Making Cabinets

On Sunday, De and I went to the house after church to start installing the wall cabinets that we had built on Saturday. We found our "plumb line" and then tried our best to make things square in this old house. It took most of the afternoon to fix the wall cabinets as they were delays to drive to Home Depot to get clamps, our neighbour invited us for hot dogs on the bbq and we spent a bit of time preening (head-scratching).

In the evening, Deona put all of the base cabinets together while I shimmed and leveled them. The house gargoyles/gnomes/leprechauns/ghosts were acting up. The table saw frequently tripped a breaker that it's been operating on with no issues for the past few months.

At 12:30am, we decided to pack it in with two cabinets left to level and shim and the toe kicks yet to install.

Enjoy the photos!

All in a Week's Work

Today's blog post is all about the work we have done this week. I wish I could entitle it The Floor is In or The Painting is Down, but it's not. All of those things are getting closer, but take time...so much time. 

Here, in pictures, are some of the things we have been working on this week.

My mom cleaned the basement... what a gross job!

Hocking up the pipes.

This is how my mom helps our garden grow.

I got to lay the hardwood under the stairs. Steve did all the visible areas. 

To Complete or Not to Complete... that is the reality

At the beginning of June I posted three lists of items that were completed, needed to be completed and would have to wait. I am excited to be able to move more items from the 'Things Yet to Finish.." list to "Things Already Completed".


Things Already Completed: 
- gutting (January 31 - March 26)
- purchased windows
- ordered kitchen cabinets
- ordered kitchen appliances
- found a dryer
- bought a chair and a couch
- framing (March 26 - May)
- insulation (April - now)
- heating vents (install and clean)
- put up drywall

- get drywall taped
- paint (officially pick colours, order and paint)
- build and install the stairs (both sets)
- order bathroom vanities
- get and install the tub
- the back sunroom/discusting mess that needs to be torn down.


 Things Yet to Finish before  34  Days Summer Ends:
- electrical (April - now)
- plumbing (April - now)
- secure the sub-floor
- remove old back door and fill in
- order the rest of the flooring (basically done...just need to pick it up)
- put in flooring
- install cabinets
- order counter tops
- install toilets
- purchase a washing machine
- install kitchen appliances
- purchase light fixtures
- built in shelves in the attic
- refurbish the clawfoot tub
- purchase and paint interior doors
- install interior doors

Things That Can Wait....much to my dismay:
- the yard....so much for a garden this year :(
- the exterior of the house
- the porch
- removal of the chicken coop...or whatever it is
- entry way shelf unit
- buy a couch
- baseboards and other finishing touches
- install the kitchen counter tops - only because they will take a while to come


We were not able to meet our original goal to move in by June 31, so we stayed 2 more weeks in our apartment. Then, our high hopes of being ready by July 15 were discarded when things took longer than expected. But, God provides and we are currently staying in a friend's home for a few weeks while they are on holidays. This will give us time to finally meet our new goal to be in the house by August 1.


After a week and a half of painting the walls, we are finished! We had a little help from the employees at Benjamin Moore to pick out colours. We went with split pea, rainforest dew, butterscotch, cloud white, gray mirage, and a yellow colour whose name escapes me.
Here are a few pictures of the colours.

An interview with my mom.

Interviewer: Deona

Interviewee: Jo-Anne

1. How has painting been for you thus far? 

Priming was time consuming, but the paint went on smooth as silk. 

2. What is your favourite colour in the house so far? 

I would say, I LOVE the livingroom and kitchen colour. Especially with the white window frames and the white trim. It is going to be stunning. 

3. What colour are you least fond of? 

I would have to say the orange. Hahah, sorry, and I like orange, but it's just..hehe.. it's just a little much. 

4. What colour would you recommend because we have not yet committed to the orange?

I would recommend just one wall in the deep orange and the rest in just a light tint of orange. And then use accents in your curtains and bedding. 

5. Who has helped you with the painting? 

Well, so far we have had Shawna come and Sandra, Jeff and Janna, you and me. And before me, I am told, it was Deona's friends. (Erinn and Candy)

6. Have you encountered any obstacles with painting so far?

YES! (hand gestures included)

7. And..what are these obstacles? 

Well, yesterday...how long have I been here?? three weeks...I mean days..Deona, don't write that. 

Obstacles. The mudders and tappers are not finishing their job. Tappers? It's tapers..one 'p'. 

Which means we have to wait for them so we can't continue on with the painting. Lots of starts and stops, I guess. 

8. What have you been doing besides painting since you came to Calgary three days ago? 

Well, once I was sent on a mission to buy some more paint and I got stuck in traffic on Deerfoot. It took me an hour! I also spent this afternoon packing the apartment. Vacuuming, washing cupboards and just enjoying Steve and Deona's company. Oh! And don't forget chicktionary. 

9. How many points did we get in Chicktionary today? 

11900 points! 42 words! Beat that Jeff!

Thank you for participating in this blog interview. Below you will see a sneak preview of some of the coloured walls!

Trying out our bold green - split pea.

Loving the green.

Steve prepping the bathroom floor for tiles.

Chicktionary!

Preparing for texture on the ceiling.

Installing Stairs

This was the second attempt at the upper stair set and by golly, it works! There's one small issue and you can see that when you visit, but for a first-time stair builder, I think it went okay.

See the progression in installation.

Do we need more sheet metal? I mean, dry metal? I mean, drywall?

After four weeks of boarding, the drywall is finally finished. I've learned that I can't stand drywall. Deona doesn't mind it much, but I think it sucks. It's heavy, it breaks and crumbles easily. It wouldn't be too bad if walls, studs and floors were straight... and if there were vast stretches requiring uncut and plain sheets... but no, hardly anything is square, we have electrical outlets and windows everywhere and the height of our rooms is between 95.5 and 96 inches.

Mudding and taping - thank the Lord for Mike and Mike. This father and son duo did a masterful job of filling in the awful cracks that we left for them to cover.