Kitchen Countertop Removal

Yesterday Matt and I finally decided on a place to do our countertop.  A little close to the wire, because it takes 3 weeks to order the counters from the time they measure them.  We're still planning on moving May 21st, which is a little less than 4 weeks from now.  Oops.

Anyway, before they measure for the countertops, we needed to take the old ones off and put all the appliances in place.  It was a long, physical process, because the previous counters were tile.  Here's how it went:

 Before

Removing the sink was annoying and took over an hour.  We got it eventually!

 We then chiseled away at the tiles.

 Matt was not amused.

 But we did get the tile off

Hey! check out the kitchen!  Better? No?

But at least we have a fridge now!  We moved it in last weekend.  It's Matt's parent's old one, and it's not hooked up to the water line (for 2 reasons 1) because it leaks and 2) because we don't have a water line).  But it keeps things cold, and it was free.  Now we can offer our free laborers cold refreshments.

Here are some springtime pictures from the house.  Kindly ignore the fact that we have yet to mow the lawn.

I want this! part 1

Ever since we decided to buy our house, I have been brainstorming color schemes, artwork, furniture and other household wares.  I don't think even Matt knows how deep my obsession goes (I've stopped mentioning things, because whenever I do his eyes glaze over and I get the distinct impression I could just as well be talking to myself).  I've been scouting furniture stores, craigslist and amazon for the past 6 months, impatiently awaiting the day when we can actually BUY things instead of putting them on wish lists.  *sigh*

Anyway, here are things I want:

I would love these end and coffee tables for the living room.  I love the style, and the design is also practical.  I was so disappointed in the wood coffee table we got for the apartment.  The wood is so soft that it's dented everywhere, even though we're super careful and have only had it for a year.  I like that the tops of these are glass, so we don't have to worry about coasters, but there's still the wood element and good storage space.  Plus, they're on sale!!  Must resist the urge to go out after work and buy them...

Sorry, no photos!

I'm not posting photos this week, because the house still looks like a wreck, and I'm not sure if there's a visible difference.  Even though the house doesn't look much different, we got a lot accomplished this weekend.  My dad came over and we put his electrical skills to work by having him change out some of the older switched in the house.   We had an interesting mixture of every different type of switch, including some of the originals. Now they all match!  This probably wouldn't matter to most people, but I'm a little bit crazy, so it's important to me. 

We've also been working on getting the house paint-ready.  Spackling, sponging, sanding, repeat.  Our goal is to have the main and upper levels primed to paint before the floors get done (May 4th) so we can start painting as soon and the floors are finished.  The floor will take about a week to be finished, 4 days of labor and 3 days to dry.  Matt and I have decided we'll use that time to start packing, and also to paint the downstairs family room, which will be carpeted.

Hopefully I'll have more progress photos for you in the next few days.  We hope to start priming this weekend, and finish the kitchen shelves and getting the kitchen bookcase framed. 

The Cabinets are Straight!

So Matt and his dad worked on Sunday to put the cabinets back up, and now they are perfectly level!  They already look so much better, and I'm so happy we decided not to just ignore it. 

My dad also helped out this weekend.  He added another outlet behind the stove, so the cord won't be visible when we plug it in.

Before:

New outlet:

Matt and I were also lucky enough to get to see Rush on Sunday night.  It was a great show (even if our seats were in the back)!

Bathtub Before & After!

I'm extremely excited about having the bathtub done!  It was so gross before, and it's also the first positive change we've seen in the house (since everything else we've done involves demolition of some sort).  So without further ado, the photos:

Before:

It was pretty bad.  Pink, faded, permanently dirty.  Now for the after:

It's white!  It's clean!  I won't feel dirty after taking a shower!  I'm so thrilled with how it turned out.  We decided to hire people to do it, because I was scared of not being able to get a smooth surface if we DIYd.  It was still way cheaper than getting a new bathtub.  They were in and out in 1.5 hours.  Fantastic!

"So what's going on this weekend?" you may wonder.  I'm glad you asked.  Due to my amazing AE education, I took a construction management course in college.  That gave me the ability to come up with this:

Yes!  It's a construction schedule!  Complete with checklists for each room below.  This weekend we will be 1) adding an outlet in the kitchen, 2) reinstalling the upper kitchen cabinets, 3) continuing moulding removal and spackle/sand.  Hopefully we'll stay on track and I'll have more photos to post on Sunday!

T-48 days until moving day, and we've got a lot more to do!  We got a ton of demo done this week, and now the house looks worse than when we got it.  We spent the past week taking out the base moulding, removing the kitchen cabinets, taking out the backsplash in the kitchen, spackling and sanding.  We also got the wasp nests out of the attic, and added new vent screens to keep bugs out.  Here are some photos from this week:

 My grandparents also helped out with clearing/tidying the front yard, since Matt and I are super busy inside.  Here's some of the perennials coming up in our front yard:

Here's a photo of the house without the fug fence and with the shrubs tidied.

We still have lots to do.  Some things coming up in the next weeks are:

• adding a new outlet for the stove
• putting the upper cabinets back up
• adding another lower cabinet
• getting the new countertop
• refinishing the bathtub (scheduled for this Thursday)
• Refinishing the floors
• spackle, sand, rinse repeat
• painting

I'll try to keep this updated as we work on things.  I'm almost happy it's Monday tomorrow, because I'm exhausted!  A day sitting in an office sounds awesome after a weekend of physical labor!