We got our internet. We have our TV. The clothes, food and furniture are here (well some of it). Just took our first showers in the new house, on our FIRST NIGHT IN!

Yahoo!

WE PASSED!

Yahoo and Yippee. Hot Damn! We passed. M worked so very hard to meet this date, and she did it. We're both surprised, relieved, and, well, tired.

This means we can legally move in. The stupid Wild land Fire Rating stickers on the 2 year old (ok, maybe only 18 months old?) windows can come off (good luck with that, right? Luckily M's mom, MaryO is dying to get to them!). We can start hauling stuff over, and get on with it!

There are still details to wrap up. We fudged a few things to pass, like we have closet rod as our stair rail inside right now because the special order railing isn't in yet. That means only part of our closet rods will be up until it comes in (hey waste not, want not! Repurpose baby!). But our guest bath is complete (just need to buy a shower curtain and a TP holder and we're good to go!) so we can bathe, and the kitchen is mostly functional. Carpet comes Thursday. What more could a girl want?

Such a relief. And yes, I promise, photos soon.

OMG Omg omg!

I know I promised photos. And I know I've been an infrequent poster. But I had to write this post tonight.

WE HAVE OUR FINAL INSPECTION SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON!

Can you believe it?

I have missed sharing so many updates in the last 6 weeks--I've been working lots of hours, I get to the house infrequently, and never feel like being online in the evenings. I will have to catch you all (all 9 of you) up. And I will.

BUT THE INSPECTION IS SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW! We may not pass. The interesting (and I say that with a bit of tongue in cheek) thing is that our (extended) permit expires on Thursday, so M has been driving hard to have tomorrow be the day (thereby giving her another day to fix anything that doesn't pass. Let's hope we do!

We're hoping to move some stuff this weekend. Then Monday I leave again for work, and when I get home we MIGHT BE LIVING IN THE NEW HOUSE. Can you tell I'm excited?

Bedroom carpet comes Thursday. Most everything else is livable. Still stuff to do, but it'll be a "process."

Did I mention our FINAL INSPECTION IS SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW AFTERNOON?

Wish us luck!

Yes, I'm still out here (kinda)

Oh my, I didn't mean for it to be so long. So much to report. Wondering if anyone still cares (not sure I would after 6 weeks of absence!) So let's cut to the chase:

M's back is better. She's probably at 95% normal. Still needs to be careful. I have been to the house maybe 6 or 7 times since I started working again. Lots of hours and lots of travel. Luckily the progress continues. We are VERY close. Here's the update:

* Deck just about complete (maybe totally?) Not sure about the top pieces for each panel (like a cap). Stairs done, landing pad poured, railings on.
* Office stairs in progress (haven't been out there so not sure status). Landing pad poured.
* All handles/door pulls on. Still need to do weatherstripping.
* Dryer installed. Washer still to be done? Not sure. Laundry room basket storage/folding table complete. Need handles for cabinets
* Dishwasher purchased and ready for pickup. Stove and Fridge in place (maybe not hooked up yet?)
* May have found Marble slab for island yesterday. Closest one we've seen yet. Waiting for fabrication bids (expensive!)
* Toilet in powder room installed and working (I got to be the first to use it--too much information?) Still need to install pedestal sink and purchase faucet.
* Interior stairs hardwood still needs to be laid. Railing ordered--may be in.
* Vanity in Guest bath done and in place. Ordered sink, just got the call that it's in. M in the process of installing fixtures in tub. Toilet is in and working.
* Master closet (and guest and coat closets) still need rods.
* Master bath: we're stuck. Our painter offered to paint our vanities (all prepped and ready) as a housewarming gift but hasn't picked them up yet. Shower tile still needs installation. We were waiting for M's back to heal. We're close.
* Need to pick out carpet for bedrooms. General idea of what we want, just need to find time to shop for it.

Whew! There's some other stuff we've done (outside) and some new lighting, etc. I promise to show pix soon, but wanted to check in and ask you to hang in there with me and my sporadic posting.

We're getting ready to plan our housewarming. You're all invited (who are you all anyway?). : )

Vanity

As in, the bathroom sink kind, not the concern about how we look.

M is still down with her bad back. VERY slow progress. Our goal is for her to be able to tie her own shoes by March 31 when I leave for 6 days. I am cautiously optimistic. As for me, I'm trying to talk myself down from feeling like the next handful of days are my last days ever to work on the house, and the time is wasted because M is not up to working, yet. This is all a result of starting a new job next week, and knowing that with a fair amount of travel in my immediate future, my time to contribute anything substantial to the house will be minimal.

But onward! We have been making progress on our guest bath vanity. We started it BBB (before bad back) and have continued a bit while M has been hurting. And by continue I mean that she's been standing beside me with her umbrella cane (she calls it Mr. Peanut) and coaching me through what to do. For some reason, though, she seems to not want me to use the chop or table saw. Hmmmm. Anyway, here are the beginning stages of the vanity construction.

First M built a basic box. Then we started with our cladding materials:

Yes, those are pallets.

We disassembled them (read: cut through the screws holding them together) to get our planks.

The leftover pile.

Then I made five "washes" of paint (from interior leftovers we had on hand). I just watered it down in: pale green (white + guest bath green), guest bath green, powder room dark gray, laundry floor light gray and some random medium blue we had a tester for. Here I am painting. Yes, it looks like an animal living on my head (trying to grow my hair out a bit).

The finished planks drying. The colors are more intense than shown here, but because of the late day sun they look washed out.

One side attached, mostly. This is still in progress, so more to come. Again, colors are a bit brighter in person, but still subtle. This is the "public" side that will be next to the toilet. The left side will be nearly against the wall. We're considering a tin top with an overmount sink.

Another (slightly different) view. We have a few more steps to finish and may get to do that today depending on how well I take direction from M, and whether she can trust my measurements (I hate measuring tiny increments with a tape measure--I'm always 1/8 inch off!).






Stay tuned for more progress. Oh yeah, and that white stuff that's all over the driveway? Well, when we tore the original house down, we had a lot of old stucco (backed by chicken wire-like backing) and so to keep our driveway from getting too muddy or weed infested, we laid it down there (as a maybe temporary measure). It helps, but it uneven and I've nearly tripped so many times!

Back in black

Ok, not an AC/DC reference, but a reference to M's back, which is still in a terrible way. Also, though, a reference to my new employment gig.

I start my new job on the 27th, and make a trip to NJ on the 31st. So kinda back. In black. Yah, I know it's not exactly the correct reference. Whatever.

We've tried to work, and I do have some photos to show of the vanity we've been constructing for the guest bathroom. Plus today we did some plumbing (very cool, one of my favorite jobs so far) though it was not a good level, angle, or job for M to be involved with.

I promise to be back with photos soon. But I need to find a way to convince M to take a few more days off to heal her back. It's so hard to lie around, and so frustrating to everyone, but it's important.

Meanwhile, I'm assessing my work wardrobe, and hoping that my new (consulting) gig will afford me the opportunity to get to see all my east coast peeps in the upcoming weeks, as it seems I will be making multiple trips to my old stomping grounds. If you are there in earshot of NJ, send me an email at karensedmonds@yahoo.com and let's coordinate! : )

Deck railings and continuing down time

It's been a bit of a mixed bag, here at Chez DG. We made some good progress on deck railings over the weekend, though took Sunday off to go to the Sacramento Antique Fair.

Here's the railing panel construction in progress:

Panel cut to size. "Sandwich" boards cut to size, primed and painted in 3 coats of paint.

 One panel, almost ready to be placed between posts. There was lots of back and forth about spacing, evenness (side to side between the posts) and general design. It took a long time to come to the plan, but now we're on our way.

Small panel awaiting placement between two posts.

Large panels leaned against their posts. I think we've figured out the clip/attach system now, and are about ready to place them, except, in other news, M's back has gone out.

She has a bulging disk, and she's been in a bad way all week. Like a can-hardly-walk-and-sitting-in-the-car-is-super-painful way. Poor thing.

Just when one of us gets well, the other seems to get worse. In good news, though, I got results of a thyroid biopsy this week: benign! Yipee! That was a bit of a scare.

And in other mixed news, I have a potential short-term job on the horizon. The good news is it's a job I'm excited about. The not as great news is that it means I would start in about 2 weeks. So, I want to get as much of my personal contribution of work (read: work I can actually do vs. work I am not qualified for) done before I have to start spending time at an actual job (and one which will likely require a bit of travel, meaning no weekends to moonlight at the house). But it's a great opportunity, and the house will be finished sooner or later.

Even with all the injury going around, we've still made some progress on our guest room vanity. It's cool, and I'll share that soon.

It's electric!

I've done a bit of electrical work in my day. And by that I mean changing light switches, installing fixtures, dimmers and the like. I understand the basic concept of wiring and electricity (well, sort of) and maybe I got my no-fear attitude from my dad (He worked for the utility company, maintaining the powerhouses. He was an electrical machinist, not a licensed electrician, but he got it. And he taught me as long as I was very careful--both switch and breaker off--I could do it too).

But at DG, I've done nothing even close to electrician work, unless you count the installation of the face plates. Hardly professional grade.

M suggested I install the second master bathroom light (I'd done the first one months ago--we liked it, but weren't sure about the size since we were still debating the sizes/purchase of medicine cabinets to go over the vanities. We've since decided to start just with mirrors and upgrade to medicine cabinets later. Medicine cabinets couldn't be recessed, and so we weren't sure the light fixtures would come out from the wall far enough to adequately light a cabinet. With mirrors, they're fine). So I did.

We'd been kind of stuck on what fixtures we wanted for the guest bath. Then, Home Depot got in some new lighting options, and there were a couple possibilities that we liked. They were economical, small enough to fit the unique spot where they go (slanty ceiling), and they were cute and fit with our Craftsman theme. So a couple days ago, I got my toolbelt on (not really, though it would've been handy) and got them installed. I only had to ask M a couple questions!

One partially installed. Note the slant.

This corner is tight!

Close up (don't mind the poor green paint cut in! That was done before I was more experienced!)

Success!


















We debated a bit about whether to have shades up or shades down, and settled on this orientation, at least for now. Once we have a vanity and mirror, we'll revisit whether this was the right choice.

Appliances, or what are those huge boxes doing in the middle of the room?

Do you remember the appliance saga? We bought our refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer back in the summer. We thought we might take delivery in September, then we postponed it to October, then to December, and then to January.

Then they called us to tell us there was a delay with the dryer. Really? Ok, let's have them delivered in February. We might be close to moving in around the scheduled date, the 18th.

We purchased the warranty (what are you really supposed to do about all these warranties these days?) with the understanding that at 11 months into the purchase, we could call for service (maintenance) and then cancel the contract for the warranty (saves a lot of $$). But the clock would start ticking upon delivery, so we wanted that date to be as close to possible as our move in (and start using) date. Well, it's been 2 weeks, and here's where the appliances are:

 Yes, you're seeing that correctly. That's the washer and the dryer, sitting (still in boxes) in the laundry room.

Along with the refrigerator and stove, sitting in the living room, still in protective wrap. Yesterday we moved the 'fridge into place to check the fit, and then promptly moved it back to the center of the living room. After I took this photo, we even wrapped it's cardboard box back around it.

M had to fit some additional trim alongside the 'fridge, so we needed to see it in place. It's pretty. I can't wait to use it. I guess after the trim is painted, these babies can be installed. One step closer . . .


In other news, M was sent to the paint store to pick out our white for the trim this morning. And the report at mid-day is that the painters have most of the upstairs masked off. I can't wait to see it! I'll be out there painting deck railing trim in an hour or so. Rain is coming late tonight, so we're trying to get as much outdoor work done as possible pre-rain, and while the painters are in the house.

Well well well

When last I posted, we thought the painters (it was Levi and Antonio, not Fernando!) would have been back by now. The good news is that their business is booming! The bad news is that painting (actual painting) has yet to be begun. Today they'll come and do the last of the prep work, and I think tomorrow the actual painting will start.

In the meantime we've been working. On . . .well, everything. Too much to show in one post, so I'll focus today on trim finishing. Here's the beam that spans the living room and kitchen.

With preliminary "wrap."

Testing out trim sizes and shapes.

Now completely wrapped, but still not with all finish trim. (note: this is just primed trim, not final painted.)

The pillar cased in. Looking pretty

Another view.
























And upstairs, more trim going on. Here are a few shots from the "loft" area at the top of the stairs (it's not really a loft, hence the quotes. We're not really sure what to call it).

In progress

A close up of the trim in progress. M doesn't really have a pattern she follows, rather she tries to envision it and then plays around with it. Often she gives me several options to choose from. Luckily, we often chose the same option. I'm amazed at her ability to figure this stuff out without a pattern to follow!

Still in progress. Note that the stair skirts are in place. The stairs themselves, however are still waiting for their wood to be installed.

We're definitely getting close. Next up: photos of our appliances (delivered but not installed), my electrical work, and our deck railing progress.

Painters in da House!

The Painters are here! The Painters are here! Fernando and Levi showed up today, and started puttying and caulking. They have probably another part of a day, and then it'll be ready for trim painting. Not sure when they'll be back for that, but soon! And this is a CRITICAL step, because once the trim is complete, we can install toilet #2 and the pedestal sink in the powder room. Yes, an actual indoor sink with plumbing. So no more washing hands, paintbrushes, etc at the hose in the back yard (a cold proposition in the winter!).

Photos and further updates to follow!

Is there a Dr. in the House?

Nearly another week lost, and frustratingly. Saturday I came down with some stomach ick that is just now resolving. You know, 'nard issues. Enough said.

So, though M has been making progress on trim and the last door to be installed (between the loft and the later-to-be-finished craft/mechanical area) I have not seen any of it with my own eyes.

I'm taking my sorry self out there today to see what's up and to report on what's next. Our appliances are still scheduled to be delivered Monday, but I'm wondering if we should postpone--at least a week or so. The painters still haven't started . . . .

In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day all!

Kitchen love

Another few days have passed without a ton of progress on my part. Luckily M has been working on the casing around the living room pillar and the beam that spans the kitchen and living room. Here are some in progress shots:

Partial casing on beam. First step. (That red thing in the background is a plastic cover over the smoke alarm. It looks like a red shower cap, but kept me from getting paint on the alarm). Looking toward office (right) and powder room (right).

Same beam and casing, but looking up from below. First step was to place the 2x4s you see sandwiched between the beam and the trim.

Mocking up the trim. This is not the final plan, but it was interesting to try some different options. The amazing thing is that M is not following a pattern for this casing, but kind of has a vision, and an idea of the style, and it making it up as she goes along. Definitely not the way I work, but then I wouldn't have the patience to get it right like she does.

With the bottom piece on, and with mockup.













And now on to my current favorite thing in the house. The back splash. We are so in love with it, and now with the grout complete, even more so. It feels like a long time ago that we looked and looked and looked for tile, and then debated about splurging for this tile, and then wondered if it would be too bold a statement (shape and color). We could not be more thrilled with it!

It's so fun to see all the choices and finishes come together, and then to be so pleased with them.







10 days until appliances (if we don't postpone for a couple more weeks).

Yeah!

A little sprucing up

You know how when you have a deadline, you get distracted by all kinds of stuff that's not part of the deadline, yet seems so important? No? You don't know? This doesn't happen to you? Hmmmm

So there's no firm deadline (yet) but I was making great progress on a checklist of items that I can do without supervision (read "without M taking time away from stuff only she can do to help me") but then a couple days ago, I looked out at our sad backyard. Sad because the trees are mostly leafless, the veggie garden is dormant, and the dahlia bed is covered in weeds. Sad because the tufts of green grass (yes, I'm grateful that our grass is green this time of year in California) are already too high and too tough to mow. Sad because there are piles everywhere: piles of dirt; piles of concrete; piles of stucco, piles of stuff to burn (dead branches, leaves, etc); piles of pots for the garden; piles of lumber; piles of siding. Sad piles. 

And then I cast my eyes upon this sad little structure:

Sad, no? When we bought DG, there was a large stack of old wooden garage doors in the back yard. Like about 12 of them. Who knows why, but after discarding many of them, M used her amazing ingenuity, and used a couple to build this temporary shed. So it's not totally weatherproof, and not very pretty, but it helps keep some of the metal lawn furniture, old motorcycles, and other miscellaneous stuff mostly dry.


I was looking out at the yard, and noticed how dumpy it looked and got an idea. What if we painted it and hung a couple old windows on it. It doesn't change the functionality (it's a temporary structure, but I don't see a new, cuter, more functional one being built any time soon--afterall, I want to be living in the HOUSE, not the shed!), but it sure might make it less of an eyesore. It wouldn't change all the other piles of crap stuff in the yard, but my idea was that if the eye had one pretty place to rest, maybe the other stuff would seem, well, less crappy.

See the piles?
















So we spent maybe 2 hours max, and here's what we got:

The spruced-up version. Still a little, well, unpolished, but it is way cuter and makes me smile to see it from the kitchen window.

Catching up

Hmmmm, more infrequent posts. It's alarming how now that I'm unemployed, it seems like I have less time than ever. I'm racing through chores this morning so I can get out to DG and get to work!

I've been trying to spend the weekday mornings looking for work, and then spend the afternoons working on the house. It's been a good mix, but I never feel like I have enough time out there.

It's definitely a good time for me to have some extra time, as we're getting a lot of things wrapped up, and the end is in sight. Still no prospective move-in date, but hopefully soon.

SO, in the interest of getting caught up, here's a list of progress:

Interior painting: all complete except a tiny touchup in the loft, finishing the stairwell (I need M for this--the ladder on the stairs scares me!) and a touchup in the master bath. In the last 2 weeks, I've repainted the laundry room, cut in all the bedrooms, livingroom, kitchen, dining nook, mudroom and guest bath. This from the girl who previously wasn't allowed to cut in. I mastered that beast and am pretty proud of it!

Laundry Room: All painted. 1/2 of cabinets hung. BEHEMOTH refrigerator moved in. I'll save all these photos and a detailed description for another post. They're single-post worthy!

Great room/Dining Room: All painted. All flooring in. Trim ready to paint. M working on casing of beam and pillars.

Kitchen: All painted. All flooring in. All cabinets installed. Countertop and sink installed. Needs plumbing. Island needs to be built. Trim painting still needed. Appliances due to deliver in 2 weeks!

You can see the backsplash and the counter here. It hasn't been grouted yet.

Finally, a photo where the countertop is a bit more visable. In person, it's really sleek and shiny. It comes out pretty flat in most photos.

No, that hood isn't blue--it's just the protective coating that I'll remove once all painting is complete. We're thrilled with how the kitchen is coming along!



Powder room: All painted (though ceiling needs one more coat, and walls need touchup. Ready for trim paint, then toilet and sink can be installed. All wainscotting installed.

Stairwell: Stair nosing finally received. Need to install hard wood on stairs, and stair risers. Needs finish painting (at ceiling). Needs trim painting.

Guest Bedroom: All painted. Ready for trim paint. Needs window seat cushion.

Guest Bathroom: All painted. Ready for trim to be painted, then toilet can be installed. Needs tub pluming fixtures. Need to find/make vanity.

Master Bedroom: All painted. Closet painted M nearly finished with cabinetry. Here is a play by play of the "build" of the unit that will be our dresser/built in/window seat:

Building the cabinets. That's M's mom in the upper right corner--she LOVES building these!

More building. M's mom Mary in her work suit we made for her 2 years ago for her birthday. It's a white coverall one-piece, with "DEAD GUY ESTATE: Work Crew" stenciled on the back. She wears it out sometimes (she volunteers at the SPCA petting cats and it comes in handy protecting her clothes). It cracks me up that she will wear it out in public!

Moving the boxes into place.

A day's work. Note only the small drawers are in place, and there are gaps in between the boxes. This will be fixed. Also note the poor paint job at the ceiling--this was pre-mastering of the cutting in technique. Rest assured, it's all fixed and finished now. It's amazing how it makes EVERYTHING look so much better!

M practicing how small she can make herself. Partially completed drawers. Still mocking-up height on both sides. There was quite a bit of back and forth about how high these puppies should go to maximize our storage as well as look built in when complete. There was also some controversy about how bulky they looked when they went up nearly to the ceiling and didn't step back. In the end we compromised.

With partial trim in place. Isn't it neat how these are starting to look like built-in furniture?

And the nearly finished product. Note that there will be doors on the top box on the left to mirror the right. And that small "step-back" on the top box was the compromise with the height. Now I need to buy a piece of foam and cover it in something fun to go on top of the window seat (yes, we really do have a window seat in both bedrooms--this one is functional with the drawers below. The guest room one is strictly there to add some charm and hide the HUGE HVAC duct that runs through the room!




We still need to pick out carpet for both bedrooms, too.

Master Bath: the tile in the shower floor is partially laid, but we're still assessing it. The vanities will be painted by the painter, and then (also once the trim is painted) we can install those, plumb them and get them working. I still need to do some touchup painting it the master.

Other: the deck railings need to be installed (and purchased!) and the stairs finished.

Overall, though, you can feel the momentum. I can't wait to get in there!

In Love . . .

I'm in love. It's just started going up, and once again all I had was my phone camera, but I couldn't wait to show you.

Sigh. (in a good way)

So so so pretty, especially when we remove the protective cardboard on the counters. More, official photos to be taken today. It's time to go to work!

Decisions reversed!

Remember when the bid we got for painting our interior trim coincided with me losing my job? Remember how we decided that I'd have extra time, could help prep and that we should do the interior trim paint ourselves? Well, I'm here to tell ya that changing one's mind can be a powerful thing.

After the spray fail of earlier this week, and continuing problems with the sprayer, M and I came to separate, independent decisions to reconsider hiring our neighbor and professional painter to do the trim. What a relief! He came over Wednesday, confirmed the price (about $600 less than we were expecting) and told us the prep would start as soon as his crew had some extra time. Actual painting will start in about 2 weeks. What that means is that there are several items to be finished before the painting can begin:

Stair skirting completed
Casing on the beams and pillars downstairs
Casing on the pillar in the loft
Stair fronts (are they called risers?) installed.

There's more stuff for sure, and we'll work on a list of it today and tomorrow.

This is such a huge relief. It feels like the end is in sight. And Chris and his crew will do a much better job than we could.

Meantime, we I repainted the laundry room (a pretty pale blue) and it looks great. I EVEN DID THE CUTTING IN!  (you have no idea how proud I am that I conquered this skill) I lost my camera for a couple days, but now it's back, so I promise some photos. I did a good job for a newbie. This afternoon I'll work on another room that has the bulk painting done but needs that top part next to the ceiling finished.

We moved the fridge (more to come + a bunch of comical photos) and are assessing how to get it into the house. That deserves it's own post.

And now that the decision's been made to get the professionals in for trim painting, maybe, maybe this weekend we can set a move in date!

(not forgetting that the following is just a partial list of to be completed items:
Master Bedroom Built ins (partially complete)
Vanities painted and installed in master bath
Master shower tiles
Medicine cabinets found and installed in master bath
Lights assessed and installed in master bath
Closet hardware installed in master closet
Carpet for upstairs bedrooms
Vanity found for guest bath
Toilet installed in guest bath
Railing for stairwell
Door for loft
All door hardware purchased and installed
Lighting for over island
Island built
Island countertop picked out and fabricated
Powder room toilet installed
Powder room pedestal sink installed
Powder room lighting finished
Deck railing purchased and installed
Stairway from office landing built and installed.)

WHEW!

Spray fail

Late last week, after getting the laundry room all cleaned up, and ready to become our temporary "spray studio," I finished all the cabinet sanding, and we pulled all the pieces back in and M got ready to paint. It worked, but dripped. We adjusted, We tried again. Still dripped. Adjusted the thickness of the paint. Still drippy. Adjusted the paint sprayer pressure. Still got drips.

I didn't handle it very well. We've been expecting to paint so many of the final finishes (trim, vainties, cabinets in the laundry and mud room) with the sprayer to facilitate the process and speed it up. It just didn't give good results.

So we need to do some research, and see if we can conquer this. We have a DVD that came with the sprayer, so we'll watch that today. M is starting the caulking today. She's promised me that once the sprayer is mastered, we can then set a move-in date (the trim paint is a big big part of not finishing so once it looks like it's working, we can scope out all the remaining tasks and see if we can set a date. GULP!

In other news, we finally picked up the vintage fridge we bought months ago (for a display cabinet). More to come on that in the next post!

Rethinking the laundry room finishes

Remember here where we painted the laundry room floors with such a neat color scheme and pattern? Well, at that time, we thought we'd have white walls and painted cabinets that coordinated somehow. Well fast forward a few months. Our walls are white, but we had such a hard time coming up with a cabinet color we liked, that would go with the floor, and that was bright and fun but not too bright and fun.

And so we went ahead and primed the cabinets with the primer we had (gray). We kinda liked the color, but not for the cabinets. M suggested we swap our thinking and paint the walls instead and then painted all the cabinets and trim white (along with the washer and dryer which will be white). Ok! So then, what color to paint! We've been putting swatches on the wall, and not really liking any of them enough to choose them. We're currently thinking a very very pale color. More to come on that.

In the meantime, the laundry room has been my sanding studio. I've just finished sanding the master bath vanities (yes, I promise a post on those soon) and all the cabinetry. We thought since there's no permanent furntiture in teh laundry room yet, and since the walls will still need to be painted, we'd use it as our spraying studio. We're close to starting.

But then yesterday, I removed all the cardboard protecting covering the floors. There was a lot of sanding dust, plus much dirt and dried mud (is that different from dirt?) which had worked its way through the cardboard. And then just as I was about finished sweeping it all up (so as to provide a mostly dust-free room to paint) Willie ran through with muddy paws. ACK! I had a mini meltdown about the dirt and filth and the fact that the white squares are already not white. So we may be rethinking the color on the floors (the gray squares look ok) and the wall color, but maybe not the cabinet color. Sigh. I loved the color and pattern on the floors, but admit that the upkeep may be too rigorous. We will see what happens next!

Here are some thrilling (not) photos of cabinet work.

The uppers are getting painted. The lower is a new piece M built to utilize some drawers we were given. The laundry baskets are two of six that will live there on shelves.

 Uppers with doors removed.

Doors for uppers pre-priming.

 Boxes primed.

Doors in the process of priming.

 Primed on the outside, insides still to go

All complete.




Today's task (I think) will be trying out the sprayer. I think we're committed to white cabinets, regardless of other colors. Maybe. : )