Closer Still...

I now have a fully functional kitchen! It's not clean, but it has counters, a sink, a stove - everything! I love the new counters! The look through has been updated with new trim and everything has a new paint job. It really looks good. Thank you Dan for picking out the color of the new counters, and Michael for building them.

Bryan came over tonight to help. We finished edging the tile in the basement, so it is officially done! It was wonderful to have the company. That alone is worth its weight in gold. Thank you for helping me keep my sanity (such as it is) for one more day, Bryan.

I had some dental work done today, so I'm calling it an early night. My tooth hurts and I feel slightly ill. Until tomorrow...

Getting Closer...

Things are still progressing. I installed a new floor in the basement today - looks great doesn't it? Michael has been working feverishly on my new counter tops. I may even have them by the time the house goes on the market! Apparently they are a little harder than we anticipated.

(Notice the wall in the background - that's Dan's handiwork. Compare to the 6/17 pic of what that wall used to look like.)

I'm still plugging away at packing, sorting and trashing. Mostly trashing at this point. Most of what I can pack, is packed. The rest is needed for "staging" the house, or living here.

That's it for now. My hands hurt really bad tonight, and my knuckles are swollen. Too much manual labor :)

Basement Work Begins

I've started packing/ destroying the basement now. We had to remove the panelling on that wall because of some rodent (thank you Abby the hamster) and water damage. I'll hang new panelling and paint it white to match everything else.

I have a beautiful (and functional) stove, thanks to dad and Michael. Thanks to Ran and Michael all the wallpaper is gone from my kitchen. Thanks to Jean, Naomi and all the garage salers who came to buy stuff, I can now afford to hire someone else to do the work :)

On the recommendation of Dan and Michael I am hiring a guy to come and "skim coat" my walls in the closet bedroom and kitchen. It will turn out much nicer than anything I could do, and go much quicker. Here's hoping...

And don't worry-I didn't make dad work too much on Father's Day. And I (sort of) cooked a meal on my stove. Of course, I do feel bad 'cause I can't find his present. It's around this mess somewhere.

It's DONE!!

I have finished my bathroom, and I love it!!! There's a few touch up things to finish yet, but it's minor stuff that most folks won't even notice. My house is still messy, but we've downgraded from all out catastrophe to just a mess. Most of the tools and such have ended up back in the basement, although not necessarily put away. Michael has taken his tools home.

What a relief! I can shower, dry my hair and brush my teeth - all in the same room!!

Casa Karen is open for business once again. (Ok, it never closed, but now you don't have to worry I'll make you go potty in a bucket and shower under a hose!)

Making Progress - Slowly

I'm about at the end of my rope. I'm not sure I can live without a functional bathroom much longer. Call me a whiner, but I am not dealing with this well. Fortunately, I am making a bit of progress. I finally got some paint on the walls, and tomorrow night the sink should go back in.

Remind me to never do this again.

Moving Forward

I have completed my dining room! I nailed the quarter round down and moved in all the furniture. I even washed the walls and baseboards for good measure. It's wonderful to have something done.

I did put another layer of mud on the bathroom walls, and I finished painting the register and cabinet. I think it will look very nice when it's done. The medium color is a little pinker than I'd thought, but it will be good.

The workweek will be tough without a functional bathroom. And of course this is the week I have something going on every night - and nothing can be changed. Oh well. My one bright spot is I think I'm going back to Seattle over Memorial Day weekend.

Coming Along

It's coming, although slowly. I finally have all the drywall up, and the first coat of mud on. Does anyone know how to do corners? That's the one thing Michael won't do. The large hole is where the medicine chest goes.

I bought paint and plan to spend tonight painting the cabinet and register vent. I also started painting the quarter round for the dining room. Since it's red it takes about 6 coats.

I am so ready for this to be done.

Dark Before the Dawn

Things always get worse before they get better, right? Well, here's worse. I had no water in my house all day yesterday. I had to shut the main off because none of the shut-off valves worked. I have since replaced them all. Of course, the cold water one was so corroded I couldn't get it off, so we cut it out. Michael then taught me to pre-tin and solder new pipes then install them to the existing pipes. Once that was done, I replaced the shut-offs.

You know you're in the midst of a major remodel when your bathroom sink and toilet end up on your bedroom floor.

After working until 2 am though, I had a sheet of drywall behind the toilet, a new floor, and water. We replaced all the stuff inside the toilet, as well as the seals and washers. As long as it was apart and in pieces, why not?

For now, a long soak in the tub, followed by Advil and bed. I begin again tomorrow.

Fare Thee Well, My Bathroom

I have begun the process of updating my bathroom. As you can see, things are not going quite as planned. I got a wild hair and decided to remove the paneling that was there (you can still see it behind the sink - it looks like brick). Unbeknowst to me, there were no walls behind the paneling. YIKES!!

Step two will consist of me learning how to drywall. Step three will be using a chair rail to hide how much I screw up the transition from drywall to plaster.

On the bright side, it will be much easier to re-wire the lighting since all the wiring is now exposed. Wish me luck!

New Floors

It's done!! All that's left to do is lay the quarter round (edging) and clean! I can't believe how wonderful it looks. Compliments will be accepted at my standard email address. :)

I'm not planning on doing the edging until Memorial Day because I need to paint it all before it's installed. Hopefully the cleaning and putting furniture back will be accomplished by the end of the week.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Aunt Jean's to help her out for a while. Saturday I'll take grandma on her usual shopping excursion, then to lunch at Jean's.

For now - to bed.

The Carpet's Dead

I did it! I successfully ripped out all the carpeting from my dining room. Let me just say - eeeewwwwww. It was disgusting, and I'm very glad it's gone. It wasn't nearly as difficult to do as I thought it would be. For one brief, shining moment I thought I had beautiful floors under the carpet. Turns out it was glue on laminate and not in great shape. Michael was even kind enough to pick up all the old carpet and take it to his dumpster.

Sidebar - We've finally made peace with each other and our differences. We are simply not meant to be together. Thank you to Dan for giving me the final knock up side the head I needed to see it, and be finally be ok with it.

I pulled up all the tack strips, and Michael helped me lay the underlayment in preparation for putting down the laminate . We couldn't finish because I needed a saw with a special blade that I didn't own. Dad has one though, and he's bringing it today. With any luck I'll have a brand new floor tonight!

Dad is coming in to take my grandma to the doctor. Aunt Jean handles all of this normally, but true to form, when it rains it pours. Grandma's health is really going downhill. She is having trouble breathing and the fainting spells are increasing. She's afraid to leave the house to even get the paper. (Of course, no one mentioned this to me until yesterday.)

Normally, Jean stops over every day after work and makes sure grandma's ok. Last night, she called me in tears. She had just fallen down her steps and thought she broke her ankle. Her husband was at the store, but she thought he'd be home soon. I did find the phone number for the store he was at and had him paged. Unfortunately (fortunately??) he had already left and was en route home. Mostly she was concerned that I get a hold of dad and make sure he could take grandma to the doctor today.

After a visit to the ER visit it turns out she broke her left ankle, sprained her right, and tore some ligaments in her right. She is not allowed to put any weight on her feet for at least 7 days. She's pretty upset about the whole thing - and worried about grandma. Her husband got a wheelchair and a shower seat, and has arranged with his work to be with her for the first week or so. They meet with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow so we'll have a better idea of how long she'll be down.

In the meantime, I have grandma duty. I'm going to stop by every night after work to see how she's doing - not matter if she says I don't need to or not!