The Angels are Singing

Seriously, they are! Why? Well because we've got the drywall finished in the kitchen and dining room FINALLY!!!!! When that happened I swear there was that "hallelujah" moment where the angels sang and played their little harps. It was truly a miraculous moment. Now it's not really that big of a step in the grand scheme of things, but it feels monumental at this juncture. I mean, have I been seriously kitchen-less for five whole months now!? So it is a HUGE deal that the drywall is done, because that is what was holding us back. There was no way to paint, no way/point in laying the new subfloor (let alone the new flooring), what's the point of continuing to assemble cabinets when you have to shove them in the corner of every other room to your house blocking off access to needed things! There was no point I tell you, but now there is!
  It has renewed my excitement about this project again...the prospect of having even ONE cupboard up and functioning for me to put our clean dishes away in has me giddy! Don't even mention the fact a functioning sink is on the horizon because I might just pass out, and it gives me heart palpitations thinking about all the food I can cook, and oh the things I can bake when we have the oven hooked up. It seems a little sad when some finished drywall can cause that much excitement in your life, but I'll take it!
   So instead of blabbing on about all the fantastic-ness that is abounding in our kitchen, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

So here's one of the only shots I have (I think there's more on my other camera that is AWOL right now) of the process pre-re-drywalling, and they're both from the dining room...but if you squint real hard and use your imagination, you can see that the kitchen looked pretty  much exactly the same.

 This was the old front door that we closed in...if you can believe that people still try and come to that door? There's nothing there now except for some pink Styrofoam, and they try and knock? Seriously, some people's kids!

So we took out that dumb ramp that went from the kitchen to the living room out (which I don't actually have any pictures of - most likely because it made me want to facepalm every time I looked at it) But again, if you squint and imagine then you can remember there was a (short) step coming from the kitchen, then they had built a ramp to go down to the living room. 

 The bonus about making the floor of the kitchen all the same (aside from having more kitchen floor & being able to take that wall to the right back a bit) is that it gave us about an extra foot in that area of the basement - to bring it level with the rest of the ceiling down there...which is where we are planning on putting a bathroom, so woot!

My look how far it has come! It's amazing, super excited that I can actually start priming in here (and the dining room) most likely by the end of the week. You can see from the last picture that we finally had the duct work added to bring heat up to our bedroom (just in time for that hot spell in March haha) No longer will we need the electric baseboards or crappy air conditioner up there, another woot! You can also see that we closed off the laundry room door. Which is fantastic from a kitchen standpoint, but since that's where I have to cook, it's not the greatest arrangement to have to walk all the way around and through a bedroom. I'll take it though if it means pushing the kitchen ahead.


Happy to say that we have made some progress in the kitchen, there's still a TON of work left to do, we hope to have the priming and painting done by the end of next week...then start on installing the upper cabinets - which means I can put away clean dishes, (say it again) woot!

My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard...

Maybe not my milkshake, but my mad gardening skills for sure! We've actually done a fair amount of work outside, and it's starting to look significantly better.

Here's where we started...

 These two are from when we first looked at the house...look at how lush and nice the grass looks haha - no weeds!

 

 

 This is a more accurate rendering of where we started when be began removing stuff. We had no idea what any of it was, we knew we just wanted it gone. It was basically just a bunch of over grown crap, so we just started hacking away. After about an hour or so of labour we were left with a slightly less ugly front area - a stretch of dirt. (I know I took pictures of what it looked like after but they're obviously on another memory card - which is hiding in a missing camera - because I can't find them)


The stretch of dirt sat for about a month before we decide to take up the bricks. We are planning on putting a large porch on the front in a few years, so in the interim, we decided to put a garden in so it doesn't look so pathetic there. As most of you know, I am not a gardener. I don't know the first thing about it, so I called in reinforcements...I brought in my mommy. She's a great gardener, and she's like a plant savant, she knows what pretty much ever flower is called.  It was a perfect pairing, I knew nothing, and she in totally in her element when gardening. She got all excited when she saw this clematis at the back, and she kept offering to buy plants for me when we were at the nursery. Now I know where to take her shopping if I want her to buy me things hehe.

We started in the back yard investigating what some mysterious plants were, and figuring out what we could dig up to transplant in the front. We have a big area out front (17'6" long, and 6'6" at it's narrowest & about 9'6" at it's widest) so I was hoping to be able to transplant as much as I can to save some money.

 We started by taking a look at this bushy ground cover thing, it had pretty little purple flowers that those lovely red arrows are pointing out (you still can't really see them very well - sorry). Mama didn't know what it was, but when we were at the nursery we discovered that it's Myrtle. Sweet...and it's clearly been there for quite a while haha. To the left (in front of the lattice thing) is the clematis, this is where she was sucked over to it as if by a magic force-field, waving her arms like an excited little school girl seeing the Beibs in the flesh! Unfortunately we weren't able to dig up any of this - because the clematis was all woven in the dead hunks, and we just never really got around to the myrtle.

 This is an older picture (from March I think) of the rosebushes we thought were dead...not sure what the rest of the rest of the flowers are, (or if they're even flowers) as they're sadly no longer with us...Jason hacked over them with the lawnmower. We pruned back and dug up the rosebushes, and found some baby rhubarb being choked out that we're not really sure how it got there. There was also a small little euonymus shrub growing not to far off that mom sort of hacked up when she transplanted it haha.

 Then there's this bohemouth, which is a mixture of a couple different euonymus plants, and something else that I can't remember of the top of my head. I'm not really sure what we're going to do with this, we don't want it where it is, that's for sure, so hopefully we can find a way to use part of it up front, and maybe give the rest to our landscaping friend? It's huge though, probably about 6.5-7ft around. Yeeshk!


Then the fun part happened...we went flower shopping, mom had a blast, and we came home with a bunch of things for a fairly reasonable price, and we got to diggin'! I still wouldn't say I overly enjoy gardening, but I did have a pretty good time, and the best part was no arguments broke out! Here's what we were left with after about 3 hours of work.

  Here's a couple larger view shots...it looks a little sparse right now, but about half the flowers haven't bloomed yet, and there's still more to be added (from the back yard, other people's donations, and some more purchases) plus we had to leave room for some tulips, and daffodils that I'll be planting the the fall for next spring. Even just this little bit makes me happy when I come out the front door.

 We went to Klomps (on Hwy 7 between St Marys and Stratford) and we picked up for $120:

• 2 weigela "fine wine" (they're the taller pink coloured shrub)
• 2 Asiatic lilies (the cool orange ones) (I think I might pick up another one)
• 10pks (of 4) allysum in white & purple
• 6pks (of 4) marigold (in different styles and colours)
• 1 Hydrangea quick fire - they'll be a pinky colour
• 1 large begonia in white (below)
• 2 Bidens in yellow
• 1 Bellflower in purple (although they call it "deep blue")
• 3 oriental poppy's in white

My mom also brought a few things with her:

• 2 segments of sedum
• 2 purple columbines
• some tall-ish yellow flowery thing that she couldn't remember what it was called

 We were able to transplant the two rosebushes (close to the front door), and part of the euonymus (by the old porch) from the back yard. When we dig up the myrtle we'll put it beside the porch to cover the ugliness (since we can't get rid of it, as it's the cold storage room) The clematis will have a home between the two windows when we get around to moving it - probably in the fall after it blooms)

Look at the pretty lily...it's so cute! I still need to get some ferns for along the back, and I want to get a red rhododendron bush, because they're gorgeous and humming birds like them, and I really want a peony (because they're my favourite) but mama wouldn't let me get one *insert sad face here* hehe.


I'm quite pleased with how the garden turned out, nothing died in the process so that's always a plus. I don't have a propensity for keeping things alive; I was always that pathetic kid who'd little seedlings died in elementary school, so we'll see how this goes. I'm hoping since they're already alive and all I really have to do is water them regularly things will go well. 


I'll leave you with the cute little butterfly fanning its wings from our back bohemouth bush.

Kitchen Files: Where to Park Your Keester

A lot of butt talk has been taking place as of late in good ol' Casa d'Armitage. We pretty much figured out what we're doing for the bench area in the breakfast nook, so then we had to move on to the three or four chairs we'd need for the other side of the table. I was initially thinking I wanted to do something like this:

Some fun painted traditional chairs. I figure this would be the easiest (and funnest) way to bring some of the accent red into the kitchen. I like the one on the far right, and the second from left the best. I haven't however, been able to find any quality chairs like that anywhere. I've been searching kijiji/Goodwill for months and continually come up short. They either aren't the kind I'm looking for, or they're a whole set (with table). So I started thinking about other options. Jase and I talked, and we figured since we were being so frugal, and coming under budget with everything else we could "splurge" on the chairs. There was this chair that I saw from the beginning, that I just kept coming back to, so it went to the top of the list.

They are these chairs from West Elm. I love the shape of them, kind of retro-ish, they stack on top of each other, and they're comfy and kind of bouncy (we tested them out when we were in Chicago). But at $83 a pop, they are definitely more of a splurge for us. So I started looking for a few similar choices that are cheaper.

I came across these from here, which actually aren't cheaper at all haha, and Jason doesn't like them anyway, so I guess there out...I think I'd only want one for the end even if I did get them.

Then there's these ones, also from Target that are considerably cheaper, at about $30 a piece...but they do have to be ordered online, and that kind of sucks. I'm also not a huge fan of the rounded top, I prefer the "scoop" look, like the ones from West Elm.

The Gilbert chair from Ikea, which is one of those, kinda like it, kinda don't type thing. Plus, I don't think they even carry it anymore, so it's out too. So that still leaves the ones from West Elm that I've liked from the beginning. 

Then I came across these ones:

There's no link to where they are from, or who makes them, but I love them. The simplicity of them is what strikes me the most. Plus that red one is speaking to me hehe. Jason really likes them too. And they also have a retro, yet modern vibe. 

So now we're at an impasse again. We both like the last chairs the best, but have no idea on where to get them. We could probably make them, the construction of them is fairly simple, and making them would save some money; but we're already making so much, (which I like) that I was looking forward to finally purchasing something. Gaa, I hate when trying to make a decision ends up causing more questions.

Different Strokes

Lets preface this post with hooray, we have internet back, so I can be up dating more frequently!!!

We have been ferociously trying to cross as many things as we can off our to do list, because it is so gratifying to physically cross something off a list! Not to mention it helps with big projects if you break things down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Helps to stop me from becoming a giant crazy person, and makes Jason happy…and it really helps keep us on track. Let’s take a look at what we’ve been able to check off at the almost four month mark:

Kitchen:

• ·      Rip out old cabinets & sink (donate to Habitat Re-Store) although we weren’t able to donate anything because they were custom built-in’s.
• ·      Rip out nasty carpet & lick ‘n’ stick (as Jase affectionately refers to it
• ·      Bust out the closet (that was previously the entry closet from old living room)
• ·      Remove the built in (donate) and take down the random 3ft wall again we weren’t really able to donate it because the doors had to be destroyed in order for it to come out
• ·      Replace insulation in outside wall we took out the old (and blackened) pink insulation, and doubled our R-rating from 7 to 15, by using the Rock-sol insulation. 
• ·      Frame up old closet & laundry room entry
• ·      Replace drywall on outside walls I found my new calling in screwing the boards up!
• ·      Add/move electrical outlets and lighting we moved a few outlets around, and figured out what sort of lighting we want (mainly just pot lights)...in order to get all the other moving/replacing done, we've got to get cabinets up.
• ·      Plumbing rough-ins Jase swapped out the old copper piping in the kitchen with ABS, and also discovered that they had the washer and kitchen sink draining tied into the same (too small) feed…which would explain the draining problems we’d seen.
• ·      Fix the steps into living room (extending kitchen floor – making it just two steps) 
• ·      Template out the cabinets (and go buy them before Jan 22) bought them on the 14^th, for almost $1,000 under budget, and got our hardware on sale, and thanks to the “cash back”, for free.
• ·      Take back wall to be even with pantry
• ·      Replace windows (if can afford)
• ·      Remove wallpaper Thanks Mer, for your help with that…it went a lot quicker with the two of us
• ·      Install new – floors, cabinets, counters, appliances, “breakfast nook”, etc
• ·      Paint (Benjamin Moore – Storm)
• ·      Tile behind stove 
• ·      Template & make countertops (black concrete with broken glass)
• ·      Put up picture wall behind seating area
• ·      Make  pendant light for over table
• ·      Get 4 bar stools for peninsula
• ·      Get chairs for table area (we’ve decided to splurge a bit on the chairs - )
• ·      Make table & benches for eat-in area

 Dining Room:

• ·      Rip out carpet
• ·      Reinsulate the two outside walls (re-drywall) again we doubled the R-rating on two walls here.
• ·      Replace window (if in the budget)
• ·      Move overhead light to middle of the room
• ·      Paint 
• install decorative moulding/trim to "formalize" the room
• ·      Refinish table and hutch to match
• ·      Refinish, reinforce and reupholster chairs
• ·      Make artwork and put up shelves
• ·      Make “bar” area
• ·      Install flooring  (Armstong “natural-antique” engineered hardwood)

Bedroom #2 (aka: Nursery):

• ·      Rip up carpet
• ·      Tear down wall in closet (using the linen closet)
• ·      Close off linen closet from hallway
• ·      Paint walls
• ·      Paint ceiling
• ·      Make and paint new doors for closet (to take up all of that wall)
• ·      Replace window (when able to afford)
• ·      Lay new flooring
• ·      Get and paint crib, & dresser for change table
• ·      Make bedding & other linens
• ·      Make light fixture

Bathroom

• ·      Take out vanity, toilet, tub
• ·      Rip off tile
• ·      Rip up linoleum
• ·      Take out wall between bedroom (eliminating the bedroom closet)
• ·      Build vanity
• ·      Pick out floor tile (mono flora in “white”)
• ·      Pick out shower tile (glass subway tiles in blues/greens)
• ·      Take out window (that was previously in bedroom)
• ·      Frame up new wall
• ·      Drywall new wall
• ·      Lay floor
• ·      Put in new tub, toilet & vanity put in a new toilet that the wholesalers gave us cheap to test out. It is comparable to the Cadet 3, and so far it’s been great. Although, we did discover that the floors are WAY out, so you’re sitting on a bit of a slant now haha
• ·      Tile shower area
• ·      Build storage towers

Bedroom #1:

• ·      Tear down wall between laundry room (before kitchen is completed, so we can close off the door from the kitchen) so far we just have a door sized opening
• ·      Rip up carpet & linoleum stuff (from laundry room)
• ·      Build closet (using small laundry closet at starting point)
• ·      Take out window (add a second one if possible)
• ·      Add another wall (that will be the new wall between the bathroom)
• ·      Paint (possibly Ben Moore – “dragonfly”)
• ·      Install new flooring (a medium brown)

Living room:

• ·      Remove built in & random 3ft wall
• ·      Rip up carpet (also rip it off the stairs)
• ·      Scrape stucco from the ceiling (and up staircase)
• ·      Figure out what’s going on with the messed up bouncy plywood floor – and obviously fix it
• ·      Properly insulate the floor & walls
• ·      Replace windows (the larger one first)
• ·      Build half wall to define entry space
• ·      Paint (Benjamin Moore “old prairie” & “wythe blue”)
• ·      Tile entryway area (black penny rounds?)
• ·      Lay flooring in living area (dark brown – possibly vinyl tile?)
• ·      Paint & reupholster “bench” for entryway
• ·      Figure out & install hooks for coats along with more storage
• ·      Refinish stairs & railings
• ·      Replace front/back doors
• ·      Put up new trim

Master area (phase 1):

    Bath:

• ·      Take off wallpaper
• ·      Take down tiles again, thanks Mer for the help….she was seriously a monster when it came to taking down those tiles.
• ·      Add forced air vents
• ·      Remove old baseboard heaters
• ·      Replace vanity, mirror & lighting
• ·      Put up bead board (to cover glue from tiles)
• ·      Paint walls (Benjamin Moore “stratton blue”
• ·      Paint floor (either hexagonal or penny-round style)
• ·      Put up new trim
• ·      Add some shelving (above toilet)

   Bedroom

• ·      Add forced air vents we have the ducts run to the bedroom, so we have a large gaping whole at the bottom of the wall, Brad still needs to get his butt into the attic to finish running the lines haha.
• ·      Remove old baseboard heaters
• ·      Raise closet rods (seriously they’re like 5ft from the ground!)
• ·      Paint dressers
• ·      Build or buy (cheap) my night table
• ·      Make pendant lamp
• ·      Paint table lamp bases & replace shades
• ·      Paint walls (MSL “cement gray”)
• ·      Stencil wall (MSL “anvil”)
• ·      Replace hardware on dressers & closet doors
• ·      Replace trim
• ·      Take out old air-conditioner & fix window
• ·      GET A NEW BED (which unfortunately probably won’t happen for a while)
• ·      Build & install floating shelf above bed

So we’ve made some progress on the house to home front, and so far we’re coming in well under budget which makes my heart sing quite a bit, especially since being laid off from a great paying job, and having to move to a minimum wage job money is tight, so anywhere we can save some coin is excellent. 

   During those beautiful warm weeks we had in March we crossed "get rid of the crap from the front of the house" off the list, hopefully if the weather ever warms up again we can cross a few more off the outside to-do list.

Some Flooring ideas

Jason was complaining that he didn’t want the whole house to be laminate. Which I both understand and find funny…since we don’t have any laminate in the house yet! We're doing cork in the kitchen, 

and an engineered hardwood in the dining room.

The bathroom is going to have tile and the bedrooms also will be having some sort of hardwood layed in them when we get around to it (whatever we can get for a good deal from another auction). He was suggesting vinyl. Which, wasn’t really ok with me, because all I could think of was ugly, tacky, roll out “mats”. I know that there are other options, that they’ve come a long way with vinyl, because I’ve seen them use some tiles and other, better looking things on all those home improvement shows. So I went in search of those, not the ugly things that I saw in Rona, or the Depot. I came across a site for Karndean International that have a TON of vinyl tile options that are actually, well, appealing! They don’t make me want to run the other way, like those sheets waiting on the rolls in the stores.

  I was excited. They were able to allow Jason and I to compromise, he liked the durability of the vinyl, and I liked all their options and the fact that they didn’t really look like vinyl. The best part is you can order samples…FREE…and a catalogue, and you receive it within a week. I ordered a dark sample, with the living room in mind, and then just a random one. I really love the dark one, it’s exactly what I was thinking of for the living room…super dark, with subtle wood tones, it actually looks like it could be real wood. They’re a “tile”, or basically a “plank” like a piece of hardwood, which just makes them look even more like real wood.

  So I love it, I’m a convert to the dark side of vinyl! I was pumped to show Jason we can have a good looking, durable, non-laminate option for the living room. I ask him if he likes it:

Jason: “Yeah, sure.”

Me: UGH! Seriously?! Yeah sure?! “So you don’t really like it then?”

Jason: “Well, not really.”

Me: of course you don’t, because I finally like something that’s vinyl. “I think it looks really natural, it’s got the wood tones, and veins running through it, it’s pretty much exactly what I was thinking of for the living room.

Jason: “Well why does everything has to look like wood?”

Me: Huh?? “umm…well what’s it supposed to look like? Carpet? It’s vinyl…”

Jason: “I dunno, tile?”

This is where I had to stop talking, because I was afraid I would say something that would spark an argument, because now he was just being ridiculous. Tile? Seriously, who puts tile in a living room haha? We went through a house that had tile in the living room, and he made fun of it more than I did! We’ve revisited it a few times, since that initial conversation, and he’s slowly starting to come around…I just keep reminding him that the vinyl was his idea, and I like it.

  Now the conversations are leaning more towards whether we’re going to take the vinyl all the way into the entryway, or if we’re going to do tile in the entryway – like (these) penny rounds. I love pennyrounds, and like the look of them on the floor in an entry way, but because our entry is going to be more open to the living room (divided only by a short, half wall) it seems more logical to extend the vinyl all the way out. (You know, because it’s so durable that people often put it in an entryway to begin with) As much as I love and want the black pennyrounds, I think it’s a better choice to just extend the vinyl, it makes it seems more seamless, and we won’t have to have that awkward seam hump. So it looks like we’ll be going with the lovely dark vinyl from Karndean International, unless we find something similar at an auction for cheaper.