We started the day at Mom's house by cleaning up our messes from yesterday, hanging doors, and doing a variety of tasks. We went to Lowe's to get the next round of supplies. We got concrete pavers to make step from the garage to the kitchen. To get into the house you had to step up as you are also working the door. If you are not strong, that's a bit of a chore. There isn't time now to build a more permanent step but concrete pavers are cheap and very functional:

And a detail:

it is entirely possible that this step will still be here, in use, many years from now. We'll be putting more pavers at the front door tomorrow.

It occurred to me that I should share a painting trick that I learned from a professional painter. When you are painting cabinet doors, or regular doors for that matter. Use nails as feet to keep them off the ground and one on each side as a handle, so that you can lift them and turn them. This way you can paint both sides. It worked well for us, with only minor mishaps.

Detail…

And if you are really smart, and my husband is, you figure out how to mark the cabinet doors so that you can figure out where to re-hang them. I learned to love these little tags…

Steve spent the afternoon putting in the quarter-round. He's wearing ear-plugs because he was using a pnuematic nail gun. Yet another fun power tool!

And I worked on the kitchen cabinets and drawers – screwing on the hardware and and hanging the cabinet doors:

Putting in flooring means being up and down and up and down and on and on. it took 3.5 days but we got the flooring finished today! We started on the south side of the living room and finised on the north side of Christy's bedroom. We are both fried – but know that we'll be up and at it again in the morning. It's a good thing we aren't older than we are.

What you see scattered on the floor are a few of the important tools for this job. Knee pads, measuring tape, sharpie (for marking cutting lines) and a small square for marking cutting lines. Also there are the whacking tools that are part of the Pergo installing kit.

There are two important power tools that you need for floor installation: a table saw and a saw that does undercuts. We have a Fein Multimaster and it is marvelous. You use this tool to cut out the bottoms of door jams so that you can wedge the flooring in place under it. The black space you see in the photo below will be covered by 1/4-round.

Another nice tool we got for this job was the paint sprayer. It took maybe 30 minutes to paint these louvered doors. It made cleaing the spray gun worth while. Mostly.

I managed to squeeze in time to paint the backsplash in the kitchen today. It went fast. Mom says the color reminds her of a Dreamsicle. It makes me smile.

Steve had meeting Thursday morning. Did we paint? I can't remember, but I think we did. I do know that at yesterday's end the kitchen cabinet doors were painted and we had the added more to the floor so that it was out of the living room and into the front hall. That's Steve saying "oh happy day, we're done for today!"

And this is me, in my painting garb. Steve insists that when this job is done I throw these painting clothes away and start on new ones. They are actually worse than they look in this photo if that is possible.

This morning Steve had some short meeting on campus. I finished painting the base cabinets in the kitchen. They are done!!! I hate painting cabinets and vow never to do it again (unless it is to help either of my children). Steve came home around 10:00 and started on the flooring. It went really well today. We finished the front hall and moved into the dining room…

…and the kitchen

And we decided to tough it out and finish the kitchen before calling it a day. Well, all but one tiny little strip that will go under the door trim and the threshold. That we will tackle tomorrow.

Here's what I can tell you: Pergo goes down really well. We got the kind with the attached pad and it is so worth whatever extra it costs. The house sounds better. And my oh my, it looks so good! I like mom's floor better than the one we put in our house a few years ago. But not by much. It's possible that Mom and Christy will be moving in by next weekend if the countertops are installed next week! It will be both weird and wonderful to get back to some sort of normal routine.

Yesterday was the 2nd day of the 2-day class I taught in Duncan, OK. Most of the students brought their pieced arcs for this photo. Cute, huh! Everyone did a great job.

On an applique day everyone stays focused…

Colleen, one of the ladies in class, sent me this photo today. She has been really busy appliqueing the center of the block. Great job!

Duncan was hot and dry. Sherman is hot and dry. It reminds me a lot of the summers when we lived in Tempe, AZ, and I'm not happy that that is true. If you live in a cooler place, enjoy it.

Today it was back to work at mom's house. We set up the paint sprayer and painted cabinet doors (hundreds of them!), louvered doors, and more first thing this morning. Steve had a meeting on campus, I went to Lowe's for supplies, we did some small stuff (got the mirror hung in Christy's bathroom), and after lunch we started laying the flooring.

This is the living room. The Pergo laminate is going down really well, better than when we we put it in at our house. The color is really nice. Mom came by to see it and was very happy. I was the plank cutter and this is the 'rotary cutter' I was using on the flooring:

The blade is big! And more scary when it's moving. I'm very, very careful. I have a friend here who has managed to do real damage to her hands (twice) on a table saw. I stay very focused. It is a very good tool for this job.

We'll be back at it tomorrow. Painting the doors with a 2nd coat with a sprayer and then the floors.

Today, the first day of a 2-day class, was the design day. Everyone in class worked on coloring their block from Passion Flowers (from our book Applique Outside the Lines). I took a photo of many of the blocks and it's fun to see how different they are. As you look at them, pay attention to where your eyes go, to what you see first and how the block feels to you. I very much enjoy seeing how students work with color!

Steve and I are tired. It's only been 2 weeks of work on the house – not long as this sort of remodel goes. We've made progress. But as the list of things still to do keeps growing we are trying not to fray under the pressure. And we are both feeling the pressure to do our actual jobs.

It's really hot – day after day of temps over 100. I was driving down our street yesterday and it looked like someone had layed a flaming torch by the curb. I slowed down, looked more closely, and saw that it was the business end of a weed whacker that was on fire. The owner was running for a hose. I should have taken a picture but was too slow. See – it's hot! I get cranky when I get hot so it's good that I'm mostly working inside. It's still hot, but not as bad as the garage where Steve has been working.

I'm in Lawton, OK, now and will teach a 2-day class beginning tomorrow. Then I go on to Duncan, OK, to teach and lecture there. Steve is home, still toiling away. This is where I left it:

I've got the priming done on the base cabinets. This kitchen doesn't look that big, does it? However, it has hundreds of cabinet doors! I'm exagerating, but as Steve was stripping them and I was painting them, it felt like hundreds. Here are many of them with the primer coat. We're putting on the finish coats when I get home.

These are the last of the drawers. Steve was stripping them as I drove away…

I got the base cabinets in the bathroom finished! If you look closely above the sink you might see pne of the little mirror brackets. I lost an hour this morning because I bought a great mirror – 24 x 30 and 1/4" thick. With a decorative groove! I got the brackets up, opened the mirror and saw that it came with it's own hanging aparatus that did not work in this bathroom because of the hole for the old medicine cabinet. Darn!

I took the mirror back to Lowe's, hunted for a replacement. There wasn't one. Went to Home Depot. Nothing there. Finally called the local glass company and will pick up a mirror next week. No decorative groove but it will fit and be nice. And the brackets are up and ready to go. Simplicity is good.

That's the update. I do hope that when I get home on Tuesday night we are both feeling better.