One day while I was at work, boyfriend pulled all the gross carpet out of the lace room. But we didn't have any plan yet what we were going to do with it. 

Lucky for us, there was some great laminate flooring on sale at Home Depot. I originally liked the darker wood, probably because it was called farmstead something, but we went with a lighter color. 

Friday was supposed to be my day off, but when senators are available for your major Sunday story, you take the interviews. Friday is also a skating day, but we got started. Mostly we pulled the subfloor edging, nails and laid the underlayment. That was all more tedious really than the floor itself. To me anyway.

That's right, boyfriend used ammo boxes as weights. Without the awful carpet, the wallpaper has been growing on me. It might still have to come down on the wall where there's a big hole from installing the dog fence transmitter, but we'll see. I haven't decided yet. Of course then I'd also have to pick a paint color. So. Many. Choices.

Living with an engineer is pretty great when you do projects like these, because he had a plan. I would have just laid down boards every which way.

He did all the measuring and cutting to fit around the closet and the radiator. I just picked which boards I wanted to go where and helped to install. Basically, these were pretty simple, just line 'em up, angle the tongue into the groove and lay it down. Every so often one wouldn't sit right and we'd have to line it up again, but otherwise, easy peasy. 

Oh, and I can't forget the 50 years of dirt hiding in the radiator. Along with old dominos and a 4 cent Lincoln stamp. That was a fun find at least. We're going to clean the radiator before we put it back together, but oh my gosh it's gross. Also note the layers of wallpaper under the lace wallpaper. Yeah, the previous homeowners had some rockin' style and home improvement strategies. 

Measuring was probably the most time consuming part and attempting to spread out the board designs since there's probably only 6 or 7 boards to choose from. We got about halfway through Saturday and just got tired and hungry so gave up for the night. Even halfway through, I was loving the way the room looked with the wood flooring.

Sunday I had to work, but we got started early to knock out the rest of the room. The puppies weren't really into the project. 

I took them outside for a break and my pups made a break for it chasing a rabbit or something I couldn't and didn't want to see. That dog makes me crazy sometimes. After getting stuck and gashed by some of the bushes and prickly grasses, I enlisted boyfriend's help in rounding him up. Grover spent some time in time out for that. I swear the times I feel pure terror, fear, anger and heartbreak all in one are times when that dog decides to bolt and almost wander onto a frozen lake that I'm not convinced he won't fall through, or try to jump off a bridge into the river on a morning run, or dart toward a road with 70 mph traffic. He's been allowed in the back off leash, but I still worry. Maybe I'm just a worrier, maybe it's a puppy mama thing. Maybe it's just I know my dog. He's like me. 

Flooring nearing completion, I headed to work. We needed more boards, so boyfriend headed back to Home Depot and wrapped up the last pieces and the closet, which needed more cutting. 

When I came home, the room looked like this. Total transformation. Seriously, for easy flooring changes, I recommend the laminate floors, especially if there's a good sale. 

We also picked up a carpet remnant that wasn't marked so we paid $25 for what we thought was a 12' by 8' remnant. Turned out to be 12' by 11.5' or so. Quite a steal. Definitely look for the remnants that aren't marked and they'll practically give it to you. At least that's how it worked out for is. We cut it to fit most of this room to protect the floor from furniture and puppies, but also to be warmer. Floors get cold in Montana in the winter! I do like the look of just the wood, but the remnant turned area rug looks pretty great too. Can't wait to get some furniture moved in there to make room for our next project. The mudroom just might be next and I'm super excited about that project.

But for now, I give you the before lace room. Drastic improvement, yes?

With a Friday off, we headed to Billings on a mission.

Boyfriend is leaving the military this month and needs a suit for job interviews. Great Falls isn't exactly a hub for such things, and he's tall, so even fewer options for decent, affordable work wear. 

Who would have thought there'd come a day that I'd actually be excited about Mens Warehouse. Seriously, I use to run by one in Alexandria on my route along the Potomac into Old Town. I hardly have it a glance. 

I was less than thrilled about the stupid-early wakeup time, but we had a fun time on the 3.5 hour drive down. 

A kid who was maybe just out of college helped us find sizes and styles of suits and as a guy who was actually wearing a suit, he had helpful hints to picking the right ones. Boyfriend isn't really isn't a fan of wearing suits and I know nothing about picking a suit, I just say yes, no, maybe to his clothing choices, so we definitely needed the assist. 

Turns out, boys have just as many clothing troubles as we do. Find the right size, color, fit, arms are too short, jacket is to short. Oh my gosh, I had no idea finding a suit was so complicated. 

The suits are currently being tailored and we'll see how they turn out, but honestly, boyfriend looks pretty good in a suit. 

I had the more fun, and yet challenging, task of picking out ties. He's kind of picky, and truthfully, I am too, so it was like navigating a minefield of ties. With input from the staff, and a lot of jokes, we picked out three that I'm pretty happy about. I'm naming myself girlfriend of the year for this trip and our well coordinated choices. 

That mission accomplished, we found a pretty good Indian restaurant for lunch. Boyfriend loves Indian food and I'll admit I'm pretty okay with it too. 

After all that fun, I pulled the Saturday shift. At first, I wasn't really feeling it, but after hanging out with scuba divers pulling aquatic vegetation at Giant Springs State Park on a beautiful morning by the river and then interviewing a two-time Olympic gold medalist soccer player who spent her weekend working with local kids, it turned into a pretty awesome and super productive day.

Sunday morning was cool and another beautiful Montana morning. 

My coffee jar was empty of it's usual Grizzly Blend and I was stoked to refill it with the coffee I'd picked up in Whitefish at Montana Coffee Traders while we were exploring Glacier National Park a few weeks ago. I brewed the first cup Monday morning and as I expected, with a name like Trailblazer, we're a perfect match.

Some progress was made in the house until boyfriend ran out of nails. Then he moved to digging holes for the dog fence. I focused on knocking out odds and ends that I'd fallen way behind on and cleaning where I could. Piles of stuff everywhere were starting to get to me and then I smashed my foot on a drill one day and shoes another day, throwing me into a fit of angry cleaning. But, the bedroom looked immaculate once clothes were properly put away, a few things rearranged and clothes moved from a hall closet to the bedroom closet so I could hide boxes and stuff in the hall closet and reduce my chances of tripping or falling over things. 

Welcome to our...mess? 

The pile of Bogs boxes and boots has since been relocated to more useful and out of the way locations. But, let's take a minute to discuss how stoked I am that we love our Bogs. 

We were looking for good boots for the garden, taking the dogs out, rain and cold. I hated just about everything we found at Big R, but had seen Bogs on Fresh Eggs Daily and on their recommendation, talked boyfriend into trying them. We love them! Plus, mine are green and well, green makes me happy. 

His and her Bogs. It's how we roll at the Homestead.

This week has been tiring and today completely exhausted me, so for now, a quick look at the progress in the living room and kitchen.

When we stated, it looked like this. 

We started talking about knocking these walls out as we were buying the house. We don't mess around.

A few months after moving in, about 4 days ago, it looked like this.

The other night it looked like this.

And tonight, it looks like this.

So much more to come, but in the meantime, I leave you with Grover pups. He had a lot of fun at doggy daycare the other day. 

When the last post was done, the Homestead looked like this.

That was all Saturday work. We took it easy-ish on Sunday and sat around a bit, then boyfriend went to work on mowing the yard (which is more like an enormous field) and I knocked out a story for work. 

The mower kept breaking and eventually he gave up, but not without finding this guy.

I said it looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland, boyfriend laughed, but his sister agreed. 

We're pretty confident it's a silk moth and nothing to worry about, but I haven't seen him since. 

I think we actually cooked that night and watched one of the Redbox movies or what I call the "train show" on Netflix. It's "Hell on Wheels" and it's actually pretty good though I was very unhappy with the ending of the last episode available on Netflix. 

We bailed on running Monday morning, but got lots of errands done. We finally got some "for now" curtains for the bedroom. Before we just had old blankets and sheets hanging from the curtain rails. I was excited to find my favorite shampoo brand on sale at buy one get one half price, so I bought four. 

I watched a girly movie that boyfriend watched part of with me. "The Five Year Engagement" was funny, but kind of long. Though we joked that when we get around to getting married, maybe we should plan it like they finally do in the end. 

Then, it was on to work.

This was the kitchen when we started. The plan was to basically knock out that wall you see so we could make a big open counter and then shorten the cabinets on top and mirror them on their backside. 

We took down the cabinets and discovered how much the previous homeowners liked to match their paint color to the sinks/tubs/etc. It would be more impressive if their color schemes weren't kind of awful, or at least nothing I want to keep.

That's right. It's yellow. And so is the kitchen sink. 

I did a lot of sawing the sheetrock or whatever the heck that stuff was between the dropped down ceiling that I want to keep and the wall we were kicking out. Oh my gosh it was hard. I got to punch some wall pieces out to and that was fun until it started to hurt. Guess I need to do more pushups.

We had to pull the stove out and disconnect a bunch of stuff. And also discover that the stove top vent had insulation in it, making it a giant fire hazard, but we're getting rid of that anyway. I've got my sights set on a very cool, very expensive oven I found at Home Depot. I'm saving up for that and a copper farm sink that might end up being this one from Signature Hardware. 

As we took everything apart, we decided we don't want to put the cabinets back so we're reworking the plan to just have a big open counter with bar seating on the other side. We'll probably keep one corner cabinet where the exterior wall is to allow for a bit of structure and we can make it shelving space on both sides. We're pretty sure we're going with the rustic beam idea for both of the soon to be nonexistent walls to keep some structure and ensure support to the walls, but also to go with the rustic-ish style we're moving toward. 

Not sure yet what material we'll use for the countertops or what I want to do with the cabinets we still have, but that's the fun part. 

Here's what the kitchen looks like now. Except that boyfriend did put the stove back yesterday to make dinner and I got excited about making stovetop popcorn. Because obviously, that's important stuff.

Boyfriend had Friday off for the holiday weekend and got a bunch done around the house. 

When I was wrapping up at work, I got a message from him that said: "Hope you're not too attached to the yellow laundry...cause I kinda accidentally started tearing out the walls."

What do you mean by tearing out walls, I asked. 

Then he sent me a photo.

From what I gather, this all started while boyfriend was installing the dryer vent into the bottom block of that window you see. Somehow, the laundry room never had a dryer vent before. Concerning.

As boyfriend suspected, no insulation between the wall and the exterior wall. Fine in summer, less fine in winter when it's outrageously cold outside.

Aside from cleanup, that's about as far as we got down there. Boyfriend moved the dryer to this wall to connect the vent and we're working on the plan for this room. It involved built in counters, shelves, a new sink and possibly a backup fridge and extra oven for holiday cooking or possibly baking when it's too hot to run the oven in the kitchen. Boyfriend is redoing the pipes and such too.

Since we had started knocking down walls, might as well keep going. So we started with this one. Boyfriend started working on it and I ran to Home Depot for paint samples. I wanted to test paint on the paneling on a wall we were tearing down anyway. It's certainly cheaper to keep the paneling in the living room and part of the dining room, but I hate the way it looks, so trying to figure a way to salvage it for now. By the time I got back from the paint run, it looked like this.

I got to work painting the paneling on the reverse side of this wall and deciding if I hated it or not. I grabbed three samples. One was plain ole white (far right in the photo below). I hated it. Once was parchment white (middle). Eh, alright, but not likely gonna happen. Third was something like Gulf Coast white (far left). Love it. Of the three, it is absolutely the winner, but boyfriend wants to try a deeper tan or brown before we decide and paint the remaining paneled walls. The living room carpet is currently blue. It's in pretty good shape now, so no point in spending money on new flooring there until we have to, so trying to create a color palette that can handle everything going on in this house. 

Eventually though, this paneling will go. This is a non-negotiable later project in my world.

Boyfriend handled the wiring and such, but I got to kick out some drywall. It was definitely fun, except for the few times I nearly knocked myself over and almost fell through the beams.

Then we moved to the other side.

Underneath all the paneling we took off was this sheetrock, drywall, I don't know what stuff. It was covered with this wallpaper, that looks better in the one clean square I found of it.

It's faded, dirty, covered in dried, old glue and just all around awful looking on the walls. But, the previous owners left so many treats for me that of course there was more wallpaper under it. And it was purple. And sparkly. 

This is how Grover felt about all the banging, pounding, sawing, cutting and kicking. As well as the purple wallpaper.

Boyfriend has given pups an Elvis voice and at this point, Grover was saying, "Mama, I don't like this. Mama, we better not be moving again."

We took a little lunch break to admire our handy work and also think about what we want to do with the space...that plan is still in flux. The diagonal beam is a bit perplexing because it might be part of a wind brace that we may or may not need. Luckily, engineer boyfriend is on top of all those details that stress me out.

Since we were all dusty and a mess, might as well keep going. Next.

Yes, that's boyfriend's arm, as Vanna White. But he's also kind of a beast.

I pulled huge chunks of this wall down and carted the dusty mess to the trailer we had in the front yard. I also yanked out nails and cleaning up constantly to prevent the dogs from stepping on a nail or just becoming fur balls of dust and dirt. 

A few hours of rocking out to radio music circa high school (for me. I might be 30, but I'm the spring chicken in this partnership. Kidding, he's only 35.), we all of this down. 

It was a pizza and beer/wine night for us after all this and we treated ourselves to a Redbox movie to admire our labor some more and think more about what we want to do with it. 

More to come from our weekend of labor and the future plans, but I'll leave you with what the Homestead looked like at the end of this day.

It may be a federal holiday, but we are hard at work here at the Homestead. 

We're spent the weekend tearing down walls, figuring out how we want to reconfigure rooms, style the kitchen and laundry room, possibly build in bookcases or shelving, update wiring. Boyfriend also got some mowing done until the mower broke again and he found a caterpillar that looks like it's straight out of Alice and Wonderland and I got some writing finished.

Sometimes I look around the house and am completely overwhelmed by the work we have ahead of us. Mostly, I think I get overwhelmed by the possibilities and then it become hard to make a decision. Sometimes, I'm completely terrified of what will happen if we tear down a wall. There's no going back from that. But as I sat in the living room this weekend looking through the bare bones of walls, it's really not that scary. 

We sort of had a plan going in, boyfriend knows what he's doing with the details of it, I had fun kicking down drywall and now we get to rebuild anything we can imagine, as long as the roof doesn't cave in. Minor detail. 

It's pretty fun really. And, turns out, I get to put a copper farm sink