Determined... Stubborn... Stupid... Whatever you want to call it.

I finished the built-ins!

Pardon the iPhone picture... but it was the truest to color...

Wait, revise that.  I ALMOST finished the built-ins!  :o) 

Turns out (despite my best efforts) that one person cannot put up a single piece of 9 ft crown molding to go over the top of the built-ins by themselves.  EVEN if they think they are super ingenious and use clamps.   Trust me, it's a two person job.  Rudder didn't volunteer to help, so I'm saving that for later.  Technically I also need to put the knobs on the doors and a couple of spots need a wee bit of touch-up paint... but really, its kinda done.  Done enough to put stuff in and on it.  Yay!

Being all of 5'2" and working on barstools to screw the boards into place was probably not the safest, but it worked.  My arms are tiiiiiiiiiired though!  My LEAST favorite part though (besides the crown molding - I was tired, it was too long and up too high and was just a debacle) was nailing the stupid beadboard to the back of the built-ins.  See, still feelings of resentment.  I went through so many stinkin' finishing nails.  Turns out that the pressed whatever it is they make the beadboard out of and finishing nails just aren't the best of friends.  I'm not the most awesome person ever with a hammer...

The throwing a hammer, catching it, and slamming down someone else's nail while drinking game.  Yay Pennsyltucky! ;o)

...but, I'm not that bad.  There were nails flying every which way and several bent.  I'll find the rest of them tomorrow when I sweep up (yes, I also left the mess from the saw in my kitchen - Rudder and I just wanted to head to bed and forget all of this vertical nonsense).  

I thought about posting the "process" of the built-ins in pictures, but I think I'd rather sleep.  Perhaps tomorrow.  :o)

Regression & Recoupment

Clearly I spend half of my day living in the wonderful world of special education law...

Anyways, I'm on my lunch break (Ha! Like I really get one of those) and was working on an evaluation for an upcoming meeting, and really just needed a break from special ed lingo for a minute or two...

So, I decided to make a quick little post about the "progress" I've made.  I'm trying to figure out the feasibility of my "to-do before Sunday" list is... 

Alright, here it is, the list:
- Prime built-in bases
- Prime shelving for built-ins
- Paint built-ins
- Cut & paint beadboard for the back of built-ins  (took wayyyy longer than expected...)
- Remove baseboard (most fun part thus far)
- Install built-ins (woo to the hoo!)

- Clean kitchen cabinets (top)
- Prime kitchen cabinets (top)
- Paint kitchen cabinets (top)
- Paint last few drawers/doors (bottom)

- Clean up kitchen (somewhat, but it is still a disaster in there thanks to it being my "workspace"
- Reorganize pantry
- Backsplash (?)
- Chalkboard frame (make and mount)

- Map frame (halfway there, again, a project that seemed so easy but had a few glitches)
- Entryway (hooks and such)


So, some things have gotten done, but it looks like even more of an unfinished mess to me (thus the regression part of the title).  Plan is to finish and install the built-ins tonight (this will probably be one of those moments of "swearing" (my swearing usually consists of utterances such as "what the frickin' french fry") and hilarity and me once again wishing I was a little taller (I wish I was baller... oh goodness, that's going to be in my head all day now).  So maybe, just MAYBE I'll get the upper cabinets done before Kevin gets back.  Well, I'm at least going to try.  No more distracting smaller projects, and at least this weekend I won't have to focus on writing any evals... 

My house still looks like a tornado blew through, twice.  I should probably add "making a walkway from the front door to the back of the house" to my list...   Oh, and laundry, I'm starting to run low on socks. ;o)

Weekend plan = recoupment.

Care for some semifreddo?

So, I'm taking down the baseboard in my kitchen (which is actually door casing...) so I can put my built-ins up against the wall.  I'm planning on putting real baseboard in around the kitchen (and the rest of the house for that matter...) but will probably be getting to that way later.  I can deal with the chipped, broken, half plastic casing for a while.

Anyways, it was kind of fun (and yet also appalling) to see what color my kitchen USED to be.  The whole house was repainted before it was put on the market, so I didn't inherit any baby blue rooms or orange walls, but rather have room upon room of builder's white.  Any guesses what color the kitchen USED to be?  Last color I'd ever pick for a room...  Last color family even...  DEFINITELY not what I would have ever imagined a kitchen would be...

Itttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt's pink!

PS, my green wall isn't quite so "Slimer" like in real life.

Bleh!  So glad they repainted this room before selling it.  Pepto-bismal pink.  I wouldn't have been able to make it this long with a pink room...  Funny thing, when I moved in, they had red glass pendant shades on the main lighting in the kitchen.  To me it cried out "red light district" but now with knowing that the walls were once pink, I'm thinking the prior occupant loved them some Valentine's Day... 

Anyways, back to using my nifty little crow bar.  Its tiny and yet so powerful.  Yay physics! :o)

I aspire to do great and noble things...

... such as visit all of the breweries in Alaska.  I thought there were around 15.  I was wrong.  There are 22 licensed breweries in Alaska.  I've never been so happy to be so wrong.  :o)

So, Rudder insisted that I accomplish very little painting tonight (something about a 43lb spaniel plopping himself between you and cabinet doors and coming dangerously close to knocking over a pail of paint that just makes you say, "fine, you win").  I was thinking of bucket lists though, and since apparently its ok for me to be on the computer as long as he can lay next to me, I decided I'd make a "pretty" version of my scribbled list of breweries to visit AND make sure I actually got them all written down.  So here they are, my breweries to visit:

Manvsink on Etsy

• Midnight Sun Brewing Company – Anchorage
  
• Sleeping Lady Brewing Company – Anchorage
  
• Anchorage Brewing Company – Anchorage
  
• Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company – Anchorage
  
• Glacier Brewhouse – Anchorage
  
• King Street Brewing Company – Anchorage
  
• The Last Frontier Brewing Company – Wasilla
  
• Akrose Brewery – Palmer
  
• St. Elias Brewing Company – Soldonta
  
• Kenai River Brewing Company – Soldotna
  
• Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop – Nikiski
  
• Denali Brewing Company – Talkeetna
  
• Homer Brewing Company – Homer
  
• 49^th State Brewing Company – Healy (this gets a 1/2 crossed out because I've been here 3 times, and they've been out each time...so sad)
  
• Silver Gulch Brewing Company – Fairbanks/Fox
  
• Kodiak Island Brewing Company – Kodiak
  
• Skagway Brewing Company – Skagway
  
• Gold Rush Brewery - Skagway
  
• Baranoff Island Brewing – Sitka
  
• Haines Brewing Company – Haines
  
• Bear Rock Brewing Company – Ketchikan
  
• Alaskan Brewing Company – Juneau 

Popchartlab on Etsy

 I like getting the pint glass from each place.  Only thing I've ever collected (except that time I decided I "collected" teddy bears at age 7.  I determined that they were what I collected since I had more than 2.  Surprise, surprise, that is where my "collection" ended).  I'm just not into collecting things really, but I see pint glasses as purposeful and I like the fun artsy logos on a bunch of them. :o)

Ten down, Twelve to go.  Some will be easy, other will be a bit more of a venture (Unfortunately Haines and Ketchikan aren't just down the street...)

Gosh I love a good beer.  For that I thank Mr. Levi Markwood - beer sampler/brewer extraordinaire.  :o)

I went to work with paint in my hair ...again.

So, I've been busy covering myself in paint and primer the last week or so.  It all started with "well lets go ahead and clean up the kitchen and maybe stop for another paint sample" and ended with a disaster zone of paint supplies and me, covered with paint.

Poor Carhartts... You didn't stand a chance.

 I am AWESOME at getting paint everywhere (and sometimes even on the intended wall).  :o)

Typical.

Well, what seemed like a small undertaking has amassed to a massive undertaking (perhaps overtaking is a better description...) of my first floor.  I do believe the word is overachieving or perhaps naive may be appropriate words to describe our short-term "we'll have this done by Saturday, no problem" goal  :o)   Pictures will be posted later.  Why?  Two reasons: I like the idea of having a "clean" room in my after pictures (and I am SO not there yet) and secondly, I'm at work during daylight hours, so really taking pictures of paint colors and such is a moot point when its pitch black outside. 

Alrighty, so point of this post (now that I'm finally getting to it) is that I have ended up with quite the To Do List.  I wish it were my Bucket List because those would be MUCH more fun to cross off, but alas, it's my overzealous to-do-before-Kevin-gets-back list.  He-who-gives-me-the-much-needed-kick-in-the-butt-to-get-things-done (Harry Potter reference, anyone?), aka Kevin is rather certain that my house will still look like Oklahoma during tornado season when he gets back from the slope (12ish days).  Well, I can get a wee bit feisty and like to prove people wrong, so I am bound and determined to finish the kitchen and have it reassembled before he gets back AND more that he isn't even expecting.  I think we spent more than half of his R&R in Anchorage painting, roaming the aisles of Lowe's & Home Depot, and disassembling my kitchen... and I am SO grateful for all the time and effort he put into all this home improvement mumbo jumbo, but I'd REALLY like to spend more time doing fun outside things like skiing and snowshoeing when he gets back rather than fixing upping. 

Wow, so still not to the point of this post.  I can ramble with the best of them...  Alright, here it is, the list:
- Prime built-in bases
- Prime shelving for built-ins
- Paint built-ins
- Cut & paint beadboard for the back of built-ins
- Remove baseboard
- Install built-ins (woo to the hoo!)

- Clean kitchen cabinets (top)
- Prime kitchen cabinets (top)
- Paint kitchen cabinets (top)
- Paint last few drawers/doors (bottom)

- Clean up kitchen
- Reorganize pantry
- Backsplash (?)
- Chalkboard frame (make and mount)

- Map frame
- Entryway (hooks and such)

It's not such a bad list, but the fact that I have a horrendous number of meetings and such at work the next two weeks, and that Rudder is not exactly the most helpful assistant...

Yes, that is paint on his nose.  He gets it from me. ;o)

means that it may take me a bit longer than I'd like.  Oh, that and I am really good at distracting myself mid-project and starting another project...  I did that last night.  Oops!

So here's to going to work with paint (or primer?) in my hair again tomorrow! :o)

The Why of it All...

Well, Sarah made me do it.  :o)

It's a good idea though.  I had toyed with the idea of setting up a blog to post some of my pictures on (because really, what is the point of taking 10,000 pictures on a regular basis if you don't share them??) and never got around to it.   Now that I'm finally tackling some DIY/home improvement things in my new house, I figure this would be a good way to document the progress.  I think Mom and Dad just might like having the page to look at as I work on the house (since they are still questioning my paint color choices and "crazy" ideas) ;o)

Anyways, here goes nothing.  If I keep up with this, I'll be utterly amazed.  I kept a diary once.  It lasted for 4 days.