Shopping Trips and Injuries

I took the hubby on a surprise shopping trip yesterday! Ok, so really I got him in the car and wouldn't tell him where we were going... but that counts, right? Here is a sneak peak of some of the goodies we picked up!

Vinyl Tile for bathroom floor

Bathroom sink

Kitchen sink (we'll buy a fancy one later)

Welcome mat!

We also picked up some supplies (boring, but necessary) and some plane jane faceplate covers for light switches and electrical sockets. The old ones were all yellowed and I want them to look crisp and clean!

We (finally) got (almost) everything moved out of that house! That turned into probably the biggest, most stressful, most infuriating debacle so far in my life, but most everything has been packed and removed from the house. If you need any furniture... there is a ton on my street corner for free.

Through all of this unnecessary packing of stuff that wasn't mine, I really messed up my shoulder/arm. I'm going to try and get to the doctor tomorrow. But, one way or the other I still have to pack my entire apartment up, paint the house, and help Joey any way I can... all in 9 days! Oh goodness... think happy thoughts for me, I'm going to need them!


(And leave me comments and subscribe! Maybe that'll fix my arm? Good thoughts can do that, right?)

Assorted Doings

Today was a fairly random workday. Not many pictures to show, but here's what was done!

1. Joey did another layer of joint compound on the ceiling and wall.
2. Megan pulled the rest of the cabinets off and removed the hinges and handles. She also took most of the drawers out and removed the hardware on them too.
3. I did a couple more coats of Vermont Cream on all of the cabinet doors that I've been working on. 
4. I filled a few old nail holes.
5. I removed the baby gate hardware off of two door frames.

Now for a couple of pictures! This is the reason why I want to paint the ceiling in the kitchen so badly! Just a coat of white paint will brighten up that room so much!

So, without further ado, the "before" pictures of the ceiling!

The "after" pictures will be up in a few days. Each layer of the joint compound takes 24 hours to dry before the next layer. It still needs at least two more layers to fix the damage, so it'll be at least three days before I can begin painting the ceiling.

Corner Cabinet Before and After

I have my very first completed before and after project! I put the very last coat of paint on the corner cabinet today. I only had had a little bit of time to work today, but I'm glad to have finished my first project!

Before- Sea foam green, brown, and off-white

After- The beautiful Vermont Cream!

Real Paint and Beginning the Ceiling

I haven't updated in awhile, but I have been working! Not much of it has been interesting enough to take pictures of though! I don't want to put pictures up of the real paint that I'm putting on until all the coats are finished. I don't want to bore anyone with multiple pictures of basically the same thing.

This is the closest match that I could find to the white I'm using. It's called Vermont Cream and it's perfect! It's hard to see on here, but it's the best I can do for now!

And these are the other two colors we're using in the house:

For the bedroom, living room, and bathroom.

This is called Spring Hill.

For the kitchen, study, and hallway.

And this one is Yacht Harbor.

Here's a list of what has been done that does not yet have pictorial proof:

1. Coats of paint on all the cabinet doors that have been sanded. (Some cabinet doors are still unsanded and some are still attached with the hinges.)
2. Coats of paint on the corner cabinet shelf.

 And here is what has been going on in pictures!

My sweet peas are popping up! No sign of my wildflowers yet, but I'm pretty excited about the sweet peas.

The strawberries died a tragic death in a mowing related accident, but we did get some sugar baby melons and zucchinis planted today.

I forgot to take a "before" picture of the ceiling, but here is a during picture! The ceiling was not flat and we needed to redo the joint on the dry wall. Here is the mess Joey made while doing the first coat of joint compound!

And here is Joey (finally doing some work!) As you can see, the ceiling is a delightful (not) shade of gray. We have to fix this joint problem before we can paint it, but I've purchased the paint and I should be able to paint it this week after the joint compound dries and the other layers have been applied and dried!

The first coat of joint compound is up and working on drying! We'll do the next coat tomorrow!

 Here is the before picture of this wall. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it after I primed it, but use your imagination! You can't see all the damage on this wall from this picture, but Joey is working on patching all that up too!

This is right next to the stove. The same thing was happening here... the joint in the drywall was separating. I haven't primed behind the stove yet, but to the left of the stove to the door is all primed!

Right next to the light switch there was a hole in the wall. Joey patched this up too! The first coat is on, but it still needs several coats and some sanding.

This is the long awaited picture of the kitchen without the dated scalloped hanging above the sink! Yay modernization! It looks so much better in here without the scallops!

This doesn't technically have anything to do with the house, but I will be hanging it up in the house when we move in! It's a rose I made out of book pages. I'm making a wreath out of a couple hundred of these. It's going to be beautiful!












Some people have asked me if I'm really doing all of this work... the answer is yes, pretty much! I have time during the day while Joey is at work so until today I've been doing almost everything myself. My brother helped take cabinet doors down and remove some hardware and Megan helped me prime the cabinet doors, the corner cabinet, and a wall. Other than that though, it's all been me! Luckily Joey is done with school for the summer now and can help me in the evenings and on weekends again!
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far! It's been greatly appreciated!

First Color Change!

Ok, so the color change is really just primer... no paint yet, but it's still a change! Also, if you look above this post you should see a new tab called "List of Future Improvements" it lists (by room) most of the things we're going to do to make the house into our first real home!

Cabinet doors after being sanded down.

Cabinet doors with primer! This is almost what they will look like when they're done. They will be a creamy white. And we're thinking brushed nickel or silver handles.

Megan being helpful.

Megan showing off one of the walls in the kitchen before we attacked it with our paint rollers. The light in the kitchen is really dim right now, but the wall is a pale green. It's really not a bad color (minus the paint splotches)  but it's too dark with all the dark wood trim and cabinets. And I want it to be blue. So there.

How exciting. A white wall. It only has primer on it, but it's progress! The next step will be awhile. I want to paint the ceiling before I paint the walls so that I don't have to worry about drips. And, this is the only wall in the kitchen that has primer so far, so that needs to be finished first too.

These are shelves that were set into a corner of the kitchen. I love them, so we're going to paint them to match the future kitchen. They were the same pale green as the walls. These will end up being the same creamy white as the trim and cabinets so that it will help brighten that dark kitchen up!

Still not very exciting, but it does represent progress which is something that I am very excited about. And, since this has white primer on it, it's a pretty good representation of what it will look like later. It'll just have a slightly different color and be painted with better quality than you need for primer.

 This is probably the best thing that happened all day yesterday! Megan took down the horribly dated scalloped edge of the cabinets! You'll have to wait to see what it looks like now though, a cloud came by and it got to be too dark to take another picture. But, let me tell you... it looks enormously better just with that one little change!

Sanding Down the Cabinets

Ahh, cabinets. I spent some time with Goof Off, an electric sander, and cabinet doors yesterday. I worked on degreasing them and then sanding them down so that they will be ready to paint soon. I spent about 3 and a half hours on that project and got 8 small doors and 2 big doors ready to go. But, as you can see... I have a lot of work ahead of me! It got to be too hot yesterday afternoon (the high was 94, in May, for heaven's sake!) to keep going so I went ahead and wrapped up the project for today. Depending on the rain I'll be back to sanding tomorrow! And hopefully we can begin priming tomorrow as well! I'm looking forward to it!

Garden update: I haven't killed anything yet! I don't have any new pictures because it really doesn't look different yet, but everything is still alive. Which is a small miracle for me. All of the seeds I planted take awhile to germinate and sprout, so I'll let you know when I do if they come up! (Keep your fingers crossed!)