But, here is a short note to verify that we have not been lazy and sitting on our hands.
Since March, besides working our “day jobs” and being confronted by numerous spring weather challenges, and tending to the yard work and the gardens, we have vigorously engaged in home renovation.
In the kitchen, we have finished the pantry and have installed the entry door woodwork. We started assembling the shelves above the freezer and were getting things ready to install the baseboards and crown molding in the kitchen . . .
. . . but got side-tracked and started working in the dining room.
We ripped up the carpeting in the dining room and tore out the old baseboard and molding around the windows, then started painting the room. After that, we installed the new window and door moldings and began laying the new flooring. This progressed well until we encountered the entry way . . .
. . . whereupon we got side-tracked and began ripping out the old tile flooring in the entry way to begin installing the new flooring there, figuring we could get back to the dining room to finish installing the baseboard and crown molding sooner or later.
In the entry way, we found two layers of tile, the bottom layer even uglier than the top, so with great care we began removing the old tile – RIIIIIIGHT . . . if dynamite had been available, Nana Pam would have used it with gusto.
After spending a full day just getting the tile up and the old baseboard removed, we were finally able to lay the new flooring in the entryway . . .
. . . and got side-tracked and decided to go ahead and rip the carpet and old woodwork out of the south end of the living room and began installing the new flooring there too. Oh, and by the way, Nana Pam also decided the living room needed a new coat of paint.
Now, at this point, you need to understand two things about how Nana Pam and I work together. First, we may fight and fume at each other on a normal average day, but we really do work well as a team and are happy together while on a DIY home renovation project. And second, during home renovation projects, we still like having our stuff around us. So, try to imagine us putting down new flooring and new woodwork and painting walls while our furniture is still in the house being shifted from space to space as the space becomes available.
Hey, it’s just how we do things, OK?
OK, where was I? Oh, yeah, in the living room.
After shifting the furniture as required, we finally got the floor down – at least in most of the living room, until we ran into the entry to the kitchen. At this point, we found that we not only wanted to continue the flooring into the kitchen, but realized that we HAD to proceed into the kitchen in order to finish laying the floor in the living room. The type of flooring we were laying required a certain technique in order to not have a seam in the middle of the floor. (Confused? Come over sometime and I’ll be glad to demonstrate. Bring a paint brush.)
So we got side-tracked and began ripping up the “beautiful” blue tile in the kitchen, only to find, just as we did in the entry way, a second layer of tile beneath. This time, however, we had acquired a new tool, namely, a heat gun, which helped loosen the tile and made removal much easier.
To make a long story a bit longer, we finally got the old tile and all of the old carpeting out of the house and all the new flooring down throughout the entire bottom floor of our home. Within a few days, we also cut, primed, painted, and installed the new woodwork in the living room, thanks to some great help from our good friend, Charles Bitzer, without whose help the task would have been impossible. He was amply rewarded with a pork-steak lunch, some fresh veggies from the garden, and a mention in this blog . . . so, we’re even.
So, we are now finished with the renovation – except for a few paint touch-ups in the living room . . .
. . . And completing the entry way. . .
. . . And installing the woodwork in the dining room and putting the furniture back . . .
. . . And finishing up the kitchen baseboard --- and cabinets --- and countertops --- and kitchen island . . .
. . . And the complete make-over of the utility room and bathroom.
Other than that, we are practically done.
I guess then to keep our marriage happy we should start doing the second floor . . . .
