Weekend Review - and Feel {Great} Monday

WOW! Last week flew by - so quickly I didn't even realize it was time to feel great.  I was technically feeling great, I just didn't write about it.  So here are some updates!

Feel {Great} Anyday - including Friday

This Last week, I felt really great about the to-do list.  We got a lot done.  Which was perfect timing.  In my mind, it was time to start fresh and turn a new leaf.  I sat down an caught up on my "In Everything Give Thanks" plan with She Reads Truth and the subject was giving thanks in stress.

The Big Kitchen Remodel {and reading the end of the book before the beginning}

Here is to reading the end of the book before the beginning...

Preface: We have tutorials coming on most of this kitchen {as we did about 85% of it ourselves in some way shape or form}.  However, I keep posting "sneak peeks" due to no other way about it and I can't wait to share with everyone anyway.  So without further ado...

Get ready for a LOT of pictures!

We bought the house because of this which proved to be a huge undertaking.

DIY House Remodel - Lay Your Own Wood {or bamboo} Floor - Tips and Tricks and General Instructions

If this is new to you and you want to see all of the other steps we took: prep work and supplies and Elastilon.   Hope you find them helpful as well!

This post may seem scattered, because we learned things as we went - and this post will probably look the same way.  However, we hope you can learn from other people's mistakes experiences. It will mix your general instructions with our tips - because ultimately we winged it {as much as a control freak can "wing" anything}.  Here goes nothin'! *Sorry for all of the words and less pictures, these are more brain tricks and tips and unfortunately, we couldn't snap pictures from inside there!

Patterns and Execution

Tip #1: Turn the last board in the row around so the groove is up next to the groove {length wise}, mark where the cut should go to make it shorter {should light up with the board you lay immediately prior to this step - make sure to leave room for the gap!}, and cut there.  Instead of measuring, marking, etc. we found this method to end up in an extremely low error rate and made the process go much faster.  The majority of the time, if there was a "miscut", we were usually making it too long instead of too short which meant we could correct the error. Yardsticks really help when you made an ut-oh cut. {If you would like pictures or further explanation of this, just let us know in the comments, after much searching for a picture, we couldn't find one.  But we could definitely stage the situation for you if you would like!}

Weekend Review

This weekend was pretty uneventful in the A+K terms.  So, unlike my usual weekend reviews, I am not going to break it out by day - it was all a blur anyway!

Weather
We did brave the cold {pre-snow} for the OSU game, which we unfortunately lost, but the temperature wasn't as bad as even we thought it would be! Mid-November in Oklahoma does NOT usually mean snow.  However, Sunday, we got a good {early for Oklahoma} dose of it.  Not too bad in our area, but it did make you want to cuddle in a blanket and do nothing {or in our case, finish a few house projects and THEN cuddle up and do nothing}.

This is November? Really?!

Feel {Great} Friday!

There are a lot of things I am feeling great about on this Friday {one of which is NOT the weather}.  But here is what I am feeling particularly GRATEFUL about this Friday - which is, technically, the same thing because it translates into feeling great!

Bucket List {almost} Accomplished!
I have two concerts left of my concert bucket list, and I bought tickets for one of them today! YAY!
However, I did get this halfway through my purchasing experience - it started at 1 minute, went to 6, and then took this screenshot almost there - and it made me extremely nervous.

Weekend Review

Wow! What a weekend?  We were extremely productive.  And be prepared for a LOT of pictures!

Friday Night

We were pretty lazy.  We knew we had a very busy weekend ahead of us because Lizzie ate her crate {yes, ATE her crate}.  So after dropping the dogs off at "Doggy Day Care" {a.k.a. Papa and Lala's house}, we went out and treated ourselves to a dinner at a restaurant.  Then we struggled with what time it had to be to be acceptable to go to bed. We settled on whenever before 10 works.

Feel {Great} Friday & Monthly Goals - November 2014

Just like last month, I want to keep myself accountable.  Well, here is where we stand after October:

Not bad {in my world}!  I would say finishing 3.5 of 5 projects {and for the record, my car did spend 2 weeks in the garage} and finishing 4 Project Elephant items is a success! 

{Never too late for a} Weekend Review

Here is the crazy weekend as it was!

I took a few days off of work so I had some extra time in my weekend {very gratefully}.  So this update is a little bit past due, but it was technically still my weekend!

Thursday and Friday {day}

I started on this:

DIY House Remodel - Lay Your Own Wood {or bamboo} Floor - Our friend Elastilon

To make sure everyone is on the same page:

• Yes, we decided to lay our own flooring.
• No, we didn't regret it {for any longer than you usually regret any manual labor}.
• Yes, people thought we were crazy.
• Prepwork takes a looooong time {much longer than my very scheduled brain could comprehend}

We left off somewhere around here:

 So far we have:

• Taken out staples and removed glue residue from the subfloor.
• Removed baseboards.
• Swept, and swept, and swept some more.  
• Laid the moisture barrier.
• Had Dad simultaneously doing other seemingly important tasks {in Kelcie's mind, they were very urgent, hindsight says they probably weren't quite as urgent as originally thought}

So now we are ready to lay some wood {or bamboo} floors - right?

Not for us!