House Update

I’ve been surviving with trying to cook around the mess of dust. Having my kitchen completely destroyed has not been a fun adventure. However, the end results are coming along. Its not completely finished yet, but its getting there. Its actually starting to look like a kitchen again instead of a barn. Most of the dust throughout the rest of the house has been cleaned up, numerous times. About the time I think I have everything clean, I see more stuff with dust on it. I have walls again, which is exciting. Beautiful drywalled walls!! With paint and not wallpaper!! I got new curtains and blinds on Saturday and hung them on Sunday. Yes, I hung them. The princess can do work once in a while when she’s motivated!! Rob started the floor last night. What a disaster!! I really, really, really wanted to pay someone to do this. And now I’m wishing we would have. The first problem is he tried to do this all by himself. My husband is very stubborn. He will ask his brother for help once in a while, but not often. If his brother is busy then he won’t wait for him, he just does it himself. So the brother never called on Sunday, so last night he started the major project alone. Our kitchen is about 15x15. This is a pretty big area to lay linoleum with no help. Get everything lined up perfect and get all the air bubbles out. Its not done, but it doesn’t look too great right now. We saved about $300 doing it ourselves, but I’m not sure if its worth it. As for the countertop and the cabinets, they have been temporarily put on hold. Since the weather is getting nicer, there are a few outside projects Rob wants to tackle. We are putting a deck out back and a new roof on the garage. Hopefully my kitchen will be complete for now by the end of the week. We will probably pick back up on the cabinets and countertop either over next winter or not until next spring. It will depend on if we run out of money with the outside projects! I’ll post pictures soon. I’m just too lazy to get them off my camera right now. And hopefully I’ll have finished product pictures by the weekend!

Will My House Ever Be Clean Again?

Our house is 100+ years old and had never seen drywall until we moved in. 2 years ago my hubby made a mess of our upstairs and replaced doors, paint, and added drywall to my son's room. He put a new floor in the bathroom and we had carpet installed. He did everything himself except the carpet. It was a MESS! But we survived. This was his first experience with drywall so I was very nervous. But everything turned out great! Last year our major house project was the outside. Our house has aluminum siding and it was looking pretty bad. We couldn't afford to put vinyl siding up so he decided he could paint it. Again I was very nervous especially because our house is very steep and he is afraid of heights. And again it turned out great. I really thought we were done with major projects for a while. He has been bugging me to let him completely re-do the kitchen. My kitchen is the first room you see when you come in the door. I spend more time in this room than any other. It is very out-dated but I was ok with it for now so I've been desperately holding him off. Well Saturday morning he decided that we should just do it. I was very hesitant, but he said we were just going to repaint, reface the cabinets and replace the flooring. I negotiated for a new countertop too. And off to Home Depot we went. Last night he started tearing down layer after layer of wallpaper. The 100 year old horse hair plaster under the wallpaper was in really bad shape. So the next thing I know plaster is flying everywhere. And he said I'm taking everything out and drywalling. My first reaction is panic! But things have always turned out ok in the past. This morning, he headed back to Home Depot and returns with sheets of drywall and his brother. And down came the plaster. WHAT A MESS!! I have never seen so much dust in all my life. The walls were down to the studs and the floor was covered in dust, dirt, and plaster. It looked more like an old barn with a dirt floor than a kitchen. I took the kids and went to my mother's for dinner. When I got home I could have burst into tears. There was just so much dust all through the house. It was everywhere. I guess it was easier to deal with the mess upstairs because I didn't have to see it constantly. The mess in the kitchen is causing my dining room and living room to also be a mess. I couldn't get away from it no matter where I went. But things do seem to be coming along nicely. The drywall is already about 1/2 done. Rob assures me he'll be painting by Saturday and we will survive. Hopefully I will have beautiful after pictures very soon!!!