Dinner!!

John doing some soldering of the new pipes!

the old pipes....GROSS!!

The new recesses lighting in the bathroom

John doing some plumbing!!!

My lack of house updates are not due to the fact that we are not (or John and his dad) working on the house! God bless my father in law. He flew in last Friday and was suppose to stay 2 weeks. It's midway through and he extended his stay for 4 more days. He gets up, barely eats breakfast, and goes to the house. He works all day there and John meets him there after work. They work a few more hours and then they come home....usually not befor 9pm! He has my dad's car, so John gives him a job to do and he gets it done with an occasional trip to the Depot!!! This work would cost us thousands of dollars, so I am SO SO grateful for him being here. We tried to give him the night off on Friday, we were going to a wedding so if he wanted to come home early and watch the girls while we were gone, he could have the night off. He chose to continue working on the house. That should tell you how much work these 3 girls are:)

Their job this week has been all internal so there's not much progress looks wise, but the fact that the water running through my shower will be running through clean brand new pipes is worth it!! They have been doing plumbing and electrical all week. In true Ross fashion it is taking much longer than anticipated. The rotted out floor in the bathroom underneath the tile didn't help matters much. During his down time, my day laborer has befriended the construction people next door! He had them over for lunch and has them giving us a bid on a little remodeling!! His lunch break is breaking away from the plumbing and electrical and ripping the linoleum floor out of Kate's room!! I'm telling you I am so lucky!!!

the original backyard. you can't even imagine unless you see it what it actually looked like. the depth is enormous!

after a little bit of work (really a lot)

a lot more work from herman the hired help!

the finished product

the finished product from the other side

right out the back door. this concrete ended up being 12 inches thick. HUGE!!!

ready to be carried away

the finished product

the original side yard

matt and john and a lot of work got us this pathway

uncle louie, the hired help and his crew helped out with this!

the finished product

words cannot even begin to express the gratitude we have for our friends and family for helping us out. really, we have neighbors driving us to the house so we can pick up a friends truck, friends lending us their truck, words of support from everyone, my dad meeting workers to open up doors, matty leaving work early, driving down from San Diego, and helping us out for hours upon hours of hard MANUAL labor, our neighbor johnny being john's 'helper', the visits we have had from friends, john's work friend lending us his trailer, my mother in law extending her stay so we could have uninterrupted time fixing the house, my mom for all her help watching kids, meeting people at the house, and giving us all her 'contacts', my father in law for coming out next week for 2 weeks, the boxes people have lent us, on and on. i am sure i forgot someone important:) i could go on and on. this past weekend we were helped by my sister and brother in law for a house warming gift of gutting the backyard. this is no easy task as john and matt and our friend johnny will tell you. they worked their butt off to clear the way for a view area. thank god they did because the work that was done this weekend couldn't have been done unless they could get their big truck through the side yard which was just one week ago, covered in trees. jj a.k.a. jeff lewis from flipping out was calling and wheeling and dealing with about 4 different 'penny saver' people. he had people coming over to the house and if they couldn't start that day, they were out. in the end people were calling him back, he had no idea who the job was going to! i was a nervous wreck that people would come at the same time, he was planning on them coming at the same time to show them he wasn't messing around absolutely hysterical to watch him in action! i believe now, due to the generosity of other people, we are ready to make our house a home! anyone interested in our fixer upper, i thank you! love to all our family and friends:)

no words

no words can describe my day. i am becoming weary and 2nd guessing. we have worked for hours everyday and it feels like nothing getting better, though i know it is.

today we had my dad's help, our neighbor johnny, and matt...THANK GOD! it's amazing what they got through. they weeded through the mess to clear out more of the backyard. the roots of these plants/trees can be used as ropes to tie things down. it is absolutely more than i can even explain to you. thankfully we have had some people come visit and they can attest to the jungle atmosphere.

we also demoed the bathroom. not quite completely, but the tile in the shower and counter tops. the rest should come out pretty easily...comparatively!!!

side yard

side yard after.

we had 1 loads today and 1 yesterday and it barely cut a dent into it

truck and trailer were FULL for all dumps

let the demolition begin

me doing demolition. if it weren't for the darn studs i would have had a great time:) they kept getting in the way

during. tile in little pieces is so much more than tile in squares

Day 5...with a little help

Today was a big break through. I'm giving all the details, but feel free not to read and just look at pictures, I won't be offended!

My day started off as Kelsey Putz at Massage Envy for a 60 minute massage. I lost sleep over the nerves from getting caught. What would I do if they asked for id? Well, I had my story. I got in fine no id required, but in true Courtney fashion, I spend the entire time worrying that someone I knew was either an employee or knew me or knew Kelsey, so I STRESSED out for an hour! So, if you know me and see me at Massage Envy, please call me Kelsey and ask me how Arizona is!

So, I went over there alone this morning to finish the molding in our room and finish filling up the trailer of green waste. We needed to dump it today so we could load it with the wood from the patio cover. Got it all done and to my surprise, Matty arrived with a chainsaw about 3 hours earlier than expected. He went at all the bushes and in no time we were seeing a wall! I left for a bit came back and the wall was showing along with a nice little white bench that actually might be worth keeping:) I switched places with my mother in law, took the kids swimming with the Axlines and she went to the house. My dad, bro in law, John, and his mom took down the patio cover. Well, my dad might not have been involved in that. His job was to take plants down the street to all the houses and find green waste cans that had room for trash pick up today. In the meantime he met many neighbors and apparently took some for a tour of the lovely pit! All I kept hearing all day was that he needed to eat. He needed his medicine and he couldn't take his medicine until he ate. When he finally did get some food I heard him telling Matt and John he didn't know whether to call it lunch or dinner! Gotta love him!

I still can't figure out this picture order...i know last picture uploaded is the 1st one seen, but I always get it confused, but you get my point!

the 3 amigos

the 2 amigas that did the work

the first dump of the patio cover

the last beam

either amazed at their work or wondering what the hell john and i were thinking with this purchase

the bench

we do have a side fence. not sure how the neighbors next door feel. the wall is low and they probably have never seen the house next door through the yard.

what it looked like mid cuts

day 4 a day late...sorry

This is the result of the 3 rooms. Most of it was done the day before!

Today was a light day for me. I am exhausted! I went over there after I made a quick return to babygap (that's a whole other story). I stayed about 3 hours and then came home, took a shower, put my jammies on and laid in bed all day! Thank GOD my mother in law is here. She is in complete control of my 3 precious gifts!!!!

I went through the 3 bedrooms and finished all the carpet tack strips. This is a pain in the but and I am so thankful that I will (hopefully) never do again. It doesn't look like a lot but it really was!

day 3...a little like day 2 only longer

Forgive me, my pictures are backwards, so for these pictures to make sense, scroll down and read up!

I had a busy busy day to say the least. Hammering, lifting, sweeping, cutting, raking, destroying the habitat of many bugs, crying, crying, moaning, etc. Oh, and a nice man came and put a forclosure sign on our front door. Apparantly the owner of the house finally went into forclosure. Its schedule to sell at auction on Aug. 9 so if any of you are looking in brea... He told me to call the number and to have the realtor change the ownership to take care of it.

I left my house this morning at 8am and returned home to La Mirada at 9pm. The entire day I worked. I have never in my life put so much into one thing for more than 1 consecutive day in my life. It is brutal. My hands hurts, my feet ache, and so on. Honestly though, I can see progress. We got a little thumbs up from a few sets of neighbors. I think they see $$ with us that their property value will rise:) My mom and dad and mother in law have been key. My dad was there today cracking me up. Everytime I would go to rip something down he would say "your not keeping that?" or "this looks brand new!" Let me reiterate...nothing we are keeping and nothing is brand new! My mom cleaned he fridge for 3 hours today and took care of getting it fixed under warranty even though it wasn't:) My mother in law kept my girls ALL day!

the side yard when we left tonight...all thanks to John!

the side yard this morning

the tack strips used to hold down the carpet came out in shreds because of moisture, rotting, and termite damage. I took it almost all out in 3 of the 4 bedrooms

yes, this man lived with this refrigerator **GROSS**

this little lot took way too long

his version of grass. this stuff is connected with a million little roots. It took almost 3 hours an i hardly got any removed:(

all done

I had no idea roots and stems could be this thick on jasmine

the jasmine in front of the house

finished

me with the wacker

What it started out looking like this am

day 2

There is a softball cheer that I think people should chant to me. "we are proud of you say we are proud of you..hey hey hey!" Today I got to the house in the early a.m. and all by myself ripped, cut, rolled, taped, and moved 2100 sq. feet of carpet into a trash trailer BY MYSELF!! I thought I was going to die. Literally. My hands were throbbing. My mom came over and she cleaned out the refrigerator which was absolutely the grossest thing I have ever seen. He left us 2 trash cans of food. Wasn't that nice of him? My dad then came over and proceeded to walk around the house telling me "Oh you can keep that." NO DAD! there is nothing that we want to keep! "why?" he would ask, "it seems nice" "just for now" I tried to explain to him that there was nothing we felt of value to keep, but he kept insisting and then asking if he could then take it for his garage if we didn't want it! Oh my!!!

the freezer..it was chuck full of food and this is what was behind all the food

how does free standing mustard get mold? i don't wanna know

my mom filled 2 of these with what was in the refrigerator and freezer

my finished product...for those that know me...i know you are impressed

the hallway

room without carpet

beautiful linoleum underneath carpet in kate's room

progress

getting started