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Disclaimer: In the interest of my not spending the rest of the night uploading pictures, most of these photos aren't of the usual two megapixel variety... I just don't have that kind of time, what with a new house and puppy, you know. Look, just back off, alright. Alright, I may have been a little harsh back there. Sorry about that. It might be the fumes.
First, you'll see that our cabinets were a natural finish with a lovely green inner motif. And, I almost forgot the best part, the shelf paper! I think between Kristen, her mom and dad, and myself, we spent more time pulling off that awful shelf paper than we actually did painting the shelves. Damn the man who invented shelf paper. Damn him. I made sure to upload the picture of the shelf paper in full resolution so you all can share in our hatred.
The shelves got a couple coats of primer before we started painting the frames. The doors will have to be a work-in-progress for the next couple weeks. I've got an idea for a little detail work that'll give me a chance to break-in our new table saw.
The shelves were a job-and-a-half and still aren't completely the way I want them. The finished kitchen will have yellow walls, the blue cabinet backs, white trim and white cabinet drawers. The bright yellow is loads of fun. I'm not sure, however, how Kristen's family feels about the 'Swedish' kitchen. The pot rack (see previous post) also went in and seems to fit pretty well in our bright little kitchen.
The back bedroom (our room) got a new fan and repainted walls and trim. If anyone has any brilliant skills in balancing ceiling fans, please let me know.
The fan doesn't have a 'get your affairs in order' kind of wobble, but considering the guy that installed it, I'd be careful standing underneath it when it's on high speed. And, the Romstad family will be happy to know, yes, it does have a remote.
The living room got new wall paint and was probably the easiest of the rooms so far, since we didn't redo the trim. The chandelier, however, seems to be a nice touch and really classes up ye old rambler. The trailer folk'll be REAL jealous.
Our new Target Boutique curtains also compliment the living room. Again, the installer could have done a better job, as they seem to want to pull out of the wall (time to go wild with the drywall anchors). The two pictures at right are looking in the same general direction at the same window.
In other news...
Axel had his first vet visit (under our supervision) today. He was very good. We're getting him what I'm calling the 'outdoorsman' series of shots so that we can take him camping and all over God's green Earth.
The vet seemed to think that he was in good health but said we should make sure to keep Mr. Tubby lean. He's been marvelous while I've been working; he just sits and naps under my desk all day. For those of you who haven't checked out the AxelCam, it is just a click away (during my normal work hours, anyway).
This is honestly the first time in two weeks that I've been able to sit down at a computer without being at work. Needless to say, kind of a lot of stuff has happened since the last time I posted.
Kristen and I closed on the house on Thursday, March 9th (a day early, even). In between the 9th and today, we've been working madly to prepare the house for living and for Axel.
We painted our bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. We installed a ceiling fan (which I can't seem to figure out how to balance) and a couple light fixtures. We also repainting the kitchen cabinets and the trim in the bedroom. Most days we worked until 11 p.m. and I was also able to take a couple days off from work to putz with the house.
The painting went relatively well -- although the cabinets took more coats than I really would have liked. I think by the time we have the doors back on them, the kitchen will look quite nice.
This Monday night, I also installed a pot rack in the kitchen. That experience couldn't have possibly gone worse (there's some extraneous holes in the ceiling that I'm working on patching). All things considered, it looks alright. I was able to anchor it to a couple studs, so it shouldn't come crashing down on anyone's head. Although we've got a lawyer in the family, it is still always good to try to limit your liability.
Axel came home last night. Grandma Dawn was sad, I'm sure, but she is welcome to come and visit our little man any time she wants. Axel was very well-behaved, all things considered, and we were even able to get a few winks of sleep last night. He's been very good today and has let me work pretty much undisturbed all day today. He just laid, semi-conscious at my feet without so much as a peep... Except when he had to do his business.
More photos of the house soon...
The garage is rapidly filling now. I've managed to get most of the big stuff out there by the use of a dolly and by sliding things down the stairs. The stairs continue to taunt me, but, for the most part, everything (including me) has managed to make the trip to the garage unscathed. Hopefully on moving day, the only big thing we'll have to move out of the apartment is the bed. This has to be the shortest move I've ever made; the irony of having to do all this work to only move a mile and-a-half away certainly hasn't escaped me.
Kristen and I are fast preparing for the closing day. We'll probably start painting that Friday night. We're supposed to have our final walk-through on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Let's hope the sellers have everything out by then. We haven't heard back about the radon yet, but we're hoping to have that resolved before or shortly after our closing.
Dawn let us come over to play with Axel and the other puppies last week. We were able to do a few dominance tests on our little man. It looks like we'll have to make sure he knows that Kristen and I are the boss(es), but he'll be fine -- he seems very smart and, although most of the puppies seemed to care less about retreiving at this point, Axel at least made a marginal effort. Sure is a cute little devil. We're still planning to pick him up on Sunday the 19th. Although we won't have much of a routine established for ourselves, we'll try to pretend for Axel.
We spent the better part of the day yesterday at the Depot and Mendards. We picked out all new hardware for the kitchen cabinets and made our final selections for our paint. We'll have twelve colors in all and will try to paint the entire upstairs before too long. We also spent some time at 'Pet Expo' in Mankato and picked out an extendable leash, bowls and some other stuff for the dog. We definitely want to get our bedroom and the living room done before we invite our little hairy, mischievous puppy to come live with us.
Sunday has been spent packing, with a short departure to church and Mankato to pick up a gift for one of Kristen's coworkers. We're running out of boxes and paper to pack dishes in. Perhaps we'll just have to throw away whatever we can't pack.
Back to work. Yay.
Disclaimer: In the interest of my not spending the rest of the night uploading pictures, most of these photos aren't of the usual two megapixel variety... I just don't have that kind of time, what with a new house and puppy, you know. Look, just back off, alright. Alright, I may have been a little harsh back there. Sorry about that. It might be the fumes.
First, you'll see that our cabinets were a natural finish with a lovely green inner motif. And, I almost forgot the best part, the shelf paper! I think between Kristen, her mom and dad, and myself, we spent more time pulling off that awful shelf paper than we actually did painting the shelves. Damn the man who invented shelf paper. Damn him. I made sure to upload the picture of the shelf paper in full resolution so you all can share in our hatred.
The shelves got a couple coats of primer before we started painting the frames. The doors will have to be a work-in-progress for the next couple weeks. I've got an idea for a little detail work that'll give me a chance to break-in our new table saw.
The shelves were a job-and-a-half and still aren't completely the way I want them. The finished kitchen will have yellow walls, the blue cabinet backs, white trim and white cabinet drawers. The bright yellow is loads of fun. I'm not sure, however, how Kristen's family feels about the 'Swedish' kitchen. The pot rack (see previous post) also went in and seems to fit pretty well in our bright little kitchen.
The back bedroom (our room) got a new fan and repainted walls and trim. If anyone has any brilliant skills in balancing ceiling fans, please let me know.
The living room got new wall paint and was probably the easiest of the rooms so far, since we didn't redo the trim. The chandelier, however, seems to be a nice touch and really classes up ye old rambler. The trailer folk'll be REAL jealous.
Our new Target Boutique curtains also compliment the living room. Again, the installer could have done a better job, as they seem to want to pull out of the wall (time to go wild with the drywall anchors). The two pictures at right are looking in the same general direction at the same window.
The vet seemed to think that he was in good health but said we should make sure to keep Mr. Tubby lean. He's been marvelous while I've been working; he just sits and naps under my desk all day. For those of you who haven't checked out the AxelCam, it is just a click away (during my normal work hours, anyway).
