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.

Yowza!

Wow. What a long weekend. Even so, I feel like we haven't made much headway. Well, I guess we have. . .slowly but surely.

Friday at 4 PM, we headed off. Somehow it took from that time until 9:30 PM to shop for paint (for the living room and bedroom) look at lights (we found some great ones for the bathrrom!) and head over to Home Depot for. . . whatever it is we seem to spend hundreds on when we go there.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday. After a little Cinnamon Toast Crunch, we were ready to rock! We painted the ceiling in the bedroom ULTRA White. Michael installed a new heater (no more ugly baseboard heaters!). Once we had that under control, we took a little union break on our new porch chairs.







I called The Container Store and in just under an hour, our "clothes closet" was ready. After a little confusion on our part (who knew they gave you the install book when they designed the closet?), we had a very cool closet ready to go:



Now that those were ready to go, we fixed the doors so they would slide smoothly. We also took another trip to Home Depot. At this point, I feel as though with the amount of time and money we spend in that store-I should be a VIP customer. They should have my favorite beverage waiting when I walk in, a personal shopper and yummy little snacks. Is that too much to ask?

Sunday was the same thing. We started out at Lowes, found the baseboards, bathroom accessories and 2nd closet pieces. I think it's crazy how many different items they can have from Home Depot. I mean, how many different kinds of toilets can there possibly be??

Once we got home, we measured the baseboards and began to install. THAT was a bigger project than I thought it would be! Luckily Jim has every tool known to man and a quick jaunt up to the house provided us with everything we could possibly need.

We had a short interpruption at 4 PM when we had an appointment with our Kitchen Designer at . . .you guessed it: HOME DEPOT! I think everything should be squared away on the kitchen, but we have to confirm one more time on Wednesday.

It's been a looooong weekend, with many more to come! This week, Michael will try to install the pocket doors and I will try to get the rest of the walls clean. Next weekend, I will paint the bedroom. Here is a small preview :

Tomorrow: New carpets!!

I leave you with a view of our mess.

Security System

Last night the people who are doing the floor were coming to the condo so we could look at what they had available and make some decisions. They gave us the window of 7PM-9PM (don't you just love that). I was at home finishing up some laundry when they called at 6:50 (You REALLY have to love that!). He was a little confused as to where to go and I explained it to him while I got ready to walk over.

As I am walking through our courtyard, I am almost to our condo and I see the salesman walk up to our door and knock. From some where-some where within hearing and sight distance to our door-I hear a neighbor say:

"They're not home right now"

I chuckled to myself knowing that we will never really have to worry about robbers-there is always someone watching. Which is a good thing-most of the time.

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We have made a little bit of progress. I will try and upload some pictures tonight (who knew I wouldn't have time for anything but the condo?!).

Today we go to pick up the doors. Tomorrow Michael is meeting with the engineer, water heater and Home Depot guys.

It's so exciting to see things happening!!
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For the inquiring minds that want to know:

Here are the Home Stats

Introduction

Welcome to our Condo Remodel blog!

I think I can speak for Michael when I say we are both very excited about our Condo Remodel. We have been planning this since we first viewed the unit back in June.

A little background:

Last year, the stars aligned and I found an amazing deal on a condo in Downtown Bellevue. There were many things that made this "meant to be". 1) I had previously pointed out the condos months before to my brother saying that I wanted to live in this area, 2) It just so happened I went home early (thanks Tom!) and 3) On a whim, I searched Craig's List and found a listing for my condo. I made a call and the next day I went to view it. It just so happened that the current tenant was moving to New Mexico (I am from NM)! Her and I hit it off and Tom (who came with) closed the deal. It was a GREAT deal.

So I have lived here-2 minutes from work, a tiny walk away from Bellevue Square Mall and 20 feet away from the "Big Freezer" (QFC) for a year. When Michael and I started spending time together-he fell in love with this area. We are both just blocks from work.

One day, he noticed one of the units was for sale. The rest was history. Although we didn't get that unit, we met Kyle who worked hard and found us the place we currently have. After much Mortgage Drama-we're in!

Since I love writing and doing the blog thing, I thought it would be fun to post pictures of the condo before, during and after the remodel. I want to document the funny (and frustrating) things that happen.

Hopefully it will be as fun for you to read as it is for us to do!

Before

Here it is!!

I took a lot of pictures with as many views as I could. Hopefully you will get the full picture.

These are the official before shots!

The outside is gorgeous! I love our little patio!

Let's go inside!





Gotta Love the Wood Stove!








Looks like a tight squeeze!

We can't even open the door all the way

Well? What do you think?!?!