Drum Roll Please . . . Ta Da!

It seems like forever since I have been able to post.  We have worked our butts off with little to show for it until now.  There has been more moving, unpacking, organizing and the day to day things that take up all the time too.  While we have made progress on Zach's room that I could show, tonight's blog entry is dedicated to the kitchen.  It is, after all, the heart of the home.   It is also the room I have been most anxious to complete, and I am sure all of you have been anxious to see how my countertop treatment turned out.  ("Countertop treatment" sounds so much better than saying I painted my countertops!)  Regardless of semantics, the fact is that it turned out great.

Before the unveiling, let me remind you of where we started.

As you can see, we are 99% of the way there.  We still need to do trim around the microwave, but everything else is done.  We removed the range hood and repainted it white, as well as repainting the black accents on it.  Really the only things we bought were the sink, microwave, cooktop and the materials to make the new counter/bar area where we removed the wall.  Everything else was refreshed and re-used.  The countertop treatment turned out WAY beyond my expectations and these photos really don't do it justice.  If anyone needs a relatively easy and inexpensive way to give your kitchen a facelift, I highly recommend it.  http://www.gianigranite.com/

With the kitchen complete, all that remains upstairs is the bathroom - which is a biggie.  We have our eye on a nice Jacuzzi tub and are saving up for it.  In the meantime, I will paint the bathroom and install the lights I picked up at the Re-Store for $5 each!

Finally, finally, finally...significant progress!

There's light at the end of the tunnel!  All of the hard work is paying off and things are finally coming together. Last night I finished the last little bit of flooring and we were able to move in some furniture over the weekend.  Saturday night, for the first time in over a month, I did not have to sleep in a sleeping bag and I was more than 4 inches off of the ground.  The master bedroom is pretty much complete, with the exception of moving in our armoir.  I am elated.  It is so nice to have some calm in the chaos.  Here are "before" and "after" pics.  I don't have a great camera, so I can't get a good wide shot, but you get the idea.


Before I went crazy with paint and ripped out carpet.



After, with new flooring, paint, crown molding and the light/fan moved to the center of the room.

With all of the flooring complete, we were also able to bring our dining table out, which makes a huge difference in how things look and feel.  It is nice to be able to have family meals at a real table rather than at our little folding table.

Before



After - room with a view.  We just need a new light fixture and eventually some wood blinds.

 Funny, now that I post it, it doesn't seem like much, but hours and hours of work went into the results you see here.

The kids are really beginning to love it.  Even Zoe is no longer having her meltdowns over the move.  I think having more of our stuff here and getting things in order has helped a lot.  The picnics on the top of the hill and large puddles to splash in don't hurt either!

Zoe is running through there somewhere.

I have been getting lots of exercise here too.  Just walking to the mailbox or to take out the trash is a small workout!  It is so beautiful that I just want to walk around outside all the time.  On one of my walks I need to find a spot for my garden.  It is almost planting time.  I'm even considering getting some chickens so we will have fresh eggs.  Anyone know how to raise chickens?  My mom calls this "the farm", so might as well look the part, right?

Next on the remodel agenda is Zach's room.  He is feeling a bit left out since all of the renovation is occuring upstairs.  He has some really off the wall plans for his room.  Black paint and lots of glow in the dark paint is involved!  I figure he is only a kid once, so why not go over the top with the room?  Creativity is good.

Now that things have come together a little, I am going to go enjoy a soda on my balcony, while looking at the stars and listening to owls and singing coyotes.  Who knew that could be so relaxing and entertaining?!

The Noisy Bird, the Tiny Closet and the Rodent of Unusual Size

Crazy title, I know, but it will all make sense later.  It has been over two weeks since I have had a chance to document any of the insanity, so I have a lot to tell.  I wish more of what I had to tell was about the progress we have made, but unfortunately, that has slowed to what would seem sluggish to a snail.  We work long, hard hours, yet when we are finished, we can barely tell anything has been done.  This is especially true of the flooring.  I know everyone was expecting to see pictures of the finished product, but I am still working on the living room.  The floor prep takes forever.  First, you have to make sure your subfloor is all in good condition.  If not, a little work with a circular saw is necessary to remove the bad piece and then cut a new piece to fit.  In one spot we had to nail new joists to the old ones to bring the floor up a little higher to match the piece next to it.  Once that it is all done, the floor must be scraped of all debris.  In our case there was a lot of joint compound and ceiling texture material that I had to scrape with a trowel.  When that was done, I had to countersink all of the nails, sweep, vacuum, then apply vinyl floor primer.  After that dries, flooring can finally be put down.  You'd think applying what are essentially giant stickers to the floor would be easy, but it just sucks the time, and some days the life, out of you.  Oh, my aching back!

We are living at Acacia Acres now, though we are far from moved.  We began staying here the night before the big blizzard.  Life is across between camping and being on vacation at an unfinished condo.  We were sleeping on air mattresses, but Monday we managed to get our king size mattress over here.  We are still on the floor, but at least it is a real mattress.  For those of you who watch the DIY Network and HGTV, we are a cross between three different shows: "Renovation Realities", "Family Under Construction" and "Design on a Dime".  If cameras were on us, I am sure it would be quite entertaining.  I actually think about that when things get tense or if I am frustrated with a situtation.  It makes me laugh to think what it would all look like on TV.

Since we are not going back and forth between houses, the kids are doing much better thinking of this as home - especially Zoe, who was really struggling.  She has loved stomping in all the big puddles, having picnics on the hillside and going on walks with the dogs.  Both kids are in awe of all the wildlife.  Yesterday we spent time doing something I would never have imagined - watching a beaver swim in our pond.  That's not exactly in our realm of experience.  It was cool though, in a world of short attention spans, that we could be entertained for nearly an hour just watching nature. 

Zach, Zoe and their friend, Clayton, watching the beaver do laps in the pond.



Can you find the beaver?

Another little piece of nature that has become a frequent visitor is the friendly neighborhood woodpecker.  The first day I heard him I kept thinking someone was at the door.  I felt like an idiot when I realized it was a bird!

I am disconcerted that it is not even spring and I was face to face with a rather large, black arachnid in the kitchen last night.  It had the audacity to be on my countertop.  I don't even want to think about what the spring and summer will bring...scorpions, wasps, snakes, more mice (though not if the snakes have their way), mosquitos by the swarm...who knew I was such a wuss?  We met another neighbor and he mentioned bobcats.  What????  He also asked if he could hunt on our land.  Apparently, he has hunted on it since he was a kid, with his dad and uncle.  Seemed like a really nice guy.  I told him sure, as long as he doesn't shoot the kids.  That is one things about living out here - everyone has a gun, and everyone knows how to use it.  That is one area where I fit right in!  It's funny, because in town if you hear a gunshot, you turn on the news to see what happened.  Out here it is just a daily occurance that you tune out after a while and don't even give a second thought.  One day I would wager I heard at least 100 rounds being shot!

I had hoped to post a lot of "after" pictures by this time, but there has not been enough of a change to waste the space on my memory card.  I have about 80 more square feet of flooring down, but nothing is complete.  I did finish the flooring in the master bath, but without the other improvements, it doesn't make for a good picture.  The second tier of the countertop is on, so I will include that, though still not evidence of any great progress.  As a matter of fact, as I write this, I am wondering how we managed to do so little in over 2 weeks.  I want to have a house warming cookout here in the spring to let those who are interested see the place, but at the rate we are going, the Mayan calendar will end before we are anywhere near finished. 




Tier two is almost complete.  We just need to do some filling and sanding, then I can do the countertop treatment.



Oh, we did make minscule progress in one other area - the tiny closet mentioned in my title.  We took the extra cabinets that we removed from the kitchen and put them on the back wall to provide some shelving.  However, that did not solve the problem of Scott's clothes smacking me in the face as I walk through the door.  That is what inspired the C.S. Lewis ripoff title that I originally chose for the blog. Walking into my closet reminds me of them pushing aside coats to walk through the wardrobe in Lewis' Narnia classic.   (I changed the title to the current one, which is more of a nod to "The Princess Bride", because some of my friends had their minds in the gutter.  You know who you are!)




My tiny closet.  You can see what I mean by having to walk through Scott's clothes.  They cover half the door.

 Despite all of the chaos, we still had all kinds of company this weekend.  It was Zach's birthday and he had a slumber party, so parents were here to pick up their kids. We also had a family party, so grandparents and great uncles were crammed around a card table and eating off of TV trays in an unfloored room.  Even in transition we put on a good spread!

I am ready to hit the ground running again tomorrow and will hopefully have more to show for my efforts this week.  Stay tuned for more photos.

It's a Kitchen - Almost

Today was an interesting day at "the farm", as my mom and dad call it.  We had all kinds of company.  The Dish Network guy was here installing our satellite dish, so our receivers finally have something to do again.  We also were visited by Scott's parents, my parents, my uncle and my nephew Connor.  I think the satellite guy thought it was pretty funny that we were all just hanging out watching him work - well, except for Dad, who was providing his guidance since he has been in the satellite business for almost 27 years now.  Mom commented that Dad could have installed the thing twice in the time it took this guy.  Anyway, the focal point of every room is now functional  so we can rot our brains with television once again and use it as a babysitter when we are feeling tired or cranky.  (I am kidding of course.)

The progress made on the kitchen today was quite gratifying.  We are so close to having a fully functional AND pretty space.  Thanks to those of you who visit my blog, I have earned $12.26 that can either purchase 11 square feet of flooring for the kitchen, or 4 outlet covers/switch plates.  Your contribution is hereby acknowleged and appreciated! :)

Look what we did.

As you can see, we have the lower counter top installed, as well as the oven and a minifridge for beverages.  Now we just need the white microwave and the secondary countertop to finish off this part of the kitchen.  I am getting very excited about it.

The schedule for tomorrow is lots and lots of flooring.

Zoe is having her daily meltdown wanting to "go home", so I guess this entry is complete.

I Know Where I Stand

Thanks to all of the snow, Scott has had 5 days off work to really focus on the renovation. In that time he has made great progress on the kitchen. Yesterday we finally got to the point of installing cabinets. The oven cabinet is ready for the oven to be put in and the other cabinet is ready for a counter top. The half wall is also ready for its counter top, which means that by this weekend I should be able to resurface all of the counter tops, thus transforming my yellow kitchen into something...well, better anyway. We'll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

Ready for counter tops and an oven.

I have continued with flooring, and Tuesday night, as I was trying to fall asleep, something came to me that I really wanted to do. You know the story and significance of Acacia Acres, and most of you should know the priority that God has in my life. To remind myself to daily stand on God's promises and His Word, I felt compelled to write Scripture on the sub-floor before I put in the actual flooring. Now, pretty much anywhere you walk in my house, you will be standing on the Word at some point. 

This one is on the bathroom floor.

 

 

 

This one is at the door to the deck.

At the top of the stairs.

In front of the pantry.

A Blizzard of Activity

The blizzard turned out to be a huge blessing for our renovation.  Scott was off from Tuesday through the end of the week, so we had 6 days to work on the house.  (Well, in theory.  Several emergencies interrupted that time, but I'll get to that in a paragraph or two.)

Scott's primary focus was the kitchen and all of the electric.  He installed recessed lights in the living room and in the soffit over what will be the new bar area where we removed part of the wall.  He also moved a couple of light switches and installed some new outlets to fit the updated kitchen layout.  Once the electric was completed, Scott finished off the half wall and soffit.  All that is left to do is the texturing, then we can install the cabinets and counter tops.  We are re-using existing cabinets and modifying them to fit the new space.  We found a custom cut counter top at Lowe's that someone decided not to take, so we got it for a mere $42, which was a steal.  An additional $30 for wood gave us the materials we need to do the new counter and bar area.  None of it matches, but I have a fix for that and will let you all in on it next week sometime when we are ready for that part of the renovation.  Scott also finished the oven cabinet and got it stained.  It looks great.

The oven cabinet under construction.  So many possible captions, but I will leave you to your own creativity!

The new, dimmable, recessed lighting in the living room.

While Scott worked, I did quite a bit of playing with the kids.  After all, all work and no play makes me cranky!  We made a great sled run on the hill.  It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.  Hiking up a hill in 14 inches of snow reminded me how far from young and in shape I am!

Our sledding hill

After play time, I got down to work.  I started with ceiling paint, touching up various spots and then painting over where I had repaired a crack.  Once that was completed, I focused on flooring and managed to finish the master bedroom and closet.  I have started on the master bath and hope to finish the upstairs by the end of this weekend.  To that end, I also ripped out the linoleum in the bathroom and kitchen.

In the midst of the blizzard and our attempt to get as much renovation done as possible, we had to stop and brave the roads on Wednesday to make a trip to the vet for one of our dogs who had her eye popped out of the socket by one of the other dogs.  That was an unfortunate economic hit and a time suck.  The dog had to stay overnight, so we had to get out again on Thursday to pick her up.  Not to waste a trip out in the ice and snow, we were given another reason to venture out.  That morning the hot water started coming out brownish yellow.  Upon inspection of the water heater, Scott determined that we needed to replace it ASAP or it could rupture.  So, we added a trip to Locke and another big, unexpected bill.  That was a very unappreciated double whammy!  Keith Olbermann reportedly Tweeted that all of this chaos was caused by Sarah Palin, but I personally blame global warming.

Oreo and her eye emergency.

Undeterred from the distractions and financial hits, we plodded on and Scott thinks he sees light at the end of the tunnel.  I am just to the point of even seeing the tunnel though!  We came back to house #1 last night to pack up more stuff and get more supplies.  Tomorrow we will head back out to do more renovations - hopefully with fewer distractions and financial surprises this time.  (Well, unless it is a good financial surprise.)  I think by the end of the week we can get the kitchen pretty much together except for the counter top treatment and backsplash.  Appliances should arrive on Monday.  The master bedroom is ready to move furniture in, so two rooms down, 4 to go upstairs.  Despite all the work and craziness, we are really enjoying our new home.  Maybe I do see a little sliver of light after all.

Camping out in the den on blow-up mattresses and the couch

Zoe shoveling the driveway

Zoe enjoying sledding on the hill.

A rare moment of sibling harmony

Of Mice and Men

Well, another reality of country living has hit home.  My first clue should have been week one when we took all of the wall plates off for painting and found this:

Our "mouselet"

In preparation for the blizzard, we decided to stock up and stay at Acacia Acres.  That way if Scott was off work, we could get a lot done on the house.  Turns out he was off Tuesday through Friday, so we camped out in the den on air mattresses.  It was a bit disconcerting though, to hear the sounds of things scurrying across the floor in the dead of night.  It was even more disconcerting when we knew for sure it was not the cat or dogs.  I think it was the second night that a baby mouse came running out of the bathroom and across the den.  The poor thing didn't stand a chance with 3 dogs and a cat in the room.

Over the course of our stay, we encountered 3 more mice, all of whom met their demise at the paws of a larger predator.  Just to be clear, I was not said predator.  While I do not relish the thought of sharing my home with mice, I don't have the heart to kill them. 

That being said, now on top of researching" how to live with a septic system"; "how to protect yourself from snake"s and "how to drive a tractor", I now have to research, "how to rid your house of mice without killing them".  I'll be sure to do all that after I research "how to renovate your house with twigs, leaves and no budget"!  (Also known as MacGuyver Renovation".)

One final thought ... ewwwwwwwwww!