Things I've Learned So Far

Neither Tim or I know much about home improvement.  At least we didn't.  But we have been thrown into the deep end of the pool, so the speak, and I think we are starting to float!  Today I would like to "show off" some of the things I have learned.

1.  It takes a lot to prep walls for painting.  They need to be cleaned, sanded, and caulked.  Oh, and holes filled with non-shrink spackle.  If you are painting a similar color on top of the one already there, you can probably get away with one coat.  If you are covering a dark color you will need two coats.  Not necessarily primer, but two coats of the color you want to use.  The first coat acts like a primer.

2.  Flat paint is the easiest to touch up.  I read lots of stuff, went to several paint stores to ask questions, and asked people who paint what kind to use.  We had originally bought a satin finish paint from Sherwin Williams.  We thought we were getting a good deal because we bought it during a 40% off sale.  But when Ken came to help us, he told us that if you don't use a flat finish, anytime you try to touch up spots it will be visible from different angles.  So we returned the original paint and got flat.  Then he told us not to buy the expensive stuff they have on the shelf, but as for Southwest Builders paint, which is their contract grade paint.  I like the way it looks on my walls and it has been MUCH more budget friendly.

3.  It's just paint.  There are going to be nicks and scratches even before the job is done, so you just touch them up.  Nothing will be perfect.  Here is exhibit A:

4.  Cutting is in hard.  This is the process of making straight lines at the tops of the walls so the rest can be rolled.  You don't need an angle brush to do it, just a little practice.  Today, after starting to paint the ceilings I finally realized how this works well.  I actually have an easier time being precise on the ceiling cutting in.  So most of my rooms have rather wavy lines at the tops of the walls.  But hopefully in this last bedroom the lines will be straighter and more consistent.

5.  You can't paint latex based paint over oil based paint.  Oil based paint is used for wood on things like door frames, baseboards, doors, and cabinets.  Latex is water based and used on walls.  Before we started working on the house we realized the paint on all the trim, doors, and yes- dining room paneling, just peels right off.  This is because it is latex painted over oil.  Enjoy exhibit B:

So now the process is to use an oil based primer in all those places to act like a sealant and then repaint them with and oil based paint.  The oil based stuff is super smelly and can only be cleaned with paint or lacquer thinner.  We did the primer in the dining room today.

Dining room before

Dining room after primer.

6.  If you take door knobs off of doors, make sure the door stays open until you exit the room.  Funny story... Tim and I were painting in the guest bedroom today while his parents took off all the doorknobs to prepare for the oil based primer.  When we tried to leave the room, we realized we couldn't!  We called for his dad, who just stood on the other side of the door and laughed for a while before figuring a way to get us out.  So now the doors have tape on them to keep them from getting stuck.  Hence, exhibit C:

7.  There is always lots of clean up involved when painting.  It is tedious and time consuming, but it allows you to keep using the same supplies, which saves lots of money.  It is definitely worth it to learn how to take care of your equipment.  Exhibit D:

8.  Tim and I can get lots done when we are able to work together for a while.  We worked for just about 12 hours straight today.  But, we have a lot to show for it!

Office walls and ceiling finished.

Master bedroom ceiling painted.

Guest bedroom before.

Guest bedroom after- 2 coats

Window repairs done.

9.  When painting the ceiling, paint gets all over you!  My favorite, exhibit E:

Most of what we have done so far has involved painting, but we are hoping to start on the floors soon, which should be quite an adventure.  There is sure to be more to come.

Glad you were curious enough to read.

Progress

We have been so busy working, that I have not updated lately what is going on with the house.  It is officially ours now since we closed last Thursday.  It's a pretty intimidating process, but I was so happy to be doing it with Tim.  He kept me laughing and stress-free the whole time.  The lady who was making us sign all the papers was probably wondering if we were truly ready for home ownership, but who is ever really ready for that?!

I won't do too much talking today, but will show lots of pictures.  We have had lots of help in the last week and a half.  My parents were here last weekend to work, and now Tim's parents are here.  I also need to introduce Ken and Deborah.  Tim's best friend through middle school, high school, and college is their son.  Ken owns his own business working in homes doing stuff like faux finishes and painting.  He has been helping us tremendously!  We know very little about home improvement and he has taught us lots of things.  He is most certainly a blessing the Lord has provided to show of His goodness!

We have been working a lot on painting:

The living room before.  The color was very dark.

Ken retextured this whole room and then we painted.  It looks much nicer now and hopefully bigger!

There has been LOTS of prep that has gone into painting.  The walls were in pretty bad shape.  Here, Tim is caulking in all the corners and edges of the room.

Next comes cutting in (cutting up for some of us, Tim) at the top of the walls, around doors, and here, around the A/C control.

Then Dad came along with a roller.  We obviously taped everything off as well before starting.  On this particular day we painted the first coat in the living room, the hallway, and the master bedroom.  The living room later got a 2nd coat because of the new texture, but the other spot were finished.  Mom was working the camera and also had a great eye for keeping us on track and spots we had missed.

Tim and I continued to paint during the week a little, and then his parents came in this weekend and did a ton of work for us.  On Friday, while we were at work they took off all the tack strip and staples from the carpet and pad in the whole house.  This is going to be a huge time saver for us when we get ready to tackle the floors.  They also worked on Saturday while we were at a Rangers game.  We didn't mean to leave them, but Tim's work gave him tickets so we HAD to go!  Here's a few of the things they did for us:

John replaced some sheet rock around the electrical drop for the light in the kitchen.  

This is what the shower looked like in the master bath.

Debbie removed the moldy caulk, so now all I need to do it scrub with bleach.... then re-grout and re-caulk. 

Possibly a repeat picture from an earlier post, but the guest bath before.

And it's current state now.  I had removed most of the caulk, but Debbie finished it up and she and John got the bottom part of the door frame off the tub.

We are playing ceiling fan turn-over at the house.  John and Debbie moved the fans around and hooked them up for us.  This is the one in the master bedroom.  (Also, it's new paint.)

This is the old TINY fan in the office.  Only the light worked.   

And this is what it currently looks like.  They didn't put the blades on yet because we need to paint the ceilings.  

A couple of other things:

We have had an electrician by the house to get us started and he said we could take off the old A/C control, so we did.

Ken also removed some water damaged parts of  the drywall near the windows and this is the first stage of them being repaired.  

Today is Sunday, so Tim and I did not go to the house to work.  Honoring the Lord by choosing to rest on the Sabbath is important to me.  It helps me to keep in perspective that we are not getting all this done by our own hard work and power.  God provides for us and allows us to complete things even though we rest.  This also allowed for a Sunday afternoon nap!  Tomorrow is Memorial Day, so both of us are off.  The alarm is set for 5:30am and maybe I will still have enough energy at the end of the day to put up a few more pictures of our progress.  

Glad you were curious enough to read.

Bathroom Attack

Please don't be turned off by the title of today's entry.  I know it isn't pleasant, but it had to happen.  The bathrooms at our house-in-progress are in sad shape.  So last night, I attacked!

Tim was away Sunday night and Monday for a bachelor party extravaganza.  Josh, one of our groomsmen is now getting married and Tim gets to be part of his wedding.  So they were out doing boy things and celebrating.  I had a particularly trying day at school (at least the last 45 minutes) and the words, "I've never been so happy to go clean a moldy bathroom," actually came out of my mouth.  I grabbed some Taco Bell... food of champions, I know... and headed to the house.

The first day we worked on the house I actually took my spray bottle of bleach because I knew the shower and tub were really bad.  I figured I would just go in, spray it down, rinse, and repeat.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the mold through all the dirt and hair that was everywhere.  So, last night I went prepared and actually cleaned the bathrooms- floors, sinks, and toilets.  Then I crouched in the tub and used an x-acto knife thingy to start taking the caulk out of the tub.  Then I got ambitious and decided to take the shower doors off also.  I scored all the caulking but then waited for Tim because I thought they might be heavy.  While I waited I cleaned a bit more, swept baseboards, and pulled up more carpet.  All in all a productive day!

Lovely bathtub

Before

After

Proud Family

My little brother graduated from college yesterday!  He now has a vocal music performance degree.  And when I say vocal performance I mean in the classically trained style.  That's right.  He can sing opera in any language you want.  Well, maybe not pig latin.  Hehe!

It has been so fun to watch and hear him grow over the last four years.  He always had a good voice when he was younger, but now that he has received training he has an amazing voice!  He has been in all kinds of musicals, operas, and various other things throughout his college years and is just getting started. In the fall he will continue with his education and start working on a Master degree in performance.

I am proud of the way he has been so focused.  He practices all the time.  That is something that I was never good at, so I'm pretty much in awe of the amount of time he devotes to it.  I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for Jonathan and where his career will lead him.  (I'm kind of selfishly hoping he goes to live some place cool so I can visit!)  Here's a few pictures from the day.

Which House Would You Like?

Shortly after Tim and I got married, his parents approached us about buying a house from them.  They own a few rent houses and wanted to gift a house to Tim's brother and sister-in-law and a house to us.  The gifting process means that we take over the mortgage at the price that remains on the house instead of paying full price for it.  This means the downpayment is in the equity of the home and we are able to purchase the home way sooner than if we continued to save for a downpayment.  So basically they are giving us our inheritance now as opposed to... later.

We had two houses to choose from and picked based on location and size.  One of the houses was too big for us and too far away from everything that we do.  The other house is located really well for us and just about the right size, oh, and 50 years old.  But then the question was, "Are we ready to buy a house?"  In my mind, if I own a home I can't just spontaneously decide to move out of the country with no strings attached.  I told you, I like adventures.  A more realistic consideration, I suppose, was our finances.  We are currently both working full-time jobs but we have made our budget to live only off Tim's income.  We chose to do this early on because we knew I would be staying home once we started having kids.  I guess I'm jumping the gun a bit with the whole staying home thing.  My salary is being saved for adoption.  (Guaranteed future blogs on this subject!)

We certainly recognized how amazing this gift would be for us, and after crunching numbers, seeking counsel from our parents and other wise Godly people we know, and lots of prayer, we decided now is the time!  We are so excited to see how the Lord is going to use this place for His glory.  Our prayer for the house is that it will be a place of Truth and Peace.  We want everyone who enters to hear Truth and experience Peace.

We haven't actually bought the house yet because our closing date has been pushed back to May 24th.  We were scheduled to close on the 8th, but something happened with some paperwork somewhere so that didn't happen.  My father-in-law simply said, "Welcome to the world of real estate."  I know very little about these things but I'm learning plenty.  In spite of the closing date we are already working on the house since it is currently vacant.

 So let's talk about the house.  It is really old and needs LOTS of work.  My goal is to show before and after photos and the progress we are making.  This is the front view of the house.  Brick painted white with the lovely green trim.  The colors probably aren't that bad alone, but together they are a really stark contrast.  This, however, is not top priority.  You might have noticed that the left corner of the house looks like it's falling off.  It is.  We have some pretty bad framing damage of the roof which will eventually be corrected.  We are waiting until the roof needs to be replaced, though.

Here's my first set of before and afters.  Aside from all the stuff and refrigerator being gone, do you see what's missing?  I didn't realize this would happen so quickly, but all it took was me saying, "Sure, I think we could take out those cabinets," and Tim's dad showed us how.  It was pretty exciting to see something get done right away.  I love that this space is more open now.  The picture was taken from the dining area.

We also took a sneak peek at what's under the carpet and were pleasantly surprised!  We are going to paint first and then remove the carpet, but I'll let you peek, too.  :)

This past week has been full of working on the house, but all work and no play...
So here are some pictures from our latest date night.  It was something new for both of us and we loved it.  Tim took me to the Arboretum on Thursday night for a concert and picnic.  Beautiful gardens, great food, and amazing weather!

All the concert-goers/picnickers

Picnic blanket background

Kayakers enjoying the concert from the lake

Tuxedo Junction- big band!

Introducing The Caves

I find it hard to write about myself.  At least in a descriptive way.  After a few sentences I find myself thinking, "Is that all there is to me?"  Or when wanting to tell about my husband I think, "How can I sum him up concisely?"  So here is my attempt at introducing us so that you know us a little better.  I will do my best to include just the top highlights.

The most important or noteworthy thing about either of us is that we love Jesus... a lot!  We love Him more than we love each other.  I fully believe that's how marriage is intended to work.  You love the Creator and Giver of life more than the one He gave you.  It helps keep things in perspective.  We were both raised in loving Christians homes but have completely different stories of how our faith became personal during college.  Ask us... we love to share our stories!

Tim studied math in college.  He has a Bachelor and Master degree.  The Master's has some really fancy title that I can never remember.  While he was in school, our group of friends simply referred to him as "the rocket scientist."  He is crazy smart.  He works as an engineer for a company that does all kinds of cool stuff.  Sometimes I accuse him of being a spy.  He is 24 years old and loves to learn.  Doesn't matter what it is- if it's new, he wants to know how to do it and how to do it right.  He loves to study the Bible and amazes me pretty often with his memorization skills.  He likes to work out and used to Crossfit, but now he makes up his own workouts and does the "home version."  He is also super thoughtful.  He helps around the house all the time and is constantly trying to figure out ways for me to work less so we can spend more time together.  He spoils me!

I studied music education in college.  For the last four years I have been an elementary music teacher, working with Pre-K up to fifth grade students.  It is a challenging job, but fun for the most part.  I have wonderful coworkers that make the days lots of fun.  I was raised in small towns and once I came to the city it took me quite a while to get used to all the concrete.  I still love to get out of the city, and camping is quickly becoming one of our favorite getaways.  I am 26 years old and love to bake, exercise, read, and dance.  I'm also a huge Texas Rangers fan.  I may be too cheap to buy all the stuff, but I know in my heart I'm as die hard as anybody out there.  Mornings are when I spend time reading the Bible.  It's important for me to start my day with the Lord, though not always easy.  Also good to know about me is that I love people.  I'm so thankful for my family and friends and find true blessings from my relationships.

I will probably refer to "our kids" a lot while writing.  These would be the college kids we work with at our church.  They are fantastic!  We love spending time with them each week, knowing them, and seeing them grow.  Our friends Rusty and Ali work with us to lead the group.  I am quite sure the two of them will make it in to my cast of characters on a regular basis as well.  I will be introducing lots of folks as I tell our stories.  Like I said, people are important!

The Curious Caves seemed like an appropriate title to me because we are both really curious.  I am constantly asking questions like, "Why?" or "What would happen if...?" or "Can I...?"  And during Tim's last yearly review at work his boss actually called him curious.  Completely in a good way.  Of course, you can probably interpret the word curious as odd and apply that to us a little bit, too.  ;)

Well, that seems like a pretty decent intro to who we are (I will save the Tim + Sarah = Love story for another day).  Today I will leave you with our two big upcoming adventures, which will probably be the topics for most of my writing for a while.  I am resigning from my job as of the last day of school.  And, we are buying our first home.  Both are pretty big deals and we are really excited about both!  Check back to hear the whys and hows and whens and whats, etc. as we embark on this journey.

Glad you were curious enough to read.

Life Is An Adventure (Or maybe sometimes a fiasco)

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while.  My main thought has been, "I should write a married people blog."  When I say that, I don't mean my blog will be for married people, but rather about married people- specifically, my husband and me.

I figured I would start it out by introducing both of us and why I chose the name Curious Caves and all the things that are going on in our lives, but then this past weekend happened and those things must be saved for another day.  As you can see from the opening picture, this is necessary!

Let's just start from the beginning.  Our necessary destination for the weekend was Amarillo.  One of my close friends was getting married on Saturday night and we were going to be there.  But Amarillo is quite a drive, so we decided to take Friday off and make an adventure out of the weekend.  We like to go on adventures.  We planned to camp on Friday night at Caprock Canyon State Park and then drive the 100 miles to Amarillo on Saturday.  We would check in to a hotel so we could shower and get ready for the wedding, then have a place to stay after.  Oh, and did I mention that this also happened to be the weekend that my mom was having her big stage debut so we wanted to throw a Sunday matinee in Snyder into the mix as well.

Aside from staying up until 1:00 on Thursday night to pack and therefore getting a later start than we planned, our 5 1/2 hour drive to the canyon was uneventful.  Well, except for the Germanfest going on in Meunster, the tiny little strategically placed signs advertising fudge and homemade ice cream (27 Flavors.  Slow down now!), and the Turkey Landowners, Inc. gathering in Turkey, TX.

We did manage to find a fun local burger joint in Vernon for lunch.  It was called Bevo's and when I asked to use the restroom, the lady behind the counter said, "Sure. Just come on through this door and go through the kitchen to the very back and turn right."  Yep, they sent me through the kitchen to their restroom, which was a closet, complete with water heater!

We finally made it to Caprock Canyon, which happens to have the official Texas State Bison Heard on the grounds.  When we checked in, we were given a rear view mirror hanger to remind us to stay away from them.  You know, that way if you are driving in your car, you will remember not to get out and get too close and let them headbutt you through the air.  (reference picture 1)  Now that we had been warned, we trekked off to our campsite to battle the wind.  If you are from west Texas, you understand.  We actually didn't do too bad setting the tent up in the crazy wind, but might have had to pull all the stakes up to move it three feet so the extension cord could reach.  We unashamedly camp with a box fan.

Camping cooking is always fun.  There was a fire ban, so we could only use our propane stove (thanks Josh and Janet!).  We ate mac and cheese with hot dogs, and then later snacked on roasted pineapple with cinnamon.  Turns out the pineapple is much better grilled, but still a tasty treat.  If you haven't tried it I highly recommend it!  The evening ended up being great.  I love being outdoors, it was very peaceful, the wind died down, and oh the stars!  I miss stars the most now that I live in the city.  We really started to relax and enjoy ourselves... until we tried to go to bed.

This is where the fiasco part comes in.  We had blown up pool floaties to cushion us, but Tim's would not stay inflated.  The box fan that we moved the whole tent for fell on me twice during the night.  We had clipped the rain fly on to keep out the dust while the wind was so strong, but since we didn't stake it down it flapped against the tent all night and made tons of noise.  Then I heard a pack of coyotes.  Then I panicked because a teacher I work with used to live in Alaska and she showed me a video one time about the kinds of bears there and how they can smell food from really far away even if it's buried, and all I could think about was the sausage in our ice chest outside, wondering if the coyotes could smell it and were coming to our camp.  So, my sweet Timothy got up and put it in the car so I would quit worrying.  I'm pretty sure it was at this point that I thought, "Why did we think this was a good idea?"  My phone started making noises because it was low on battery.  Tim tried to fix the rain fly.  We were in and out of restless sleep.  And to top it all off I hate when you wake up in the morning and have to go to the bathroom so bad, but you have to get dressed, put your shoes on, and walk to the nearest restroom.  Not fun.

Once we made it through the night, things were fine.  We had breakfast, spent some time reading our Bibles and then hiked down into the canyon.  It was new terrain for me and pretty interesting.  We saw this crazy looking rock/formation thing that had tons of layers.  Most were the red dirt color, but a few were white.  We learned that the white layers are gypsum and they are salty.  Animals dig down to find these layers and lick them for salt and mineral content.  The gypsum is also used to make sheet rock.

The rest of camping actually went pretty smoothly.  We hiked back to our site and packed up the car.  It was pretty windy again and I was proud of our teamwork to get it done quickly.  I told Tim I was very thankful for him and the way we make a good team.  I realize not everyone has this same experience with their spouse.  After leaving the canyon we made it to Amarillo, had some lunch, checked in to our hotel where we go to stay with some good friends, and showered for the evening.  The wedding was great with lots of friends, food, and dancing fun!  Congrats to Dustin and Jennifer!  Sunday held an early morning and LOTS of driving.  We made it to Snyder and saw my mom's play... she was amazing!  Funniest lady on the stage, had everyone in stitches.  Then we embarked on our five our drive home.  It was late, we were exhausted, the apartment looked like our campsite exploded in it, and there wasn't much time before work the next day, but it was totally worth it.  Maybe not so much a fiasco, but an adventure for sure!

Glad you were curious enough to read.