Floors are Finished!

I've never been so happy to come home to plywood floors as I was on Monday. The new flooring process was started on Monday, with ripping up the carpet, working on the creaking (some of the plywood wasn't nailed down at all!), and leveling out the floor as much as possible.

Give it another 24 hours, and it looks like this!!:

Much improved from the lovely buttery yellow carpet I started with!

Next up-- baseboards!

Painting Cabinets

When I moved into the condo, this is what the kitchen looked like- medium brown cabinets, faux butcher block counters, black appliances and yucky tan linoleum floors.

I decided that one of the first projects I would take up was painting the cabinets and adding knobs and drawer pulls. I'm not quite sure when I started it, because I've been working on so many things and kind of all at once...but this was an early project.

I wanted to paint the cabinets white, so I went to my favorite hardware store and bought some supplies. I could have gone the kit route, but I thought I could do just as good of a job myself. So I bought a gallon of oil based Kilz primer, and a gallon of Valspar's "Dove White" paint. It's nearly just the white straight off the shelf. I just wanted a white white. This has done the job.

In the mean time, I actually decided I would do the vanity in the bathroom first, as it is identical to the kitchen cabinets but smaller and that way if something went terribly wrong I wouldn't have wasted much time. I washed down the cabinets and set out priming. The can of Kilz said that you could re-coat after an hour, I think, but I let it dry for about 24 hours, until the next morning. 

I then did coats of the white paint. I did a coat, and gave it several hours to dry, then did another. Once I was satisfied with the coverage I let it dry for about 24 hours, and then added knobs to the cabinet doors.

The kitchen was a much bigger project, taking many more days and hours. At any given point, my kitchen look like this...

...or this...

Starting to see some progress...

And how it looks tonight, all finished!

Before:

 

After!

 

Black Friday Purchases

Black Friday was a great day for my condo-- I purchased laminate flooring for the living room, dinning room, kitchen and hallway, AND a new washer and dryer.

I posted a teaser picture earlier this week of the flooring samples I was considering.

Before I got the samples home, I thought that I would put laminate flooring in the living and dinning rooms, and hallway, and then put a vinyl in the kitchen, 

but once I laid them on the floor to compare, I decided there was no reason to not put the laminate in the kitchen. I think the color will look great with the cabinets (unsure about the counters, but those might go anway)

Unfortunately for me, the store didn't have enough of the product I picked in stock, so they had to order it, and what do you know but this flooring is back ordered. Luckily this seems to be a pretty nimble industry, as my scheduled delivery date is next Friday. (When I heard back ordered on the phone, I thought weeks/months, not 7 more days!)

So my new floors should be in and all pretty in about 2 weeks!

In addition, I also bought myself a new washing machine and dryer!

My current washer and dryer came with the condo and are older than I am. The washer is a paltry 1.75 cubic feet (standard now is more like 3.4-3.5) and the dryer is extremely inefficient.

I had to be cognizant of my budget, and thus decided to go with the Admiral brand washer and dryer from Home Depot. On black Friday they were $249 each, so I got the set for just over $500 including hoses/cords and tax.

I am super excited to not have to tiny loads--twice as many as usual--and to not have to run my dryer twice to get a load of clothes dry!

Allison

December Punch List

Here is my room by room punch list. It's still growing. 

Throughout whole house:

• Replace lightswitches and outlets with new, white ones <- Done about 4 of them!
• Replace lightswitch covers and outlet covers
• Have GCI outlets installed in bathroom, kitchen<- scheduled for Dec. 22

Kitchen

• Paint Cabinets (in progress)
• replace counter tops?
• replace floor<- purchased! Waiting to get installed
• Decide on color and paint walls
• paint trim
• Install under-cabinet lights
• Replace Fridge, Dishwasher, Range

Living Room

• Paint Walls "Wild Aster"
• Paint Trim
• Replace carpet with laminate!?? <- Purchased! Waiting to get installed!
• Hang Curtains
• Get new Couch
• Hang Art, mirrors <- Still some work to do here
• Hang curtains
• Hang blinds?

Bedroom

• Decide on color and paint walls
• Paint trim
• Paint Closet
• Redo Closet system
• Hnng Curtains
• Hang art, mirrors

Bathroom

• Remove shower doors
• Hang shower curtain
• paint vanity
• paint trim
• Replace or Frame mirror
• Remove Wallpaper
• Decide on color and Paint walls
• Clean grout or regrout?
• Replace Faucet AND sink!

Second Bedroom

• Decide on color and paint walls
• Paint trim
• Redo closet?

Basement

• Paint paneling white <-!! Details coming!
• fix water damaged walls (probably a contractor will do this)
• replace carpet
• Finish basement bathroom (what a nutty set up!)
• organize and set up sewing area
• replace washer and dryer?  <- Ordered! Delivery Dec. 6th!