Morning Rant

With everything going on, neither of us probably won't get to the house until Monday. Sam started on the moldings, regardless of the paint. I guess that's better than not working at all. We have to touch up the paint anyway. May as well do it all at once. I wish he'd start on the bathroom though.

I was looking at the moldings last night (we had to go buy polyurethane because Sam said there was no more, even though I magically found three cans sitting around in a Home Depot bag) and they are rather dark. Why so dark? Because Sam took the liberty of putting a double coat of stain on them. He didn't ask. He didn't need to. He just did it. He wasted time and material, and ended up doing it wrong. We think we can fix it, eventually. We plan on putting down Pergo floors in the future. When we do that we have to take off the moldings anyway. We'll strip them and re-stain them then if possible. *sigh*

So much stupid stuff keeps adding up. Just tired of it. Want the bumbling idiot out of the house. If I knew he was going to be such a dumb ass I would have stained the moldings myself. Would have done a lot myself. I don't get it. He's supposed to be the one who does this stuff. He has experience. Yet we makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake. I've never stained anything before in my life. But my stuff turned out fine. Its not brain surgery. But I guess the difference is I care and he doesn't. And it really makes me sick that someone like that is working on the house. How many mistakes has he made that we don't even know about?

To think, once upon a time we were going to trust him to pull the support beams out of the ceiling. The house probably would have come tumbling down.

Shouldn't blame the messenger, but....

The good news: Sam finally went over to the house today to start on the moldings.

The bad news: We painted too short, so you can see the bare wall above the base molding and below the crown.

Instead of moving forward we have to take steps backward. I am so mad. So fucking mad. If he had started the moldings last week instead of sitting on his fucking ass we could have used last weekend to fix the paint. But he picked this week. And this weekend we're going to be away. So everything gets delayed, yet again, because Sam is a fuck-nut! I don't know when we're going to have time to even get down there again since we're both busy Wednesday. Tony's busy Thursday, so I have no ride to the house. And add this to my already high stress level, I'm practically about ready to break something.

Supposedly he's going to do the bathroom this weekend. But I'm worried that, since he has the intelligence of a 5-year-old child, he will screw that up while he's away. Sam has the nasty tendency to do what he's thinks would be best, instead of asking questions. And sometimes his decisions are the opposite of what we want.

Tonight Tony fixed the bathroom. I fixed the circus room and sealed the first side of the doors. I started cleaning the kitchen sink, one of the few parts of the house we thought savable. But that was fucked too. We had to get another one when we went to Lowes for the bathroom vanity. Plus more paint, since we ran out of yellow and blue for the bedroom.

Its been a hard day. Tomorrow I'm going to write down explicit instructions for the remainder of what Sam has to get done, just so I've done my part of him not fucking up anymore. At least if he does, which I'm sure he will since he's already fucked up with written instructions, I'll have piece of mind that I did my part.

Door Success

The doors look much better after a second coat. They look like real wood now. *pats self on back* Took me a couple hours to get them to look decent. I wanted to start priming the moldings tonight too, but it was dark by the time I got them done. Going to polyurethane tomorrow then start on the second side the day after.

Tony got the bathroom primed. But both of us were feeling sluggish and we didn't get to Lowes to pick up the new sink. There's always tomorrow. The floors are still slightly sticky from polyurethane today. They need to be sanded too. they're a little rough. But done for the most part.

I guess it was no surprise that Sam didn't work again today, even after he said yesterday he was going to work today. I guess he's feeling spiteful because we didn't pay him for sitting on his lazy ass.

Side by side comparrison of the two coats

Sticky Fingers

Day two of finishing the floors. Today's mission, polyurethane. I assumed it would be easier than the stain: brush it on, wait 4 hours then brush on another coat. What I failed to plan is that the polyurethane is a sticky mess. Paired with the door stain (I'll get to that) I feel like I rolled around in a big vat of super glue.

While I was waiting for coat one of the polyurethane to dry (oh, and that was BS too, because when I went to do the second coat the floor was still really sticky) I wrestled the doors into the basement to start staining them. I wisely took them out the front door and in through the back, but still failed (again) to take one thing into account: normal sized doors, short basement ceiling. So when I say I wrestled the doors into the basement, I mean it. The gel stain we needed to sue on the doors was nothing like the silky liquid we used on the floors. It was more like painting with ketchup. The first coat looked too light to give a convincing effect of stained wood. It looks more like raw pine right more. So I'm hoping that a coat of two more will get the effect we want.

We ended up having to take the sink back. It was too big. They had a similar one on display wasn't in stock and is apparently discontinued. They had the same one at Lowes, so we're going to look there tomorrow. We're giong to have to stain it, though, to match everything else. That's okay. I've become a regular staining pro.

We went to Ikea afterwards to buy the counter tops. They only had one in stock that we needed (the long one for the sink). So we asked them to call us when the other ones (the ones for the bar) were in.

Can you help us identify the mystery vine?

We found this growing in the back yard when we were mowing the yard. We don't know what it is, but its huge. We thinks its either butternut squash or pumpkin. Figures the yard that can barely produce grass (that isn't weeds) can support that.

BTW, ran into Sam. His lame excuse for not working is that the rest off the stain to finish the moldings wasn't is yet. As if he doesn't have a pile of tile to lay or moldings to put up or the wood to fix the basement steps. That didn't stop him from asking for money though. Typically when you work you get paid.

The Bitch Session

Well, firstly, pictures of the cabinets, and other things. *Ooooh* *Ahhhh*

Moldings, the darker ones are the finished ones, the others need another coat of stain and polyurethane

The left is the tile for the floor and the right is the color of the tile for the tub surround. The actual tile is in the heavy-ass boxes under it.

.... they almost match. I guess we know what we like.

The between the stove and fridge cabinet

The sink base, so far

Bar, living room side

Bar, kitchen side

Sometimes I wonder if Sam has ever heard of a trashcan. Geez. The first half an hour of the morning was just spent cleaning up after him. He left soda cans everywhere and packages from building supplies everywhere else. And screws. Screws! He left them all over the damn floors. You know, the floors we just sanded and the linoleum we just put down. Ag!

The second half an hour we spent bitching about Sam (and moving stuff around so the delivery men had a place to put the dishwasher). It looks like he hasn't done a thing since Tuesday. And coincidentally Tony gave him money Tuesday night. We can only 'speculate' why he hasn't been in. But I have my doubts about him making the deadline of the end of August, like he told us. And, yes, I'm really pissed off about it.

I'm also pissed off at the sloppy ass work he's been doing. Besides for leaving trash and screws everywhere, he's also made quite a mess on the walls, smudges and glue marks and shit. He made a sizable gouge into the front door, a mark we're not sure if we can fix. And he used the pre-stain conditioner we bought for the floor even though we left out the stuff he needed for the moldings and pointed it out to him.

Luckily he only used one can of the shit (he claimed the stuff didn't work, well no wonder genius if you're using the wrong one) so I had enough to do the bedroom, circus room and hall floors. The living room isn't going to get done for a while, what with all the molding covering it that should have been on the walls already.

Anyway...

The floors staining went more easily than expected. I thought the stain would be gross, but it wasn't. It went down easy and cleaned up easy too. It was, dare I say, fun. Tony spent most the day cleaning. The bathtub and the basement are less gross now. We waited around until the delivery men came with the dish washer. Yay dishwasher! Then we moved onto chores part two:

SHOPPING TRIP!

We knocked, what I'm hoping will be, the last of the big purchases: shower head, faucets for both the bathroom and kitchen, bathroom vanity, under cabinet light, bathroom threshold and more staining stuff. I am slightly worried that it'll be too big. I guess we can return it, if it is. We didn't get to Ikea to get the counter top on account of the rain. We have to strap the counter to the roof.

Floor stain before/during/after comparison

Circus Room, after

Bedroom, after

Bleh

Didn't get over to the house today. I'll get to it this weekend. *grumps*

The heaviest shopping cart ever

Been away for a few days. Wanted to do a quick update. We bought tiles last night. How many tiles did we buy? Well, lets just say if we would have put a full grown adult in the cart it probably would have weighed less. Probably would have cost less too. They weren't the tile I had in mind. Originally I thought we'd get stone-like porcelain tiles for the floor and buy blue glass tiles separate and mix them in. But that turned out to be very pricey to do that, in the ball park of $15 per square foot. So instead we got to really pretty stone-like tiles that look like roughly tumbled river rocks. They're mixed colors, beige's and cool grays. It goes really well with the blue paint. We got enough of that to do the floor, and beige ceramic tiles for the bottom wall border and tub surround. We saw some pretty tiles for back splash on the bar and got them too. We're still unsure on the sink back splash.

Lots of work has been done while we were gone. Going over later to stain either the floors or doors and I'll put up a more detailed post when I get home.

Cabinets, finally

We finally picked up the cabinets from the store. For all the bad luck we've had getting over there, it went amazingly smooth. I almost believe it didn't happen.

I would have taken pictures, but they would have just been pictures of plain brown boxes. I'm excited to see them put up. Sam and Tony are going to install them on Thursday.

I can see the floor!

Poor Tony took off to brave the heat and humidity to sand the floors today. I met him after work to help finish up. The machine was odd, not hard to use, but odd. It was like using a giant air hockey paddle to sand the floors. It wouldn't have been that strenuous, except for the fact that the air was thick enough to swim through today.

By the time I got there they already looked good. By the end they had cleaned up amazingly well, especially in the bedroom and circus room. The living room still isn't that great, but much better than it started. We did the best we could with floors that were already beat to shit.

We picked up stain and sealer when we returned the machine. I thick we stood there squinty-eyed trying to figure out what the dozens of wood staining products actually were longer than picking out a color. 'Whats the difference between shellac and polyurethane?' 'Oh, this one is gel based. What does that mean?' 'This one's nice, but its not meant for floors even though a floor is pictured on the can.' Slightly complicated for two blondes. The stain we got is called 'Ipswich Pine' and yes, we may have chose that one over the 'Golden Oak' because it sounds like it may have come from a Lovecraftian town. We are easily amused.

Getting cabinets tomorrow come hell or high water (meaning without without Sam... yes that was melodic in my head, too). Probably getting high on floor stain by Wednesday.

Now in color *wink*

I'm sure most everyone who is going to read this was part of the painting crew today, but, ah hell, I'll say it anyway. The house is painted! *jigs*

The closet and basement stairs (the dry wall on the stairs still needs to be sanded) still need to be done along with touch up spots. I am so relieved we got it all done today. Thanks to everyone who helped. We couldn't have done it without you.

Its really hard to take pictures of painted walls, but I tried.

The living/dinning room and one sexy man *rawr*

The kitchen and a corner of the living room. Kitchen is green and living room is pale yellow.

The new circus room, with less circus. That color actually looks... tasty. Does it taste like cappuccino?

The bedroom

And finally, the bathroom.

It was a long day. I am tired and very achy and I feel like a Jackson Pollock painting. But we're one ginat step closer to moving in. Thanks again everyone!

Well thats just prime

The only thing that could be more exciting than new floors is new cabinets. Yeah, but that didn't happen.

The plan was to go to the cabinet store and pick up the cabinets with Sam and to get the supplies at Home Depot needed to fix up the stairs. Unfortunately at 5:30, well after Sam was supposed to show up, there was no sign of Sam. The cabinet store closes at 6:00. *grumble*

So, without Sam, we went over to get as much priming done as possible. Of course the first half an hour we spent cleaning up floor scraps and Coke cans Sam had left laying around. And just as soon as we got momentum to start priming we heard from Mr. Sam. He was waiting for a bus. And since it had taken too long he didn't show up. And since he was still waiting he wanted to know if Tony could go fetch him. *double grumbles*

Despite all the complications we got a bunch done. We even christened the new floor with some paint. I'm pretty sure it will come up with a slightly abrasive cloth. It came up pretty well just with my thumb. Both of the back rooms and the hall are primed, ceiling and all. the bathroom is mostly done. Still have to hit the ceiling and behind the toilet. We haven't finished the closet, the stair well or that little bit left in the living room (there's stuff stacked there now).

Going to give it the old college try to get everything primed and painted on Saturday so we can sand the floors on Sunday. We won't have another weekend to sand until the 22nd.

New floor

That wooden structure will one day be a bar

Kitchen Floor!

The kitchen floor is down! I would have taken pictures but it was pretty dark when we got there last night. I'll take some when we go over to paint later.

More painting

Painted as long as we could tonight. The sun went down and we ran out of primer. Most of the living room is done now, ceiling too. Just have a spot left to do in the corner. We got more primer afterwards. Going back over on Wednesday.

Let the painting begin!

Got up early this morning to get lots of work done. Got the floor glue up. The hall and living are ready to be sanded. Sam is going to start the kitchen floor tomorrow. I'm so glad that's done with. The floor glue was disgusting.

And now onto the fun part. We got somewhere between a third and half of the walls primed. The kitchen is primed (ceiling and all) plus part of the living room and most of the bedroom. Tony did the corners and Nate and I maned the rollers (thanks, Nate again). I tried using the mighty ceiling stick, but it was too unwieldy for me. Tony did a better job at that. We worked as long as we could. Today was a scorcher. I'm surprised we all didn't wilt earlier.

It was so nice to see the walls becoming all one color. Its going to look like a respectable house soon. There's still plenty of painting left to do if anyone wants to help *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*