We did a really inexpensive fix up to our main bathroom this summer. Just paint, and a modernization of a few things. We have plans to do the ensuite this summer or next. We'll do similar things, in that we'll replace the light fixture, the mirror, and remove the old, dated shower door. We'll also replace the bathroom vanities and go for something much sleeker.
Our whole family room needs to be re-done. It's been painted in the past couple of years, so that's not the problem, it's also got hardwood floors, so they're absolutely fine! This Wednesday, we're getting a new, gas fireplace insert installed just in time for winter. The problem is our furniture, which is really starting to show its wear and tear 12 years later! Our wide screen plasma TV is new too so it's an issue of furniture, and lamps.
The pooches recently were chasing the cat around, and managed to break one of our table lamps. What I want to do, is replace the old furniture with nice, comfy leather furniture, and new lighting. I've been browsing for floor lamps and Farreys has a fabulous collection of lighting of every style, colour, and price range.
I think I'll have to pick the furniture out first, and then choose lamps that suit the style of furniture that I buy. I know I'll have no problem finding exactly what I want with this large selection!
A few years ago, I redecorated our bedroom. I painted the whole thing, and bought new curtains, comforter, etc. Problem is, I'm totally sick of them now! Mine is pretty "busy", and I'm wondering if I would have bought something simpler, if I would not gotten tired of it so quickly. So now, I'm looking around for some new ideas for bed linen.
I've been browsing around Terry's Fabrics, and I'm seeing a lot of different options that I really like. The best part about their line is that all the comforters are reversible, so if you DO get tired of it, you can just flip it over! They also come with pillow covers.
The best thing, is that they have a "no questions asked" return policy, so if you order it, and don't like the color, or some such thing, they accept all returns without question!
Ever since Trading Spaces reached popularity of epic proportions, and spawned the birth of several do-it-yourself, home decorating shows, people have gotten the DIY bug. Now with the internet, there are so many more great resources right at your finger tips for information and how-to's for all your home improvement projects. After all, knowledge is power!
Several years ago, my in-laws had a small flood in their house while they were away on vacation. Because their existing hardwood floor could not be matched, they had to have the whole thing ripped out. I suggested that perhaps it could be salvaged, and installed in our house! The in-laws checked it out with their insurance company, and they had no problem with it, if they removed it themselves. They painstakingly removed every board! At least they got paid for their labor! They hauled it all out to our house, and the project was on! Hubby had done a lot of research, and even purchased a book, but had he had more information as to how to install wood and parquet floors, the project would have gone much smoother! The end results were very good, largely thanks to my father-in-law's expertise. Had hubby been just on his own, with his inexperience the results would have likely been less than satisfactory!
Now, there's no excuse to have a similar problem! With a wonderful resource such as DoItYourself.com and their available DVD's, you should be able to find all the help you need! It is a free community with thousands of articles, and over 100 help forums. Before you mess up an expensive job, do your research!
When we bought this house, it came with full window coverings. They were reasonably new at for that time, and I was very pleased with tI soon came to realize that the vertical blinds, are a pain with pets!! The pet hair absolutely sticks to the fabric, because of its texture. UGH! I replaced the living room ones with fabric curtains last year, but I still have the nasty old verticals in the family room and I despise them! I've been looking at the faux wood blinds and thinking that they would be much easier to clean!
As I have lamented numerous times, and will continue to do so for quite some time, all our furniture is wearing out kind of all at the same time! It sucks! Our family room furniture is just worn out, and it was of good quality, but it's used all the time! The living room furniture is very dated! I revitalized the kitchen suite by recovering the chairs, but our dining room furniture, is the set that my in-laws bought us 25 years ago!
When I was cleaning the bathroom upstairs, I realized just how badly it needs to be renovated! I would like to replace the light fixture, put in a pedestal sink, replace the shower door, and put new tiles in the shower. I'd like to put a bunch of different types of shower faucets in as well, as I think that must feel amazing!!
We've been in this house for nearly 15 years. When we moved in we bought new family room furniture, and our living room furniture was only one year old, as well as our dinette set. Our dining room table is about 25 years old. Our table and chairs are standing up well. I recovered the dinette chair seats when I redecorated a couple of years ago. The living room furniture is like new, except for an area that one of the cats scratched it all up, but it's so dated, I hate it and have fugly slip covers over it. The family room furniture is just about worn out, just from being used every single day. I would love to go furniture shopping, but I've vowed not to do anything until we move, since a move is inevitable, and downsizing is likely, I'm going to force myself to wait.
As I previously mentioned, we've got a number of home improvement projects, and a bit more re-decorating ahead in our future. While I've been planning how I want each room to look, I've been thinking about wood blinds. Have any of you used them? If so, what is your opinion of them. What rooms are they most suited for? Please share your thoughts!
We bought our current home about 12 years ago. It is the fourth home we've bought. This house is now nearing 30 years old. When we bought it, they had done some upgrades to it. They had added some tinted windows, all new drapes, blinds, carpets, etc, and everything was in very good shape. Twelve years later, and I've added some colour to most of the rooms, which were all white. I've replaced the good majority of the drapes and blinds, and we laid hardwood in the family room, kitchen and dining room. A week ago, we had 3 huge overgrown spruce trees removed, are having new shingles put on the roof, and then having the front yard re-landscaped. Eventually we are going to have to replace a lot of ourhome furniture too, as it seems to all be wearing out, and getting very dated at the same time. Once this wedding is done, we're going to have to do a lot more upgrades and renos.
This is about as finished as the living room will get, for now. That is, until we replace the furniture. We're not in much of a hurry to do that just now, because we're not in that room at all, and it's not an expense we plan on incurring right now. That's why the slipcovers were supposed to be a temporary solution, but that didn't work out. Eventually I'll put a solid, neutral micro-fibre couch and love seat in there, with 2 contrasting chairs in a cinnamon color, hopefully some type of subtle pattern. But for now. I'm OVER it.
Sarah has inherited the home improvement bug, from me apparently, as she bought, and replaced and installed 4 light fixtures in her condo. The floor plan in her living room, is really weird, in that it is very hard to place the furniture in it. She bought a wall unit today, and I'm going over there tomorrow to help her re-arrange the room. Hopefully we can figure something out.
Miles got neutered today, so Sarah has been busy babying him, since he got home. He's apparently trying to eat without staggering into his bowl. Stanley goes in another month. Speaking of him, he spent an hour or more outside this afternoon. He loves it, and just lays and sleeps under the great big spruce tree. I had looked out the window several times, checking on him, and he would just be in the same place. The last time I looked out, he was at the back door (untied!!!), and dashed in as soon as I opened the door. I have NO idea how he got the tether unhooked from his harness! I'm just glad he was smart enough to come to the house!!! Geeze I have trouble keeping track of this kitten!!
I got my rump in gear this morning, and head out to run some errands. I got the curtain rod I needed, a few little accessories for the living room, some mailing supplies (EBay.... blech), and just a few other things I was out of. Then I stopped and picked up the slipcovers, washed my Jeep and came home. After lunch, I put the slipcover on. YUCK! It didn't improve the look of the old furniture at all! They didn't fit quite right, however I could have made them fit better, but for the cost of them, it wasn't worth it! So back they go, and it will likely cost me $60 return shipping to do it! :( So I guess we'll live with the floral couches until we decide we can afford to replace them. Worst part is, that now my drapes will likely not work either, because I ordered them, with the slipcovers in mind. Not FLOWERS!
In happier news, Sarah had applied for a couple of full time nursing positions in the pediatric operating room. In the meantime, since her interview, another woman called, and offered to pay for her training course (3 months), and offered her a full time position in adult O.R. She was thrilled with the opportunity, but a little "sad" at the thought of not working with the little kids on her current ward. Then today, another lady phoned and offered her a full time position, complete with paid training to go into pediatric O.R. So she accepted that, and is thrilled. She did a 3 month rotation in O.R. during her 4th year, and loved it, which is why she enquired about it. The other benefit of it, besides making her highly specialized, is that the shift rotation is much more doable. Much better hours, except when you're on-call every third week. She also has most weekends off. No night shifts, unless there's an emergency during your on-call shift. So, we shall see how it goes!
I think/hope I'm finished with painting the living room. I'm sure I'll have some touch ups, but I can't STAND to do anymore for now. Painting all the trim just about finished me off. Killed my knees it did! I still have the tables to continue working on, but they're not going as well as they should. I got my huge painting hung back up, and our other artwork. Drapes and slipcovers are ordered, but will likely take a couple of weeks, so it's going to have to be half finished until then. I'm really happy with the paint colour, and that's the main thing. One word of advice: NEVER buy a house with vaulted ceilings, unless you can afford to hire painters! VERY scarey being way up there on a wobbly ladder!
This is the room that I'm tackling this week. Shortly after we moved in, we had the feature wall painted hunter green, and bought the artwork that is on it. Other than that, we haven't done anything to this room. It was a very attractive room for several years, but now it's NOT. I can't afford to do everything I'd like to do to it by any stretch, so this is going to strictly be an economical facelift. I'm going to paint, the old pink chair that the cats love has been relocated to the loft, the vertical blinds and valance are history, the coffee table, end tables will be painted, I plan to buy roman shades for the windows, and slipcovers (budget allowing) for the sofa and loveseat. I'm going to attempt to do something to repurpose my lamps, but we'll see how that goes. Stay tuned for further pictures.
I got the coffee table and end table that I'm going to paint, primed. Then I got 2 of the big walls painted one coat. I LOVE the color. It's kind of like English Toffee Coffee. Going to be very nice when it's all done. Now I'm taking a break. I might do the last wall, depending on how long Sarah (who's coming out) stays.
I just finished showering. I got all the priming finished except for the cutting in on the tall wall. It took me 3.5 hours!! I don't think I'll start painting the wall colour tomorrow, because I'll have to wait until Thursday for hubby to get the curtain rods that are "embedded" in the wall, down. Tomorrow I think I will prime the furniture pieces that I'm going to paint, and then in the afternoon, Sarah is coming out again. I think my back needs a rest from all that stretching and reaching, and climbing!
And YAY!! Hubby's home for happy hour! Heh!
I stained the patio table AGAIN, and one chair, and then ran out of stain. I wrote down the stain color, and as I mentioned last week, could not find the same brand, but thought it would be close enough for outside. I was WRONG! It couldn't have been farther from being the same! This was almost barn red! Sooooooo, since I'd opened the can, and started to paint, I had to repaint the table and the other chair too. BLECH! While I was a mess, I also spray painted the outdoor stove, and the tools too. At least it's done! I'll take pictures of it later, when it's all put back in place.
I called Sarah bright and early this morning to see if she happened to have the day off too. She did, so I told her to come out after she was up and about, and we'd go to the greenhouse, and I'd buy her some flowers to plant in pots for her balcony. I thought the greenhouse would be "quiet" because it was a Friday morning, and most people would be at work. BOY WAS I WRONG! Every mother frucker and her dog was at that damn sweaty greenhouse! GAH!! At least there was 2 of us, so when we were getting to be about half done shopping, I had Sarah stand in the huge ass line up with our heavily loaded cart while I ran around and got the last of the plants I wanted. The crowds, and heat got me so distracted that I don't know WTF I bought! hehehe Should be a great surprise!
We planted Sarah 2 standing pots, 2 hanging pots, and a small table pot. That will definitely be all she has room for. They also have a BBQ for their balcony, and we bought them 2 chairs, and a small table. Sarah works tonight, and then may go out to the farm to see Jay. She's missing her farmer a great deal! :)
Ben and Jess are off to Cowtown to see Sam Roberts tonight, and then to drive to Kelowna for the long weekend. That's lots of driving, but they're young, guess it doesn't bother them.
I got several of my pots planted as well, and I'll hopefully finish the rest tomorrow, and Sunday. If the weather cooperates, I'd like to get the windows washed too, but there's a certain amount of rain forecasted.
I've just had my second shower for the day, have finished surfing blogs, and am sitting here with my wet cat (Sarah bathed him for the first time ever, after she combed out about 18 other cats worth of fur off of him outside). He looked so sad and pathetic. I'll have to be especially nice to the poor little thing. We're waiting for hubby to come home, and start happy hour, and watch the OILERS beat the DUCKS!!! Whooo Hoo!
I was out and about by 8:00 am this morning to buy a bunch of odds and ends that I knew Sarah could use. I got some curtains for her dining room and bedroom, a couple of little rugs, a whole bunch of kitchen things, spoon rest, paper towel holder, drawer organizers, and all kinds of little junk.
She called this morning after her 12 hour night shift, and 2 hours sleep (because her brother DIDN;T want to get up for the delivery guys... little prick) to say that her appliances had been delivered. She was on her way back to bed.
We're going in now to hook up the dishwahser and deliver all the things I bought. If Ben thinks he's going to be a "roommate" very long, he better get a whole lot more cooperative than he was last night, or his ass will be grass!
After we're finished at Sarah's we're going out for a late lunch and then to the Oilers game.
Around 11:00 hubby, Ben and I went out and got started on the yard. While hubby yelled, swore, and beat the lawn mower for 45 minutes until it started, Ben and I pulled all the flowers and put away the pots. We put away all the lawn furniture. By then the mower was working, so Ben mowed the lawn and I washed some windows. Then we swept up, and called it good for the day.
I came in and vacuumed and continued with laundry, and changed our bed, and hubby whipped up some lunch. Now he's watching football while doing some work on his laptop, and I'm struggling over attempting to get the school website revamped and current, but I'm just stumped!
The OIler game is at 8:30 tonight (just on TV) which is mega late, and Ben, Jess, and Kevin are coming over for BBQ'd steaks, and to watch the game. I think I need a snooze so that I can get watch the game tonight, and still manage to get up at 5:15 am!
Because I had said I would look for some stuffed animals, and some baby dolls, etc for our classroom, I got into the crawl space boxes in the garage. I went through all of them yesterday!! Go me! I pulled out all the things I want for school and have been washing them like crazy, as they've been in storage for the better part of 20 years (GAWD I'm old!) I'm also taking in the doll cradle that Grandpa made for Sarah and a doll stroller. Sarah's like me, in that we're not terribly sentimental, and hate clutter!! (well I do...she's shown no evidence of inheriting that trait) I found books to take to school also, a fisher price tool box, and a FP saxophone. Damn I'm glad to get that noisey thing out of my house before I have grandchildren that discover it! Anway, I got all the stuff I need hauled into the house. All the boxes that go back into the crawl space are labelled, the boxes for the dump are in one spot, and the box of goodwill things are ready to go. Then there's the things in the sporting goods cemetary. OMG I have a BOX full of usec soccer cleats! Another one full of roller blades, and a huge assortment of hockey equipment. There's an organization in Edmonton that takes your used sports equipment, and gives it to kids who can't afford it, so I think we'll take them there. I may check around our school first, because we have a lot of needy families in our population.
Today I'm pretty sore from my activities of yesterday, so I'm just going to finish laundry and loading up the toys in my car, dust the house and do the bathrooms, and then Ben said he'd vacuum for me when he gets home from some errands. Hubby has gone for groceries. He's forever grateful because I got his work computer all up and wireless on our system, in spite of him having to access his company intranet via a defender. He's just a happy camper, and would likely do anything right now!!
Later!
My brother's new condo that is being built is about 10 minutes from my house. We went to the show suite and I had a tour. It's going to be a really nice place for a bachelor pad. It's very small, but it should be just fine for him. It's 10 minutes from us, and 5 minutes from his job, so it should be a huge relief to him to not have to commute 2 hours/day from Cam*rose any longer. It's going to be finished by Christmas.
We started with the kitchen cupboards. We chose the white finish, with brushed nickel handles, a brown/tan/gold marbley looking counter top, "sand trap" color paint for the walls (very fitting for a golfer I thought), white trim and beige carpet. The lino is along that same color family... looks like ceramic tile. It should be all very nice when it's all put together. He was quite grateful for my help, as they throw an overwhelming amount of samples at you to try and piece them all together. The lighting was also quite poor, so it was hard to get a feel for the "true" colors. But, it's done.
He came home with me for supper. We had BBQ hamburgers and ribs, potato salad and broccoli salad. He finally got to see Ben and his new truck. He hadn't seen Ben for the longest time! Ben is taller than him now. Heh!
I'm watching "The Block" season finale, and am going to have to "flick" to catch the first half hour of BB6, as they over lap... damn!
I have my mouse , electric screwdriver and painting clothes packed up this morning. My plan is to begin prepping the cupboards in Beirut, and hopefully getting the coat of primer on. That is if the county has got the paint to the school yet!
Well after hours of sanding, scrubbing, gluing, screwing, nailing, and 3 coats of stain, the table is finished. Carpenter Boy even gave it his stamp of approval! I have 4 chairs left to do. I won't be quite as fussy with them, as I figure what you put your ass on isn't quite as critical as what you put your food on. Hmmmppphhh!
Work is going pretty well this week. Nick is being very sweet.
Yesterday I finished cleaning the table after work. Today, I sanded it one more time, cleaned it off and then stained it. I'm going to give it another coat, and then put a sealer on it. Then I will take the "after" pictures. I have the four chairs to do next, which will be a big pain in the bunion!
Sarah's back home after her visit with Jay. They had a really nice time, and Michael Buble was awesome!
I also got the living room window washed, and hosed down the front step, driveway, etc. so it's really starting to look better around here!
Thanks to some OLD and obviously no good sizing that I used on my wall, my wall paper is laying on the floor. Pffft! Once I get over being pissed off about the waste of time and money (read 2010), I'll redo it.
I made Ben a steak sandwich, and some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for lunch before he went off to work for the evening. Then I made a huge pot of stew and put it in the oven to simmer. Hubby and I will have that for dinner at some point in time during the World Junior Hockey Championship game between Canada and Russia. I may desert that program to watch the Biggest Loser and Amazing Race though! hehehe
I'm not sure why, but I ended up painting! I got two coats on all the walls and trim done, and the other wall sized so that I can hang wallpaper on it. Other than that, all that's left is to paint the closet doors. It looks so much cleaner and brighter down there now!
That's right! You read it correctly! I'm painting AGAIN! First, I stained the cupboard Ben made me for Christmas. I love it! Looks great! We still have to put either chicken wire or glass in the door though. Ben was very pleased with how it looked after being stained.
Then I moved downstairs and primed the whole TV room. Ceiling, walls, doors and all, so it's all ready for painting and wallpapering. Once that was finished, Sarah and I cleaned the whole house. I finally got the chance to try out my new Ho*over Floormate. It does a fabulous job on the hardwood! It came highly recommended by Robyn. Everything looks and smells wonderful! (except for the paint aroma in the basement that is).
Sarah's on her way out for the night with Jay. Ben was home briefly, ran some errands for me, and has left again. Hubby is on his way home and I think we're just going to have Happy Hour, and then be lazy toads.
Again I've been painting! Only about 5 hours today. Hmmmph! I finished the cupboards and trim work in the laundry room, the trim in the stairwell, so that's all finished, and now I'm still working on the basement doors, and a coffee table I'm redoing, as well as a shelf with a drawer that Ben made me at school. I've been doing laundry while I've been painting, as rumor has it we have to wear clean clothes to work tomorrow. Hubby brought a few groceries home with him from work, so I didn't have to go out to do that.
I'm surfing around for a while, and then I'm either going to have a snooze or go finish the second coats on the doors, etc. I have a long week at work this week, as I have to spend 2 full days, Wednesday and Thursday at a Non-Abusive Restraint Training Session. This course is seriously the most stupid, useless waste of time there is. I've taken it before, but the Queen signed all 3 of us up. Whoever designed this course has quite apparently never worked with a Behaviour Disordered child, or they wouldn't possibly think these techniques would EVER work!! It's also our staff Christmas party on Wednesday night, so it's going to be a long week!
I spent 7 hours painting today. I did the whole stairwell. I also started painting the doors down there, and the cupboards in my main floor laundry room. It looks so nice and clean and fresh! Those walls in the stairwell were so beat up from hauling Ben's hockey equipment up and down among other things (and Ben hasn't played hockey for 3 years!). I painted the whole stairwell, baseboards, doors, and ceiling Sugar Cane. Tomorrow I will paint the second coat on the doors, door jams, and cupboards. I also plan to prime and paint the coffee table. In spite of all these things, I still need to do laundry etc.
I'm beat, so I'mgoing to settle in watching a movie now.
I woke up at 7:00 am with the worst damn headache I've had in a very long time! I tried eating, having some coffee, and 3 extra strength Tyl*enol and went back to bed for a while. Yuck! By about 10:00 am I gave up and got up and dressed, and got busy down in the basement, and got the hot tub/workout room all cleaned and put back together.
I tidied upstairs a bit, threw in a load of laundry, had some lunch, got supper all ready just to go in the oven, and then I took it easy for a couple hours or so. After supper, hubby and I watched Shrek and Shrek 2. I hadn't seen Shrek 2 yet, and I wanted to see what Nick is always talking about!
I fon't have too much to do tomorrow. I was going to wash the outside windows, but it's snowing tonight, so I guess that's out of the question! I don't know if hubby plans to finish the stairs tomorrow or not. I'm guessing NFL Sunday ticket will lure him away!
Hubby had the day off today, so he came and took me out for lunch today, as it was one of the rare days when I get an hour for lunch. Other than that break, he worked all day on getting the basement stairway carpeted. He's got the sides of the stairwell to do (which will be very piddly), and then he will put the remaining baseboards on, and it will be finished. Then I can finally get the basement put back together, and reclaim my workout room!! I'm really excited to do that, as my knees have been a wee bit better this week, and I totally miss my workouts. I don't even care if I clean up my diet right now, but I definitely want to re-establish my good workout routine again.
Nick had a great day again today. Sure makes my life easier, as I can actually teach him something when I'm not busy disciplining him all the live long day!
...all images are clickable
Yesterday we worked fast and furious to get our house back to a liveable condition, as hubby goes back to work tomorrow, as do I. I got busy in the dining room putting baseboards back on, and filling nail holes. Hubby put a few more pieces of hardwood into the bathroom doorways, and then it was back to Home dePot to return the rental tools, pick up plywood for a subfloor, and to choose some tiles for the bathroom and closet/pantry floors. While he was installing sub floors, Ben took over the base board detail, and I put the dining room all back together. Once the subfloor was finished, I primed it, and continued with reassembling the rooms, as Ben finished the baseboards. He's already learned a lot at school, as he was using the stud finder, pre-drilling holes, and then nailing the baseboards back in, and then using the punch to hide the nails. I tiled the closet and pantry floors next, and then did the bathroom. They look pretty nice! (as long as the tiles stay put!) Hubby and I got the toilet re-installed, and he hung the doors back up, and then we called it a day. We were toast! I LOVE the floor though! Grandpa is going to come out this week to do the stairs and a bunch of other fancy finishing trim, that only he can do.
Today we did a few more little things. Hubby repaired the fireplace, I caught up on laundry, and went for groceries, came home and vacuumed, and then Sarah and I sat down and watched "Mean Girls." It really wasn't as good as I thought it would be! There are lots of good shows on TV tonight, so I plan to be a vegetable!
Well the hardwood is complete. Grandpa still has to do the finishing trim work and the steps. Hubby is going to install the sub floor in the bathroom, buy some baseboards for the rooms that didn't have any, and put the existing baseboards back on. While he's doing that, I'm going to work on tiling the bathroom floor. I got the kitchen put all back together tonight. Ican't do the dining room yet, as it's all full of tools, and the little bit of remaining wood. We're hoping to knock off all these projects tomorrow, so that we can vegetate all day Sunday, but that is likely fairly lofty planning!
Work was pretty good, the weather was wonderful and I'm very glad the week is over! I stopped at the car wash on the way home today, and filled up hubby's Jeep, cleaned out the interior really well, vacuumed it, and spiffed it all up for winter. It looks great!
A good friend of ours, Doug, stopped in for a beer tonight. It was fun to catch up with him. Our sons played hockey together for years, until Ben quit, so our families used to spend a lot of time together. We made plans to attempt to get together one day soon when his wife, Susan is home!
The family room is complete! Now there is just the last section in the bay window in the breakfast nook, the back entry, and the piece in front of the pantry. We'll be REALLY tight with wood, but we should make it. Then we'll have all the baseboards to put back on, and then the lino to do. I can't wait to be finished with all this muck and mess! Grrrrr But it's going to look FABULOUS!
Today as Nick and I were on our way outside for recess, he turned to me and said in his best Daffy Duck impersonation, "You're Dispicable!" Later on, he was supposed to be doing Phonics, but he was dawdling like CRAZY, so I was nudging him along, and he says, "Quit Harassing Me!" He's too funny!! LMAO
Now, the family room and kitchen are over half way complete. It looks great! Today I went and bought a couple of area rugs for the entryways, and kitchen. I also bought chair pads and a tablecloth for the dining room table, and a tablecloth for the kitchen table. We've decide to put down a new subfloor in the bathroom and lay lino in there. We also will lay lino in the laundry room. Now our biggest worry is that we're going to run out of hardwood! Ackkk!
This morning after recess I was reading the kid's a crazy (aren't they all) Robert Munsch book, and the kids and I were having quite the good time with this silly book. When I was finished, Nick came and hopped up on my lap and gave me a big hug and said, "Well done!" I was hugging him, and patting his back, when he let out this HUGE WHOPPER of a burp! I joked, and said, "Burp the baby!", and Nick indignantly told me, "No baby, Burp the Nick!!!"
I thought I'd take a BEFORE picture of the dining room as I happily left for work yesterday morning. They managed to get all but about 3 rows of it finished yesterday, and this morning hubby will get it finished off before Grandpa gets out here, and then they'll start on the family room/kitchen. I'm just on my way downstairs to put some taco soup in the crock pot before I leave for work so that they have something for lunch.
You can't believe the TERROR in our pets with all this craziness going on! The power stapler is of course run by a compressor. The extremely loud bang everytime they use it scares the crap (fortunately not literally) out of them, but when the compressor releases air, there were cats FLYING through the air! They were leaping and running, and not knowing which way to flee! Then for the next hour, they skulk around the house nearly crawling on their bellies looking very LEERY!! Poor putties!! The dog is deaf, and she's still horrified. Probably just from watching the cats........knows she should be damn scared of something!
Hubby spent the day ripping up the family room carpet, and all the staples and nails, and I spent the day cleaning our bedroom and doing laundry. I did a real thorough cleaning of the closet and moved out all the summer clothes, and got 3 big bags ready to go to Goodwill. When that was finally all finished and put back together I vacuumed all the subfloors with the shop vac, and got that all ready for installation first thing in the morning. Hubby just has to sand the bathroom/entryway floors to get rid of the remaining glue goo. That should make a hella mess all over my freshly painted house. Grrrr.
I can NOT begin to tell you how glad I am that I have to go to work and miss all the commotion! Thank the LORD!
Today hubby went and picked up the tools and things that he'll need from Home De*pot, and tomorrow he'll go get the rest of the tools that he's borrowing from his Dad. We got the ceramic tile all out of the bathroom/entryway, and that went fairly easily surprisingly enough. Tomorrow we'll take the ceramic out of the front entryway, and hubby and Ben will rip the carpet out of the family room, then it should be ready to go for Monday. We've decided to go with hardwood in the front entryway, right to the stairway, and then that will lead down to the dining room. We may even do the living room too if there is enough hardwood. That would be great! Then the upstairs loft and bedrooms would be the only carpet in the house!
Sarah and I watched 13 Going on 30. What a cute movie! We recorded it with the DVR, as I think it's one we'll watch again.
Hubby has gone off to rent a power stapler from Home De*pot and pick up some other necessities for the task at hand. When I informed him that I was heading fast into PMS land, he asked me to please hide in the bedroom while he worked. LMAO
Maybe a day off from Mr. Cranky Pants Nick will do me good. Yesterday he pretty much whined at everything I asked him. I had to give him this HUGE CAT2 test. Ughhhh! BUT in happy news, he got 14/16 in his first grade 2 spelling test! His mother and I were thrilled! The first time I had tried to get him to practice, he just yelled and hollered at me, because he wanted ME to tell him how to spell the words like I normally would. When I "couldn't", he just whooped and hollered. I was telling his Mom that, and she said he did exactly the same thing to her when they first started practicing the words at home. When I gave him his test yesterday........not a word!
The weather is also nice and sunny here today. 45 degrees right now, but still a nice fall day nonetheless, as it's only 9:30 am. I'd like to have a fire out in the back yard tonight if it stays nice, and we're not all comatose by then. I guess we'll see.
I suppose I best move my ass, and go get my china cabinet all emptied out so we can move it, as the dining room carpet is the first to come up. We're saving it (it's like new, except for the traffic area is a tiny bit warn), so that we can have our upstairs stairway recarpeted as the CATS have shredded it in some places........Bastards! Will make a huge difference to get that fixed up! We'll hire a carpet layer to do that though.
The last of the hardwood is here now. There is enough to do approximately 500 sq ft of floor. More than enough to do what we want to do. Hopefully it goes well. Hubby is really psyched about it all.
He made me a grilled steak, prawns, stuffed potatoe, and caesar salad for supper. It was great! We watched Amish in the City, and before you know it, both of us with our stuffed bellies were snoring away. I woke up and am on my way to bed now.
Here is the railing that I did this week. We love the change! It's taken 15 years off the look of the house, by getting rid of that dated old woodwork! If you look WAY up in the loft, you can see the wall that I filled with the new bookshelves. They freed up so much extra space! I emptied the whole entertainment unit of all my books and rearranged all the DVD's in there instead, so all the books are in ONE spot, and all the DVD's are in ONE spot.
I also took on yet another job today, and painted the front entrance way. I used the same green as the kitchen, but did a a stried faux finish. It looks really nice, but you can't tell in the picture that it's even painted. 
On the monitor of my computer, it looks painted, but on this laptop it doesn't. It's amazing that I actually did get it finished, as I had no sooner taped, and tarped, and started, when I dumped a small tray of green paint/glaze on my living room carpet!!! I knocked it off the half wall, and SCHLOPP it fell. I was sick!!! 
I couldn't believe how stupid! That was about 5 minutes after I nearly fell off the ladder when I was standing on the top rung. I sprayed, scrubbed and steam cleaned the spot a zillion times, but you can still see it slightly. Actually not a whole lot worse than some of the stains the cats make PUKING on my carpet!
Someone PUHLEASE take away my brushes before I kill myself!!!
If all that wasn't bad enough, I cleaned my entire house after I finished painting! Grrrr I'm obsessed I'm telling you!
Hallefuckinlujah!! I finished painting the railing and it's 5,313 fucking, drip-inducing-hang-upside-down-over the loft-to paint-the-back-side-of-them SPINDLES!!!
And hubby picked up three of these
I'm exhausted .....AGAIN, and going to have a shower now before I collapse in a heap in the air conditioned bedroom!! hehehehe
OMG! I thought this would be a "reasonably quick" job, even though I knew it would be a bit picky and slow. I spent another hour and a half this morning finishing taping, and then I started painting the never ending spindles. Ughh! I finished painting at 6:30 pm. Priming that is. I only stopped for 15 minutes for lunch at 2:30, and then long enough to put a salmon on the BBQ, some broccoli in the steamer, and some potatoes in the oven.
Now I get to do it all again tomorrow! (Be still my beating heart!) The painting part should go quicker and better than the priming, as it will go on easier than the primer does. Sticks better. Either way, I'm not looking forward to it. I imagine I'll need a second coat of paint too, I wish someone would throw my paint brushes away!!!
Early this morning I went and bought hubby a few clothes for our vacation. I went to the bank, gassed up the car, and went for groceries.
Once they were all put away, I started sanding the railing. Sheesh! Who invented spindles??? I washed them all down when I was finished, and now I'm busily taping and taping. There seems to be no end to the taping for this job! (which is my last painting job of the summer!)
All images are clickable
In the first picture, I am takiing it from the "other" doorway, my back is to the basement door, which is about 4 feet behind me. See you could rip right through the back entrance all the way to the basement, without missing a step if all the doors are open! LOL Smudge, the snoop had to check out what I was doing! The second picture doesn't show too much, but you can see the striped wall a bit in the mirror. The colors aren't very true in these pictures, but you get the general idea. The last picture shows the drive-through from one doorway (I have my back to the back entrance. It's about 6 feet away from this doorway. You can view all the pictures here.
The drive-through bathroom is now complete. I just need to shop for a few accessories. The mirror also has to be hung once it dries. The striping turned out pretty well. I'm so glad to be finished. Blech! I'm just whipped again! All that remains is the dreaded railing. That will wait a few days!
This morning I stripped the wallpaper and removed all the fixtures in the drive-through bathroom. I got it all taped and painted. Even got a second coat on it. I'm also doing laundry like a mad fiend. Now I've showered, and I'm exhausted, and I'm going to rest for a little while, and then I have to go into my in-laws for dinner. Hubby will just meet me there, as he's at work.
Turns out Ben is going to spend the night at a friend's cabin at the lake, so NO kids! Yay!
Tomorrow I'm going to do the "striping" on the bathroom wall, and then put it back together. And that's ALL I'm going to do! Then all I'll have left is the Nasty railing!
This picture shows just a small part of the newly painted kitchen, and cupboards. The colors are "fairly" true on my monitor in most shots.
These are the kitchen chairs that I reupholstered. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. Now I got the bright idea that I have a lot of fabric left, and I have 3 stacking stools. I'm going to recover those, and keep them in the kitchen for extra seating.
You can see all the pictures here.
All the doors and door jams on the main floor have now been painted sugar cane, as well as the vanity in the bathroom between the kitchen and family room. It took about 10 years off the look of the house! But what a LOT of work! When I started this silly project yesterday in the 90 degree heat, I had NO idea that it would be such a time consuming project!! Story of my life!
Now all that's left (besides the obvious latest round of touch ups), is to paint the walls in the bathroom, and then to prime and paint the railing sugar cane as well. THAT people, will make the biggest difference of all. It's DARK wood and dated as hell! It's been the bane of my existance since I first looked at the house (saying to myself.....that's the first thing I'm changing! 10 years later....)
Pictures tomorrow! I promise!
Dining Room is also finished. What a pain in my ass! Now I AM going to call it quits until next week or so. We'll hang curtains tomorrow.
Right now I'm having a wonderful cup of coffee, relaxing and that's pretty much what I plan to do for the next several days. I'd love to get in my car and get out of here for a day or two though, as when I sit around here, I tend to see things that I should do, and then I don't relax! I'm starting to have trouble with my arm again, so it needs a break!!
Even if you didn't ask, I'm telling.
I finished the laundry, did all the touch-ups in the kitchen. Finished painting the patio door trim in the family room and then cleaned the bathroom. After that, I had some lunch, and did a strie faux finish on one of the dining room walls just to see if I liked how it turned out. I did!! So I'm going to do 2 more of the walls, and then the dining room will also be finished! After I cleaned up all my paint mess, I made a valance for the family room patio door from fabric left from my chair recovering. I'm going to do one in the kitchen as well. Afterwards, I vacuumed the lower level, and crawled my way into the shower. Now I'm dying.....thank you for asking!! It's over 90 degrees today, and supposed to be hotter tomorrow! Blech! I'm retiring my paint brushes for a day or so .....hmmm.....unless I do the dining room.
Today I got all my kitchen chairs recovered. They look pretty good if I do say so myself! I ordered 2 sets of curtains for the kitchen, and one set came today. I think they'll work, but I want to see the other pair first to see which ones I like. I have a lot of fabric leftover from the chairs. If I could get my crummy old sewing machine to work enough to sew a few seams, I'd make drapes out of the leftover, and send the curtains back.
It's still really hot here. Thunder storm and severe weather warnings every night. Not great! I've retired my paint cans until the weather cools down. I have all summer, and I'm not doing any more painting while it's this damn hot! Whew! (as much as I'd like to go like a demon and finish it all!)
Family room is complete, as far as painting goes. I put in another 10 hour day, and I'm exhausted and sore beyond belief! Hubby said he's never seen anyone work like me! LOL Well the same can be said when I'm in lump mode! I have 2 speeds! High Gear, and NO.
I'm taking a couple days off of painting, etc, other than touch ups, as the rest of my house is a PIT! Sarah and Ben are going down to Calgary to Edgefest, and hubby is going down to Calgary on business, so I'll have a day or so to myself anyways to recover!
Nightie night! *snore*
Ben got home safe and sound last night and had a great time. He hopes to go back again next year. He slept in late this morning, and then he and Sarah went and got groceries for me, and then he cleaned up the Shaggin' Wagon.
Today I primed and painted the 2 closet doors and 2 endtables, stripped the wallpaper border, filled and sanded the walls, and taped the family room. I also got a lot of the touch ups finished. Hubby bought me some brushed silver spray paint, and I'm using it on all the closet door hardware. It's almost a perfect match for the hardware I bought in the kitchen. I even sparyed the bread box. It looks great! LOL Matches my microwave perfectly!
I'm all ready to lightly sand the closet doors, and do a final coat on them now that they're hung again and paint the first coat of the family room. I can't wait to see what the color looks like up on the walls. While the first coat is drying, I'm going to take down the remaining 3 doors, and hopefully sand and prime them as well. It's going to look really nice to get rid of all those dark wood doors! We have 5 big Oiler prints that we've collected over the years, and I found frames that will actually fit, at Home Outfitters. That's what we're going to put up on the walls for art.
The kitchen is ALMOST back together! I did a marathon shopping trip for accessories today. STILL no curtains, but I'm working on it! I need curtains, fabric for the chairs, and that should pretty much be a wrap! I also need to do the touchups now that everything is installed.
All the hardware is on the cupboards/drawers, and all the light fixtures are installed, blinds are back up, and everything is cleaned up. The whole project took 10 days. Not bad really considering I did everything myself, except the light fixtures, and cupboard hardware.
Fortunately hubby got the lawn mowed between rain storms, as another monsoon washed over us yet again! I'm going to soon trade in my car for an ark! Apparently the City of Edmonton is just under water! Sarah called on her way home from work to say you could hardly even see! I sure hope it doesn't rain down at Stage 13 so that Ben gets stuck in the mud down there with the Shaggin Wagon!
Today was hubby's first day of 2 weeks vacation, so I finally had some help with this task from hell! I was up and at it by 7:30 this morning, and he joined me shortly after and put all the hinges back on the doors, while I painted the first coat of trim color on the doors. Then he put all the new drawer pulls on. They look spiffy! They're brushed pewter. He also installed 3 of the new light fixtures, and they also look really nice. They've got the pewter trim as well. He has another fixture to install in the cooking area, and then a ceiling fan in the eating area. I also got the rest of the walls prepped, washed and taped off, and a first coat on all the back entry walls, and a couple more. I'm LOVING this green color. It's such a soft green! It looks so fresh and clean. I'm very happy with it!
First thing tomorrow, we're going to hang the doors back on, and then I'll paint the second and final fucking coat of trim color, and any touch ups. It can dry all day, and we'll put the knobs on tomorrow night. Once the doors are all out of my eating area, I'll have room to move around and finish prepping and taping the walls in there, and I'll finish with the first coat, and start on the second coat. There are 2 shelves to install, and some pictures to be put up, and then it will be done for now.
I still have to purchase curtains/blinds, and fabric for the chairs, but at least we'll have our kitchen back!
It's still raining here. We've had more rain in the past week that we typically get for the entire month of July. Sounds like Ben and the boys survived their first night of camping in the monsoons. Hubby is all jealous, as ZZ Top is the closing band on Sunday night.
Wow! Can you believe it? It will be one week tomorrow since I went and bought all the paint and supplies to start my kitchen! Sheesh! In fact, I painted the first coat of "sugar cane" on the door fronts, and changed and went out to get some "knobs" and things, and realized, aside from one 30 minute trip to go pick up Ben's truck from the mechanic's, I haven't been out of the house!!! It's been pouring rain for the better part of the week, and I've been putting in 8-10 hour days painting! (I lead such an exciting life!) I found light fixtures, shelves, cupboard door knobs and paint for the family room (I know-----INSANITY) . I have to do the family room as it's just off the kitchen, and both used to be a light blue color. With the kitchen/entryway walls going to "pastel sage", there's no way I am leaving the family room blue!! BLECH! I'm painting it "Celestial Yellow". I'm fairly limited as I'm trying to get the whole house in the greens/burgundy/gold color scheme, and yet my family room furniture is steel blue, so the yellow will work. It's just 2 shades darker than the cupboard color.
I had no luck finding blinds or curtains, but no big rush. I'm re-using the mini blinds (much as I hate the buggers) in the bay window, but the ones from the window over the sink are not very spiffy, so I'm replacing those. I'm also reupholstering my kitchen chairs, but that will be an eventually project.
Ben's taking Grandpa's "Shaggin' Wagon" to Stage 13. It's going to be one hell of a mess, as it's been raining out there for days and days too, so they're going to be camping in the MUD, as the site is just in a field. Ewwww Better them than me!
I'm finally starting to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel with these damn cupboards! All I have left to paint now are the fronts of the cupboard doors. All 22 of them. 2 coats of "sugar cane" on the center panels, and then 2 coats of "pastel sage" on the outside trim. Could be a nightmare to accomplish without making a major MESS! The drawers are back in place, the tape is removed, the walls are all washed down and ready for the patching to be sanded down, and the taping to be done. One of these days, likely between coats on the door fronts, I need to go shopping. The priority is for new handles so the doors can be hung again. At some point I need new light fixtures and curtains too, as well as a new blind or shade for the window over the sink.
Then it's on to the family room!
I just have a few more "other" sides of the cupboard doors to do, and then I'm finished priming! Hallelujah! While I was sitting and priming door after door, in the monotony, I counted that for each cupboard door, I had to remove 10 screws to take the hinges off. I have 22 cupboard doors. that's 220 screws I had to remove by hand!! AND I'm doing both sides of each door, so that's like 44 doors, and I'm doing one coat of primer, and two of paint, so that's like painting 132 fucking doors!!!!
Next time I have an itch to do some home improvements, shoot me!!!
I woke up this morning and it was 8:30 am! I couldn't believe it! I never sleep that late! I got up, pulled on my painting clothes, made a pot of coffee, and got to work. I worked steady with 2 15 minute breaks to eat, from 9:00 am until 7:00 pm. I'm just bagged! Knee and arm are paying the price tonight too.
I finished scraping the wallpaper off everywhere except around the back entry. It won't take me long. I got really lucky with how easily that came down! I finished sanding the cupboards, and filled the holes in the walls. Then I took out all the drawers, and took about 75% of the cupboard doors down, as that's all I have room to work on at one time. Taped off everything, and then I got about 75% of the kitchen cupboards primed. What a POKEY job! I had no idea I had so many cupboards!!
Tomorrow the plan is to remove the remaining cupboard doors, prime them, and prime the "other" sides of the doors I did today, prime the bay windowsill and any other odds and ends. I want to completely finish priming first thing. Then I want to finish scraping the wallpaper, filling any remaining holes, and wash down the walls with TSP. Then I'll be ready to paint the first coat on the walls!! When that is finished, I can start the first coat of paint on the cupboards.
Since I'm doing 2 coats of paint on the cupboards, and the walls, and then 2 coats of trim on the cupboards, I expect it to take me the better part of the week to finish, but I'm not certain.
We had garlic, shrimp fetuccini for dinner, and then Sarah and I watched "The Matchstick Men". That was a really good movie. Last night we watched "Cool Creek Manor", which was also very good!
Off to read some blogs, and then PASS OUT!
I worked my ass off, but it doesn't look like I got a whole lot accomplished! That's all right though. I'm not going to do this project at my usual break-neck speed! My arm and back won't put up with it for one thing! I finally cleaned up everything, vacuumed, etc (no sense tracking up the whole house) and had lunch around 2:30, and laid on the couch to watch "In A Fix" . I woke up over an hour later!!! Sarah was home from work, and I hadn't even heard her come in! Sheesh! (rob me blind!)
I dragged my groggy ass up and sanded the hardware holes I'd filled, cleaned up and VACUUMED yet again, and now my shoulders are bitching big time! Hubby is bringing home burgers and corn fritters, and I'm going to watch a movie with Sarah and me Lazy Dazey!
Still RAINING!
- move out the fridge (yeah right!....it's jammed in there man!)
remove all the hardware from cupboardstake down all the curtains, blinds and hardwarestrip the wallpaper and border(still have to scrape some of the backing off, but 80% of it is down)fill all the holes, and sandwash down all the cupboards with TSPwalls as well- cover and tape everything
- paint a coat of primer on the cupboards
- first coat of paint on walls
- first coat of paint on cupboards
- second coats on everything
- first coat of "trim" paint on the cupboards
- second coat of "trim" paint
- buy new hardware for cupboards and install
- reassemble everything
- new light fixtures
- new curtains
- reupholster kitchen chairs