Moving past this weekend’s disappointing setbacks, yesterday we focused on our successes downstairs. Lets move up to floors 1-3 today.

Saturday was another Family Team effort. Best parents ever. And cousin (Mike).

Mom A. cleaned our 2nd floor bathroom. It was still covered in a light coating of saw dust from our floor refinishing.

I know you can’t really tell the difference (and the scraped wallpaper probably doesn’t help) but trust me on this. It looks TONS better. At least now you don’t have to worry about getting splinters in your bum when you sit.

Meanwhile, Mom L. continued cleaning our kitchen. This would be round 2, in case you’re keeping track. We didn’t find any mummified mice this time around but she did find a measurable amount of crud on the tops of the cabinet doors.

After what seemed like an eternity of scrubbing, she finally hit paint.

Yes, the edges are supposed to be white (contrary to what you see in the first picture). Yum.

Mom L. also brought up some fun new storage containers for our kitchen.

Cleaning supplies were wrangled.

The wasted space under our cracked marble island is now usable!

Before:

(pic taken before we closed, so it’s not our stuff)

After:

I think I’m most excited to have a place for silverware. It’s truly the little things…

A wood filler strip was nailed in, so we can finally finish off the corner in the parlor.

Gotta love the the pneumatic nail gun. Makes things so quick & easy.

We also worked on sanding down the joint compound on this wall. Its ready for the next coat of spackle. Those screws you see popping up need to be resunk too.

Speaking of sanding spackle… that’s how I spent my Sunday while the hubs & his dad worked in the garden apartment. After sanding, the bedroom got it’s 2nd coat of joint compound and is ready to be sanded again. What a joyous cycle.

Tips! (warning: lo-res iphone pics ahead)

• Use a pole sander specifically made for sanding joint compound. One of those cases when having the right tool for the job counts. So much easier! Normal sandpaper on a regular hand sander just clogs up with the spackle dust.
  
• A genius playlist similar to what you’d listen to at the gym or to pep you up when the 3pm-work-day-slump hits keeps you moving.
• Wear gloves – otherwise you’ll end up rubbing the skin off your thumbs.
  
  Sexy, isn’t it?

I also sanded & respackled the cracks in the master bedroom closet. Figured I might as well since we want the rooms to be done at the same time.

In preparation of paint (I can’t wait until we can paint!), I took off the old outlet covers.

Since the outlets are currently painted the same lovely shade of green as the walls, we’ll be replacing them with fresh white ones.

Removing this outlet BROKE my screwdriver. WTH!? Guess it really was a cheapy screwdriver.

I was a little worried about removing this cover because I wasn’t sure what to do with the telephone jacks. Luckily my fears were for naught, as there was solid wall – not jacks! – behind the cover.

Thing are never as they seem.

And that wraps up our weekend. Lots & lots of “In-Progress” pictures.

I cannot wait to have real, live, honest-to-goodness AFTER pictures. AFTER pictures that are decorated & staged. With paint and accessories! Free from drywall dust, sawdust and hazmat suits! Oh to dream.