Insulation, dry wall & framing materials are all ordered...

and will be delivered TOMORROW WOO HOO!  I was really disappointed that Lowe's no longer rents trucks from our location, so I have to bite the bullet and wait until it is delivered tomorrow.  Therefore, I have reopened my yard sale for a few hours today to make a little more money toward the cost and pass some time.  Have a SAFE & happy Memorials Weekend!

Old carpet, carpet padding, and two, yes, TWO layers of tile are gone!

    Last night I was happily surprised to find Michael beginning to remove the old, nasty carpet padding, so I jumped right in!  We were able to remove it all within about an hour because, as with the walls, it was NOT properly installed.  It's as if they occasionally spilled a foot wide area of adhesive, and the rest was barely attached.  This could also be because of the age of the adhesive, possibly installed 20 years or so ago???  Anyway, it is so nice to have that nasty stuff OUT of here!  The timing of doing this while I suffer from terrible sinus/allergy problems is not great, but oh well... I'm already severely congested. 
     Wesley also helped, even though he is also fighting allergies.  Last weekend he even had a fever and his sore throat, which I believe is from the sinus drainage, knocked him down, so I kept him out of school on Monday.  He has been feeling much better and tomorrow is their (rain day from today) Track & Field day at school.  He is VERY excited about that... He is participating in 4 or 5 events including a relay.  That should be interesting, and be fodder (sp?) for SEVERAL scrapbook pages lol.
     I have been planning my annual Memorial weekend yard sale for months, and after purging so much during the Organizing FUNdamentals class through BPC, I am adding my SCRAPBOOK PURGE to the sale;   Michael apparently forgot... he is planning to start installing my floor on Saturday... He'll have to wait until 3pm for my help.  I had planned to do most of it myself, but oh well... I hope to have the floor insulation and underlayment done by Monday!  Wish us luck!

New 3 Birds goodies are on their way to me & DOWN come the WALLS! YEY!

    I have received my shipment confirmations from HSN so I should be holding the wonderful new goodies in my little chickadee wings within a few days... Woo hoo!!!!
     We didn't get ALL the walls down last night, but they are about 2/3 complete.  Wesley's soccer practice was replaced by a make up game that was rained out earlier this season, so the work was interrupted a bit, plus I had stopped the demo around 2 pm when I discovered that a previous owner HAD installed some insulation.  I didn't want to remove the entire wall in case Michael wanted to keep it and only paint over it.  This is the only wall that is not covered in that nasty textural material that always reaches out and grabs the skin from your hands as you approach it, so it could have been painted instead of removed if we had wanted. 
     I'm glad we are removing it as planned, because the installations they had done were very poor.  Not only are all the trim pieces barely attached, easily popping off the walls & ceiling with very little effort, but the insulation panels are literally 'scabbed' in.... bits and pieces were used in several places, and even the adhesive they only used in SOME areas of the wall wasn't holding onto the insulation either.  Even the framing (whose pattern doesn't make much sense either) is easily removed!  Michael had anticipated that it would be a bear to remove the nail-gun-driven attachments but he has easily removed them with a crowbar!  YEY for us, as this is making the demo go very quickly and SO VERY easy compared to what it SHOULD have been. 
     I do wish that they would have done a higher quality job in terms of the insulating that they had done though, as that would save us a fair chunk of money if we didn't have to replace it all.  Also, the basement walls are not entirely insulated, only a portion of it, so we have to insulate the remainder as well.  The floor is not insulated at ALL, so between those two situations, that's why I've been freezing down there for the past 8 years.... onward and upward we go.  It can (hopefully) only get better from here lol.
    

Two new ESTATE Collection by 3 Birds products are on HSN.com

More beautiful products are available from 3 Birds on HSN.COM, and are of course, already in my shopping bag lol.  I will patiently wait until next week to see what more they have in store for me.... or us!  The gorgeous stamps are recognizably coordinated with the beautiful papers from the Estate Collection paper packs and are, therefore, headed for my home asap.  More beautiful gems are also coming to join my stash of 5 other bling sets from 3 Birds!  Happy early Mother's Day to me.......

Purging continues in my scrap studio!

    Continuing to purge as part of my Organizing FUNdamentals class through BigPictureClasses, I have purged so much paper.... Yes Dawn,  I purged PAPER... a ton of it in fact... so much that I have emptied a 3 section 4' high paper rack.  Not all at one sitting, but over the past year.  I gave in to the inspiration and emptied the last third or so of it the other day.  I then took a hammer to it, began tearing it apart, hubby finished the demo and carried the scraps outside!  Dakota IMMEDIATELY came down and claimed the empy space!  " MOM!  FINALLY..... an empty spot on  the floor for me to take a nap!"

For my bpc classmates, this is the "nasty popcorn walls' that I've been complaining about...  EVERYTIME you even THINK about reaching for something as it rolls to the back of your table, or you try to move a paper rack to a new space...... ouch.  Less skin on your fingers, knuckles, etc.  OFF IT IS COMING!  We are going to be RIPPING OUT ALL THESE WALLS, reframing, insulating, and putting up new drywall.  YEY FOR ME!!!!!  WOO HOO! 

A new heat source, as we are no longer dependent upon the furnace, raised floors for further insulation from the cold, a bar height island to replace my current 4x8' crop table,... WOW will I be one happy scrapper!

My 1st layout utilizing the NEW 3 BIRDS ESTATE COLLECTION TREASURED LAYOUTS V2

Organizing FUNdaments class from Big Picture Classes (BPC) is great!

  I am in the midst of the sort/organize session of this class, as we are in week 3.  Wendy Smedley and Aly Dosdall have offered this great class to help us to practice methods, make realizations & insights into how WE think and craft, & therefore make OUR spaces more useful & pleasant for US.
  Although I have been purging my studio at least twice a year for the past 3 years or so, there is ALWAYS something to be discovered which we no longer love, have absolutely no use for as we move on to other stages in our children's/grandchildren's lives (ie I no longer really need all that cutesy newborn boy product since Wesley is now 9 years old),  does not fit our current 'style' of scrapbooking, cardmaking or papercrafting (I'm very into shabby chic and layering now), or is simply taking up TOO MUCH SPACE and cluttering our lives, minds & hearts.
  Because this class is offered through BPC, it is a "FOREVER" CLASS.....all the material listings, handouts, VIDEO tutorials, etc are ARCHIVED on their website...you can access it at ANY TIME, DAY OR NIGHT, even on CHRISTMAS EVE as a gift to yourself if you see fit!
  Come on over to www.bigpictureclasses.com to check it out, as well as see all the other wonderful offerings, including FREE CLASSES!