What I did on my Christmas Vacation

Thought I might use this blog to document the work I'm doing on my place. I bought a new stove 2 weeks ago which inspired me to take on the kitchen remodel. First I had to get rid of the old one which involved a week of all sorts of slackers on craigslist who claimed to want it but failed to show. Guess you can't give away a stove. FINALLY some dudes showed up and took my old one...after I scrubbed...yes scrubbed...dripped grease off of it. My sorority sister Natalie talked some of her very kind co-workers to pick up my new stove and deliver it to my home. It is now sitting with me here, next to the couch. The Kenmore says "hi."

Then I pushed my refrigerator out of the way to pull out the baseboards. Discovered that the ice maker water line had been leaking. For how long, I know not. I pushed my fridge into my dining room and cleaned up years of dirt and debris and surveyed the damage...just the particle board cabinet next to the fridge. Pulled off the old baseboards and shoe molding to discover they were probably the originals from 1983 since my house number had been marked on all of them. Threw 'em out. Next I had to pull up the fugly old laminate flooring that was peeling at the seams. Not too bad. It came up in big pieces. I discovered old, nasty, greasy sheet vinyl flooring under that. That was a stinky, sticky mess to take up. There is a concrete subfloor. I swept the big pieces up then tried to shop vac the debris. In several spots, the former tenants must have used super glue to adhere the vinyl floor. It left a sort of paper backing, gorilla stuck to the floor. I used a painter's tool as a chisel with my hammer to chisel the spots up. I missed the tool a few times and now my left hand looks like James Caan's ankles in Misery. Another hour out of my life. I washed the floor...still dusty.

Next step was preparing for paint. Had to patch and sand a few spots. Spent a good couple hours cutting and pulling out the old caulk behind the entire backsplash as it had shrunk in quite a few spots. If I was going to do this right, I had to replace the hood above the stove. It was no longer working, had several layers of paint and was also covered in grease. Threw it out. Discovered that if I scrubbed really hard, my Mr. Clean Magic Sponge took off years of dirt from the countertops. I love my Mr. Clean Magic Sponge.

Then came the taping and the painting. I picked what I thought was a nice, neutral, slightly warm tan color. Spent a few hours painting around every corner only to discover that I hated it. It turned out to be the color of hot cocoa...with pink tones. Made my ivory countertops look terrible. I kept eyeing it from the living room with disdain.

Went to Houston and had a Merry Christmas with Shelly's family.

Came back to discover the cabinet hardware I ordered on ebay had arrived. Attached all the hardware. Had to drill new holes for the drawers though. Instead of knobs, I replaced them with bin pulls which required 2 new holes to be drilled. Messy job, but I'm happy with the result. Heidi trauma number 2,058: the drill bit I was using is now jammed in the drill. It will not come out. So, my power drill (and screwdriver) is now out of commission until I figure out how to get it to release the drill bit. >:(

Decided I just couldn't live with the paint color. Did some more research and picked Shaker Beige from Benjamin Moore. It is perfect and makes my countertops look decent. Took a trip to Lowes for new baseboards and paint. Spent a few more hours re-painting. Then came the caulking around the countertops. I bought one tube of special caulk that is meant to match laminate countertops. There was such a gap between the wall and the backsplash that I went through the whole tube about a 1/3 of the way through. I went back to the Depot and just got the normal stuff, in a giant tube and a caulking gun. This worked out much better. The smoothing took some time to get right. Waited for that to dry and then painted around the caulked area and any areas that needed touching up.

The next day I went to a different Depot because the one I went to the day before was out of the "base" tone for the shade I needed for the baseboards. Painted the kickboards under the cabinets. Since my new flooring is going to be lower than the previous flooring, there was a good gap the previous painter couldn't reach.

While the paint was drying I thought I'd take a break and go to Ikea to check out their sale. Bought a new light fixture for the kitchen and a 'lucky' bamboo shoot because I can use all I can get. Tonight I took down the old flourescent light fixture. It too was covered in grease. Discovered that 1) there was no electrical box...just wires 2) the previous home owner had punched another 3 inch hole about a foot away for some unknown reason. There are also 1 inch holes where the dry wall anchors were in the ceiling for the old fixture. Went back to the Depot for an 'old work' electrical box and some drywall patch tools. Had to cut a bigger hole using a drywall knife in the ceiling according to the instructions I found online for the box. My ceiling drywall isn't as tall as the box, so it sort of hangs a quarter inch. Sigh. Opened the IKEA fixture to discover that 1) IKEA does not provide wiring nuts 2) IKEA does not provide the screws that attach the fixture to a box. The electrical box I bought also did not come with screws. So...I dumped out my container of screws and bolts and spent an hour trying to get one to fit. No luck. So, it's back to the Depot tomorrow. I also decided that even if I can repair my stippled ceiling, I'll probably end up painting the whole darn thing. You can definitely tell where the old fixture was. It had been up there a while and it appears the former owners painted around it.

Spent some time cleaning up the drywall mess and used the shop vac again on the whole floor. Spent about 5 hours tonight putting down the new floor by the light of the lamp. I think it came out pretty well. I can no longer feel my knees.

All that, and I'm still not done. I MUST finish soon as I am sick of eating microwave or fast foods. When I stand up, every muscle begs for mercy. Did I mention that I came down with a nasty sore throat and cold 3 nights ago?