In Between Phases

The cats have been enjoying having the run of the place again.

They are poking their little snouts in all the nooks and crannies and boxes they can find.

Stephen is happy to be able to droop over the arm of the couch again!

Or sleep on a stack of blankies!

So sleepy!

And very handsome.

I love when he sits in the windowsill and his tail curls around like an iguana's tail.

Today we worked hard to move stuff from the three bedrooms into the garage or great room.

The three bookshelves in my office holding work-type stuff and curriculum binders are now in the dining room, all close together!

Here they are from the side:

My Cube is packed full of stuff (a microwave, two seating cubes, a printer, three bags full of books . . . ) that needs to go to Goodwill, and the dining room table has more stuff to go (yay!)

It feels GREAT to be forced to go through stuff, and it's a HUGE blessing that I'm feeling healthy enough to do it and not completely fall apart.

Allistair has been having fun with the ladder.

Stephen joined him once, but that was enough for him.

But Allistair had to explore the ladder all over again every time we moved it!

Especially if it was near the fan - right after I took this picture, he stood up on his back feet and pushed the fan blade so it spun around.

Greg decided it would be good to move the ladder further away.

Allistair was disappointed.

He tried to lie down comfortably on the top of the ladder and discovered that he is too big and he bulged over the edges.

So he found another place to sleep!

Claude also enjoyed the big stack of blankies while Stephen was off elsewhere.

Here's where most of the clothes from the closet went . . . 

Here's my office after the first day of clean-out.

Here is the northern wall of Greg's office - wow!

And here's the closet (stuff on the top shelf can stay, we think).

Also, I bought a new dress (at Ross).

I'm going to wear it tomorrow, so I'll post pictures of it all assembled with bag, shoes, 

and a Christie in it!

Happy Saturday!

Phase One Complete!!!

Hooray!

The first half of the house is finished!  

Obviously, as you can see from the above photo, it's not organized or prettified, but

the flooring is done and the painting is done.

There are still some areas that need to be fixed up before it's DONE done . . . 

but the guys told us to put a blue tape x on anything that needs to be addressed, and they'll

add it to the list next time.

This is what the great room looks like right now.

The tiles have a sort of sticky film over them -

I'm guessing from having the grout spread everywhere.

Dining room:

Stephen (and a nice close-up of the tiles!)

A freshly mopped kitchen 

(blue x under the dishwasher where grout needs to be repaired).

I cooked dinner in our REAL kitchen tonight!

I put the couch back where it belongs and put some fuzzy blankies on it.

I even took a short little nap on it this afternoon!

I still need to wash the slipcovers, though.

And there's a bunch of stuff on the patio that needs to go in the dumpster.

I mopped this area about three times

and the kitchen about five times 

to get off the sticky dusty grout grime.

I tried different combinations of water and cleaners, and the one that seemed to get the most

grime off was water with a little PineSol added (like 7/8 water, 1/8 PineSol).

I vacuumed first, then mopped.

Then I vacuumed again and mopped some more.

In between, I dusted furniture - 

each piece more than once.

As soon as I dust, more dust settles!

I expect it will take a couple of weeks for it all to settle out of the air.

It was FUN!!! 

(And incidentally, great exercise!)

Tonight we had a meeting to attend, so we didn't get anything done, but tomorrow we'll start moving stuff from the other rooms into this area.

This is the best things will look for at least another two weeks.

Tune in tomorrow to see how we will use this big room for storing everything we own!

Renovation, Part 1 - Day 9: Tile and Baseboards

Tile and grout in the whole first half of the house are now finished!

This includes the laundry room, kitchen, great room, and dining room (above).

There were two crooked tiles in the laundry room that got fixed today, too.

Look how beautiful they are!

Here's how the living room looks now.

This afternoon or evening, the painter is coming back to finish installing the baseboards and to help us move all the appliances back where they belong - yay!

Then we have a week to put things sort of where we want them, move everything out of the other side of the house (three bedrooms and a bathroom), and remove the current flooring from the bedrooms.

Then we do all the renovation over again!

The cats are much more relaxed now; they seem to have gotten used to the ruckus a bit.

Juvy has been coming in and sleeping on the bed in the afternoons.

It's only been in the high 80s, so it's not too hot outside right now.

More photos when we get things shifted around again
(hopefully tonight!)

Renovation, Part 1 - Day 8: MORE Painting

Beautiful

gorgeous

fantastic

new flooring!

Kitchen all undone . . . 

Tiling near the front door that still needs to be finished.

How things look this morning 

after a marathon day of painting by Martin and his assistant yesterday.

Notice that amazing floor, the crisp white baseboard 

(though to the right, it still needs to be installed),

and the creamy wall.

Stacks of furniture!

I can't get enough of this floor!

The cats have been more relaxed (Martin the painter and his team are quieter than the flooring people) and have been extra snuggly to make up for some days of hiding under the bed.

Wookit that widdle facey!!!

Claude is still grumpy, but even she has been asking for some snuggles.

We're waiting for a call back from our head contractor dude to make sure he knows what still needs to be done before we can move to phase 2.  There are two tiles in the laundry room that need to be replaced because they're crooked, there is tiling by the front door that needs to be done, there are baseboards that need to be installed, and the appliances need to be hooked up again . . . and a few other niggley things.  We have to push things along (and Greg's being amazing helping me be more proactive than I would normally be!) and our contractor company doesn't communicate well with the individual contributors, so we are the pipeline between them at the moment.  Not ideal, but thankfully, we're doing well at it and we're a great team!  And everyone seems to be doing excellent WORK, which is even more important.

More soon!

Renovation Part 1 - Day 7: More Painting

In the early(ish) morning light, the difference between the walls and the ceiling

is quite noticeable.  It's not that noticeable in most lights.

The walls really don't look quite that dark in most light.

In normal light, it looks like this.

You can see the difference, but both look whitish.

One's just more creamy than the other.

Beautiful tile!

and yes, I'm wearing socks and flip-flops

This is our temporary kitchen.

I can't imagine living like this for weeks on end.

I'm glad we're only doing it for a little over a week!

 Here's the dumpster in front of our house.

Here's all the tile and mortar piled up in front of the house.

On to some cute cat pictures!

Here is Claude, happy and gorgeous.

Stephen, drooping off the bed, all relaxed 

because no workers are here today.

Stephen crawled up into my lap today and purred and purred.

And Juvy came in to hang out with us all for awhile.

Last night we had quite a LOT of rain

and today the skies were very pretty with fluffy clouds.

I found a blouse at Ross this last week and wore it

with my new leggings.

 Peek-a-boo!

Look at the beautiful watercolor print! 

blouse by Calvin Klein

 We are all doing well in spite of the MESS,

and we hope you are doing well, too!

Have a great weekend!