Other than that, I've had so little to report I was going to resort to regaling you with tales of my first leg shaving event in months. When you avoid this personal grooming task for as long as I did, trust me when I say there IS a learning curve. That shaving cream really flies out of the can - it was all over the side of the tub, on the wall, on a plant, halfway up the window shade.... Truth. But I'm not going to tell you about that after all because more important things have been happening. Also bathroom related, but better.
This is what I did last night:
On Saturday morning, three guys who will be my best friends over the next couple of weeks came over and assessed my project. I have a fair idea of what I want the finished space to look like - I just don't know how to get there. So they looked, they assessed, they discussed, they ripped that last remaining kitchen cabinet out of the wall, and they said they would be back Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. We needed to figure out where the mold on the kitchen wall was coming from so I demoed as much as I could in the bathroom last night. It wasn't much - I took the mirror and the shelf under it down, took away the shower doors and all the door tracks, then ripped off the shower surround.
This is what my bathroom looks like right now:
Bathroom? What bathroom? The leaky culprit was the toilet. Of course it was. So now I have a skylight in my kitchen right up to the bathroom:
Talk about a blank slate. Dean is going to replace all the plumbing that lives under the bathroom floor tomorrow, then they will replace the rotted subfloor and add a layer of 1/4" luan on top. On Wednesday I have planned a field trip to Home Depot to look at a tub, the shower surround, a vanity, fixtures, toilets and new flooring.
And back down in the kitchen, did I ever post these pictures from last week?
That's the hold out - the last cabinet we couldn't get down. The one my new friends ripped off the wall yesterday. Now the kitchen looks like this:
WOO HOO!
You know, I have been following the blog of an Etsy seller who moved from Boston to rural Vermont (outside Woodstock, actually) with her groom-to-be. She was posting all the home improvement projects they were doing in the months before their wedding, which they were hosting at their house. I kept thinking how unrealistic her situation was because she was obviously marrying someone with remodeling super powers and they were doing everything themselves. (Wonder Twin powers activate -- form of This Old House!) And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING. They built a huge garden with raised beds and a fence with a fancy gate. They converted the basement space into a spare bedroom, and redid an entire bathroom (including pouring a concrete shower and tiling the crap out of everything). They walled in the open space under their deck and made it an indoor space with reclaimed windows they sanded and repainted, and huge bluestone pavers for the floor. It all looked so cool and sexy.
Well. Let me tell you. So far there has been exactly nothing sexy about my remodel. Not that I expected it to be, mind you. That would have been unrealistic and I don't smoke THAT much crack. At this point there is not a thing happening next door that I can do myself. Once the cabinets get here I will break out a paint brush - they are unfinished oak. And when the beadboard goes up on the walls I will paint that myself as well. In fact, here is Ann's rendering of what we hope the finished kitchen will look like:
Picture the beadboard on the walls in yellow, not tan. And that thingy in the middle of the floor is a cabinet on casters that will live in the pantry. Yellow walls, blue cabinets, hopefully dark wood countertops, and some kind of tile-look floor that is either a laminate floating floor or sheet vinyl. Not the pattern in the pictures, but that's the closest Ann's software let her get to a tile look. In fact, these rooms have only had ceilings for about a week - they looked so bright and airy with blue skies and puffy white clouds.
Anyway, this is parked in my driveway:
I described it to my nephew Evan as a pickup truck with a dump truck on the back end and he thought it would be big enough for him to swim in. Evan, I would respectfully suggest that although that may be true, it perhaps isn't the best of ideas. Even if it IS your birthday today.
So that's where we are right now. My new best friends put two coats of Kilz on the kitchen floor right before they left today, and tomorrow they will finish with the plumbing and start putting the walls back together in the kitchen and the floor back together in the bathroom. In the next couple of days progress will come to another screeching halt while we wait for the Home Depot delivery truck.
Now, let's end on a fun note. Here is a picture of my knobs:
Wait a minute, what did you think I was talking about???
I found these on Etsy. They. Are. So. Awesome. I ordered two to see what they look like in real life and they have the potential to be a subtle yet interesting bit of bling for the kitchen cabinets. You know, when I actually have cabinets.
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