ice cubes and counter tops

today was a big day for my condo! new kitchen counters, water access to my fridge ice machine, and lots of insulation around my outside door, windows and air conditioner. as you can see in the first picture, it looks as if dad almost moved in! my entire dining room was filled with tools and such.

do you remember my original counter tops? they were light wood and kind of ugly (top photo). a while back -- think spring/summer -- dad found these dark "granite" counters at menards for a really good deal. they've been sitting in his garage ever since.

the other week dad stopped over to prepare the counter top. he measured my original wooden one and drew out a template onto a giant roll of paper of the exact dimensions and the sink cutout area.

meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen...i now have ice cubes (crushed and cubed) and water! i have waited so long for this day :)

this proved to be quite the task however. the water tube had to snake from the back of the fridge, up through the ceiling and into the pantry closet, from the top-right of my closet to the bottom-left (see photo), out the pantry closet next to the oven, and behind my counter tops into the water access under the sink. luckily the tube is clear so it's nearly invisible.

next, dad covered up my air conditioner window unit, plastic'd up all my windows, and added insulation around my exterior door to try to keep the draft out...although my snowflakes would prefer the wind so they can twirl.

all through the house

today was a beautifully gorgeous november day here in minneapolis. i biked home from work (in a tank top!) with my headphones on, just enjoying the unusually warm sunshine and colorful leaves still covering the ground. when i got home, i saw dad was taking advantage of the nice weather too...with his electric saw and building materials scattered about my steps and entry way.

today's projects took place all throughout the house. dad was over around 11am and worked until dinner time in the living room, bathroom and kitchen.

living room: dvd cabinet. the first project dad worked on today was adding the trim around my living room inset cabinet that i plan on using for dvd's. now we just need to add shelving and putty up the screws around the trim and i can finally get rid of my cd towers!

plus, now you all know my guilty pleasures of owning (and repetitively watching) all seasons of The OC and The Office :)

the bathroom: closet. see that board that my cabinet is sitting on? well that's my new raised floor of the cabinet. that way, if my bathroom ever floods, my closet supplies will be safe.

our plan is to create storage in the bottom half of the closet, with a single cabinet door. and then the top half of the closet will be open shelving.

the kitchen: fridge water dispenser. this project has been a long time coming, and we got about halfway today. see, the problem is that there's no water access along the wall my fridge is sitting against. so dad used the can light fixture (see photo above) as his access point. he drilled a hole through the beam nearest the fridge and another into my pantry closet, and then fished the tube through them both.

the tube connects to the fridge (you can see the clear tube sticking out near the red arrow), goes through the ceiling, into the pantry closet (more tube near the left arrow), and eventually will emerge along the floor near my stove, and snake through the back of the kitchen cabinets to connect up to the water valve under the sink. and voila, i will have water and ice fresh from my fridge!

the story of the mysterious puddle

it all started back in september: the puddle.

but where were the drops coming from? after investigating each unit one floor at a time, we made it up to the top floor. BINGO. water leaking under their sink. problem solved.

a few weeks went by with no more puddles (the top floor neighbors had agreed not to use their sink until a plumber came out to fix it). but then...it started again. and this time those tiny splashes of water had turned into constant drops, filling up the buckets underneath. we held an association meeting and decided serious action was needed. plumbers came out to investigate, as well as mold abatement specialists, and it turned out we not only had a leak, but mold as well. bummer.

in the meantime, a tiny hole was cut in my ceiling so the water could drain through and not continue pooling up and billowing out. by now it was a few days before the end of october. about a month and a half of water dripping into my dining room.

then one day i came home to this giant contraption, which i named: the monster.

apparently the leak had been fixed, which meant the mold abatement team could start their magic. they cut a hole in my ceiling, confined the space, and attached a special fan through the only exit so that the mold spores would be captured. ps: that fan was incredibly loud.

but unfortunately in the next few days i noticed water still dripping (and by dripping i mean there was more water pooled up in my dining room than ever before) from outside the monster. see the two buckets i set out? yep. another leak (or two) had sprung.

so the next day the mold abatement crew and the plumber were back. they doubled the size of the hole in my ceiling -- therefore doubling the size of the monster -- which was now taking up the majority of my dining room. you can see the section of plumbing that was repaired, the wood surrounding it was painted over with a special white paint.

fast forward almost another month when the mold was officially proclaimed obsolete, and i finally got to say goodbye to the monster...and hello to a completely useless dining room, taped off in plastic (note: this was not the first time this room has been plastic'ed off).

now it was the carpenter's turn. his task: repair the ceiling.

so far the carpenter's been at my house for six straight days, and i think the end is finally in site.

what's left? once the ceiling is ready, the carpenter will repaint the ceiling. then we'll hire a painter to re-texture the ceiling and then the carpenter will be back to repaint (both the ceiling and part of the teal wall). and then hopefully i'll have my dining room back.

unfortunately i've been told that won't be until quite a while after the turkey day holiday is over...

it's raining pots & pans

it was a long time coming, but we finally installed my hanging pots & pans rack...making my kitchen one step closer to completion!

as you know, i bought the rack from ikea at least a year ago (probably closer to two), and once the hanging cabinets were put it, it was time for the hanging rack. i also bought a pendant light -- that matches the lights above my bar -- to hang through the rack. dad hasn't figured out how to hook up the electrical part yet, so that will have to wait.

a snowflake blizzard

a perfect project while watching a movie on a chilly night...paper snowflakes. and because it's a "winter" craft versus a "christmas" craft, i can actually leave them up until spring, instead of a month!

luckily for me, my overly drafty windows and doors keep the snowflakes spinning in the breeze.

the last of the speckling

like the tiny elves who fixed the shoemaker's shoes in the middle of the night, my dad and brother surprised me by starting AND finishing my ceiling while i was at work on friday.

the actual spray texturing process only took about 20 minutes, but a few hours of setup and teardown made it a much longer project. just like when we spray textured the living room ceiling last year, they first had to cover the entire place with plastic, then mix the putty, and then spray. they did the dining room and the kitchen, so now my entire place has been (as matthew calls it) stuccoed!

the next step is to paint and glitter it.

a perfect fit

 

once again my family proved how much they love me.

bright and early the day after the fourth of july (on our day off) they showed up at my door at 10am, paintbrushes in hand. and despite the humidity and the fact that i have no AC, they powered through it all: putty, sanding, taping, priming, and painting.

along the way we discovered there actually is a reason i dealt with all the short comments throughout my lifetime: i fit perfectly into the window, my ponytail just barely brushing against the top of the window frame. matthew didn't fit quite as well.

by 2pm i had four finished dining room walls, in four different colors. (well, we still need to paint a second coat...but that can wait) and now i can officially introduce you to my india-inspired opium den dining room.

up next: creating a wall-length wooden storage bench, scattered with silk throw pillows of all colors and patterns.

let there be light

the other day i picked out some pendant lights from ikea. but apparently they only sell plug-in pendant lighting (see above). what?!

but it didn't matter, because my amazing boyfriend turned to me and said he would hook it all up. so i bought two simple looking pendants and then went over to the home depot for two canopy kits.

finally chad had time to come over and do a little free labor :)

and after about an hour or so of work...VOILA! my bar lights are up and shining bright!

the real thing

my chandelier arrived early, all in one piece, on the front steps. i was so excited that the next week seemed to take forever. but finally thursday came -- the day chad offered to come over and install it in my dining room.

during the week chad had picked up a converter because the chandelier is shipped from the UK. crazy right? i also bought some circular globe lights (i think the candelabra candle bulbs look creepy) and these spherical ones remind me of giant bubbles. plus, they make the light sparkle.

so after a few minor setbacks -- like the fact that appliances from overseas are opposite from ours, white is hot, instead of black -- chad successfully installed the light.

i love it! and it's even on a dimmer switch, how perfect is that! now i just need a dining room table...

THAT took you three hours?

since the parents are on vaca, me and matthew decided we could put up my bedroom fan (that chad scored me an awesome deal on from the HD). anyways, it looked pretty simple. but like everything that me and matthew attempt to do, it takes an insane amount longer than it should.

case in point: three hours later and this is as far as we got.

and we had to re-do most of it since the electrical wasn't hooked up right. bummer.

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!