To do list

We are tired!
...Ok, enough complaining.

Next week, best friends come for a night and then family the next. It puts some pressure on ua to whip everything into shape, although I think the only one really worried about that is me. I've been dealing with things like hooking up appliances, setting up the stereo (very important!), talking with contractors, etc. and E has basically been unpacking us singlehandedly. She even organized all the cords and random items from my infamous junk drawers. I've been known to simply dump a junk drawer in a box and then dump that back into another drawer at my new location. It kind of works. So things are finding their places and that part feels amazing!

Next up:
- have electrician check the dryer connection so the house doesn't burn down
- discuss installing in-floor sockets so we can put a lamp by the couch (did EVERYONE in the 50s have those awesome giant arc floor lamps, or did they just sit in the dark? Maybe this explains the huge windows?)
- prime the kitchen
- finish coating the butcher block
- re-key the deadbolts
- peel off top remaining layer of vinyl in the kitchen (using a heat gun and scraper. This should be interesting)
- assess the fireplace gold-glaze situation
- assemble shelves made of plywood and plumbing pipe
- assemble curtain rods, also of plumbing
- figure out what to do with vacant space between stove and chimney (this will likely be a work in progress)
- secure loose faucet flange thingys in the shower
- unpack. :(

That should keep us busy through the weekend, don't you think?

Butcher block counters

After much deliberation, the internet told us the best way to prep our butcher block countertops was with the cheap and safe product found in every grocery store, anywhere: mineral oil. They change the color to a darker, oranger, richer color, and with regular maintenance should hold up just great.

This is the third coat of oil. I poured a stream of oil every eight inches or so, starting from one edge and rubbing in gently with a rag from left to right, adding lines of oil as needed. I went through one small bottle by the end of the third coat--the wood just soaks it right up. Within a few days, the counters should be ready for use.


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Bye old kitchen!

Out with the old...

(dump run)

...and in with the new!
Sink and faucet installed! Countertops installed! (More later on mineral oil application.) Thirty years of grime off cabinets so we can paint them! (Don't hold your breath on that one...at least until after the flooring goes down.)
We found a used but like-new Kohler iron/tones sink on craigslist for $100 (best deal I've encountered in this entire process) and were left to the retail world to find a faucet. Who knew faucets were so expensive?? I do...now. Pretty though, isn't it? It's a pulldown and I LOVE it.






The countertops are IKEA Numerar, beech. The guy at the store told me they were discontinuing the solid wood butcher block and moving over to laminate so we jumped on buying them, even though it meant shoving them in my hybrid. Or attempting to. It ended badly, but let's focus on the positive, shall we?

Also, I still loathe the honey oak.


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Moving....ugh

Moving was its usual stressful scenario. Movers late, Pedal the cat, peed AND pooped in the moving truck on the way. And then the movers there to unload were meth heads or something and the whole ordeal ended with the "boss" yelling at ME when I asked him not to charge the full two hour minimum, since they were 90 minutes late and our friends helped us unload (one with a baby on her back) so the movers actually only worked an hour. I handed him a Ben Franklin for the full amount he was charging and he STILL yelled at me. Wow.

But we went from this:



To this:




Then this:




...in less than a day.

Time for a beer.

Ktichen, cont.

And then this. Drywall! An unexpected addition, but a right one.

This is also about the time I realized I didn't buy enough butcher block. Luckily (!) some neighbors had listed a sink on craigslist that I didn't end up buying and when I was there I noticed they had a LOT of Ikea Numerar butcher block. I ran over and sure enough, they had an extra sheet. How about that????
Sink and counter installation to come.

Kitchen progress.

The kitchen project has rapidly become a bigger project than expected. What began as, "let's paint these cabinets and move the refrigerator":

Became this:

Everything was basically a mess. The oak backsplash (again, WHY?) was rotten and colonized by god knows what. The "backsplash" fiber board crap was hiding years of paint and wall paper. At one point new window casing was installed OVER the board. Exposed copper wires were grounding the outlets to the garbage disposal. And the old chimney that had been covered in plaster belied a long-ago leak so the plaster just crumbled right off. 

Luckily, the top few layers of flooring came up nicely. At least there is that.

Much MUCH more to come.

So much painting.

We painted almost everything...well, except the bathroom and the now demolished kitchen. So much taping. So much lying on the floor painting trim, which had been eaten up by a very crappy sanding job when the floors were last refinished.

Some before/after action for you:




Before:

After:

Still not sure what to do about the golden glaze on the fireplace...

Front room - A light celery green that's a bit hard to see:

Before: 

After:

Back bedroom, a custom color. By "custom" I mean pouring a bit of "Glazed Pecan" into "Apple Cider." Delicious walls:

Before:

After: