At last!!!

It's only been since mid-August, but at last the remodel is complete. There are some little things that we say we are going to do, but you know how that goes. (And I shall add, parenthetically, for those who haven't been following this story as avidly as some, that the "remodel" was in response to some serious water damage that occurred while we were away last August.)

As we speak, the first official load is washing. After Harry installed it last night, he ran it for 30 minutes - to be sure it didn't leak - which is what it did the first time he installed it - before we knew that they had sent us a damaged dishwasher.

It's a long story - and one that I am tired of telling. Suffice it to say we have had to fuss and complain and rant and rave and file a billing dispute with Amex - and the latter is what did the trick I might add!

Now maybe I can concentrate on getting the pictures hung in the hall!

"It's beginning to look a lot like a kitchen!!"

The cupboards are still in the painting process - the cold weather slows down the drying time. But we don't let a few undried cupboard doors stand in our way!! Dawn and Arcelia came today, and we made a significant dent in the organization process.

I guess I should say that Dawn made a significant dent in the organization process - since she is definitely the Organization Queen!! I knew it to be true, but seeing her in action was inspiring. Arcelia of course is just a dynamo - doesn't seem to get tired!! I was one fortunate woman today!!

I am loving my pull out shelves!!

And the increased number of shelves that I have!!

A small miracle occurred - the cabinet guys called and said they had an opening for us - and so now the countertop is in. Nathan Miller comes tomorrow a.m. to install the faucet.

And hopefully the cupboard doors will be in condition to be hung.

A lot of the clutter is disappearing - well, it's not really disappearing - it's taken up residence in the family room and my little office. But it is progress!

I wanted to use the blanket chest as a lamp table - seemed like our new floors and paint just didn't go with my Michael's flimsy plant stand that has served as a lamp table all these years - but Dad wasn't sure. I persuaded him to give it a try. So tell him how great you think it looks!!

It's hard to get the whole room in one shot - but it is starting to feel like home once more!!

The stove and fridge are in - the microwave, vent hood, and dishwasher are in transit somewhere. Dawn even alphabetized my spices - she is one top-notch organizer - she should be in business - but maybe then she wouldn't enjoy it as much.

Phoebe, David, and kids are in town - at Harry and Dawn's - camping out in the attic-playroom. Let the wild rumpus begin!!

Weekend Update

Not only does Harry's old camera - which I have appropriated - insist on putting all the pictures in the 2005 file - where I have a hard time locating them - but for some reason blogger puts them in a pretty random order. So here's a somewhat random report on the last few days.

We were at Harry and Dawn's today to celebrate Harry's birthday - and so the "girl cousins" were having fun in the guestroom - they were watching some Dr. Seuss video I think.

Dawn has done most of the hostessing for the last several weeks - she is truly the "hostess with the mostess" as they used to say!!

I went over there this afternoon to bake my 45th pineapple upside down cake. (We've only been married 44 years, but one year I made two of them!!)

Of course, Helen joined in the festivities - after all, she's the mom of the birthday boy!!

Some "Chutes and Ladders" going on here.

To give Dawn a little break, I brought the kids over to our house - we hunkered down in the garage for some "Golf" - and we each won a round!

There's never a shortage of helpers for the candle-blowing activity!!

On Saturday, Bobby, June, A.J., Mom, and Donna came out to Pasadena, and we had lunch together. They came for a brief visit - it was great to see them.

The living room if full of the new cabinets - but you can see a bit of the new rug we got. I'm loving it - Dad is getting used to it!

They come tomorrow to install the cabinets - hopefully the living room will be empty of them soon.

Harry - standing in front of one of the new cabinets - with slide out shelves - we are getting excited to be putting stuff away one of these days!!

Saturday night was the ward Christmas party - Helen joined us then too. I was late for it - I attended Alana Finlay's wedding reception - it was fun to see lots of old friends. Our ward party had a lovely program too.

All the hustle and bustle seems strange since we are still in "construction mode" around here - Christmas will come - we will not be ready. We are banking on being ready for New Year's Eve!!

Some progress . . .

Since I lost my camera, I don't take pictures!! I need to find a camera store and get a battery for Dad's camera - which is just like mine - and his battery was in my camera case when it got lost. It was a back up battery.

So you can't see the growing chaos here - the living room is totally empty - they did a fourth coat of varnish. The kitchen contains the piano, the couch, the fridge, both tables, and the propane stove!! It is quite cozy!! And I like the way the hutch looks in the room formerly known as the laundry room. Too bad we need the cupboard space more.

Tonight we dined on various frozen delights from the freezer - and I hope they weren't spoiled - we did put dry ice in there during the power outage.

This can't go on - but I'm sure it will.

We did order a rug - online - here's hoping it's all we want it to be. It's big - 8 by 11. And we ordered a new light fixture for the dining area - it's a "bowl" with oiled bronze metal parts. I like it - very faux Craftsman.

I think the old curtains will go back up - don't have time for anything else at the moment. Dad doesn't like the roller blinds, but I consider them essential so they are staying. We may not get the art back up in time for the visits - but we are thinking we want to consider things and do some new configurations.

We decided on Corian counter tops in Sand - a concession on both of our parts. We need a faucet - we have chosen a sink, a microwave, a stove hood, a new dishwasher. And we need cabinet hardware.

We are going with Vanilla Custard paint for both rooms. I was going to keep the green in the living room, but there is no green in the rug, so the creamy vanilla will work better. As Dad says, we can always change paint. (Of course we all know that around here, we usually don't - we just talk about it.)

The cabinets will be painted a shade or so darker than the custard - like burned custard!! (ha, ha!!)

This may well be the year without a Christmas tree - I'm fine with it. Hope it doesn't offend anyone else. I just cannot abide the idea of getting more stuff out - and trying to find a place for it.

It could certainly be worse - the power could still be out!!

The world is shrinking!!

As Dad was tearing out these cabinets, he was thinking about how they had served for over 60 years - and he noted the craftsmanship in the way the nails were driven. Maybe only Dad would notice or think about that - I certainly hadn't. I was mostly intrigued with the layers of old paint and how it used to look!!

My world here at home is slowly shrinking. I feel like I'm being painted into a corner!! This summer, the living room and kitchen were pretty much off-limits - but you could sneak in and get something out of the fridge, or pop something into the microwave, or even scramble an egg on top of the stove. Not so now!! The stove is disconnected, the microwave is buried under dishes and foodstuffs in the guest room, and though the fridge is still standing, it's covered with plastic!!

I will miss this little corner of yellow tile - it's always been a personal fave of mine.

Dad and Noah are taking up the kitchen and back porch floor. The cupboards are gone. The soffitt is gone - our new cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling. The "old" microwave "died" and though Dad brought an old office model home, we have ordered a built-in one - has a vent above it too, so we won't need a hood vent for the stove. Our dishwasher is defunct also - guess we'll have to replace that. And Thursday night I discovered that our trusty dryer - which is really pretty ancient if I think about it - has also gone to dryer-heaven!!!!


And the guest room has been taken over by everything that was in the cupboards in the kitchen. The worst part about all this mess is that we are going to be gone for most of the next two weeks - so I'm not sure when order will be restored. Noah and Arcelia will be around to monitor the work being done, but I'm afraid I'm going to truly "forget" everything in my kitchen. (Maybe I should just toss it all now and start fresh!!)



I still have the laundry room pretty much to myself. And the little back room has become a work station once more - mainly because it's nowhere near all the noise and construction!


We will have a lovely couple of rooms when we're done - hardwood floors throughout, new cabinets, new sink and countertops, maybe even new curtains. And we are still trying to agree on an area rug. Maybe I will even get to unpack the ottoman I ordered in August - it's still in its carton!!

But I miss flopping on the couch in the living room!

I think I know now why I've never been keen on doing much work on this house - or any house we've lived in. It's just too much - too much work, too much chaos, too much detail, too much dust, too much stress!!

I will let you know when the "dust settles" if I thought it was worth it!!

(I truly wonder how my mom survived my dad taking 11 years to finish the "big house" while we lived in the "little house" next to it!!)

The chaos goes on

Life goes on around here - in an ever-smaller circle!! The rooms are filling up with all the stuff from the living room.

The guest room is full to the brim!!

You may not recognize this - but it's the family room.

And this is my little corner where I can use the computer. Does not encourage blogging - that's for sure!!

The new floor job starts Monday. We'll try to keep you posted!!

You can't tell the house without a score card!!

The place keeps getting smaller and smaller. The hazmat folks are visquining up a storm around here. Can you tell where this is? I'll give you a hint - the stove usually sits here!

This is the corner of the dining room.

The light gives this one away.

Here's the dining room into the kitchen.

And this is the only habitable spot in the living room!

It's a good thing school is starting so I will have somewhere to sit down!!

"If you give a mouse a cookie . . ."

Things just get more and more dismantled around here!! I'm starting to feel like we live in a one bedroom apartment - with a somewhat deficient kitchen!!

Dad, the Demo Demon, wanted to take out the cabinets himself, since he doesn't trust the average construction company!! The wall is wet, has mold, and needs to be exposed to get dry and mold-free.

This is the old water heater cupboard - the demolition goes to this wall.

We had to empty all the lower cabinets by the stove - which I probably won't have access to again until October - so we put the stuff in the cupboard in the hall. And the stuff from the cupboard in the hall is spread hither and yon throughout the house!

The fridge is by the windows and we have our cozy little eating nook. I think we'll be eating frozen dinners or something for the next while - Dad may decide to bring the propane stove home and put it in the carport - we can pretend we are camping!!

Oh, the fun never ends around here!!

Maybe the Titanic was worse!! But this is bad enough!!

We came home from Virginia Monday afternoon to the water damage Noah had alerted us to on the Saturday before!! The culprit is the water purifier there on the sink - it sprang a leak - and "the rains came tumbling down!"

Noah pulled up carpet and padding to minimize the damage to the hardwood underneath - and he and Arcelia moved all the furniture over to the unaffected area of the living room.

Once the insurance got involved, the testing began!

That is a giant zipper!!

This would make a great spook alley don't you think??

These guys are thorough - I think the law requires it.


I don't have photos of the giant heaters that blew out hot air for 3 days - what a treat in the summertime!! And we had Bonny's girls here - but they were good sports about all of it. There is lead in the paint, and mold seems to be pervasive also. We have some decisions to make, obviously. We'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, Annika had her Grandma's Birthday Sleepover.

And there was lots of swimming thanks to the Seely's generosity.

And it was fun to Skype with Ara and Bonny.

The girls have gone home with Bruce to await the travelers' return - it's quiet around here - and the living room echoes!!

What's new with you?? (For other news, see my blog.)