Day 283

From early November, the completed kitchen

 I have no clue what was happening at the last entry, I should reread before posting, I suppose.

The cats are doing well.  Shy-Guy is my buddy, and loves snuggling.  (I have to keep removing him from the laptop).  Oona is still a loud purr-er, and sleeps with Bertram most nights.  

Bertram has had more good days than bad recently.  He is very unpredictable.  I think screentime is the basis for most of his bad behaviour.  We limit it to some extent, but it's pandemic  time, so there are only so many options for him.  He has chores he has to do (get newspaper, feed cat, make bed, wipe table, do a worksheet).  Most days the first 3 will get done.  For some reason, he really hates worksheets.  They are mostly for handwriting, because his is awful.  He just goes to fast.

He got student of the month at school.  He was so excited he ran all around the house.  The teacher said she can see that he is improving in paying attention, and not shouting out.  We've been trying, so I'm glad he is getting some recognition. 

Bron has had some evals.  She started speech a couple weeks ago.  And will be starting ABA sometime soon.  Everything is ready, but the scheduler hasn't called yet.  And it's the end of the year, so I'm not sure who is in the office anyway.  She has her school district evals at the end of January and beginning of February.

We took the rail off Bron's crib a week (or so) ago.  She was climbing out consistently, so it made sense to take the front off.  The first night was a little rough. Most night's now she'll play in the dark (she has a little nightlight in her bed) and then put herself to bed after a while. But she hasn't been coming out, so that is a win.  And she usually is quiet when she plays. 

I started working on a calico/tee shirt quilt for Bron.  It's twin size, for when we move her to the big bed. The squares are all cut, and I've started assembly on the top.

Aaron has continued to work from home.  Most of the time it's great, because I have a second set of hands most of the day, or as needed.  He took most of this week off, because why not?  We don't need to save the vacation time for anything.  Who knows when travel will be safe?  He helped his dad take a lemon tree from their neighbour's house.  The house between us and his folks has been sold to  developer. The same one that did Grandma Street's house.  Hers turned out fine, I guess.  It's giant.  And there are no windows facing the front (except one over the garage that always has the shade closed.) So it seems very foreboding and unfriendly.  I saw the wife once, walking a baby.  But she made no effort to look at me, or smile, and seemed to hurry  back into the house. 

This was the model/drawing.  I've marked the differences in how it actually looks.  There is no lower right window, that's all that stone wall.  There is no chimney.  That front gate (which goes to a patio), then the front door is a half gate, not full sized.  Those two upstairs windows don't exist.  I don't think the wall comes out that far.  And, you can kind of see, how huge it is compared to the houses beside it.

That is what, essentially, will be going in next door to us.  Thomas James builders have been redoing a lot of houses in the area, and most of their designs are similar to this, though, this is the least inviting.  With the exception of this and one other house, all the houses on the street are single story, and look small from the front.  Most have been added onto in the back, but generally fit the look.  I'm just grumping I guess.  I'm not thrilled about living by a construction site either.

Day 233 and kitchen

 (Blogging from my phone because I can't sleep)

Kitchen progression

Before: empty kitchen

Demo's kitchen

New recessed lighting

The paint colour

New flooring

Arrival of cabinets

Grey lower

White upper

Assembled (farmhouse sink!)

Quartz counters

Looking good

Fridge house

Horrible texturing job

I have been so happy with everything this far, until the texture guy came. My FiL arranged the guy, instead of the designer (problem 1). No one is sure what instructions FiL gave to the guy (problem 2), the FiL went camping and is incommunicado (problem 3). Hopefully, issues 2 and 3 can be solved today. Though, my MiL met with the guy, and I'm surprised she didn't find out the scope of his work before hand. Aaron, being an optimist, thinks it's not too bad. MiL doesn't like it, but could live with it. I hate it. I think it looks like popcorn ceiling, except everywhere.

The remodel has been moving along fairly quickly, which is good, because the whole thing is stressing me out. I don't like it when the house is messy, and I don't like it when things aren't where they go. Plus the stress from zoom schooling for Bert and his ABA, the election/general political situation, covid and quarantine, needing to get cavities filled, and the usual things, I feel like I have been living at a level of high anxiety for too long.

I can't remember what else I was going to talk about.

The kitchen

The before pictures. Don't mind the mess.  Some is from packing stuff up and some is typical mess.

Looking into the kitchen from the living room. Sort of a galley kitchen, but with cabinets only on one side. Floor with be replaced with wood-laminate planks in a grey-gold colour

Built-in corner desk.  To be replaced with a non built in large desk.  The shelves behind will be going away, but I think new shelves on the wall behind the computer are being added

Old stove.  There will be a new stove with a microwave hood added.

Icky tile is being replaced with white/light coloured quartz (I think) and a thin-grouted tile back splash.  

Cabinets are going to be replaced with new shaker cabinets in grey (on the bottom) and white or light grey on the uppers (I can't remember).

Ginormous grout.  Why was this ever popular?  (The counters at my dad's house are similar, but with thinner, white grout).

There will be cabinets added on the other side of the fridge for a built in pantry.  We'll also be getting a farmhouse sink.

That cabinet will be going away, replaced with a built-in

The rolling cart the microwave will be going away, and a low counter will be put there, mostly as prep space or baking space.  It will butt up to the non-built-in (built-out?) desk.

I'm not sure what colour the walls will be yet.  Maybe white, or very pale grey.  They are "yellow" currently.  But it's such a pale yellow it's more off-white.

 If I can get the mock-up from my MiL I'll post the pictures of that too.

New kitchen

 Surprisingly, we're getting a new kitchen. Cabinets, counter, desk, microwave and stove, lights and flooring. Our dishwasher and fridge are newer, so they stay. 

Our kitchen is in the neighbourhood of 50 years old. Dark wood cabinets, whitish-yellowish tile counters with HUGE grout lines, and lights that look like they're from an office (those long fluorescent ones in a body case).

We originally mentioned to the landlords/Aaron's parents we were thinking of painting the cabinets, and maybe trying to find an overlay for the terrible counter. Then they start talking about real upgrades. I sort of blew it off, because they'd talked about it before, and nothing happened. But, lo and behold, contractors came, money was paid (not by us), and a date is set. We have to have everything out of it by Saturday. We've started, but it is a much more daunting task than I realized.

The current plan is to move the fridge and microwave into the living room, and make a small make shift kitchen in there. We have the garage for storage, but the main way in is through the kitchen; which might be difficult based on the stage of the remodel. 

It's giving me a lot of anxiety. And Bertram is dead set against it, because change.

I was going to add pictures, but I'm typing from my phone, and they option  doesn't see to be there. 🤷🏻‍♀️