Finally, progress!!

After so many projects going slower than expected, we finally caught a break. When the hardwood floor was entirely ripped up, we noticed that the vinyl in the kitchen looked awfully thick.. Turns out whatever wonderful soul (sooo love them!) put down the vinyl decided to put it down on a very thin layer of plywood instead of gluing it directly to the subfloor. As a result, to tear up the old vinyl, you just pry under the thin plywood and TA-DA, it pops up! It took a very short while, broken into two short sessions of Aaron's rapid pry and pop method and all that was left were the little staples that held down the extra plywood.

That was my next task, similiar to when we had to pry up the carpet pad staples to make the new carpet lay flat. I armed myself with a hammer and needle-nosed pliers, plus a bowl to put all the little sharp staples in and spent a good long time on the floor attacking staples. Did you know that your forearm can be worn raw just by repeatedly brushing over the knee of your jeans? I didn't, but I sure know now! Here are the fruits of my labor:

The implements of destruction and the big bowl of staples:

The now smooth, fairly clean subfloor:


The wall where the stove will go was also worked on this weekend and if all continues along well enough, we'll actually have our new appliances delivered this coming weekend! Finally, we only ordered them in November :-)

Aaron gave his little bro, Chris, a short lesson in the use of joint compound:

No worries, we didn't get yet another matching ugly orange hoodie, Chris just borrowed mine so he wouldn't get any joint gunk on his clothes.

Aaron totally finished his very first door last night, from door frame to door knob and now it's just up to me to paint. Don't be fooled, the door isn't crooked, the hole cut by the original installers is. Aaron made darned sure that door was "on the level." :

Now it's just up to me to prime and paint so that the frame, trim, and door are all a nice clean white. I'll probably leave that until after the drywall is completed so drywall dust and joint compound don't mess up a nice finish.

Two more doors for to "fully" complete, some drywall, and we'll really be on a roll!