Kitchen

We spent the day in the kitchen and dining room today.   Mom primed the kitchen this morning.  I scraped the wall of the dining room that will get cabinets.  Dad moved an electric outlet.  It's original location was too low and would be blocked by the future cabinets.  It's now higher and will be usable.  At the same time, since there was already a hole in the wall, Dad installed an outlet in the garage (it's on the other side of the wall).  That will be nice since there was only one in there.

After a lunch break, I got to work texturing the wall of the dining room.  Good times.  The primer was still wet, so Mom and Dad couldn't paint the kitchen.  Dad hung the towel bars in the bathroom (those will be handy when I move in two weeks from now).  Mom dismantled the annoying front structure on the house.  Here's some before and after photos.

So much less annoying, especially for upcoming moving day.  It will eventually just have one large support at the right side, but this will do for now.  The ramp will also be gone, but that will wait until all the large, heavy furniture is where it needs to be.

Mom also go the garage rearranged so there will be more room for my stuff.  That's where most of it will be since I'm moving in long before many of the rooms will be ready.  We quit a bit on the early side today as the primer still wasn't totally dry (darn, cold weather).  We were hoping to get the paint done this weekend so we could go straight to cabinets next, but I guess we'll be a little later than we hoped.  Oh, well.  It'll get done anyway.

Carpet Removal and Other Exciting Adventures

I started the day by touching up the paint job in the study.  Dad patched holes in the kitchen.  Mom removed the carpet in the living room.  It was rather unfortunate that she did as it released a disgusting aroma of urine.  It lingered in the air for quite some time.

And, underneath the disgusting carpet, there was hideous tile.  It was interesting though because it's the same time that was throughout Mom's grandparents' house.  It got us talking about family history and I got to hear some stories that I hadn't before.  It was really nice.

Some of the tiles were loose and broken and need to be removed before we can lay down the laminate.  My plan was to check all the edge ones after the carpet was all up.  As Mom and I moved the couch to get to the last of the carpet, a whole row of the tiles slid along, too.  We busted up laughing - it was great.  Maybe you had to have been there, but it really was funny.

After lunch, Dad kept getting the kitchen ready for texturing.  Mom started doing prep work for that - taping off the ceiling and stuff so the texture wouldn't get on it and ruin her cleaning job (different method of texturing the kitchen than the other rooms, much messier).  I pulled up the carpet that was in the hall closet and removed the random trim from around the dining room window.  

Dad injected a bit of humor into the job of covering things up.  While Mom papered the ceiling, he took care of most of the outlets and switches.

At last it got to be the part of the day for texturing the kitchen. Yay!  Dad mixed up the compound very runny this time.  Then we poured it into the 'gun.'

The 'gun' then got attached to the air compressor.  Then the texture was shot onto the walls.  Tons o' fun!

Lots of Paint

I got to the house a little late due to a dentist appointment.  Dad had started working on removing the base cabinets in the kitchen.  Mom was stirring paint to do the study.  It took a bit of doing, but we eventually loosened the cabinets from the wall.  We were about to work on taking it outside when we thought to do some measuring.  Turns out, the corner part was too wide to fit, so we wouldn't be able to swing it around like we thought.  While Dad and I separated the two pieces, Mom went to work painting the study.

Dad and I eventually got the cabinets out, so the kitchen is now totally empty.

At this point, Dad and I went to the store to get some plumbing and various other supplies.  Upon our return, Dad went to work replacing the turn off valves for the kitchen sink and I helped Mom paint the study.  As you can see, she was a bit whimsical with her brush.

About the time we were finishing the study, Dad needed to go to the store.  When he was attempting to replace the valves, the pipes, from being corroded, cracked.  He cut  into the wall and removed the pipes.  Time for him to go back to the store.  So, we all took a break before we began again.  The study looks good, and will likely look even better when the paint is totally dry, instead of spotchily dry.

After break, Dad got to work fixing the pipes (success this time).  Mom and I painted the living room.  Dad also did some patchwork in the kitchen.  Hopefully, we'll be able to spray the orange peel texture Saturday afternoon.  We'll see.  Living room looks good - lots of progress today!

There's a Lot of Dust and Stuff in the Air

Dad started the morning off by sanding the texture in the study.  Dust everywhere in that enclosed room.  Good thing he was wearing his respirator - I don't think he could have taken a breath without it!  It seeped out into the rest of the house and gave the air a hazy quality.  Mom and I primed the living room (Mom wasn't cleaning ceilings - she loved it!).  I did the edges with the brush and she did the rest with the roller.  Dad started priming the study.  That pretty much took up the morning.

After lunch, Dad finished priming while Mom and I did some destruction.  I removed the rest of the tile from the kitchen counter.  This time, I was smart and wore ear plugs so my ears weren't ringing when I was finished.  Tile chunks were flying everywhere, so I was glad I had put on my protective glasses as well.  As a matter of fact, that night, as I was running my fingers through my hair, a quarter inch square piece of ceramic glaze came out.  Mom came behind me, sometimes warily, and removed the backer board for the tile.

After Dad finished priming, he was looking for things to do.  He attached the TP holder in the bathroom and caulked the vanity.

After the tile and backer board were done, Mom and Dad talked in the living room while I removed the kitchen sink.

Alas, Mom and Dad's conversation led to more work for next weekend.  It turns out that we didn't look at the living room window close enough.  It's nailing flange doesn't appear to be nailed into anything.  We need to cut out some wallboard, replace it with a 1x to nail to, and then recover, texture, and prime it.  Oh, joy!

Magical Work

This morning started with me moving some more stuff into the garage.  Dad was putting joint compound to the needed parts of the study and Mom was cleaning ceilings.  I started to sand the living room texture so that painting could commence, however, I ended up making more work for us instead.  I discovered that the ceiling molding on one wall had been removed after we textured it.  The paint there had loosened up and needed scraping.  Silly me, I thought this would be a relatively quick job.  Oh, no.....the paint just would not stop coming off in this one place.  It ended up being about the size of a pillow when it finally stopped scraping off.  That's when I had to stop, as it was time to go to a birthday party for a 1-year-old.

Upon my return, something magical had happened.  The kitchen ceiling was just about totally cleaned (now it is) and the study had been almost completely textured.  My parents are the best!

I finally did sand the living room.  We'll be priming the living room and study tomorrow.  Whoohoo!

Something's Done!

I got to the house about 9:45 this morning with some boxes to put in the garage for the start of the moving process.  I found out that my parents had stopped by yesterday and got some more ceilings cleaned - the study got finished and the kitchen halfway.  I went to work in the study adding joint compound to the uneven spots.  After my third batch, it was just after 11 and I was wondering what happened to Mom and Dad as they hadn't arrived yet.  I called and that's when they were pulling up.  They had needed to stop at a few stores on the way in.

After some chit chat we got to work.  Mom, shockingly enough, cleaned ceilings.  Dad installed the molding in the bathroom.

I kept working on the walls in the study.  One corner had to be redone entirely.  The original corner tape was coming undone and needed to be removed.  There was quite a large gap that needed to be taped and compounded.  End result:

Dad and I moved the vanity back into the bathroom.  He then connected the plumbing.  And, it's a completed (mostly) bathroom.  Just need to put the cover plates on the switches and outlets and clean the ceiling.

I continued removing kitchen tile while Dad rescrewed some of the loose wallboard in the study.  Just in time, too, since I'll likely be texturing the walls tomorrow.

That back splash is now almost entirely gone, and my ears stopped ringing just a few hours ago.

A Slow Day

Still sick, but not nearly so bad.  I went to the house and did stuff, but was on break more often and for longer periods of time than I was working.

Yesterday, while I was home sleeping, Dad put together my bathroom sink.  It's not in place yet, but soon.  And, surprise, surprise, Mom cleaned ceiling.

Today, I pulled the last of the baseboard from the study.  This was fortuitous as Dad planned to use it as the new baseboard in the bathroom.  The last piece I pulled, he cut to the size needed for there.  After he cut and washed them, I painted them.  They went from disgusting to quite nice.

Mom kept cleaning ceilings.  She has now finished the living and dining rooms.  Yay!  She then started on the study, since that's the room I'll be moving into in about a month.

Dad removed the two upper cabinets from the kitchen and started removing the tile.  The kitchen definitely looks much worse now, but will look great eventually.