The Sixth Week: Move-In Ready

We were down to the nitty-gritty. It's pretty satisfying painting big rooms redoing cabinets and all that, but the detail work left at the end is not very fun. 

I spent one evening cleaning the kitchen - something I'd been itching to do for ages - and was surprised to find the stovetop is actually in pretty good shape. It's really old, but very clean. Again more evidence that Harriet was not much of a cooker.

I ripped out most of the shelf paper, but there are a few remnants.

Meanwhile, Ben went to work replacing the rest of the light fixtures, all 17 of them. This took pretty much an entire weekend.

The improvement with the ceiling fans gone was absolutely enormous. For the first time I felt like I could actually see in this room.

We ordered the countertops a couple weeks ago and also the new gas cooktop and faucet which will be installed in them. Home Depot went on and on about how we had to have these items on site before they could come to finalize the layout, but the people who showed up Friday night to measure didn't even look at them. OH WELL.

Saturday morning we went to the granite place to choose our slabs. This is going to look pret-ty awesome.

I was really determined this weekend to finish some rooms. I spent a lot of time cleaning and working on the final little details. I managed to replace this toilet seat all by myself! while watching Grace & Frankie.

We replaced the huge white ceiling fan in the kitchen with something very simple. It opens up the whole room.

My cookbooks are in the cantaloupe kitchen!

Meanwhile, outside: I own a mimosa tree!

And lots of hydrangeas.

Here's all the removed light fixtures. HIDEOUS.

Here's Ben putting the cover back on the underside of the dishwasher. I tried to do it myself but failed.

I painted two coats on the front doors with a small brush on Saturday, and then Sunday morning went to Home Depot for a little roller. It was a HUGE improvement. I spent hours Sunday morning painting doors and it went much faster and with a much better result. This front entryway is one of the most amazing contrasts overall. Remember: crystal glass chandelier, dirty beige walls and trim, carpet, weird railings all over the place. It's a huge, huge relief to see this.

There are still a lot of doors to go, but that's something we can easily do after we move in. The contrast is pretty terrible, though. 

We have a SHOWER CURTAIN.

And the sunroom is completely done. I put all the switchplates back on. DONE.



Sunday I started cleaning up. All the paint is put away. In a closet.

And then I spent a really long time scrubbing the fireplace. We have to paint around the edge at some point but that's not going to be for a while, because who cares right now.

I also painted the interior of this bathroom on Sunday - the last unpainted room. And it's good that I hadn't gotten around to it, because when I was on the floor I noticed the new toilet has a leak between the tank and the bowl. The contractor is coming back out to fix it properly.

This house is a REGULAR HOUSE. And it's a good thing because it's given me tennis elbow.

Ben has moved a bunch of his electronics stuff over.

We've moved about half the kitchen, too, and all the books and various other stuff from the living room and storage closets. The movers are coming on Friday but only for the furniture - by that point we'll already have mostly everything over there.

New house!