The Kitchen. (and more vomiting.)

Here's a little story. 

It all started with a nail.  It was late.  It was Saturday night.  We had just gotten back from dinner and a few drinks at a local bar and grill.  It was 10pm or later.  We had spent the morning running errands, and the afternoon drilling, screwing (actual screws with screwdrivers), and hanging the kitchen cabinet doors, among a few other household chores.  The cabinet doors - they look like shit.  The just-painted paint had started peeling.  The cabinets themselves looked pretty good, but the doors, well, they don't look so good.  I had blisters and had ripped my pants on the (crappy) kitchen flooring while hanging a lower door.  We were both beat and frustrated.  We decided to rip up that nail from the floor that we just always in the way.  It ripped pants.  It scratched sock-protected feet.  It just stuck up from the floor, mocking us as one of the last bullshit annoyances left to us by the people who owned this house before.  We've hated it since we moved in.  So, Pat pulled up that nail and tossed it in the garbage.  Then, we found another nail, so we pulled up that nail too.  Then there was another and another and another ... and then we wanted to see what was under all that laminate, vinyl, and sub-flooring.  So, Pat started demoing.  We ripped up a piece of laminate flooring about 2'x2' that night, along with the same size padding, vinyl, more laminate, and sub-flooring.  Underneath it all, we found the original hardwood floors.  As expected though, they were toast. ruined. glued. damaged. moldy.  I had held out about 10% hope that we'd find great floors down there.  No such luck.  Oh well.

Forward to Sunday.  Pat starts ripping out more of the floor because ... well, we've demoed part of it, might as well take it all out.  As we try to get the laminate, faux-hardwood out, we peel off the "baseboards" (baseboards = glued on pieces of rubber that are typically used in restaurants or commercial spaces = super ugly).  So, I tear off one piece of baseboard and look at the back.  I only look because I had to really pull to get that sucker off of the wall.  And, right there in the middle of the glue are bugs and bug eggs, larvae.  GROSS.  I can't handle that.  This glue was super-duty.  Meaning, these things had to have been there when they put this glue up.  TOTALLY GROSS.  And, then comes more vomiting.  (If you're counting, that's twice that this house's grossness had pushed me to the point of vomitness.)  After that, Pat demos by himself, while I do taxes - in another room, no where near the disgustingness that is our kitchen floor.  After about 30 minutes, he comes to get me and says we need to make a decision and that I need to come and look the kitchen. 

I walk out into the LR, and it smells.  Smells like the musty, gross, unusable bathroom that was once part of this house; and we never used and immediately remodeled upon moving in.  The whole house now smells like this, and there is no door to shut.  Ughhhhh.  So, there really isn't anything to do, except call our contractor and see when his guys can get out here to fix this mess.  The floor is in ruins, partially demoed, soiled with black rotting-ness that is the original hardwood flooring.  Ritchie says probably next week.  So, we lay down a couple of rugs, plug in a smelly (but better than the mold) air-freshener, and resume our conversation from the last project about how much we hate the previous owners.

So, to recap:

1. The kitchen looks like shit.
2. The cabinets have been painted and hung, but look like shit.
3. The floor looks and smells like shit (literally).
4. We are using a really strong, really smelly air-freshener ... that smells like less like shit, but still shitty.
5. The rest of the house still looks like shit because we can't put anything away because ... see #1.

Here are the pics to prove it.  (Hopefully next week goes better.)

Don't let this picture fool you ...

But, the drawers and cabinets did look pretty good.

 

(They were some very hard decisions, but we finally decided that NONE of these colors will be painted in our finished kitchen.)

See that ORIGINAL hardwood floor down there ... Ughh ... so disappointing!

If you look closely, you can see remnants of what I ripped off ... complete grossness.

Layers, layers, layers of flooring.

 

Best. Week.

It has been an AMAZING past week.  I mean seriously.  We have gotten SO much done that it is unbelievable.  And we actually did some of the work ourselves!  The big stuff (kitchen cabinets) we can't take credit for, but we can take credit for tying up a lot of loose ends and making this place look phenomenal (just one girl's opinion, but hey, we really love this house now!).

Not related to house stuff, unless you consider this blog to be part of our house work (which it is, so I guess I actually needed this):  I got a new laptop. WOHOO!  And by new, I mean that we bought it from Pat's work, it was refurbished, and it's actually a few years old.  But it's new to me, and it's red - so I think it's pretty freakin' awesome. The company has been talking about selling the old ones as they replace them, but then they said that they wouldn't sell them - something about licensing and Microsoft?  But then on Monday, Pat asks me if I still wanted one because there were a few available.  Come on - did you even have to ask?  Of course I want one of those pretty little things that I can sit on the couch with and type on this blog and surf the world wide web.  I'm moving into last era this week ... new phone (Android - whatz up!) and a laptop!

Seriously, our house is not really this dusty!

Now on to the house ...

First, you wouldn't believe how stinkin' hard it is to find grey curtains - platinum, silver, charcoal, gray, ash, iron, slate, lead, gunmetal.  I've found curtains online in those colors, but always they were either sheer, clearanced and out of stock, or just teasing me - as in they just weren't available once you tried to order them.  What the heck?  So, I finally found some online at J.C. Penney, who has a multitude of curtain/drapery selection if you're looking, and they were on sale for $16.99/panel!  Hollah!  And, we need six, so count it - that's only $110 with shipping; which for those of you in the rental world is a crazy good deal!  When they arrived, and I opened them, they were totally sheer - totally not what we (I) was looking for.  Totally disappointed, and the search would continue.  We went to J.C.Penney last night - because I order everything online, but then take it to the store to return it (weird, I know - because I probably wouldn't have to return so much if I just went to the store first?) ... anywho, while there, we went to look at curtains and found exactly what we (I) were looking for!  Well, not exactly.  The fabric and color was spot on!  But the style was a bit off.  I wanted grommet style (metal rings at the top the rod slides through), these curtains only came in rod-pocket style (just push the rod through the fabric and it bunches up on top).  But, the search was over - this is my new idea of exactly what I want.  The sales lady went to the back, came out with 6 panels, and said, "These were the last 6 left in this color."  So, it was destiny.  AND, then she rung them up and they were on sale for ... wait for it ... $14.99/panel!  Hollah!  The return of the first crazy good deal had just turned into the radical deal of the century - $89 for all six curtain panels!

Side note - I think that it's dumb that curtains are sold in single panels.

Second side note - I was going to just make them, because I know that some of ya'all are like - "Why don't you just buy the fabric and sew the exact curtains you want?"  Because I am completely capable of doing this, right?  Because it would have been more expensive than $89 - that's why!  (Real reason is because I'm lazy and no joke, the fabric would have been way more than $89 and it would have taken me a whole weekend, and I've got other stuff to do.  Did you hear that Real Housewives of Orange County is back and I'm in an American Idol fantasy league - oh yeah.)

They actually are about the same color as the couch and fireplace ...

 

Second, I finally cleaned up my room.  It won't stay like this, but I did finally clean it up.  Since we've lived here, I've had a pile of clothes, hampers, and crates that span from my side of the bed to my dresser - taking up that entire wall.  It's only about 5' of wall, it's not a mansion people.  I know that it's bothered Pat because he hates my piles, so I'm totally sorry darling ... enjoy it for now, because no doubt, at some point that pile will be back.  (I can't ever, ever seem to get my closets organized - maybe for like a week, but once I have to do laundry = organization over.  I have always really wanted to be that person with the super duper organized closet, with a place for every shoe and belt and scarf - and I tell Pat that when I get that custom built, 500 sq. ft. closet of my own, things will be organized to the max - or at least I can contain my mess inside that room and hide it from him?  Good enough right? I swear, I'm uber organized in other aspects of my life.)

So, now our bedroom is clean.  And we have blinds on the windows (versus the sweet blanket curtains).

I had another sweet, funny paragraph here ... but somehow the computer erased it when I was posting (I think my controller is broken ...).  So, anyway ... I painted a shutter.  Just one.  With spray paint primer.  It looked great, but was going to take 2 or 3 cans of spray paint per shutter (translation - at least $50).  So, we got out an airless paint gun Pat's dad had given us ... that one didn't work but gave us a great idea.  And we took that idea all the way to Home Depot, where we bought a brand new paint gun sprayer thingy.  I am going to do some painting of all sorts of things now - shutters, wicker chairs, bench, front porch, and all the other stuff I can find that we need painted around here.  Plus now I can paint the shutters the exact same color as our interior trim so it matches exactly!  It's freakin' sweet!

BooYah!

Fourthly ... we have chair rail.  Yep, you read that right!  We had a rainy day last week, so our contractor came back and hung the chair rail.  I'm not even sure how he did it because our DR was a wreck.  We had to clear out all of the kitchen, so now our table is covered in glass stuff.  The DR floors have bags all over them, and the buffet is covered is crap that is usually on our table (my piles, again ... ).  We came home, and everything was exactly as we left it - crap and all - but we had chair rail.  Seriously, these guys are magic.  And, it looks so good!

Seriously - HOW did they hang chair rail in this room???

Fifthly ... we added some decorative accents, inside and out!  I'm so excited to have nicer weather and start using our front porch again!  Inside - I found a pillow at Pier One that exactly matches the pattern of my chair.  I finally finished organizing the mantel - for some reason this space really bothers me.  I'm not a knick-knack type person, so I was having a really hard time figuring out what to put up there that wouldn't look ridiculous.  I mean, other than clocks or knick-knacks (candles, figurines, etc.), what the heck goes on a mantel?  Anyway, I ordered a plant dome to put where that vase is, because eventually those flowers will die and smell.  (But aren't they pretty?  Pat bought them for me on Friday because I got some great work news and was having such a great week - I think he's a pretty super husband!)  Outside - I found some clearanced out chair covers for the wicker chairs on the front porch.  And, when I got home and made sure that those fit ... I went back and bought a couple of pillows for the bench, and ordered a rug online (rug coming in later pictures because it's not here yet).

Crazy, right?

I think that the neighbors may have been getting annoyed with my wind chimes ... ??

Finally, our kitchen cabinets are being painted ... as I type and you read this (unless you are reading this like a week after I posted it; because by then you are looking at an old post and should also read the one after this when I tell you about our totally finished kitchen cabinets).  So far, he has deglossed, sanded, and primed most of them.  He said he'll be done later this week and everything will be painted and ready to be hung!  WOHOO one more time!  Pat & I are going to tackle hanging the cabinet doors (they've got these pre-made guides at Home Depot so we don't mess up our drilling holes, so we can totally do this - got it in the bag).  We need to go buy hinges and knobs and drawer pulls, but then our kitchen is going to look half-way sweet.  Because we still have mega ugly counter-tops and sink, and I still have to paint the walls, and we still have to do something with the floors.

Super gross still lazy susan ... going to be entirely replaced soon!!!

Weird.

We've had 2 different painters come out to the house to quote us some work.  The first lady came back in September when we were still fixing stuff up and not living there.  She said she would mail us the quote the following week because she didn't use computers well.  Never got the quote in the mail.  We called her.  No response.

The second guy came recommended from someone we knew.  I met with him, and he hung around for over an hour looking at stuff and talking about fixing up our house with me.  That was on a Thursday.  No quote the following week.  I called him 1 week later and left a message.  No response.  Called him again the following Monday.  No response.  Too bad too, because he seemed like he knew what he was doing.

So, anyway, I find it weird that we had 2 separate painters out, and both of them spent some time at our house, and neither of them even quoted us the job?  Why spend an hour plus talking with someone if you aren't even going to quote the job, or aren't even interested in it?  It's beyond my reasoning.  I would have just left.

But, last weekend, we had a THIRD painter come out to quote us on some things ... and he stayed put in our house until we had the quote.  We originally had wanted the guest bedroom, back hallway, trim, and kitchen all quoted and painted by a professional.  But, now we're down to just the kitchen - and just the cabinets in the kitchen.  We just don't have the time to do it - if we want it done in a reasonable amount of time anyway.  The cabinets need sanding, priming, painting, glossing; and that's the doors, shelves, inside and outside of the cabinets.  That's a lot of work.  I've been reading up on it and people say that it takes a good week of straight work to get that all done.  I don't have a week of vacation to do that - and I figure that if I do it piece by piece, that week turns into a month. AND, knowing my track record, that month will turn into I still don't have it done by August this year ... and the first ones look really good and the last ones look noticeably shittier!  Which is why we are just going to hire it out.  Which also bums me out, because I wanted to do it (mostly, kind-of).  There is something to be said for finally finishing some hard work and being able to say - I did that.

But, I guess there is still PLENTY left to do, that I'll be able to say that about ... painting the hallway, bedroom, trim, kitchen, hanging tile back-splash, installing new light fixtures, painting and hanging shutters, hanging blinds and curtains, painting the front porch, replacing the outside railing on the front porch and back stairway, re-landscaping our yard, and more.

Some pics of a few more things that we've gotten set-up finally (mostly decorative, so I find it easier to want to do it!) ....

Added new door knobs to our bathroom, with a matching finish to the rest of the knobs in the front of our house. 
Goodbye ugly, gold, out-of-place knobs.

So, they aren't an exact match ... but the finish matches!

Decorated the main bathroom
(even Pat likes the purple now ... even though he said he'd help repaint when I decided I hated it when I told him what color I wanted to put in there!)

Still have to find the picture frame I want to hang on that hook ... it's here somewhere ...

Picked a paint for the back hallway, and started spackling the walls:

The gray up front is the hallway color; the faint lavender in the background is the guest bedroom color!

Got a rug for under Pat's chair - I was done with the folded up quilt we stuck under there and his chair sliding all over the place!

It's a match to the one we bought for in front of the couch ... inexpensive fix and they actually look really good together!

Next up on the list ...

• Hang curtains on actual curtain rods.
• Paint and hang the shutters in the LR/DR.
• Hang the DR light fixture (that's been sitting in the garage for weeks now).
• Paint the hallway.
• Paint the guest bedroom.
• Organize the guest bedroom closet.

 I'm going to try to get this all done by the end of next weekend (Goal = 3/13).  That is pretty aggressive, but hopefully it's doable! 

This weekend however, we are heading up north to visit some friends and have fun!