i worked on my new banner last night and uploaded it this morning…and it’s not there. sigh. i uploaded it again, no dice.
maybe it’s just on my computer. maybe my web host is just really slow this morning. if i had more energy i’d call down to kevin and see if the new one is on his computer.
later.
meanwhile, finally, here are some of the many, many photos we took of our renovation project.
February 15th, kevin in the dining room, with the old floor after they moved the dining room table into the living room.
the thing about this old linoleum is that all those little squares are slightly raised, and the inset borders were kind of textured, perfect for capturing all dirt that fell to the floor.
and that’s a lot of dirt. dad picked this linoleum out, and he still maintains that it’s beautiful and looks like new, but the fact is that it almost NEVER looked clean for the 20+ years it was there because the only way to get the inset part was to scrub it on your hands and knees. i’m fairly sure i’m the only person who ever did that, and it never lasted and i HATED it because it always looked dirty because it WAS DIRTY.
this is not to lambast dad’s choice in any way, but i’m pretty sure he didn’t taking the scrubbing of the floors into consideration when choosing it.
the little bathroom – first, it was white, then mom and dad hung some very very dark almost black wallpaper with little dots on it. this made the tiny room seem even more tiny, so i wanted to paint it pale yellow. i did this a while ago – a year? a few years??? but the dumb guy at wal mart talked me into buying a brighter yellow that i meant to get, and it ended up being way too yellow and i didn’t like it so i bought some sort of eggshell shiny glaze to put over it, which did tone down the yellow but i never liked it. well, i guess i talked myself into thinking i liked it when i first did it, but the more i looked at it, the more i hated it.
then, in february when we talked about what color we were going to paint the office room, kevin said that he never liked the bathroom color either.
so, the guys came to put the flooring down on monday, and they took out the toilet and i thought I MUST PAINT THE BATHROOM!!! because if you’ve ever painted a bathroom, you know that it SUCKS painting around the toilet; you have to get down on your hands and knees and reach around and the whole thing is pretty horrible. because she is so agreeable, the last time i had to paint a bathroom, i made mom do it.
anyway, here’s the bathroom before the painting.
i didn’t think we needed to put the new floor in the front hall closet but of course kevin knew we should, and he took out all the old shelving and installed new, better shelves that are a better height for short me.
here he is, hard at work.
mollie resting, as the living room begins to be filled up with stuff. the kitties thought it was awesome to have the dining room table in the living room, and they jumped up there a lot and hung out.
meanwhile, we decided to also put down laminate in the office room because mom asked if we were going to, and we hadn’t thought about it, but after she said that i realized we should definitely do it. the room was a mess with way way way too much stuff in it, both furniture, CDs and DVDs, and lots and lots of paper. we moved most of it into the bedroom. here’s the bedroom on sunday the 17th, the day before the floor installation commenced.
kevin made a nice fire in the bedroom fireplace, and kept it burning all day. the office was in desperate need of painting, and i spent the day doing the edging.
our hot tub room was the one place that wasn’t stuffed with furniture, plus the flowers have all been blooming like crazy all winter. it’s very nice, except so small that there’s only room for one chair. maybe our next project will be to expand the room?
whenever any kitties relax in there, i try to pick a few catnip leaves for them. they enjoy it thoroughly.
Monday, february 18th, the first day of flooring. first of all, the plumber came and moved the fridge, toiled and stove into the living room. kevin and garrick thought this was highly entertaining, and whenever anybody came over, kevin told them that it was the perfect setup; he could sit on the toilet, get a pizza from the freezer and throw it in the oven, without moving a muscle.
of course the stove wasn’t actually plugged in, but i was happy that the fridge was. it was pretty weird, getting stuff out of the fridge in the living room. but also kind of convenient.
the flooring guys were very fast – first they put down the underlayment stuff right over the linoleum.
this is the little nook that used to house the freezer. it’s a very old freezer, and water was always leaking out the bottom, and the floor in the back is a little bit soft, so we moved it permanently to the garage. the guys stacked a lot of the laminate there, so it didn’t seem to matter about the soft spot.
they started in the front hall.
bathroom with no toilet.
we kept lester and chester in the other part of the house so they wouldn’t run out the front door, but winnie could move freely. he wasn’t so crazy about being inside with all the noise, but never wanted to stay outside very long.
here he is, wondering what happened to his food that’s supposed to be on the counter for him.
tuesday the 19th, and the hall and bathroom were completed.
here’s the newly blue bathroom. i was exhausted monday night and didn’t really want to paint it but knew that was my window of opportunity, so i forced myself. it wasn’t bad at all since it’s such a tiny little room.
this is all tuesday morning, as the rocketed around getting the floor put down.
the area where the fridge sits – this is the cleanest it has ever and will ever be.
here are the guys, hard at work. why didn’t i make kevin turn and smile at the camera? because he totally would have done it. kevin the floor guy, that is – the main flooring guy’s name was kevin, which made it easy to remember. the guy in the background on his knees is wes, who didn’t say much. kevin was very chatty, though.
i had tried to pick out flooring that would match the floor in the living room. here they are side by side, before they put in the trim piece to connect them.
mollie waited patiently for me to give her all the dry cat food which was back up on the counter.
i love the new floor! mollie continues to patiently wait.
my thousands of cookbooks plus lots more stuff was all piled out on the screened porch. it was very challenging to move anywhere in the house for a few days; i told kevin it felt like we were kids, playing the game where you can’t touch the floor and have to climb from one piece of furniture to the next.
many, many more photos to come. plus suddenly my new banner has appeared, WHEW.
ok then,
mrs. saturday morning hughes.