Repaint! Repaint! and Thin No More!

What a crazy, busy week/weekend we had last week! I don't even know where to begin!

With the counter tops basically done, Grant moved on to getting ready to tile the back splash. He took Thursday and Friday off (except for a brief meeting on Thurs.) to work on things. Thursday, my Gary came over to help Grant get going on putting the tiles up since Grant didn't have any experience. By that evening, he had all the tiles up except around the desk area, and it looks great!

Friday, I spent the whole day painting the kitchen. We had to paint because Grant had patched over a couple of small holes in the wall from when he did the electrical for the dishwasher, and we didn't have any of the original paint. One project leads to another, and we (I, with help from Grant on the corners) had to paint the whole kitchen. We just painted it an antique white. We're trying to stay as neutral as possible so it will appeal to many. We mostly had small spaces under the cabinets and a few larger areas above the cabinets, so I tried to get away with using a small roller for the whole job. For some reason, the small roller just wasn't leaving the paint on the wall the same way a nine inch roller does. Once things started drying, you could tell the paint layer was really thin, and you could see the old white shining through. So, I broke out the 9-incher and that seemed to do the trick, but it was so annoying to have to go over what I had already painted. It was exhausting! Meanwhile, Grant glued the laminate onto the board for the desk area and installed our very last section of counter top! He also filed down any overhanging edges and corners. The whole time, Eleanor was under-foot for both of us, trying to "help" and join in the work. Grant finally had a great idea and set her up with a painting station so she could "paint" like Mommy. He gave her a brush and a bucket with some water in it, and told her to paint on a cookie sheet over a towel. It worked great for a good part of the time.

The weekend was scorching hot! I was too busy to ever get a chance to check the actual temperature, but I know it was supposed to get up to 95 or so. That may not sound like much, but when you go from weather in the 60s and 70s where you're jumping for joy that the sun has come out and you can take off your jacket, weather in the 90s feels like you've died and haven't gone to Heaven. Our house wasn't able to stay cool at all with us going in and out of the door for supplies and working on things outside.

Saturday was swim lessons and running errands. We got to stop by the Caulders' house for a short visit. I had to borrow Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series because I was almost done with New Moon. I tried to pace myself on that one, but it still went really quickly. I still helped with the work on the house projects, though. I just read any chance I got-- in the car, eating lunch, staying up way too late at night. . . I finished it yesterday, so it was a good thing we went and got Eclipse. I'm really enjoying the books. They are entertaining. It was fun to be able to agree with Kari about some of the things that can get on your nerves about them, though. I don't know if it would bug other people, or if it's just us English majors. If only I had a nickel for every time someone "whispered" in those books. . .

After that, we ran errands and came back to more work. Grant had a couple of tiles he needed to re-cut, and after that, he was able to get all the tile done around the desk.

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary. We decided to have a more official celebration at a later date since it's just been too hectic around here for either of us to even think about planning anything. I have a hard time getting really personal on my blog since I never know to whom I'm baring my soul (or maybe it's because I know to whom I'm baring it-- either way). Just know that there are much stronger feelings about things like this than I might always express. I have a wonderful husband, and I'm grateful to have him in my life. It's amazing to me that it has already been 6 years. I can't wait to see what the next 6 years will bring. And, I hope we'll be able to celebrate this anniversary more "officially" soon.

Today, I repainted under the cabinets in the kitchen since the paint was still pretty thin under there. Grant plans to come home and grout the tiles. I'm pretty sure after that, all that's left in the kitchen is to use a special seam sealer a few places on the counter top (we ordered it and hope it comes soon). Then, we just have to fix up the yard a bit and de-clutter the place (I'm dreading this part) before we put it on the market.

Grant scared me to death on Thursday. Eleanor was napping while Grant was at his meeting in McMinnville, so I took advantage of the opportunity to get some rest myself. I had been asleep for a while when Grant came storming into our room and angrily informed me, "There's someone viewing our house right now!"
I tried to understand through the fog of just having been woken up. "Our house?" I asked him in horror.
"Yes. They're there to look at it right now," was his reply.
I don't know how many questions I fired at him. Probably something like, "Where? They're right outside? Who? Why are they here?" I was so confused. Our house was an absolute mess. Eleanor was sleeping. The kitchen was torn apart. Clean and dirty laundry was strewn about the whole house. There was clutter everywhere. How could someone possibly be there to look at our house right at that very moment?

Apparently, Grant had driven by the house we want (the house he was calling "our" house), and there were two cars parked outside and some people were apparently viewing the house. It sent him into a frenzy, and as a consequence, gave me a rather rude awakening from my pleasant nap. Hopefully we get all our improvements done soon and get this place on the market so we can make our offer!

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll try to plug in the Internet cable and upload some in these next few days, though I haven't taken any new ones of the house project.