A million house pics can't be wrong

While in Florida, my ex-boyfriend/former contractor/hardwood installer extraordinaire was to do the floors in my whole house.  I wasn't there, kids weren't there, pets weren't there.  Perfect, right?  Yeah, not so much.  The upstairs floors were installed in December but not sanded/finished.  And, to his credit, he finished them up and they look fabulous:

The downstairs however did not get the same treatment.  In fact it didn't even get started, much to my chagrin.  It was a solid affirmation of my decision to fire him.  He's a charismatic guy who is simply incapable of following through with anything.  I came home and dragged my kids and all my pets directly to my Dad's house (45 minutes away) for 3 days and he had only installed part of my 9x10' living room and nothing else.  It was supposed to have been installed, sanded and finished.  At some point you have to laugh or you'll commit murder.  Contractor Mike came back to work on Monday and we both shook our heads and swore a blue streak for a while and then I asked if he'd mind spending the day upstairs, putting everything back and reassembling beds, etc.  Per usual, he did it with a smile.  So on Monday night for the first time in 18 months I slept in my bed!  Poor Chantal was so used to rolling over and then just standing up that she rolled right off her bed onto the floor in the middle of the night when she had to use the bathroom.  THUD.  Aww, poor girl.

The day I left for Florida, Mike put the doors on the cabinets and painted the dining area.  Here's how it's looking now!  The paint colour is Chelsea Gray by Benjamin Moore and ... it doesn't photograph that well in my house.  The most true representation is the last picture.

Dining area:

To one side of the dining area is the new powder room.  There will be tall pantry cabinets on that solid wall.  STORAGE!  

Looking from the other corner, you can see the raised pantry cabinets.  I raised them to leave the bottom open to put my dog's bowls underneath.  No more walking into the water bowl and sloshing it everywhere! 

From the dining area toward the front of the house.  The island was removed to allow for the hardwood that didn't get installed. Grrr.  LOL!

From the back door/dining area, you can see the new powder room, which is full of island cabinets at the moment.

Bedroom pics will come too but there's so much to find a place for that they're alternating between being bare and having piles of "stuff" everywhere.

So today the ex sent his Dad and another worker to continue installation.  Kids were at school, I went out all day shopping for house stuff.  Here are my fun purchases!

First I picked up bathroom floor tile which I unfortunately can't find a picture of.  Sorry.  Ha!  Next, I looked at faucets at a VERY expensive bath store.  Found some options but wanted to check another place first.  So then I came to the reason I'd gone out shopping:  kitchen appliances.  My space is tiny and my kitchen layout meant that my options were a bit limited.  I was well researched and wore makeup.  I was ready.  And I went in and got what I needed at a price that thrilled me.  Long live lip gloss!

New oven:

New counter-depth fridge:

New dishwasher:

So I was feeling pretty good but it was still early enough that the guys might've been working on the floors so I stopped at Lowes.  Which, after perusing the pricey store in the morning, had VERY appealing prices.  So I went for it and got a faucet for the kitchen (now about that sink ...) and one for the powder room.  Here they are!

Kitchen faucet

Powder room faucet

Holy crap.  Longest blog post ever.  Thank you if you've read this far.  Now, I'm going to drink a whole lot of good red wine because I spent a whole lot of green today.  :D