DIY House Remodel - Lay Your Own Wood {or bamboo} Floor - Prepwork

Here is your slight background story.  But if you are just here for how we approached this humongous and screaming project, feel free to skip a paragraph or two.

We got married at the end of May 2014.  It was beautiful, wonderful, and absolutely perfect for both of us.  We had spend an entire 5 months preparing (we got engaged on Christmas Eve of 2013) and saving money by doing most everything ourselves.  In April before we got married, we decided it would be a good idea to buy a house.  This house was in various stages of disrepair or antiquity.  So while we Andrew did some demolition before the wedding, we Kelcie said absolutely no work on the house during the month of May.  

Weekend Review

Hello Friends!

Here is a small weekend update for you on our very hodge-podge weekend! {Friday night was date night and lay on the couch for a good catch-up binge TV show watching.  No pictures of that because I don't want to bore you to death.}

Saturday!

We decided to start cleaning out the attic - which means after 1 week of my car in the garage, it is booted back to the driveway {for now}.  It is a much larger project than we anticipated - including a new dumpster and thorough sweep.  We finished about 25% of it and found some nice treasures that we think someone, somewhere will enjoy {read: too special to throw in the dumpster but not something we personally want to hoard}.  So we plan on selling it in some kind of Etsy or Garage Sale fashion (maybe both?)

Feel {Great} Friday!

So I want to start out with what I wanted Feel {Great} Fridays to be about on the first one last week:

I have this belief that Fridays should be focused on the positive, no matter what the situation you are in or the prayers on your mind at the moment.  Especially if you are naturally pessimistic the rest of the week or have had a few really bad days or days filled with not so great news.  God gave us a chance to have hope in our lives, and Friday is just as good as any to express it!

Here is the thing: I didn't expect God to test my faith in that very stated belief so quickly.  So even though I am struggling with a heavy heart today and this week (which I may or may not feel comfortable sharing more about later), here is Feel {Great} Friday in a slightly different form than last week.

My #1 reason to Feel {Great} on this Friday:

No Work Tortilla Soup

I mentioned last Monday we freezer cooked for ourselves and some lovely recipients.

But I have a confession: we picked practically the easiest recipes in the box. 

You know, those recipes that people fawn over but you take the compliments gracefully and say to your husband after the guests leave, "if they only knew that the most work we did was open a can!" 

Kidding {sort of}. 

I get asked time and time again what my recipe for tortilla soup is (we frequently freeze and take to ill family members like it was really hard work). But we are letting the cat out of the bag, here is it!

He is {finally} here!

After 10 p.m. after 2 nights in the hospital, lots of anxious visitors, several good football games, and Maggie's hair pulling....