Hi there!
Welcome to day 4 of "The Remodel." By day three I was definitely feeling like I was never EVER going to do anything like this again. Hanging cabinets, with just two people, most days, was not fun. Then came the worry about whether or not we were going to get the carpet in the living room up in time. After all, we didn't even have the room cleared out, let alone totally packed up, yet. So much to do in one day. I was losing my motivation...and my hope.
Que my wonderful sister. When she found out that we were changing our floors,she asked what we were going to do with all of our carpet. It was not old, at all, and we like to save as much 'moolah' as possible on these types of things. Plus, I abhor the thought of all that carpet and padding going to a landfill. So it was a win-win. She needed carpet for her daughters bedroom and other projects, and I need to be as environmentally conscious as I could. Speaking of being environmentally friendly, remember how I said in my first post that we were going to donate our cabinets and counters? Well, we still are, but amazingly, our neighbor stopped by with his dad from out of town who was visiting for our Harvest Fest, and wanted some of them. He took some to make a work station out of in his work shop. I had just put them on my "curb" like I said and, viola! Works every time. We will keep the three cabinets that fit above the stove, fridge and microwave for some other projects we want to do, and donate all the rest.
So, why was I having those feelings of regret about ever doing a remodel again? Ugh...yesterday, the day before and last night was exhausting. No joke. For a minute I was worried that all my lovey-dovey Facebook posts about how well Noah and I were getting along and how cordial and compatible we are was jinxing us. It seemed like a ridiculous amount of work was needing to happen...laying in wait. To destroy us and prove us wrong.
Well, it was tough, tiring, maddening at times, but we pulled it off. It smoothed out before we knew it. Luckily. Thankfully. And I am SO grateful. Follow along below for a pictorial play-by-play of the last couple of days...
These are our old cabinets. Custom made in 1989. I know this because when we were carrying one of them out it was stamped "Inspector 12 1989." Solid wood doors, heavy MDF shells. That is our sad attempt at lightening up the kitchen by painting the uppers. We never got around to painting the lowers because we knew that someday we would be replacing them. It just happened to take y-e-a-r-s.
Cabinets all down on the one side! Boy, were they heavy!
Our first cabinet is up! Whew! So far, we are getting along fabulously! Team Stein, all the way! And it wasn't really hard at all...
Second corner cabinet up, and it's partner. Not too bad. Except...why is it so hard to find the studs in these walls? A stud finder? Useless. While I was pretty confused and a little mad that they cut out the drywall behind the sink base before install (why...?) and replaced it with plastic instead of green drywall, I became totally ok with it when I was able to find the studs and measure over the 16" to find the next ones for the screws. Now, why didn't they do that when they put those up in '89? Because the didn't. Not all of the screws were in studs. A majority were in drywall. Then, they just screwed the cabinets together. Sometimes they put screws on top of screws. Noah had a real good time getting those out...
All during the daylight hours yesterday we hung most of the upper cabinets. MOST. (This pic is actually from today because last night I would have thrown the camera). It was nothing like the show "Renovation Realities", at all! Not snapping at me to "hold it straight!" or me yelling at him to "hurry up!" It was more like "I got it, Babe. You just do your tool man thing" and him asking "You got it, Love?" and "You alright, Love?" Then we had to run to the home improvement store because three cabinets were wrong. And we needed three right cabinets. And a fourth one that wasn't even there. Plus some green drywall, plywood, screws, shims, knee pads (for my date with the 500 staples in the living room) and I think that was it. Then it was back home to put the remaining cabinets up, pull staples and tack strip, rip up the damaged floor that we thought had black mold (it didn't!!!), fix said floor, put up drywall...oh yeah, and eat an egg salad sandwich because I hadn't eaten all day. It was 7:30...
Well, we got most of the cabinets up. We couldn't get the one next to the fridge or above the fridge up. We were literally so exhausted neither of us could keep it held up. By now it was 9:00. Noah had the plywood cut at the lumber department so all he had to do was cut out the section and screw in the wood. While he did that, I took to the staples. Fun. Do any of you have a dog? Our dog will be 11 in February. She doesn't know this. To her, she is 2. She acts like a two year old; puppy and human child. I couldn't get anything done without appeasing her first. I had to get her bed out, give her a rawhide bone to occupy her. Get her a 'baby'. She had to know what I was doing at ALL TIMES. I'm shocked she didn't get a staple in her foot. I swept as I went. I was exhausted just from her...
We did as much as we could and finally called it quits at 11:30, took our showers, and decided sleep was well deserved. We got to bed at 12:30 with the plan to get up at 6;30. The floor installers were coming in the morning and we had to finish getting all the tack strip up, staples out, tons of stuff out of the foyer, kitchen and living room...this is where the regret started to creep in. How were we ever going to get this done? Were we going to be scolded when they showed up? Did we do enough prep work? The guy who came to measure for materials said to have the bottom cabinets in. Oops.
This is the floor before Noah ripped up the bad lauan and linoleum. We were terrified we would find black mold under there. But it was just dry rotted plywood. Easily fixed. And fix they did. We will take out the worst section of the floor and replace it with the 3/4 inch sheets they delivered, but the installer and his son got rid of the rest of the floor in a heart beat today. My absolute new BFF's.
Yuck.
Here's the living room floor, staples and all. Now, a very important story needs to be told here. Remember how I told you my sister was taking my carpet? Well, she brought my niece and nephew, their boyfriend and girlfriend, three male buddies and an extra girl over to pull up that carpet and pad. But, first, they cleared out my front room of the remaining furniture, boxes, this-and-that's, and even loaded some of our furniture into my brother-in-law's truck that we were borrowing to take to a climate controlled storage unit until we put the house back together. I have several precious antiques I will not part with, and they must stay safe! I am forever grateful to those kids! Wow...
We did get up at 6:30/7:00 and dove right in to those staples and tack strip. Noah beat me, of course. When the installers showed up, there was no scolding. He was very laid back and said we hadn't needed to put in the lower cabinets, after all. The day went smooth, and they've done a great job, so far. They'll be back again tomorrow to finish up.
My new art form I am discovering. I call it "construction is a dirty job."
Oh ma goodness. I have waited 10 years for this moment. These floors are the most beautiful thing. Laminate gets a bad rap sometimes. It used to look, and sound, cheap and hollow with really fake looking wood grain. But, as picky as I am, I totally approve of this. The handscraped look is just what I wanted, and the grain is beautiful. I didn't want to use hardwood, unless it was bamboo, and we just could not justify the expense. These are 10mm thick, the thickest you can get, I think. And they are wonderful.
All-in-all, this had been a good experience. No bickering between the Hubs and I; we make a great team. Tyer, too. He's really been pitching in. We are all either getting over colds (me), fighting a lingering one (Noah) or just starting one (Tyler). I think we are doing a bang up job. I've waited so long for this, I can't believe it's actually happening!
Ok...gotta go! There's a lot of work to do...We still have to replace a bigger piece of the kitchen floor, put in the drywall for behind the sink, and who knows what else.
Oh! Before I forget...I bought a dishwasher today! Our first one! I am SO excited!!!
Thanks for sharing in this with me. Your comments and questions are always welcome, I'd LOVE to hear from you!
Until next time
Nanette
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