Linda Rokos Watts

Out with the yucky and in with the new pretty stuff!! The old nasty tiled floor. It took a while to get all the old broken tiles stripped off the floor but we did it! Looking back at the front door. Getting all the hardwood floor scarps we had to cut out, into the fireplace. Dad's Bobcat full of the ick ! Worked tonight till about 10:30. I am one tired girl and off to bed. Till tomorrow! Night, night!

The last few days have been a bit crazy. From being snowed in on Wednesday, to working on the house, to a fun Halloween Party at Stella's school. Teddy bouncing around in the snow with his little down jacket on! :) He may be little but he acts like a big dog who LOVES the snow! Stella and her class right before we started in on all the fun Halloween games! A fun cup-cake, cake I bought for the party. Talk about a LOT of frosting! On to the house ....most of the house is finally all primered except for the kitchen cabinet doors. Today we start knocking all the tile out and putting in new sub-flooring in, and then hopefully getting to the tile over the weekend. Smiling because I know I'm done with the primer!! Woo- Hoo ! Stella went to her dad's yesterday evening (Thursday) for the weekend and for some tick-or-treating fun. She had a Halloween party yesterday at school which I was lucky enough to make it up to. Lots of games, costumes, and way too much sugar. A perfect party...

Whew! We dodged an expensive bullet today. The house has two 40 gallon hot water heaters and up until today we thought both of them were going to have to be replaced. A $1000 for two new ones, BUT, thanks to Mr. Handyman (my dad :)) and with a little help from our friends the two hot water heaters are like new and there is more hot water then we know what to do with. WOO- HOO !!! Stella and I primed her room tonight. The electric purple and neon green are almost all gone. She got home from school and helped me for and hour and then went up to the house with my mom to have dinner and do homework while I got another coat on the wall. There is still some color showing but I think with one more coat tomorrow we should be all covered, and then the real fun begins. Stella is so excited to start putting the color she picked out on the wall, it makes me excited to start painting it for her, ever though I've been painting for 3 days straight, she keeps me going. The bugger and I. Check out ...

This is what is in store for me, tomorrow. This will eventually be Stella's room but first the electric purple and the florescent green need to go. YIKES! More priming everything white is in my near future. It's pretty amazing how color or lack there of, changes the feel of a house or a room. Along with the kitchen and this room, my goal is to get them both primered tomorrow by 1pm. After that it's play time. Stella and I are going to the pumpkin patch and to see Where the Wild Things Are! Woo- hoo !

This morning started early! We got to painting almost at first light. Last night I picked up a 5 gallon bucket of primer and a bunch of paint supplies. Tommy came up this morning and my mom and Stella met us at the house after they got up. The mission for the day was to get rid of the pepto pink walls and replace them with institutional white primer. Tommy and I getting started. Didn't know at this point that we were going to have to do three coats to cover up the pink. If we knew what we were getting into I don't think we would be smiling. :) Luckily the ceilings are low. Made it a little easier. Look, no more pink! After three coats on the living and dining room, we only got to 1/2 the kitchen. That project is for tomorrow. Tommy and I taking a goofy picture....probably high off smelling paint fumes for 10 hours! Hope everyone is having a productive and fun weekend. More updates soon! Much Love!

Not quite sure what to make of this just yet but.....the floor in the master bedroom is VERY different. At first glance I already envisioned ripping it out and putting in carpet. If you take a look at the picture below you'll see that the floor is 2" x 2" x 1/2" thick wooden squares. The top coat is disgusting , but just for laughs my dad decided to try and sand it down a little today to see what was underneath . To all of our surprise it's beautiful wood. So now the decision , try sanding it all and re-staining it for a really funky, unique look or rip it out? The answer, give it a go and see how it looks. I'll post more pictures as soon as we get it all sanded down tomorrow. Oh the possibilities! I took this picture tonight of Stella and her swim team buddies. They are so cute in their matching team suits. After each practice Stella and her buddies get a few minutes to goof off on the rope swing and the diving board, that's when I got this picture. Hop...

Another long day is done. Today we got the new wood burning stove in, the hardwood floors have their first coat of sealer on them and more of the property is mowed. I spoke with the Eddie (the drywall guy) and he's coming up tomorrow to check out the house and see how quick he can get the two rooms done (Stella's and the guest bedroom). Hopefully it will be the end of this week or the beginning of next week and then the new carpet and whoa-la, those are checked off the list. OUT with the old ( ewww ).... In with the new. Eventually there will be a new flagstone hearth under this bad boy but for now the tiles will stay. Me, giving the floors one last wipe down before we started sealing them. The sealer was toxic and I'm a quite lightheaded from sniffing fumes for half the night but at least the first coat is done, only two more to go. First coat on, and new fire place in.....now only two more coats and some fresh paint on the walls. Another big project for next week. TH...

Whew! What a weekend! Friday we had our closing and in true fashion Stella and I got to celebrate with some of our favorite people! We had a slow start on Saturday but once I got to the house I started cleaning in full force. I don't understand how some people live in such filth. That aside, I got a good start on Saturday and got most of the house as about as clean as it's going to get. Some of the walls are being replaced, all the floors are being redone, and all the carpet is being tossed and fresh, clean new carpet is going in. So, with all the upcoming construction it was pointless to make the house perfect. This morning we got an early start on the house, at 7:30 we were already bustin butt. Today's project was to get all the hardwood floors sanded down so we could stain them hopefully tomorrow night. We had a little extra help, Randy and Espen came up and lent a hand for a few hours which was GREATLY appreciated. Aside from the hardwoods we got the water turned on ...

Yesterday (Friday) was the day we've been waiting for, for quite some time! At 1:30 pm we got the thumbs up and all the papers signed...... Stella and I now have our very own little house. There is LOTS of work to be done and we won't be moving in for another few months but the important thing is that the house is OURS! Lots of pictures to post. There will be tons of before and after pics. YIPEEEE !!!!

Things have come down to the wire and (hopefully) we close on Friday! The stress is a little crazy but this lil bugger keeps me sane. I look forward to getting home after work everyday so we can get homework done and then head off to the pool. The drive gives us time to chat and catch up from the day and of course sing at the top of our lungs to our favorite songs pumping out of the IPod ! I am one lucky mama to have such a kick ass kiddo! Cross your fingers, Friday is the day! Yippee !!!

Starting today Stella got bumped into an older group of swimmers . My lil one kicks ass in the pool! Along with that we're swimming an extra night during the week and practice in an extra 1/2 hour longer then she's use to. It was her decision to do this and I'm going to make sure she doesn't over due it. More importantly she HAS to keep up with her school work in order to keep swimming. I think it will be a really good thing for her and she's really excited about the thought of competing . She is a GREAT little swimmer. Can't wait to see where she takes this. Even if this doesn't work out I'm glad she's made the decision and committed to giving this a try. My lil girl is growing up! :)

I made a REALLY stupid mistake last night and locked my keys in my car with it still running when Stella and I were running to the store. I called the police department and they informed me that they couldn't help me so I resorted to calling a locksmith. I actually called a few of them just to get some rates and the only rate they would give me was a trip charge and then told me the locksmith would asses the car and give me a final cost. Well, who knew that final cost was going to break the bank. I've been saving money for the new house which we hopefully close on, on this Thursday and below is one of the new things I'm going to need for the house. For the cost of opening my stupid car I could of had a new one of these! Money down the toilet ( literally ). Stupid mistake!

Colorado has once again started another ski season! Woo- hoo ! We got our first snow in Pinewood on Saturday, it was beautiful, and cold and made me a happy girl! For the last 20 years with the first day of snow on the ground, I do my annual snow dance. It's a silly tradition but it consists of me in my underwear , doing the booty shake in the snow. With all the snow yesterday Espen's game was cancelled, which was a bit of a bummer but it gave us a great opportunity to take it easy on a Saturday (which usually doesn't happen)! A nice long walk around the lake in the snow was exactly the perfect thing to do, followed by some couch time and football. In the evening I met up with my parents at the annual Eldora Ski Team Oktoberfest. Always a fun event! Lots of cool schwag , beer, and great friends. In bed by 9 and we'll call it a great day! Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend, I'm off to pick up Stella in a few hours and the world be perfect once again! :) OH, ...

Love is a pretty incredible thing!