Home Ownership. Part 2.

Alright friends. If last weekend was popcorn scraping awesomeness, this weekend was a sanding extravaganza. As you can tell from many of the following photos, this was the weekend of prepping for texture. Already we're a little behind schedule... but such is life, right?? Here are a few of the weekend highlights:

This is what the boys look like after just a few hours of sanding. From left to right: David, James, Cody, Jordan (the brother-in-law)

This, my friends, is what my living room walls currently look like. After many hours of sanding and re-sanding, we've filled in all the nooks and crannies with buckets of joint compound. Again, check out the awesome scaffold -- the husband's idea.

This is what my husband looks like when I say, "Hey babe, go stand over there and stretch out your arms so people can see the difference between the old opening and the new one!"

This is what our pantry looks like at present.

This is what I look like when I'm sanding the ceiling. In my head, I'm singing, "I hate. this. part. right. here.... I hate. this. part. right. heeeeeerrrreeee!!!

This is what my husband looks like while sanding the ceiling.

This is what I look like after a day's worth of sanding. If someone had told me how I look a lot more creepy than cute, I might have chosen a different task for the day. Eeeek!

So we didn't wind up tackling the texture. I had hoped we'd get that done this weekend, but it'll all get done eventually. Our new goal is to texture this Saturday. Here's hoping!!! So far nothing catastrophic has happened, and we've really been humbled and blessed by the situation. We have far too many people helping us out than we deserve - and it's such an encouragement to have friends who are willing to get messy and yucky -- just so we can have a cute house someday....


Speaking of dear friends, some you know the Sandlins, some of you don't. But they're very near and dear to us Smiths, and we found out recently that Dustin's (head honcho's) job is taking him in a new direction. He'll be living up North during the week and flying down home every weekend. If you pray, I hope that you would pray for the Sandlins. They're friendship and family-ship (not a real word) is so valuable to us... Look how cute they are:

This is what they look like when I say, "Hey y'all get together so I can take a picture of you guys!

And this is what they look like on a regular basis. :) Just kidding, guys... Love y'all!!

"We. Are. Fam. A-ly!"

Home Ownership and promised before pics.

It's official. We own the house.... Eeeek! And so it begins...

This is a before shot of our living room. The plan: remove ceiling texture, knock down some shelves, open up the doorway to the kitchen, knock out the wet bar, and turn that bar into a pantry on the other side. Oh, and remove the awesome, awesome panels. PS. This is not our furniture. Just sayin'.

Yes, friends. That would be my husband. With a water hose. In the living room... This is how we drenched our ceilings to get rid of all the popcorn. I'm pretty sure this is actually the proper way to remove ceiling texture.

Step two. Scrape said popcorn off the ceilings. This is our awesome scaffold system in the living room. Those are ten-foot ceilings, friends. And I'm not a fan of heights. Thankfully, with the Walkers' help, we knocked this room out in about 30-45 minutes -- and finished the whole house in a day.... Best friends ever.

Our future pantry.

The living room walls withOUT the massive panels. It's a step...

David and our friend, James taking out some shelves.

So far, we've been pretty productive. As most DIY home projects, we're running into a few unexpected tasks, but we really got a lot accomplished in weekend one, so I have high hopes. This weekend we take on re-texturing and possibly ripping up the floors. We've got a long way to go, but I'm guessing March will be here before we know it. Thankfully, we have amazing friends who actually like doing this stuff (or at least pretend they do for our sake! :)) Check back later for more updates, and until then, happy home-owning!

"That's why we build, and re-build. We put away what was and make room for what will be. You hold the nails, I'll take the hammer. I hold it still if you climb the ladder. If you will, then I will build."