The Process

Thanks in large part to a generous gift from Mom and Dad, I had the privilege of renovating a few things in my house this summer!!  Tomorrow's post will be Before and After pics.  This post is mostly for me to have a record of the process.  When we initially had the idea in late April, it was much smaller in scale, and we were told it would take 2-3 weeks.  One thing leads to another, and the project grew exponentially, but now that we're nearing August, it is finally completed!!

Here are a few of the steps along the way...
Some are probably out of order, but you get the general idea:

• Talk with Mom about ideas and decide to move forward with new paint and floors!
• Look online, text with Mom and Chet about ideas, get quotes from multiple contractors, and make approximately 500 trips to Lowes, Home Depot, ProSource, etc. to consider options for backsplash, flooring, and more.

• Try out samples and finally choose paint colors from the Sherwin Williams color-wheel:  Mindful Gray, Gauntlet Gray, Zurich White, and In the Navy!!
• Take tons of pics of my full shelves, cabinets, and decor so I can put things back quickly and correctly.  *So important, especially on the kitchen cabinet tops and reconnecting the thousand cords in the computer room!!
• Choose to go with M&K, then spend the first weekend of May taking down everything and piling ALL THE STUFF into the two extra bedrooms and my garage.
• Feel proud of myself for clearing off the kitchen cabinet tops without help!

• Take a deep breath, and get used to tarps being everywhere while they paint all the walls and cabinets!!  
• I ❤ organization, so I'm sure this all felt longer to me than it really was.

• Admire the new Mindful Gray paint, the first completed step in this transformation! =)  (Try to ignore paint drips on the tile and carpet because both are being replaced with laminate soon.)

• Take walks outside + text and hang out with friends, family, and the best girlfranz to help keep myself sane!

• Measure granite, then go look at options.  Find the perfect slab on my 4th trip with Mom, Dad, and Jace (Cloudy/Viscon White)!  Choose which free edges I want and let Summer know.

• Feel overwhelmed while trying to find places to put everything from inside my bathroom, laundry, kitchen, and pantry cabinets.  The extra bedrooms were already full and there were tarps everywhere, and that somehow became the most daunting task in this whole ordeal for me. I'm sure it was just accumulated stress.
• Try to let go of the many small things and unfinished projects causing me stress and tension (wall plates that were broken or thrown away - why!?, awful holes in the backsplash area after the demo, trash left on my front porch for days, unfinished cabinets, possible leak under my reconnected kitchen sink, etc.).
• Fix what I can myself every night as this goes along (marking spots for the cabinet hardware installation, touch-up paint, scraping off splattered paint, etc.)
• Eventually get frustrated and feisty enough to demand better communication from contractors.  Thankfully, it did improve a bit after that.

• Have Mom come down for the actual granite installation since I'm at work that day... This process involved them breaking up the old granite, bringing in the new (crazy heavy), and using my pink wrapping paper to map out and then cut the hole to undermount my kitchen sink.  I was so happy Mom got those pics! lol

• Increase joy and self-care with my daily Peloton classes (the bike was moved to my bedroom through this process), mixing in healthy meals, Crescent Park walks, and a long-awaited hair appt with Janelle at Ihloff! =)

• Watch Jairo individually carry in 74 boxes of laminate flooring from the garage to the office room. (Pergo Outlast Waterproof Hawaiian King Koa)
• Antonio and his cousin Marco cemented over the grout lines, laid the black trashbag-like moisture barrier, then finally laid the actual new flooring (this including removing and resetting both toilets).
• Celebrate the awesome new floors, save two boxes in case of future need, then return the 9 unopened boxes of laminate to Home Depot (and brace up for a 2-hour return process when they accidentally refund the entire flooring order then struggle to fix that mistake).

• Enjoy podcasts and music for a few nights without Wi-Fi or TV...
• Help Antonio move my office desk back into place on the new floor!
• Take the rest of the night to sit on the floor and reconnect the zillion cords for the Wi-Fi, computer, cameras, printer, and shredder.  It was a proud moment getting all that put back together! =)

• Hire electrician (Eric Reed - highly recommend) to come install some new lighting and smoke detectors.  
• Laugh about Mom knowing his life story and future goals by the time I get home from work.  Get excited about new chandelier and pendant lights!

• Buy new chrome faucet and hire plumber Antonio to reconnect sink after granite is installed!
• Mom cleans kitchen sink, handwashes all silverware, and helps me clean and reorganize my entire kitchen.  A process, but so nice to have done!
• Mom and I lift my old TV back into place - SO CRAZY HEAVY - then discuss whether a bigger TV would actually be better there.
• Buy new TV for living room and have Eric come back to install it.  Enjoy my first official "Smart TV."
• Antonio installs the awesome backsplash tile and grout + part of the fireplace surround tile on June 4th, saying he'll return the next week to build a hearth and finish that area off.  (He doesn't ever show back up... and I eventually hire someone else to finish it).

• Hire Rach to paint a new side table for me and to redo the 6 verses/quotes in my bedroom - both turned out awesome!!
• Create a new Peloton canvas and a Hamilton quotes poster - LOVE them both - yay Walgreens photo orders!

• Spray paint the fan blades and add Mod Podge + silver glitter! =)

• Install new LED lightbulbs everywhere.
• Stay up crazy late watching movies and putting new barstools together. Another proud "I can do stuff by myself" moment for me!

• Buy new mattress with adjustable base. Rejoice about the massage feature and sleep till noon the day after the new bed is delivered!
• Add glitter to silver mirror and rehang it.
• Mom and I put together new table and added cute new table runner!

• Get hearth estimate from Alex... 
• Go to Tulsa Fireplace Supply and talk to them... decide to go with a clean, open look...
• Hire Alex's tile guy (Eduardo) to come and finish tiling my fireplace + add a few final quarter round, reducer, and silicone finishing touches!

• Celebrate all of this fiiiiinally being done... mention how nice it'll feel for everything to go back to normal (meaning all my stuff back where it belongs)... then immediately feel a twinge of sadness at how very abnormal this year has been and how nothing will be officially back to normal for an indefinite period of time.
• But still, I'm thankful for this and it's worth celebrating!!  
• Go back through old photos to write this crazy-long post. lol

That's all for today.  Hope you're having a lovely Thursday! ❤