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.