demolition derby

the boys had a lot of work ahead of them. first, they finished up demo of the old closet between the living room and dining room.

then they got started on ripping out the living room coat closet and main hallway closet.

here's the plan with that: see the right edge of the closet where dad is? we're going to cut off that extra few feet and square it all off. then we'll remodel the hallway closet and one side of the bathroom (adding a closet, since there isn't one currently). this should really open up the space.

another view. this is the hallway closet that will be remodeled once we square-off the new wall.

meanwhile...i was all alone priming the bedroom walls with killz.

now back to where all the action is happening...the boys in the living room.

lookin good! right now we're deciding what to do about that last few feet of sheetrock on the brick wall. let's take it down and see what's underneath! bummer, nothing good. we'll have to re-cover it at some point...

might as well rip off the ceiling while we're at it! just kidding. but they really did tear it down, because then it will be easier to replace with sheetrock.

all done! phew, what a long day. tons of work, but totally worth it. and a totally giant pile of debris.

and the pile begins...

tonight we went over and worked on a few smaller projects for a couple hours. my job was to rip off the trim throughout the condo. then we worked on puttying the walls, which actually were in much better shape than we had anticipated! when we were done it looked like the walls were covered in bandaids - as if a careless man was shaving his beard and nicking himself over and over again.

this is the start of the garbage pile in the living room. it will only get bigger.

and this is the bedroom so far. nothing too special, but i have to admit, im excited for my closet! so much bigger than any closet i have ever had.

glitter and pink paint

memorial day. thank goodness stores are open! me and mom spent quite a while at the home depot narrowing down light green paint for the living room wall. i ended up choosing "home song" by behr for the walls....i hope it looks good!

oh, and we decided to get ceiling paint that goes on pink and dries white -- so we can see where we have already painted. im just a little skeptical about putting pink paint on the ceiling, let's hope the pink fades away like they claim it does!

so we headed over to the condo to get started on the living room ceiling. dad rolled on the pink paint while i followed behind him throwing glitter up into the wet paint for a sparkly ceiling! who would have guess i would get sore from throwing glitter into the air.

next we ripped down the big closet between the living room and dining room. we found a sewer pipe running through the edge of the wall, so that beam will have to stay, but other than that, the demo went really well. and meanwhile, mom was priming the walls and ceiling in my bedroom.

we finished up around 5:45 and headed home for a few hours for a yummy memorial day bbq of burgers, corn on the cob, and fruit salad. then me, chad, and dad were back at the condo moving in the fridge and dryer until 10pm. phew! what a day! but so much fun!

get the party started

8:30 am: over to the home depot to buy supplies, then over to the condo. it's never too early to get started i always say...or wait...is that my dad? oh well, i was too excited to sleep anyways. like a child on christmas eve.

first up, the living room. we taped around the woodwork and lights, primed the ceiling with kilz, then took a break for lunch while the paint dried. we walked down hennepin a block or two until we saw a quaint little converted house-to-restaurant called duplex. the wait was longer than expected, but it was nice to relax in the beaming sunshine. plus, has anyone tried their sweet potato fries? three words: o.m.g.

after lunch, my gramma and aunt linda stopped over, somewhat unexpectedly. they got the tour, and even helped tear down wallpaper, how nice is that?!

last task for today: spray texturing the living room ceiling. we covered the room in plastic, beat the putty until it looked like oatmeal (i have to admit, i was pretty curious to see if it tasted at all like quaker oats), and then began spraying the ceiling...and my hair....thanks dad.

day one

welcome to my new blog, thanks for visiting!

READ THIS: a tidbit about the condo

now, let's get down to business. i have officially been a home owner for about twenty four hours, and i gotta be honest, i feel pretty good. closing went quickly: an over-sized bowl of candy, lots and lots of paperwork, seven chattering people around a big oval table, and a jar of edina realty pens. that's about all i remember. they pretty much walked me through the entire process, handed me my keys (lots of locks: 3 different locks to the doors into my unit alone, a main entrance key, a back entrance key, a mailbox key), and that was that. nice.

now i just have to figure out which key goes into which lock...