Success.

Finally, things are lighting up, firing up, running and scrubbing as they are meant to. Which is a good thing, because we are a mere 3 days from M-day.

Adam's folks were awesome enough to drive their van down Saturday loaded with stuff...And it's finally not just nameless, faceless boxes-- it's personal.


It's making it feel so much more like a home. Well, that and the fact that I've been staying down there for almost a week nursing my mom and my sister through the flu.

And while the folks were here, they helped us get some final coats of paint on the walls, and Adam's dad coached him through the last of the appliance installations, thus, the lighting and firing, etc.:



When they turned on the dishwasher, and told us it was on, Adam's mom and I went literally running into the kitchen to see-- 'cause we sure weren't believing what we heard. Which was nothing-- that thing is soooo quiet. Unlike the icemaker, which tumps a load of still black ice (black from all the "pipes-sitting-unused" crud) and then loudly hisses water into the tray every so often. But I'll get used to it. Been a long time since I had such a convenience, so I'm not bitching. Just acclimating myself to new sounds.

Sunday, we got our base shoe cut and painted. We'll get these nailed up and then tackle painting the rest of the trim one room at a time during the spring when we can open windows and get some fresh air-- in case you missed it, our POs screwed us over a few ways with the baseboards, as in, they didn't remove them to drywall. Hence, baseboard and other trim painting will be done in situ. In place. On the wall. In the house. It's oil paint, so it's pretty stinky. We'll need a good solid spring breeze to keep us from passing out in the fumes.


Lots left to do, but at least we'll be in the house soon.

Oh-- and I got to try out the new shower curtain, bath rug, and shower head, and they were simply wonderful.

We're that much closer...

As I mentioned, lots of little accomplishments this weekend, and a few really big ones.

For one thing, my $70 shower head purchased for $12 was installed:


7 different settings! It's so exciting.

We also put our first housewarming present together. Our realtor gave this to us on the day we closed, but we were afraid we'd ruin it, so we hadn't put it together until now:


This location, beside the pantry, will likely be its long term home, hopefully to house an espresso machine. Eventually. Until then, we're going to use it as an island to try out how we like the size and arrangement before we build a permanent island.

The kiddo got some raking and bagging done...I did a little sunlight scouting in the backyard so we can choose a place for a vegetable garden. And I spied a robin-- I don't care what some groundhog in Penn says; a robin and some 65 degree weather says spring. Period.

Now for the big stuff.

Ta-da!!!
Da-dum!
Woohoo!


And hallelujah. It's about time.


Ok. So full disclosure. Not everything is entirely hooked up. Sink and faucet are in-- it was a many, many hours long fiasco, though we finally got it done. I put a bead of caulk around the edge and I'll deal with shaping it up using my fingernail, a caulk scraper, a razor and some solvent. We cut one little piece of PVC too short, so we'll have to redo that one length. But the garbage disposal is otherwise together. Fridge is in and connected to the icemaker line. Dishwasher is hooked up, though not screwed in yet. And the stove is just sitting there, attached to nothing.

We may have a slight placement issue with the stove and dishwasher. We measured many times, but eh. We still got it wrong. We have a few ideas and solutions up our sleeves and we'll deal with it later.

But it's shaping up!!

Oh yeah! And Adam did most of the gruntwork here, and the kiddo was a huge help on the yard and island. I just pointed out when someone was doing something wrong.

Focus on the kitchen...

This weekend we begin sanding the house full force. Then once we get the floors out of the way, we'll be in a position to move into the house and stop paying for 2 homes. But after the floors, it'll be full steam ahead on the kitchen. So now that we've made some decisions about how we're handling the floors, we can start planning the remaining aspects of the kitchen.

Here's a reminder of the before, so you'll understand that anything we do will be better than this:

Yep, that's fruit-themed vinyl faux tile on the backsplash. The fridge goes on the far left of this picture. The only change being made to the layout is that our new gas stove, is being installed on the opposite wall from the one you see here. We'll be choosing a yellow color for the walls, and the ceiling fan is a goner-- a new gift for the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We purchased the appliances during a labor day sale-- Frigidaire silver mist gas range, microwave and top-freezer refrigerator. I don't like the way stainless smudges and we couldn't afford the non-smudgy kind. The dishwasher is a black Frigidaire with all the bells and whistles-- I haven't lived in a place with a dishwasher since I was 9 years old, so this was the one appliance we wanted to splurge on. Someday, I'll upgrade to drawer style...mmm...Oh, and lighting decisions come a bit later, when we decide if we have room for an island. We're gonna live in the kitchen for a bit before we make that choice.

So anyway, we gutted the thing, replaced the walls and here's where we stand now.

Cabinets are at least partially in place. We will be adding another upper cabinet to the far right so that we can attach the microwave. We have an old lower cabinet component that we won't be using, so I guess we'll adjust that to fit. We started sanding the uppers so we could refinish, and ended up deciding that they really are a pretty color naturally, so we'll just clear-coat them and leave as is. I don't like the door style, but they're pretty solid, so I may just learn to live with them for the time-being.

We still need to replace the countertop base; it's currently particle board, which will swell under the tile. Sink is graphite ($235 at Lowes), and faucet is in oil-rubbed bronze (which I happily found on Overstock for $65!!). The surface is going to be Uba Tuba granite tile (also part of the Labor Day sale purchase-- at 20% off they were about $7.70/ft2), and we'll do a wood trim edge-- I think we should get a piece of trim that matches the cabinets. Adam's not sold on the idea.

As for the backsplash, I had wanted to use yellow/beige 4 inch translucent glass tiles. They, however, cost an arm and a leg. Then we discovered metallic glazed tiles in bronze. They cost the other arm and leg. I suggested bead board painted the same color as the walls (a light yellow, eventually) but with a slightly shinier top coat, and that one was nixed right out of the gate. "Too country," apparently. We both think a tumbled stone look would look good, but I think that would be a little boring-- predictable.

My newest suggestion is faux tin ceiling tiles. They're moderately priced; somewhere between nice ceramic or stone tiles and glass at ~$18 per 18X24" tile. if nothing else, these just seem so much easier to install than tile, especially with the goofy, uneven masonry/concrete wall that this stuff is going on top of.


At any rate, neither of us has outright nixed this idea, so it still has a fighting chance.

Then again, I do have a knack for talking myself out of Brilliant Ideas all the time.