Clark: Week 6

If you’re new to this series, Clark is my flip house (named for the street that he’s on).  Check out my previous progress posts here. Yesterday, the skies parted, the sun shone down, birds were chirping, and I did the biggest happy dance that Clark's ever seen.

If you follow me on facebook or instagram, you saw a few teasers of the kitchen cabinets being installed at long last!

Before we start looking at complete kitchen, I need to express how utterly ridiculous this whole process was.  This saga's not short, so bear with me.

I purchased the cabinets on March 1st.  March 1st!  Yesterday was march 28th!  That was my first mistake, I guess- IKEA was having a kitchen sale.  I didn't get the discounts, though, because the total wasn't high enough, so I just had to deal with the hoards of other people trying to get kitchens installed as well.  I know IKEA cabinets are designed to be able to be installed yourself, but in the interest of time, getting them installed was the way to go (or so I thought).  The install problems happened as soon as I bought the cabinets: IKEA wasn't able to schedule it in their computer due to some glitch, so I had to call the installer directly.  Ugh.  After almost a week, I talked to the local installer, Frank.  Oh Frank, you are not my friend.  Frank was infuriating.  All I wanted to know is WHEN you could install my kitchen.  If I had been told 3 weeks ago that it would take 3 weeks, I would have looked elsewhere for install- BUT he wouldn't tell me WHEN!  Instead I had to call him almost daily (since he wouldn't ever call back when he promised).  First he told me last week, Thurs & Fri, then this week Thurs & Fri, and then when I called to confirm each time, I got pushed back.  Luckily I had found another company and received a quote the first time my install got pushed back.  When I talked to Frank on Tuesday and was told I had gotten pushed to Monday (supposedly) and that was the absolute last straw.  I called the other company (Kitchen Works Installations in Brookline MA) they came to the rescue!  They were able to come and install my kitchen with only a day's notice and in half the time they quoted!!  AND for the same $ as IKEA's installers with a fraction of the headache.  I'm a little excited.  I have nothing but good things to say about them, so THANKS!!!  I would recommend them to anyone.  AND as a bonus, I got to call and "break up" with Frank.  I was very courteous, but it was so satisfactory.  So if you're thinking of getting an IKEA kitchen installed in the Boston area, save yourself the time and don't go through IKEA.

But now Clark has an amazing kitchen!!! (in my humble opinion)

Appliances are coming Monday, the countertops are going to be templated hopefully in the next few days and the backsplash tile has been ordered!  It's about time!!!

I scrambled to get the walls painted before the cabinets went up, but I love the color- a very light minty green.  I know this is a flip house and the colors need to be neutral, but it can't be sterile.  The mint will blend very nicely with the light green penny tiles (ordered for 20% off- woot!).  I bought out all the knobs at the Lowe's by Clark, so I need to stop by another to get the last 6.

Somehow, checking this one (albeit large) thing off my to-do list makes the whole house seem more complete.

While the guys were in the kitchen working their magic yesterday, I locked myself in the bathroom and got to work.  The ceiling got painted (2 coats)

and I cut and started laying down the backerboard to prep for the floor tile.  I have one more large piece to adhere down (it's in the pic, just not attached to the floor) before I can get tiling.

The toilet and sink are now hanging out on plastic in the living room.  I think this is an up and coming design trend- plumbing fixtures as art.  Don't you think?  The sink will be reused and the toilet replaced and donated, but this is motivation to move fast on the floors- driving to Dunkin's every time nature calls will get old real fast.

Aside from the leaps and bounds in the kitchen this week and the prep in the bathroom, I also got around to finishing some areas of the hardwood floors.

I laid floor in the closets,

installed quarter-round to hide the expansion gap,

and finished the transitions into the bedrooms.

Other things I got to check off my list this week include:

• hiring a house painter (yay!)
• installing a closet bar into the kitchen closet (since we eliminated the coat closet in the living room to expand the kitchen)
• painting the kitchen closet
• repairing the wall board in the bathroom at the tile corner
• dry-fit the bathroom floor tile to start planning out the install
• having the plumber repair a leaking pipe and faulty venting in the bathroom (the tub drain shouldn't gurgle every time you flush the toilet)

There are many other things in the works, too.  I've been seeing this project come together in my head for so long, it's so nice to start seeing it REALLY come together in reality!

Wednesday Randomness

I can't believe it's Wednesday- I finally feel almost caught up from the weekend.  My weekend was a roadtrip to Atlantic City for my BFF's bachelorette party.  I'm not much of a drinker, so it's the late night and LOONG drive that wiped me out.  If you follow me on instagram, you saw my weekend in pics and how much I'm enjoying my new iphone.

YAY, a phone that actually works!  And it has a pretty new case too. (I ended up buying this one)

Aside from my new phone, I have another new favorite:  gel manicures.  This DIYer's new best friend.

I'm not generally an uber girly girl- I didn't get my first manicure until college, and pedicure was only a few years ago.  Obviously, being pampered is fun, but I'm cheap, so normally I'll just do my own nails, especially since I'm so hard on them.  Whether I do them myself or pay a pretty penny, manicures generally only last a few days MAX.  It usually peels of the second I get my hands covered in paint, or I scrape it off inadvertently with sandpaper, or I just chip them by scratching something with my nail, or... you get the idea.

Enter the gel manicure (shelac or whatever brand that salon might carry).  This is my second gel manicure ever (got it done in AC this time) and I've loved it both times.  Granted, I'm sure I'll still kill the manicure sooner than someone who's a bit more gentle on themselves, but it's been since Saturday and it's still looking very pretty- already double the longevity of a normal mani.  So far it's held up to power tools, sandpaper, paint, and caulk!  I almost want to see what else I can do to them to see how they hold up!

Clark: Week 5

If you're new to this series, Clark is my flip house (named for the street that he's on).  Check out my previous progress posts here.

 

I'll admit, I started this week a little discouraged.  I was making progress, but not the big strides I was hoping to.  Plus more snow here in Massachusetts just made me want to retreat to my couch and hibernate.  Luckily, I re-found my groove yesterday and got to check several things off my extensive To Do List. I did a lot of prep work this week to ready the kitchen for cabinets.  I had high hopes of them getting installed at the end of this week, but IKEA's kitchen installers had other ideas.  I know I can install an IKEA kitchen, but in the interest of time, I'm hiring installers- or at least trying!  I purchased the kitchen March 1 and have been going back and forth and not having my calls returned or being told they'll call me later and maybe hearing from them 3 days later- this has been going on for THREE weeks!  They've finally "put me on the schedule" for next Thursday and Friday, but I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm also shopping around to see who else can install, this is getting ridiculous.  Ok, end rant.

Progress!!!!

This week, a lot of little things happened in the kitchen:

• ceiling has been painted (2.5 coats)
• all trim got painted (2 coats)
• electrical was updated and brought to code.  Now there's even power for the fridge, dishwasher, and new vent hood!  The old vent hole got patched.
• the basement door got trimmed down so it fits with the new floors
• the heating cover also got trimmed down to accommodate the new floors & the whole shebang got painted
• Did you notice the new light?

The new ceiling light in the kitchen (which you may recognize, since it's also in my own living room) will go PERFECTLY with the $5 ReStore fixture that I got.  The ReStore fixture got a few coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and a new chain and looks like a million bucks (in my humble opinion).

The heating cover face was a challenge.  I had to use a jigsaw with a metal blade to trim down the bottom- the body of the heating cover is fixed and I floored around it, but that meant that the face sat 3/4" too high when I tried to put it back on.  Once I cut it down, I filed the sharp edges and painted the beast to match the trim.

Why, yes, there is a To Do list on the wall.  Last week I was the crazy person that taped out the kitchen cabinet layout, this week I'm the crazy person that taped a To Do list in each room to help me keep tabs on what needs to happen in each space.

Plus, it would be a lie if I said I didn't get tremendous satisfaction every time I got to put a check mark in one of those boxes.

The hallway also got a lot of love this week since it's open to the kitchen.

I finally decided to work on the floor transitions that I had been putting off.  The 3 bedrooms have nearly complete transitions, so half the hall is starting to look finished!  The other half is on today's agenda.

This picture of the hall is my favorite so far.  I know it's not that exciting, but it shows the most progress!!!  It shows the newly painted ceiling and trim, the new hall light, a FINALLY working doorbell, AND a newly painted linen closet.  The closet painting was just SO satisfying because of where it started.  If "dingy" was a color, that's what the closet was.  Now it's a bright clean white.

I'm really pleased with the light too.  It was a whopping $11 at Lowes and has the vintage flare that this house needs.  (Please disregard  the halo around the light in my instagram pic- I've since touched up the ceiling and it's looking pretty)

The bathroom is the next target.

Since I'm hoping to be working on the floor tile when the kitchen is getting installed next week, I had some bathroom prep work to do.  The wall at the corner guard is in the process of getting patched and the ceiling has been scraped, sanded and patched.  Next week I can get a fresh start and paint the ceiling and even the walls before I start tiling the floor.

Other accomplishments this week include:

• updating all the outlets throughout the house to be grounded (yay!)
• gluing the bathroom door where it was split down the side
• picking out backsplash tile
• picking up 1 more cabinet at IKEA because I modified my original plan by getting a smaller fridge

I can't help but think I'm forgetting something that got done this week, but really, the ceiling and trim painting were the biggies.  I spent most of my week with paint all over my hands because that's what I do apparently.

Hubby and I keep hearing about how HOT the spring real estate market is going to be, so we're getting excited to get this guy back on the market!  Only a few more projects before we can list.  Just a few.