Oh How I Wish

I had a finished tile wall to show you. Alas, yesterday was a busy day. We have probably 5 tiles to install still (you'll understand why it is taking so long in the reveal) so hopefully soon. We did however order our molding for the doors, ceiling, etc which should be delivered today! Then I get the fun task of installing and painting it. I shouldn't complain though, Daniel has been doing all the nitty-gritty tiling. So until I've got something to show you here's something pretty to look at.

via

Here's to hoping our kitchen is as pretty when it is done. 

Cheers!

So Close I can Taste It...

I wish I had a big reveal but man does everything take 10X longer than you expect! Though, since I am going off this to do list, I may have bitten off more than I can chew in one weekend.

I did manage to check off a few items. We officially set a date for our appraisal so we have until the 8th to finish up. Obviously the big two are the flooring and tile. I can say we made some serious progress. Here's a sneak peek. (I know things look a little yellow but that is just my lack of white balance)

I LOVE all of the color variations. This one is my favorite. If you squint and tilt your head it looks like it says California.

See it?

Well, if it was written by a 5 year old boy with limited space, but I see it.

The tiling should be done tomorrow so I should be able to show you a few more details then! Yay for progress!

Cheers!

Counters!

Just a quick post to show you our new counters!

They wont be blond for too long but I'm digging their woodsy vibe. Since they were super cheep for counters (thank you IKEA), we are going to see how it goes but I found a place that sells dark tung oil that should darken them up a bit but still make them usable for cutting (it is food safe). I'll let you know how that goes.

We've got flooring to pick up and tiling is happening so things are moving. Our August 8th deadline is creeping up but it is so worth it for all of the progress.

You may also notice the cabinet around the refrigerator. Yeah, I got that done too but haven't had a change to blog about it. So there it is.

Anyone else ready for a productive weekend. I feel like my life has been on fast-forward. On the plus side, I'm totally counting tearing up flooring as exercise. It counts right?

Cheers!

Movin' On Up

It is official, we now have a bed room again. We've been using the bedroom as a staging area for pretty much the whole kitchen project and most of the time it looks like this.

Not exactly inviting is it? Not that it is in any way done but here she is all cleaned up.

The almost empty stage (I had some serious mopping to do before anything was going in there).

Our finished wall- sans light switch.

Why yes the walls are still lavender.

And finally, with the bed back in. Still playing with the layout but Norman finds it very exciting. So exciting he had to kill a hippo in frame.

His happy face makes up for it though.

Lots of progress to show but currently things are everywhere. We have a joke here that I can only keep two rooms clean at any one time. Currently that is the Bedroom and Library.

In other news our flooring comes tomorrow and I may have more to show you (if I get the kitchen clean). I finished pulling up the flooring and look what I found. Do you think it is functional?

You never know with old houses do you. Has this happened to anyone else? The house we moved in to when I was 10 had a door hidden behind the refrigerator. To this day I wish I had opened it to see what was behind.

Cheers!

Grillin' and Chillin'

Because you know, that's what we did all weekend. If only that were the case right? We are up to our eyeballs in drywall dust but it looks like the project just may be wrapping up soon. I did have time (while Daniel was sanding) to eek out this little project.

First, some back story. About two weeks ago I was telling Daniel how I'd love to have a grill but I didn't think I'd use it enough to warrant buying one. Later that day we were taking the dog for a walk and there it was. Sitting on the side of the street, a little worse for the wear, with a sign that said "free- works". You had better believe I stopped that walk right there and wheeled that baby home.

It languished for a few weeks while other projects took precedent, so, without further ado, some before and afters.

Before- all rusted and gross

After

It is amazing what a scrub brush and some high heat spray paint can do right? Now I just need to find time to light this baby up.

Anyone else think the weekend was way too short? Yeah, me too.

A Little Seen Corner of Our Home

I don't believe I have shown you what is now the office since we moved in over a year ago. Since then things have changed and it has gone from this

It was a good library but it makes a better office. So we switched things around and have come up with this probably temporary solution.

I'll admit this is about as clean as this place gets as it serves double duty as craft room and office. I'm hoping to tackle some of that soon but you know how that goes. You can thank an impending appraisal for the relative cleanliness.

What I'd really love to do (besides paint) is add a day bed and move the desk. Clearly carpet needs some love too. The thing about home offices (or ours at least) is not much real work happens here. Daniel is usually parked in some other room in the house so I've pretty much taken over the space.

Our sudden progress is not slowing down but spackling takes time people. I hope to show you some major changes next week (because lets face it, we aren't going to get a very good appraisal without it).

Hope you all have productive and fun weekends!
Cheers!

Floor to Ceiling Challenge

You may remember last week  I challenged Daniel to a face off on who could finish their project first- me removing the flooring in the kitchen or Daniel removing the remaining ceiling boards in the bedroom.

I was so going to win. Seriously. I mean look how far I was.

Well, last night I came home to this

Curses he won! Obviously it took my non-competitive brain about two seconds not to care and just be super psyched about not having a hole in our bedroom ceiling any more but there was that moment.

Why the sudden spur forward you ask? On Monday our loan officer contacted us and said that basically he would pay us to refinance our house to a lower rate (obviously there is more to it than that but Daniel deals with those kinds of things). The only catch? We have to get the house appraised again which means it needs to look like it isn't in a million pieces. Easier said than done right? Apparently not. If I had known giving my husband an extra $200 a month would have gotten this project done sooner I just might have done it. We worked straight through to 9:30pm (which is way past my "I'm done" time) and are no longer living with open walls. 

We even finally got around to closing up the hallway. 

Oh and he finished the electrical too. Amazing right?

Obviously everything still needs to be spackled and painted but this is a huge step forward. Yay for sudden progress. Now I just have to go back and finish tearing up that floor. **double sigh**

Anyone else make spontaneous progress on their projects this week? I don't think I've ever seen Daniel so determined to finish a project.

Cheers!