Living in Tremont: taking care of business ...

Firstly, did I mention my mom bought an outdoor bar from an estate sale for $100?

Did someone say party on the patio?

My Vacation From Work

Touched up the Paint in the Office
Installed Chains for the Screen Doors
Repainted the side door and closet door an "off white." The color we thought matched the closet was really too white and made the doors stand out so I picked up a different color.
Put on First Coat of Deck Stain. It took 2 gallons of deck stain (well, close to). We picked out a color called Cappuchino. Half way thru the process, it started raining and we had to cover up the deck (documented below). Thankfully, it cleared up shortly later and we were able to finish the first coat.

Before (pressure washed)

Supplies

Getting Started

... then came the rain

El fin ... with the first coat that is!

Installed Folding Doors for the Utility Room

Installed Blinds for the Closet, Kitchen and Back Room
Re-Painted The Living Room (I bought a gallon of the closest matching brown and went for it. Luckily, it blended enough that I didn't have to repaint all the edges. I'm pretty happy, it makes the room look fresh).
Started touching up the walls of the master bedroom... they need some work but nothing a little joint compound won't fix!

This Past Weekend:

Saturday, Mom and I did yardwork the whole day. Mainly, I wanted to remove all the "brushery" by the deck. I wasn't sure exactly what was planted there, but it was very overgrown and in my opinion, an eye sore. My mom took some of what we dug out home (a forsynthia i know for sure) and we moved the lemon plants (an herb) to the other side of the yard. I knew it would be hot out so I wore a bathing suit but at the time i left the house, it wasn't sunny. Therefore, I didn't think to bring sunscreen and boy did I get burned! Today (Thursday), I'm finally starting to peel eep.

Before – an overgrown eye sore in my opinion!

Much better!

The other big progress of the day was the kitchen cabinets went in. All, but two that is. Over the course of 7 hours, he was able to get them all in except for the one that i call the "fake island." It's not really an island because it will be attached to the wall, but it's the closest we're going to get. It's also meant to be a corner so there is more space in between the drawers, but handyman Tim is going to widen them and put in wider drawers (we have extras) so you won't even notice! (phew). We also need to locate a 27" upper cabinet to fill out by the stove. We had a 30" upper but even with taking out some paneling encasing the chimney, we're 1.5" short. Luckily, we have some extra cabinets we can take the doors off of. Next step ... countertops, backsplash, and repositioning wall paneling.

Our handyman Tim does great work!

On Sunday, my mom did some appliance hunting. My mom said she knew of a "scratch n dent" used appliances store on Miles Rd. but forgot the name. After doing some online research, I came across it. True Deal Appliances. We drove out to Warrensville and ended up walking away with most of what we needed. It was interesting. It was a huge warehouse of new and used appliances and it appears that only two guys run it. There was a store across the street that was closed with a True Deal sign, but the warehouse across the street was not labeled. We got a brand new white LG refrigerator ($550), used white GE stove ($175), washer and dryer set ($400/pair) and a brand new mattress and box spring set for the spare bedroom ($275). He gave us a little bit of a discount for buying multiple appliances, but not huge savings ... around $50. But heck, everything was discounted already! Since we were still out of luck with finding an 18" mini dishwasher, we went over to B&B Appliances (which appeared to have the cheapest new ones) and ordered a white one for $349. Should take 10 days to get here. The last thing we're in search of is an overhead microwave for the stove. I don't imagine it should be too hard to find.

This Week:

Over the course of two days (Monday and Wednesday), our handyman Tim installed the kitchen and utility room floor tile and grouting. The vinyl tile I picked out is called "Mammoth" and my mom actually used it in one of our rental houses so it was easy to come to a mutual agreement. The grout color is called "Earth," Both carried at Home Depot. We also looked at some vinyl wood flooring planks that we might consider for the dining room, but that would be a future project.