Love at first sight!

Isn't that a beautiful sight :)

As you can see, the plumbers made it out to hook up our kitchen sink and dishwasher yesterday. Peter did an awesome job trying his hand at electrical work, and got the dishwasher running smoothly. It did a great job on it's first load. Now I just have to get some detergent - I'm using the little sample pack that comes with the dishwasher.

Dad made it last night after a little mix-up at the bus terminal. We managed to keep missing each other for a few minutes after the bus arrived - long enough for me to call home and tell Peter he wasn't on the bus. All was well in the end and Dad got a good coat of crack-fill on the master bath. He's hopeful that once it's sanded it won't need any more coats. That would be wonderful.

Peter finished fixing our mistake on the master vanity, so it's full steam ahead tonight on that.

Waiting with bated breath ...

I'm sure everyone's waiting anxiously to hear about our lovely plumbing that was installed yesterday. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a little longer :( The plumbers did come yesterday and do some work but didn't actually perform the final connections to the sink / bathroom / dishwasher.

However, one thing we did notice is that there is no pipe in the half-bath for the incoming water to the toilet - a fairly major oversight I think! Peter was talking to them today and they're still not exactly sure how they're going to take care of that, but they do have one possible solution that doesn't involve ripping out my newly-painted wall. The situation is complicated by the fact that the most logical place to run the pipe would be through an outside wall, which is a big 'no-no' in plumbing apparently.

And now for the good news: I have it on good authority (Peter's) that he saw the water actually running and draining in my kitchen sink when he went out to take a look at lunch. So ... looks like I'll have new pictures later on tonight! Peter's going to try his hand at a bit of electrical work to finish hooking up the dishwasher when he gets home so I'll let you know how that goes as well. My Dad is arriving tonight to rest and put his feet up (at least, that's what he told me this morning!) - actually, I think he's going to be doing some crack-filling over the next couple of days, for which we're very grateful.

Getting there ...

Sorry this picture is so dark. This is what Peter spent his evening working on last night - the wall that goes underneath our bar counter eventually. This wall will hold all the plumbing for our sink and dishwasher, so it needs to be in place by tomorrow - I can't believe the plumbers are coming tomorrow! He spent most of the evening building it, and will level it tonight. Having the wall in place really helps me to see what it will eventually look like - it looks great :)



This is where I spent my evening - on my hands and knees like Cinderella ;) I prepped and grouted the floor in the half-bath last night. It's hard to tell, but the walls have been painted - the same colour as the front wall in our living room for anyone who's actually been there. As you can see by the nice patina-like haze on the tiles I have some more washing to do tonight before the plumbers come (have I mentioned they're coming tomorrow? lol). I also have to get another coat of paint on the walls. All in all I have an "easy" night tonight. I guess I still have to clean out the dishwasher - I've been storing my clean dishes inside to keep them out of the dust. I want to make sure the kitchen area is all cleaned up before the plumbers come.



I also want to say a big "Thank You!" to Dale from church. He came over yesterday while we were at work and chopped all our firewood that we had sitting in 8' lengths! I have no idea how quantities of wood are measured - but we really appreciate the help. Thank you so much! Not much of it has to be split as it is mostly from smaller trees, so now I'll be stacking as soon as we can find the time.

Time to get to work and watch the clock tick away the hours until we have plumbing in the kitchen ...

Weekly plan & BIG NEWS!!!!

Yep, I'm shouting ;) We found out on Friday that the plumber is going to come hook up our kitchen sink, dishwasher, half bath, and master bath shower this Wednesday! I am so excited. These last few weeks have seen such a difference in our living habits just from having a countertop and stove, so running water on the main level is going to be amazing :) So ... if all goes according to plan I'll be shining my sink (see Flylady) on Wednesday night. Yippee! Watch out Noonan Bible study girls - I might be a bit giddy on Wednesday!

Unfortunately, the reason the plumber is coming out early is because we need to do some modifications to the tub surround in our bedroom. We didn't account for putting tile underneath the lip of the tub when we built it, so now we have to have the plumber unhook the tub, re-do the surround, then have the plumber come back and finish all the plumbing (master bath sinks, toilet, and tub). The good thing about this is we've decided to hire someone to come tile the tub surround, so he's coming this Thursday.

As a result of all these developments, our plans for the week have been modified significantly ;) So ... here are our plans for the week:

Monday
- Build the wall to support bar-height countertop behind kitchen counter (it is going to contain all the pipes for the kitchen in it, so needs to be in place by Wednesday)
- Grout the floor in the half-bath

Tuesday
- Paint (second coat) walls in half-bath
- Wash floor in half-bath
- Level wall for bar-height counter

Wednesday
- Plumber comes to hook stuff up!
- Remove tub from surround and rebuild surround to correct height. Remember to leave access holes for plumber to reconnect the tub ;)

Thursday
- Plumbers finish work for now
- Attach face frame to vanity and stain
- Clear out back hallway and back bedroom

Friday
- Stain vanity (coat 2)
- Crack-fill master bath, back hallway, and back bedroom
- Hang door to half-bath
- Paint door to half-bath

Saturday
- Varathane vanity (coats 1 & 2)
- Crack-fill master bath (hopefully that will do it ...), back hallway, and back bedroom
- Install doorknob on door to half-bath
- Hang remaining drywall upstairs

So, if you're looking for us, you know where we'll be!

Weekly plan updates ...

In case you haven't noticed - I keep updating the weekly plan post below to reflect reality ;)

We're behind already ...

Well, it's 11:30 and I'm going to have to concede defeat. We didn't accomplish everything on our list for tonight. I was only able to lay half the tile for the half-bath (kind of fitting don't you think!) and Peter got interrupted by phone woes so didn't get the boards planed for the face frames (although he did start cutting them to length). So, we're going to be playing catch-up for the rest of the week!

Here's a picture of the bathroom floor as it looks right now. This was the closest colour-wise of the three I took.

Weekly plan

It's that time again - time to figure out our "schedule" for the next week. We've seen lots of progress in the last week, so it's pretty easy to stay motivated right now! We need to capitalize on that ;)

Our short-term goal is to have the house ready for the plumber by March 25th. Here is the list of what's left to finish for that goal:

1. Paint half-bath ceiling
2. Paint half-bath walls (2 coats)
3. Lay floor in half-bath
4. Grout floor in half-bath
5. Finish crack-filling master bath
6. Joint and plane boards for master bath vanity face frame
   
7. Attach face frame to master bath vanity
8. Stain vanity (2 coats)
9. Varathane vanity (2 coats)
10. Prime master bath
11. Paint ceiling in master bath
12. Paint walls in master bath (may only need 1 coat as it's white over white primer)
13. Install master bath vanity

Whew! Alright, so our first steps will be ...

Tuesday:

• Lay tile in half-bath
• Crack-fill master bath
• Plane boards for face frame

Wednesday:

• Plane boards for face frame
  

Thursday:

• Lay rest of tile in half-bath
  

Friday:

• Paint half-bath (ceiling and walls)
  
• Put together face frame
  
• Attach face frame to vanity
• Stain vanity (coat 1)

Saturday:

• Paint half-bath walls
• Prep and grout floor in half-bath
  
• Crack-fill master bath
  
• Stain vanity (coat 2)

I think that should put us on a good course for finishing on time. We shall see how closely we stick to that schedule!

And, as you can see, I'm starting to customize some links and trackers at right. It's about time!

We have a stove!!!

Yippee! This was a great weekend. Peter put the finishing touches on the crack-fill for the half-bath,


we got the first coat of crack-fill on the master bath, our stove was hooked up,



we cut out the hole for the kitchen sink,



and we assembled the vanity for the master bath.

Finally ...

Some pictures of our newly-installed countertop (and finished cupboards)!


Yay!

Coming soon ...

... to a kitchen near you ... countertop :) We talked with our friend Derrick yesterday and we've scheduled his help on the countertop installation for Wednesday night. Wednesday ... as in two days from now. So ... what do we have left to finish before then? We have one more coat of varathane (tonight) and the installation of the drawer slides (tomorrow night). Hopefully we can get it done.

We have pictures of the cupboards thus far, but we can't seem to capture the colour of the stain very well. Maybe I'll still post a few tonight. We're very happy with how the stain turned out as well as the way all three colours (stained wood, natural wood, and countertop) look.

So, the plans for this week (I think this is the only reason I keep blogging - to keep track of my To Do list!) are:

Monday: varathane on cupboards (last coat)
Tuesday: install drawer cleats and slides
Wednesday: install countertop (yay!!)
Thursday: call electrician to set up time for stove installation ;)
finish crack-filling half-bath
wash master bath floor (still one more rinse of grout)
Friday: Sand crack-fill in half bath
Prime half-bath
Crack-fill master bath
Saturday: Crack-fill master bath
Paint ceiling in half bath
Paint walls in half bath (one coat)

And, if we can follow the schedule I've set up we should have the master bathroom finished (including the vanity, which we're building) by March 25th. The race is on to get the plumbing all hooked up by the end of the month!