Can There Be Any More Dust?

Can there be any more dust? I don't think so. I wipe down a chair and come back just a bit later and it looks like I never wiped it down to begin with!

Before all those pictures, we must go backwards to yesterday. Yesterday was a day where I had nothing, no appointments, nowhere to be, all was quiet. The kids didn't even have practice! We decided to take a nice leisurely walk around the park where everyone including the dog took their time looking at all the ducks in the pond.

Today, is a totally different day! I remembered I have a burner on my barbecue so I hiked over to the boxes and climbed steep couches and chairs to dig out buried pots all in the name of breakfast. Little C has been wanting oatmeal so, he got oatmeal this morning cooked like a true camping family, outside in the wonderful fall air.

Mr. C and I take the dog on a 4 mile hike Thursday mornings before I go to bible study. When I got home from bible study, this is what I saw just inside my front door.

To the right is my living room and this is what it looks like. This is now how we are living.

Even with all this mess, there is a huge load off my shoulders this time knowing I am not the one doing the work. When we do it our selves, the job always takes longer then expected and is more work then expected. This time, someone else gets to do all the dirty work and haul away heavy bags of tile. Someone else gets to tape all this up and vacuum up after. Someone else gets to put all the tools away. It is amazing!

Except I still get to deal with what flies through the air and lands on everything.

Maybe the kids bathroom was feeling a little left out that the kitchen was getting all the attention so it decided to reveal to us a bad wax seal under the toilet. I happened to be in the garage the other day when L was going to the bathroom and when she flushed water came dripping down through one of the new holes in the garage (yes, those are still there). Mr. C investigated and figured the wax seal went bad. Turns out it was a bad wax seal. It never squished and molded to the toilet. And all this time when there was yellow around the edge of the toilet that I had to clean, I thought something happened and little C who was so good at pee-ing IN the toilet had suddenly started missing and pee-ing over the side. I am glad to know my son can still manage to pee in the toilet.

So, anyway, this is what the kids bathroom looks like. Yes, those are clean dishes that I just washed in the bathtub. I am aware they are on the floor next to the toilet. But in my defense, I did just spray the floor with a very strong chemical antibacterial that I NEVER buy. Mr. C only bought it because this was an emergency that he felt needed something a little stronger then my homemade bathroom cleaner.

Tomorrow should be the last dusty day. But we will see. I won't get my hopes up, there is always something.

Kristen

One of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days where everything is just chaos? The alarm goes off and I'm reminded by my husband that I have to work at his office starting 15 minutes before our kids get out of school (it was put in my calendar as am instead of pm so I missed the reminder), so, I ask him to pick up the kids but he scheduled a patient at the same time for an hour appointment. Then, I am scrambling texting people I trust with my kids to take them home. My wonderful friend that does not have a child my youngest's age took both my kids till I could get the little one and kept the other for practice tonight. Then I am realizing that I have appointments all morning and no food, cause I never made it to the store yesterday and I have to take the dog on a walk cause she will be crated all day since my Mr. ended up having appointments all morning also. I wake the kids to tell them to start with cereal for breakfast while my husband is in the shower and we are down to 1 toilet right now we the other 3 of us frantically need to use the bathroom at the same time. Then Mr. C is done with the shower and it's my turn because there will be absolutely no other time today for a shower. I asked him to make the kids eggs so he asks, why can't you (I need a shower) then he asks me how (remember we don't have a kitchen) so, little C finds the skillet we borrowed and then Mr. C tells me the plug won't fit, I tell him to get an extension cord he then asks, "Where?" (He has 5 extension cords in the garage hanging on the wall right in the spot he specifically made for the many extension cords we need). So, I tell him where and by then, I'm done getting ready and make the eggs while I look for something I can actually eat (I can't eat simple carbs or eggs and I can't cook oatmeal without a stove) I realized I don't have any food for me. The kids scrounged together lunches while I just try to get them out on time to walk with the other kids in the neighborhood. It is now past time we are supposed to meet and they are waiting for us. I run out with the dog and tell them to come on now. L appears outside in shoes she can't wear because it's P.E. day, so I tell her to go back in grab her shoes and socks, she can change at the light and I'll carry her other shoes home.s Now Mr. C tells me little C does not have his shoes on, so I just yell grab them and lets go! Another minute goes by, turns out L is making everyone wait while she puts her socks on and they both finally come out running down the street barefoot for one and socks for the other. As we are walking they are putting on shoes and the dog is playing tug-a-war with one of the other kids walking with us as I am trying to calm her down and have her just walk.

It was just one of those days! But... I did get to pick out new granite, I think this is what I will be going with, but I'm not sure yet.

I am taking this opportunity to do a total face lift on my kitchen and having my cabinets done white. So, it will all be worth it in the end!

I also have less holes in my house...

I think tomorrow should be much less crazy. I hope so at least. Little has to finish a project by Thursday that he has hardly worked on and has had a month to do. That should be fun. Nothing like cramming for the last day.

Kristen

The demolition begins!

Today it all begins! The granite came out, back splash, tile and I have no usable kitchen. Here is my entry...

See the kitchen. I get to go look at new granite tomorrow. 

here is my dinning room. This area needs to be cleared out by Thursday.

What a mess! I needed to get some organizing done once the guys left today.

That's better, I have a kitchenette (without a sink) in my living room. I was able to get my hands on a nice electric skillet from a wonderful, generous friend. So, I can still make the kids eggs for breakfast and gluten free pancakes on game days.

The damaged tile started to get removed and we found that there was some previous repairs by the previous owner. Lovely, we had no idea and it just leaked again. Also, it's a big drop beside the crack.

This section that is lighter is where the new cracking was along the edge. Once the tile came out, we saw huge cracks, like this chunk is just sinking. Also, one someone walks on it or stomps, the whole thing moves. just on the other side of the crack, it's solid, no movement.

Some up close of the cracking.

Tomorrow the drywall is getting repaired and a cabinet guy is coming to talk to us about options if I want to take the time to change the color. That will be a huge deciding factor on what I do with the flooring, granite and backsplash. But first, we need to talk to the project manager about this sinking chunk in the kitchen.

Kristen

Prepping for kitchen work to be done...

In preparation for the kitchen project we are trying to save money by doing things ourselves so we can put it elsewhere in the kitchen. 

So, I packed a ton of boxes...

Took off all the cabinet doors and drawers and had the kids move them to the garage...

And took out the dishwasher...

Oh, wait, the cabinet doors are drawers are back on. Weird...

Yep, they had to be put back on. Apparently the cabinets are not coming out, the floor is not dropping in that area so to take out the tile, they will go up to the cabinets and instal new floor up to the cabinets. They don't need to bother with the tile underneath. So, we need to leave the cabinet doors in place. I still took off my hardware because I am getting new. Little changes I have been wanting to do to the kitchen, I am finally getting to do.

See ya tomorrow with more removed!

Kristen

The calm before the storm

I have 2 weeks to use my kitchen. I may be missing cabinets, but it is fully functional! Since I have all this kitchen to use, I took advantage of it and spent lots of time baking, cooking and making toiletries.

I have been out of lotion at Mr. C's office for a while, so I made a huge double batch.

While I was making that, I cooked up a little extra strength deodorant and I think I lost a couple pictures that I took of it. All I have of the deodorants are the labels.

I also baked some paleo muffins, paleo bread, french toast casserole, energy balls, coconut banana cookies all while it was around 100 degrees with over 50% humidity. Yep, it's fall, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

This weekend I am packing up my kitchen because every little bit I do leaves us more money that can be put into the kitchen. I am getting very excited. Next time you see a picture of my kitchen that black and green granite won't be there anymore!

Update on the plumbing mess

Remember this from last week?

After it got it's initial cleaning from the men, this is what it looked like. Fine drywall dust was EVERYWHERE!

We are at a stand still with the work because insurance must approve the next step. That mean's I have plumbing, so I have running water. I can clean again, do laundry in my own machine and cook meals. I can even flush the toilet when ever I want with out running outside to turn the water back on for a few seconds to fill the tank while tons of water leaks under my house.

Anyway, I spent 3 hours Monday cleaning this room and getting most of the dust out of the garage. I used the shop vac on everything, including the cabinets, then wiped the floors with water and then I used my Bona wood floor cleaner. Now it looks like this:

I love walking barefoot on a clean floor. It's a beautiful thing to have floors this clean. It will be clean for a little over a week and it's back to work with my kitchen getting torn out. Tile needs to come out, so cabinets need to come out. Granite is chipped from the work, so that is getting replaced, since the granite is getting replaced, they have to replace the backsplash. Also, since the granite is getting replace, I will take advantage of the new granite and get a sink and stove top that works for me. Yay!

I may have clean floors, but my counters are not as happy. It is ridiculous to try to wash a big pot in this little tiny garbage disposal side of the sink. Silly design. I am going to have just one big sink, none of this 2 separate sides.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the front burners are a little toward the middle which makes it so a big pot can not fit on the back and leave the front 2 burners useable. I have a 5 burner stove, but I can only use about 3 burners at a time unless all my pots or sauce pans are tiny. I will be taking my pans shopping with me.

Work is supposed to start October 19th. So, until then, I get to cook, make lotion and deodorant in my kitchen. Maybe I will get a little project in. We will see.

If you want a great wood floor cleaner that is easy to use, this is what I use. There is also one for natural stone that I use on my travertine.


Kristen

More Mess and More Holes!

It's been a little while since an update because I had to work for 36 hours straight. Tuesday night to Thursday morning. After Thursday, I needed to catch up on some sleep, which mean's no blogging. I did however take some pictures.

First, here are our plumbers that worked crazy hours on trying to figure out the puzzle of our plumbing. We were admit on getting a re-route instead of a re-pipe because if a re-route is cheaper then fixing the leak through the slab, there is a good chance the insurance will cover it. These boys sure had their work cut out for them!

Last time, I did show you that the cabinets were removed, but here is the mess of the kitchen. See in those holes? We have pipes! The plumbing is starting after 2 days of searching and trying to figure out how our water loops in the in the pipes that are underground.

Here is a close up that is hard to see of the chunk of granite that is missing.

Here are some more holes in the garage.

But where there are holes, now there are pipes.

More pipes!

So, I mentioned I was gone from Tuesday night to Thursday morning. Being a doula, when I work, I don't get much sleep, 15 minutes here maybe 5 minutes there... an occasional 1/2 hour stretch. On lack of sleep I get a message that somehow the water flowed through pipes up stairs to the kids sinks, then went back down under the slab before returning to the kids shower. This was the reason why after the first night their shower had no water. Then I get a picture like this of more holes!

Not only more holes, BUT, look at that floor! I was horrified. Our wonderful plumbers didn't think to put down plastic first. That would have helped minimize my mess to clean up.

They did try to clean up after themselves. This is what I came home to Thursday morning...

And this...

I came inside, went upstairs and went to bed for all of 2.5 hours before the plumbers arrived back (to finish a few things), rang the door bell and made the dog bark like crazy. (See, it took me all these days to catch up on sleep. Now I'm off to bed again. Well, after I put my kids to bed.

Next time, I will let you know what our next steps are now that we have running water and can use our kitchen for maybe a week.

Kristen