More Updates To Peggy Sue

I am going to work backwards on this post and try to remember all the things we have done since my last post.

1. Today I got up at 4:30 AM because I couldn't sleep for some reason. I ended up watching YouTube videos for about and hour and a half. What type of videos you might wonder? How to skim coat walls. That's what kind. Our kitchen is ready to be skim coated and I didn't want to have to pay someone or wait for my dad to come over and do it for me. So At 7 AM Bean and I were in the car on the way to Grandpa and Grandma's to pick up some required tools. Grandpa hooked us up with everything we needed to get started and we were home by 8AM. I wanted to practice in an area that wouldn't see much of the light of day- Behind the fridge ( or where the fridge will go when we move it out of the dining room) was the area we settled on.

before wallpaper removal and skim coating

After skim coat completed- needs to be sanded yet

According to YouTube you can coat over wallpaper- WRONG!!! I got about a 1' x 2' area done when it started to bubble- 20 minutes later I had sponged down the rest of the wall and scraped off the offending bubbles along with all the other bits of wallpaper. It went fairly smoothly after that. I completed that area and then I did behind the stove. Both came out very well but I want to sand them down after they are dry to make sure I did it right - prior to completing the rest of the kitchen that people will actually see.

2. Removing drywall 101. Let Jake do it. : ) Jake measured out what parts of the drywall needed to be removed and took it all out yesterday. He scored it with a razor knife and it came off in large hunks. I took the pieces out to our refuse pile (all the things we are removing from the house that can not be re-used.) behind the garage. By the time he was done removing the drywall all we had to do was sweep up and run the vacuum. It really opened up the area only having exposed studs blocking the view- giving us a new perspective of what our house will look like in about 4-6 weeks.

My brother Caleb came by today to look at the wiring as he is going to be our resident electrician here next week. All my other electrically inclined brothers are far to busy to come and take time off work / away from family to re-wire our house. Its pretty impressive what my baby brother can do.

3. Painted a mural. Sort of. I got up early one morning last week and painted a giant tree on our dining room wall. The plan is to place photos of our families in the branches of the tree and it will be our "family tree". I know its bragging to talk up my own skills but even I was impressed at how well the whole thing turned out. it really looks pretty professional. I guess I still have a little artist in me.

4. Painted the "frunch room". We are calling it a frunch room because years ago Jake read me a piece about how you know you are from Chicago if... and one example was if your mom ever told you to go sit down in the "frunch" room (Front room). For some reason that really resonated with us and now we have a front room.  For my birthday I wanted to paint the frunch. We went in to Farm and Fleet and picked out the paint for that and the dining room and we picked Sulpher Green. I like to think of it more as a warm country green. Its very soothing and looks so amazingly nice with our "new" furniture. We inherited some furniture from Jake's mom because she was moving to a smaller place this month. We had to drive to Chicago to get it and help her disassemble all her other furniture but then it was ours. The "new" couch looks so lovely in our green frunch and we finally started hanging some wall art. Jake's favorite paining "The Singing Butler" looks so nice hanging there as well. The eventual plan is to put the TV in the fireplace room but until then we have it in the frunch.

5. Jake assembled my grill. That was my birthday present this year.  I wanted a grill the entire time we were in TX and for my birthday this year Menards had a great sale combined with a rebate so we walked away with a great grill for an even better price. Jake and I agreed that the reason it was so cheap was because it was so dang difficult to put together. But he is amazing and it is so shiny and pretty. My birthday present from my dad was a tank(full) to go with my grill. AWESOME!
We went over to my parents the day after my birthday to celebrate. We had BLTs and Angle Strawberry Dessert ( way better than just cake) for dinner and then just hung out for a while. My bestie Katie came up the following Friday to take me out to the movies. It was a great weekend!

6. We painted the laundry room and decided to see what was under the nasty carpet- tile! Once again, who does that? We ended up tearing up the carpet in both bathrooms as an encore to the laundry room. Same tile under it all. At least I feel like I can get the floors "clean" now and there was so much mold on those rugs. Lots of bleach water was used to kill it all and it looks amazing now. We will be recovering these rooms in the near future but until then this will be an adequate fix.

7. Jake has cut firewood to his heart's content. He chopped down several trees and bushes we didnt' want and took the brush and separated it from the real wood and it is all cut and stacked on the back part of our property ready for a campfire once the weather breaks and we get some rain. We are under a no burn order right now.

8. Jake tore off the ugly facade that was on the fireplace and we are debating whether to keep it or not. I like the idea of a fireplace but the practicality of it as well as the placement are not ideal. We will see on this project.

9. Painted Thor's Orange Stripe around his room. This was a major undertaking and one that I think came out so well due to Jake and my amazing teamwork. He applied the painters tape while I held the level - then while he painted I smoothed out the tape against the wall about 6-10 inches in front of him so that it stuck in all the little textured areas. This way we got the cleanest line possible on a textured surface. My dad who has painted all his life even said we did a really good job. That felt good. : ) It also helped that Thor thinks its awesome.

That is all I can think of right now but we are busy every day from the time we get up until the time we put the kids down for the night. We seem to be getting the earwig situation under control- I only kill about 4-5 a day in the house now and that is a HUGE improvement to the dozens we were killing every day when we moved in.  I realize now why my dad said I had bitten off more than I could chew when I said I wanted to be done with the house in a month. Now my goal is 2 months. I am a firm believer in doing most things myself and when the big part (taking down the walls and leveling the floor) are done I think Jake and I can do the rest ourselves. I am thankful every day for a talented family who is able to assist us in this major undertaking. We couldn't do it without them.

Picture update of Moving from Texas and the beginning of Peggy Sue's Face Lift.

Getting ready to clear out of our empty house in Texas.

We made it out of TEXAS!!!! Oklahoma never seemed so awesome!

The first thing you see in Oklahoma after the welcome sign.

Baleigh and her puppy fast asleep in the car. They napped together alot.

Our wrecked kitchen prior to us doing more wrecking.

More kitchen boxes

First kitchen face lift. All the paneling is gone and cupboards painted.

Yucky yellow bathroom. With carpet on the floor. Gross

Our new "cracker crumb" bathroom with soon to be removed carpeting

Baleigh's room waiting to be painted "possibly pink"

Baleigh's room painted and put together. Minus her soon to come curtains.

Tackling the first plumbing issue in our new house. I ended up calling the plumber after three DIY attempts.

Updated swing set from one of my parent's neighbors. Two cans of spray paint later it looks nice.

Peggy Sue- We're HOME!!!

WE are finally home in our very own house on Peggy Sue Drive. It couldn't sound any more 1950s and that is how it feels too. We are at the end of a dead end street that has giant old trees and sprawling yards (for a house in town). We are under construction and I will be updating the blog to reflect all the DIY stuff we are completing here in Casa de Nielsen. We have to find a name for the house but until we do it will remain casa de nielsen. :)

Just a quick run down of what we have completed in the past 16 days.

1. Painted Baliegh's room "Possibly Pink"
2. Painted Thor's Room "GI Green"
3. Painted Master Bedroom "Bran Muffin"
4. Painted Main Bath "Cracker Crumb"
5. Painted Master Bath "Spring Shower"
6. Scrubbed all closets with bleach water and repainted them.
7. Painted kitchen cabinets bright white (mom and nephew cole primed them all for me one day) after lots of scrubbing with Fantastic! That stuff is Fantastic.
8. Stripped all the yucky paint off cabinets and drawers and have the first coat of white paint on them.
9. Ripped off all the nasty panelling in the kitchen and began prepping the walls for its next step.
10. Ripped out nasty carpet in kitchen- who carpets a kitchen?
11. Spent 3 days scrubbing the shower/tub before feeling it was clean enough to allow someone to even see much less take a shower in- it actually glistens now. Amazing what a Scotch Brite sponge and Bar Keepers Friend will do.
12. Planted a garden - Thank's to my dad for coming over the tilling the ground on moving day. I can't wait to taste a fresh tomato.
13. Jake and Baleigh cut down and removed at least 4 bushes and several overgrown tree branches and now we have a huge pile of brush to burn.
14. Sprayed the foundation of the house for bugs - I hate earwigs almost as much as southern roaches. I am determined to be rid of the vermine by this fall. I am thankful for catching some amazing sales at Farm and Fleet (where we are regulars now) on lots of necessary items. We have been very careful to find items made in the USA so we are supporting local and American made products whenever we can.
15. Soaked and scrubbed all the light switch covers and outlet plates so we could recycle them instead of buying new. We are trying to be as green as possible in our rehab of the house.
16. Washed all windows and window frames out since they were SUPER gross.
17. Removed range hood that had NEVER seen soap . Hello deep fryers.
18. Jake cleaned out the garage - He was so brave to take on all the creepy crawlers in there.
19. Repainted our second hand swingset
20. Purchased and installed new appliances.
21. Discovered and remedied both a plumbing and an dryer malfunction.
22. Kept our yard looking immaculate the entire time!

WE are kind of tired today- I don't know why.. LOL

First Toothfairy Visit to the Nielsen House

Tuesday Thor lost his first tooth. We were on our way back from Seaworld and he was wiggling it with his tongue and it got stuck sideways in his gums. He said that it hurt and wanted me to pull it out for him. I gave it one little tug and out it came. He was so excited he couldn't stop smiling the rest of the way home. That night he got his first visit from the tooth fairy. She is much more generous that when I was a kid. She left him a note about keeping his teeth clean and healthy and left him $1.

Less than a week!

Here we are just 4 days away from picking up the moving truck. I can not believe the time is gone and we are here. It is such a relief and a ton of stress at the same time. Leaving the Army is about 10 times more difficult than joining. I guess it is to deter those who don't really want to leave. Yeah right!

The house will be packed by Tuesday night and I am praying that I can snag a few guys from my shop to come by and help us pack truck on Wednesday afternoon. That would be great and take some of the physical strain off of Jake and I. We had originally thought that we would have two full days to pack the truck but due to some Army scheduling we now have all day on Wednesday and until 10 AM on Thursday morning. We will be "homeless" after our 11 AM housing inspection and will be at a hotel here in Killeen until Friday morning. I have go to one final meeting on Friday morning where I will receive my DD 214 ( piece of paper showing that I served in the military). After that I run (literally) down to the finance office and then I am cleared from the Army. I will then race (in the car) over to my unit and drop off copies of my paperwork. Then I am truly free to leave.

I will head back to the hotel and pick up Baleigh and Porkchop in the car and Jake and Thor will be taking the moving truck. Hopefully it will only be about 10 AM at this point and we can get the heck out of dodge.

The plan is to make it to Missouri by the time the sun sets and finish our trip to our new home on Saturday. Sunday we should be doing some unpacking and spending Sunday lunch with the family. Between now and then we have the potential for two new nieces to be born!!! We are looking forward to seeing family and friends and getting settled into our new fabulous life.

Just to catch you all up in case you missed it.

Tuesday Thor lost his first tooth on the way back from Sea World. It had been wiggly for some time so he was so happy for it to come out. The tooth fairy left him one whole dollar which he quickly spent at the thrift store the next day buying a Pug puppy (stuffed animal) that he named Mr Beefy (after a book of poems he got at the library called "I ate A Pie"- a little pug eats a pie in case you were wondering).

We had free passes to use at SeaWorld before the end of the year and since there are few places like this in the Midwest we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go one more time. The kids has  an awesome time and we even got to sit in the splash zone at he Orca show. That water is COLD and SALTY in case you were wondering. lol. One of the highlights was getting to feed the California Sea Lions some fish and squid. I hope this is an experience that the kids remember for a lifetime. I know that I will.

Lemonade Day!

 Last Saturday morning the kids participated in their first ever National Lemonade Day. They planned out what types of drinks they wanted to sell, and how they were going to buy their products. It was fun to put together a business plan with them and explain how to advertise and choose a location for their stand. We set up outside the community life office on Fort Hood and were out there for about 3 hours. They ended up with a good profit. They gave 20% to the Wounded Warrior Project, put 20% in savings and the other 60% they got to put in their spending piggy bank. I want to help them learn good money handling techniques while they are young so the grow up to be fiscally responsible adults.

Jake's Birthday

Jake's Birthday was on Wednesday but we celebrated a bit early this year. We have been looking forward to going to see the new Avengers movie for some time now and so on Tuesday I look an all afternoon lunch and the whole family headed to the theater. I can not even remember the last movie we went to since we have been on a rather strict budget for quite some time now. We got there only to find that Tuesdays are half off days. So we paid half the price we had planned on, allowing us to splurge and get SNACKS!!! Baleigh really wanted nachos and I got the boys a huge tub of popcorn and we shared 2 drinks. All in all it cost less than we had planned - Winning!!! The movie did not disappoint and we all had a blast.

Baleigh had the guy next to us laughing at some of her observations. At one point about 10 minutes into the film she said "I thought this was about the Avengers- why aren't they wearing their superhero costumes?" She is quite the big fan of Dr. Banner A.K.A. the Hulk. Her favorite part of the movie was when Hulk wakes up Iron man by roaring at him. It was pretty amusing.

Wednesday I had another rather short day at work so we decided to just hang out at home since it was raining. In the morning Baleigh remembered it was Jake' B-day and ran over and gave him a big hug and sang happy birthday.

I picked up a small Tiramisu Cake that he loves, and dinner was a big surprise from Grandma Diane. She had sent us a double order of Portillos Italian Beef Sandwiches!!! One order was for Jake's big day and the other was for Mother's Day. Best gift ever!!! 

I got Jake a special vegetable chopper for the kitchen that he has had his eye on for some time now. I actually had to talk him out of buying it last week because I had already gotten it for him. Unfortunately I left it in my desk at work on his actual birthday so he got it a day late.

He had a phone call from Diane first thing in the morning and then from Bill and Cori and my family later in the evening. All said a pretty decent birthday.