I hadn't wanted to put pictures up post-move in since I had people coming to visit for my sister's wedding (and I wanted it to be a surprise!). So I'll do more catch-up now...covering at least part of the downstairs.

There's plenty left to do, but I hit a wall at the end of May where I was just burnt out, so I moved my stuff in. I thought I'd be more inclined to mix working on the house into post-job time but having stacks of boxes around actually make it kind of difficult to work. The wedding and the prospect of overnight house guests was a major motivating factor. So, there has been progress.

I've officially painted every room in the house now!
Here's the layout, so you can get an idea of how it fits together.


When I moved in, just my Master BR, the downstairs bath, and kitchen were in decent shape.

Downstairs, I finished stripping and repainting the moldings in the Living Room. Got my pictures up & the room is fairly well decorated. This pic is taken from the entry hallway.

The entry hall is still the biggest mess - since all the trim molding is off, it doesn't look the greatest, plus I haven't touched the stairs. Each post on the banister needs to be stripped and repainted.

I'm so happy with how the downstairs kitchen turned out. Most of it is IKEA (Stat white cabinets), so I was able to keep my costs down. I love the double bowl apron sink! I ended up using travertine tile for the backsplash (left over from my parent's remodel) and really like having the natural stone against the wood - it tones down the bright white. The floor is Allure - fake cork. ;) I know the lights are a bit modern, but I'd seen some similar in historical Victorian kitchen pics, so I'm happy with the choice. Oh, and that big lower cabinet panel to the left of the sink is a dishwasher - isn't that swish?
A word to anyone designing an IKEA kitchen: the one thing I wish somebody had told me is that there's a "fridge" cover panel that's deeper and taller than the normal cover panels. (It's also a bit thicker). I'm pretty sure it didn't show up in any of the catalog/design software they had. I had to make an extra trip to get it, but really like that all the cabinets are the same height and that the fridge is completely enclosed. My contractor had to build a box out to get the correct depth, but it all worked out really well.
The downstairs bath is really pretty - it's much more feminine than most of the things I designed. I did all white, sticking to different textures for interest. This picture doesn't really do it justice ;)


The back laundry room. (Looking towards the kitchen) In here I swapped out the back door for a Dutch door that was in the garage.
Both the front & back doors are painted a pretty rose-red color on the outside called "Frosted Pomegranate".

I still owe pics of the dining and library, in addition to the upstairs, but those have been particularly hard to get a good photo from!

What I love about my house so far:

1. Abby can go romp in the yard to her heart's content
2. The floor in my bedroom is crooked, so one side of my dresser is at least 3 inches higher than the other.
3. The morning sun in the kitchen.
4. The sound of rain hitting the roof just outside my window when I'm falling asleep.
5. Admiring the wall of book shelves (ah, zenlike)
6. My wi-fi hasn't once needed to be reset (constant, often daily problem at the 'rents)
7. All my stuff is in ONE place!

Mom bought me some geraniums and helped me plant them in the window boxes around the house. They look really pretty and less like a troglodyte lives here. It also makes me feel like maybe I won't kill everything I plant. Regular rains have helped maintain this illusion.

Things left to do:

1. Strip/Sand/Paint Stairs
2. Paint trim and doors in upstairs hallway
3. Touch up walls that got dinged during move-in
   
4. Strip/Sand/Paint other trim pieces in garage (fall/winter project)
   

So I already covered last weekend when I ran down to Detroit to get the first half of my IKEA cabinets. The people there were really cool and let me leave the other half to be picked up Tuesday when Dad would be down there. My awesome Dad, exhibiting his mad Tetris-skill packing abilities got the rest of it into the Jeep when he was down there. The first two pics are of that mess (which includes a bunch of cabinets, a dishwasher & a microwave). The things my Dad won't do for his girls! (c:

Poor Brad was sick for the first couple days this week, but came back like a champ Wednesday and got the rest of the bathroom plumbing and both the library & bath windows installed yesterday & today.
I meant to go to knitting group on Tuesday evening, but had forgotten my knitting, so that ended up being a night to catch up on laundry & other stuff.

Wednesday I made a run up to the Lowe's in Gaylord to get the extra-long skinny window for the library. It's about 6" shorter than what was there previously, but it will look good. Standing outside, we could tell the current window was in at an angle (like many of the things in this old house). We joked that maybe it was just level with the floor inside...sometimes it's hard to tell what you should make things level with in an old place.

The bathroom window was originally a slider; after all the mold issues in the bathroom I wanted something that wouldn't trap water like the grooves on the slider would.
My original thought was to find an awning style window, but ran into two issues - they were much more expensive and the lead time would have them arriving far after I'd moved into the house.
We ended up getting a solid piece of low-e, Argon filled glass & Brad built a box with an inverted "v" at the bottom so the water will get channeled away from the glass on both the interior & exterior. The box for the glass is made from some sort of vinyl stuff so it won't rot like the old window did.

What I've learned this week: You can shake the new iPods to get it to shuffle to the next song. With the iPod in your pocket, you can get the iPod to shuffle by dancing (badly). This method of advancing the track is superior to setting down tools & removing gloves to hit fast-forward.

Pics 1 & 2: Dad's packing job.
Pic 3: Bathroom window & framing for shower/tub faucets
Pic 4: Newly installed bathroom window.

The electrician is supposed to be here today, and in the middle of next week we're expecting the drywallers. So I'm working madly on pulling down the remaining walls we planned to do before the drywallers get here.
In the entry hallway you can see the plaster on most of the walls and a section of the old '70s paneling (since painted) on the right. Next up in this room is pulling down the plaster. The section under the stairs was really soft, so I'll hope the rest is as easy to pull down.
I've also gotten a bit more down in the living room.

Dad brought the trailer over, so I was able to take out all the plaster that was sitting in piles throughout the main level.

Brad got the kitchen windows in & they look really good! Shortening them will allow me to run a kitchen counter along much of that exterior wall. The kitchen was really short of both storage and counter space, so I think this will really help.
I also got the flooring for the kitchen ordered. I ended up going with the Allure cork-ish flooring from Home Depot. It's a vinyl plank floor - not unlike Pergo. It was the best option, since it was much less expensive (and softer to stand on) than tile, more durable than cork and wood, and thinner than all of the above (an issue with the match-up with the dining room).

Pic1: Front entry
Pic2: Dining room plaster - still working on it!
Pic3: Kitchen windows before
Pic4: Kitchen windows now - not quite to "after"!

So the other day I wanted to see what was going on under the floor in the kitchen. You know, because that loose flap of linoleum was just sitting there, hanging there over the edge of the stairs, taunting me. That one was so easy to pull up, so I grabbed my trusty crowbar and pulled up the 3/4 inch of particle bard. Under that were dark tiles with a thick paper/tar backing, then wood subfloor. Hmmm... not the pristine, finished wood floors I was hoping for.

After a bit of googling, I realized I'd probably uncovered the original asbestos tiles installed in the early part of the last century. Oops. Well, at least I didn't crumble it up my hands and sniff it!

So a call to asbestos remediation later...and yeah, it's hard core asbestos. I'm going to have them remove it rather than just covering it up again.

So in other news that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I got all the drop ceiling down in the kitchen.

Pictures:
1. Asbestossy mess
2. Drop ceiling ugliness
3. Oooh. Eight feet of exposed wall beauty.

What I learned:
When in doubt, wear the respirator.

I loathe drop ceilings.
I don't know why. Maybe it's because I associate them with office buildings or finished basements. But I knew I didn't want them in my house. Luckily, there are only two offending rooms in the house: the kitchen and the little room off the dining room which I plan to make my library. I could say that it's going to be "the den" or "the office", but "the library" just sounds sweet. And those 14 boxes of books in the storage unit have to go somewhere.
So today I took all the drop-ceiling tiles out so I could see just what was going on behind the scenes. The kitchen wasn't too bad, other than one corner that had some water damage. It looks like old damage, but I'll check with Brad-the-awesome-contractor tomorrow to make sure. I was happy there's electric in the ceiling where I wanted it. The ceiling was likely put up in 1980, based on the pristine extra tile sitting up there, wrapped in 1980 newspaper. Did you know that Jimmy Durante died?












The library is a little more problematic. From what I can tell, the ceiling and wood paneling went in around the same time. The paneling only goes up to the drop ceiling; above that is some iffy plaster/wallboard and plaster lathe. I'm guessing this remodel also put in the upstairs bathroom (PVC pipe). I'll get the real scoop from Brad on what's to be done tomorrow.