Day 7 electrical and my new favorite wall in the house

Today was a big day, but you can't see that from any photos I might take. Much of what was done today was in the walls and floors- electrical stuff and such. We got all of the wiring lined up properly for outlets, appliances, etc. And then, I was surprised by the fact that they painted my accent wall. It is my favorite wall - I love the blue. It makes me happy. This is the only wall that will be this dark - the rest are a lighter grey-blue color. But, it looks great so far. This gets more and more exciting each day.

Tomorrow is more wall prep and paint, including painting M's ceiling so she can get her room back. We should have cabinets in on Thursday next week. So exciting!

Day 6 - The Big Tear Out

Wow - what a day this was! Tim came at 8am and started the tear out immediately. He had another guy, Mark, working with him and they really went to town. After about an hour, the room looked like this:

They had already cleared out all of the cabinets, appliances, and countertops and were starting on the floor. Then after another couple of hours or so, it looked like this:

They had torn up the floor and taken out the soffets - no easy task because they were made of wood, not sheetrock, and they had to saw them out. It was raining insulation from our attic and it got very dusty. Around 1:00 or so, they left to get sheetrock, and the room looked like this - totally stripped down and swept out (he is so good about cleaning up as he goes!)

When the neighbors saw our monster dumpster in the driveway, they thought there was no way that we would fill it all. Well, guess what -

Filled to the brim! And tomorrow they will come and pick up the dumpster and I can get it off my hands! By the end of the day today they had made some electrical repairs, put in the sheetrock where the soffets were, cleaned out the whole area, carpet and all, and had mudded the first layer on the sheetrock. I was really amazed at how much they got done today. Tim had said that it might take 2-3 days just to tear out, but instead it took a few hours, and he already started patching up.

We also decided to just rip out the pantry shelves (which were in horrible shape) and rebuild those too. So, here we are at the end of a big crazy day. I realized today how much time I usually spend in my kitchen/family room. I just felt very displaced - not sure where to "set up shop" like I am used to doing. I think maybe this will have one very nice benefit- I may just have to banish myself to my craft room and sew and do some art. I was going to today but so many things kept coming up, so maybe tomorrow? This has been exciting though and when I walk into the torn out room, I feel like I have stepped into a whole new house. Tomorrow Tim will do more patching and do some painting - I think - especially on M's room, so we can get her moved back in. On another good note - none of the subfloor was damaged, despite our fears of what was hiding under the warped floor boards. It looks like it will be another big day tomorrow. I will try to get photos again (I really don't want to be in the way, so i just sneak photos when I can. :)

All cleared out and ready to go...

It took some work, a little sweat, and a few tears, but the kitchen is packed up and everything that is removable without tools is out of the kitchen. Tomorrow Tim comes bright and early and starts the tear out process. And, I think I MAY have figured out my colors. We will see...

Remodel - days 3, 4, and 5

These three days have pretty much been the same thing each day. M has a ceiling again, and it has just been Tim coming and putting in the drywall and then mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and texturing, etc. Pretty boring.

Monday we are going to tear out, so I am packing up the kitchen. In the mean time, my walls look like this:

And my table and counters look like this:

And my brain looks like this:

I thought I had a color picked out. Then, I painted a sample on my wall. Despite the fact that is was a very grey blue, and even on the plate I used for rolling out the paint, it was grey blue, when I put it on my wall, it was a very bright blue, and rather baby blueish. So, I got more samples. Too light. I got the next sample. Too dark. Sigh. I have a pile of sample cards that range from light grey to dark blue, to various shades of green/grey/blue and I just sit and stare at them, completely stumped. Despite my artistic background, this color thing with painting rooms and coordinating them is just really not my forte! So, I will keep trying until I find what I like. And, in the mean time, I will pack more boxes.

Kitchen remodel (fixing the floor) day 2

Yesterday, at the end of the day, M's room looked like this:

We figured out that two joists were, in fact, sunken a little, causing the floor to be uneven. We also found some damage that also explained why the joist might be weakening:

Call me crazy, but cracks in the wood can't be good. Then, at the end of the day, this showed up:

It is huge! But, they told me this was the most popular size and probably the size we need for our project. The next smaller size these guys carried was called a "Bagster" where you put stuff in a big bag and they take it away. Somehow I don't think cabinets will fit in there… Today Tim came and got to work on the joists. He jacked them up (it was interesting to sit in my kitchen and hear the creaking and cracking of the walls.) Then, he reinforced them with additional beams. I don't fully understand how it works, but he had to jack the joists up 3 1/2 inches in order to push the floor up 3/4 of an inch. Crazy. But, it worked, and we have a level floor again. Hooray! The process ended up being more easy than we had originally thought (and dreaded) so we are happy to have it work out so far. (knock on wood!)

That is probably a confusing picture, but you are looking straight up at the joist, and it now has the reinforced wood on each side. The wiring and plumbing that go through the room made it really tricky getting those beams in there. I am amazed he could do it. Tomorrow he will have it looked over by someone who knows more about it, just to make sure all is sound and good, and then he will patch up the ceiling, and M can have her room back. I am hoping this means that the kitchen tear out can start soon… he hasn't given me an exact date for that yet. I am getting excited though!

Kitchen Remodel - starting somewhere besides the kitchen

I have debated about whether or not to post about the kitchen remodel. But, I decided it would be fun to document it as I go, simply for my sake. If you happen to be on here, and you happen to watch the progress, great. I hope it is fun for you. I just figured that the kitchen remodel is kind of my own new art project - it took some creativity and color matching, etc, right? And, it has occupied much of my time for the past few months, so why not post about it. Unlike most kitchen remodels, ours does not start in the kitchen. Ours starts below it in M's room. We had to move all of her furniture out (except for the bed which wouldn't fit through the door), and, as of this morning, it looked like this:

Tim (he is our contractor) came this morning and started tearing into the ceiling. We need to find out why the kitchen floor is sinking near our pantry, and this is how we look. It is still under investigation, but we have found that at least 2 joists have sunk a little, so we will have to jack them up, reinforce them, and hope it stays. (I say "we" but really, it is Tim doing the work). About 45 minutes into his work, the room looked like this:

Now, double the amount taken from the ceiling, and add another half on top of that, and you will have what it looks like now (I would take a photo, but I don't want to bug him right now) In the mean time, I have packed a lot of my kitchen up - just keeping what I need to continue cooking until I no longer have a stove or oven. Then, when this ceiling/floor job is done, I will pack up the rest, move some furniture, and we will start the fun stuff. For the past 2 weeks I have had wood flooring (41 boxes) sitting in my family room and study. It hasn't been too bad, but I love the flooring so much and just can't wait to get it installed. Right now it looks like this:

But, when it is installed, it will look more like the photos above. (I just LOVE the variation in grain and color!). It is called Acacia Golden Walnut. Acacia is a beautiful wood and it is very solid. I hope that will mean it holds up well in our high-traffic kitchen. (If you look closely on the photo in our family room (the smaller stack of boxes), you can see our sample of cabinet colors - the light will be on the outside cabinets, the dark on the island. I will take more photos as we go - including the gaping hole in our ceiling. M is being a trooper about it all. It can't be fun sleeping on the floor in another room surrounded by all of your stuff in a very small space. She said, "so, is this what it is like living in an apartment?" Ha ha. I think the space she has is about the size of my dorm room in college, so maybe she is on to something. :)

Two Portraits

Last school year I did very little art. I did a little bit of quilting, but really, the creative part of me was really quite lacking. I did, however, manage to do two commissioned portraits. One (in the dark pink shirt) is the sister of a boy I did a couple of years ago. Their family liked his, and plan to have a portrait done for each of their children when they reach that same age (3-4 years old).

I do have a new plan for this school year. Once a week I do something called "art class". I take 2 hours (or more, if I have it) and I do something creative, or I watch a video or read a book about art (I have several I want to catch up on).So far, I have done it most weeks. I do have a small quilting project that I finished- it was a new concept to try and was fun. I hope to do more like it. And, I have some other quilts to finish too, and they are making progress. So, maybe, just maybe, I will be posting more art and sewing projects on here soon!

Self Portrait

Because I haven't done a lot of art in the past six months, I have had a hard time getting back into doing it. I posted (below) about the Zentangle art that got my motivation going again.

So, I decided to start a portrait of my friend's grandaughter. And, everything that could go wrong did. For whatever reason, being out of practice, fear of not remembering how to draw, or something else, I could not get the portrait going. Last weekend was conference weekend and I like to draw while I watch conference. So, I tried during Saturday's session, and I got nothing. I finished the day feeling discouraged and frustrated.

On Sunday, I decided that maybe I needed to try something else. I have drawn my children. I have drawn my husband. But, I have put off drawing myself. With all of us, I would have the whole "set" of our family. But there is something about having to look at yourself up close (and see lines and wrinkles, knowing fully that you have to put them in or it won't look like you), and I was really afraid I wouldn't like it.  It took me a long time to even pick a photo that I wanted to draw.

So, Sunday came along and I abandoned the other portrait and pulled out mine (which I had sort of sketched out over a year ago), and I got to work. It worked out amazingly well. I still pick at it and see things I want to change, but overall, I really like my portrait, and it is nice to say I have now done our whole family. And, remarkably, it only took 3-4 hours to complete the drawing. Maybe I haven't forgotten everything I learned after all.

Here is my portrait:

And, for fun, here are the portraits of my husband and children - all of us together in the blog post. :)