the purple curtains

I finally replaced my bedroom curtains to something less than the BLAH color they were. (Thank Goodness!) I originally bought them one day long ago at Ikea...I was on my way out and happened across the "As Is" section and figured, why not!? They were super cheap and super opaque: exactly what I craved for my bedroom so I could sleep in as long as possible on Saturday mornings.

But the color was just so boring. Especially since I have yet to do anything with my room. Right now it just has a coat of primer on the walls, a cement floor, and that's it! Not what you would expect from a web designer girl who loves color.

Anyways, I'll get to that later. So I was at Ikea again and passed this purple curtain set. I have been very into purple lately (no idea why) but nonetheless, I grabbed them.

And here they are! I like them best with my snowflake lights on, it gives them a soft glow :)

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.

fridgy cabinets

finally the day arrived when dad and matthew came over to install my new cabinets. well, kinda new. if you remember back to when i moved in and found a wall of well-constructed, solid cabinets. we disassembled them and dad ended up using them to create new cabinets from parts of the originals.

this summer i painted them in my parent's garage, and there they've been until now.

now this side of my kitchen is almost complete, the nub is installed, and next up is the hanging pot rack and then hooking up the water in my fridge dispenser.

unflooring the floor

so as you read in my previous post about the check valve, we finally figured out the problem with my plumbing! however, in order to do this we had to pull up my hardwood floors. and because they were installed tongue & groove, we had to remove entire strips of them (and hope not to break too many since we were having absolutely no luck finding matching hardwood -- originally i bought them from building materials outlet). such a hassle.

dad came up with the brilliant idea of labeling each plank as we took it out, so that it would be easier to put them all back in again.

we had to literally remove half of my floor. see all those rows with boards removed? yep, we had to take out those entire rows.

and then of course we had to put it all back in. we repainted with more killz odor hiding paint, wait for it to dry, then re-measure, re-snap the chalk lines, lay the mat, re-snap the chalk lines on the mat, lay the hardwood and secure it in. it took a few days.

thank goodness we labeled all the planks, made it go much much faster. my dad is a genius :)

painting cabinets

the cabinets dad built. just waiting to be painted by me. once they're done they will live above my nub/fridge area. i can't wait for more storage so i can get my pots & pans off the floor of my pantry closet!

i painted them with a high-gloss white with a roller so they would be super shiny and easy to clean. dad's idea.

the finished cabinets and doors, hangin out in the garage, drying.

check your check valves

as most of you know, i have had major plumbing issues for a few years now. and after much research, talking with expert plumbers (even having a few of them at my place), plus snaking my drains more times than i can even remember, we finally figured it out!

dad finally resorted to renting a video camera sewer snake so we could see what was going on down there (i apologize in advance for my lack of technical lingo).

basically, there is this section of pipe called the check valve, there in case the sewer backs up and starts coming back into the pipes. if that ever happens, this backflow valve will stop it from making its way into my place. the valve has two parts, and the back part (a rubber, circular piece) had somehow detached itself from the front piece. long story short, it was too big to get through the rest of the pipe, so it would just sit there, clogging up the drains!

once we figured that out, we had to tear up my floor and try to figure out where exactly that section of pipe was. then it was a simple walk down to ace hardware, buy the new parts, and put it together. i wish we could have figured this out a few years ago! it would have saved a lot of headaches, but better late than never!