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Movin' on up!

I realize I've been pretty AWOL for a few weeks but I have been so busy! I'm talking new floors at the beginning of this month, new garage doors two days ago and tons of yard work in between! On a higher note - we have GRASS! It's basically coming out of our ears:) Along with weeds too... That's not to say that we are anywhere near done with yard work though...

I had really high hopes to be super productive this morning.. Migraine. 
Cool.

I really want to give you guys some good stuff today, but bear with me because I have something pushing on the back of my eyeballs...

Lawn update: We have completed Grass Phase I of operation lawn. Grass Phase II is nearing the end and Grass Phase III is in progress. As for Grass Phase IV, that's almost in motion. We don't really know how many phases there are going to be but hopefully by the time leaves start falling we will have completed everything! 



House update: Floors are officially refinished and I can't even right now! They look so amazing! The only downfall is everything else looks terrible now - the trim, the stairs even the walls need to be repainted. It's like I can't keep up! We have already repainted the office and living room and hallways will probably be next. I really don't want to leak many photos of the new floors until the spaces are put together. 
We went with The Flooring Center and Roy did an amazing job on our somewhat challenging floors. 
We also have a mouse in the house. Again. Awesome. 
Currently we have 3 traps set for this little bugger and he has yet to be caught.. 

Garage update: We are in the 21st century now! They look amazing and we are so excited to have power doors. It's literally life changing for us. We now have no excuse to park in the garage:)

Husbie and I recently celebrated our ONE year anniversary and our in-laws surprised us with something huge.. and heavy.



They are truly the most selfless people I know, it's unbelievable sometimes. 

We knew exactly what we wanted to do with it - floors and garage doors were booked the next day!


These are the best photos that I could find from the very beginning:



Yuck, right?



A friend of mine from high school works at his family's garage door company - On Track Overhead Doors.  I knew I would be going straight to him when it was time to get new doors for our garage. To my surprise he was a short trip away from us! Jay came out right away and took measurements and showed us our options - we have "low head room" so our situation was a little more unique than most. He asked his dad to come out to make sure that everything would go smoothly. They took  great care of us from the beginning - we really  felt at ease the entire process. 

^It's more rewarding if you let the weeds go for weeks and then chop them down all at once:)


We decided to go with a unique two panel door  - a slight change from our previous 4 panel - made by CHI Overhead Doors. Not only are they made in the US, they are made in good ole Illinois! I was all set to get white and something made me change my mind - because hey, I always get my genius ideas last minute:) There was a moment where we couldn't decide whether or not to do carriage doors with the hardware and windows at the top. I felt it would be trying too hard to look vintage. Plus I don't think it quite matches the style of our home. 
 We decided on the color "bronze" and it almost matches perfectly with our service door in the center. Although I am still in debate if we would like to repaint that in a darker color - thoughts on that?

***
I would like to interrupt this blog post for a very important update:
I decided to take a break and go get lunch and find some inspiration. AND...
I caught the mouse intruder! In the vacuum.. I literally sucked the life out of him as he was hanging from the end of the vacuum wand.
Don't know how I managed to eat a meal after literally murdering a living being but I managed.. I can finally clean the pantry and the poop that is literally everywhere:) 
*sigh*

***


We went with a slight upgrade on the insulation backing to keep the heat in or out. We have plans in the future to insulate the walls and ceiling for when I refinish furniture out there. I'm glad we decided to go ahead with that upgrade.  


As for the openers we went with a standard chain opener made by LiftMaster - they have a quieter belt option but since the garage is detached, why spend the money on silence when its not necessary? I actually don't even think that it is as loud as I was imagining either - no regrets there! On Track provided us with the wall openers for inside the garage, an outside keypad and 3 openers (it comes with 2 and we upgraded to 3- one for the house). There is also a MyQ option to download an app on your phone to be able to control it from there - I am still researching this:) 
Since our situation was a little more difficult than most, Jay and his dad asked their most experienced installer, Matt, install for us. 
I already warned Matt that he may end up on the blog and he happily obliged:)

Matt is the greatest guy I've ever met - aside from hubs. It goes Hubs then Matt. He pulled up early Wednesday morning in the happiest of moods. He told me how terrible his week was going after totaling their family van on a trip to WI - but he wasn't going to let that get him down. He said today is beautiful and I am so excited for this job. Who says that about their job?? No one, that's who. He walked me through step by step and let me know what to expect. He was at my house alllll day - he made sure the job was done right and didn't want to leave until it was perfect. Perfect it was. Matt was a happy camper the entire time - I still can't get over his attitude. He had great things to say about Jay and his dad along with the company and he was really excited about the way the doors looked after they were hung:) He said I did a good job picking them out:) 



Now that we have the prettiest doors on they block, I better get working on the inside of the garage! Who has cabinets or workbenches they are getting rid of? 
I'm hoping this will give me a little motivation to get organized and cleaned out in the garage now! 

We still have quite a bit of work that needs to be completed in order for our garage to be perfect, such as concrete repair, power washing, fence replacing etc, but we are extremely excited and grateful to have the biggest challenge completed:) 
But..
HERE SHE IS!


Overall, our entire experience with On Track Overhead doors was phenomenal and I would recommend them to anyone in the market for new doors:) 

If you are on the hunt for quality overhead doors - head over to HERE and tell them you read about it on my blog:)


What kinda projects is everyone getting into this summer??


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side | bar


Our niece is in town and she is a character:)












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