weekend update

I hope most of you enjoyed a relaxing New Years weekend. Snowed in or not, it's a wonderful weekend to reflect and prepare for the year to come. Unfortunately, as usual, this weekend allowed us little time to sit, let alone reflect. Here's a quick day by day of what was done.. and why there was no time to nurse any hangovers.

Thursday
The plumber came and once again made our lives so much easier- he hooked up our gas range and our dishwasher.
Meaning we started our New Year off with a working kitchen- it's amazing how something so little can improve your lifestyle so much! So leave it to me.. I canceled our dinner reservations and made something that resembled a home cooked meal though there's still no sink so it wasn't all that easy.. not to mention most of our kitchen supplies are still packed up in the garage.
Don't the red Solo cups just make the tablescape?!?!

Friday Morning
New Years Day and we were up early- according to me, but if you ask Ben, we slept in. Ben got right to work as I enjoyed a cup of tea. He was in the shower trying to clean up a little grout residue. Looking back you'll see we haven't done much in the bathroom recently. In fact the last time I brought up Ben's tile grout job was here.. months ago. And it's taken us that long to actually get back to it. We knew when it was done that it had to be touched up just a little (which is why we opted to hire a professional to do the floor)
and this weekends project proved to help. Ben lined the floor and protected the new bath fixtures before using Acid Sulfamic Cleaner on the tile. I steered clear of the area (he was well protected with a mask) because of the chemicals so I wasn't able to take any good pictures. But it helped tremendously. Now we need to get a few spots with a razor but other than that it looks great. While in there Ben also caulked around the perimeter of the tub.

Friday Afternoon
Jason from Progressive Finishes was back to install the crown and the base around the cabinets. As usual the afternoon didn't go as planned and it was looking like my "full" height cabinets weren't going to look so full height. Kraftmaid provided us with a two piece crown- which normally would have been fine except that our ceiling is not perfectly level (remember we went with the wood paneling.. I posted about it here). Because our ceiling isn't level the filler has to be installed and a crown has to be applied on the face of it. With a two piece crown (pictured below), it can only be mounted on the top of the filler, not on the face.
And instead of me just letting the issue go.. Jason patiently let me try to work it out in my head. Normally I'm easy to work with but because the ceilings are so low in our house to being with it was even more important for us to have full height cabinets- the lower they hang the shorter the room feels. I just knew there was a way that it could be done somewhat easily and the way I wanted it done originally- full height! So we came up with a solution- we decided to go with a regular crown that we'll mount around the cabinets and the full perimeter of the room- giving the cabinets the full height look I was going for and the easier install for Jason because he won't need to work with the two piece crown!

Of course all that means I now need to buy crown.. so the cabinet installation still isn't complete. But as I always say.. practice patience! I don't mind waiting if it means it will be done the right way in the end.

Saturday
Saturday was literally spent in the kitchen. Ben installed the microwave- which by the way also serves as a convection oven.. I even baked cookies in it to make sure that it worked!
And I unpacked kitchen boxes, ran the dishwasher, unpacked some more and ran it again.. over and over. We finally have plates and flatware- and glasses.. oh my!


I'm sure they'll need to be moved again, but Ben's been eating off of paper for four months (usually we're much more sensitive to the environment) and I could tell he wouldn't last much longer.

Ben also hooked up the tv for me!
Sunday
And Sunday we took a break.. from the kitchen. When we first bought the house Ben and I had an agreement and me insulating was not part of it. But like our budget all agreements were thrown out of the window as soon as we closed. Turns out, I too have to get down and dirty. It's no fun, but better for Ben that he doesn't have to go it alone.

Our day started out in the attic where insulation was greatly needed. Originally Ben told me all I had to do was cut and hand him the insulation. Within minutes I was on my hands and knees guiding it through the nailing strips, securing it into place.
I know we didn't do a good job- Ben even said it as we were cleaning up. But really- it was my first time and I wasn't even supposed to be there! I wanted to go to the movies. But I have to admit it is worth the pain and suffering if it brings our heating costs down.