The Heavens Parted and The Angels Sang...

because the first DIY reno project in the house is DONE!!!!

Yes, you read correctly.  And it's not the kitchen - yet. Making huge strides with it and will be done in a few short weeks!

No, my fine friends, my walk-in closet is finished.  This evening it is still pristine and empty.  I'll be transferring my clothes and purses from Aislinn's closet over the next day or two.

Let me refresh your memory - I don't actually have a closet in my room.  Oh - it looks like I do cause there's a door...

It's being coy - there isn't a full size closet cause it goes UNDER the roof slope.  Awesome. So for the last 2 years and 9 months (who's counting?) I've been sharing my daughter's big ass double closet with her.  You can't say she's not gracious...

I digress.

Look at this - BAM!

 

 

The floors will be painted when the windows can be fully opened cause it's gonna stank........

So excited to have this done! 

Have a great and blessed Easter with your loved ones and keep your eyes peeled for the finished kitchen post coming to your puter soon.

xo

Kitchen Progress and New Design

Good snowy day!  Not.  

Seriously, is winter ever going to end?!

Last week I took Monday and Tuesday off so I could do a hard push over a long weekend without peanut's company to accomplish a lot on the renos. I needed to do this to feel a sense of accomplishment and honestly, needed the kick in the ass.

Mom (my hero!) and I got 2 coats of trim done in the closet and I did another coat of cutting with the colour.  One more coat on the trim then the rods can go up, shelves and storage unit.  The floors will wait until summer - I'm going to paint them and windows will need to be opened!

The most progress we made though was in the kitchen.  Did my heart and soul good - I tell ya!

We got the ceiling sanded at the joints of the planks, all the walls sanded, primed and first coat of colour on!  Booyah! We also primed the trim.  Behold the awesomeness...

Still trying to figure out how to adjust image layout in posts...

Anyhoo, the white spots weren't due to laziness - cabinets will be going there so no point painting it.

Next steps - 2nd coat of colour, add trim to where ceiling and walls meet, prime and paint ceiling and trim, paint baseboards and trim, install cabinets, temp countertop until quartz comes (yay!)m make Mason jar lights and install.

Sounds like a lot but shouldn't be too bad.  I just keep thinking about how much better I'll feel when it's done and how much SPACE I'll be gaining back.

Until next time.

Lord Tunderin' Jesus

Happy New Year gang!

Wow - didn't realize how much time had lapsed since my last entry.

Well, to sum up the balance of 2013 - had the lumpectomy, didn't have cancer (only good thing that came out of 2013 - huge and I'm thankful) and yadda, yadda.

Wasn't sorry to see 2013 go to be honest.  Sucked.  Big time.

But I'm in a very different place now and 2014 is and will be AWESOME!

I'm actually motivated to work on my house again which is a good thing cause lord knows it needs it!  I am impatient to see my visions for my home (sounds pretentious but really not) come to life.  If only I had the dineros to make it happen sooner...

Okay - so what has been done lately you ask..

I had to start on the closet upstairs so that Aislinn's room can be done at a moment's notice.  Why you ask?  Because as a SECRET birthday gift for my sweet girl - my parents are giving the gift of a room renovation.  Kind of a gift to me too indirectly.  Let me repeat, Aislinn does not know about this.

So, when the contractor lets my mom know he has time, we have to empty her room and demolish the existing closet - hence the urgency to complete the upstairs closet.

It would appear I didn't take a before photo - bad blogger.  It's a walk-in closet at the top of the stairs just outside my room - roughly 5' x 5'with slanted ceiling.  It has nasty carpet and a built in that housed mouse turds and old nasty sheets left behind by previous hoarder owner (it felt like they were anyways *shudder*).  All were removed and are resting at the Cardinal dump.  Yeehaw!

Then it sat...and sat... and sat some more.  But in the last month or so, we did some patching and sanding.  Yesterday I sanded some more, wiped down and cut in the primer.  Today Mom (she really is the best) help me roll the primer on. Ta dah!  And like that we were ready to paint!

You see what I'm working with....  This will be my closet as I don't have a closet in my room.  I picked up the paint for the walls, trim and floor today.  We'll tackle that soon.  The photos don't do the closet justice - you really had to see the funkiness that it was before.

Then I gave in and picked at the loose, flapping piece of wallpaper in my room.  Every effing room in this house - except the office - has at least 3 layers of the shit.  I can't stand it.  Anyhoo, it came off sooo easily - trust me, I take it for the gift it is - the rest of it is going to be a major pain in the wazoo.  I took off a wall - I stopped myself because I didn't have the stomach to continue for now.  Soon, my pretty...

Bask, my friends, bask in the fugliness of 80's country wallpaper. *gag* Jerry looks less than impressed and he's a cat. The top picture shows the vast improvement of the questionable white wallcovering over the blue poo.

I'm on a roll people - keep watching.

Until then, keep calm and drink wine on.

Happy Labour Day!

Hola amigos!

Happy Labour Day!  I started the celebrations off by sleeping in until 7... But at least the cats are enjoying the day off and are still in bed.

The kitchen ceiling is installed!  Mom and I rocked it for 5 hours on Saturday but it's done!

'kay - apologies for the sideways pics - they saved on my laptop the correct view ie. landscape and I don't know how to rotate them (if I even can) in the post. :-(

Anyhoo, you get the gist.  They are tongue and groove pine - super labour intensive but look great with the vintage of the house.  I just need to lightly sand the butt joints, put up finish trim and then paint the ceiling. Then we can get on with finishing this effing project.  I've given myself till Thanksgiving.

I don't know where the summer went but good lawd!  It feels like it passed by so quickly.

Aislinn starts school on the 3rd and is looking forward to seeing her friends again.   I'm good with the positive attitude.

My task for this upcoming week is to start the new job hunt in earnest - kinda looking forward to it and kinda not.  But the end goal is a full-time job (the label- I work full time hours) doing project and facilities management/project management with paid vacay and hopefully benefits and pension.

Mentally, in a better place and just taking it day by day.  We all get into dark places but it's the getting out that tests your mettle.

Some money minding tips I've put in place for myself (just finished reading Gail Vaz-Oxlade's Money Rules):
I borrow my mags I want to read from my local library - free and no clutter!
Same with books
Borrow bigger tools that I don't need all the time instead of buying
Do what repairs I can and renos (with 'rents help - God love 'em!) myself

That's it for now gang - have a great Monday off!

SHE LIVES!!!

Yep - I don't EVEN want to look at the date of my last post.

But the important thing is I'm here now merrily typing away.

Wow - where to start?

This will be a pic-free post - just sayin'.

I get so caught up in the slow reno progress of my house that I get embarrassed to update the blog.  Then I remind myself that this isn't a home reno blog - it's just an update of my life. :-)

So, in no particular order:

The kitchen ceiling - tongue and groove pine is going in slowllllllyyyyy but surely.  It looks kick-ass.
Not sure if I mentioned before that my work buddy Franco came and did his drywall compound magic on my walls - not once but 3 times folks and well, it's a thing of beauty.  A light sanding and priming and BOOM!  We're ready for paint.
I started the closet at the top of the stairs that will be mine - it's stalled at the moment. The nice weather came and honestly, I lost interest in renovating cause I wanted to enjoy the weather.
Girlfriend did a Roller Derby Crash Course - pretty sure I was in the upper age limits of all of us there and PASSED AND was invited to proceed to level 2 as well as join the league.  All very cool and flattering until I found out the huge time and money commitment - neither of which I have. Boo.
Passed my M2 test and am ready to go.

Aislinn, my beautiful girl, turned 8 at the beginning of the month and I just don't know where the f!@# time went.  She is smart, funny, sassy and makes me laugh.  Lots of attitude in that little body... She's growing up so fast that I'm so proud of her and yet, it's so damn poignant.

The love life or more aptly, lack-of-love life is a joke.  It can only improve right? Right?

I gotta confess - I've been in a shittay place for the last few months.  It's not every day - more during the times when Aislinn isn't with me but holy shit when the day is dark - it's dark.  Too many times lately the only thing that keeps me on this earthly plane is my little boo.  Hard typing this cause that's not how I roll.  I'm using to being strong and now that I'm feeling kinda vulnerable and fragile - dealing with the dark ain't easy.  This isn't a 'poor me, feel sorry for me' rant - just stating where I've been.

I've also kinda hermitted myself away and not seeing a lot of my friends in the city - that's going to change cause I miss my peeps.

Anyhoo, no need to worry as I will bounce back - always do.  Just being honest and typing about how things are.

I hope you're all enjoying this summer - I'm enjoying the hot weather cause gawd knows, we don't get much of it for long.

Until next time, keep calm and sangria on.

Besos

Trip Back To The South Shore and Demo

I KNOW! An update in less than a month never mind two - can you stand it?  Tho - this means I'm setting the bar higher and thus have to live up to these self-imposed standards. *holds head with hands*

So, I'd mentioned on FB a couple of months ago that I took a trip down memory lane by bringing Aislinn to where I grew up in the south shore and up to Mont St. Hilaire for a hike.  Surprisingly, I didn't run home screaming to a therapist.  Or getting absolutely sh!tfaced.  Progress I think.

Aislinn LOVED Mont St. Hiliare and I quote "Mommy - can we come back in the winter, the spring and the summer?"  Not sure if it was the hike or staying in the motel with the purple toilet and tub......

When I was a kid in elementary school, we always had a couple of class trips a year to hike on the mountain up to the lake, look for wild flowers and birds.  It was awesome and I loved it even more bringing my girl there.  It's owned by McGill and worth taking a trip too if  you haven't.  The surrounding area at the base of the mountain is quaint with apple orchards and artisans.  Hope to get to explore more as it was chilly, damp and misty when we went at the end of September.

Didn't deter us from going for the walk through. Excuse the less than stellar quality of the following photos - Blackberrys just don't capture the colours that well.

What hike wouldn't be complete without a picture of a chippy I ask you? 

So we'll see when we'll make it back in the winter.  Stay tuned.

Onto the scintillating subject of my kitchen demo.  I know you're waiting with bated breath - 

My parents (God love them - seriously.  I wouldn't be able to do this sh!t without them - very hard to reno by yourself) came over Saturday afternoon to help with the final phase of the demo.  My stepdad (we'll just refer to him as "Dad" from hereon in cause truthfully - it's the handle he deserves. Respect y'all) really ripped out the sink and base cabinet on his own with very little help from Mom and I.  We removed nails and pitched the stuff out of the kitchen window into the yard behind my garage.

My parents have REALLY gotten into the redneck sport of pitching demo waste out of your kitchen window.  Gotta confess - I love it too.  But I really love it when we haul that eyesore to the dump. 

Ah yes - the dump.  Another country pastime that can't be missed.......*rolls eyes*  I always want to stick a hot poker in my eye and drop a Valium when I think of what I've contributed to land fill.  That and I pray the ex's tire (he has a trailer and was kind enough to bring me and my junk) doesn't get nailed by a nail (see what I did there - clever no?). The load only cost us $ 5 but a new tire would've been stupid.

Photographic evidence of my nekkid kitchen - look at that poor lonely dishwasher - just pitiful.

Notice my sexy shop-vac?  Love it! 

But it wasn't all demo - nope - built the cabinet for the sink.

K - chippy made another appearance.  Cheeky bugger.  Anyhoo, there's some building going on people!  Too bad it wasn't exactly as it needed to be for the farmhouse sink..... Was lying thinking about that at about 4:30 Saturday morning and tackled it Sunday.  No photo yet.

More to come gang - pushing to have most of the kitchen done by Christmas.  Giddy up and peace out till next update.

Fall, Halloween and Kitchen Demo Continued

Howda y'all - it's the bi-monthly update *rolls eyes* moving on.......

Fall was gorgeous this year as the below views can attest from the enclosed sunporch off my room (yes, I'm that lucky)

Now, had I been smart and taken it with my camera instead of my BB, you would have seen the phenomal glowing gold of the leaves - instead it's kind of blah but use your imagination. 

It's a good thing I took these photos because a few short days later - I had a nekkid tree in my front yard.  Apparently that the ONLY thing getting nekkid on my premises lately.......

But I digress (again).......

Aislinn decided to be a Vampire Queen - natch.  Why would she simply be a vampire? Go big or go home little girl - thank goodness she's learning young.  Here she is in all her vampy glory.

Her missing top 2 front teeth with her pointy little canines were perfect.  She rocked  it.

And be still your beating hearts my friends, sit down -as the title states - kitchen demo has continued.  I know, I know - it only took my sorry a$$ 8 months to do it but hey, who's counting?

My parents (god love them) came over Saturday to help me demolish the majority of the rest of the kitchen from what Rhonda and I started in March.  Only one base cabinet to go then we can start the rebuild.  Thank gawd - I want this thing done before Christmas. I have the new cabinets in my back room fer @#$%^&  sakes - they have been since February. 

Here's how it looks now

Pretty ghetto but still a vast improvement over the previous incarnation.  A few gory details - my stepdad found a bigass mouse nest in the bottom of my pantry (underneath panty bottom) ew ; I had 2 mouse skeletons came flying down at me from the ceiling tiles I was removing (surprised my lunch didn't follow suit) and last but not least, you haven't lived until you are nearly pinned in the head with a mummified mouse carcass.  Yummy.

I'll close out the update with pics of the boys just cause they're cute.  Peace out.