Little by Little

Well, slowly but surely.

Most of the walls are done and we even began painting the bathroom this weekend.

The cabinest are here, but the quickest we can get them installed is January 8th. Which means, with the granite, it won't be done until the end of January. At least there is a date on the calendar.

We are leaving in 4 days for X-mas vacation, so not much will get done.

When we get back: time to tackle the wall.

Here are a few pics:

Box Land

I know it's been a long time. First I had a broken camera and then . . . well I've been busy. Not that there is much to post about. There has been some progress, but not much VISIBLE progress. We've had the wiring redone, walls torn down and even a new oven! We also had our bathroom cabinet delivered-we still need to mount the sink and build a top, but it's something! We also hung the mirror.



We have a lot of broken walls, holes in walls, holes in ceilings, etc. It's a big project that we may or may not be able to do ourselves. Then again, we may or may not have a choice considering the bid we got was for $7,000. Which is about$2,000 more than are absolute top price we'd be willing to pay. I am sure it would be amazing, but this remodel has already cost WAY more than our original projections. If we do it ourselves. . .I am just not sure it's going to be all that great. We have some more thinking to do and a few more bids to get. Tomorrow we have an appointment at Ambiente Tile. We spent last Saturday there looking at tile and brainstorming ideas for our Kitchen back splash. The store is amazing! We also have had our cabinets delivered. Apparently the process is: drop a million boxes off at your home, someone comes and makes sure you got everything and it's not damaged, and then schedule the install. Of course, we can't schedule the install until the walls are fixed. Here are a few pics of the Grays enjoying the boxes

Doors and mores

As usual, it's been awhile since I updated. It's hard to find a minute when you spend most of your free time remodeling. That and my camera has been acting up, so it's hard to take pictures.

Our kitchen cabinets are ordered!! After a lot of waiting and a very slow process, we have placed the order-unfortunately, it will probably be the first week of November they are installed. More waiting. Why did we ever think this would be done by the end of September??

We finished the biggest part of the pocket door! This means we have the pieces in place and the door is up. We cut out the wall and it functions for the most part. We still need to put the handle on and frame it. We bought the materials for that today. We are going to try and finish that up tomorrow.





Last Saturday, we got our appliances. We weren't really ready for them, however, since we ordered them at the end of July (thinking the cabinets would be done) we were told take 'em or return 'em. If we returned them, we would lose the rebates, discount and gift cards we got at purchase. In the end, I was pretty excited since the old stove was hell to cook on. I had already ruined a few dinners and a pan.

Here is Michael looking in the new refrigerator (you can see better pictures on the sidebar):


Here is a picture of the old, horrible stove being hauled away.

Now, we ran into a few problems with the new stove. First off, all new stoves are plugged into to an special outlet. Our stove was so old that it was wired directly to the wall. Michael had to go straight away to Home Depot and get the supplies to move the wiring and install an outlet. Once that was taken care of, everything was supposed to be all set. It wasn't. Here is how our new stove should have looked:

Here is how our new stove looked after cooking blueberry muffins on Sunday morning:

We aren't sure what happened. I think the glass wasn't heat proof. It's my best guess. We heard a pop and then saw the shattered glass. I was very angry and upset. Since we couldn't install our new mircowave without the new cabinets we have been stuck with no way to cook food. It's still going to be another week before it's fixed. It's been a disappointing experience.

We also worked on the lights in the bathroom. There was a lot of wiring and re-wiring involved and Michael was stuck in deep thought many a nights over it. In the end, he was able to get the 2 switches on 1 wall and the lights up. There are lights for over the sink, more lights where the hall way once was and eventually there will be a light with the heater/fan.

I am totally in love with these lights. For some reason they remind me of Broadway actresses getting ready backstage before a show. I will feel famous and beautiful every morning I get ready.

Finally, we had the water heater mover to the other side of the wall. We also got a 30 gallon tank. It doesn't hold as much hot water, but we have it turned on high and our showers have been fine.
Well, that's the latest. Not much going on this week, as Michael will be out of town. Hopefully we will be able to get some great thing done tomorrow and next weekend.

The Shower

Well, after much drama and hassle, the shower that I so desperately wanted is here.

Here's a reminder of what there was before:



And here is what we have now:








I think it looks great! I am so happy with it.

Changes

It's been a long time since I have posted some pictures. Between vacation (Hawaii was amazing!) and vacation catch-up at work, I haven't had a chance to sit down and give updates. Even though work has been busy, we have still managed to get some things done.

Here are some pics of the things I mentioned in my last post:

Michael and Jim installed the "window" air conditioner before we left for Hawaii so the cats wouldn't die from the heat.

Michael tore down the hallway walls to begin making out tiny bathroom bigger.

I finished painting the walls and we moved the bed and dresser.

I found some wonderful curtains at Pottery Barn and some very cool lights at Ikea. These are SO much better than a lamp on the bedstand.

We also so got some great new sheets (you can see the pillow case in the last pic).

The new shower was installed today-I will post the pics and share the drama tomorrow.

Quick Update

Busy Busy Busy

Why did I think it would be easy to keep up a blog when all my spare time is spent working on our Condo? Not to mention, lack of internet time.

Things completed:

• A/C in Living Room
• Bedroom painted (except hole in the wall)
• Bedroom moved and now lived in
• Cats moved
• Bath tub situation resolved (it will be turned into a Shower by the fantabulous Bath Fitter)
• Curtains picked out (for bedroom)

I believe we have done a lot more, but as I have not had much sleep (Cats FREAKING OUT over move), I can't think straight.

I have a bunch of pics. I will try to upload them to my memory stick tonight and post them from work before we leave on Friday.

Until then. . .

Visitors

We had some visitors at the condo tonight.


On our way over tonight, we decided to take The Gray Cats. Gray got put in her carrying case and Landon got held (by me-and he is no light load). Landon did not stop crying virtually the whole time. Until he discovered the smell of Anne's (Michael's mom) cats on a blue tarp we borrowed. Unlike some other cats, Landon enjoyed the smell of the other cats and rolled around all over. He found his home for most of the night. He did, however, lay with his mother for a bit.

There was a bit of Drama getting the Gray back in her bag. Michael and I will wear the scars of that for awhile.

In any case, Michael finished installing the second closet tonight and I got the room ready to paint. Michael leaves for MN on Saturday and the goal is to have at least 1 pocket door installed by then. We will begin that tomorrow. I will also try to clean the living room walls in between being a good helper girl.

While Michael is in MN, I will paint the bedroom. My other goal is to move all the movable items from my apt. to the new condo. This will NOT be an easy task. I am SO not excited.

You gotta do, what ya gotta do.