Gone to the Cabin

Eric had made his miles, and I had arranged for a few days off. So, with a desire to go camping, we headed on a mini vacation. I found a cabin available on Plato Island near Quesnel Lake. It was a little farther away than we anticipated. The marker on google maps is wrong (which led us to someones private property, an hour detour from where we were supposed to be)'

I figure, I'm too old to camp, basically, i just don't want to deal with that bullshit of rain, setting up camp. The cabin had a fridge, electricity from 8am - 10pm, and a toilet! It was a great little set up. Our puppy made some friends with another toy poodle, and two other dogs down by the river, and so did we! It was nice to be out of cell reception, and be undistracted. 

We tried to teach our puppy how to swim. He didn't really go for it. I think it was too cold and the lake was too cold, and overall unpleasent. He did decide that he liked to dig in the sand! Eric, though, kept his feet in the water the hole time. Too bad the bugs were still bad even though it was noon and bright and sunny! 

No New Projects

Unfortunately there are no new projects to report on. House and home are kind of quiet. With the summer heat, and me spending my two days off visiting my sorority sister in her new home in Williams Lake not much has happened.

A while back I had started working on painting the outsides of the cabinets white. BUT! it was too damn hot and the paint was drying to fast and it ended up being a bit of a mess. I started painting today and I figure I need to learn to use paint thinner to help me out. So over the next few days I hope to learn how to use paint thinner and I'll get these cabinets finished! Well, at least the tops of them. I haven't even had time to think about the bottom half of the kitchen! oh no.

In other news, Eric has found himself a new project. Which has caused much financial stress (on my end mostly), but it gives him much joy....

Laters, Baby! 

A Quick Update on Eric's Projects

Eric is my dear husband, and like myself he has his own set of projects. Unlike my projects, his projects are usually centered around tools (especially power tools) and making a really really big mess (aside from me, who only makes a big mess).

So, let's review what he's done in the house! Keep in mind, it has been over a month we've been in the house!


1. Our very first project was putting in a shower curtain rod in the bathroom since the house didn't even come with a shower curtain rod! (previous owner was kind of a very cheap person) So before we even got started we needed a rod, and Eric and I splurged and bought one that is built into the wall and one with a curve! Yay more Space! We put a matching one downstairs too.

2. Sound Insulating the 'Basement Suite.' Because the basement suite is on the ground floor and it was kinda noisy before, now it's not! Yay! Eric made such a mess and it took only 6 packages of that stuff (in which only one ended up smelling like rotten fish and we had to return)

What does he think he's gotten himself into! 

It didn't take long for him to learn that this project needed a face mask! 

It required Eric having to take down all of the stupid tiles and then put them up again. It took much begging for Eric not to replace the tiles. (like seriously, it's just our suite, how rich does he think we are!)


3.  Eric helped me take down all of the kitchen cabinet doors! I don't know if this counts as one of his projects, but he took the task over from me and just went to town using all of his tools! 




















4. Installing the Dishwasher! This was one of our next big tasks! Well, Eric's projects. We replaced our new appliances and because our new fridge was too big for the 'fridge spot' we had a hole, a perfect spot to build in a dishwasher! And I wanted a dishwasher! Life is now simple and easy. 


Step one of this project involved Eric spending some time under the sink putting together the plumbing. This took forever!!!!!!! the plastic and the copper and the .... Eric took 5 trips to Home Depot that glorious weekend! 


Step two involved some electrical which went undocumented. This step would be later undone when Eric and his brother decided to wire it in (where the old garbarater was) instead of plug it in. The plug was later moved upwards where it is now accessible above cabinet.

huh, how are we going to do this!

This is where it's going. 

and push! 

Step three required some help from Eric's dad in building the case to fit the dishwasher. The case they built was too small. Remember the measure too many times and cut once! He did manage to fit it in! And it's quite like mouse! 


Look what I found under the sink! 

5.  Replacing and fixing all of the light switches and outlets. I don't have a before pictures but they were those stupid yellow ones with the little flick thing. Eric hated them, and after painting he bought some new decor ones and changed all the ones in the house. He even fliped all of the outlets so that they look like mickey mouses and you can easily plug stuff in! 

 6. Project 6 is incomplete. He's adding a new fan in the bathroom. There was never one, and Eric fears the winter in that bathroom. Here is a shot of the bathroom. 

 7. While doing project 6 we decided to replace the horrible yellow gold light fixture with something more modern! 

So not that quick! 

Mantel/Cabinet Update

One of the easiest ways to update my house is with paint. I've mentioned that the house is entirely white, not a single ounce of colour. Along with the rest of the white is this ugly yellow wood. It can be found in several places.

These places include my fireplace, my cabinet thing at the top of the stairs, and in the kitchen. The kitchen is for another post. The mantel and the cabinet are my top concerns. By painting these I brought my living room from the 1960's straight into the twenty-first century! Whoot.

Found a picture of the colour! That's the finished mantel under the paint can,
And that's the paint I used!

I used General Paint's top soil. I found a colour swatch on the internet but it doesn't do the colour justice. Truly the colour is like an expresso black. This colour was chosen because black is what most of my furniture is. Our TV stand, our book case, our chest, etcetra.

The key thing to painting furniture is to SAND SAND SAND!

Srsly. No really. If you don't sand, it'll peel. And then you'll have to do it over again. Which will SUCK! So sand. I used these handy dandy sanding blocks on the mantel. It was super easy.

I found on my mantel some of the areas that I didn't sand well enough started to peel and chip and I've since had to address that. Since working on the cabinets, I've decided that it's really important to prime. If I was to do this project again, I would take the time to prime, and I would recommend to anyone to prime. I have started working on the hand rail and I primed that after giving it a sand with the rotary sander.

Look at that gloss disappear!

The problem with the paint I choose was that it was a clear paint and required a few too many coats. Which meant that I needed on average 4-5 coats of paint to get the true colour I needed.

Two coats in. 

3 coats in. 

My process was:

1. Sand.
2. Paint
3. Paint
4. Sand
5. Paint
6. Sand
7. Paint

I know, it's a lot of sanding, but it's worth it. 

I don't have final pictures of this project either! I will get those to you ASAP! 

Anyways, I've decided that this isn't finished. The top isn't wearing as nicely as I wanted it to. So last weekend I picked up some gloss at General Paint, and I'm going to put a glossy top coat on it. I needed it for the hand rail, so might as well spread the love! One day when I get it all cleaned up and I have a moment, but I've got my kitchen in disarray right now! 

Fireplace Facelift

We had one of these horrible fire places. Horrible in that it is constructed of little yellow bricks and this horrible mantle. Case and point is illustrated in the poorly taken iPhone photo listed below.

It just looks like blah. Just blah. 

Doesn't get any better when you get up close and personal. 

Now, my mother was coming up the following weekend to help us paint (EVERY SINGLE WALL IN THIS HOUSE IS WHITE). I wanted a little project to pass the time before she arrived. So one rainy  Monday I found myself making the trip to Home Depot after spending the Sunday evening browsing pins and blogs. From my undocumented scour of the internet I had learnt a few things:

1. I'd need to clean the fireplace
   I have to admit I kinda skipped this step. I did buy a big metal brush, but I couldn't find the tsp at the Home Depot. So, I did scrub the inside with some soap and water, but I wanted to paint that day and I didn't have time to dry!
2. I'd need to prime the fireplace, if I wanted to use it, the primer would have to be heat resistance.
   I ended up just getting a regular primer, because lets' be honest, I don't want my house smelling like campfire. That scent is reserved for the outdoors only. 
3. Brick soaks up paint, so I'd need a lot of paint.
   I knew this going in, but when I got to Home Depot this slipped my mind and I only came home with a small can instead of a galleon of paint.
4. And, I'd need a coarse brush.
   Some sites had suggested a cheap one. I did buy one good one and one cheap one. Just buy a good one. Cheap ones loose their brissles in your paint and it looks like shit. Plus, I hear a brush will last for years if you take good care of it. 

So with that in mind, I bought a high quality CIL primer and got to work priming the fireplace with my square brush (no angle).

This was my finished product --- Two things will be noted--- THIS TOOK ME FOREVER!
And about half way through, I smartened up and started using my little 4 inch rolling brush with a coarse thick foamy on it. This really helped with the flat areas and getting the job done 'quicker'. I did two-three coats in the inside of the fireplace in the attempt of ensuring my soot would be covered up and not seep through and tarnish my all white fireplace.

All coated in primer! 

Now that it's all primed up, it was time to paint it. I thought it was already looking great, but it needed to look better.

Now this is where the fun begins!

It took one ENTIRE quart of primer to prime this sucker, so I knew I needed more paint than the little quart I picked up. I ran to General Pain instead of Home Depot (because of proximity) and picked up another similar white to the one I picked up. So with two quarts of paint, I did some mixing, and then began my painting process. While I stopped at General Paint, I also picked up a little 1inch brush to use with getting into the nooks and crannies a lot better.

My two paints! Similar shades of a blue/grey white. I hate how complicated White is.  

Mixing paint. 

Ready to go with all my handy tools, except my rolling brush.

If I thought priming took forever, painting takes forever. The brick sucks up paint like its nobody's business. Plus once you thought you had it, you really didn't. I ended up painting it about three times. Even now I see spots I need to patch. and mixed. It was a matter of checking every corner of the brick and more! 

Slowly begining to make progress! It's looking better.

Oh, and some cuteness, just because!

this is my puppy Caper, he's such a great help!

And this is the final job! I have started working on repainting on the mantel. When I get a moment to clean my living and get everything figured out, I'll post a picture! For now this is all there is. 

First Post

Sometimes blogging is a Bitch. That is when you write a post. And then try to publish, and the damn thing freezes. The only way to unfreeze is to go back and then you loose you post.

This blog is a fresh beginning for me. It's a new extension of my previous blogs (mostly about my life or about my wedding) This blog is about my new family in our new house. This blog is about the journey my husband, my puppy, and I make in transforming our house into a home and the many wonderful projects and tasks we embark!

So a few things before we get started

1. I am not a blogger. I do not do this professionally. It's for me. It's for my family. It's for kicks.
2. I do not have a camera. My camera recently shattered prior to returning from vaca, and stupid digital cameras doesn't have another way to see the picture you're taking aside from the broken screen, so our iPhones will have to do. 
3. I'm sparatic. 
4. We've lived and projected for over a month. I'm behind.

Now, I'm going to get some sleeps in. Cabinets need another coat tomorrow!