Paris

Paris...... What to say about Paris. I had a great time, despite some bad luck!

The flight to Paris was a direct flight, long but at least it was non-stop. I unfortunately did not get much sleep, only about 3 hours, which made for a long first day in Paris. We got lost finding our way to our hotel and while walking the streets of Paris to find the hotel my suitcase wheel fell off of my brand new suitcase!! It was very frustrating to say the least!! We also had some bad luck on Saturday night when we were to have dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. The tower was evacuated due to a Kurdish protest on the second floor viewing deck!!

The things I learned in Paris were, know common French sayings and Greetings, attempting their language goes a long way, have a GOOD map of the city that includes all streets, not just the 'major' ones, make sure your luggage wheels are strong-- cobblestone tears them apart, and plan two trips to the Eiffel Tower, after all you never know when there will be an evacuation due to protesters!!

Beautiful Street in Paris!

The Lock Bridge..... place a lock on the Bridge with yours and your partners name and throw the key in the river!

The Arc De Triomphe!

Not really sure---it was definitely different!

The Eiffel Tower- Beautiful! Wish we would have been able to go up!

My Trip

I haven't been posting anything because I've been travelling the world. I left March 29th for Paris, France and travelled to England and Ireland as well. It was a great trip and I really enjoyed exploring. I've been busy editing the 1200+ photos I took over the 10 days I was gone. I plan on doing a post for each country along with some of my favorite photos!

While I was gone Matt finished the tile and walls in the bathroom, painted, and installed the shower, toilet, and sink. Yeah!! As soon as we get the wall upstairs installed and finish up a few odds and ends we are going to be able to move in!!

Until Next Time,
Amanda

Update on Construction

Things are going slow at the house during the week. Matt's work and school schedule does not allow for much 'free' time, and what little there is, he usually spends studying for a test or doing homework.

There is not much I can do at the house, so I've only stopped a few times to make sure nothing bad happened to the house. I also have to make sure our newest additions to the family have food and water. Please meet Fluffy and Pickles (as named by my three year old niece)!!

(Fluffy is the brown, black, and white cat and Pickles is the gray Cat)

I posted pictures of the house before we tore everything apart, but I didnt post too many picture of the destruction phase! I have to thank both my brothers Adam and Alex for coming to help out, as well as my Dad, and Mom (when she wasnt playing hangman on her phone!!), and my brothers friend Keith, who is the lucky new owner of a spiral staircase.

Matt tearing our the old bathroom dor, closet, and the small storage closet.

Matt thought to keep me occupied he would have me smash all the tiles to get them off the floor. Luckily I was only halfway done, with a few blisters when I was showed how to lift them off the floor whole!!!

Good bye old bathroom!!

This may be the only time I saw her working! So of course I took a picture!

Taking out the beam that was blocking my new staircase!

Again working on taking the beam out from a different angle.

Monster Man Alex can handle it himself.

The beam piece is gone!!

Maybe if I have time later I will post some photos of the walls that have gone up and my Brand New Staircase!!!!! :)



The Outside of the House

Here are a few pictures of the outside of the house.

The front of the house.

The front, including the garage addition.

Front, again.

Back deck and the balcony (not to be used) on the master bedroom.

Back, again.

The House

Its Picture time! Although they dont amount to much other than construction photos...... they are photos of the house! Matt was off Wednesday through Sunday from work (and on Spring Break from College) so we spent all of our time working on the house!

The house only had a spiral staircase (above) to reach the second floor. Although they are nice to look at- they are not practical. Matt and I decided to take the spiral staircase out, and put in a traditional staircase. In order to do this, we are 'shrinking' the massive bathroom (it used to be a bedroom and had so much unused space).

(Photos are of the bathroom and bathroom closet that have been re-configured).

When we started destroying the walls we decided we should just re-do the whole 1st floor while we are not living in the house.  So....... we tore all of this out too!!!

Although it looks nice in photos, the finish work did not look that great in person. The previous owner made almost everything in the house, and in person it was pretty obvious.

The house is now a construction zone and looks nothing like the above any longer......

That's all I have for now, but I promise I will post more later!!

~Amanda

We are Homeowners again!!

I just wanted to update everyone that Matt and I are busy remodeling! Matt took three days off this week so we have five days to get as much done before Matt goes back to work and school (he is currently on Spring Break). I'm hoping to get pictures posted soon, as well as changes we are making. Hopefully on Monday after Matt goes back to work, in the meantime, take a nap for me, there are none of those with Matt around!!

It's like Christmas Eve...... Only Worse!!!

Ahhhh........ I can't believe tomorrow is the day we sign the paperwork! I just got done with the final walk through! Matt had to work so he missed out- but everything looked good! Now we just need to get in there and knock some walls down and get to work! Time to make it ours.......almost!