Starting up again

After three great weeks, my parents embarked on their flight home again on Sunday. Yesterday morning, they arrived safe and sound in Germany and life is returning to its normal, pre-parental visit state.

That's right, we're back at it and working on polishing our Ugly Duckling.
Since it's Monday though, laundry and general picking-up came first before I spent an hour (or so ...) browsing pinterest for general inspiration and creating two lists: one master list of all the things I want to do and a shorter list of things I want to do this week.

Just as I mentioned earlier here, my Mom pointed out that perhaps we should tackle our project one room at a time, rather than project-hopping and having half-finished rooms all over the place. While in theory this is a great idea, you know since reading this entry here last week, that things aren't always that easy (one project leading to a multitude of others that weren't planned in the first place or if they were planned, they were on the list for a later time) when restoring/renovating an old home.

Not to mention that I can't stand the thought of painting trim and only trim for the next couple of weeks, every day of the week. Ugh! Shoot. Me. Now! Put me out of my trim painting misery, please!

Anyways, this week the kitchen made the top of the list!

[Before: Just ... gross]

It's close to completion and it'll be nice to have yet another more or less finished room. Heh ... there it is again, almost finished. Let's start with the list, that way it's easier to explain the "almost" bit about it.

[In Progress: Looking so much better already and despite all the
construction dirt, cleaner than before.]

Kitchen:
- rip out old cabinets
- rip out linoleum
- repair heart pine floors
- refinish heart pine floors
- re-plumb kitchen
- update electrical wiring
- hang new drywall
- finish new drywall
- prep, prime and paint walls
- repair base molding and add quarter rounds
- prep, prime and paint ceiling
- install ceiling fan
- install kitchen cabinets
- install appliances
- install cabinet hardware
- prep, prime and paint window trim
- prep, prime and paint base molding
- prep, prime and paint trim around doorway to breezeway
- create open shelving with brackets and boards
- create/ add window treatment
Optional:
- update lighting*
- build built-in breakfast nook *
- add small round pedestal table*
- install back splash*

[After: I looove my new kitchen!]

Optional items are "would be nice to have" items I'm envisioning for our place that don't need to happen right.now. I'm sure I can scramble up enough patience to postpone these for a later time. For now.

Unless there is a delay ordering and/or acquiring certain items on my list (shelf brackets and fabric for my window treatment) , I should be able to wring enough free time out of this week's schedule to get this all wrapped up so stay tuned for bit by bit updates.

Alright, so I won't be writing about every inch of trim I've painted but, you know, share a before and after with you.

Sounds good?