GGville

While Mark and I are home toiling away on the house, the girls are happily ensconced in GGville.  (For those of you not familiar with this, it stands for Gramma and Grampa ville.)  We've discovered that GGville is a lot like Disneyland, only with less rules...
GGville has things not seen in the normal world.  Like breakfast dessert.  There are no chores required, and things like teeth and hair brushing, and showers are not required.  I'm not even sure if they are suggested.  But, really, what are grandparents for if not to spoil your children and then send them home, right?

Life is rough...

Since the girls were gone,  Mark and I took a trip to IKEA in Salt Lake to outfit Syd's bathroom (also the main/guest bath) with a vanity.  Unfortunately, I should never enter IKEA.  We came home with a pick-up load of stuff.  We bought light fixtures, towel racks, toilet paper holders, and a myriad of other things that we just had to have.  And when I say "we" this is not a figurative "we".  Mark was just as bad as I was!

One of our projects upon returning home was finding a place for the tv in the family room.  I think what we came up with will look pretty cool.

This is a picture of the fireplace in the family room before...

That area now looks like this...

The tv will go above that box.  The box is actually a built in for the DVR etc.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the wall is actually built out a bit...a little architectural flair, if you will.  I think once it's painted it will be pretty cool.  We opted to take out the fireplace since it was one of two wood burning fireplaces in the house.  We really would never have used this one.  The one in the living room will stay however.

As for the rest of the house, the drywallers are done, as is the roofer.  The tape/mud guys were there for part of today and will be back tomorrow.  Once they are done, I take over.  I've got to prime and paint the entire house.  Seriously. 

We will prime the entire house using one type of primer for the existing, and one type for the new drywall.  Why?  Really, it all comes down to money.  We are using Kilz on the existing house to cover any gross smells, and or stains (I haven't seen any, but I'm not taking my chances.  Yes, I DO have issues...).  The Kilz is way more expensive than the primer we are using for the new drywall. 

After I/we prime, they will come back and texture.  Once the texture is done, I can put on the first coat of paint.  We still have floors to put down, as well as all the new doors, mouldings, cabinets, backsplashes, tile in the shower, another coat of paint, etc, etc, etc.  Some of the remaining work will be done by us.  The rest we will hire out.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it. 

The past couple days, Mark has been home.  We've gone over around 7am and not been home until 9pm at the earliest.  He goes back to work tomorrow, so since the kids are gone, we'll head over when he gets off work.  We both were excited to get done by 5 today, and couldn't wait to come home and sit on the couch.  Just about the time we started talking about it, we got a call that someone wanted to show our current house.  So, we headed to our home away from home...Home Depot.  The employees there are starting to recognize us.  I don't think that's a good sign...

The drywall truck

Our bedroom with drywall. 
The blue area is the entrance to the master bath.