Fan, fan, fanny..

Sorry for the delay in posts. I'm on day 3 of a 3 day audit at work so that's taking up a lot of my time. And I'm sick. I must be allergic to the auditor. =)

But anyway, since last time Chris' parents arrived and stayed for nearly a week. In that time his dad installed 3 ceiling fans, finished all the lighting, and installed a new laundry sink as well as the washer & dryer. He kept himself busy. Let there be light!!! Thanks, Dad.

It takes some getting used to... using the light switches. For the last 5 months we've been using floor lamps. One of them, the switch crapped out so we just unplug it every time. Its so much better with the power to the lighting on.


light? from the ceiling? who knew?
As for the paint, we semi-glossed half of the laundry room where the appliances were going. We still have the other 2 walls to finish. Chris finished the 'cinnamon cake' semi-gloss in the kitchen last night. I think it may need ceiling paint and then the red wall. (My parents are out of town for a month so I've been busy tending to the pets and plants at their house and get to my house in time for dinner so I haven't been doing much work. *sigh* Now I'm sick and need a nap. I should be better in time for the weekend.)

The living room is coming along. After I stripped all the paint from the windows, Chris puttied the holes and sanded it down. We primed it last week. Then semi-gloss trim and grey walls. We're actually almost done painting. Maybe another week. Then the base boards.

The ceiling fans look really nice. We went to Ikea to get the energy saving bulbs. We like them better cuz it looks like a regular bulb with the spiral inside. Harder to tell its fluorescent. Our only issue... We have a low 8' ceiling so we had to get fans small enough so its at least 7' from the floor after installation, as directed on the box. So the bedroom fans are surface mount. No problem. The living room fan is a little wider and it has an extension rod you could use. We were gonna forget the rod and install it as close to the ceiling as possible. Chris' dad installed the fan before we got home. And guess what.... he used the rod. Chris can touch the blades without even trying. Our 6'2" brother-in-law will have to duck. With the rod, it has the whole ball/socket mechanism holding up the fan. Without it, its only hanging on by 2 screws and could fall... so he says. But I think the odds of it falling are very small. If it was so dangerous and risky, the manufacturers would have lawsuits and would change the design. I'm sure its safe.

getting there... really.
A summarized conversation between Chris and his dad. (Chris will have to edit it for accuracy. That's what I remember him telling me.)
D: You should get a duplex and we can move in.
C: No thanks.
D: Why not?
C: I don't want to share a wall with you. You can stay in the cottage.
D: I will never sleep in that cottage!

I guess its not for everyone. Once we're done with the cottage, it'll be nice. Not sure when we'll get to it. We still have the basement, garage, backyard, driveway... Still lots to do.

We've got the blues... and red!

The blue room is up! We painted the guest room 'winter lake' over the weekend. The in-laws are finally back from Idaho, Alaska, Canada, and wherever else they went. So we wanted to paint the room before they got back, which is tomorrow. Still need baseboards but at least its a start.


blue... and orange?

The red wall got a second coat as well. What a beauty.


ooooooh color!

Our First Night

So our birthdays and anniversary have passed and Labor Day has come and gone. In that time we've accomplished, well, not much more than last post. The master bedroom is 90% done. The guest room was recently textured and mostly primed.


clean canvas... sort of

The kitchen is awaiting some color. The living room has one wall and the corners of grey as well as red corners.


red.

I finally finished stripping all, well most, of the paint off of the window casings in the living room. It still needs some wood putty and sanding before it can be primed and painted.


hard work.

And after all that painting we have to install the baseboards and prime and paint the doors. Chris' parents will be back next week to finish the lights and ceiling fans. We could also use their help installing the new toilets.

We spent our first night at the house on Sunday. We brought our air mattress. We had taken off the doors to the bedroom for painting and haven't replaced them yet. So it was a little cold and drafty. Other than that it wasn't too bad. We might start doing weekends overnight there. Hopefully we'll be done enough by the end of the month to move in. We'll see.

Rants: So we're taking down the blinds in the guest bedroom and there's like 5 different sets of brackets and random nails in the side of the casing. Chris found a screw in a door, painted over, not attaching anything to the door. I found a thumb tack in the window frame painted over. All we have to say is "Why???" Why are there 2 sawed off nails (or screws, can't tell) in the door jam of the bedroom, sticking out far enough to scrape the door? Why did they move the door from swinging out, to swinging in??? Why are there different size and style screws in the hinges?? Why, on a bedroom door that locks with a key, do you need a hook latch as well?? And why do you put a pad lock on a wooden gate from the outside with no way of opening it from the inside? There's so many more. The world may never find the answers.


the offending random screws on a door that was switched to the opposite side on a door that doesn't fit that way.


mystery metal sticking out from the casings.