Days 4,5,6: Appliances, Painting, and Kitchen Renovation
August 29, 2006 12:24 pmNo pictures this time, unfortunately. The computers are still packed up and we just got the Internets at our new house today.
Day 4: (Saturday) Painting & Parquet
Paint, paint, and more paint. Today we had a little help. Jon Hale and Bob Hunter came over to help out with moving. We got a LOT of stuff moved. The living room is all but empty now — only the TV, couch, and small writing desk remain. It was really hot outside, and I was pouring sweat. My shirt was 100% cotton; When we were done moving, it was 50% sweat as well. The Gill came over and helped out with some painting, and with the parquet floor. We were able to get about half of the floor ripped up. Not having power tools makes for sore hands! Satya came over later on and helped out with the spackling around the ceiling of the M/BR. She and Melissa left around 9 or so, because Melissa was exhausted. I took over priming the Living Room, and at about quarter after midnight, I finished. My friend Vernon came over while I was painting primer, and I showed him around. He offered to give us a working Dishwasher for free! Awesomeness!
Day 5: (Sunday) Appliances
The majority of today was spent getting our appliances. Melissa’s brother, Matt, works at Lowe’s in Noblesville. We drove out there that morning at around 10am after clearing out an area in the Dining Room to set them. We visited Matt’s house, and then went up to Lowe’s to pick up the appliances. We got a brand new Whirlpool 25.3 cu.ft. side-by-side refrigerator, and a brand-new GE flat-top stove. The price was ridiculously low. Thanks Matt! We loaded them onto the truck, saran wrapped them since it was rainy, then we were off! We grabbed some Skyline Chili and headed home.
I called Jon Meade on the way back, he said he’d come over and help out with the move-in. When we got to the house, Jon, Dave, AND The Gill were all there! Good thing too, as the fridge needed to have the doors removed in order to get it into the house! Getting it up the stairs was a hassle as well. Once it was indoors, and re-assembled, we plugged it in and loaded it up with the bottled water we had bought the day before. Awesome! I’ll get pictures of it up here soon. The rest of the evening we decided to take off. We were both really cranky and tired from working all week. I don’t think either of us had it in us to do any more!
Day 6: (Monday) Painting & Kitchen Renovation
Yesterday, we met up with a fireman I had been speaking with, Steve Brown. He had told me that he and another Fireman do kitchens on the side. I think I had mentioned him in a previous blog…maybe not. Anyways, Melissa and I went over to a house he did to see his work — It was great work! The cabinets aren’t perfect, but they do look really good, and the price is right. All of the plumbing and everything was all really well done as well.
He came back to the house and we planned out the kitchen. I moved the old fridge out of there using the orange Dolly that Melissa’s Dad left behind. The kitchen is going to take some somewhat radical re-arranging (including replacing a window and re-wiring / re-plumbing the whole kitchen) but it’ll be great when it’s done. It’s not a very large kitchen, but it’ll at least have counter space, a nice sink, and storage space. And it shouldn’t be terribly cramped.
In order to prep the kitchen, though, we need to paint KILZ primer all over the walls to cover up those ugly colors, and we’ve decided to tear up the Vinyl flooring as well. I started in on that while Melissa started painting the living room. I alternated between painting the ceiling and ripping up flooring. Melissa’s Dad had left us some tools that made the floor stripping a bit easier. I was able to get the paneling and vinyl floor up, but it looked like there was some previous tiling BELOW that, that had been glued directly to the hardwood floor! 
We’re probably going to have to either sand it down, or get creative with how to get it stripped up. Either way, it’s going to need some serious refinishing. When it’s done, it should be nice though.
The deadline of the end of the month is rapidly approaching. I have class tonight and tomorrow night. It’s going to make it really difficult to finish this moving business by then! If anyone can help, we could really use the assistance! We’re going to acquire a truck or a large moving van / trailer to try and load everything up and move it all at once. We have a few pieces of large furniture, and lots of smaller things that need moved. On top of that, we need to get painting and things done in the other rooms so that furniture can be moved INTO them. The Living Room is pretty much done. It just needs some really minor touch-up work around the edges, where we couldn’t fit the roller, and along the ceiling, where Melissa couldn’t reach. Easy enough.
If you think you can help, call Melissa or I, or email us!
Today we worked, almost continuously, from about 7pm to quarter after midnight. We were both exhausted afterwards. The big projects today were:
When we got back, she took care of the outlets, which only took about an hour to replace all 4 outlets and two switches. While she did that, I touched up some spackling and sanded the rest down. I felt like Daniel-san in “Karate Kid”…. “wax on, wax off.” Satya showed up around this point, and helped Mel out with the rest of the spackling in the master bedroom. It turns out there was a piece of finishing tape that went around the entire top of the four walls. Satya peeled it all off for us, and spackled in the cracks and troublespots while we got to painting the second bedroom.
We did about 1 and a half coats of primer, 2 coats in some spots. You can still kind of see the undercolor beneath it, but I think the new color should cover it up enough, with two coats. The room already looked a lot bigger with the lighter color. Funny how that works. We finished up around quarter after 12 and went home.
Today’s task, for me, was getting the vinyl floor ripped up in the dining room. We got to the house at about 5pm, and I started in on it. Melissa’s task was to spackle the divots in the walls of both bedrooms (I think she did the living room as well). We set up some shelves in the kitchen and put some of our supplies on them. It seemed so ad hoc it reminded me of what a refugee camp must look like.
