Who, Me?

She swears she didn't do it.  I think the guilty look gives her away.

Things are slowing down in the remodel department.  My contractor dudes were going to spend Friday shaving down the countertops so they fit in my wonky kitchen, but the countertops weren't finished yet.  And I'm hearing a rumor that nobody wants to cut the opening for my undermount sink.  Hmmm.  Not happy about that news.  Other than the countertops, we're down to the nitty gritty in the kitchen - some kind of tiny crown moulding so you can't see where the beadboard sort-of-but-not-really meets the ceiling; vertical trim down the corners of the walls (the pokey-out walls, not the pokey-in walls.  Got it?); something like 1/4" plywood to finish off the undersides of the bridge cabinets.  I have to stain and seal the countertops once they are cut to fit, and prime/paint a bunch of cabinets -- the two base cabinets that were damaged in delivery, the toe kicks and the filler Jeff needed to make everything fit.  I also need to prime and paint all the new window and door casings, plus the baseboards.  Oh, and all the sides of the cabinets that show, like below the sides of the microwave.  All of this will be a pain in the butt.

The kitchen looks awesome, doesn't it?  Matt, the electrician, was here after I took these pictures.  I now have a completed outlet for the fridge and the light switches have been reinstalled.  He also swapped out that ugly fixture in the pantry for me, and put in a recessed light.  He will be back sometime this week to finish.

Upstairs in the bathroom, Jeff and Erin built me some wicked cool trim to cap off the beadboard.

Fancy pants.  I've got a lot of raw pine to prime and paint in here.

This is where the stacked washer/dryer used to be.  The washer/dryer that didn't work.  The washer/dryer that spewed water all over me and then leaked down through the kitchen ceiling.  Now it's a beautiful bunch of open space.  That needs lots of paint.

And this picture is proof that white comes in many different colors.  The bathtub looks almost pink!  I'm not complaining one bit because guess what.  It's brand new.  And that's all that matters.

Since these pictures were taken I have put the first coat of primer on the skylight and painted the ceiling.  The skylight will end up sparkling white.  The ceiling is a color called ... hmmm ... Gray Lake, I think.  It's what I used in the two bedrooms, and what I'm going to use everywhere for consistency; Jeff painted my kitchen ceiling with it before they installed the upper cabinets.  I am not a fan of flat paint, so it's a satin finish with very little color to it.  It's going to need two coats - the ceiling in there was gross.  I went crazy with my caulk gun and filled all the nail holes in the new pine, and a couple other things that perhaps were not meant to be caulked so I won't tell you what they were.  I also patched that hole right above the sink faucet, and threw some mud and tape over that weird drywall seam that used to be hidden behind the mirror.  You can almost see that Matt pulled the new wiring up and installed the box for my vanity light.  He also, by the way, told me I did a fine job swapping out the overhead light.  He took it down so I could paint the ceiling and so he could figure out why only half of it was working.

Speaking of electricians, I channeled my dad today and moved the thermostat over here in the trailer.  I'm guessing that the previous owners moved it from its original spot when they hauled in a huge china cabinet and needed to claim that wall space.  When they moved it, however, they just spliced on another bunch of wire and ran it along the wall to the new spot.  So when they hauled that huge china cabinet out of here, the old-meets-new wires, held together with some electrical tape, were exposed.  I didn't think it looked that great.  Matt told me I wouldn't electrocute myself if I touched the wires, so I ripped the "moulding" that was "hiding" the wires off the wall, unhooked the thermostat from the new wires and reinstalled it in its original location with the old wires.  I didn't even turn off a breaker or anything -- HA!

What else.  Oh, here is what I painted on the first day of Spring.  To honor the change of seasons.

Yep, a winter tree.  It has snowed here every day since the first day of Spring.  I had to buy a pint-sized garden spade and finagle my way over behind the five foot tall pile of snow at the back of my house and shovel a bunch of it away from the window.  More snow was ready to slide off the roof and I was afraid all the pressure would crack the window.  I am seriously ready for some warmer weather.  Today on facebook my friend Robin posted about doing yard work, and yesterday Derek texted me a picture of the front window at Frame of Reference - there was no snow in evidence and the sun was shining.  Enjoy it while you can, people - I'm sending snow your way!