"I think I nailed into a water line."

Those were my famous last words as I attempted to help Frank build a closet and play "Bob-the-builder". Good thing it was an easy fix (yes, I really did nail into a water line...), and the man-closet is done! Well, we don't have the doors up yet, but it is drywalled and ready to go!

There is a small room between the master bedroom and master bathroom, in this room was a big walk in closet and also a strange sink/stove/cabinet space that I guess used to be cool back in the 80's...

Not feeling the mini-kitchen between the bedroom and bathroom, sorry!

If you make a 180 turn from looking at this you are standing in front of a huge walk-in closet. We decided to knock these cabinets down and make a "man-closet". Here Frank is demonstrating his manly builder-like abilities. Watch closely as he precisely measures where we will put the closet header beams.

This photo was taken when we first started working on it. It took a few hours to get the frame work done, but I'd say that's pretty good for some people who are pretty much clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff (thank goodness for the internet!)...the drywall was put on it today and we're ready for the closet doors! You should have seen Frank while he was buying the 2x4's to build this...he was like a kid in a candy store!

If you look closely at the picture above you will see some copper tubing on the right. That would be the tubing that I accidentally nailed about 2 minutes after this photo was taken.

Let's see...I also have something else to unveil...NO SEPARATING WALLS BETWEEN THE DINING ROOM AND LIVING ROOM...and...OPEN FOYER! Can I get a hallelujah!?

In the last post we had torn the drywall off of the walls, but now they are seriously gone. And it looks good, really good! I'm so pumped to see this thing finished! Let's look at some before and after:

Before- notice wall on the right separating kitchen and dining room

After- The wall is gone!!

Before- From inside the dining room looking towards the living area

After- yay!

Before- small foyer with double doors into the living area

After- open foyer into living area (dining room opening on the left)

 Oh man- it feels so good to have some before and after pics! Although we are still FAR...very far, from finished. We have drywall professionals in the house this repairing all our walls, making the ceilings smooth, etc. We are staying at a hotel on base until they are out of there, because as you can see from the photos....it's super dirty and dusty!

One other thing - our neighbors invited us to a football party at their house to meet all our other neighbors. We live on a cul-de-sac with about 10-15 other homes and apparently everyone is friends and they have football parties anytime there is a game on! They were so welcoming and cooked us tons of food...grilled chicken, pulled-pork, brisket. Let's just say that Frank and I haven't ate that well in what seems like forever. We took a bunch of left overs with us so we have food to last us a whole week! I have a feeling I know where I'll be hanging out for the super bowl...they have it figured out...HUGE covered patio, 3 big screen TV's, fire pits, and probably more than 3 grills in their back yard. I feel so blessed to have been able to meet everyone before Frank leaves for Korea...They are all super sweet people and I feel like we totally lucked out on having such great neighbors.

This weekend we will be venturing out to the frozen tundra...also known as Michigan...for our niece's baptism. I think I may finally go sledding for the first time in my life! Is that sad? I guess it's to be expected growing up in Texas!