3rd Week of June - The Blues.

This weekend, Pat and Rory came back up to help. Tiff and her mom painted the entire "great room", as we're now calling it. North and south walls are kind of a cool grey, and the west wall is cornflower blue to compliment the almost royal blue of the kitchen. The blues are bold, but I think when the floor is in and the trim is finished, it will all come together nicely. We're very happy with the color choices Tiff made.

Pat and Rory also painted the rest of cabinet doors. I got one of them hung, and will work on the rest of them this week. The new hinges off-set the cabinet doors ever so slightly. Everyone else seems to think 'they're fine', but it's driving me crazy. So I'll work on shimming those up this week as well. All told, they're going to look very nice.

I got a few things odds and ends things done. I got the range hood installed, and it looks pretty cool. Additionally, on one of our ritualistic Saturday morning trips to the hardware store for something small that I should have picked up last time I was at the hardware store, Tiff and I haphazardly agreed on a ceiling fan we both liked for the great room. It was basically one of those, "I don't care anymore. Let's just get this one and if we hate it, we'll return it" moments that worked out in our favor. So, Rory and I got that put together and installed. We're all really happy with it.

Updates from here out may be a little sparse. I'll try to update something weekly. This week is cleaning and straightening things up. We have a lot of busy weekends and family visiting over the next couple months, so I'll try to update when I can.

West wall. Cornflower Blue

Cabinet doors. 

Future home of the range hood. Got the power cut in.

Outlet and 6" vent for the range hood.

Hood in place.

Cover installed and protective film removed.

View of the hood installed, and lonely cabinet door installed.

The new fan for the great room.

...and it even works.

New gas range installed...

The latest lull in progress was due to the carpet in the family room. The room in the house that I used to escape the construction zone. Now that the humidity has been high, and we've had the windows open to enjoy the temperate weather, the carpet in the family room began to smell very strong of pet urine. Apparently, the previous owner's dog had some incontinent issues. After a lovely relaxing evening at Chuck E. Cheese, I came home to the stench and literally freaked out. I called my buddy Sean (who had previously offered to clean our carpets if we needed it) at 8:15pm Thurday night, and amazingly he said he was able to come over still that evening. So Tiff and I moved everything out of the room and Sean came over to clean the carpet until nearly 11:00 that night. I can't thank him enough. After a couple days of drying, vacuuming up baking soda and carpet deodorizer, we're moved back in and utilizing that room. 

Meet Sean. Sean does carpets. Sean is awesome.

Saturday AM I curiously called the appliance store to see if the range we ordered had come in, and it had. I decided to run and get it knowing the Russell family was coming to visit, and Joe could help me with the install and moving new and old appliances around.

I'd never run a gas line before, but after reading some instructions and things online, it didn't seem too difficult. What's the worst that could happen, right? (Boom!) We're still here, so is the house, and Tiff and Nancy made us a pretty awesome dinner. All in all a good evening.

This morning I also installed the in-cabinet trash and recycling bins. Less stuff to trip over.

Today we're hoping to get the range hood installed, but may put it off until tomorrow so we can run around town with the Russell's before they head back to Sioux City.

New gas fittings off the existing lines.

New range installed. Whiskey on standby.

In-cabinet garbage and recycle bins.

... tucked away.

Kitchen progress...

Tiff and her mom got the kitchen backsplash and soffits painted the bold blue we wanted. We also got the top cabinet bases painted and hung back up, and as you can see we got our new refrigerator and dishwasher installed. The kitchen is finally starting to take shape. The wine rack cabinet conversion above the fridge is nice, and seemingly serves a good purpose for the space, but I'm less impressed with it than I was with the idea. Maybe when everything is all said and done, it'll grow on me a little more.

I also swapped out all the old beige outlets and switched in the kitchen for new GFI (code) outlets and white plate covers. The look really nice. The new gas range should be in next week, so I hope to have the range hood and gas line installed by the end of the weekend.

There's a lot of other things going on around here, like mowing the lawn, trying to find the tape, or figuring out our closet space, so progress is a little slow. The photo's below should show a pretty good leap in progress. 

Kitchen: top cabinets, appliances, and wine rack.

Kitchen: top cabinets.

New white switches, outlets, and face plates.

Sorry, I promise I'm not slacking...

Yesterday marked our last day at the Panda address. We are all cleaned up and moved out. Now it's time to re-direct our focus on the new house.

Tiff's mom was up here again this weekend. She helped paint and clean at the old house, and did a little more painting at the new house.

I got the new  refrigerator picked up and installed, and I also got our dishwasher installed. The kitchen is a bit of a mess at the moment, so I'll save the pictures for later. I'm also getting the "shop" organized and back in order. Soon Tiff should be able to park in the garage whenever she wants to.

I promise more pictures and regular posts coming again this week. 

Memorial Day Weekend.

I apologize for the lack of updates. It worked out that this weekend ended up being the best option for us to move. We got almost everything moved in one trip. A big thanks to "Kappy" and Tony for the use of trucks and trailers. Another big thanks to Tammy for taking Elliot and the girls to a movie, I have a feeling that was no easy task. And finally, thanks to all the Pandonians for the help with the move. We're gonna miss living up there.

The house is in a bit of dis-array at the moment. We're doing our best to adapt to living in a construction zone. It's been pretty smooth really. We've been busy doing things to make the house livable, some a bigger chore than others. We have to change out a couple bathroom faucets because they were old and stiff, and Elliot couldn't operate them. Got the washer and dryer hooked up. Got the appliances temporarily landed and installed. Our kitchen pantry is currently residing on a shelf, but it works well. 

Things have been so busy that I haven't taken many pictures. I'll try to take more pics this week. Stay tuned... -Dave, Tiffany, Elliot, and Lily.

Looking like a room!

Well, it's looking like one big room now. The ceiling and wall texture is very nice, and Tiff's mom has it all primed, ceiling and walls in these photos. She's painting the ceiling today, as I type. 

Tiff and I couldn't be happier. It looks so awesome. Thank you to all that have helped so much.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Ceiling and Wall, Texture and Primed.

Birthday Weekend

It was my birthday weekend. So I didn't get anything done Friday night, worked hungover on Saturday, and Saturday night went to another birthday party that Josh and Stacy had for me, but I was pretty much a zombie.

We spent most of the weekend prepping for John to come texture and priming cabinets. Pat and Rory were up here again this weekend. Tiff worked on the trim in Lilo's room, and Pat worked on repairing some our old furniture that used to be my grandma's. It's been in Elliot's room at the old house, but it's pretty rough and needs a facelift. So we're painting. I didn't get much spraying done this weekend because the weather has been cold and humidity too high. So I did a bunch of little stuff that I don't really remember.

John came over on Saturday and knocked out the sanding, ceiling and wall texture. It turned out really nice. I was going to post pics of it, but Tiff's mom came back up last night and is priming the entire room and painting the ceiling as we speak. From what I saw last night, it's going to look very nice. I'm getting excited. I can't wait to see it when I get there after work. THEN I'll take some pics!

Top Cabinets - priming

Lilo's Vanity - priming

Lilo's Vanity - priming

Selfie - Saftey First.

Flooring and Cabinets...

The flooring arrived yesterday.  Tiff and Elliot went to pick it up while I stayed back and worked on cabinet drawers.

The flooring took awhile to unload, but we got it all in the house and it should be climate acclimated enough to install when we're ready for it. I also ate the rest of Tiff's leftover pizza by accident. Sorry, babe.

Nanna Pat and Papa Rory came up from Sioux City last night to lend a hand, and they were the first peeps to spend the night in the new house. I think Pat's going to work on transferring stuff from Elliot's old room to her new room, painting trim and some other odds and ends that Tiff made a list for her to do.

As I continued work on the new base cabinet drawers for the kitchen island, I was becoming less impressed and more frustrated with the quality and craftsmanship of my Made in the USA "Quality One Woodworks" unfinished builder cabinets. I knew going into it that they were inexpensive, and un-finished, and that they'd take a little work to make nice. However, getting deeper into the dis-assembly and construction of these cabinets, it was clear that I would not be happy with the finished product. The cabinet doors, face frames, and drawer faces were nice enough. The cabinet hardware (drawer slides, and hinges) were nicer than I expected too, but the drawer frame construction was awful. They looked like they were thrown together with the cheapest plywood possible. The plywood was so bad that the layers were separating and falling apart, and I have countless slivers from working with them. None of the joints were aligned properly, or glued together, just stapled. When I was sanding the drawer sides, they literally began to fall apart in my hands. I was about to throw in the towel, considered buying new cabinets for the island, and just using these cabs for something in the garage.

I called the cabinet center at Menards, where I purchased the cabinets. After talking with Dwight about my concerns with the quality of the cabinets, he offered to let us exchange them for something different/better even though I had started finishing the drawers of these. I quickly put the cabs back together and we hustled over there to exchange them before he changed his mind. They had what we wanted in stock, and we left with nicer, pre-finished cabinets with minimal hassle, and minimal extra cost. Great customer service from that place. I like Menards. Thanks, Dwight. I left him an electronic, 'good game' slap on the ass with management this morning. I hope the recognize him at the next team meeting for is customer service excellence.

Unfortunately, in the all the hustle I didn't take many pics of the cabinet scenario. So I'll give you a little something else to look at.

Tiff and I have never liked the cabinet that resides above the fridge. That tiny little crap collector that most of the time contains things we haven't seen for a number of years. This house / kitchen offers that same waste of space. We decided that we'd convert that cabinet to something more useful for us. We like wine, so why not a wine rack. Some pics of the conversion process below. It should turn out pretty nice I think. Maybe not the most optimal environment and storage option for wine, but wine never seems to last very long in our turf, so the turn-over rate for occupancy of this space should be rather high. I think it'll work just fine. I'm not exactly a 'wood worker', just some fool with a lot of tools. For those of you that may see this who happen to hold the title Master Carpenter and Cabinet Builder (Dale), give me a break. I learned it from the Pintrest.

1 forklift pallet of flooring. 1 tired old truck

Cabinet from above the fridge, materials, and a measuring tool.

Laying out the cut lines for the wine bottle cradles of the base and neck.

I quick jig I made for the drill press.

Cutting the base cradles.

Cutting the neck cradles.

And mock-up. That's about as far as I've gotten so far. 

There will be two rows holding 16 bottles of wine in total. 

I may have to look at how heavy this thing will be 

in total and consider heavier hardware to hang it.

Progress update?

Well, it seems to be moving pretty slow. We spent all last week getting ready for John to come and work his magic. He came and got stage 1, tape and mud done. The evidence of the old walls is quickly fading. This weekend he'll be back for sanding and texture, that's when it should all really take shape.

Other than that, we've been doing little things. I hung the TV in the family room and ran cables through the wall. Did some yard work, removed a bush and took down some old split rail fence. We got Elliot's closet doors painted and hung. Stuff like that, little of which I have photo evidence of.

This week it's back to cabinets. I took the new base cabinets apart for the kitchen island. Personally, I'm not exactly impressed with their construction. They'll work, and look nice when it's all done, but it's going to take a little more work to get them there.

I'll post more tomorrow. For now, here's some photos of what we've dubbed "the great room" after tape and mud.

Front door.

Above stove.

Above sink.

Ceiling.

Update - Sheet rock / Drywall

The last couple days have been tedious work, but starting to show some progress. I'm seeing the transformation a little more now.

Yesterday, I did mainly plywood and other small framing work to prep for patching in drywall. Nothing very exciting, except for the removal of the post in the center of the room. Now that it's gone, we get the full openness of the concept.

However, I got a lot done tonight. Tonight when I got to the house, the new range hood had arrived, so after some drywall patches, I got it mocked up. I think it's going to look pretty good. It's quiet, moves a lot of air, and the lights are bright. I can't wait to see it nested in the cabinets when they're up.

I also got all the wiring done for the LED lights that are going under the top cabinets, which are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Then I can mount and wire in the transformer for them. They'll be tied into the light over the sink, that I also got relocated tonight.

Tony is going to come over and help me patch the ceilings tomorrow. That and a couple little wall repairs, and I should be pretty much ready for John to come for tape and texture.

Now I'm going home and going to bed. It's late and I have an 8am meeting tomorrow.

No Post.

Wall Repair.

More Wall Repair.

Soffit repair and range hood mock up.

Soffit repair, and low voltage wiring. 

More wall repair.

Weekend progress.

Well, looking around the house this evening.  It doesn't look like we got a whole lot done, but we did.

"Nanna Pat" and "Papa Rory" were up again the weekend to help. Pat and Tiff picked up the paint for Elliot's room, and Pat painted it, including the ceiling. I chose to have no say in paint color choice. It's pretty conservative, much like Tiff. Rory helped a lot with trim removal and sanding duties. Thanks!

It seems like we spent forever sanding, prepping, and priming cabinet doors and trim. All the hard work is paying off. The stuff is all looking really nice.

John Parker (tape and texture) came over, gave me the list of materials he needs, and told me what to do to prep the space. Got a little jump on that, but it's probably what I'll spend most of the week on.

Josh Fisher came over today and picked up Elliot and took her to the park. She'd been wanting to go for a couple days, and we have our hands full here. Josh got her outta here for a while. Thanks Josh and Stacy!

Other little milestones for the new crib include internet service and Direct TV.

I imagine there will be more transformation after next weekend.

Elliot's Room - pink and purple

Cabinet Doors.

Primed.

Trim, primed.