Day 19

It finally feels like we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel!

Day 19 was full of finishing up some of the small details like installing new switch and outlets, installing a new ceiling light and putting down new baseboards.  We got the living room pretty much to a point that we feel its livable again.  We still need to finish filling the nail holes and touching up the baseboard along with installing the door and window casing. 

We moved the furniture back in to the living room and got to take a minute to sit down and enjoy the room a bit before ending the night.  Tomorrow, I hope to do the same in the kitchen.

Oh, and I think Im going to change to title of this blog to This IS Crazy!

Trim baseboard is going in now...

...who wants to help?!?!?!

New switches and outlets installed.

Day 17

This day has finally come. A day we have been waiting for for, ummm 17 days. Ugh. Thats like seven days longer than I wanted. But its here. Yes, running water. And the fact that we have grown more wise over the length of the project as we called a plumber to do the work.  All the time into new drywall, paint, flooring, cabinets and then let me do the plumbing...it would have been disastrous.  So we sprung for someone who knew what they were doing.  A plumber.

And so, minus some small details like new switches, outlets, pantry door, a light to hang and installing trim our kitchen is complete.

...the rest of Day 16

Clark came back over the in the afternoon of Day 16 and after a couple of hours everything finally came together.  The countertops were secured and ready for the sink and all the other little details for the cabinets were complete.  It all came together very nicely.

Day 15 & 16

I took the evening of Day 15 and most of Day 16 to finish up the flooring in the Living Room.  This TrafficMaster Allure flooring goes in really nicely. Looks great and I hope, lives up to its description - resilient.

Day 14

We took a well deserved day off on Day 13 and did some school clothes shopping for the kids before I headed in to work.

Day 14 was quite the experience.  Off the shelf countertops.  And a last minute find that I had measured wrong and our tops were about 2 feet to short.  Opps.  Thankfully, with some fine engineering by Clark we figured out our fix and I made my 109740598th trip back to The Home Depot to grab a four foot section of counter top. We seamed that under the sink area and cut the other top to match.  You wouldnt have known we did that if I didnt just tell ya. 

After way to much time of trying to get these crazy countertops with a bit of a bow and warped attribute to them to fit, they wouldnt.  It was around midnight when we called it a night.

There's really no pictures that we wish to share on this day.  Much frustration and tears (on my part).

Day 12

I finished up the floor last night and now ready for the cabinets.  Actually, we all are ready for the cabinets and sink and running water and most of all, this project to be complete.  But for now, the cabinets go up.

My friend, Clark, is a master cabinet maker.  He has crafted some gorgeous works of highend art as bookshelves and cabinets.  I would still be hanging the first cabinet if he had not been there to help (read: do all the hard work and tell me what he needed).

Cabinets are in.  The countertops are next

Day 10

Finally, after a first full day back to work I got home and went back to work on the house.  We got us some flooring on the floor. It feels like I got over the top of the hill and heading I'm downward fast.  We'll keep installing the floor but we are ready to install the cabinets in the kitchen.

Day 9

I’ve learned two things in the past week of this little adventure.  First, I can grossly underestimate the amount of time it can take a task. Second, take your time and do the task right…and not get frustrated by rushing to get it done.  I’m sure I can apply those lessons to other aspects of life.

 It took me the best part of the day to lay the new underlayment in the kitchen and living room.  But it’s down and now we are prepped to start laying the TrafficMaster Allure flooring.   I have a feeling this flooring will take more than I have planned.

Today was my last day of vacation.  I was hoping to be further along than I am at this point. But we will get there soon.  Back to my day job tomorrow. I cant wait...I'll be able to rest at work from all the work I've done at home!

We did stop and take time this afternoon to thank God.  This moment made the hard work of the last week all worth it.  It was a very special time for us and an emotional moment for me.  We told the girls just as our house sat on its foundation how important it was to remember that Jesus is our foundation.  We are blessed with family, health, a home and the finances to be able to remodel our home this summer. We all picked verses that meant something to us, shared them and said why they were special.  Then we took sharpies and found a spot on the new floor underlayment and wrote those verses out.  We will always be reminded of that verse when we walk over that spot on the floor.  It’s also our little way of honoring God with our house.  I hope we have more opportunities to use the house in that way.

Day 8....

Paint is on the walls!

Still can’t decide if we like the accent wall in the living room.  We wanted to do some color but decided to keep it in the family.  I dont know...whats your opinion?  We’re happy with the way the rest of the walls in the living room and kitchen came out.  And I’m loving my ceiling – I know, it’s sad but I hate that popcorn ceiling.

Started to work on prepping the floor and decided to change my plans.  I was gonna drop a new layer of underlayment over the current floor.  But once I got into all of it I decided to rip up the old tile and underlayment layer.  The removal was a bit more time consuming but went well.  Although I realized not to long after that my 40 cubic foot dumpster was picked up today.  So now I have to dispose of the underlayment somehow.  If you happen to find it in your front yard I have no idea how it got there.

Tomorrow is day of this little adventure.  The last day of my vacation.  I hope to have the new underlayment and finish up the flooring tomorrow….if all goes well.  So with the change of plans and setbacks I think Im about two days behind my original schedule.  Im not sure how realistic that schedule is but hopefully after tomorrow night ( a very late night, Im sure ) all we’ll have left will be the cabinet install, trim (woohoo) and the ceiling fan.

I’m seeing daylight!

Day 7

We finally got our walls back from the drywall taper, who, by the way, did an excellent job on our walls.  Not sure we could have expected any better.  It did take a day longer than I was planning and since that ‘day longer’ landed on a Sunday and he attends our church, well we had to wait for him to come and finish up after church.  We finally got to clean off the mud dust off the walls and prep to put the primer coat on around 7pm tonight.  Six hours later (are we slow or what?), Teresa and I finished up the ceiling and the walls of the kitchen and living room.

Tomorrow, color on the walls and ceiling paint on the…ceiling.

Time to paint

Drywall hung, taped, mud, sanded and wiped down. Now it is time to
paint!

Almost ready

These last two days have been in a holding pattern while we wait on
the drywall taper to do his thang. He's doing an excellent job and
the result will be stellar, just wish it didn't take this long. But if
you need a taper in the St Charles/St Louis area I have one for ya.

Tomorrow our walls will be sanded and then we get to jump back in and
do some painting prep, apply primer and then some color to the walls.

I'm looking forward to getting this part of the project wrapped up and
start moving and seeing progress.

Picking out paint colors...

Day Four

Today we wrapped up everything needed for the drywall tapper to go full on to have the walls ready for paint.  The process takes a couple days so things will ease up for us for a bit.  We will be working on the floors and prepping them for the underlayment to go down as soon as we finish up painting and will jump into installing the flooring as soon as we can.

We have a three foot by three foot spot at the entry way that will need tile removed and the 1/2” plywood removed.  That will be my next nemesis!

Day Three

It doesn’t seem like I got much done today but I think through all the small details that I got knocked out and realize it was a good day.

The highlight of the day was finally meeting our drywall taper/mudder guy.  He arrived a bit early, surveyed the damage..I mean progress I made and gave us a dollar number that we were hoping for.  He grab his tools from the truck and jumped right into doing his thing.  We had a running conversation between our times of doing what we were working on.  Come to find out he attends the church Im on staff at.  He told me his story.  I look forward to seeing what this guy can do…and what God has planned here.