Dost Mine Eyes Deceive Me?

No, they don't.  I'm actually posting!  One for an official "here's something we did" thing, and another will just be a little sneak peek. 

First, if I didn't say so already, the kitchen is completely unpacked and is in full use.  Pantry is cleaned out and sorted (or "sorted"); cabinets are full of utensils (except when Husband unloads the dishwasher and doesn't remember where I told him that the stuff goes, so it just sits on the counter until it magically disappears into its proper location.  Or, more accurate, just gets used and put back in the sink again); and I'm always cooking so the stove looks like a food bomb went off...every day.  Poor Husband (for he is House Husband).  I try, but most of the time, I'm like, "Eff it.  I'll clean it later."  And then later it's just magically clean again.  Must be the gnomes.

The master bathroom has received no actual renovation.  We haphazardly moved the stuff we needed from the living room into the bathroom (towels, bathroom products, etc), but it just ends up finding its resting place on the toilet we have yet to install upstairs.  The master vanity was used as a holding place for renovation materials, bathroom storage, and probably rat skeletons (I call him Skippy), while the very small powder room was being used as our primary getting-ready area.  However, given that the powder room is a) small and b) also contains the toilet, I got fed up a few weekends ago, and cleaned off all the crap items crap off the counters in the main area and decided we'd actually use the master vanity for its intended purpose: Having two people able to use an area at once to get ready.

There's not much to show, really, since this is just a temporary situation.  However, I took the mirror that is supposed to go in the powder room and gave it a temporary home in the main bathroom area.  I cannot describe to you how much that small of a mirror opens up this area.  (It's actually a large mirror - the mirror we will have to buy is going to be around 5 feet wide.)  Then I just cleaned up the rest of the area and moved our daily toiletries to the main area. 

Tada, or whatever.

It's a huge improvement over how it used to look, trust me.

In other news, Husband replaced the door to the bedroom (if by "replace" you mean, remove the door that was leaning up against this area and blocking it from our path, and actually installing a new door that wasn't falling apart).  We already had to remove the trim to put the granite in, so it's not that pretty.  Sigh.  But it will make it easier to paint this area without having to worry about painting around the trim, so I am Ms. Bright Side!

However, while this is technically considered a progression in renovation, installing this door has actually set us back.  Because installing the door meant tearing off the trim to the bedroom side as well, and motherf#$!, because I just painted it.  Grrrr.

I will attempt to maintain my calm.  Not successfully.

...

Onward to part two of my post: SNEAK PEEK!!!

Let's pretend that the area around the new (waiting-to-be-planted) pansies and Cast Irons isn't horrifying.  It will require extensive pruning, sweeping, and digging.  But I will have a SUPERAWESOME DUO helping me out!!!!!

I hope they're not looking at this picture, because they may rescind their invitation to help. 

Gulp.

But (hopefully) seriously!  I have the parents coming into town this weekend, and I'm totally going to put them to work.  Muhahahaha!!  They have offered to help me "plant some stuff in the front yard" which in their language probably meant "plant some stuff in the front yard", but to me meant "pull weeds, dig up gross ground, pour new soil, plant, and mulch." 

Moms can't read the internet, right?

Crap, I think they can.

Aaand we're back!

Yes, this is true.  It's been a couple of weeks since we've done anything on the house and yes, it's been because we have been exhausted.  In addition to Husband catching up on the work front (since he spent the majority of 6 weeks working on the house) and me decidedly choosing not to do any work on the house (because work has been picking up and I've been mentally exhausted, in addition to physically lazy exhausted), we've spent the last four weekends doing something.  We went down to Corpus Christi and slept on the beach one night (OMG. Epic.), surrounded by shooting stars, galaxy bars, and too many stars to count, then went to Texas State Aquarium the next day (an amazing rescue aquarium where i got to pet a baby alligator and a stingray!).  The next weekend we got to go to New Braunfels and stay in a vacation home all weekend, then spend Saturday and Sunday floating the Guadalupe River.  Fun times, but not exactly housework-time.
Last weekend we had a friend in town and we went down to Kemah and visited the boardwalk (yay rollercoaster), went to a concert, and Sunday we lazed about.  We did do four loads of laundry, which was an official housework accomplishment.

This week, I'm determined to get moving on the house.  I want to finish unpacking the kitchen tonight.  I'm definitely not tired of laying around (it's soo nice to just lay in bed, veg, and cuddle while watching Psych or one of our myriad other Netflix shows), but I am tired of dodging boxes every time we turn around.  I still have the same list I had two weeks ago (when we decided to go to Corpus instead):

• unpack the kitchen (so that one room in the house can be nearly complete...and we can actually eat on real plates)
• paint the two doors for the downstairs (so we can have actual doors that are complete that lead us to the bathroom, rather than doors that are haphazardly laid against the doorframe and falling apart)
• install aforementioned doors and put on handles (so we don't have to walk through the powder room to get to the bathroom, and can actually enjoy our new dual-sink-awesomeness)
• belt sand and paint the upstairs bedroom ceilings (so we can finally move the mattress upstairs and make a real semblance of a guest bedroom)
• paint the trim in the upstairs rooms
• move all the upstairs stuff upstairs
• Organize the bathroom stuff (right now we're using bathroom stuff out of plastic bags and boxes.  It's not that awesome)
• Organize the closet (again, because Husband had to remove everything to have the carpet put in and then forgot where everything went, so my work clothes are mixed with my going-out-on-the-town clothes)
• Clean
• Laundry

Item 1 (kitchen) is halfway done.  I got a good portion of the unpacking finished, but then I got tired of cleaning out the inside of the kitchen cabinets to remove layer upon layer of silica dust, then putting liner down, then cleaning the dishes by hand because the dishwasher is in use (and even when it's not, the dishes are still getting white stuff all over them.  Sigh.  Thoughts on why?)  But we've run out of the dishes I have unpacked, so I need to unpack the rest of it.  Now.  Here's a visual of what I've done:

Unpacked in all its glory

 Which you may find to be normal, until you see what it used to look like (and what the other side looks like):

The other side looks like an accomplishment now, right?  Right.

The pantry is possibly the worst part, because there's a lot of food to put in there, and not a lot of storage.  The top two shelves are pretty narrow, so you can't put much on them.  I think I'm going to need to enlist the help of Husband Helper to build me better shelves.  And move them farther apart, so there isn't a cavernous area of space not being used up top and below. 

And there's still a whole new box of stuff to unpack.

We also already put the mattress upstairs because our friends came into town and we didn't want them to sleep on the air mattress again.  Of course now I'll have to move it out into the hallway once I start working on the ceiling.  Le sigh. 

But despite how little work we've done on the house recently (and being hampered by monetary limitations to continue), it's still so nice to walk into our kitchen or our shower (or heck, even into our bedroom) and just see the improvements. 

So, more to come!

The Kitchen is Complete!

You read right, folks.  Done.  Finito.  Complete.  (Except for stainless steel stove and microwave, but we can ignore that for now).  Granite is in.  Tile is in.  Walls and cabinets have been meticulously cleaned of all traces of silica dust (or as much of it as I could get off, because it's like a Stage Five Clinger).

So, I guess you guys might want to see pics, right?  Maybe?

Drumroll please....


Before

After



Before

After, with Moen sink

Before

After

Close-up of the backsplash

I love this latter one, because you can really see all the color in the granite.  Gorgeous!  I'm in love.  I'm in love with my kitchen.  I kind of want to marry it.

I gotta say, the little bronze squares in the backsplash were Husband's choice, and I wasn't all that excited about them when we were choosing.  It was by sheer lack of selection (I couldn't find anything even remotely better) that we went with it.  I thought it'd look good, but I have to defer to his artistic wisdom here, because it looks amazing.  Considerably better than I would have ever anticipated.

In fact, that's how I felt about the whole thing.  I knew that our selections were going to be great in-house.  I knew that the combination of our detailed eye and my bringing the paint swatch for the kitchen were going to make our selections fit in the home.  But there's a considerable difference between putting some samples together in perfect lighting and saying, "Yes that looks good" and seeing it in your kitchen with your cabinets and appliances.  It's just...wow. 

Oh!  Speaking of appliances...did anyone notice a new resident in our kitchen?  Oh yes!

Why hello there, pretty lady!  This is our new GE Clean Steel dishwasher. 

Y'all, this sucker is badazz.  In addition to the Clean Steel finish (meaning, you won't see fingerprints every five seconds on it, like most stainless steel), it's got a whole bunch of little cute gadgety things (like wine-glass separators), three wash arms (top and bottom, so your top-level dishes get clean too), it's high-efficiency so you just use those little Cascade cubes, fun electronic controls, and....

Super. Deep.  I have gigantor hands (for a girl), and this thing goes way past my wrist.  I'm used to dishwashers where you have to put your big glasses (Husband's "Chocolate Milk Glasses" that are all over 44oz) on the bottom shelf.  Our biggest CMG (see above) which is 64oz fits snugly in the top shelf.  Husband is excited.  Plus the bottom shelf is deep as well and isn't barred by that big hole in the middle that old dishwashers have (so they can shoot the water up to the top shelf), so it's even more room.  I anticipate much cooking in the future.  And I'm gleeful.

Unfortunately it can't be used yet, because the renovation guys still haven't brought out the right sink (we were promised Friday).  Once that's in, we can hook up the sink and dishwasher and I can finally wash off all the silica dust from my dishes so I can actually cook.  So exciting! 

This being the first true, honest-to-God after post is kind of jarring to me.  This weekend has been largely one of reflection.  I can't believe it's only been 6 weeks (almost 7) since we bought this house.  All the work we've done on it to this point has been a trial and tribulation, but also rewarding to a degree I could have never imagined.  This kitchen post is the first culmination of a dream we've had for well over three months, to make it as beautiful as it currently is. 

For one of the first times in my life, I've pictured something in my head, and been able to make it come to life not only as good as I'd hoped for, but better. 

And just wait until you see the bathroom.  :)

 

All You Need is Caulk

So, let's revisit this weekend, shall we?

1) Rip up all of the rest of the mortal/tile adhesive from the floors  This was completed last night at 1am by husband.  Thankfully, he completely took over jackhammer duty and got it into his head that he would complete the kitchen last night.  And he did!  His taking-over meant I could get a lot of the other oops-I-forgot-to-put-that-on-the-list things done (see items 8 - 10)

2) Husband has to finish hardie-backing and sheetrocking the shower - On the to-do list.  It has to get done by Tuesday night

3) Husband has to build a makeshift cabinet to house the new granite that will go in the master bath, since we're not using the one that's presently in there - Incomplete.  He's gonna have to get it done today!

4) We have to rip off all the countertops in the kitchen and in all the bathrooms - Well, the master bath main area had the countertop ripped off.  Does that count?  Husband says this is a very fast process.

Minus old countertop and old sink!  Soon to be home to new granite countertops and cabinets!

5) We have to haul away all the tile and tile debris that is currently in my way This was completed yesterday, thanks to our lovely friend Ray who continues to provide us with his muscle.  His reward was getting to drive husband's newly-amazing 1968 Firebird, so I think it was an even trade.

6) We have to fix the leak in the upstairs bathroom that is causing husband to not be able to complete item 2 above. - Done!  (Hopefully.  Gulp.)  Apparently all it needed was a little caulk.  Now he can work on item 2...sometime in the midst of everything else.

7) We are receiving a (supposedly-free) washer and dryer on Saturday from a very magnanimous friend, which we will have to clear space for, go get, transport back to our place, and install - This was moved to Wednesday.  We are coming perilously close to having no clean clothes.

----

Also on the to-do list that I forgot about when I made my original to-do list:

8) paint the other upstairs bedroom (the official "guest bedroom") in time for the family to arrive Thursday Done!  Thanks to Ashley who helped me knock this out!  (I still have the door and trim to paint, but given the other tasks on our plate, the family's gonna have to do without the freshly-painted whiteness!

As usual, it totally comes out less the Hazy Sage it really is, and more a khaki.

9) belt-sand the walls in the powder room portion of the master bath before the granite is installed  Done!  You totally cannot tell, but it looks waaay better.

Goodbye, cruel texture.

10) belt-sand the ceilings of both portions of the master bath before the granite is installed - partially done.  I got the powder room finished and about 20 percent of the main portion of the master bath (where the granite will actually be) before both belts fell apart.  Apparently they don't like sanding stalactites off ceilings.  Sigh.  Must purchase more tonight! 

You cannot tell how different the height (or lack thereof) of the ceilings until I paint, which I'm hoping to do tonight if I can get the belt sander working again.  If not, I'll have to use the less-efficient ceiling texture scraper.  Sigh.

In other news, post-tile-destruction, our entire downstairs is covered in dust.  As in, every available surface.  This was what it looked like last night while Husband was working. 

We're going to have to power-wash the entire inside of the house.  Can you do that?

Anyway, now I have to go hunting for a new stainless-steel dishwasher and kitchen faucet.  Yay shopping!

Destructo-Gal, That's Me!

Sunday, husband had work-obligations, in the form of car stuff.  He'd started stripping up the tile in the master bath, but it was only that one row, and it was mostly to get the tile out of the way so he could work on the shower.  There was always the "I need to strip up the tile so the tile guys can come" sentence floating in the air, but there was always something more pressing to do.  I secretly sensed that he didn't want to do it.  So, being the magnanimous (and humble, let's not forget humble) person that I am, I offered to help out.  His response?:

"It's too hard."

Me: "What's hard?  You use the vibratey-thingie (official term) until it pops up."

Husband: "Well...that's hard on the body.  Plus you have to bend over and stuff.  AND it's not just the tile, you have to get up the tile adhesive too."

Me: "So?  I can do that."

Now, husband knows me.  He knows if he says (or even implies) 'you can't do that, you're a girl', that the conversation is over, and I will be doing whatever he says/implies can't be done just because I have boobs and less muscle or whatever.  So, he very wisely treaded lightly here, and appropriately deflected the conversation with talk of cars or Mexican food or whatever. 

So when Sunday rolled around, and he was leaving, I was all, "Don't we need to strip the tile?"  And he's all, "Yeah, I'll have to do it when I get home."  Despite having "painting the other bedroom" on the agenda, I offered to help out.  I got a pregnant pause, and then ".........if you want........"

We were done.  It was happening.  I gave him an "Okay, I'll do what I can" and then distracted him with talk about how to use a belt-sander on the horrid walls/ceiling, so he'd think that's what I was going to work on instead.  Then, after he left, I promptly put on my JackHammer Jill hat (metaphorical, I wasn't wearing a hat - see below) and got to work.

I demonstrated to myself that it was extremely easy.  I popped the first tile and it cracked with ease. 

I felt a sense of accomplishment unlike no other.  My arms vibrated with joy (or it's possible that was just the residual from the tool, whichever).  The first five or six made me feel as if I was SHE-HULK! 

Destruction is fun!!

I was riding the horse of "Suck that, Husband, for thinking I can't do this!!" until I got to about....here:

I won't say that I admitted defeat.  My internal tomboy defied husband, or any person with man-parts, to tell me I couldn't do a damn good job at this and do it just as efficiently as any other equally-untrained boy.  (Nevermind that at no point did husband ever actually imply I couldn't do it.  He just didn't want me to, because I'm a delicate flower, or a lady, or whatever.  Insert tomboy snort here.  Yes, that was totally ladylike.)

Anyway, he was right in that it's totally hard.  Like, thumbs-don't-work-anymore, back-hates-me, blisters-and-calluses on hands hard.  And it's not just the destruction.  It's knocking out the tiles, then hauling them off, then jackhammering off the adhesive, then vacuuming it up, then jackhammering again because you missed some adhesive, then vacuuming it up again, then starting the process all over again.  So I mean, I won't lie.  I had to stop and rest about four times.

But I knocked that effing bathroom tile on its arse.

Finished product

I could post a million pictures of the progress shots I took, but they were more for my own appeasement than anything else.  But I will show you an example of what I mean by evil-adhesive.  Here's a shot of post-ripped up, post adhesive-destroyed, post-vacuumed leftover adhesive:

You can see the spots where I mowed it off around it, but that was a particularly resilient spot.  But, as you can see in the above photo, Taylor destroyed this adhesive.  (With her mind.)

So I was so proud of myself for finishing so quickly (it took me about five hours to do all of it, but that included stopping a handful of times, and meticulously vacuuming and revacuuming), that when I finished it all, I decided to continue working.

Toilet/half-bath part

And here is the remains of my conquest!

Suckit, Tile!

So Monday while I was at work, husband knocked out the (very small by comparison) hallway tile:

And I was apparently still drunk with power from my jackhammering adventures, that I decided to destroy the kitchen while he finished up the shower.

Rare shot of Jackhammer Jill in her native environment.

However, someone had to dampen my mood by telling me that we needed to rip up the quarter-round from the baseboards in the kitchen.  These would be the baseboards that I just painted.

*whimper*

Now-In-Need-of-Paint

Y'all, I almost cried.  Sigh.  I nominate husband for baseboard-painting duty once the tile's all in again. 

In any case, despite trying desperately to quit at 10pm, husband forced me to persevere until I was finished (around midnight).  And that sucker is done now.

Now all I need to do is haul it off, kill all the adhesive, and vacuum.  Then wash, rinse, and repeat.

(PS - The fridge and stove are in the living room.  Chic!)

(PPS - We have an inordinate amount of beer in the house for people who don't drink beer.  Apparently our friends bring it over and then don't drink it, then leave it for the next time they come over and don't drink it.)

Sneak Peek

So I have no real updates.  I have only dirty sneak peeks!

Since the kitchen completion, I kind of crashed out.  We've been moving the rest of the stuff this week since I have to work this weekend, so we've been trying to get everything moved from the apartment to the house.  Considering most of the house wasn't packed yet......that means that husband spent most of yesterday packing and filling up his truck with stuff while I was at work, and mostly moving by himself.  I met him at the apartment after work to fill up my vehicle, but I didn't bother unpacking it because I had more important things to do.  Namely, taping off the upstairs rooms in preparation for paint.

But see, here's the deal:  With this husband-bartering-his-life-away-for-home-renovations deal, we figured out that we could cut down on a lot of in the costs by doing the demo work ourselves.  Plus, demolition is fun.  We are having new carpet installed, new wood floors, new tile, new granite, the bathroom is getting almost an entire makeover, and all of this is happening quickly.  So we have to rip out the counters/backsplash (where we can), rip out the tile (where we can), rip up the carpet, and paint the rooms upstairs before any of this gets done.  The renovation guy says the order is supposed to go: 1) Granite, 2) Tile 3) Carpet 4) Wood.  But since we elected to trade out the crap tile in the hallway and the newly-discovered-to-be-crappy bedroom carpet for the same wood that is being installed in the living room, we figured we could probably convince him to get the carpet guys to come and put down the new stuff, since it didn't touch any wood or tile (it's only going to be in the upstairs and on the staircase).  So Wednesday morning, we were told "I'll see what I can do."  So I figured last night, I needed to rip up all the carpet and starting painting to prepare for it, just in case he called this morning and was like, "We're coming out Friday" and I had to paint two rooms before they can do the carpet.  Sigh.  So I was freaking out, because not only did I want both coats of paint and the trimwork to be done by the time the carpet guys installed, but I also wanted it done by Saturday, since we'll be having an impromptu guest over and I don't want her to be like, "OMG what is wrong with these disgusting walls". 

Thankfully, husband talked me off the ledge.  He was like, "The carpet guys aren't going to come that quick."  Then he bribed me with Mexican food.  (It works every time.  I'm a sucker for Pappasitos.)  So instead of freaking out, I simply taped off the trim in one of the rooms, we ripped up some carpet (to find some surprisingly-new padding underneath - Score!  Less to have to pay the carpet people for!), and helped unpack.

So here was my one official update, to the master bedroom door:

From this:

Boooooo.

Yay!

And here are my sneak-peeks:

Soon to be featured throughout the downstairs

It's this rich cherrywood-base hickory wood.  Awesome.  Gorgeous.  Looks amazing in this room, looks amazing everywhere else.

This is pretty much exactly what our kitchen will look like.   We're doing an Ubatuba granite...

with this Mirado undermount sink and faucet...

 and diamond-laid tile in the backsplash as shown above.  Our backsplash will be the same tile that will be going on the floor and all throughout the bathroom, but I don't have the exact picture of it.  This floor is as close as I can find, though it has a bit more green in it where the darker elements are below:

If you combine the basic color and the way the tile goes from diagonal to straight in this pic...

...you will have what our tub will look like when we're done.  Gonna be awesome.

We've got the granite guys presently cutting the granite, and it sounds like they'll be finished and installing (fingers crossed) next week.  That means kitchen and bathroom countertops will be done!!  Got lots of work to do before then...

Kitchen - Before and (Sort-Of) After

So, the kitchen paint is finished!  Let's do a true before and after, eh?

B-4

With the dining light removed (it actually didn't look too bad with it) and the window shades put back on!

Before the door and the trim was finished





 Not so great from this angle, but just wait until the next updated photo.  You will be floored.  Trust me.

Please note the lack of ceiling texture in the after photo!

I cannot express to you how disgusting the pantry was (door and interior) in pictures.  The best I can do is above, which can only scratch the surface of disgusting.  After five coats of paint, this is what it looks like:

Not brand new, but definitely a remarkable improvement.  I had to do the door, every shelf, the walls all around, and then do it all over again four more times.  Not fun.

So when Amanda came in and started taping off, she did an awesome job.  But given that I knew I'd be painting the ceilings, I didn't worry about taping up there, since I'd have to touch up anyway, and the ceiling texture is not a tapeable surface in any way.  So once the paint was dry and I did the trim (twice), I had to paint the ceiling.  I don't have a before picture, because you know, it's a ceiling, and in the dark you can't really tell.  But here's a good representation:

See the yellow in the middle?  That's kind of what color it was before.  What was crazy, was that you couldn't really tell it was that color until the white went on.  So yeah.  Oh, and check out that texture!  It's way detexturized sirs and ma'ams. 

So yeah, when I was painting the ceiling, I did end up taping off the wall so I wouldn't get white all over the wall.  Except guess what happened?  It bled through.    And then I still had to paint the green off the ceilings as well:

So I did all of that, and then had the bleed-through, so I had to go back and touch up the green.  Now, in most places, I could have just touched up the blatantly-wrong places, and been done:



Like so.



All fixed!

Except I have this problem with putting my name on something that's not perfect, or at least as close to it as I can do.  I can't in good conscience walk someone into a room and be like, "I painted this!!!!" and have them internally go, "Well there's a spot there, and a spot down there, and one up there that she missed." because that equates to "Wow, meet Taylor McLazy."  So...I was like, Ninja-Touch-Up.  I cut in like a mofo. 

This:

Turned into this:

And this:

Turned into this:

The thing is?  You can only see these changes when you're close up.  I could take a far-off picture of the 'before-touch-up" part and you could be like "There's nothing you need to do.  But when you get up close, you see the minutae of what I did to give it an overall amazing look.  For example:

It didn't look like that before, dude. 

So anyway, I'm not going to post a billion before-and-after-trim-touch-up pics, because I took a million and really?  It was only for my own edification.  The overall picture is just gorgeous, and I'm so proud and excited for company to come over and I can go "look at this room I painted!!!" and people to say internally (and hopefully externally), "Holy Wow, Batman!  This looks professionally done!" And I want future buyers to think the same thing.  I don't want them to come in and be horrified by the quality of paint job, such as we were when we came in here for the first time.  :)

So...in other news!  Sneak peak of what we're currently working on: