It SNOWED in Houston!!!!

It happens once about every 4 years but it actually snowed in Houston yesterday! It didn't stick around and the temps are supposed to get back up in the 70's this weekend. :-( I guess enjoy it while you can.

Kitchen is One Step Closer

We just had the granite put in. Yeah!!! One step closer to finishing.

Entertainment Center

We finally started the entertainment center. I am so excited to have this because I hate to look at wires behind the tv. This thing has become a lot bigger than I originally thought it would be but couldn't figure out a way to make it work on only a portion of the wall. As you can see from the picture the house is coming along. We are finally painting, which in my eyes is a major milestone. We hope to start moving some things into the house in about 2 weeks. We will still have some work to do but most of that will be outside so we won't have to live in a torn up house. I hope to post the completed kitchen this weekend!!

Happy Halloween!!

Work had a little fun for Halloween and did a pumpkin carving/decorating contest. I thought I would post them because they turned out some pretty cool pumpkins. The winner was:



The honorable mentions are below.

Pool and Pups

The game room is finished enough that we were able to get the pool table moved in so Aimee and Ray could close on their house. There is still work that has to be done to get it completely finished so it has been covered and there will no playing pool until it is completely finished (sorry Justin!!).



When we work at the house we like to have the dogs over there. They run around and play while we work. We usually put in long hours over there on the weekends. Here are a few pictures of them after they have worn themselves out.
Yes she is actually sleeping standing up!



Here they are waiting patiently by the truck while we pack up to go home.

The Work Continues - House 2

Work is continuing on the second house. We took out 2 walls to help create a nice open area between the kitchen and family room and between the family room and dining room. Wow, did it make a difference. I am excited to see the finished product. We are having to do a little more work than was originally planned because the previous owners cut a few corners. Therefore, the nice granite that was there is being ripped out and replaced.

We also had a little mishap with one of the contractors. While they were in the attic adding the bracing to remove the walls...his helper "forgot" that he's not supposed to walk on sheetrock!!! Luckily he didn't fall all the way through but Justin said he peaked his head around the corner to see what all the ruckus was about and saw a leg dangling into the family room. You can see the damage he caused in the pictures below.





We have started working on the cabinets that will line the hallway between the house and the garage. That room will basically end up being a mud room.

Hurricane Ike!!!!

I am going to go a little out of order because Hurricane Ike has caused us to be without power for over a week now. I had planned on putting up some more pictures from renovating the house first but without power I am doing this in the little free time I have at work.

Storm prep extended a little longer than we had planned because the dumpster company never came to empty the dumpster. So at about 6:00 that evening as the winds were starting to pick up Mike and Justin were out there tying down the trash so nothing would blow into a neighbor's house!


Some people's ideas of protecting their windows was comical to us so I decided to grab a picture. My feeling is...whats the point if that's all you are going to do.


The storm rolled in Friday night. We lost power about 10:30 that night. The winds were impressive..whipping trees around. Surprisingly we didn't get as much rain as I had expected.

Now for the aftermath. Here is a picture from the bay window. The neighbor's tree fell into our driveway about 4:30 in the morning. It missed the house by inches.


The turbines flew off and landed next to each other in the backyard. Yes that is exactly where they landed.


Here's the neighbor's tree again. The sidewalk at the bottom of the picture is in our front yard and used to be flat. The roots of the tree are pushing it up and the tree is leaning precariously into the street. We are waiting for the tree guys to come take it down but I think they are all a little busy right now.


The house sustained some roof damage in the back. If you look closely you can see the missing shingles at the top.


Justin had to duct tape the holes where the turbines came off to try to prevent any more water damage to the ceiling. How sad does he look? Awwwww.


Surveying the damage at my parents house. Luckily they only lost their back fence but now they have a pool!




Baleigh was a trooper all day traveling with us between houses to check on everything. She was exhausted by the end of the day.

Final Pictures of House #1

Here are the highlights of the first house. This house is finally on the market!! The kitchen is probably my favorite room in this house. It turned out exactly the way I wanted it.






The backyard changed quite a bit. There used to be banana trees all over the backyard but we pulled those up as best we could. They are still popping up every once in a while. TIP: Unless you want banana trees forever...don't plant them. They don't go ever stop growing!!!



The family room turned out nice. Taking down the cabinets between the kitchen and family room really helped open up the room.




The dining room table is on loan from Aimee and Ray (thanks!).


The master bath turned out amazing. I am going to miss this room. The next house has a much smaller master bath.


The closet is something we are going to miss as well. The master at the new has smaller closets that will take some getting used to.


The master bedroom is below. Pretty typical.

Finally started House #2

We finally got started on house # 2 over the weekend. A little info on the house...the house appears to have been remodeled and sold about a year ago but went into foreclosure almost immediately. Luckily that means there isn't too much work (except that we want to change the layout a little bit). Below is a picture of the front of the house...needs a little help with the curb appeal.

We plan on taking out the wall between the family room and the dining room to help open up the house. This should also give the family more light than there is now. The pictures below show the wall we will be removing. The picture on the left is of the dining room...to the right of the dining room is the view from the kitchen into the family room.


We're going to change the kitchen a little also. We plan on opening it up to the family room by taking out the wall.



The house currently has 3 bedrooms.



We will be closing in an extra room off the family room that can be used as a bedroom. We will use it as a game room (thank you Aimee and Ray for loaning us the pool table for the next couple of years!).



The house has 2 bathrooms. The 2nd bath doesn't need much work.

The master bath was also remodeled but the work done is very interesting. You can't tell from the picture but there is a step up to get to the shower. We believe they decided to move the shower but didn't want to break into the foundation so they just ran it above ground and created a platform.



The hallway containing the bedrooms is a little jumbled. I am hoping to be able to pull out the extra door jamb to create a cleaner look.



The backyard is also in need of some help. We will end up pulling out almost everything and starting over. We are going to redo the back patio.





I think the garage is going to be Justin's favorite thing about this house. It is a 2.5 car garage. The previous owners had an extra bathroom out there that was probably used as a pool house when there was a pool. We will tear it out and make a great garage where Justin can work on the projects I have in store for him.



There is a hallway connecting the house and the garage. It currently houses what we suspect was a kosher kitchen. We are tearing this out and will be installing some storage cabinets.



We are very excited to get this house started and completed. I am looking forward to seeing the changes that we will be making.