Kitchen Improvements

This is what our kitchen looked like when we first moved in. I hated it and thought that we could redo it. Then the realities of living on one income and owning a house hit me like a 2x4 in the head and I realized that we would not be redoing it. 

When Sweet One was about 3 months old I got sick and tired of these awful colors. We got a new stove with our Christmas money (full size but we had to get rid of some counter space to the right of the stove to make room for it), painted the walls yellow and the cabinets white. It was better. It still wasn't great. The countertop always looked dirty and I couldn't get the floors clean for the life of me. I tried everything and I hated it. 

In June while we were at a cabin with my in-laws, we had a groutable stick on tile put on the floor and also new cabinets put along the empty wall. I was sick and tired of running downstairs every time I need a can of beans or some tomatoes. We got the cabinets on sale and so they were only about $600.

When I got home from our trip west for my Dad's memorial service I got a strong whiff of epoxy. It stunk but I was happy because that meant my contractor had finished putting the new counter top in. It is definitely the finishing touch. I can't believe how much better this little kitchen looks. It still isn't perfect, the workable counter space isn't ideal and the flow of cabinets isn't great, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than the day we moved in.

Complete with two children tuckered out from a dance session. This floor is quite nice for dancing! (It also looks much more gray than my camera was able to pick up.)

 Complete with a plate of cooling corn on the cob. I never got this kitchen all lovely and clean yet but here it is doing what it does.

***
There are moments in the day when I feel absolutely fine and then there are those when I can barely move. My sister saw a psychic/clairvoyant and what she was told was amazing. It all makes sense. I wish I could have a moment like that. I want to know my Dad knows I love him and that I'm sorry things happened the way they happened. That I miss him. I want him to know everything even if I don't know it all myself.

Kitchen of your nightmares!

I watch House Hunters and Property Virgins every once in awhile. Most of the time I'm watching them to see what houses are costing in different places and sometimes it scares me. I'm afraid we won't ever be able to afford a house in a bigger center. I'm afraid that with my crappy kitchen, no one is going to want to buy my house (especially in an area where houses take awhile to sell).

Then there are moments that I almost laugh out loud at the "ew, that kitchen isn't big enough" or "I want more of an open concept". Open concepts are awesome. When I'm in the kitchen, there's a huge wall between me and the kids. Often I'm running between the two as I'm trying to get food ready because short of me grabbing a sledge hammer and creating an impromptu window, there is no way to see what is going on in the living room.

So here's three views of my kitchen:
1) This is really how it looks at any given time. Counter space is limited, time to completely clear everything off is even more limited with the kids to chase. The lack of cupboard space also makes it hard to find places for things.

 2) That wall that looks rather empty is about 99 inches long. We are going to get some plain white swedish cabinets (once we can find a vehicle to bring them back in) to help make the kitchen a little more functional. I'm SICK of running downstairs to grab canned goods when I need them. Hopefully, this will also give us a little more working counter space and take some of the crap factor out of the kitchen.

 3) We're also going to replace the floors and get new counter tops. The only reason we have a full size stove is because we got rid of 6" of counter space so it could fit in there. Six inches doesn't sound like a lot. But it was. And I miss it daily.

Is your kitchen looking better to you now? (I'm so funny.) One day maybe I'll have a nicer kitchen that was designed by someone not getting into the hooch. Perhaps it will even have a dishwasher! But for now, I'll just have to live with mine.

Almost there!

For the past three weeks my dining room has looked like this.

With small projects on my To-Do list and then one large project that our contractor is doing, it has felt like a gong show. Previously there was a bathroom with black mold and sewage lines that were leaking where you now see the 'Florida Mango' walls. Since we really don't need a full bath on the main floor we thought that bringing the laundry appliances up from the basement would make our lives much easier. The half bath part is functional and it has been nice not to have to run upstairs constantly with this baby sitting on my bladder!

Unfortunately, our contractor has taken longer than he expected (what contractor doesn't!) and the time for he and his new wife to go to Israel arrived. I really don't have a problem with this. I didn't even mind that a lot of the mess you see in the picture was left behind and I spent half an hour yesterday moving tools and other miscellaneous construction things into the bathroom myself. Our contractor does very good work for an even more reasonable fee. His work ethic seems to be to do things well and inexpensively. Perfect for us.

So in a few weeks things should all be wrapped up!

Toggle bolts and omelettes

Last Friday I took Sweet One over to her surrogate Grandma's house so that Big Love and I could move her shelves between rooms. Previously, I simply put them up with a screw long enough to make it through the lath. Easy enough and I was surprised by how little damage it left on the walls. We did decide that since the purple room will eventually house both kids that the need may arise to have books on the shelves and so we decided to put them up with toggle bolts. I was nervous about using them but figured it would be like everything else - I'd learn how to use them and be happy to have a new skill.

As you can see, we did a pretty good job of getting them up. They're level and secure. The toggle bolts were not as hard to use as I had expect. An added bonus was that our contractor was here working downstairs and he was willing to help us out when we were trying to figure out a few things.

In the end I only had one major brain fart. We didn't have to use a toggle bolt in every spot because....
... this is what is on the other side of the wall and I forgot to gauge just how deeply it sits inside the wall.
And so amidst my Mary Kay and deodorant there are two toggle bolts and one point of a screw!

***

We have had one of those mornings today. And by one of those I mean a freakin' awesome morning where I can almost forget some of the stroggles of being a parent. Sweet One slept in until almost 7:30. I got my workout in and did some cleaning while Sweet One played downstairs with her Daddy. "Five Six!" she called over and over while running around in circles. Then we decided to go to a restaurant where she actually behaved herself. I got to enjoy my coffee and omelette while Sweet One scarfed down her pancakes. We rarely go to a restaurant other than McDonald's because a few months ago we tried to go for dinner and she did laps around the restaurant the whole time.

Applying only the highest standards while painting

I recently painted the area above the stairs going down into the basement. While starting with a canvas of lead-filled fluorescent green, I used a platform obviously created by a skilled engineer to help me reach as high as I could with the caulking gun to fill in the cracks. Lucky for me, Big Love was wiping down the walls (I was completely afraid of what I might find!) while I did this. It is important to point out that no injuries happened only because my platform was made of only the best materials possible.

The lower set of stairs were harder to set a platform upon. Rather than having to stand on something that might be a little precarious (the previous picture is proof that I would never do this), I decided to purchase a stellar adhesive that would allow me to get the brush into the higher corners. Yes, this product is used by only the greatest of handymen - just ask Red Green!

I do so enjoy aspiring to the highest standards of stairway painting. The evidence is here in the finished product where the shade of grey I chose did not manage to look purple! I even found a hidden treasure in the process.
Soon there will not be a wall in this house that I have not painted, save perhaps for the walls of the basement and the unfinished attic. As shown above in my pictures, I love using the best tools out there so that each and every project I attempt is completed to the highest standards possible.

(Still trying to figure out why the grey looks purple!)

Lurking underneath

I'm working on item 6 of 6 on my list of jobs to fix up the house a bit. This project is the lattice and wood panel that is perpendicular to the porch floor that I refinished a few weeks ago. The stink that comes up from my work never ceases to amaze me as I'm sanding away with a borrowed belt sander, my face covered in a dust mask and safety goggles! What the hell is it underneath the paint that can have that unholy smell! I can only imagine. Slightly frightening.

Then as I was finishing up with the 50 grit, trying to pry myself out from the mountain laurel that was pressing me against the porch, I let go of the trigger on the sander and brought the sander down to my side. Or so I thought. My knee stuck out through the hole in my jeans and the sander gave my knee a quick kiss just as it finished winding down. Dammit. Three hours of working on this project injury free and then in the last 30 seconds...

Hopefully this project will be done by Sunday evening. Dammit. Showers tomorrow. Monday?

98%

When I have a project to do, I feel like I always get 98% of it done. Painting a room? I'll save the trim for later because my violent outburst of painting has left me spent. So I tell myself I'll finish it up later.

Part of my problem was that three years ago I thought I would pull up the carpet on the stairs and living room. However, I never got around to it and since toddlers fall down stairs occasionally, I'm glad I didn't. But looking at the trim for the past chunk of months has made me cringe because it looks a little like ass. It may only take up 2% of the wall but the trim is like the icing/frosting on a cake (and I'm completely guilty of eating icing with a spoon)!

So with the hopes of getting a few projects done before the in-laws arrive, I have a checklist and things are getting crossed off. No longer will I need to give myself shit every time I walk up or down the stairs because there is a new layer of cream cheese frosting on either side of me. It won't be long before I've done all the projects I'm capable of doing myself and then I'll just hope the lottery comes my way so I can have someone else do the ones I can't!

A visit and painting have eaten up the past two weeks!

What a couple of weeks it has been! Sweet One got two teeth - molars!

My mom and stepdad came to visit for a week. It is hard to visit with my mom because in the past two years she has been working as a minister (unordained) at a church and is so excited about everything that she is doing and learning. It is great for her because she has always wanted to do this but hard for me because once she gets going on this stuff she almost becomes a different person. I can't put it all into words right now which is probably why I haven't been posting - because this has been on my mind for awhile now and I don't feel ready to put it all out there.

My porch has now been painting. I still have to paint the lattice that is skirting it as well as one other section, but in general the surface has been sanded, caulked and painted over the past few weeks. I have two other projects to get painted in the house and then the rest of what is outside. I hate all these little painting jobs hanging over my head.

Sweet One is in bed right now crying for my attention - cry a bit, stop a bit, etc. We are in the transition of moving to one nap and sometimes it makes bedtime hard because she gets so wired playing after supper that it is impossible to slow her down and yet she won't let me sit and rock her ... that is until I go back into her room.

Anything exciting going on in your world?

I spent my day breathing through a dust mask

With our house being an unknown age upwards of 75 years, there are a shitload of projects that need to be done. One frustrating issue with these projects is that whoever did similar projects before us often had them done half-assed and so my job becomes much more difficult.

One such job is our front porch. Part of if needed to be sanded and painted and another part needs to be replaced all together. Luckily, my stepfather has said that he will help me with the replacement part when he is here next week. Today was the day I planned on renting a sander, being done that stept halfway through the day so that I could prime and get a first coat of paint on the part that was to be painted by the end of the day but oh! no! Something had to go wrong and make what I was hoping to be a slightly smooth ride into more of a mud bogging adventure.

If you think of my porch as an oreo cookie, the sweet delectable inside is a different kind of wood with a shitload of old green paint stubbornly holding on for dear life. It took forever to get it off. To make matters worse, I started with the wrong type of sander. I had used the first sander when I refinished my floors upstairs in the house and it was fine. I really thought it was going to be ok. I did not want to try a drum sander because I was afraid of them (and because I heard my dad's voice telling me I'd wreck the wood with it). In the end, I rented two machines and didn't wreck any wood! The drum sander was much easier to use but the whole round of sanding took until 5:30. Edging needs to get done tomorrow and I hope it goes a little smoother so Big Love can spend a few hours at work. (We also need to get to a friend's house for dinner because she made me a birthday cake that I have to eat tomorrow.)

There is one aspect of this whole thing that I am very happy about and that is the fact that I did not end up lying on the porch sobbing because I had to spend more money than I thought and it took so much longer. When I did my floors upstairs I followed some bad advice and the project did not go as well as planned and I had a few meltdowns. I guess I can call this progress! (Now if only I can turn off the negative chatter I hear every time I start something like this.)

Now I will go and enjoy the first muscle relaxant I have taken since before I was pregnant. These muscles are aching and I'm looking forward to the trip!

The time is nigh

I received a phone call today and our contractor came to look at our bathroom once more. He was 'getting really close to be able to start' it and wanted to refresh his picture of what needs to be done. Well, close is freakin' close as he will be starting tomorrow! After months of hoping that our contractor would actually start, the wallpaper I took off (and the pictures that nauseated my sister) and just be plain old sick of looking at the ass of a bathroom we have, a new one will be here soon.

I'm finding myself a little anxious about what the few weeks will be for Sweet One and I. We're still working on her sleeping through the night. I made her quit the soother at sleeptime cold turkey and also her third nap. The last few hours of her day have not been as bad as I would have imagined. She's starting to sleep a bit better but if she does wake up more than once for a feeding I rock her rather than feed her and she seems to go back to sleep alright. It is obviously not only hunger that is prompting these night rousings. Nap time still isn't perfect but it is ok. However, I'm not quite sure what will become of it with this disruption to her schedule. Has anyone out there dealt with this situation? Any suggestions for me? (Well, other than to stop worrying and know that like everything else we'll figure it out!)

I think Sweet One is fighting off her first cold. Her nose isn't running or anything but her voice has more rasp to it than before. She sounds slightly conjested. Luckily it hasn't killed her spirit. With the third nap being cancelled I've been trying to spend that time out for walks. She is sitting in the main stroller part rather than the car seat now and seems to really enjoy having a look around at everything that is going on. (Winterizing will be happening as soon as I get around to ordering whatever it is I need. Suggestions are welcome.)

But I am a little weary from an early morning and so will stop. It is 6:30 and Sweet One has already passed out for the night!

Layer by Layer

I never know quite what I am getting myself into when I start a project here in this little house of ours, especially when my two main ingredients are wallpaper and Ultra Downy. The featured bathroom is in dire need of renovation. (If it can get done we will not have to shower in the bathroom that is probably swimming in mould.) We've been in a contractor's queue for awhile now and a month ago he said that it was quite possible that he would start on October 1st. Perfect timing for Sweet One and I to be gone with all the loud noise going on. Yesterday evening,as Sweet One was going to sleep (she did it all on her own!), I found the energy get started the awful task of taking down the wall paper. The first picture is the top layer. Yes, my friend, there were more than one. Not at all sure just how much of a gong show was going to ensue. As backward as it may seem, my way of expecting a mess and getting a break actually worked! The top layer came off easily in large pieces.

And it revealed an even more beautiful layer! Gross. (Twenty minutes after I started all of the this the contractor phoned to let me know he was going to take advantage of the good weather to get other projects done. Well shit. Another month, at least, to wait.) So I got the section that is in the final picture completed and was exhausted. As I was finishing I told Big Love that I probably wouldn't do anymore until I was back from Montreal. I've been sick for over a week and haven't had a whole lot of energy.
Every time I went into the bathroom I smelled coal dust. If you walk past some houses in this town there are small steel doors near the ground for people to dump the coal directly into the basement rather than carrying it through the house. I guess I never imagined that coal would have been used recently enough to have it underneath the wallpaper. Or maybe I had hoped that the wallpaper wouldn't be so old as to contain excessive amounts of coal dust... but it did! I hated the idea of smelling that for who knows how long, especially since I had no idea if it was detrimental to our health or not, and so I started "a small section to get rid of the dust" this afternoon. This is what was under the second layer of wallpaper!
Even grosser. The grossest! What followed was not uncharacteristic to me. The above section proved fairly easy to get done (believe it or not, only 80% of it was actually still stuck to the wall!) and so I took on the next patch, which lead to the spot above the sink so that I could get rid of all the coal dust. Then since Sweet One was still sleeping, I continued on above the tub because I had gotten into a zone with just enough water/ultra downy being rubbed all over the wallpaper to make the whole process go quite smoothly. (And I only dumped one bucket of my water/ultra downy concoction on the floor!) But what is the point of finishing the wall when I still have a bit more over top of the tub because really, it's a pain to clean wet, ripped up wallpaper out of the tub so I might as well just do it once ... which finally left me with such a small spot that I couldn't not finish it all up. About 3-3.5 hours after I said "I'll just do a little bit" there was no more wallpaper. Just bare walls with this pale yellow paint on top of the plaster.
I am happy that this job is done and the bathroom is cleaned up. I hope we are next on the list soon! The bathroom has so much space in it and huge potential to be a very nice space. And the smell of Clean Breeze shouldn't stick around for too long!

Little Miss Fixit

I've done quite a lot of improvements to this little house we live in. Nearly every wall has been painted which has also forced me to develop spackling skills. One large undertaking I did was my floors upstairs. We started with terrible, awful, horrible, no-good horse hair carpets and now have refinished hardwood. It's rustic looking but we like it and really, anything is an improvement.

Despite all of these accomplishments I still second guess myself every time I take on something new. In April I was at a swedish home store and bought some shelves for Sweet One's bedroom. They've been gathering dust since. I completely knew the logistics of how to put them up but the monkey on my back would laugh and tell me that I would screw them up some how, that it wouldn't be good enough. Well, today I threw that monkey off. I stood up from this computer chair, marched into her room and put one of the three shelves up! No glitches! If you look very carefully you can even see the bubble on the level is exactly where it should be. (Woo hoos abound.)

It's too bad I still haven't figured out how to redo my awful bathrooms.