I'll admit, I started this week a little discouraged. I was making progress, but not the big strides I was hoping to. Plus more snow here in Massachusetts just made me want to retreat to my couch and hibernate. Luckily, I re-found my groove yesterday and got to check several things off my extensive To Do List. I did a lot of prep work this week to ready the kitchen for cabinets. I had high hopes of them getting installed at the end of this week, but IKEA's kitchen installers had other ideas. I know I can install an IKEA kitchen, but in the interest of time, I'm hiring installers- or at least trying! I purchased the kitchen March 1 and have been going back and forth and not having my calls returned or being told they'll call me later and maybe hearing from them 3 days later- this has been going on for THREE weeks! They've finally "put me on the schedule" for next Thursday and Friday, but I'll believe it when I see it. I'm also shopping around to see who else can install, this is getting ridiculous. Ok, end rant.
Progress!!!!
This week, a lot of little things happened in the kitchen:
- ceiling has been painted (2.5 coats)
- all trim got painted (2 coats)
- electrical was updated and brought to code. Now there's even power for the fridge, dishwasher, and new vent hood! The old vent hole got patched.
- the basement door got trimmed down so it fits with the new floors
- the heating cover also got trimmed down to accommodate the new floors & the whole shebang got painted
- Did you notice the new light?
The new ceiling light in the kitchen (which you may recognize, since it's also in my own living room) will go PERFECTLY with the $5 ReStore fixture that I got. The ReStore fixture got a few coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and a new chain and looks like a million bucks (in my humble opinion).
The heating cover face was a challenge. I had to use a jigsaw with a metal blade to trim down the bottom- the body of the heating cover is fixed and I floored around it, but that meant that the face sat 3/4" too high when I tried to put it back on. Once I cut it down, I filed the sharp edges and painted the beast to match the trim.
Why, yes, there is a To Do list on the wall. Last week I was the crazy person that taped out the kitchen cabinet layout, this week I'm the crazy person that taped a To Do list in each room to help me keep tabs on what needs to happen in each space.
Plus, it would be a lie if I said I didn't get tremendous satisfaction every time I got to put a check mark in one of those boxes.
The hallway also got a lot of love this week since it's open to the kitchen.
I finally decided to work on the floor transitions that I had been putting off. The 3 bedrooms have nearly complete transitions, so half the hall is starting to look finished! The other half is on today's agenda.
This picture of the hall is my favorite so far. I know it's not that exciting, but it shows the most progress!!! It shows the newly painted ceiling and trim, the new hall light, a FINALLY working doorbell, AND a newly painted linen closet. The closet painting was just SO satisfying because of where it started. If "dingy" was a color, that's what the closet was. Now it's a bright clean white.
I'm really pleased with the light too. It was a whopping $11 at Lowes and has the vintage flare that this house needs. (Please disregard the halo around the light in my instagram pic- I've since touched up the ceiling and it's looking pretty)
The bathroom is the next target.
Since I'm hoping to be working on the floor tile when the kitchen is getting installed next week, I had some bathroom prep work to do. The wall at the corner guard is in the process of getting patched and the ceiling has been scraped, sanded and patched. Next week I can get a fresh start and paint the ceiling and even the walls before I start tiling the floor.
Other accomplishments this week include:
- updating all the outlets throughout the house to be grounded (yay!)
- gluing the bathroom door where it was split down the side
- picking out backsplash tile
- picking up 1 more cabinet at IKEA because I modified my original plan by getting a smaller fridge
I can't help but think I'm forgetting something that got done this week, but really, the ceiling and trim painting were the biggies. I spent most of my week with paint all over my hands because that's what I do apparently.
Hubby and I keep hearing about how HOT the spring real estate market is going to be, so we're getting excited to get this guy back on the market! Only a few more projects before we can list. Just a few.