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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Will It Ever Be Done?

It's been a long time since my last post (June 2011), and I wish I could say "We're done!" ... but, sadly, that's not the case.  [I think the main reason for such an absence has been a very old laptop at home which made doing a blog almost impossible (who knew six years old was old?!) ... I just got myself a lovely new laptop and feel much better about working on this blog from home now.  Yeah!! :)]

We are still renovating.  Oh, lots of things have happened - in reno land and in our lifes.  But even though it's been five months we still have a fair bit to go.  DH's Father had a stroke and after 3 and 1/2 weeks in hospital he died.  So, lot's of stress, sadness, and time away from reno's to be with family.

So what HAS happened?  The upstairs floors are all in.  The downstairs floors have just been installed.  About three weeks ago I lost my kitchen to the Reno Monster.  DH said it would be a week, but the kitchen is still missing.  He would say it was all my fault because I pressed for the old backsplash tiles to be removed as I thought they were old-fashioned and didn't suit the changes we were implementing (I still think I'm right).  When he took them off half the drywall went with them ... and he was forced to cut out and put in new drywall ... which meant mudding, sanding, more mudding, and more sanding.  That's finally done.  The painter we hired started Wednesday, was sick most of Thursday, but back in good form on Friday and Saturday.  So far, lot's of mudding to fill nicks in the walls, followed by the obligatory sanding.  To date, the kitchen looks to be painted.  The upstairs guest room and hallway ceillings are painted and the hallway walls, including the stairs have been painted.  Left?  Upstairs, our bedroom, the main bathroom and our ensuite.  Downstairs, the ceillings, the living and dining room, and the powder room.

Since the kitchen looks to be painted I'm hoping the kitchen cabinets that are currently sitting in my living room will move to their permanent homes.  That would give us back the living and dining rooms.  Of course, once the cabinets have vacated their current squat the painter will move in forcing my four year old and I to retreat to the upstairs where DH will likely be nailing in baseboards.

I'm going to stop my whining now (there is a very definite goal in mind here which I am party to), and include some photos of what's been happening.  Here's my temporary kitchen (located in the dining area - two feet of counter with the microwave and toaster oven on top ... and opposite my "kitchen" is the bookcase turned china cabinet that holds all our plates, bowls, cups, cans of food, sauces, spices (very much edited for now):

 

It's a good thing I've camped a lot, and in the last few years cooked many a meal in an RV kitchentte!  Here's what the old kitchen looked like:


Right now, the kitchen ... lacks something ...


Yes, those cabinets that are the big, wooden elephants in the living room.  Sigh.  Patience.  I must practice patience.

Next time, I hope to have pictures of a complete kitchen.  I'm not sure I'll know how to use it any longer :).  In the meantime, I fantasize by shopping for appliances.  Lovely, shiny, new appliances.  Hmmm ...