It's official!

The Double Diamond Ranch officially has internet access for the first time ever! :)

That's right, I'm posting this from the "comfort" of my bed (currently located in the living room..we'll see where we end up sleeping tomorrow. You never know around here) at the ranch. We're all moved out of the apartment (our lease ended today), so we're living here now...even though there is still a lot of work to do before the renovations are complete. It's a huge mess trying to find things in boxes from moving and figuring out where to sleep/eat/etc. We're also Rigby-less right now (he's living with M/D) since we can't have him walking on freshly varnished floors...

Well, here's a little photo update of the happenings from the past week or 2. We have a lot done, but we still have a lot more to go!

New appliances have arrived!


First coat of floor stain goes on in the bedrooms..
And the 2nd coat... (several days later, but she's wearing the same outfit!!)

Dad tries to take a picture of the 2nd coat through the outside window..hm..
Varnishing is a serious business. All 3 bedrooms now have both coats of varnish on them - thanks to Storm Trooper mom.

Bathroom vanity and cabinets are installed


D. cuts the counter for the bathroom
Sink and counter are in!
D puts in the tub surround so we can have a fully functioning bathroom


Preparing the paneling walls to be plastered. Look how much brighter the room is with white walls!

Putting up the Venetian Plaster. It's blue. Luckily, Mike has a friend who used to do plastering stuff for a job, so she was a big help.
Everyone (but me) got to do some plastering. I was at work and missed all the fun....

As the plaster dried, it looked like clouds! It doesn't look like that anymore though :)
DONE with plaster--the pictures don't really do it justice though. The texture looks great in person!
Since the last pictures....I put the first coat of paint on in the kitchen and began spackling nail holes in the trim/baseboard so they can be painted. Dad started hanging our new doors today - those still need to be painted as well. Mike and I both just got done taking showers in the new bathroom! It worked well, but the motion sensor light didn't think I moved enough while showering, so the lights went out twice while I was in there and I had to flail my arms to get it to turn back on. I'll remember next time to turn the motion switch to "on" mode instead of "auto" mode when I enter the bathroom!

Well, until next time....and hopefully I can find the camera batteries so I can take more pictures...they got packed somewhere and are now lost in the moving/renovating fray...

Meet Skiba!

Welcome to the family, Skiba.

She's one of the kitties we will have as outdoor "hunting" cats at the house. After only a few days, she made herself right at home.....

On top of the roof!

This weekend, we finished painting the 3 bedrooms (a second coat may be needed in 2 of those) and the bathroom ( a second coat is definitely needed in the bathroom). Dad worked on garbage disposal electric stuff, Mike worked on getting the side-boards put onto the vanity and bathroom cabinet things. Those are now ready to stain and put in. Cabinet doors are 1/2way stained. We're almost ready to start staining floors and that really needs to get done...SOON. We move in a week................

Here I am painting the bathroom.

Don't try this at home.

Heavy duty soldering tools.

Here I am again with another update from the past week or so. Since we left off.....

We put in all the new vinyl floor tiles!



Almost done picture.Dad proved to be a man of many talents. He's an electrician...
And a plumber...
Here's the new plumbing for the bathtub/shower in the main bath.

He was also a sheetrocker. Here he's putting in waterproof/moldproof sheetrock that should have been put in years ago.

Mom turned into our sheetrock mudder person. She looks rather menacing.

The sheetrock sanding tool was fun. It had a vacuum attachment so we didn't get dust everywhere. It had so much suction that it stuck to the wall.
Mike also got to sheetrock mud the seams in the paneling.
Look how many patches were needed in the old green bedroom. That bulit-in-desk was once again glued, cemented, welded, tacked, stapled, screwed, nailed, and painted to the wall.

I got to do many jobs. I tore off all the window/door trim since we're getting new stuff. Not sure why I look so happy about it...
And help primer paint the bedrooms
Mom also helped primer the old "den" room.
See how fun it is?
I also got the den completely painted a few days ago. It is now light green. The pictures don't do it justice.

Almost done!
We also bought a new door threshold for the front door. Mike worked on getting that to fit and be the right size. I've started staining the bathroom cabinets and the old green bedroom is primed and ready to paint tomorrow. The new green bedroom (the old "den") is ready for floor stain, trim, and touch-up ceiling paint. The bathroom has been sheetrock mudded but still needs a few more coats before we can paint it. I picked out a kitchen paint color and hopefully we'll get to have that painted soon - our appliances arrive on Wednesday!

Look for another update after this weekend!