Preparation

This weekend is our big Easter egg hunt (yes, I am aware Easter was last weekend). As usual, we are upping the ante this year, and having the hunt after Easter proper has allowed me to find some mad bargains on eggs, grass and candy. We have well over 1500 pieces of candy and probably close to 400 eggs this year. Insane. Good thing we have a bigger place to hide them this year! We're also having a kid hunt for the first time, which will be outside if the weather holds, so that should help too.

In the meantime, we've been finishing the trim in the kitchen, I've been making these ridiculous little things to give away as favors, planning the menu, and I suppose I should get to cleaning at some point.

I am just SO ready for the summery part of spring to be here because waking to snow this morning was not my idea of fun (although it was heaven to snuggle under the down comforter for a few extra minutes of snoozing I couldn't really afford. Now I want to go home and go back to bed). And today I daydreamed about lounging by our complex's pool. We only used it twice last year and I am determined to get more use out of it this year!

And thus endeth my random ramblings.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So many changes! Well, not really, especially in comparison to last spring, wherein we house hunted, had two aborted attempts at purchases, bought a place, both looked for and got jobs, etc. But still! Some changes have taken place.

Braces are partially in place, more will be added over time, and so far, so good. I have to brush my teeth a lot more frequently and I narrowly avoided a truly classic moment of spinach smack on my front braces in an important meeting, thanks to a last-minute mirror check for that very reason.

Operation Home Improvement is back from a 6 month hiatus after the marathon that was the kitchen. We bought the most expensive shower curtain we've ever had (i.e., not vinyl and not from Target clearance), and will be painting our tiny tiny back bathroom tomorrow a (hopefully) lovely shade of gray. Actually, "Pelican," but who's counting? The most important aspect of this project is that it has a very high likelihood of being able to be finished, since the room is literally about 4 feet square.

We've been hiking a new trail every weekend for the past several weeks and it's been wonderful. Today we hiked about 4 miles along a trail with great views of the mountains, and Jasper had a fantastic time, as usual. It didn't hurt that it was over 60 today, with perfect blue skies. Everyone has spring fever. And it's supposed to snow again tomorrow (woo. hoo.). I'm so glad we were able to enjoy the weather today.

I finally finished Peter's quilt, which I have been working on for at least 2 years now, maybe more. I definitely work in fits and starts, but I was able to see this one across the finish line! If the light cooperates, I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, even if it wasn't exactly my own artistic vision being carried out (some clients are rather specific and hands-on in their art direction). Plus, I learned a TON about the whole process and the general idea of machine quilting, which will come in handy when I make my own quilt according to my own specifications.

And with that, I am off to bed, to get one less hour of sleep. Boo to springing forward!

Sound Sleeper

I found out last night who is going to be responsible for hearing things that go bump in the night.

C'est moi.

Just after I went to bed, I heard a very loud crash, with a distinct shattering overtone. I startled awake, obviously, and Peter startled to my startle. Great. The huge crash five feet from him didn't even phase him, but my jumping awake did.

The ancient light cover above our bathroom vanity had decided it was time to end its life (perhaps it knew we had designs on its life anyhow?) and threw itself off its moorings. Very odd. Luckily, it was just brittle plastic and so there were only a few plastic shards threatening our feet in the morning.

The two incandescent bulbs now look so chic nestled in the industrial metal frame left. I guess this honey-do just got bumped up on the list.

Nothing like a deadline

We are entertaining on Saturday, partly as a way to create a deadline for ourselves to finish up some of out projects. Thanks to this looming deadline, we (read: Peter) have:

• installed the new faucet in the guest bathroom
• finished painting ALL of the kitchen drawers and doors
• installed all but two of the previously painted doors
• installed hardware on most drawers and all installed doors
• made the under-cabinet light switch look pretty and not all janky
• bought a new-to-us rug from Craig's List for the living room
• lowered and fixed the dining room chandelier
• bought a leather ottoman/bench/coffee table for the living room
• put most of our electronic paraphernalia in said ottoman (storage FTW!)
• fixed the wire nest of doom trailing from the TV and router off the mantle (Peter is magic)

And then, the bestest thing of all, Peter went and surprised me by getting these super sweet chairs from Costco that we had been wanting, but that were all sold out at our local store. They are super pretty, SUPER cheap, and basically two-for-one! I will definitely take some pictures once everything is all snazzy for the social engagement.

Too bad that even with all of that done, we still have so much more to do. Installing the last 5 kitchen doors, caulking the counters, putting trim on, touching up paint, etc. etc. The worst part is that the more we get finished, the more the unfinished stuff sticks out. I guess we'll just have to plan another social engagement in a few weeks!

And don't worry, pictures will be forthcoming, once things are a bit more cleaned up!

Kitchen Pictures

So I realized in looking over my recent posts that I have left a lot out in the kitchen update. Mostly it's because I feel like each step deserves a nice long post detailing what we did and how we did it (since it's all DIY), but frankly, that takes too long so the post goes unfinished. Since we are going to Michigan soon with the relatives and will have no internet for DAYS at a time (oh, the humanity!), I thought I would post some of the pictures I have taken of the various stages, with limited commenting interruption. If you desire any comments on any pictures, let me know and I will write about them.

Keep in mind that all of the pictures are "in progress" pictures. I will hopefully have pretty pretty post-renovation pictures after we get back.

Please see the before pictures before reading on to refresh your memory and help see the changes.

Safety is #1!



New microwave frees up counter space.


Not technically part of our kitchen, but this sweet pantry will free up a ton of cabinet space in the kitchen (which is great, since we didn't have enough in the last place, and we have even fewer here!)
So hopefully that gives a better indication of where we are now. In looking through these pictures, I realize we still don't have a very recent picture with the new fridge, sink and under cabinet lights on. Ah well, that will save some surprise for the final picture!

I can say this: doing all of this work ourselves has made me immeasurably proud (even if Peter has done pretty much all of the heavy lifting), and has allowed us to get a gorgeous kitchen for a fraction of the price of most renovations. I'll have to figure out the costs when all is said and done. Really, the only place we've gone much over what we had thought was in purchasing the various tools necessary to do the jobs, but those are reusable and MUCH cheaper than a contractor! I now actually WANT to cook and spend time in the kitchen, which Peter would probably say is worth the time and money (at least, as long as I can improve my cooking skills!).

With those pictures off my chest (and hard drive), I am off to bed so I can rise to unpack another day.

Water: the giver of life

We have running water in the kitchen! Not only that, but a functioning dishwasher! My days as the "dish fairy" are OVER! (Well, except for pots and pans, but after doing every. single. dish. BY. HAND. for the last four years, I'm OK with that).

In addition, all of the counters are done, microwave is in and the kitchen is almost done! If only stupid Target had not been out of the only two kinds of contact paper we liked on the last visit, we could have actually put all of our dishes and things away. Perhaps Home Depot will treat us better tomorrow.

Pictures! OK! Here are some teasers:


I promise more when the kitchen is in better shape for photographing!

Writing on purloined internet

All of our belongings are now in one place, but now we have the challenge of trying to remember where everything is. Making a bagel the first morning required hunting for: a bread knife to cut the bagel (5 minutes), a plate (never found, used a paper towel), and a butter knife (used a paring knife with some success). Pretty much every activity has required a similar search for at least one necessary item.

Our first piece of the counter is in and looks gorgeous. We also now have a microwave (hooray!) so we can kind of cook some things at least. The stove will go back in once all of the counters are installed. I can't wait for all of the counters to go in! I will post some pictures once we have real internet again.

In other news, I am employed! I don't start until August or September, but I am thrilled and a little scared, but I know it will be great once I start. Hope to post more tomorrow!

Stuck in between

I have a lovely post in the works with more pictures of the kitchen floor, but I was rudely interrupted by a little thing called MOVING. Yes, that time is upon us, when you open a drawer to butter your bagel and discover all of the silverware, including the knives, is at the other place. Repeat 100 times daily, and add in 50 or more trips up and down seven flights of stairs carrying heavy boxes and furniture and you have our life!

We spent our first night in our own bed at the new place last night, though we had to leave early this morning to come back to the old place for several reasons, including the fact that our kitchen is not currently functioning yet (no countertops, though we have purchased them, microwave comes today, new fridge not until next week).

In good news: we are *almost* done, though we have the most annoying loads left wit lots of large, awkward and fragile things. Fun! As mentioned, we also purchased the countertops, and I think they are going to look beautiful. However, they clash horribly with the wooden trim we were going to paint anyway, but now we really need to paint it. More sanding. Ugh.

Bad news is that we are not done moving yet and we need to be out by tomorrow. We can do it, but it will be a push to get everything out and the place cleaned in time. Other bad news is that once everything is moved, we need to actually unpack and figure out how to make the new place livable with all of our furniture and crap. I think Goodwill and dumpster divers will be very happy in the coming week, not to mention Craig's List.

Before we can even think about really unpacking, we have GOT to finish the kitchen. The stove is in the dining room, construction materials take up half the living room and there is just no space for anything.

I would upload some new pictures, but I'm pretty sure the camera cord is packed.

Post and run

Quick post, gotta finish the thesis draft, but I'm too excited not to show pics. We got the floor done last night and all of the cabinet frames painted! Only doors left to do.

Far away pic of finished cabinets:

Sneak peek in bad lighting of AWESOME new floor. More details on the how-to with better pictures hopefully soon.

My Mama

I have the bestest mommy in all the land. Through various twists of fate, she had a week off after my brother's graduation and plans to come to Boulder BEFORE we had even bought our new place, let alone knew we needed to finish our major renovation of the kitchen, packing our stuffed apartment, moving and finishing my thesis, all the very same week. Thank GOD for moms.

So today she selflessly went to the apartment to finish the painting of the cabinets so we could install the floors tonight, while I stayed at home and made major progress on my thesis. Just in time too because I had a dream last night that one of my teeth broke out of my mouth and that is never a good sign. Not to mention that I wake up early when I am stressed and I woke up before 6 this morning (6:30 is normal level of stress lately, 8 AM is no stress).

I will definitely post pictures of the "after" when I get there, but I know that even yesterday, when we got the final coat on most of one of the cabinets, the difference was amazing. The difference between primer, first, and second coats is like a revelation with each coat. I can't wait to get the doors done and hung! It's going to be SUCH an improvement!

So now we are on a dinner break, we'll all go back to the condo and start putting in the floor! With any luck, we should be able to get it mostly, if not all, done tonight, which would be beyond wonderful. I still have some holes to fill in before I can say I have finished my thesis (unfortunately, not to the final draft yet, but close!), so I hope we have some time tonight so I can turn this puppy over to my adviser! And none of it would have been possible without my amazing mama!

Pictures tomorrow!

Priming and Painting (with Pictures!)

I promised you pictures, and now I shall deliver. Sadly, they are not the stunning "after" pictures. Not yet. Next week I'd better be able to deliver, since we need to move in!

First we have the sanded, but unprimed cabinets on the right. The cabinet in the middle will soon be replaced by a shiny new microwave/hood, to save on our precious counter space. It is now sitting on the floor, after being ripped off of the wall by my manly husband.

Next we have the primed and partly-painted left cabinets! The faces and the part of the inside of the far left cabinet have their first coat of the white we are using. It's True Value "Charming Smile," I think. Let me just say that this line of paints (one of the few oil-based we could get in eco-friendly Boulder) has the WORST names ever. Other brands have names like "Sandy Beaches" or "Porcelain." These ones are named things like: "Family Dinner," "Chicken Wire," and I wish I was making this up, "Irony." Who the hell wants to paint their dining room in irony?

Honestly, I just went to their website, because I could only remember Irony, and when I got to the part I was looking for, I didn't even realize I was looking at the paint color names at first they were so bad AND I ALREADY KNEW THEY WOULD BE AWFUL. Here's some more from the page, for sheer entertainment value: Sideshow, Continuous, Close Knit, Significant Journey, Audition, Fragile Heart, Aristocracy, etc. ad infinitum! I think they just picked words out of a hat. OK, rant over. I'm just bitter I have to say my cabinets are "Charming Smile," even though some of the other contenders were WAY worse.


Finally, the primed cabinet doors. These now also have their first coat, so they do look better, though I think because of the cheapo wood used on the panels, they *might* need a third coat. We'll see how they look after the second. I am posting these so other people attempting to paint their cabinets know what to expect after the primer coat.


I am super grateful for our decent-sized porch. It would have been much messier to do the power sanding and the painting inside, so it's very nice to have. Plus, we get to look at this while we paint:
Yup, we lucked out.

Balancing Act

Yesterday was priming day. Today was thesis/job interview day. Wednesday and Thursday will be lather, rinse, repeat.

How did the priming go? I'm glad you asked (and sorry to say, still no pictures! I was too busy working to take them). I think it went pretty well. I hope. I'll let you know after tomorrow, when the first coat goes on. After some stirring issues (you need to stir oil-based primer a LOT), I got it to where it needed to be and it was very enjoyable and relatively quick after that. I finished all the doors that were sanded (a few need some touch ups), all of the floor cabinet faces and all of the wall-mounted cabinets on the left. Tomorrow I will finish priming the insides of the left cabinets and do all of the right cabinets, plus get the first coat of paint onto what was primed yesterday. Fun!

I also picked up a light fixture for the kitchen I scored on Craig's List ($20). Luckily it fits perfectly into our little cubby.

Today I switched gears and did more professional stuff: thesis writing and my first job interview. It went really, really well and there should be an offer as soon as I send in my transcripts (yay!). I also have three more interviews this week and next, so I won't be rushing off to accept the first position that comes my way. I am very, very grateful to be in this position, but I have also worked my ass off and spent the past four years in grad school to be here. But still, so lucky and happy to be in a profession that is still in demand.

Tomorrow: finish as much painting as possible!

Weekend Renovations

Ahh, our first weekend filled to the brim with home improvement. Or: How I learned to avoid Home Depot on a Saturday afternoon at all costs.

I was just kidding about the floors being the next thing. We realized that we should paint the overhead cabinets before we put in the floors, just in case. Ergo, Saturday and Sunday were spent sanding, sanding and sanding all of the cabinets. Peter got to buy not one, not two, but THREE new orbital sanders for the job. (SO worth the $60, BTW, if you plan on repainting many things that have flat surfaces).

Why three sanders, you ask? The first was the one we planned on getting. He did the research and it was decently priced (local hardware store, not the depot of homes or Lowe's). Then two different store workers mentioned this other "finishing" sander they had in their semi-annual tent sale outside. Regularly $70 for $30! So of course he had to get one. Turns out, it worked better than the original one, so he got another one on sale so multiple people could sand at once, with the idea of selling it or giving it to a friend afterward. Sweet!

So Peter and our friend, KyKy (hereby dubbed such in the bloggle), manned (literally) the power sanders on Sunday while my friends and I hand sanded all the little molding parts that the power stuff can't get to. We tried other methods, but hand sanding worked the best. Unfortunately for us.

So now it is Sunday night and all the cabinets are sanded, cleaned and ready to be primed tomorrow. Which I get to do by myself because Peter has this "job" thing he has to do. Lame.

I should have taken pictures, but it really wasn't that exciting. Just imagine us in face masks and everything pretty much covered in wood dust, and there you have it. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow of my progress (should any be made).

New chandelier and destruction of the kitchen

Sorry for that tease! I hit publish accidentally, and then didn't have the time to actually write the post at that moment (life!).

So here it is for realsies:

I will be documenting our renovation progress here, for the benefit of any who might care (and for our own memories down the road!). As mentioned in the last post, we made some good progress over the weekend.

Here is what the kitchen looked like "before" (with the seller's staging stuff):



And here is the destructive "during." My brother and Peter had a good time taking out all of the appliances and cabinets from the kitchen:



And then put them all in the living room:

Good thing we aren't living here yet! Our sole goal is to get this kitchen done before we have to move in (June 4th is when we need to be out of our current apartment).

We are redoing the floors by putting plank vinyl in that looks like wood, and so needed everything out. I am very happy we did so because we found that the builder (30 years ago!) didn't put the vinyl all the way under the cabinets, which led to some water damage near the sink. Luckily, it wasn't that bad and we just had to replace a patch of drywall . Our hope is that the new flooring extending all the way across the floor will help protect against any possible damage to the floor.

We are thrilled about the plank vinyl because: 1) it's very cheap, but looks decent, which is great for this place as we plan on making it a rental in a couple years; and 2) it is one of the easiest types of flooring to put in yourself. It cost us a little over $100 to replace that god-awful '70s floor (which we found had some pretty damaged spots)!

OK, next exciting thing. The dining "room" (nook?) had an awful, awful chandelier. To wit:

This weekend, Brother and Peter made my heart sing by switching it out for this:

And in context with the framed poster we will hang on the wall in the dining nook (along with construction crap):


SO much better! You may notice a strong theme in our renovations: inexpensive updates. This place is not and will never be a luxury condominium. The people who rent here are largely students and we are mostly hoping to make this place more inviting while we live here, as well as hoping to attract a slightly better renter by having more updated things.

Stay tuned for he next project! Installing the floors! How will the missing vinyl pieces affect our timeline and our budget? Is the plank vinyl as easy as they say? Will it look better than the '70s trip to Mexico vinyl?

Awesome Days

The past three days have been great. My last day of my internship, Thursday, was really great, with a field trip and lots of sweet cards made by my kids. Then Thursday night, we surprised my parents, who had flown in earlier that day, with my brother, who we flew in as a Mother's Day surprise.

Friday was graduation, which was wonderful because I got to see all of my classmates, most of whom I haven't seen since December when we all went out on internships. We were a pretty close class, or at least as close as you can be with almost 30 students. Every single person in the class was amazing in their own way and brought so much to our department. It was a little sad seeing everyone too, since we probably won't all ever be together again. I also got a very honoring and humbling award, particularly so because my class was so great that so many others were just as deserving.

Saturday, we had a great picnic hosted by several of my friends in our graduating class. It was a perfect Colorado party: hanging out at Chautauqua with great friends under a perfect Colorado sunny sky, great beer, great food and cornhole. What more do you need? Then after the picnic, we found this incredible place that is kind of like an organized junk yard with home improvement/construction stuff (think salvaged doors, cabinets, faucets, and other we went to our new place and again I wished that my family lived closer. After exploring there, we went back to the new place, where my brother and Peter replaced the hideous brass chandelier with a much nicer nickel one, thereby making my day.

Sunday was the day of demolition. After a lovely Mother's Day brunch, the boys got everything out of the kitchen, including the low cabinets and all appliances, so that we are now almost ready to put the flooring in. We still need to figure out what we are doing with the sink cabinet, that won't require shutting off the water to the entire building, but we should be able to cross that bridge by tomorrow.

My parents left today, but the brother remains. It was so very nice to have everyone in town and it was really fun to have everyone helping out with the renovations in the new place. I feel much more optimistic about our chances of getting everything done before we have to move in at the end of the month, but only if we keep plugging along!

My head is going to explode

My head hurts. Has hurt all day, ever since I started to count up the things I need to do in the very near slash immediate future. My family flies in tomorrow for my graduation, our apartment is a wreck (per usual, lately), moving boxes are piled in the little open space we do have, I am finishing my internship tomorrow, I need to write about 30 pages of my thesis (read: finish a complete draft) by next week, remodel the kitchen, pick paint for every room of the new place, pack, apply for multiple jobs, etc.etc.etc. My head hurts again.

We are homeowners!

We did it! We closed today, got the keys and even moved in our very first box! We are filled with ideas for things to do to make the place our own and to update some of the original items. We were at Home Depot until they closed tonight, just wandering the aisles and dreaming. Very fun. We think we can probably give the kitchen a pretty nice face-lift for relatively little.

Off to dream of countertops, sinks and hardware!

Pictures to come.