Rehabbing and riding

Saturday was spent doing rehab, of course!  It was really, really humid and painting was on the agenda for me.  It took forever for the coats to dry LOL!  Getting closer to finishing the cabinet doors.  There was cleaning the doors, patching damage, priming and 3 coats of paint.  I want these to last a long time.

cabinets

This color is by Behr and called Moonlight White.  It is a very light cream color.  Its’ going to brighten up the kitchen so much!

I started more trim painting in the kitchen as well.  One thing that really irritates me?  When people paint over hardware:

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I had to scrape the paint off the get the screws out and then sand down the big pain blops underneath.  The good news is that the electrical is done!  We have an electrician that we normally use when we need one, but he is ill with cancer and not taking on more new work (we wish him well). No one returned calls for an electrician, so John decided to work past his problem and go from there – and he did it.  What he did was to run the electric underneath the upper cabinets.  He put one outlet into the wall, but is is really difficult to cut holes in concrete, even with a hammer drill and we didn’t want to risk the integrity of the wall.  I am happy enough with the results because those ugly boxes are mostly hidden.  He also wired up for a new garbage disposal!  Yay!  BTW, he recommends this book to make sure you are following the codes you need if you want to do electrical:  

 

We also worked on the base cabinets and getting them ready for countertops.  We still need to get a sink base cabinet, but we will pick that up when we get the flooring this week (!!!).  I spent a lot of time scrubbing the cabinet bases.  Seriously – the people that lived here really loved their condiments.  They were splashed everywhere on the ceiling, underneath the cabinets, all over the doors.  At least I hope it was condiment Ewwww…

I started putting on some primer. Here is progress:

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I was struggling with ideas for a backsplash.  We will have wooden counters and I while I like the look of glass tiles, they are kind of trendy and I want something a little more timeless.  Then I found the perfect tile.  Marble subway!

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I wanted marble countertops, but they are just soooooo expensive and out of our budget, not to mention I don’t know if I could deal with the maintenance of marble.  Then I thought I would do it for the floor, but the tile people tried to talk me out of that for stain reasons.  So – I do get my marble after all!  Hee hee!!

John and I both took Sunday off from the new house.  We needed a break from rehab.  Plus we had to clean the house up for our open house…aaaaand it’s the start of the NFL season.

John’s bike is out of commission right now, so I rode to breakfast by myself.  Lonely early Sunday road:

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It was a really nice morning for biking, too. Cool  and sunny.  Just perfect.   I got to Coffee Planet and there was someone waiting for me there :

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😀

Breakfast!!

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After eating, I went out to finish the usual Sunday ride which is 20 miles.  John went grocery shopping LOL!

 

The rest of the ride was pretty much like this:

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It felt really good to ride.

We got the house super clean for the open house, but only 1 party came through, unfortunately.  I don’t think it helped having the open house scheduled for kickoff time for the NFL season…

Tonight is time for the Broncos to kick some butt!!!!

 

 

23 thoughts on “Rehabbing and riding

  1. Kim

    I think you won on the ride – exercise and you didn’t have to go grocery shopping!!!
    I agree with you on painting hardware and I hate it when people paint over the outlet covers – it never works out well!!!

  2. Lori's Mom

    Congratulations to John for persevering and getting the electrical work done! Fantastic! The cupboards are going to look great. Dad and I take the hardware down when we paint, but then it takes forever to get it all back up again!

  3. debby

    Okay, so I have questions. It looks like your sink will be under the big window? And it looks like the window is fairly low. So will you put a backsplash between the window and the top of the sink cabinet? The reason I”m asking is that that is similar to the configuration of my new kitchen. I have a piece I really want to use for the backsplash, but it is 12″. So do you put a backsplash anywhere else, like behind the stove? I have an electric stove–does it even need a backsplash? I really want to use that tile somewhere in the kitchen!!

    Tell John I think he is amazing!

    1. Lori Post author

      We are going to take the backsplash all the way up to the cupboards and underneath the window sill there. I should show a close up of the window casing – they are rounded into the window rather than a right angle, so we can’t tile around the window. The tile will go across the bottom and then start coming back up higher past the sill. Or that is the idea, anyway.

      It will go up behind the stove to the hood as well. Lots of backsplash. It’s pretty neutral, so it should not be overpowering. Just time consuming to do LOL! The sink will be under the window, but actually slightly offset due to the configuration with the dishwasher.

  4. Helen

    I’m glad you’re getting your marble! John is a good egg to keep at that electrical like that. Not fun when you’re feeling unsure of yourself.

    Glad you had a day off too – you deserved it!

  5. Ali @ Peaches and Football

    Is John’s bike a quick fix? That must be a bit frustrating for him since your bike rides are such fun and great breaks from the rehabbing.

    Everything is coming along so well. I just love watching your house progress. A lot of work, yes, (and I’m not doing any of it so it’s awesome to observe – ha) but I can tell the house will be amazing when you have it all finished!!!

    Are you working towards any kind of timeline or is it really just dependent on whether or not you sell your current house?

    1. Lori Post author

      We don’t have a timeline. We don’t have to hurry because even if we got an offer on our house today (I wish!!), it takes about 60 days to close and we will have the kitchen done before that. We will be moving over once that it done, hopefully before the end of the month.

      John’s bike is not really a quick fix per se – it need a whole new wheel.

  6. Fran

    That’s how you do it: you do the fun stuff, biking, and John does the bad stuff, grocery shopping 🙂

    I have a marble countertop and am very happy with it. I think I have it for about 10 years now and it still looks like new and is super easy to clean. It was expensive though, the marble and the oven were the most expensive items in my kitchen back then but I haven’t regretted both purchases.

  7. Linda E.

    Biking and house rehab, whew makes me tired just reading about it. I can’t believe the transformation already, looks great.

  8. Jeannie/Qlts2Slo

    So, when you came up to John at Coffee Planet did you pretend you were strangers and ask if you could share his table?

    I nearly spewed beverage on my puter screen with your “At least I hope it was condiment” comment. LOL

    Sure wish I had a bit of your energy, you are making such great progress and doing such good work.

  9. Cammy@TippyToeDiet

    I love the look of marble subway tile. Actually, I haven’t found a subway tile I didn’t like. LOL But you’re right, the marble is timeless.

    The people who inherited the house I live in now painted over wallpaper pieces, hardware, electrical receptacles. It just adds so much work to even the simplest projects.

  10. Biz

    I actually love the new glass back splashes they have out there. But I have no money for rehab, and I know if I got started on one thing, I’d want to do everything, so in the end? We do nothing – ha!

  11. Sharon

    And kick butt they did!! Smart to pace yourselves with the rehab work. East to burn out otherwise. Your house will sell in due time!

  12. Katie

    I’m so impressed with your rehabbing! We have been building a garage all summer, and it’s been a nightmare–I can’t even imagine doing construction on a house. It’s going to be awesome to see the final result when you’re done!

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