It has been forever....for flooring too.

I know it has been forever since a post.  Well we haven't don't much with the house!  It was a very mild winter, so we had no stories of freezing pipes or snow.  We have been shopping though for future plans.  One of these plans was/is to replace the flooring in the kitchen and dinning room.  Both have linoleum from probably the 60's.  Frankly it wasn't really too ugly, considering how old it is.  But, it was breaking apart leaving holes in the floor. So for years we have covered the holes with rugs.

Then we found sticky back tile, for 22 cents a sq. ft. at Lowe's this past winter...needless to say, we bought almost every box!

It is hard to see what it looks like so here is another picture with a few tiles on the kitchen floor.

So now that it is warm, and we can take the wood stove out of the house, and 

I am out of school, work can begin. Hooray!!! With the tile picked out, let the work begin!

                 

     

Look what I found behind the gas stove, which hasn't been moved in about 6 years!  Our cat, Cashton, was delighted to have his balls back.  Sorry dogs, your rawhides got trashed.

Here we have the hot and cold turn off valves/pipes for the washer and kitchen sink.  The last few months the kitchen has smelled musty, I think this is why.  There is a small leak here and the floor probably has some water damage.

 yep, definitely water damage as part of the sub floor comes up.  Oops!!!  We may need some help regarding this issue.  so Help!!!  I will leave it alone and continue on....

A few hours later, with not too much difficulty I got it all up, vacuumed and cleaned. There are a few spots of glue I couldn't get up so it will need to be sanded.   But for now, it is almost ready for the new flooring...which will be done in a week or so when we are able to have Cliff's father come and help us.  Yay!!

We had the ancient oil heater from the kitchen removed.  This left a big empty space, which if we had the money we would install some new cabinets....but that will be another day... My mom had this old bakers unit in the basement and she gave it to us.  It fits perfectly, and gives us much more storage which we desperately needed!!!  We had to move the pots to another wall, but we are very pleased!

 

Painting!

Now that the contractors are gone we can  finally begin to put the new bathroom back together.  Our local paper had a coupon for 50% off one item.  So we bought paint and primer and only paid $30.   I had a snow day yesterday so I spent it painting.  The color is called extinction, it is a green gray color.  Cliff picked it, since he designed the shower curtain and is awesome at picking colors.  The photos don't do it justice!!   We love the color and the way it has come out.

Bacova had a sale a month or so ago and for $30 we bought an entire bathroom accessories kit, which included the shower curtain by Cliff.  Here are the accessories.

And while in Baltimore last weekend I got a few shower rods at Ikea, including this one which rotates and can hang flat on the wall.  Which works perfectly since the door is right there!

And here is the shower curtain and bath mat from the kit.

So now we just have a few other towel rods and some shelving to install.  As well as painting the doors for the water heater and  towels.  We just haven't decided on what color.  Hmmm.

Finally, the contractor has finished!

We can now say the contractors part of this whole ordeal is over!!!  

They moved the vanity, it is close to the toilet, but it is functional.

He also cut the door to the water heater.   

Now the bottom door is for the heater and the top door is for towels.

So now all we have left is to paint and put up new towel racks.   I decided to start unpacking some of the boxes and put things into the vanity and mirror.  Cashton decided he would help.

Is it finished yet?

 So Christmas came and went and I went to Baltimore for a few days after Christmas.  I figured it would be fine;   they are making good progress and I won't be in the way.  I took Betty and Annie with me, so there were 2 less dogs to get in the way.  Then the winds came.  They were just as windy in Iron Gate as it was in Baltimore.  Wind gusts of 50mph +.    Mr. Kelley called me Monday morning to let me know they wouldn't be working because of the high winds.  They were going to do the dry wall, which meant cutting it outside, and with the winds it would be difficult.  Fine, I said...see you Tuesday.
   Tuesday and Wednesday came and went.  Cliff texted me pictures of the dry wall. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Mr Kelley called me probably once a day both days.  Progress was being made.  I came back home on Thursday and the workers were here.  They were installing the vanity, the mirror, the lights over the mirror and the new toilet.  Yea!  While they were outside,  I sneaked into the bathroom to see what had been done.  The "cabinet" around the water heater was basically a new wall put up with a full size door.  The vanity was put in, but because of this new wall it made it difficult to stand in front of the vanity.

And when I mentioned this to Mr. Kelley, he told me it was fine. You can stand in front of it with no problem!  Then his grandson showed me they couldn't move the vanity over any further because of the outlet on the wall.  And apparently they were finished so he couldn't, or wouldn't move the outlet.  Then he changed the subject on me. And acted as though his job was done.

They also removed the heater from the kitchen;  My mom is giving us a cabinet to put here :)

the oil tank outside of the house, they didn't paint behind the tank so now there is a nice white spot!

 and trimmed down the front door! Now it opens all the way!!!

Today is Friday and Mr. Kelley is hopefully going to be able to install the ceiling fan in our bed room.  Because of the drop ceiling, he said he may not be able to install it.  Oh please, please don't let this be a problem.  I am also going to talk to him about this vanity awkwardness.  Let's hope this won't be an issue either.  Sigh.

Day 9

We were shocked, Mr Kelley said he had two doctor appointments today so he would not be coming.  But they came and put down the new flooring and started building a shelf above the water heater, which will be hidden by a cabinet with a door.  

I have noticed whenever I am taking pictures Cashton seems to be around! Here he is again :)

Day 8

Well they showed up about 11am.  But they had a third guy with them, a different one then the guy who had the cat bite.  Great I thought, and left to go run some errands.  What they accomplished today though, 

Installed new ceiling tiles and finished the fan/light.  

A new Shower!!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Oh Happy Day!!! Praise the Lord!!! Alleluia!!!

They even trimmed down the bathroom door, so now it can be opened completely.  The rug didn't allow us to do this before!

And while they were at it, they also trimmed down our office door and rehung it.  It was taken off when Cliff and his Dad did the flooring, 3 years ago.  We really missed having that door!