Feb 23rd...Cabinets

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. And I'm sorry that those posts aren't full of explanations and details...but I'm tired. We work on the house after we get off of work until late and I just haven't had time. My house is a mess (the rent house and the one we're building), we barely have clean clothes to wear and those are really wrinkled because we don't have time to fold them. I've eaten out so much that I can't bare the thought of eating out again so I've scoured the Internet for crock-pot recipes and have had pretty good success so far. Did you know that you can make lasagna in a slow-cooker? Yup. I did it today. And it was pretty darn good, too. If you have a good recipe you'd like to tell me about, leave me a comment and tell me what it is. Please? Or call me. Please? I. Can't. Eat. Out. Any. More! Maybe I should have labeled this post "Grumbling...Ranting...and Raving..." instead of "Cabinets".

So, about the cabinets....When we got them from the guy who made them, I expected to see a finished product. Nope...we get to do the finish. Spray stain. Wipe it off. Dry. Lacquer. Dry. Sand. Clean the doors. Brush on Glaze. Dry. Wipe it off. Lacquer. Dry. Put up the doors and fronts.

The first step was spraying them with the stain. Our contractor (David) sprayed while Doyle and I wiped the stain off. Then we let them dry for a day. The next day David sprayed lacquer while Doyle and I stacked them to dry. (I may have forgotten a step...I'm trying to remember but I think I've breathed in too many fumes...)
Left Picture: After staining / Right Picture: After lacquer

Next was the sanding. We've got over 80+ cabinet doors and drawer fronts and I've sanded almost every single one. Both sides. My contractor had pity on my and did some so I can't say that I did them all. But saying that me and sanding pads are good friends is the understatement of the year. We go way back. Anyway, here's a picture of a door being sanded. Oh...when you come to my house, make sure you rub your hand across a cabinet and tell me how silky smooth they feel. I worked hard and I need to hear how good they feel. Really ;)
Left Picture: A door I'm working on / Right Picture: Finished stacks

So after they were all sanded, they were cleaned off and we formed an assembly line. Jimmy brushed on the glaze. David wiped off the bulk of it. Mark did the final glaze wipe. Then I wiped off finger prints from the back and stacked them. Then we let them dry for a day.

After that, they were sprayed with lacquer a final time and left to dry. Doyle put on the doors and drawer fronts and did a great job. They look wonderful. They still need crown molding on the tops, but other than that, they are pretty much done. Here's some pictures of the final product. By the way...counter tops are on and sinks are in. Yeah! The plumber is supposed to come this week and install faucets, toilets, hot water heater, and hook up our water.
Left picture: upstairs bath / Right picture: Ty's bath (Emmy wanted in the picture)

Left picture: laundry / Right picture: laundry where the washer and dryer will go

Feb 18th...the shower

Let me just start off by saying that $1500 is a lot of money. It's a lot of money to pay someone to install tile in our shower. It's a lot of money that we can certainly use for other things. So, we decided that we can lay the tile and save some cash. Now I don't know if any of you have ever put up tile before, but if you have, then you will fully understand our first experience with tiling. One of the guys that's been working for us worked on the tile last Thursday (I think...) and got most of the ceiling done and a few tiles on the wall. Friday we were out of school and started tiling that afternoon. We helped lacquer cabinets Friday morning, but that's another post entirely. Here's a picture of what it looked like when we started.

We knew that the natural slate tile that we bought was ungauged (very uneven...some parts very thin, some thick, and not perfectly square either) and would be difficult to get it to look right. Our contractor has a wet-saw set up in our bedroom and when he didn't have me sanding cabinets doors, I was cutting tile for Doyle.

Here's a picture of Doyle starting on one of the benches.

We didn't mind that all of the grout lines would be slightly different due to the irregularity of the tile and we really like the rustic look, so we kept on tiling. Hours of tiling...days of tiling. Doyle tiled until late Friday night, all day Saturday and Saturday night, Sunday afternoon until late...

...all day Monday (out of school for President's day), after school Tuesday, after school Wednesday, and after school Thursday! Why did it take so long? Maybe the type of tile, maybe the fact that it was our first tile job, maybe it was because Doyle worked by himself most of the time (dang cabinets), or maybe it was just because the shower is freaking huge! (It's at least 250 square feet of tile!) It's so big that the guys at the bank asked if we were going to have rotating car wash brushes installed so that we can walk in one side dirty and come out the other side clean. I wonder where we can order those...

We finally put up the last tile today and cleaned all of the grout lines. Now we just have to clean the tile, seal it, grout it (which I've heard it pretty difficult) and then seal it again several times. We're beginning to think that $1500 was a bargain.
I just want to tell you that my wonderful, sweet, loving husband, who didn't want to do anything with building the house "Just hand me the keys, please" has earned so many brownie points that I won't ever be able to repay him. He has done such a great job and the shower looks so good!
Here's two more pictures. The one on the left is our bathroom (obviously not finished, but getting much closer. This isn't a picture from today because I forgot to take one.) and on the right is the inspiration bathroom. I can't wait until ours is finished.

Feb 5th...floors, rock, lights, fans, cabinets

The floors are mostly done. Only our bedroom and bathroom to go. Here's a couple of pictures of the finished floor.


Garage lights are up and exterior lights are up around the front door. Most of the lights are up in the house.

Ceiling fans are up. Here's a picture of the one in the living room.

Rock is finished on the smaller gable.

Cabinets are in throughout the house. The doors should be done next week.