From G to Z...

This weekend was a busy one with happy occasions! Saturday afternoon, we headed to San Marcos for the wedding of one of my friends from work - Erica. You may remember her from our adventures in California when I started my new job and went there for training. She married her long time boyfriend, Adam aka "Zimmie". Adam is nicknamed Zimmie because his last name is Zimmerhansel. So, Erica went from Gonzales to Zimmerhanzel! 

They got married in a Catholic church (with their SEVEN attendants each!) in a traditional and very pretty service. 

After the ceremony we all headed to the Kali-Kate Pavilion in Buda. It was a little warm for an outdoor pavilion but they had plenty of fans running and lots of cold drinks. Including a custom wine Erica had created, bottled and labeled for the occasion!

Making their entrance...

First dance...

We enjoyed a BBQ dinner and visiting with some of my co-workers that were there. Besides the BBQ, there were lots of other Texas things...

Cupcake UT stadium!

Erica wore her Cowboy boots to the reception!

But perhaps one of the coolest surprises of the night... a Mariachi Band!! They arrived and serenaded the Bride & Groom. Then they made their way around the room... so fun!!

It was a fun night and Erica couldn't have been more beautiful!! I am so happy for both of them and wish them a fun an relaxing honeymoon in the Dominican Republic!

The floors...

Saturday...

After a quick breakfast and relocating the furniture to the kitchen a garage, we were ready to go!! 

Everything is out!! Except Gypsy and the TV so we could watch college football.

Zoe checking things out and Brad pulling up the last carpet strips in the closet.

Our kitchen became out temporary living room.

Good friends, Ricky, Nicole and their son, RJ arrived, shortly joined by Brad's parents, Larry and Dorothy.

Larry making some measurements.

Everyone pitched in their own way, but Ricky, Larry and Brad worked solid for hours. There were very frustrating moments but they figured it out and made it happen!!

The first planks are down!

We took a break for lunch so the guys could re-fuel and rest.

Then they were back at it!!

While they put the floor down, I worked on painting the white trim along the staircase. The only real "oops" for the day was this...

I thought I had closed the can of white paint but when Brad didn't see it on the stairs and he tripped, it clearly wasn't closed tight enough!! We plan on replacing the carpet eventually, but not for some time. So, for now, we will find a pretty area rug to cover it!

By 4PM, they were still hard at work. Our friends Adam and Jenna were getting married that night, so I went to the wedding with my date, Laura and left Brad to keep working.

Late night finish... even Samson is tired of all the work.

Several hours later, I came home to this...

And it is done!!

The next morning... everyone is checking it out.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

All but a small section in the front closet and the quarter-round is left. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!

They had worked for almost 12 hours and I can't thank them enough. Today Brad is working on the quarter-round. Once we get the room together, I will post the true before/after pictures.

Our living room comes together... finally!

Unfortunately, the paint drama continued before this was all said and done. Brad picked up the re-mixed, darker color. Since Friday was company holiday for me, Brad also took off so we could work on the house. He painted over all of the spots and edging. However, something still wasn't right. I tried hard to convince him that it was just visible to him, because he was the one that painted it. He wasn't convinced.

As I started looking closer, I realized the color was correct but the finish wasn't... they had used the wrong base for the paint! That made all of the new paint shiny compared to the original paint! UGH. So, we loaded up and headed BACK to Home Depot which a fire in our belly to get this correct once and for all!! Over an hour later of going back and forth with the Paint Department and a Manager, and they FINALLY understood what was wrong and how to fix it. Seriously frustrating. By the time we left, we had a gallon of the corrected paint, a new brush I need for trim and a gallon of the color we will be painting the kitchen. Certainly not repayment for all of our lost time, but it helped.

So, finally, as the paint went on the walls, it looked right.

Helping Brad with the re-touch up.

They were not amused...

Brad had also pulled up all the carpet and started on the pad.

Saturday we had help coming in to put down our new laminate flooring!!

The never-ending project...

So, two weekends ago, we began painting the living room. This is by far the largest room in our house, therefore the largest painting job we have tackled to date.

Before... plain white walls:

We got up on Saturday morning, went out for a yummy breakfast to get us properly fueled for the project. We went to Home Depot for the paint and got home to get started. After painting for a while I was exhausted (still dealing with this periodically). I needed to take a quick nap… 2 hours later, I woke up  and Brad had been busy painting the whole time!! After I painted for a while, we had to take a break to go pick this up…

More on that exciting stuff later!!

Sunday proved to be busy so we didn’t get much more done and left it undone until the following weekend. (We had planned on 2 weekends, so this was fine.)

Samson assisting with the taping.

Gypsy - "Finish painting the window already... this is my area!"

A quality check by Zoe... who then side-swiped the wall and now has beige to add to her colors!

Yep- he is using the mantle. 

As we were painting, I began thinking that I didn’t care for the color too much. It just wasn’t dark enough… but I kept hoping it would dry darker. I had even been through SEVEN different samples before finally settling on the chosen shade… “Wax Sculpture”.

Not wanting to repaint or mention such a thing after Brad worked so hard (while I snoozed!), I kept pushing that feeling aside. However, all week, as I would walk into the living room, I just didn’t like it. I felt like I couldn’t even tell the room was painted!! I wanted to warm up the room and this color didn’t do anything to help that. I got a boring tan instead of a warm taupe.

Original white on top... new color on bottom. Not enough change!

 

By Wednesday, I had decided I couldn’t take it. I mentioned it to Brad and being the wonderfully patient man he is, he suggested we repaint if Home Depot could help us darken the full 2 gallons we still had. I called them that night and to my surprise, they will darken paint “as many times as needed” to make us happy! YAY! So, that night, Brad began to RE-TAPE everything he had already pulled down. Oops. Luckily we hadn’t tackled any of the 17 foot vaulted ceiling yet. Although, he claims the room was about 75% done, I say it was more like 60%. Something about him being an Engineer makes him think he is right… oh well. I took some friendly abuse on Facebook as his friends welcomed Brad to marriage and told him this would happen over and over again. He, he, he…

Fast forward to this past weekend. Saturday morning, we again went to breakfast and then Home Depot. The Paint Tech and I played with the mixture a couple of times. I finally decided I liked it 50% darker. So, she remixed our existing paint and we added an additional gallon to go back over what we had already painted.

See how tall the room is!?! (You can see the darker color on his right.)

The minute we started painting with this new color, I knew it was the right decision. I was much more what I envisioned and you could definitely see the paint on the walls! We worked hard that day and got a lot done.

After church and a nap on Sunday, we picked up where we left off. We soon realized that we were running out of paint. I continued working while Brad went to Home Depot for more. He took one of the existing cans with him so they could alter the paint again with the “50% darker” shade. When he returned, all that was left was touch up and the hard stuff… the edging along the 17 foot ceiling. Brad (who isn’t too fond of heights and tall ladders) steadily painted with an extension rod and edger. He passed it down to me and I re-loaded the paint. We worked methodically and painstakingly like this for about 4 hours.

Then we were finally able to enjoy dinner and celebrate in a massive project done! Or so we thought… as we sat on the couch eating dinner, I kept looking around the room and something just wasn’t right… All of the edge work and touch-up didn’t seem to be drying. Then the bad news finally settled in and I figured out what was happening and I had to break it to an exhausted and sore Brad. The 4^th can of paint we had added that day hadn’t been properly matched to the 50% darker shade. In fact, they gave us the original shade… a much lighter shade. So, now our walls looked like this…

UGH!!!!!!!!

Home Depot was closed by the time we figured this out. So, we sat there, our happy balloons completely deflated, surrounded by horrible looking walls as we realized we were going to have to do all of that work… again.

Brad talked to Home Depot on Monday and they are going to replace the paint and any used supplies for free. Now if only they could compensate us for our labor. So, next weekend, we will finish the paint and install this...

YAY!!! That's right- we installing laminate in the living room. Well, when I say "we", I mean Brad, his friend Ricky and my Father-in-law, Larry. Can't wait to see it!!