A new house - a new blog

So this blog has been a lot of fun and all. But as we will not be doing our kitchen in the new house (at least not right away) muellerkitchen just doesn't fit anymore. So what do we call our new adventure? We want it to be about anything that should happen in and around the new house. So we finally decided on:

www.rockinthesuburbs.com

That is where all the new posts will be from now on. We hope you'll all come see us there. The format is still a bit canned looking at the moment. But Big E is gonna work on that.

See you all at the new blog and we hope you'll come see us in our new house!

:)

Yes, we're crazy

So the open house last weekend went OK - but we definitely didn't get the stampede we were expecting. Apparently it was "too" nice outside! People are so picky! And that leads us to our recent project. People are picky, which is understandable, but still a pain in the ass. We decided to finish our hall closet out with doors. We hadn't done this earlier because we very carefully made sure the height of the closet was standard, but we didn't think about the opening (duh). So it was 4 inches to wide for the largest standard bi-fold door. You can imagine how that felt. Oh well. So in order to fix it we had to rip out the inside piece of drywall - cut some of the drywall out of the opening and add some more structure. It's ready to paint tonight and E already has 1 door up and just has to hang the track for the second. E also wanted to replace the closet doors since they're kind of jinky and out of shape. So he got those cut down last night and ready to install tonight.

ripped out the inside wall

added new framing and drywall

did the corners and mud - reminds me of grout! yuck!

one door on - second one on tonight!

buy our condo!

Busy Busy Busy! Who knew keeping your house constantly clean could be so exhausting! Guess that only proves how dirty it has been ;)

We are doing another open house this weekend. The forecast claims it will be 60° and sunny. If that is true I think we will have a really great day - if it rains/snows/pees puppies then not so much. We invested in an email blast to local realtors trying to generate some "buzz". And I created an online flyer that I am going to send to everyone that has signed our sheet.

http://www.obsesscreate.com/Polk_email/Polk_email_2.html

I also posted that on craigslist every day this week. so wish us luck!!

house site: http://www.foliosquare.com

A very mueller kitchen on the market

So E and I had an open house over the weekend. We feel like it went really well and we have had a lot of interest expressed in the loft. We're selling the loft ourselves with the help of a MLS listing service (to get the loft in the Realtors system) www.affordablelistings.com. Selling ourselves saves us money and will hopefully let us recoop our investment in the loft. So far the Realtors have been very positive so E and I are confident that we will sell in a reasonable amount of time. Although it is alot of extra work - now that we aren't doing all these crazy projects - we're managing.

So now aside from decorating the new house in my head - we are project free! Whoo-hooo!

Movin on up!

We got the house!! We are moving to Lombard! Whoo-hoooo!

exterior image with snow...living room looking to the front of the house (nice floors)

fireplace (that works!) in the living room

new kitchen

downstairs guest bath with shower

upstairs front bedroom for future expansion

first floor guest bedroom!!!

master bedroom second floor

Holy cow - where did February go!?

Apparently losing time is going around!

We did finish the bathroom and we got the loft listed for sale! Whoo-hooo! To all the friends that we haven't seen, spoken to or replyed to, it's nothing personal - we have been incredibly busy!

Check out the condo page: http://www.foliosquare.com

and here are photos of the finished bath!

I hate grouting

Last night I got the first wall grouted. Boy do I hate grouting! Isn't science smart enough to make something that will only go between the tiles and won't stick to the fronts? Going to tackle the big wall in the shower tonight then I'll have the last largest wall to finish once we get the rest of the tile.

Bad news is that Sunday night we realized we are short about 20 tiles - so I stopped where I was. We bought a common product, but of course when E went to get more last night they were out. He's calling the tile store owner today to find out about more coming (they had it in the computer so maybe it'll be there this week).




Meanwhile we're trying to follow the National Body Challenge on discovery - free gym membership, but the meals are a little unrealistic to make - as if i'm going to cook anything that complex!!! Oh well - maybe we'll be able to drop 10 or 15 before Mexico and my good friend's upcoming wedding in May.

Ring in the new year to the sound of hammers....

We stayed in all weekend and destroyed our bathroom!! We found a lot we didn't expect. Like there is double drywall between our unit and our neighbors... so we had to carefully rip out the first layer, cause we didn't want to shell out for 2 layers and go through all the hassle that would involve. We replaced the old moldy drywall with green board so it will resist mold. We sealed everything we could then yesterday I started the actual tile work and E did all the dangerous cutting. It was WAY more time consuming than we anticipated, but we think it's coming along nicely. Here are the photos!

And on a lighter note...

Stupid Kisses tricks!


(you'll need quicktime to view)

First near catastrophy

We were caulking the windows and the drapes came loose - so E brought the yellow step ladder over and was hoping up to help me put them back on their hooks. Next thing I know I'm nearly hanging from the ceiling and E is spauled on the floor over what used to be a ladder. Stupid "uni-frame, welded" ladder. Luckily he wasn't hurt and he managed to fall on the broad part of his arms instead of his palms. Little bruised and surprised that he could destroy a metal ladder... but everything is OK.

See the carnage:

Flushy Flushy

The plumber was here this morning and thank all that's holy the toilet went right back on the wall! He said it was close, but close enough to line back up with the pipe. He also changed out the supply line and flapper and inside thing (so technical). He said it's like a brand new toilet now - I say he knows how to make a 20 minute call in to a 70 minute call! But whatever - at least we know it's all good. He even poked a hole in the wall to make sure it wasn't leaking (guess who gets to fix that).

Second photo is the vanity we picked out last weekend to replace our discontinued model... not 100% sure if I like it yet... I did buy a narrower medicine cabinet to go with it - and the cabinet is black so it will match better. You can see the scar from the old vanity - it's about half as deep almost as wide.

Unclean (yet still an improvement)

The tile is done. The guy our neighbors recommended was totally great. They even cleaned up every mess they made! But the floor is finished, and I think it's more level than it was before! Tile will be sealed tomorrow then we couldn't get the plumber till Wednesday (darn it) so as you can see - we are unclean! But E is going to have to move the toilet tomorrow - washing your hair in the sink isn't the easiest thing to accomplish. Then today we went out to Lowes to get our vanity and they were sold out and what we wanted was discontinued. (damn it) So we compromised on a smaller vanity without the vessel sink - it has kind of a modified pedistal top on a regular vanity. good news - it's smaller so I think the bathroom will look bigger in the end (we'll see - not throwing away any packaging till I'm convinced though) Here's some pictures:

And it starts....

Thanks to our neighbors we found a tile guy that is affordable. But we can still save money by doing the demo ourselves. So E started knocking the tile out from the floor today. Hopefully the tile guy will be here Wednesday to do the work on just the floor, then we'll tackle the rest in a couple weeks.

doing the demo

large tiles for the floor and brick tiles for the tub, glass tiles for the vanity surround (colors match better in person)

The mark of a successful party...

If the mark of a successful party is that everyone ends up in the kitchen... well I guess it was a success! Some people from my new job came, the immediate Muellers came by and a few more friends saw the new kitchen. Everyone said it was great - and that was really gratifying after all that work! The best part is that for entertaining the space works really well now. Before people would clump up in wierd places since the layout wasn't very centralized. Now it is easy to get all the way around the island and mingle. There is nothing really blocking the view in any direction (inside) and I think that really helped with the "flow".

What people liked best:

The automatic trash can lid
The custom pot rack (thanks Mom and Neil!!!)
The fact the cabinet insides were IKEA ("this doesn't look like IKEA at all")
and the granite (better for how much it cost!!!)

after a few weeks rest - E and I are tackling the bathroom then we're moving up and out!

:)

Pictures of our FINISHED kitchen!

Never thought I'd say it! But we're done!! E and I spent the weekend at Great America yesterday and today we're watching movies and I'm working for a client.. wow - not painting, drilling, sawing, sanding etc.

The FINISHED island as seen from the hallway

The FINISHED island as seen from the other side

The FINISHED kitchen as seen from in front of the windows

The FINISHED kitchen as seen from the dining area

The FINISHED closet as seen from the dining area

The foyer with no boxes, trash, tools, junk in it

The FINISHED closet as seen from the front door...

wow - no onward to the bathroom!

Busy Busy Busy

As we fast approach our last weekend before the kitchen party, panic has set in. (We are visiting friends in Ohio next weekend while the baby is still cute and snuggly). We got the closet interiors installed last night, that was pretty easy. And tonight we're hoping to fly through attaching the last cover panel, making a cut of scrap stainless to make our interior drawer and attaching the last filler pieces with electrical outlets. Could be a tall order, but hopfully if we stay on it, we'll get through it. (We have learned that the simplest tasks take FOREVER). Tomorrow we're going to buy the moulding to finish off the closet and make it blend in and the closet doors so we can put all our tools and junk away in said closet.

Ugh - I'm a little woozy, I chipped a tooth last Wednesday and today was my appointment to get the crown (did a good job chipping it, didn't I?). And although we have a great Dentist - it was unpleasant none-the-less. It's my last molar on the bottom left - and as a bonus I get the permanent crown cemented on the day before the party - whoo-hoooooo!

The mass cleaning continues - and the house is starting to resemble a livable, organized space - so it's all good.

Paint - done Pot rack - done

OK - people thought I was crazy when I said I was painting a brown wall well, brown. so as an illustration that all brown is not equal, a photo.

AND we got the custom, awesome, pot rack installed! Thanks to Mom and Neil for putting this together for us. It worked out perfectly!

The list is getting shorter and shorter! Hopefully soon I'll have pictures of the clean, staged, FINISHED product!

ooooh... almost!

I finished the backsplash - just a minor hitch in the faceplate, wrong size (who knew there were sizes?) And E has most of the plinth installed under the cabinets - just the fussy part where the hood vents out - requires a saw and it's too late to saw today.

We are planning a kitchen unveiling party for the 22nd (of September) I hope you will all come and oooh and ahhhh over the finished product!

grout + backsplash = pain in the butt!

the effect is nice though - guess it was worth the effort

installed plinth - looks all professional and stuff


and the island looks real too... just have to pick up the stools and finish the vent!

Crazy cheap gene

Do you ever get halfway through a project and think to yourself "Self, why the heck are you doing this?" That was definitely me last night... grouting a backplash is a lot more difficult because the area is small the the tools are meant more for floors and wide open spaces I think. plus you have to bend over and reach way out to do the work... not fun, but it is complete! Still doing some cleanup - but that should be good later. It's so humid the grout isn't setting up very fast - finally I just went to bed and this morning I was still able to wipe quite a bit of it away! Oh well. I'm definitely hiring a contractor for the bathroom - no question.

Some progress...

So we did make some progress this weekend... Saturday we went to an open house for free burgers, then decided that Mexican food sounded better! We did some shopping for some art for the condo, found some barstools that we'll pick up one of these days when we have a zipcar handy. Then pretty much recovered from the Mexican food (or more accurately, Mexican beverages)

But Sunday we got some stuff done, E got the baseboards trimmed out and they ready to install (almost - IKEA shorted us by ALOT so we had to run out there... just a note, this weekend was "Everyone go to IKEA and buy your kid crap for college" weekend). But I got the backsplash halfway finished. Monday when I get home from work I just have to do the grout. I think it came out pretty well for an amature tiler! And I got the top seam of the closet started. So this week I'm hoping to really work each night and complete the backsplash, the closet (mud and primer, then paint) and get the final big wall in the living room painted. Then next weekend I am going to start in the far corner and put everything back the way it should be and get the loft organized and finished off. **sigh** That's the plan anyway... I've had a lot of those on this blog!

starting the stainless tile - hard to work under cabinets!

stainless tile adhered to wall - just need to grout in 24 hours then silicone caulk everything!