This, that and one other thing.

So we've been hard at work... and by we I mean Josh. But every now and again I go over and put in some effort. If you were to walk in you might think it's almost habitable. Almost. You would notice that there are doors leaning against walls and empty doorways, you would notice counterless cupboards, you would notice piles of boxes, and let's not even talk about the basement.  

But if you'd been in it anytime in the last 5 months, you would now notice that the floors are nice and sometimes clean, the walls are painted (don't look too close, you'll definitely see scuffs) and there is some furniture cleaned and set out. You would see a babies room starting to come together, and another room that's ready for stuff to be put in drawers. If you took the time to open a cupboard you would see dishes stacked or baking supplies lined up. It's coming friends, the day I actually live in my house is coming.

I've spent crazy amounts of time cleaning. Throwing (literally at times) all our extra stuff in the basement (extra blankets, Caed's out grown clothes, car seats, toys etc, filing that needs to be done, winter clothes and other such odds and ends.) The floor gets mopped as often as I spend time there. Light fixtures are being installed and stuff is being moved in. Dusting is never ending.

My next project is my pantry. If my pantry was ready a lot of the mess would be cleaned up. Who knew I had so much kitchen stuff? Ok, I did, but everytime I move (which, lets face it, is once or twice a year) I'm surprised. But it's my favorite place to be, and I use most everything so I don't feel bad.

If you recall, mudding walls SUCKS. Or I think it does. And I didn't want to mud anymore. Not even a pantry. And how would one get out of this and still make it look nice, you might ask. Well I decided wall paper would work just prefectly. That's right, I said it. Wall paper. No it's not that floral wall paper we put up in the 80's (love you mom, I'm sure the bathroom looked great... even if the one mirror was turned into three). So I headed to Home Depot to see what I could see. (I actually looked at Walmart and Canadian Tire first. I didn't find anything I loved at Walmart, and CT didn't have any.) At Home Depot I found something I liked (with mama's approval), and a purchase was made. 

Before. One coat of mud.

After! Just need some shelving. (And a light... and a door... but mostly shelving.) It still only has one coat of mud.

We also got out enviro audit done. So all work we put in, insulating, new furnace, putting up vapor barrier, a low flush toilet etc. paid off. The guy said he'd never seen so much work done. So we'll get money back from the government. We're also looking forward to the basic savings we'll get on our monthly utility bill. 

Doing the blower door test. Testing how air tight out house is. Lets keep the warm air in and the cold air out... and vise versa in the summer... Also, we want some air exchange so we don't suffocate. :)

I painted stripes in my closet. I was running low on my room paint color, so I thought I'd get exciting and paint some stripes. Josh was skeptical but I assured him that (1) it was going to look great and (2) if it did looked horrible it was just in the closet... he would never have to look at it if he didn't want to. It did look great, of course, but I got to thinking that if it was horrible maybe it would have been incentive for him to close the future curtain that will hang to cover the closet mess. Oh well, can't win them all.

Good right?!

And last, but not least, the concrete counter top adventure has begun. Last week Josh made the frame and started to work on my island counter top. We decide to start with the island because he build temporary counter tops along the wall which we could live with, if necessary. It's a dark grey. We'll do the other ones white (which was an adventure in and of itself to find supplies to make white concrete, but I saw someone who did the grey island with white counters along the wall and decided it was a must have... where would I be without internet?) So there it sits in the basement waiting to be brought up so we can use and abuse it.

 The rebar to keep it strong and together and the cutout standing in for my sink.

  Ignore the mess... it's going to look pretty!