Slowly, but Surely

Baking again!

It feels like we have been in remodel mode forever, but in actuality it has only been about 2 1/2 months.  We are finishing up about when I thought we would.  All that is left for the construction guys is an above the sink light, some kick plate and a few drawer adjustments. On our side, there is a lot of touch up painting to do.  Yay.

We made a huge dent in the mess over the weekend.  Most of the kitchen has been put back together. This means that nearly all of the boxes are off of the spare bed.  We even managed to move the kitchen table and chairs back into the kitchen.

This was not done without pain and about 127 trips to Lowes, Menards and Bed, Bath and Beyond. It maybe would have been easier to actually move.  Believe it or not, I am tired of shopping. (Gasp)

So many trips to the store.

My husband cut nearly all of the shelf liner for the entire kitchen.  He got to use his favorite tool; the box cutter.  It took an entire day. We have a lot of shelves. In fact, I have empty shelves.  I even brought stuff up from the basement and I still have empty or nearly empty shelves.  I may be able to fill them if I work at it.  I will try.

I got the urge to bake, so I broke in the new stove.  First up; Hot Milk Cake (yum).  I am happy to report that all is well.

Here are a few pics to show you our progress.  I hope to follow up within the next few weeks as soon as we have some accessories on the walls and the living room is complete.  I will soon have time to work on some art for the bath, so that should be up for viewing soon.

This is pretty much how the kitchen looked all weekend.  It was like Chinese food.  We kept eating away at it, but it always stayed the same.  Weird.  

This is my favorite part.  Actual work space.  Sigh. I already had all of this.  I love red.

When I got home from work today, this is what I saw.  I have yet to hear the story behind it.

Kitchen table.  In the kitchen.

Actually, I kind of love the violet here.  And that is a kick-ass paper towel holder.  Love it.

Finally.  A stove that is working.  I missed that.  And I hate to cook!

Pay No Attention to that Wrinkle Behind the Curtains

I had to pull the trigger on something for the living room and it wound up being the curtains.  I hate buying them, but it had to be done.

Unfortunately, the only ones I liked were 'online only' which means I had to order and hope for the best.  I got lucky.

I love the print.  I love the colors.  And...they go!  You know what I mean.  They don't match, they go.

All was roses until I saw the following:

DO NOT IRON!?! (I love the misplaced comma)

Seriously?  We all know how curtain panels come:

And we ALL know this is how they look when you unpack them:

And:

How the heck was I going to 'unwrinkle' the NO IRON curtains?  I got a lot of suggestions.  I went with my gut and decided to do this:

Don't tell the Polyester Police, but I ironed those suckers.  It took me nearly 2 hours to do four panels. That's because I did it on the Poly setting with high steam through the towel.  Yup.  My arm was singing the Ave Maria when I was done, but...

Voila!  No wrinkles.

Now don't say that you didn't learn something here.  Call this Curtain De-Wrinkling 102.

Here's a sneak peak of what went on today:

So excited.

The Race to the Finish

Whoa!  Things are racing to the end of our big project.  It has been two months since we started and I am thinking that we should be done in the next week or two.

New fridge.

Right now we are in the process of having all of the new trim and doors painted.  Of course, that means we need to be completely caught up on the wall painting.  We have just a tad left to do and then a few random spots where the new trim didn't quite match up to the old paint lines.

We have countertops!  They are basically still covered with cardboard, but they are there.

We have a sink and faucet and they WORK!  No more hauling the dishes down to the basement for washing.  The dishwasher is in, but not wired yet.  No garbage disposal.  Next week.

We have our new appliances!  The fridge is in the middle of the eating part of the kitchen and the micro/hood is in the living room. Isn't everybody's?  The stove will be here next week as there was a bit of a glitch with that.  Oops.

We have backsplash!  So pretty.  They will grout in the next couple of days.

The micro/hood is sitting in the living by some cool equipment.

We have been told that we can load up the cabinets, but since I will be gone on an Animal Kingdom adventure all weekend, I doubt if we will do it quite yet. Of course, if I don't participate in the loading of the cabinets, I can't be expected to cook, right?

We will have new lights and outlets soon. The bathroom needs one more accessory and then it is finished.  I still have to provide some art, but right now I don't have time!

The living room drapes have arrived and the rods will go up tomorrow.  I just have to figure out how to get the wrinkles out as the instructions say that they are not to be ironed. Hmmm.  I think the old iron over a damp towel trick is in order.

Pardon the pictures, but I am using my phone since my camera gear is packed for my adventure.

The front window finally lost it's cornice board and the drapes.

New pantry doors!

This is what the rec room looks like when there is a painter, two tile guys, an electrician, a plumber and two shower door guys here.  

I can only say "YAY"!

Yummy!

Well, I'm off tomorrow for the wilds of the Des Moines area.  Hopefully, I'll grab some great shots and blog about the workshop instead of all this silly work at my house.  Laters.

The Week That Was

The trim above the cabinets.  I know, it's not that big of
a deal, but it looks so good.

Whew.  Such a lot got done this week.  Of course, you all know that my cabinets were set. They also got the trim around the cabinets mostly completed.

Most importantly, the counter top guy made it in on Wednesday to measure.  Yay.  Now we just have to wait for two weeks.  I feel like a kid waiting for Santa.

I took the plunge and purchased five boxes of backsplash tile.  Gulp.  I hope that it looks good.  I hate choosing things with only that little bitty piece of counter top as my guide.

We have doors and trim upstairs.  Yippee.  Even my husband said it looks really nice up there.  He doesn't usually say too much, so that is quite a statement.

Here is a great shot of the new door and
window trim.  You can see the darker old
paint.

We have a tons of new trim on the first level. While it is not yet all completed, what is there looks wonderful.

I need to go pick up the microwave and hood so that the electrician can come next week and install it. I don't know if that means that the rest of the electrical work will be done also or if they will need to come back.  Stay tuned for that info.

I made some things for the new bath.  I have been getting to know my brand new sewing machine and so far so good.  Those things are under wraps until everything in there is finished.  We are still dealing with the shower door and the accessories have yet to be hung.  Soon, friends, soon.

There will be cleaning and painting going on this weekend. Unfortunately, a lot of the painting is around the new trim.  This means taping and being careful.  Sigh.  However, the painters still have to come and give the trim a couple of coats, so there is room for some error.  Thank goodness.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate painting trim?  It's as much fun as...  Sorry, it isn't fun at all!

There are still lots of things left to do, but until the counter tops come, there won't be a ton of noticeable changes.  There will be new outlets, light fixtures, new pantry shelving, trim and paint, but the majority of the work has to wait.  Do you suppose I could just wave my magic wand?

I love this shot.  The light was cool.  This is the new trim on the window looking out to our driveway.  I wish that we could change the funky window, but we can't right now.  Maybe someone will hit a ball into it and break it.  Darn.  That would be a shame.

We decided to leave the sills so that the kitties could have a place to sit.  The things we do for those kitties.  PS:  the dead bug in the upper part of the lower window has been there since last summer.  It is stuck in the screen.  I suppose we should knock it out, but it has kind of grown on me.

The cabinet on the left of this picture is a corner cabinet.  In order to get that sucker to fit, we had to get smack dab on the window.  This is the trim they had to make to replace the regular window trim.  

This was where the piano used to sit.  I love the white on this pale blue/gray paint.  Those are the shelves that were my contribution to the painting.  The doors to the right (on the floor) are for the kitchen pantry.

The upstairs hallway with new doors and trim.  And, proof that I do occasionally clean up around here.  This hall looks so bright and sunny.  I love it.

Bottoms Up!

The tops were in yesterday.  The bottoms went in today.  Rumor has it the countertop guy was maybe going to come by today to measure.  I will find out tomorrow.  There are doors in the living room.

Looks so nice.  I particularly love the counters!  I kind of hate to mess the cabinets up with handles. I brought some home to check out.  Can't wait for the under cabinet lighting to be installed.  I am already in love with the new lighting in this area.  Better go buy a new TV for the wall!

The other side of the kitchen.  The ladder is where the new fridge will go.  That wall to the right means that I will lose my magnet board (better known as the side of the fridge).  I will cook up something.  I kept wanting to put things on the cardboard counters.

We should have counters in a couple of weeks.  I am going nuts trying to choose the backsplash right now.  I think that I've made a decision.  Maybe.  Perhaps.

Gobsmacked

I left for work this morning and it was hard to go.  There was a big truck in my driveway and the guys were unloading the cabinets.  I wanted to stay and get in the way.

I had a zillion errands to run after work, so I didn't get home until a little before 6 p.m.

Wow.  Just wow.

And they aren't even done.  I almost cried.  I am so excited!

P.S.  My husband is trying to boil water for pasta in the slow cooker.  I offered to take it over to the neighbor's house to cook it, but he said no.  We may eat by 8 p.m.

Walls and Floors, Floors and Walls

The stairs.  If you can't tell, the carpet is gray.

We have floors.  And, we have walls.  The flooring guys (bless their hearts) are finally finished after eight full days on the job here.  They wound up being about two days longer than expected due to the issues with all of the layers in the kitchen and linoleum in the entryway and hallway on the first floor.  I am pretty sure that they will be glad to be outta here. Apparently, they also had to sand the upstairs hallway the other day. That would explain why I can write in the dust again.

We have walls in the kitchen now.  Yippee.  They put them up the other day and have come by a few times since then to add some more mud.  Most of the walls are sanded and there are just a couple of random places that need additional work.

The shower door and the mirror have been installed in the new bath.  There is a slight glitch with the door, but I am sure that will be ironed out this week.  The accessories are in the back of my van and should be installed this week.  That is, if I remember to take them out of the van.

New wall by the living room.

My big adventure for the week happened when my sewing machine broke during an important project for the new bathroom. After spinning my wheels trying to find a repair service and then finding out I could buy a new machine for about the same cost as repair; I am now the proud owner of a new Singer Curvy.  I finished the project that started it all and am getting ready to do the hand sewing as soon as I post this. A few more sewing projects and that room should be just about ready. Well, minus the artwork and a piece of furniture.

The cabinets are due to be brought in and set on Monday.  This is construction code for:  you have a crap ton of painting to do over the weekend.

So, my husband did a lot of work these past three days.  He finished the downstairs hall and the living room ceiling along with a couple of walls. He had to prime all of the new walls in the kitchen and then give one coat of new paint to certain areas.  And (worst of all) he had to paint the kitchen ceiling.  I painted the shelves that go up the stairs. He is a rock star.  I am a low level groupie not worthy for the dregs of the buffet.

To be fair, I have made all of the paint and supply runs; have spent endless hours on the computer looking for slipcovers and curtains; have gone for food and done laundry and a mound of ironing; made Swim Girl's birthday cake, took her shopping for her gift and then celebrated her birthday.  I went with Swim Girl to check out cars, made it to a movie with my sister and niece and did dishes in the utility sink about 50 times.  My, my.  I do know how to live.

Check in this week for updates.  I should have pics of the cabinets Monday or Tuesday.  Laters.

Our kitchen has walls!  The funny paint job is a reflection of the placement of the new cabinets.  The racing stripe is where the backsplash will go (approximately).  Who knew you were supposed to paint behind that?

This is on the side of the kitchen that is next to the living room.  The inset part is where the new refrigerator will go.  To the left of that, after a very small (9") counter, will be the stove.  I know, I know.  You are not supposed to put the fridge so close to the stove.  However, this is a very small kitchen.  So, we did what we had to do.

Our windows have (had) cornice board, which I hate.  It really makes the room seem heavy and small. This one is covering some hideously ugly fluorescent lights.  We can no longer get new bulbs for those lights.  Big changes are ahead for this.

You can see the patches my husband had to make to cover up the cornice board and drapery holes.  I bought the silica for the painting.  My contribution.

This was my job for the painting party this weekend.  Lame.

This is what our house looks like all of the time.  Except, of course, when the workers are here.  Then it is even messier.  

Skittles loves to play in the plastic.  You can get a glimpse of the flooring under her.  I promise, it is finished.  We just need to keep it covered for now.

The Real Story

I just briefly wanted to show you what the house actually looks like when there are six guys here working on things.  I don't have all of them in the pictures, but you will get the idea.  

Here's to hoping that I won't trip on a cord or something during the next month.  

As you can see, there is lots of hazardous debris just sitting around in the living room.  To the far right is some important floor cutting stuff and then you cannot see all of the cords or the guy at the bottom of the stairs trying to finish the entry.  There is another guy outside cutting things.  This is the sixth day in a row that the floor guys have been here.  They may finish up on Wednesday.

Still on the stairs looking towards the kitchen and into the rec room/make do kitchen.  There is a bunch of stuff in the rec room, like tools and packages and then there is another guy in the hallway to the left of the living room.  I think this was taken right before two more guys came in to discuss the next day.  Cleaning my closet seemed like a good idea right about then.

And, oh joy, drywall tomorrow.  I cannot wait.  It thrills my soul.  

No Rest for the Wicked (or Dusty)

Still have plenty of flooring to go yet.

When you are in the middle of a big renovation, weekends cease to be filled with relaxing hunks of time to fritter away as you will. Nope. Weekends are spent trying to get the painting done before the guys come back on Monday. They are spent trying to get rid of some of the dust.  Weekends are for doing the dishes in the utility sink in the basement and then realizing you have more dishes upstairs to bring down. It is also time to thoroughly clean the one working bathroom since it is shared by you and about 6 different guys rotating through the house.  Yuck.

On the weekend you get up early to do normal things (like laundry) and then it's time to run to Menard's for paint deglosser only to find out that they have had a run on the stuff and you need to go to another store. Meanwhile, no painting is getting done by the designated painter.

The view from the stairs.  Those curtains are held up by
hangers.  Cracks me up to look at it.

Weekends are when you discover that you can't get on your treadmill without cleaning up all of the debris that the electrician and plumber left from moving pipes and wires.  Of course, I will have to do that again and again and again. At least there is no pounding and sawing and sanding going on above my head.

But sunny Saturdays in the early Spring make all of the difference in the world.  It is hard not to be energetic on days like today. With the car window down and the tunes turned up, I didn't even mind having to go to a second store for the deglosser.

The new pot lights for the kitchen.  Yeah.

Everyone should face their couches this way.  So much more room in here.

Tools of the trade for painting the hallway.

This cracks me up.  I spray painted the cold air return grate and went out to get it, but it was gone.  It seems my husband had hung it from the stove in the garage.  He's a thinker, that guy.

I adore this shot.  This was my grandmother's step stool.  It is covered with paint and the rubber treads have disintegrated, but we use it almost every day.  I need to replace the treads, but I can't decide whether or not to paint it.  I kind of love all of the drips.

I won't clean the paintbrushes in either bathroom since they both have new sinks.  So, down to the basement we go.  

And, just because I could, here is Pluto in the newly renovated bathroom window.  Pretty kitty.

It feels like I didn't get much done today, but that's alright.  I will get some things accomplished tomorrow.  Then it's back to work on Monday and Swim Girl's birthday and errands to run and appointments to keep.  Maybe I will even be able to squeeze in a little art time.  It would be lovely to post something different for a change.

PS:  Domino's is having a 50% off online ordering special through tomorrow.  Now those are the kinds of deals we need right now.