Monday, December 26, 2011

merry chris...

a day late. i know.  but i hope you six people who read this had a great holiday.  we stayed home (oreeegon) and my folks spoiled us like crazy as usual.  so so so thankful for them, they truly are the cats pajamas. i drank too much wine (weird), my sister brought her dog home, we got gifts from santa (aka lynn long island), we wedding planned (for em and i took notes for my second wedding when walk and i are donzo),  we went to the aughenbaughs, we (dan) got diarrhea for the 3rd year in a row from the crab and shrimp on xmas eve, we ate perfect prime rib and greens, we laughed at dan, we cried (just walker), we watched the girl with the dragon tattoo (awesomely close to the book plus d craig is a babe), we did puzzles (just me), we continued to work on the house... perfect weekend.
soon to be loftons...

christmas time

mama

daniel is amused.. missing his woman.

this is walkers "kissing" face

 
happy holidays kids. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

We are in like flyn

finally it has happened to me, right in front of my face, and i just cannot hide it.  if you didn't just sing that, read it again.

the templeton's have left the basement. we made it.  only twice thought about leaving each other or accidentally burning the house (with one of us inside) down. whoever said remodels are tough on a relationship was exactly right.  we actually did pretty well up until last week.  if you are wondering how a simple "good morning babe, do you want to get coffee?" can turn into "you didn't talk to me about that.  how much is it? why?  it doesn't even make sense.  you never communicate.  i don't care if this is in phil knights house.  why are you wearing that to paint in. oh my god, it's like talking to a child. when are we moving in? that was a stupid movie. you are bleeding right now.  we are selling this house in a year anyway. no we are not.  you have to start by pretending we don't have a budget. no, i don't want coffee. can we move in tomorrow?  architect means professional drawer not boss.  i hate you so much right now.  what did you say about my mom? we will always have a budget! seriously, you are still bleeding, it looks infected.  i like red.  i hate red. wait, tell me again how much that was...." come to our house, and we will show you, it's quite impressive.

i want that light

and that one...

these are our cabinets and this is a similar layout to what our kitchen will be. but ours will be radder.

inspiration

i want.

in our condo we had a full bed.  we upgraded to a queen when we moved into our last house and thought it was the biggest thing ever.  the past three months we have been sleeping on a king at my parents house.  when we got into bed last night the first thing walker said was, "you are awfully close..." add king size bed to the never ending list... so happy to be in the house.  we are too giddy to care about our arms in constant contact all night long - even when walker has sleep tremors and shakes.  all. night. long.

Monday, November 21, 2011

yes

dry to the wall

i wish i was organized and could show you people wicked awesome sequenced before and after photos like those people who blog for a living do... but i am not.  i sift through hundreds of random photos and try to pick the ones that show progress the most.  walker totes redesigned the master bedroom and the hallway to add an extra bedroom - without too much disruption and still managing to keep enough closet space for all. of. my. clothes.  he's like tom the builder from pillars of the earth only better.

before
after
so
fresh and so
so clean
 view from dining room to new hallway
new bedroom sans window

dry wall is completo. hard wood floors are in (next post).  headed west to MT for thanksgiving.  looking forward to seeing kiddos.  not looking forward to the drive in this weather.  if we don't make it - it's been real world wide web.

Monday, November 14, 2011

update

it is groundhog day with the templetons.  eat. sleep. work. work on house.  start all over again - with an occasional libba drinks an entire bottle of wine added in the mix.  we are both extremely busy with our regular jobs.  the jobs that we need to succeed in order to pay the mortgage for this fun "project" we started.  progress has been made.  yes it has.  when you see it every day it's hard to notice - much like gaining weight.  i asked walker if all he did was sweep last sunday, it didn't go over well - he was up in the crawl space taking out another load bearing beam (a beam that i didn't even notice, but he wanted the closet in the master bedroom to be 'floating') all day. his perfectionism and attention to detail is beyond anything i have ever experienced. 



look at all that trash

imagine a kitchen one day

new bedroom


this will soon be a wall.

take it off!

1. dining room before - walls every where

2. opening up

3.  boom.

"getting there" is walker's motto.  i hope so, because unless you live in china, living with your parents passed 20 is just not natural.  on either sides of the house.  i know they want us out just as bad. 

Monday, October 31, 2011

happy halloween

from margot and richie





 and the brawny man

and hall and oats...

going to hand out candy at my folks house tonight.  super excited to see what Bo the two year old down the street is going to wear.  i love him.  he is really tan, has long blond hair and always has a pacifier in his mouth. he is buff, sometimes he doesn't wear a shirt and i swear he has a six pack.  he screams when he doesn't get enough attention (who doesn't?), he is always pushing something and always on the run. fast.  sometimes he wears his sister's mini pink uggs, but he doesn't care, because he is that comfortable in is own skin. bo the barbarian. i am fairly certain he has anger problems and he is starting to show signs of beginning bullying.  but i don't care,  i think he is the coolest and cutest kid on the block.  if it wasn't super creepy and or illegal i would show you a picture of him. 

yesterday on my run, he waived at me and yelled "goobye".  i died.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

be aggressive b. e. aggressive

remember when i said walker's middle name should be sweat equity?  i changed my mind.  it should be aggressive on time lines.  walker aggressive on time lines templeton.  i am just going to say it.  we are not going to make it in the house before d day (thanksgiving) and i am getting anxious (well, more anxious than normal).  dry wall is going in this weekend, which leaves us about three weeks for the hardwoods; put in, sand, stain, work our regular jobs full time.  walker has never put in hardwoods inside before.  the wood is from africa (i am not even joking), which probably means harder than concrete, which probably means it will take him as long as it did to do the old deck, which means  F.O. R. E. V. E. R. 
blackmail.  walker in a husky sweatshirt.

when i get frustrated about our situation (living with my folks, being far from work during my busy season, half of our clothes and all of our belongings in storage, spending all of our flipping money on the house) walker has a special way of making me feel worse.  he is by nature much more easy going than i am.  when i complain, he never fails to remind me that it could be worse, that we are so lucky my parents are letting us stay with them, that the house didn't fall down when he took out the load bearing wall, that one of his friends lived in a trailer with his two small kids during a remodel that lasted a year.... yes walker.  i know.  it could be worse, there are homeless people living on the streets. thanks dick. 

walker + libba, before house projects. 
i feel i must mention after all of this he is doing a fab job and he is really handsome.  "sweat equity" could still be his middle name. "just listening to your wife vent every once in a while, without making her feel like she should go volunteer" should not.

go cards.

Monday, October 17, 2011

demo

Who is stressed?  Raise your hand if your face looks like it did (tho not as chubby) your freshman year of college because of the break outs... just me?  This phase was all about demo.  ripped out carpet and particle board underneath, knocked out walls, took off wallpaper, took out entire kitchen.  a lot has been done.  sometimes i would walk in and turn around and walk out, it's a tad overwhelming.  just a tad.  especially when all of the house is in three very large piles scattered in the driveway and around the house.  and when walker says, "don't touch that wire, it is live" or "watch out for mouse poop" or "looks like it is going to cost $1,000 just to get rid of trash" or "i stabbed myself in the ankle with a nail" or "we could do without a kitchen for 6 months, right?"...

riping up carpet and particle board to replace with plywood and then hardwoods on top.  most. fun. ever.

opening up this b*tch to see the view.

dining room.  beautiful.

like you care, but that is a load bearing wall.

walker decided to go ahead and rip out the entire kitchen.  awesome.

this is a closet that we are turning into another bedroom.

Remodels are mother effing stressful. on your time, your pocket book, your relationship, your face, your mom.  i do want to mention that walk man is doing an awesome job.  on both the budget and the work. i was blown away to walk in last week and see all of the new walls and rooms framed, it's coming together folks. 

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Before

i think i might be the worst blogger ever. i wanted to blog a recap of summer.  forgot. the other day i wore a cute outfit and i wanted to take a picture of myself and blog about it.  i didn't.   i wanted to blog about that vintage chair i found at a flea market for $20 and re upholstered with amazing fabric i had laying around.  none of that even happened - and frankly i get annoyed (jealous) when i see other bloggers do it so easily.   i wanted to blog weekly about house updates.... we have been at it for a month now and nothing. don't hate the playa hate the game.*
This post is entirely dedicated to before pictures. teal carpet, floral wall paper, fake wooden beams, wood paneled wall,  awkward closets, dry rotted deck, weird built ins on kitchen counter tops... soak it all in freaks and geeks cause it is all going.








it gets crazy from now on.  like people who major in math crazy....


*-Do not fault the successful participant in a flawed system; try instead to discern and rebuke that aspect of its organization which allows or encourages the behavior that has provoked your displeasure. Used by pimps and pimpettes to clear up the truth on the pimp/pimpette game.