Almost there.

Well, I had hoped to be able to post pictures of our finished kitchen yesterday. But, in accordance with the rules of anything renovation related, we have been delayed. Again. So here's the deal:

Painting - I thought was done, but isn't really because now I have a toe-kick to paint, and trim to touch up.
Flooring - Done. Almost. We actually have to seal a seam still.
Toe-kick - Installed, only half painted.
1/4 round - Installed, paint needs to be touched up.
Appliances - Need to be moved back in, once painting of the toe-kick is complete, and trim is touched up.
Counter/breakfast table - Needs to be re-installed.
Stools - Re-covered, but I haven't actually wiped the legs down.
Shelf - Needs to be re-installed.
Cupboard beside back door - Needs to be re-installed.

So Ian and his dad spent all day Saturday installing the toe-kick and starting on the 1/4 round. Then when his dad made his exit, I got called in to help finish the 1/4 round. Which, actually, is a lot of fun to cut. So Ian nailed all those pieces in, except one piece in the kitchen that needed some modifications. He had to go over to his parents' house Sunday morning to borrow their table saw to remove a piece from the bottom of the 1/4 round so it would sit flush on this silly little piece of wood in this corner you won't really see anyways because it's behind the dishwasher... But I hate leaving things "unfinished" and to not put 1/4 round in this corner would be unfinished. And I would know it. So I filled the nail holes I could, and caulked the pieces that were in place Saturday night, and then we had to wait for Sunday to finish when Ian could do his handy-work on that piece. We also realized that our kitchen floor is not level, so their is a gap at the bottom of the toe-kick that we needed to cover up with some sort of trim or something. Also, I get really tired of filling holes 3 times and decided I need to find something more effective for these nail holes.

So Sunday morning we headed back to Home Depot. I'm beginning to hate that place. We needed: some sort of trim for the toe-kick, something better for filling nail holes, and paint for the toe-kick.

For filling the holes I found a tube of "painters putty" or something like that. It looks like a tube of toothpaste with a round, angled foam tip with a hole in the center. I think it worked pretty good actually, but we'll see for sure when it's all painted up. I also got a putty crayon type thing. It didn't work as well. It was pretty much like trying to fill a hole with a crayon.

For the trim, we wanted something narrow and flat, preferably already primed so we wouldn't have to waste time on yet another step. Not to mention we would have had to buy more primer. Anyways, the slot that should have held that type of trim at Home Depot was empty (go figure) so we debated over using 1/4 round or cove, and finally, after much "debating," settled on 1/4 round just because we had some scraps at home still, and it would sit next to the 1/4 round on the wall nicely. So, that needs to be painted with the toe-kick.

We decided on "gingerbread house" coloured paint for the toe-kick, and I'm actually pretty excited with my concoction for trying to blend it with the cupboards above. My sample worked wonderfully, however, when I tried applying it to the actual toe-kick last night I was having troubles seeing it in the bad lighting that is our kitchen at night. We have two single light bulbs dangling from the ceiling right now (we took out the regular fixtures while we were painting so we could do a more thorough job) and needless to say, they really don't provide enough light for performing paint miracles. So that delayed us until today. Monday. I was awake much of the night to the sound of the wind rattling our bedroom window, and then woke early to the sound of the phone ringing (which I did not answer. Sorry.) And now, I sit here typing this, after several cups of coffee. It's dark out. My kitchen is still dark. It's almost 10 in the morning. It should be bright and beautiful. It's not. The weather is conspiring against me. It doesn't want me to finish my kitchen today. But I'm going to try anyways.

I need my kitchen back.