first stage of projects.

ashton and i have been working hard to make our house liveable. i mean, we've been living in it the entire time, so i guess we're trying to make it more comfortable to live in. :)

1.) hot water heater. if you know me (which you should, if you're reading this blog...), you know how important hot water is to me. the hot water heater wasn't working when we moved in, which we knew beforehand, so with some helpful info from my brother-in-law, we decided to just replace the elements and thermostats rather than purchase a new hot water heater. after a purchase of a special tool to remove the elements, and a few showers at other houses, ashton was able to get the hot water heater working. and i was extremely thankful! (fyi... the total cost of fixing the hot water heater was $50, which included 2 elements, 2 thermostats, and the tool. the cost of a new hot water heater was $250.)

2.) our appliances have been delivered! the fridge and stove have been plugged in and are working. the dishwasher is still in progress. and the microwave/vent hood is just going to hang out in the box until kitchen remodeling is done. we figured there was no reason to install it just to have to pull it down soon.

(OH... and you may notice the hole in the counter where a sink should be. yeah, that wasn't in the house either. however, one is included with the countertops. see below.)

3.) we ordered our new countertops over the weekend. lowe's is coming out to measure the countertops next week, and the projected completion date is march 1. which can't come fast enough. the countertops also come with a free sink, so we'll be kitchen sink-less until march 1. 

4.) ashton has installed new locks on our doors, which i greatly appreciated! he has also installed smoke detectors throughout the house. there were some already installed, but when we had the house inspected, the inspector told us there had to be detectors in all of the bedrooms. so we did that... and threw one up in the living room and kitchen. we like to be safe. :)

5.) because we are painting the kitchen cabinets in the very near future, we decided to not unpack everything into the cabinets yet. so... we are using a linen closet and a bookshelf that we moved into the dining room area as our kitchen pantry and storage. this is definitely a lot easier than trying to dig through boxes. 

hmm, what else have we done?

ohh... 6.) shower head! they took the shower head out of the master bathroom, which makes showering a tad bit difficult. soo.. we bought a new shower head and a little curved pipe, and now we have a fantastic shower!

future projects over the next week:

• install lights/ceiling fans in the master bedroom, living room, guest bedroom and dining room. yes, they took all of those too.
• sand and paint kitchen cabinets. (this will probably be done next weekend, so it'll be a while before you get to see those pics.)
• install a door between the laundry room and garage.
• whatever else we come up with/have time for! :)

have a great weekend! i'll check in again when we have more projects done to show you!

anne