Oh yes - Orange!

So, I've been spending far too much time in home improvement stores lately. I had a 15 minute chat with Chuck in the Falls Church Home Despot the other day. Turns out that in suburbia, they actually answer your questions rather than run away to another aisle. See - now that I have floor, it's onto fun stuff like built-in shelves, floor trim and other exciting things that require the use of power tools. And paint! The kitchen got some spackle this week. Obviously, spackling is not my forte. But after sanding - it will be much improved. Then, primer and my daring kitchen color - Stirring Orange....which is the top one here. But on the wall, it looks more orange and less sunburned barbie flesh....more like the bottom one. But then again - this will look different on different computers, so just stop on by this weekend, and check it out for yourself!It's an energetic cheerful orange. Orange=friendly and welcoming. It might be a little overpowering, but I figure the kitchen is small and has a lot of other stuff on the walls, so it shouldn't blind people. Only one wall isn't broken up by something, so if it looks crazy there, I can always tone it down with some glaze or just hang something on the wall. I figure it's worth a try. The living room will be a tan of some sort, so that should keep the house from feeling too -high-energy. The old electric yellow paint just makes it feel a little too intense all the time. Hard to relax.

So, I actually took off work for half of today and all of Friday to paint and get my kitchen back together. Steve-o's best friend from San Fran is coming to visit this weekend, so the place needs to have at least the appearance of normalcy. Wish me luck!

On a happy note - even with all the chaos, my plants are still grow, grow, growing. See - Okay, we cheated a bit with Steve-0's herbs, but the other stuff is growing from seed.

Helloooo in there!

Now that there is floor, I thought - I'll punch a few holes in the wall of my own. I realize this logic isn't...well....logical. But I never promised that this home repair would make any sense.

See, my little condo is short on storage. I thought there was tons when I first moved in and somehow, it all got filled up quickly. So, this time around, I'm going to create some more. I decided that I'd make use of all that space in the wall between the studs. Waste not, want not, and all that good stuff.

So, I started cutting....with a little help from my friends. Here, you can see the fellas through the hole in the wall we just cut. Helloooo guys! The missing drywall on the side facing the camera was actually from a ill-fated attempt at demolishing that part of the wall....til I found out that it needs to be there to hold up a big beam. I decided it wasn't a good idea to remove it. :)

So, there I was merrily cutting along between the studs (16 inches on center...so about 15 inches apart...I learned something) and when I got to the third opening....I discovered - pipes! Boo! Pipes are bad. This means I'd have to relocate them or not use that space. I'm opting for the latter. Especially because the main power cord for the condo is tucked in there too. No need to play with a few hundred amps of power. So, I'm going to cut out the stud between the hole on the right and the middle one, make a new header, and built a shelving thing to put inside the wall. It will only be 6 inches deep, but that's deep enough to store glasses, or cans, or cupcakes. :)

That should free up a bit of space in the cabinets. Hooray! I plan on doing the same thing in the bathroom, because I need a place to tuck extra toiletries and rolls of tp.

Hey - did you know that 2 by 4s aren't actually 2 inches by 4 inches. They used to be, but then people got picky and wanted smooth surfaces. So, they sanded down the 2 by 4s by 1/4 inch on each side and got the current size - 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches. There's your historical lumber lesson of the day.

I also sanded about 2/3 of the kitchen over the weekend. I had my dust mask on...it was sexy. When I was done, I had crazy yellow eyebrows from where the paint dust had settled. It was like having highlights...only dirtier.

Let there be floor!

Yes...the day has finally come. There is floor again. See.....





I was going to include a picture of me hugging the floor, but I thought that might be a little overboard. They still need to come back and put in the transition pieces in the doorways, ands bring me one more thermostat for the in-floor heating. But....there is something to walk on. Hurray!

Now - the re-arranging can begin. Well, sort-of. I still have to put on the baseboard and paint. Hmmm...back to paint. It should be easier to pick out now that there is floor, but there is still a dizzying array of colors!

Bad Thursday!

Whoever said Mondays are a bad day hasn't had a Thursday like mine.

First, I found out my bank checkcard had been used to go purchase 100 bucks worth of stuff....and not even good stuff....by someone other than me. So, I got to have a fun time canceling my card and being put on hold by numerous companies. By the way - have you ever encountered a phone system that actually kicks you off if they make you wait longer than 10 minutes? "Due to high call volume, your call will be terminated once your wait time reaches 10 minutes." They make you wait - then, after you've wasted 10 minutes, they make you start all over. Very lame! Luckily, the mystery charge was only 100 bucks and everything should get reversed and turn out fine. My new card is on its way, and I actually had a dream that it arrived. So, that sounds like a good omen, right?

But, I went home and discovered the electrician amusing himself by putting holes in my ceiling. He had to be amusing himself, cause I certainly didn't tell him to do that. He was supposed to go from the breaker box, up the wall, and then run the wire in the ceiling below the beams....going through the laundry closet and utility closet. Then, take the wire across the hall by going between the ceiling beams and then down to the utility box in the wall. Cutting required? - One hole, maybe two....and those would be in the closets. I can fix that. See - I wanted him to follow the blue path...but he decided to do it his way. Super! So, he cut 8 holes in the ceiling....the ceiling that just got painted 1.5 months ago. The very same ceiling that runs into the living room....so, that's a lot of repainting. In fact, it would have been better if he just cut a big piece of drywall out. Cause it would make less seams when I go to repair it. So, that's probably what I'll do. Then, I'll borrow Mr. R and his nail gun and I''m hoping it won't look like crap if I just paint the new parts. It can be hard to match new paint to old paint, but it was just painted, so hopefully, it will be okay.

But Miss R. gave me a pep talk. Bottom line - I need to be bitchier. I can get really annoyed, but then when I actually need to yell at the people, I wimp out. Mental note - Must practice bitchy-ness. Hey - are you looking at me?

SIGH

So...this is pretty depressing. Here it is, the beginning of April....springtime...the time of happiness and renewal and all things wonderful....except floor. Yep - still floor-less. Even worse, I'm on about the 7th time of being promised floor on Wednesday or Friday or Tuesday or whatever. The most recent incident - they bought the wrong thermostat for the under-floor heating system. And worse yet, they cannot do math! The way they were going to set it up, I was going to be blowing fuses left and right! Need to turn off the lights if you want to run the heat! Gotta use the toaster oven in the bedroom if the fridge is on, because it'll overload the circuits otherwise. Arg!

I'm just about at the end of my ability to absorb more mishaps like this. It's been over 10 months since I had a regular old functioning house. And all I want is to have floor and a place to sit and a countertop and not have to put my shoes on to go to walk down the hall! Is this too much to ask? it really shouldn't be. But first I have to do math for the contractors so they don't blow up my house. Remind me again why they're the ones getting paid.

Oh - and in a related story of contractor hell - the first people who were supposed to fix my house have finally gotten around to doing the paperwork to refund me the insurance money that they got....for the work they didn't end up doing. But - they want to keep the 15% profit and 10% overhead that they charged in their original estimate. So....they didn't do the work, but they want to keep the profit on it. They tell me that this is their 'company policy,' but when I asked if it was in writing, I was told it is "just the way we've always done it." Great - well, I don't think that's gonna work this time. So now, I get to delicately, yet forcefully, try to get the insurance money back....all of it....so I can pay contractor #2...or is it #3?....the guys who can't do math.

SIGH! It's a good thing I'm not a violent person or someone might be in trouble....or maybe multiple someones. Anyone have anything to cheer me up?