Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel Progress: July

July 15, 2012 by

I don’t think I’ve written an update on our budget DIY kitchen remodel in a while.  Here’s what we’ve been up to these last couple months.

February: I started refinishing the cabinets and tearing out cabinets to make room for the range hood
March: Purchased and installed range hood
April: Spent this month tearing up the many floor layers
May: Popcorn ceiling removed, countertop installed, laminate flooring installed

Unfortunately, I have a crappy tradition of getting sick at the start of summer.  Being sick and recovering knocked the motivation out of me for about five weeks.  During this time I didn’t do jack on the house, but now we’re back at it.

July: Installed the cabinet pulls and reattached most of the doors to the frames.

Here’s a snapshot I took today:

budget diy kitchen remodel progress

To Do: 

  • Paint the interior of the ceiling lighting recess (Dad and Jim installed two LED can lights into here, they’re awesome)
  • Hide the cord from the range hood
  • Hide the range hood’s duct
  • Install wall shelving to the left of the range hood
  • Tile a backsplash around the kitchen

By spreading the work out over a long period of time we’re preserving our sanity (kitchen has experienced nearly 100% uptime through all this work) and putting months between major expenses.  I don’t know how people spend 50-100 grand on a kitchen. Those fortunate people live in a different world than I do.

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Yardmageddon 2012: Part 2 – A Professional Asskicking

July 15, 2012 by

The landscaper we hired brought a team and spent nearly 8 hours kicking our yard’s ass.  They even power washed the driveway!

Some “after”s:

This tree is coming down next week, since everyone and their mother has told us they think it’s going to fall (on them, somehow).  It’s going to be a lot different without the ol’ leaning tree right out front!

Let’s all lol at the neglected backyard, which looks 50 times uglier since the front yard’s facelift:

Yeah, we’ll get on that soon.  No one can see it but us, though, and we really don’t mind.  It’s natural!  Isn’t that in these days, anyway?

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Roof Repair Step 2: Hire the best damn contractor in town

June 27, 2012 by

I hired Exterior and Interior Services, LLC for the sagging roof job.  Jack was just an absolute superstar.  We arranged the work via text and email and he just did the job immediately.   As in, I came home and it was already done.  He even painted the new post and cleaned out the gutter!

If you’re in the Puget Sound area, I highly recommend his work.  His website:  http://www.homeremodelingandroofing.com/

 


The replacement post has an adjustable “leg” that can be turned to address any future sinking/sagging.

We love it (yeah, I didn’t know I could feel that way about a post, either) and are thrilled that this project’s complete.

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Yardmageddon 2012: Part 1 – Side Yard Slaughter

June 23, 2012 by

We never go in this part of the yard.  Honestly, I think we forgot it belongs to us.  It’s a useless alley hardly large enough to hold a garbage bin, but that’s exactly what we’re going to put in it:  our three carts will have a new home here once we’re done weeding and mulching.  The weeds got a bit out of hand – foliage grows fast in Washington!  Fortunately, they are easy to pull out.

20 minutes of weeding, a trip to Home Depot and 4 bags of mulch later:

We pulled out the rest of the weeds a few days later.  Minutes after taking this pic, it began to rain (hard).

Yay, rain! Now we can go inside!! (This is one of the things I love about living in Washington.)

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