Kitchen Remodel - Day 17

Exhausted now. "What the hell was I thinking?" thought Kevin as he spent the whole weekend mudding and sanding, mudding and sanding.

He did have an inspirational moment today though as he went to the 99 cent store and bought a little mixer set, cut the handle off the beater, and attached it to his drill to make a little mixer for the mud to get it nice and soft with no lumps. Pure Genius!

Today I did the final coat on the purple room. Looks good. I also sanded that nasty faux wood paneling on the den/playroom wall and did one coat of primer that is tinted to 50% of the full final colour. The whole room will be greenish, but right now it is looking yellowy beige. Too late, the paint has been purchased, there is no turning back. "Like it or shut up" I tell myself.

Madison went over to the neighbours to play, which I was not entirely comfortable with, but I really needed the time. In my opinion, she overstayed her welcome, but hopefully they didn't think so.

This feels like it will never end. I still have to paint the den, the office, the kitchen and the master bedroom and there are not enough hours in the day nor days in the week. Then when I'm done all that, I somehow have to find time to pack up the old house. Yeah right.

Here is a photo of the cheesy den wall before...

Kitchen Remodel - Day 16

Boy are we exhausted today! The work and the girls are starting to wear us down. It seems that Sydney is taking this whole "terrible twos" syndrome out for a spin. She was totally psycho today. Literally psycho. For instance, she was in the car holding a pair of sunglasses while Madison sat quietly on the other side of the car minding her own business. Sydney began to have an imaginary fight (shouting match) over the sunglasses with an imaginary person! While we were busy working, she sat right beside Madison (who seemed to take no notice) and proceeded to draw all over her body, face included, with markers. Luckily it was highly washable. Unfortunately we were too stressed out and angry to see the humour in it and so we did not think of taking a photo of this sight.



Today I finished the final coat on the part of the living room wall that previously had wallpaper on it. Then we moved to the purple room. You can't tell from the photo, but it is quite a nice muted pale purple, much darker than the photo indicates. Madison was SO excited to help paint her own room and couldn't wait to begin. Ha! We started with the brush work around the edges and after about three feet, her arm was just TOO sore to continue. She took a break. After her return, she finished one wall and then it was break time again. One final coaxing by me and she managed only another two or three feet before her arm seemed broken. It went like this, 5 minutes of painting followed by 30-60 minutes of break time! I know, I know, she is only six years old, but for some reason, maybe based on her previous enthusiasm or her continued desire to be an artist someday, I was just expecting a little bit more from her. She certainly did not inherit the work ethic of her grandfathers!



Later when she saw the roller she thought she might give that a try since it looked fun (at which time I quoted the story of the Little Red Hen), but that proved too difficult for her wee arms as well.



Meanwhile, Kevin began taping and mudding the drywall. He is very frustrated by how long it is taking and was hoping to finish it this weekend, which I knew was never going to happen!

I have also included some photos of the window grids I came up with using masking tape. Some will have four rectangles and some six depending on the window width. Sure wish I was better at math cause that job sucked!





Oh, and did I mention that Kevin hurt his back trying to get a full sheet of drywall from the garage into the kitchen? He is now seeing my chiropractor, mostly because I am always talking about how you get a 1/2 to 1 hour therapeutic massage, plus the adjustment on every visit! And it's 90% covered on our medical plan. So at least we get to be pampered a little bit.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 15

No photos today again. Not much to see really. I spent the day finishing off the painting in the living room, though one wall still needs a coat, plus the electrician keeps poking more holes and patching them which means re-painting.

I also masked off the kids room and the den so those can be painted. Only problem with the den is that nasty wall with the faux wood paneling on it. I'll have to sand the whole thing first in order to get the primer to stick. Yuck. I think I'll stall on that one.

Kevin did a wee bit more drywalling this afternoon and almost has all the holes filled so he should be able to start mudding this weekend.

Tonight Madison and I went to her school to watch the Wizard of Oz on a giant blow up screen. The picture quality is good on those things believe it or not. If only the field wasn't so wet and if only it wasn't so cold. But she had never seen it before so it was fun.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 14

Didn't get much done today. We went shopping for toilets, doors and paint but came home with just the paint. I spent some time with masking tape working out the window grids we want for window replacement while Kevin did some more drywall. Still some more holes to patch before the mudding.

Tomorrow the cook top will be delivered and I hope to get some painting done, but Sydney will likely have some other ideas!

The cabinetry should arrive Monday (unassembled of course) but we won't be ready for it by a long shot!

My Girls

Just wanted to share some girl snaps.

One of Sydney who actually fell asleep on me the other week - which hasn't happened since I don't know when. I had SO much to do, but I didn't dare budge as I wanted to savor this moment as long as possible.

And of course Maddie with her Heidi hair-do.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 13

Day 13 and the walls are going back up! Kevin kicked it into high gear and did some serious drywalling today. Is that a verb? It SHOULD be as that man went so fast thanks to some wicked tools on loan to us from Martin. Now it is actually starting to look semi-inhabitable.

They discussed what to do about the nasty old telephone box at the back of the house, which Martin so kindly fiddled with and got our phone finally working. Verizon said they would charge us $85 just to send a guy out. And wouldn't you know it, not even an hour after we plugged the phone into the jack - a fucking telemarketer called! Unbelievable!

I continued painting today and almost finished the living room (and then later found Martin poking more bloody holes in it!) and the hallways are done. Next comes either the den/kids play room, or maybe the kids room - purple of course!

Kitchen Remodel - Day 12

I didn't make it over to the house at all today as I had Sydney with me, I had to shop for a baby gift, and had a hair appointment.

But, the eccentric roofer guy came by in the afternoon and used some super duper caulking to fix the little roof leak and charged $40. Kevin will have to test it tomorrow with the hose to see if it worked.

It's 8 pm and Kevin is now over there with the amazing electrician still working hard. That man Martin has a fantastic work ethic. He is there when he says he will be, and works weekends and evenings. Or maybe he just wants to stay far away from his triplets! (ha ha)

Kevin just reported in and said that the insulation is too puffy so the drywall won't screw in, so now he has to take it all out and strip a layer off! All you would-be remodellers remember that one.

Tomorrow I have no babies, so it's back to painting.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 11

Another slow day. While the kids were at school, and Kevin at work, I headed over to the house to paint. Only problem - Kev and I had switched cars and my new house keys were in the other car so Kevin had two sets and I had none. So Kevin had to come home from work pretty much as soon as he got there. I now have the keys on my keychain.

I started the first roller coat of the living room and hallways while Kevin sat on the floor shaking. We are not sure why his body was shaking but eventually it stopped. I think he needs to take a break. He helped me with some wall patches, bought more insulation and generally fiddled around in the kitchen.

Simon the plumber returned to fix a corroded pipe we found. 20 minutes. 80 dollars. Shit.

Then we explored the leak in the roof that comes down into the frame of the kitchen. I guess Kevin's attempt to seal it the other day failed and now we will have to call a roofer. Fuck. Next we'll have to fix that leaky window - the one where all the money keeps flying out.

Sydney Scott & Her Big Girl Bed

Tonight was MUCH better. How does that expression go? "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"? So we decided to actually assemble the real bed (while keeping the crib intact just in case this experiment didn't work out). We officially introduced Sydney to her big girl bed complete with an ice cream party in the bed! And I was the first one to spill the ice cream on the sheets followed rapidly by Sydney.

We did have to get one of those plastic door knob cover thingys today so that she couldn't keep leaving the room, but it all went down smoothly without any tears shed by either girl.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 10

Today we hired a babysitter so we could get a leg up. I started to paint the living room and hallways.

Martin took the day off so he could go over to our friend's house and finish the job we stole him from. Sorry Tiffany!

Kevin started to put in the insulation but he didn't wear safety goggles and he bumped his eye with the mask and now his vision is blurry in one eye. Hopefully it will be better by the morning.