kitchen diary, week 11: floors and whatnot.

Mar. 9-10 - Larry the hardwood finisher and his team sand, stain, and seal the hardwoods in the living room, dining room, hallway, and even the two closets we forgot about.  Since we forgot the hardwood ran into the closets, we didn't have them cleaned out.  The guys move everything from the closets into our bedroom.  Amanda silently wonders what sorts of embarrasing things she thought were safely hidden behind those closed doors.

Mark and Amanda spend two nights at Mark's parents house while our house is all fumey and the floors cannot yet be walked on. thank goodness for living close to the in-laws.

Mar. 11 - Mark and Amanda move back home after work. 

 

somewhere along the way, one of Amanda's shirts, a sweater, and a box of feminine products disappears. either they got left behind in Victoria's closet, or something more mysterious is going down. i'm really hoping for the former.

everything is still a bit fumey at home, so we relocate our small group to the local ice cream place for the evening, but leave the windows open to continue to air out. we decide its probably safe to sleep there.

 

 i wish you could all see these floors in person, because pictures don't do them justice. the difference from the original orange-hued finish to the new light-brown is subtle, but astounding. bonus: the basement door now swings the whole way open instead of getting stuck on the floorboards.

Mar. 12 - Amanda organizes two closets after work; the coat closet in the living room, and the linen closet in the hallway.  somehow, this takes all evening.

Mar. 13 - Amanda wipes down every surface in the kitchen; cabinets, shelves, drawers, countertops, both vertical and horizontal surfaces. Mark helps reach the parts Amanda is too short to reach, and sets up the tv and media dresser.

Mar. 14 - Mark moves furniture and rugs into the living and dining rooms.

 

 Amanda removes the last bits of packing material from all of the appliances. this is more frustrating than it should be, and takes longer than i could have ever imagined. we quit while we're ahead, run some errands, and spend the evening eating pie and watching youtube videos with friends.

Mar. 15 - we FINALLY move things into our kitchen cabinets! we have way more stuff than i realized. i seriously have no idea where we had all of this stuff stashed before.

the post-its are my organizational system, and our cheat sheet for where everything is right now. not all of the cabinets are full, and some are still completely empty, but we haven't moved any foodstuffs in yet. most of it should fit in our big pantry cabinet, but there is potential for some stuff to expand into other cabinets as appropriate.

also, curtains get hung, and we install a dimmer switch in the dining room. there is a big pile of empty boxes in the middle of the living room, we are working on a master list of the tiny things that will need to be done to truly be done-done,the furniture arrangement is subject to change, and there is the ongoing argument about rugs, but we are so happy with the way this has all turned out.