Uncategorized Weekend Progress, or lack thereof June 24, 2013

My weekend plans of building a new fireplace mantle and built ins while Jason installed the hardwood floors (as my husband frequently tells me, I have unrealistic expectations) got preempted by an upper respiratory infection. I spent my morning at the walk-in clinic waiting for a God-send of a P.A. to write me some Augmentin while listening to the lyrical sound of dozens of people coughing in the rooms next to me. I was awake until 5 am because my sinus pain was so terrible I couldn’t close my eyes. I needed some Aleve, but our hallway looks like this:

and I was afraid I’d wake Grant and Jason by kicking the planks over as I fumbled around in the dark trying to find some medicine.

This is the dirty side of home renovation.   It isn’t all two coats of paint and granite countertops, sometimes it’s a demo-ed living room and a hallway that feels like a game of Mouse Trap, accompanied by a 101 degree fever.  Here’s a rundown of our weekend progress:
1. Flooring-We are still figuring out where to start.  Jason spent the majority of Saturday morning nailing down and pulling back up the same board because it wasn’t straight.  We had just decided to change tactics and start on a vertical wall when Grant needed to go down for his nap and we had to stop using the noisy air compressor. Walls are never straight, and you have get the first piece perfectly aligned or else everything else will be crooked. It’s proving to be tricky.

2. Built ins-We moved from the flooring to the basement and began our cabinet making process.  Having never built cabinets before, we’re trudging along. I built a frame, but once we put it together we realized one of the vertical boards was 1/8th of an inch taller than the other one:

So, we pulled the frame apart, clamped the boards together, and re-cut them.

It’s actually going pretty smoothly, aside from that hiccup. It’s a slow process, but more because of the logistics-dimensions and lumber sizes, not so much difficulty.  That’s it for now, hopefully these drugs will kick in and I will be back in high gear tonight, and tomorrow’s post will be pictures of my amazing new fireplace and hardwood floors.  Haha.  Honestly, if we have one piece of straight hardwood flooring in tonight, that will be celebration-worthy.  Bring on the Moet.

Since I have nothing real to share, I wanted to show off someone else’s awesome fireplace.  This is a makeover by The Lettered Cottage, which was part of the inspiration for my own:

The Lettered Cottage Fireplace Makeover

It’s really beautiful.  Their blog is amazing, these are two incredibly creative people.  Click on the link to check out the before pictures and all their work, it’s pretty impressive.

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