We're Really Not This Messy

When I was little, I used to hate when my mom made us clean the house for guests, "But they're our friends! They'll like us no matter how the house looks!" 

Now that I'm older, I totally get it. It's not about whether or not your friends/family will still love you, it's about pretending you don't actually wallow in your bedsheets for 2 weeks, let your cats climb on the dining room table, and have a constant competition with your garbage can to see exactly how much trash it can hold. It's about showing you know how you're supposed to be living - somewhere in between sanitary conditions and Martha-Stewart-organized, and hopefully a little closer to the latter.

Since we have exactly T-minus 8 hours until Mike's niece arrives tonight, we've been on high alert, hyper aware of how our home appears to the objective eye. I organized the chaos in the office so we could cram all our other boxes in there, basically making the office the "under the rug" area. Don't open that door.

And we got all crazy in the guest bedroom, trimming out the window, finishing most of the baseboards on the floor, and setting up the new bed.

Nail guns are one of my favorites! I also learned they are
responsible for 150,000 emergency room visits a year!

We hustled in the kitchen - Mike got the shelves up, patched, sanded and stained them, and I unpacked our dishes. He even put up the kitchen hood! Here's a shot in progress:

before staining, with the kitchen hood partially up

completed shelves and installed hood - we still need to remove
the protective plastic. The hood is actually stainless steel.

close up of the kitchen shelves

I think by the end of the day today, we'll have a kitchen sink and dishwasher, and I'm crossing my fingers....hopefully a stove! If not, at least we'll have our grill, a waffle maker, and a crock pot to feed Mike's niece with. Mike also pulled a late night countertop sealing session:

step by step, we're getting stuff done...

Our master bath vanity, pendant lights, and mirrors were installed (thanks, Mike!), and although I'm second guessing my mirror choice and we're looking for a large rectangular one now, this will suffice for the time being. I also finished painting the ceiling in the shower area and could finally properly place the shower light. It really made a difference; the shower feels super glamorous when you're in it, and I can't stop staring at my 2" hexagon tiles. 

vanity shot on the left, shower view on the right

The glass in the shower area hasn't been installed yet (or even priced out), but to be honest, the shower is so huge that the water doesn't even hit the back wall, much less the area where the glass would be. This is awesome for two reasons - no rush to get the glass, and when we finally do get the glass - it won't get too many water spots. 

I think the thing we're most excited about with our niece's visit, is not that she's got us motivated to finish up some lingering projects; it's that we have an excuse to go out and do stuff for the next few days! We made a whole list of hikes to go on, waterfalls to see, things to show her...we can't wait to get out and do something other than remodeling. Fun starts now!

Into the Dust Pit and Back Out the Other Side

It is more difficult than you would think, living in a house that's going through a full-out remodel. If you have the means, I would highly recommend moving out of your home, if you ever take this on in the future. Our house is constantly dusty; anything you wash gets dirty within minutes, and we don't have a working kitchen or even a kitchen sink. I have a whole new level of appreciation for deep sinks with a proper faucet and garbage disposal.

We just made it through a week of grinding the countertops, which created an atmosphere in the house close to what I imagine working in a quarry feels like. Despite our best efforts to tarp off the kitchen and blanket our belongings, our entire house and our very own lungs got coated in a thick layer of concrete dust. 

Our kitchen looks ghostly with all the plastic and tarps up!

We had to live only in the master bedroom (due to all the dust), and I sort of wish we had drugged the cats for those few days, since all 6 of us were cooped up in the room together. It was impossible to use the toaster oven, and we did carry out and fast food, sitting on the floor of our bedroom, eating off a cardboard box. I kept reminding myself it was like camping, but without the beauty of nature, it's hard to keep a positive attitude.

But after a few days, we made it through the grinding and polishing, and then we moved on to tile, which was considerably less dirty. I picked this beautiful ice white glass subway tile, which makes the kitchen look incredibly clean. The picture below doesn't quite do it justice, but when the whole kitchen is done, I hope to get a better shot!

Mike celebrating after day 1 of tile.

The empty horizontal spaces are where the open kitchen shelving will go. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but because we found mold and had to ditch the old kitchen cabinets, that left us with an extra cost we didn't anticipate in the remodel. The solution? We only purchased lower cabinets, and on top, we're putting open kitchen shelving. It works perfectly for us for several reasons: we love the open airy feel, it updates the traditional style of this 90s kitchen, the kitchen feels bigger, and our everyday dishes are all white, which makes them ideal for displaying!

Adin from Artisan Tile laying the last tile on the back wall.

Adin knocked out the tiles in 3 days, and then it was on to building the shelves. Mike found a blog online where this girl built her own shelves, and he decided to go ahead and make ours!

The frames for the shelves and a glimpse of the unsealed counters.

After all the kitchen insanity, and because the office looks like the picture below, we really felt a serious need to organize and clean.

One day, hopefully not too far in the future, this will be my office.

In a way, chaos in your house reflects the chaos in your life and mind. There is a real level of peace I get from not only organizing my belongings, but paring them down. One $99 closet organizer and an afternoon will buy you this sort of inner calm:

This is everything we've been wearing the last couple months!

Sure, there's like 2 more boxes and 3 more bags of clothes, but I was pretty happy to find that we've pared down quite a bit from our previous lives, and we picked out even more things we can donate. I think I jettisoned about half my closet once I quit corporate office life. I still have my collection of LBD (little black dresses) over there on the left, though. There's a level of practicality that speaks to keeping those around.

We're hoping to get out of the house more this coming week - we miss our nightly walks and just exploring around Oregon. Not only do our lungs need some fresh air, but spring is here, whether we're ready or not! Usually, the last frost is in May here in Bend, and I'm a little bit concerned for our plum tree. Should it freeze again, the blossoms will fall off and we won't get any fruit this year. Sad face (for potential lost plums and climate change).

Enjoying the beautiful plum blossoms while we can...

Mike's niece is coming up on Tuesday and we are so excited to show her around our little town. More to come!

The Never-Ending Story of Our Renovation

So we're officially in week 7 of remodeling, which was sort of our deadline, and we sort of met it. I say "sort of" because while we are technically going to move into our house this coming Saturday, it's not entirely functional. But let's look at the bright side, shall we? At least we have a place to live!

This week and last has been focused mostly on the kitchen. We had to get the cabinets installed and pour the concrete countertops. We chose concrete for a couple reasons - we love the look, and it was waaay cheaper than going with quartz or granite. For comparison, the "absolute black" granite that we would have chosen would have been $2K just for the granite, then add in the cutting, polishing, and installation, and it would be just ridiculous. And there's very little we could do to reduce the cost and DIY. The concrete, on the other hand, was about $500.00 for the molds, countertop kit, and concrete, and then it's just a bunch of labor and a giant learning curve.

Installation of the cabinets

The cabinets with Durarock and countertop molds screwed in.

We used the counter kit from Z Counterform. Their videos make it look easy. Warning: it is not. It is also extremely messy! Monkeys throwing wet concrete around would have been only slightly worse. I just walked out of the room while Mike was dealing with it. I couldn't watch.

You have to put wire inside the concrete to give it something to adhere to.

Mike screeding the concrete....right onto the floor.

Screeding is when you level the concrete by drawing something across it, and it has to go somewhere. In our case, it went right off the counter onto the kitchen floor, which thankfully wasn't installed yet. So it landed on the plywood subfloor...still very upsetting for me! But concrete doesn't stick to flat surfaces, so Mike was able to clean it all up in a matter of minutes, and we are no worse for wear. It was a great exercise in just letting things go and believing it will all work out in the end! Seriously, who needs couple's therapy? Just remodel a house.

breaking off the molds to reveal Mike's handiwork!

at this stage, the counters need to cure for a few weeks.

The concrete goes in super dark, but dries a beautiful light gray color. It's modern, industrial, and fits our aesthetics perfectly.

close up of the edge. We may leave the pits, I think they add character!

Yep, we did an undermount sink on a poured concrete counter.

The counters will be curing for about 30 days (whoops! we sure didn't do that on the right timeline) before we can have them polished and then seal them, but they're hard and not susceptible to dents or dings, so we can move in and not worry too much about it. 

Next things to do - paint and put in the floors. 

painting with the new neutral - gray.

painting walls with vaulted ceilings is a lot of work!

I wanted light floors and Mike wanted dark. Since we wanted to go cheap (no one in the neighborhood has hardwood, so it didn't make sense to go all out), we went with a nice dark laminate that mimics hand hewn wood. Laminates have come a pretty long way since the first days of Pergo! As Mike and Tyler (our new BFF contractor friend) did the floor installation, I couldn't imagine how much dust hardwood floors would be to install, if laminate kicked up this much dust.

installing the floors in the living room.

Mike cut and installed all the underlay on the floors.

Kitchen floors installed. Please excuse our dust.

One major cost cutting factor in our remodel is the electric - my part time job is for an electrician, so we are getting parts at cost, and a big discount on labor. We installed six super nice, adjustable recessed LED lights in our living room. 

four of the six lights installed.

Finally, a glimpse at our almost completed bathroom! The tile is all in, the vanity is half installed, and I've got a first coat of paint on the walls. We may be living without the glass wall or door for a little while, as we're off to Chicago and LA next week, and we're strapped for time. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I can't wait to stop traveling and just stay home for a few months!

two views of the new bathroom

a peek into the shower from the vanity area

We move in this weekend and while we're living there, we'll still be finishing up all sorts of projects - installing the mirrors, pendant lights, and rest of the vanity for the master bath, all the trim, new doors (or possibly painting the old ones), kitchen backsplash, hood, shelving, closet organizational system, full remodel of the guest bathroom, and oh yeah - a secret reading area hidden by a swinging bookcase. And did I mention I bought a bunch of heirloom seeds for our not-yet-created garden and raised beds? It's going to be a busy spring!