Life in the Cheese Drawer

all that work paid off! well, hopefully moreso down the road when installation is a distant memory.

it was a lot of work.

but the floors look so much better, and my kitchen is now close to peak kitchen (though nothing will top the kitchen in the st. charles house).

all the appliances were disconnected, concrete was mopped, rinsed, swept, and swiffered. and it was still very dirty – i don’t think you can ever have sparkling-clean concrete that’s not shellacked or something.

liz arrived on friday afternoon on a muggy, 90-ish degree day and informed me that the planks needed to be inside to acclimate. UGH i wish i had known that – i would have brought them in a few days ago and had them ready to go. so we did not start laying floor til saturday.

liz in her DIY element. i let liz lay the first few rows since she knew what she was doing, and when we got to a spot where we were able to split off, i took on a section and she took on a section. unfortunately, this meant i got the kitchen – yikes! we ended up having a lot of happy accidents where the width of the plank exactly equaled the width we needed, and we were able to use up a lot of the waste pieces in different spots.

with plank vinyl, you’re able to score it with a utility knife and snap them in half, but for the little wonky cuts, we ended up using the table saw that my dad lent to me. the table saw ended up being faster 60% of the times for the long, single cuts, too, so we used that quite a bit! and little pieces of plastic are still coating my entire garage.

i may have complained about the kitchen cuts, but LOOK AT THIS GLORIOUSNESS!

this was a lot of cuts, sure, but the part that just about put me over the edge was when the copper tubing behind my dishwasher bent 😩 so a trip to menards was in order, where i got a copper tubing cutter thingie, a compression fitting, and the assurance from the plumbing dude that the fitting would work. i hooked up a flexi-hose and no bending.

after i fixed the plumbing issue, which actually fixed a few more dishwasher issues we were having prior to this project, i got to do the hard-wiring in of the electrical, and let me tell you – i’d rather do plumbing than electrical any day of the week.

but the dishwasher finally got hooked up and still runs!

after a 8-hour day on saturday and probably a 10-hour day on sunday, we laid the last planks at about 11 p.m. on sunday.

throughout the past week i’ve been putting the trim back up and placing the thresholds. i was spending way too much time drilling into concrete when i realized that i could just gorilla glue the thresholds on. what a difference. so much easier! and yes, i know the trim doesn’t match, but whatever. maybe i’ll get ambitious someday and paint everything. until then, mismatched trim. oh well.

yeah, that’s still gross laminate in the bathroom, but that’s next on the DIY list. that’s a major project, so we’ll see how that pans out. yikes.

for now, i’ve just got a couple thresholds to finish up – the bedrooms and the small board by the garage door. doug is working on a big threshold for the living room to dining/weird area, which is 7″ wide. until then, there’s a rug over that so i don’t have to look at the grossness.

the majority of the furniture is back in today, which is good because it’s now canning season. another project!

it’s time for home reno! when nate and i moved in, our house was still original to 1997 when it was built. since then, we’ve (well, mostly i’ve) replaced a lot of lights, painted some walls, painted the kitchen cabinets, taken out a very 90s corner kitchen computer desk, put in a couple ceiling fans, removed a clunky medicine cabinet, etc. etc.

what remained as a big to-dos? the floors. ugh. the bedrooms have maroon and hunter green carpet. the weird dining room a beige low-pile carpet, and the kitchen vinyl linoleum. all of which were definitely end of life.

check out the very 90s gold threshold connector. that was satisfying to pull up!

but oof it’s a lot of work to replace floors. over the past week, i worked on clearing out the furniture, taking off all the floor trim, and then pulling up the carpet and padding.

nate had the last few days off, and we spent hours getting the vinyl off the floor and cleaning the concrete underneath.

on friday, nate loaded up the old carpet and we headed to cold spring to drop it off at the dump. $45 to drop off 200 lbs of gross 25-year-old carpet, which is a steal. unfortunately, something in the carpet got stuck in my arm, and i’ve had a swollen allergic reaction in my wrist and upper arm for the past couple days.

small price to pay. it’s getting better.

other mishaps?

• nate slipped on the wet concrete and biffed it.
• also realized after doing 80% of the vinyl removal that he hadn’t actually put in the blade of the floor scraper we bought (he was using the part that holds it in place). (the scraper above is actually our winter ice scraper. we bought an actual floor scraper, not pictured, with a very sharp blade. that he didn’t realize wasn’t in. this is why you read the directions.)
• the house is a mess. stuff is in the shed, the garage, the bedroom, the living room. the cats are confused and looking for a non-concrete place to place their butts.

what’s left at this point: there is one corner of carpet that goes into a closet, the linoleum under the dishwasher (waiting til the last moment to unhook the dishwasher’s very non-code electrical), and then a final cleaning of the concrete. but almost all of the concrete is smooth and ready for some floor!

i’m also going to paint the walls in the weird dining room, at least the wall on your right as you’re looking at it. it’ll be the same color as the kitchen (NOT what’s behind the stove). haven’t decided if i’ll go all the way around yet.

then it will be time to lay the new floor! liz is coming up the first weekend in august to help with her expertise and i think she’ll be here for the easy part. i have 23 boxes of flooring. i hope it’s enough.

update to come after that!

when a famous* DIYer comes to visit you, you need to do some DIY, amirite?

i initially asked liz to come visit me to help with something on my roof and go for a run int he woods. then she she stuck the bug in my head to paint my cabinets, even sending me a link to an easy, no-sanding recipe for success. at first i was hesitant – so much work. but the allure of having a helper (nate is no help. he’s more hindrance in home projects) was too much.

so i read the info about how to do this, then made a commitment by taking off my cabinet doors. first, a couple before pics.

my kitchen was classic mid-90s maple. when i moved in, the hardware was gold, if that gives you an idea of how awesomely stuck in the 90s my house was. the hardware change out helped, but the maple is so overwhelming. so, like i said, i took off the doors and committed to a change.

tips for door removal:

• use some painters tape to number the doors and cabinets. i numbered my lower doors, lettered the upper doors, and roman numeraled the drawers.
• put the hardware for each section in a baggie and place it in the cabinet/drawer.
• don’t make a big deal out of not getting the doors exactly even when putting them back on – i’m not a professional cabinet hanger, and neither are you. i doubt anyone will notice.

(not the little red apple thing next to the sink – canning season means fruitfly overload, and they were super annoying.)

then i stopped menards to pick the items needed for my painting project:

• fancy cabinet paint (i bought $50/gallon dutchboy semi-gloss cabinet paint)
• primer
• deglosser
• paint sprayer
• a $13 edging paintbrush

i thought i needed two gallons of paint and ended up spending $300. oy. expensive project. good thing menards had their rebate going on.

so, liz showed up and we got to work on saturday. the prep work is the WORST. anyone who’s painted anything knows it’s the worst.

1. cleaning. before liz showed up, i started spraying all my cabinet doors with 409 to degrease them, then wiped them off. liz cleaned off all the indoor surfaces with dishsoap and a non-abrasive scrubby.
2. deglossing. the source i used as a basis for this project said this should take the place of sanding. except, the directions were pretty sparse, and the couple videos i watched about deglossing just wiped down the surface. i’m not sure if it actually worked or not, but we deglossed all the surfaces.
3. sanding. as a precaution, we lightly sanded all the doors. we figured these were going to be the high-touch pieces and needed a little more help with the paint sticking. we just stuck with deglossing the indoor surfaces.
4. between each step, all the doors needed to be wiped off.
5. threw some dropcloth down on the garage floor and elevated all the doors on dixie cups (this was a good tip).

at this point, i was already exhausted and over painting my cabinets and wanted to give up. but you can’t just put sanded doors back on the cabinets and call it good. so it was time to paint.

it’s at this point i realized a grave mistake i had made. when perusing the paint sprayers, i picked the one that said it was good for small projects.

(a wagner control spray)

this is not a small project.

it took me 2 hours to spray primer on one side of all the doors. UGH.

that was enough of that. liz was still priming the indoors, but i told her to quit because it was break time. meaning, time for a 4-mile run in the woods. not much of a break, but at least it wasn’t painting related. we got back from the run, then headed into st. cloud where we went to menards and got the big-girl sprayer.

this wagner boasted 8X faster than a paintbrush. that sad first one didn’t even say it was faster than a paintbrush. i actually think it was slower than a paintbrush.

after scarfing down some 5 guys, i headed out to try out my new 8X SPRAYER and ho boy did it ever deliver. i did the first coat of cabinet paint in TWENTY MINUTES.

so, notes on paint sprayers:

• don’t skimp
• wear a mask when spraying
• wear your earmuffs you wear for mowing the lawn or snowblowing. your ears will be grateful

after my coat was done, i went in to help liz finish up the first coat of paint on the inside surfaces. i have to admit, i am a horrible painter, and liz can attest to that. i get paint where it shouldn’t be, i am no good at edging, and i splatter everywhere. but we got through it. man, cabinet contents are messy. at least mine are.

then, mercifully, we called it quits at about 11. i had a beer and passed out.

the next morning, we did the second coat indoors, because i knew the backs of the doors would be a piece of cake with my awesome sprayer. we finished up in about 2 hours. after liz left, i primed and painted the backs.

tonight, i hung all the doors back on the cabinets, which took me about 2 hours to do. like i said, i’m not a professional cabinet installer, so the doors are slightly uneven and at this point i don’t even care, because

DANG LOOK HOW GOOD THIS LOOKS!!!

i polyurethaned the sides of the cabinets next to the stove and above the sink where my liquor cabinet lives. use water-based! i made the mistake of using oil-based for my side buffet and it turned yellow.

so, what else needs to be done?

• a couple touchups on the doors where i banged them while trying to get them back on. life needs a control-Z
• i need to spraypaint my stove hood. at least it’s not 80s almond color and sort of blends in, but i’ll need to change it sometime. while i’m at it, i’m going to look into wiring my under-cabinet lights with it. (for some reason, electrical projects are much easier for me to handle than big paint projects.)
• i’m going to paint my walls a less vibrant color. i’m thinking a grey-blue or grey-green. i’m hoping to get that done in the next month.
• and MAN my FLOOR is AWFUL. (that spot is a burn mark from the previous owner.) i might leave that to a professional and do my entire kitchen and weird dining/office area.

i also ended up using just one gallon of primer and paint and was able to return them, along with a couple other things, and saved myself $100 on paint, which is what i had spent on my fancy sprayer, but oh well. at least i saved a crapton of time. i’m going to try to sell the weeny sprayer to some unsuspecting craigslist killer.

let’s take another look, just because.

😍

*she COULD be famous if she’d blog abut her DIY escapades.

almost a year ago, nate and i bought our house. one of the perks of buying a house built in 1997 is that you got a sweet corner desk for the family computer.

and while it’s been working for the past year to hold some random stuff and the microwave, it was time to say goodbye to the desk. it jsut wasn’t functional for nate and me (or anyone this time and age, frankly).
i went to menards and bought a couple wall cabinets, sanded them down, and painted them. also found a cabinet on facebook marketplace that was about 5 inches shorter than the wall width, which was ok since i wasn’t going to move my outlets. sanded that bad boy was well and painted it. i’m not sure i’m sold on cabinet paint, but it is what it is.
took out the corner cabinet, sanded down some of the wall, and painted it to match the rest of the kitchen.

then charlie came up this weekend to help hang the cabinets.

got everything squared away (literally), and it looks SO much better. much more functional, too. the only thing that i would like is a better way to deal with the outlets, but that requires either paying someone to move some electrical or learning electrical myself.*


tomorrow i’m replacing the fences so it’s not so dark over there and just have to patch up a few paint nicks and figure out if i need some trim along the shelves. not entirely worried about it though.
next up is to paint the rest of my kitchen cabinets. and replace the floor. yuck!
*actually, i should take intro to electrical at work. and intro to plumbing. i get free credits!

here’s a politiblog break! (i am ready to be done with this election, but i am also REALLY looking forward to the next debate OMG)

1. pained the kitchen today! it was a really dark purple, so i had to get some primer to cover up the overwhelming purple color before painting it. it looks so much better, and you actually notice the backsplash now.
2. i got some peach paint for the entryway, which i’m now kind of regretting since the door, trim, and flooring in front of the door is all kind of peachy. oh well. i’ll paint and see what happens. 
3. HAMMOCK TIME (srsly, that hammock was worth it)
4. hung some pictures! that’s exciting. 
5. installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom to help air circulation. that’s always such a pain to do, but it was worth it.
6. READY FOR FALL DECOR (gonna happen this week)

there was a week wait list to get internet at our new house *eyeroll*
i feel like i’ve been away too long, but not much has happened. of course we moved, and of course i like to unpack everything all at once, so now all the boxes are unpacked. i think the only thing left to put together is the table, which might end up looking a little awkward in its space. oh well. 
BUT, here’s what’s been done so far:

1. hardware replaced in kitchen and bathroom. i actually feel halfway decent about the cupboards now.
2. fridge ordered and arriving on saturday!
3. stove ordered and arriving mid october!
4. new grill
5. ceiling fan purchased for bedroom
6. new toilet seat (ugh the old one was too pointy)
7. hammock hung! (WOO!)
8. a couple apples eaten
9. and of course, internet finally installed

gotta install that fan and replace the hideous ceiling fan in the dining/office with something (anything) else. the trees are nice. the isolation is nice. i like it!

i’ve come to the realization that any house nate and i buy will have issues attached. (or, so far).
when we bought our house in st. joe, it was bank owned and they required a bank quote through them before we put together a purchase agreement. (which, looking back, is that legal?) we didn’t have to go through the bank, but we did need to meet with them and go through the process again.
when we purchased our house in st. charles, there was a government shutdown, and our rural development loan took an extra three weeks to process. thanks to this, we couldn’t technically close on the house until the government opened again, which was about two-three weeks after our original close date. thankfully, the house was contractor owned and he let us move in early (we had to be out of our apartment).
this time, my goodness. everything is good on our end as far as our loan and ready to go. the house we’re selling though, omg. the lender didn’t send in the rural development loan until the day before scheduled closing (normally they like a couple weeks). thankfully it came back the next day, but it was selected for a random audit! then that went through about 5 hours before MY scheduled house closing up here, but the lender needed it to go through quality control first. if this were a local bank instead of a national bank, it might’ve made it. but it was a national bank and they don’t like to do things out of order.
so, now, we’re waiting on the lender of the st. charles house buyer to get the money to the title company so they can close so we can get our loan and we can close.
hopefully this will be the last time we do this for a while, so i guess i’ll deal for now.

my house in st. charles is almost empty, and on wednesday, we pack up the uhaul and head north. today, nate and i each drove up a vehicle full of stuff to drop in the storage unit. 
it’s been a long four months, and i’d like to know: where did my summer go?
it’s hard to ignore the fields of corn on my drive. when i left in may, they were barely shoots of green out of the earth. today the leaves were starting to tinge yellow, a message that harvest season will be here soon. 
the trees were just budding out in may, turning the brilliant shades of green, yellow, and light-orange that springtime trees do before heading into the dark, full green of summertime. today, they were starting to pull back from summertime green, starting to once again showing their true colors. if you’d asked me if the trees were spring of fall based on color alone, i mightn’t’ve been able to tell you. 
there is just a hint of fall in the air, though you wouldn’t know it from today’s weather. generally though, the nights are a bit cooler and the next week’s forecast looks set to be truly septemberish.
i’m sad i missed summer, in a way. but i’m looking forward to being in one place for fall, and especially a place resplendent in yellow aspen and trees reflecting off the lakes. and in my backyard 😀

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houseblog is overwhelming!
anyway, here are things i know i want to do right away:
faucets – bathroom and kitchen
replace the cabinet hardware
replace the light fixtures in the kitchen?
put in a ceiling fan in master bedroom
replace light fixture in guest room (i have one at home i’m bringing)
replace ceiling fan in dining area?
take out the 90s-era family desk!
NEW STOVE.
now, not sure how much of that i’ll be able to do, but goodness i need to get rid of that electric coil stove ASAP.