew is more than halfway done with the biggest job: the kitchen, powder room and back hall. Lucky for him that he has a helper for all of these home improvements!

Moving...

I've never moved before. Well, not really, anyways. I went to college and lived with a friend for a year after graduation before I got married, but I only brought the necessary belongings with me in both instances. And as a poor college student or first-year worker, I had very little to bring anyways. Then when Andrew and I got married we ordered furniture and had it sent to our new house. On top of all of this, my parents are still in the house that I grew up in. So, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I never had to entirely vacate a house, knowing I'd never be back again.

The process on a whole when very smoothly. I had everything labeled and organized, we had many friends and family members to help us with the actual move (we still owe all of them big time!) and we had beautiful weather the day of the move (what are the chances in December?). It was a bittersweet time, exciting to be moving to our new house we had been waiting so long to purchase and to which Andrew had done so much work, but also sad to be leaving our first house. We have so many memories at 218 Warwick Way and so many projects we did around the house together to make it our home. But, in the end, we decided to tuck those memories in the back of our minds; we will always have them to look back on and now we will have so many more memories in our new house and town!

So, moving day finally arrived and we set about our plan to move four (yes, FOUR!) truckloads of "Martin stuff" to Telford. As I look back, December 28th will forever be engraved in my mind as my first move. The whole day went so smoothly and it just felt as if God was looking down on us in so many ways that day. The only regret I have is that I was so wrapped up in the task of moving that I forgot to take a single photo. So, no U-Haul photos (we may have to visit the local store and "recapture the moment" in front of one of the trucks for my scrapbook :) and no photos of friends huffing and puffing as they carried one of our 20 boxes of books up two flights of stairs to the attic (LOL!). But, what I do have are these few priceless photos of Ben helping Andrew pack our car about 2 weeks before the big move, when we got a babysitter for the day and Andrew and I brought over our first carload of boxes so that I could get a headstart on getting the kitchen organzied.

Getting Settled

I'm back! After a month sabatical from my blog due to a hectic move and then several problems that prevented us from becoming connected online for a few weeks (grr... the 150 year old house strikes again!), I am up and running and will be updating both blogs again regularly. Thanks to all of my *fans* who have been asking for updates!

So...we're here in Telford. It's been a month now and we are getting settled slowly. The house is defintiely a work in progress in many respects but we have come a long way. We're down to about 10 boxes in the main part of the house to go through and I took an Internet crash course on how to hammer a nail into plaster walls today so I'll be hanging some things on the walls very soon, which will make our new house feel more like a home.

In the meantime, I wanted to post a few photos of some of the rooms. More is to come over the next week, I promise, so keep checking in. And by all means, come and visit us! We love visitors and the boys would love to show you their new rooms and playroom, I'm certain.

Here is Ben's room, all "trucked out"...

Nate's room...

Kitchen. The tile floor in these photos is Andrew's latest project, soon to be complete.

Living room...

Master bedroom...

Study...

And the playroom...

I haven't had a chance to photograph the rest of the house yet but I will very soon!