It's been way too long!

It has been way too long since my last update! I have actually really missed blogging. Well, let me rephrase that. I have missed having any free time whatsoever to blog. I can't even begin to describe the whirlwind that has been our lives lately. Since the last time I posted, we have packed up, moved out, and closed on our Hastings house (after our closing date was postponed...twice), I have completed summer school, and we celebrated our baby boy's first birthday....oh and did i mention we both work full-time jobs. But, even though we have been up to our eyeballs in life, Tanglewood has been rockin' right along! I have so much to catch you all up on....there's fresh paint on the walls, brand new carpet in the bedrooms, most of our beautiful hardwood flooring is installed, we have new black gutters that look amazing....and much, much more. BUT, rather than trying to catch you all up at once, I'm going to catch you all up in small, not so overwhelming, stages.

I think I left you guys in the last update at the completed vinyl siding from Wilson's Home Improvement. Well after Wilson's finished up the siding, they sent another crew in to replace all of our doors...well, the front door and two french doors. Again, they did a fantastic job! I cannot emphasize enough how good these guys are. Seriously, I urge you to consider them if you are looking for siding, windows, or doors. Seriously...we get $100 for every referral:) #plug (I have no idea if hashtags work in blogs, but I'm going with it). Check it out:

Huge shout out to our friends, Clay and Tiffany Henry! They used Wilson's Home Improvement for window replacements and mentioned the Tale of Tanglewood blog as their referral. We got this check in the mail last week! Thanks you guys!

Let's take a look at Wilson's work on the doors:

AFTER: Front door (view from outside)

BEFORE: Front door (view from inside)

AFTER: Front door (view from inside)

BEFORE: Living room french doors (view from outside)

AFTER: Living room french doors (view from outside)

BEFORE: Den french doors (view from outside)

AFTER: Den french doors (view from outside)

We think the doors look great! And now we no longer have to literally kick the front door shut.  This is always a good thing.

One other finished project that I'd like for you all to see is the GUTTERS! Black ones. And they look sharp! We used EMT Gutterworks for our gutters .You should definitely give Mr. Mark Signor a call if you are in the market for gutters. He works fast, and he does good work!  He comes highly recommended in the area. You can see why:

As you can see from the pictures, we ran a few of the downspouts into 250 gallon rain barrels. Because everyone needs 500 gallons water at any given moment:) We did this for a couple of reasons: to catch heavy rainfall that would normally slightly flood the front yard and to have a free source of water to water our future garden and future perfectly manicured green lawn. We bought the rain barrels at that little hilltop antique place on the left hand side of the road as you're heading to Dardanelle on South Arkansas. $65 each.

There's been so much more work done to Tanglewood, but like I said, I'm going to catch you all up in small stages. In an effort to stay more on top of renovation updates and to get you all caught up quicker, a Facebook page for Tale of Tanglewood has been created! Click HERE to check it out and "Like" to follow the updates. From now on, I will be utilizing the Facebook page more so than the blog website, although, I may occasionally feel compelled to write longer posts. You just never know:) So, if you haven't already, go like Tale of Tanglewood on Facebook and feel free to share the page with your friends if you'd like.

Until next time!

Vinyl Siding? Check!

We have siding folks! And it looks AMAZING! The house looks completely different in a completely wonderful way. I absolutely have to brag on  Wilson's Home Improvement. They did a top notch job. If you are in the market for siding or windows/doors, do yourself a favor and check them out. I highly recommend requesting Mr. Craig Doyle to come do your estimate (such a good guy!):

 Not only did Wilson's do great work, they offer a lifetime warranty on labor and parts, which is the #1 reason we chose this company.  And to attest to the quality of their work, we found out that one of our new neighbors saw the work being done to our house and hired Wilson's to do some work for them. Hello $100 referral discount, and thank you random neighbor! Whoever you may be.

So let's dive right into the before and after pics because I am so excited for you all to see. We'll start with the before pics:

So sorry I just put you all through those horrible pictures again, but they will help you appreciate the after so much more!

Drum roll please...............THE AFTER:

Notice we removed the shutters too. Next time you see those they will be freshly painted black!

Doesn't it look MARVELOUS! Gah! I still can't believe how much better it looks! Drive by if you get the chance. It's even better in person.

Wilson's next project = replacing all of the doors. Can't wait!

Now an update on the kitchen/dining room wall removal. Remember last weekend that Chris, Kenny, Cutler, and Brad were making this wall removal official. When my mom, Declan, and I got home from Oklahoma last weekend, we went straight over to the house to see their work. Ahhhh.....so refreshing to walk in and absolutely love it:

View of the kitchen from the dining room. SO MUCH SPACE!

Let me express to you all that we are beyond blessed and so thankful to have a man in our lives who is so good at this stuff. I, of course, am speaking of Mr. Kenny Hankins. I truly believe this man knows everything about everything, and his work is always perfection. (Trust me, he's not done until it's perfect.) We'll have to do something extra special for him on Father's Day, which by the way is NEXT WEEKEND! You have officially been reminded, so make sure you do something special for those special men in your lives. If you need a gift idea, check out Rose Drug of Russellville. They have a section of Father's Day gifts waiting for you....and they will wrap your gifts better than anybody out there!

In addition to wall removal work last weekend, Kenny and Chris also worked on reinforcing our breakfast bar cabinets and den bar cabinets in preparation for our quartz counter tops. We chose Alpha Counter Tops to do our kitchen cabinets, and they were scheduled to come do the template for our counter tops this last Monday. Chris and I were thinking they'd come out Monday and get our measurements and then go to town on making our counter tops. Easy, right? Well, they did come out Monday, but it turns out they need to know what sinks we are going to install before they will begin making our counter tops and put us on their schedule. Awwwkwaaard. We had exactly zero sinks picked out, so guess where we went after Mr. Alpha guy left on Monday. You guessed it.....Lowe's, land of sinks.

We picked out a basic, nothing special oval under mount biscuit-colored sink for the guest bathroom and the half bath. We also went basic stainless steel with our new den bar sink. I'm telling you we went basic with these sinks because we went big for the kitchen sink:

I am 100% in love with this sink!

We went for the farmhouse look in the kitchen. I say "farmhouse", but I have learned that split bin sinks that have the farmhouse look are actually called "apron-front" sinks. A true "farmhouse" is a single bin, but let's be honest, who can live with a single bin? Thank you sink companies for making products to solve our first world problems!

Alpha will return once all of the sinks have been delivered.

I hate to report that I'm still painting kitchen cabinets. I personally have not been able to work on the house much this past week due to a jam-packed schedule. This weekend didn't quite work out either. Mr. Declan man is cutting his molar teeth. (This dude is a professional teeth cutter....9 teeth and going strong!) I hope to finish them this week, because the good Lord knows I'm ready to move on to another project!

So, I've been thinking of starting a new weekly blog segment that will be featured at the end of each post. I'm thinking of simply calling it "Blog Shout-Out". I am wanting some reader input on possibly a better segment name and ideas for future blog shout-outs. Maybe more information on something I have posted about or whatever. It will be a work in progress, but I do already have something in mind for my very first

BLOG SHOUT-OUT
Remember these guys?

The ones who cooked us an awesome dinner and helped us beat down that wall that one night we sold our house? Great couple!

That's Greg and Jana. They are trying to sell their house. Their house is absolutely adorable, and it is in a great neighborhood on the west side of Russellville, and they are having an OPEN HOUSE TODAY from 1:30 to 3:30. Here's a picture and a link to view more pictures, as well as a video link for a virtual tour:

More Pictures 1305 Ridgewood, Russellville, AR

Virtual Tour 1305 Ridgewood, Russellville, AR

Again, they are having an OPEN HOUSE TODAY, SUNDAY, JUNE 8TH FROM 1:30 TO 3:30! Go check it out. Jana has made homemade cookies for everyone who comes by, and I am very confident in saying that her homemade cookies will put your grandmother's to shame :) She may even give you her recipe ....if you buy their house!

Memorial Day to Now

Whew! We've been way too busy lately! I must get ya'll caught up on all things Tanglewood. And there's a lot. So, as I sit in my hotel room in Guymon, OK (aka literally the middle of Nowhere, Nowhere), I will start by going back in time to Memorial Day weekend. If you'll remember from the last post, Chris and I were headed to Lowes for their Memorial Day appliance sale to pick out all new appliances for the Tanglewood house. This was definitely one of the more exciting things we have gotten to do since we started this whole project. Well, I say it was exciting, Chris was probably annoyed by the amount of time we actually spent in Lowes that day. It was close to three hours. Not that it took that long for us to pick out the appliances that we wanted. We already knew that part. I just waited until we were in the store that very day to price check every imaginable online source for the same products to make 100% sure we were getting the best deals possible. (Lowe's will price match in case you didn't know.) At one point, I was so tired of looking at my tiny phone (Nathan Smith, if you read this, just know that the older I get, the more my eyes may need a Android phone with a bigger screen. Don't hate.), that I finally just asked the appliance guy if I could use his desktop computer in the store. He let me, and sure enough, with the Memorial Day Sale, Lowes actually had the best prices on the appliances that we wanted. So with no further delay, I give you the Tanglewood Whirlpool Gold appliance suite:

22 cu. ft. Whirlpool Gold® Bottom Freezer Refrigerator with Energy-Saving Resource Saver™ Technology (Normally we would have gone for a french door refrigerator with the extra middle drawer, but Tanglewood's refrigerator hole is only big enough for this little guy. Nothing wrong with this one, though. Still very nice.)

Whirlpool 30-in Smooth Surface 5-Element 4.2-cu ft/2.5-cu ft Self-Cleaning Double Oven Electric Range (Stainless Steel)

Whirlpool 30-in 1.9-cu ft Over-the-Range Microwave with Sensor Cooking Controls (Stainless Steel)

Whirlpool Gold 24-in 55-Decibel Built-In Dishwasher (Stainless Steel) ENERGY STAR

All of these appliances were 10% off for Memorial Day, and if you used your Lowes card, you received either an additional 5% discount or 18 months no interest. (18 months no interest was obviously our better choice.) In the last post, I also mentioned that I was going to attempt to use the additional 10% coupon from the change of address pack from the Post Office. Turns out that Lowes smartened up and made this an emailed coupon, meaning that you have to actually input your proof of moving details before they will send you a coupon. Since we are actually moving and not trying to swindle Lowes, I waited until the day of (of course) to fill out the information and submit it for our coupon. Well, it takes 2-3 business days for the information to process, so long story short, I didn't get to use the coupon that day. That's okay, though. There's plenty more to buy. Trust me.

On to more house renovation. I would love to tell you all that I finished painting the kitchen cabinets and that we are ready for our new counter tops, but I would be lying. Instead, I will tell you that sanding, cleaning, disinfecting, and painting the amount of kitchen cabinets that we have takes a lot more time than I anticipated. Mostly because I won't let Chris help me with the painting part. My OCD consumes me when it comes to painting. Let me show you some things I have been using for this project, as well as the little bit of painting that I have accomplished:

This electric sander was my best friend while I smoothed every single inch of our kitchen cabinets. I used 220 sand paper for most of the cabinets and 180 for the rougher spots. 

After wiping away all of the sanding stuff and scrubbing down the cabinets with water, I used Sani-T-10 to disinfect every single inch of the the kitchen cabinets. By the way, for that 32 oz spray bottle, I used 3 oz of Sani-T-10 with 32 oz of water, and I had to wear the face mask to breath. Very strong stuff.

Remember the kitchen before we did anything?

Well, here is the kitchen with floor gone, counter tops gone (with the exception of the sink area), cabinet doors and hardware removed, partial paneling removed from the breakfast bar (to be replaced by Sheetrock), and cabinets sanded, cleaned and prepped for paint.

And here's the only actual painting I have gotten done :)

Chris, with the help of our parents, has been working on Operation Remove Wallpaper. I cannot begin to tell you my hate for wallpaper, and I think Chris finally shares this hate now since he so graciously volunteered for this job. (Prior to Operation Remove Wallpaper, Chris was campaigning hard for wallpapered accent walls...This is no longer an issue.) There was wallpaper all over this house. Even wallpaper really well-disguised as just paint. The poor drywall underneath has taken a brutal beating from wallpaper removal. Most of the wallpaper was applied directly to the drywall, and now major drywall patching is required. That's okay as long as every last inch of wallpaper is gone!

Remember our dining room before? Notice the upper part of the walls here.

Surprise! That was wallpaper!

Kind of remember out front entry way walls? (the pic is not great)

You guessed it. Wallpaper!

Remember all the maroon in the den?

And in the hallway to the den?

Wallpaper

And more wallpaper. See the maroon still in the hallway? Oh, that's because there was maroon paint under the wallpaper.

Chris has also removed most of the paneling from the den. There are a few areas of paneling that will require more detailed saw removal, like around the windows and just above the built-in storage, and there are some areas that we are simply going to use Sheetrock mud to fill and paint over, like on the cabinets in the bar area, on the bottom of the built-in storage area, and behind the built-in bookcase. Take a look at our now mostly bare den:

 Chris has also removed the tile from the vanity in the guest bathroom. We will be installing the same quartz counter tops as the kitchen to replace the counter top in this bathroom. As you can see from these before and after pics, we've also removed the mirror in this bathroom. The mirror and frame were glued to the wall, so in order to get them down, we had to cut into the glue around the edges and literally rip off the wooden frame while holding the mirror part up. Behind the mirror we found yet another scrap of lovely wallpaper. Only this wallpaper was extra special. Those cute little flowers (barf) are raised and have the feel of velour. I have seen it all now.

Before

The after, but also the before. We are getting really good at making messes.

 We have made a lot of progress over the last week. So far we are finding that are biggest hurdle is time. There's just not enough hours in a day. The good news is that Wilson's Home Improvement officially started their work on the house this past Thursday. We've already seen a sneak peak of their work, and let me just tell y'all that when they're done, it will look like a completely different house from the outside. Remember that they are doing the sophetes and fascia work on the roof, covering the wood with vinyl siding, and replacing all of our doors. I can't wait for you guys to see their work, and I can't wait to have all new doors!

Once Wilson's Home Improvement is finished, we are going to have seamless gutters installed by Mr. Mark Signor (EMT Gutterworks). He comes highly recommended by many in the area. As of right now (and this is still wide open for discussion), we are almost certain we want black gutters. We have seen one house close to our new house that has them, and we think they look sharp. Take another look at the front of the house. The shutters will be painted black. What are your thoughts on black gutters?

Oh, and remember that load-bearing wall separating the kitchen and dining room that is going bye bye? If not, here's a reminder:

Well, while my mom, Declan, and I are in Guymon, OK this weekend visiting my brother, Mark, Chris and Kenny, with the help of Ryan Cutler and Brad Donaldson, are making this wall removal official. Last I heard, they were just about done. These guys are also reinforcing our rickety breakfast bar cabinet in the kitchen in preparation for quartz counter tops. This past week, we almost had our selves talked into getting rid of the breakfast bar, but no worries, it's a keeper now. It just needs some special attention and support beams added for the counter tops. I am anxious to see the work these guys are doing while we're gone. I will certainly let you all see the work in my next post.