Zagreb Top 10

Just finished day 2 and it feels like we’ve already packed in a full week of vacation.

Here are some of the highlights of the trip so far:

1. Ange puking on the plane from a bad combination of red wine & prescription drugs.

2. Air France buying us dinner in MTL cause our plane was 25 mins delayed. No really.

3. having to download a compass app (which probably cost me a trillion dollars in roaming charges) cause we were so over tired and lost we thought knowing where North was would help. Um turns out it didn’t).

4. Watching Ange mix oil & vinegar for her bread in what I knew was the ashtray. No I didn’t let her actually eat it.

5. How cheap everything is. Seriously you need to get your ass down here before Croatia joins the E. U.

6. Letting Ange fend for herself on the bus while the drunk old man hit on her.

7. The hot pink toilet in the bathroom in the Paris airport.

8.  Ange trying to figure out what gate our bus to Varazdin left from by looking at her boarding pass. Yes from the plane.

9. The fact that everyone here seems to live on beer, coffee, and ice cream.

10. The view from fucking everywhere!

yes a lot of my top 10 involves ange doing dumb/funny things. But she knows I’m laughing at her umm I mean with her…

Reno Week 5 (maybe)

How can it possibly be only week 5? There’s no fucking way that’s right. I suck at math so my count could be off. I mean I really suck at math. This morning I asked BlkSkinnyJeans how to do percentages on a calculator. She laughed at me and then wouldn’t tell me. (She’s kind of bitchy like that) then she told me to goole it which I did BUT all of the answers were to too math-y to understand!

Some example of what you get when you google “How to do percentages”:

1.  If you want to take for 10% for $999.00 then you multiply it with 1/10 you will get 999.00* 1/10 = 99.9, then you subtract 999.00 – 99.9 = 899.1.If you want to calculate it for 100% then you multiply 1/100 with that number

2.  Percent = hundredths
Therefore:
20% = 20/100 = 0.20
0.2*6000 = 20% of 6000

What you call 0.2 is a change factor.

3.  (amount ÷ total) × 100 = percentage

Are you fucking kidding me? I was hoping for something along the lines of “press this, then this, then this” and I get shit with brackets in it. So I closed google and went over and asked one of the nerdy numbers people.

ANYWAY…

All that too say it may not actually be week 5. I don’t have anything new to really say. It’s taking forever and I just want it over. But here are some new pics:

This is a picture of the front of one set of cabinets with no doors, drawers,  or counter, and a bunch of shit on top.

 

 

 

This is the view from my stairs as of March 19.

 

 

 

And finally here is the latest view from my front door.

Oh but I have appliances. Yay, but I don’t have pictures yet. Boo.

Reno Update: Day 7 million

Obiously it’s not really day 7 million but jesus christ is it ever starting to feel like it.

• Yes I know I’m whining.
• And yes I know I’m whining about something that is going to result in an amazing 1st floor that is not only going to be beautiful but is going to increase the value in of my house by a huge amount.
• And yes I know I’m whining about something that is not only going to be beautiful and increase value but is also going to be 100% paid for when it’s done.
• And yes I know I’m whining about beautiful result, increased value, and no debt when there are very serious problems going on in the world including devestation that has left thousands if not millions of people homeless.

Which pretty much makes me a whining douchebag. So yep, I’m a whining douchebag who’s tired of the dust, and eating in my bed off of paper plates, and having a fridge beside my bed, and constantly having people in my house at all hours and having to continually be on my contractor’s ass, and not having a TV.

I have no defence your honour.

But if  you would like to see the progress of this whining douchebag’s reno, here are some pics:

 My cabinets came in. Here you can see what my living room looks like filled with cabinets that are still in boxes. So basically, here you can see what my living room looks like filled with boxes.

I know you’re probably overwhelmed, so take a minute, collect yourself from the wonder of this fascinating pic, and when you’re ready, move on.

Here is a picture of the finished kitchen floor! yes finished!

Of course once the cabinets from the first picture are out of the boxes and installed you won’t be able to see nearly as much of it, it’s still pretty fucking amazing to say – here is a picture of something that is done.

it’s the little things that keep me from hurting people Bleaders.

Reno: Month 1

Today is exactly a month since I began the renovation. People who have had bigger renovations done keep telling me I shouldn’t complain because it’s going really well and to those people I would like to say “fuck off”.

Because I don’t think it is! I think when people say something is going to be done at a certain time well it should be done by that time! Unfortunatley that’s not how things work.

You know how Friday I was told I HAD to have all of the painting finished by 8am the next morning so the floors could go in? And you know how I’d spent the night on the plane but still (despite being half zombie) didn’t go to bed where I belonged but instead spent the next 12 hours painting?

Well it’ wednesday night and the floors went in today! Oh but not all of the floors of course cause that would make fucking sense! No just parts of the floor…

I want to cry and punch things pretty much everytime I come home.

So I’ve started asking for and doing a lot of things myself.

I realize this may seem insane to some of you. Yes I am doing work I’ve paid someone else to do but it drives me fucking round the bend mental to see stuff not done? Especially when it’s thinngs I a can do! So I do them and they get done, and the get done right. And I can sleep at night.

Anyway I be you’re dying to see pics.

This is my new entry way, there’s no grout or baseboards but you can still get the idea. The pattern was my idea.

  In this one you can kind of see the new hard wood. It’s under all of the stuff. Again there are no baseboards and it’s not in any way finished but at least this part is there.

  This could be my favourite, just because it is so fucked up. This is a pic of the kitchen floor tile but not all of it, and none of it is actually stuck to the floor in this picture. For some reason I still can’t figure out my contractor decided laying out the tile and putting some baseboards beside it was a good idea…

 Sigh…

Renovation: Day 23

Reno Weekend #3

Hopefully you don’t come here just to view my fabulous photography cause if you do you’re SOL cause this post ain’t got no pics.

But there has been progress. Contractor was here all day on saturday and the man must think I’m a giant sloth. Mostly cause. when he got here at 9am I was in my pj’s and when he left at 4pm I was in my pj’s.

In my defence (not that I really give a fuck what you think) Saturday was a brutal mix of snow and rain that made outside very unappealing to us “one less car” people. And I’m away all week so it’s not like I need groceries or anything. And I’m leaving on my bed in my room, what the fuck am I supposed to wear? A fucking cocktail dress?

Anyway… Reno update: Most of the drywall has beed taped, the new little wall beside the closet is done and the huge gaps between the old dry wall and the new ceiling have been filled in and the new cold air return has been strapped in. So not bad.

Of course there are still 7 million things to do. Oh I also picked the wall colour with the help of BlkSkinnyJeans so no more staring at paint swatches for me.

I’m leaving for Hollywood tomorrow and I have two possible scenarios for when I return:

1. Nothing will have changed cause noone was here while I was gone.

2. A ton of stuff will be done and I will have AMAZING pics to show you.

I’m really really hoping for #2. I’ve started planning my cleaning party. Now I just have to figure out how to trick people into coming. Hmm maybe I should come up with a name other than “Cleaning party” something catchier maybe like “free beer and porn party”. 

Have fun with the snow losers I’m off to L.A!

Renovation: Day 16

Sorry for the delay between updates but for the longest time there was nothing to update. Last Friday morning the plywood floor was put down and then crickets for 4 and 1/2 days. It was like there was a contractor strike but no one bothered to tell me.

If you know me, and I’m assuming most of you do – not letting me know what’s going on drives me around the fucking bend! So by the time Wednesday rolled around and there still wasnt’ any movement I was practically twitching with rage.

But kudos to me I didn’t freak out in a fit of hell fire. Instead when I couldn’t get my contractor to actually pick up the damn phone I left a fist in a velvet glove type of message that amazingly enough seemed to strike the right balance between sweetness and wrath because the next morning at 7am people were in my house working.

The result? I came home Thursday after work to a newly drywalled ceiling and back wall and a newly installed cold air return:

   This is taken from my right in front of my front door, the scary wall is now not nearly as scary. And the ceiling is covered. The scary sink is still there but that’s a good thing – it means the workers don’t have to go upstairs every time they need water.

  This is the view from the stairs. Much better view of the ceiling, you can even see where the potlights are going to be (black circles)

This is a particularly exciting picture of the new cold air return vent. The dug into the wall with the hopes that they will be able to drywall over it so it’s flush with the rest of the wall. But I’ve been told there are no guarantees. I know you’re at the edge of your seat waiting for the exciting conclusion to this piece of reno minutia – and rest assured, the minute I know, you will know.

There has been some excitement. The Kitchen place delivered my tiles, sink, faucet and backsplash. The got the tiles, sink, and faucet right but fucked up royally on the backsplash. Fucked up huge. I wanted 1 MAYBE 2 rows of subway tile between the counter and the backsplash. This would be about 12 feet total of subway tiles. They sent 82 SQUARE feet. Basically instead of one box that I might end up using about 1/2 of they sent 12 boxes. And not only did they only send 2 square feet of the glass and stone tile, they sent the wrong one all together. 2 square feet what the fuck would anyone do with that?

I’m trying not to freak out, and I’m letting my contractor deal with it, but this is the focal piece of the whole kitchen. The entire kitchen design is based on the fantastic backsplash and I’d rather have nothing than not get exactly what I want. So keep your fingers crossed for me Bleaders. Actually keep your fingers crossed for West End Bath and Kitchen too because if they don’t fix this, they are going to need every bit of luck they can get.

Hell hath no fury – yadda yadda yadda

Week 1

Today marks the first full week of renovations and I survived – yay! Not much is going on that is worthy of photography. My floor was ripped out this week.

 There were about 4 layers and now there are lots of holes. My contractor called me Tuesday night:
Him: “Hey are you on your way home?”
Me: “Not yet I teach a class tonight so I won’t be home until around 7″.
Him: “Well we ripped out your floor today and I just wanted to warn you there are lots of holes, so when you open your front door try and step over the floor and on to your stairs.”
Me: “Ummm okay, that sounds a little dangerous…”
Him: “Oh and don’t forget there are no lights so you won’t be able to see”.

By the time I made it home it was pitch black of course but they’d left the light on in the basement which means light comes through all of the holes in the floor, it sort of looks like there’s an alien space ship under my house.

I have a new pipe. I took a picture just for fun. Oh and I called the picture new pipe just to cut down on the confusion.

Oh and the most exciting thing, the electrian was there yesterday and put in all the wiring in the ceiling including the innards for the pot lights!

I know these aren’t the most exciting pictures but this it’s all I got!

5 interesting (at least to me) reno points:
1. Monday night I made popcorn and melted butter in my steamer. It worked great! though I did burn myself and it was hard to pour evenly over the popcorn.

2. Wow I really miss TV and I don’t even watch that much cause I’m not really home a lot but holy fuck do I ever miss it when it’s not there. I spent about an hour trying to watch TV on my phone and it just wouldn’t work. I was on slice.ca and it kept showing me a message that said “You are watching Project Runway” but I wasn’t. I wasn’t at all! And I really really wanted to be. Stupid lying website.

3. Came home yesterday and the toilet seat was up. This never happens in my house. Maybe I’m the luckiest chick alive but I can’t even remember the last time I dated a guy who left the seat up. Guess I’m naturally drawn to boys whose mama’s raised them right. It was off putting, I actually took a step back.

4. Sherpa hates reno, he’s turning into a great big suck. When I come home he just wants me to pick him up and carry him around. Set aside the fact he’s heavy – I’m not so down with needy (understatement). So he’s eating a lot, I think he’s turning into a comfort eater and we all know that’s not good.

5. I’m starting to get used to talking to people first thing in the morning. Contractors start early, and they’re chatty. Stupid happy chatty morning people.

Living in the wreckage

As you’ve seen from the pics the main floor of my place is demo’d. There isn’t even any hydro down there. The floor in the kitchen is now gone as well. (last layer was lined with newspaper from 1942!)

I am now officially living on the top 2 floors of the house and have set up a little kitchen in my bedroom.

I’ve got my little fridge up there. And I’ve turned the set of drawers from my closet into storage for dishes, food, utensils, etc. The top also doubles as counter space.

For cooking I have my steamer (which heats stuff up pretty good) a toaster and my popcorn maker. At this point I haven’t actually made anything up there but I’m pretty convinced I can live on popcorn and cereal. At least for a little while. How bad can it be? Umm don’t answer that…

The loft is my new living room. No TV anywhere so that might be hard. I see lots of guitar practice in my future. Spent demo weekend #1 away. I think there’s 8 more weekends. So far still feeling positive!

Demo Day is Here!

Woke up at 7am this morning to the sound of my contractor yelling “we’re here”. I was asleep of course. My first alarm doesn’t even go off until 7:10 and I don’t tend to budge until alarm 4 starts to yell at me at 7:30.

Sherpa wasn’t impressed either he jumped off the bed and went either up or out, I’m still not sure which.

Hammers and other assorted tools came out almost immediatley and by the time I made it downstairs 1/2 an hour later half the kitchen was gone.

I wanted to get out of their way but didn’t have anywhere to go (there’s a shortage of local cafes in Cracktown) so I headed up to the McDonald’s for the 1st time. Did you know they have TV? I bought a coffee and spent an hour watching Shamus on Canada AM.

Of course I spent the whole day wondering what was happening back at the house but I didn’t come close to picturing the reality. Check out what greeted me when I opened the door. There’s no going back now! *Gulp*