Poly Poly

Here are the floors with one more coat of polyurethane on them. I'm glad we waited so that they could buff out any scratches. It's pretty incredible, however, that when we pulled up the paper that covered the floors that there wasn't any serious damage. It's so hard protecting the work that you've done while trying to do more!

We did one more coat on Saturday to finish it off. Here is our first piece of real furniture in the house in Cupcake's room!

This is the crib that I insisted on buying about 6 months ago when this nice baby store in Marin was going out of business. It weighed about two tons and sat in the backyard in its cardboard box all these many months through many a rain storm. Amazingly enough, it and the range are in great condition. Hoorah!

Direct Mail Convert

Never in my life have I actually bought something from a random piece of direct mail. Well, last week the Reggio Registers catalog appeared in our mailbox just as I was about to start looking for some. All that they sell is registers and exactly the ones that we wanted! If only every purchase had been so easy in this process. I ordered of 5 of these cast iron grilles and think that they'll look great with those dark floors. It just cracks me up that somewhere in someone's database, I've been labeled as a good target for heating grilles. I'm so far gone now that I'm finding that amusing, aren't I?

Running Water & Toilets!!

The appliances are in place. The stove is on the furniture dolly right now so that we can continue to clean it up. This Craigslist special had to live in the backyard for a while, so the burners are a bit rusted. The gas is hooked up though and the pot filler ready for action! J will finish installing the hood this weekend too. The fridge (my other Craigslist special) is ready to hooked up for ice cube action. So fancy! There is running water in the kitchen and both baths!


These chandeliers came from P's garage. The floors are revealed! Haven't seen them for awhile.
We're putting two more coats of poly on the floors at the end of this week, so we covered the baseboards so that it wouldn't slop over.
Hello, glorious tub!!
Mistress of the house.
Things left to do before we can move back in:

install master toilet, shower heads, cabinet hardware, door knobs, light fixtures, range hood, hook up waste on 2nd tub, install second water heater, 2 coats of poly on the floors

Not bad! About 1.5 weeks to go!

The Sink and a Car Jack

Leave it to J to use a car jack to put in a sink. It was dang heavy, so I'm glad he did it to try and preserve his back. Here are J and JJ bending down to position it just right and here's the glorious sink. I think she looks great. They popped in the faucet for effect. It's not hooked up yet, but I think she looks dandy!

Don't Watch

We were finally able to have some guys pick up our fridge (the one I bought off of Craigslist last January) from JJ's house where he kindly stored it in his garage for us all this time. I shouldn't have watched them do it, but I couldn't help it. It wasn't as bad as watching them bring the tub inside, but it was pretty crazy. They had one of those automated stair dollies, but it was really sounding as if it was on its' last legs. The motor really didn't sound like it would make it to the top of the stairs. Isn't that the kind of thing that you double-check before heading out for delivery?

Tiling Is Complete!

They finished the tile work on Wednesday. I love it!

The poor counter guy spent about 1.5 hours trying to improve the look of that seam on the counters. I'm still not thrilled with it, but I think it's an improvement. It looks better in the pic than it does in person.

Stained Glass

This is the stained glass window that my uncle MADE for us. Yes, you read that correctly. He made it! It's the ultimate frosting on the cake. It's incredibly bright and vibrant from the inside of the house as it lights up the hallway and yet perfectly subdued from the exterior. It looks like an original part of the house. Thank you, Uncle!