Out of town and still going

This week I have been in Mobile receiving training in the computer system for my new job. With me gone, my hubby has kept the remodel rolling. 

He has almost finished a whole bathroom!  We pulled out Taylor's old nasty tub, installed the new tub, laid the tile, and installed the wooden paneling on the walls. 

You know you are a redneck when.....

You use a red solo cup to  lose up the whole for the septic! Hey people, you use what you have!

Here is the new shinty white tub and you can see the tiles. They are a 16 x 16 gray tile. 

I cannot wait to get home and see it in person!

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Crazy Crazy Week

This week Jonathan and myself have both started new jobs so it has been beyond crazy!

I took a position with the Anniston Board of Education as the Payroll Accountant. I have been doing payroll, but this is a whole system of numbers that I am having to learn. So far I am really loving it, but when I get home I am exhausted!!!  

Jonathan moved his broker from New York Life to Allstate. He is really excited about the change and already seeing fruits from it. This is a new computer system and staff that he is having to learn. And his office is now based out of Southside, near Gadsden, which is about a 45 min drive for him. It is a nice drive though. 

With all the craziness of this work week, the haven't gotten to be as productive as we were over the weekend.  Jonathan and Tanner have been doing a lot of demolition. They have torn out cabinets from both bathrooms and Tanners room. This is just part of the counter off the cabinet in Tanners room. It is like 8 feet long!  

Right now on my back porch I have an assortment of tools, wood pieces, lawn chairs, boxes, cabinets, counters, carpet, foam matting, and two (yes I said two) toilets!  We are officially White Trash!!!

We are still working on the mystery of the water pressure. We are now thinking that there may be some rust built up in the water heater, pipes, and fixtures from the old galvinized pipes we pulled out from underneath the house. 

Jonathan is also starting to put down the backer board for the tile in the bathroom. We are starting to get the clean slate that helps us better visualize what it will look like completed. 

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Downside to the country

This is the age of technology right?  Everyone is "connected" all the time so I it seems. Everywhere you look people of all ages are on their phones, iPads, computers, and so may other devices. 

Why is it that with all of the advancements, we can't seem to get internet at a reasonable rate? I never thought that we would have this problem. We knew that our neighbors had internet with AT&T and we have phone lines so that should be our best option right?

Well apparently they only open up so many "ports" of interent for the area. They are researching to see if they can find an empty "port" so that we can get internet. 

I realize that this is a minor issue, especially after having to use a porta potty for a week, but it is an inconvenience that we are all having to adjust to. 

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To the Trees

There has been a lot of progress this weekend, mostly small things that need to be done. 

I spent Saturday morning trying to get all of our clothes organized so that we can function this week while Jonathan started getting our washer and dryer hooked up. As usual, this took a few trips to the hardware store for random parts. 

We also had a few amazing friends show up with chainsaw, mower, weed eater, sprayer and pole saw. We are so blessed with friends that just show up and get some serious work done!  

This sexy bug guy showed up for a little while too. 

This is Sam, and I love that not only does he show up to work, he takes to time to teach Tanner how to use a chainsaw. 

There were some problems with the dryer hook up so Chad,another one of our amazing friends that does electrical work, came and helped us get it up and running. 

While Jonathan and Chad were working on dryer, me and Jessica, my very best friend in the whole wide world, started painting the trim in Taylor's bedroom. There is nothing that brightens a room like bright white, glossy trim!

When it was all said and done we have to massive piles of limbs and bushes that were cut. That is some serious yard work!

You can see that we enjoyed our fire pit under our trimed up tree last night. It was so nice to relax with our friends that have helped us out so much. 

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Happy 4th Part 2

Today we started painting bedrooms and the hallway. I keep posting pictures of the kids working so here is proof the I was getting in on the action. 

I really like the two separate mirrors, It has a slimming effect, which is a miricle. 

We were able to get Taylor's walls painted. Everyone worked a paintbrush at some point which helped out a lot! 

Here is what the walls looked like before. I will post an after pic when we get the trim painted. 

After we finished painting her room and got through most of the hallway, we ride into town and exchanged the way oversized microwave and picked up a few new things.  

I was able to find the shower faucet set that I had been looking for!  We were able to mix match two sets from the same collection to make exactly what we needed to make both upstairs faucets match. It's the little thigs that make me feel better. The kids found other ways to entertain themselves. 

Since we were having some friends over tonight we thought we would get a toilet installed. Our plan didn't work out because the supply lines the we got didn't fit, so I guess it's one more day with the porta potty. 

Tonight we have enjoyed a well deserved break with some good friends and some fireworks. 

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Happy 4th Part 1

Yesterday I didn't get a chance to post an update so I will put it all in this post. 

Yesterday was septic and water day. They completed the septic issue so we can now install toilets in our home like normal Americans!

We also had a plumber come out and look at the water pipes going into the house and garage/apartment. We had galvinized water pipes under the house that were causing some major issues so they pulled those out and replaced them with the proper pipes. My kids took this picture while creeping in the window. 

We are still dealing with some water pressure issues but we will focus on that a little later. 

While we were at work Taylor and Tanner pulled up the rest of the staples and nail strips out of the floor in Taylor's bedroom. They also pulled out the carpet in both of their bathrooms. Yes, you read that right, CARPET IN THE BATHROOMS!!! Yuck!

And no, she isn't using the bathroom!

They decided it was time to tear something up so they took out these shelves that didn't really have any purpose so that we can fit out TV in this spot. 

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New House for the Kughn's

For the last 6 years we have lived in a nice little house in a subdivision that is in a community called White Plains, that is part of Anniston, AL. This community is very rural, and by that I mean that we do not even have a red light. We have recently been upgraded to a blinking light and one intersection after several accidents. We are verging on progressive! Ha! 

We recently decided that it was time to move a little further in the country with some acreage. We fell in love with this fixer upper than came with 10 acres 

And also came with this beautiful view 

It was a long process full of delays, but as of Monday, June 30th, the house is ours!

I said earlier that this home was a fixer upper, bought in as-is condition. The past couple of days have been spent trying to make sure that all of the electrical and plumbing are fully functional. We knew that there was a septic problem but unsure of the severity. They diagnosed it as a broken header pipe and have repaired that problem. But of course it could not be that simple!  They believe that there are some problems with the water lines that feed water to the house and detached garage/apartment. We will know more on that tomorrow. 

We also worked today on pulling up some of the carpet that will later be replaced. 

Those are my wonderful, amazing children who have been so much help during this move. In our home it is all hands on deck all the time. You will be seeing many pictures of them throughout this remodel for sure!  What can I say, I'm a slave driver.  They also worked on pulling up nail strips and staples from the sub flooring. 

Where will we live during the remodel you   ask???  We have a friend that has let us borrow his camper and we have it set up to sleep in until we can get the bedrooms ready to go. We have also rented a porta potty which looks great sitting at the end if the driveway!

The plan for tomorrow is to finish pulling up the carpet and begin prep for painting the walls in the kids bedrooms. 

As I write his post I am sitting on my back porch, listening to 1000 crickets, watching 1000 lightening bugs, listening to Jonathan play guitar, and thinking about how much I am going to enjoy the country life!

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