everything~joan.: 71 renovation progress week 24

It's coming to an end, I really pray so! :)

Week 24. 1st to 7th October 2012.

Monday. We went to Ikea to return ALL the ikea drawers that we've bought. It's funny how we bought 3 sets, then we went back to change 1 set of 60cm to 80cm. Then after discussing with our carpenter, we changed back from 80cm to 60cm. Then carpenter say cannot use Ikea drawers at all because it is a bit longer than normal, so we have to return all eventually. -_-

Anyway, we rushed back home to paint on the steel cabinet. We used the red paint bought from Houz Depot and then realised it is a different red. It is matte and looks a lot like dark pink. :( We have no choice but to stick to it. Used up 1 and half cans.

I took out the fluorescent light so that we can see properly which area is uneven so we can touch up.

Looks a little uneven right? Also the light red parts are where we scraped off the old paint so the base is much lighter. We can't do anything to even it out though. We could've avoided it if we sprayed primer first, but then this is supposed to be a cheap DIY so we skipped the primer step.

I have been wearing caps when I do painting, because I always ended up having paint in my hair, it's worse when it is oil based paint, not easy to come off. Once I had grey paint near my fringe and my colleagues kept telling me, as if I didn't know yet. -_- So I learnt putting on a cap is an essential step. Especially for someone who will forget about anything else but to get the work done. Haha.

We also were grateful for the space at the back, where we can carry out such projects, also can do a BBQ or just a ping pong session after dinner.. hahaha.... Anyway we decided to let this steel cabinet to dry properly overnight (although it is already 90% dry after 5 minutes) and see how it looks like the next day.

Tuesday, after work I went home to continue with the paint. I did it in my working clothes, simply because the sky was getting dark and I didn't want to delay this to another day. Wednesday Ah Hoong is coming to finish on our kitchen wall, and they will shift this upstairs for us too.

I focused on the right side that had the least paint and just tried my best to cover all the uneven parts. Also used left over paint to spray at other sides so that it looked like a piece, so that the old red can blend nicely into the new red. I still have about quarter can left when I cannot find anywhere else to spray the paint. :)

Wednesday, this is what I came home to. Brand new kitchen wall. Expensive wall! Tiles itself RM440. Labour fees for this is RM1200. I know...... -_- Very utterly painful. Please don't rub it in further.

And then I was shocked and mad at Anne, because she told Ah Hoong & workers to shift the wrong RED cabinet up to masterbedroom !!!!!!!!!! This was for the kitchen and now it's in my bedroom!!! There are still kitchen stuffs in the drawers.....

Ahhh!!! Anne 摆乌龙啊!!! I was really really mad!!!! I scolded her over the phone, she got upset, she teared on the way to church, she sms-ed me, I sms-ed back, we apologise to each other, I felt guilty, apologised again, she said ok, we patched things up. :) Sisters. :)

Thursday, finally could sit down to arrange all our documents properly in files and folders. This ikea gorm shelf doesn't feel very solid. It's shaky.. and when I accidentally knock a box against it, wood shreds will come off. -_- Might need to give it a coat of paint.. or shellac, not sure....

Here's some rarely used documents, on the wrong red cabinet. Plans to put these in the red steel cabinet. If only Anne didn't misunderstand... hahahaha... just kidding. It's just me being too anal. :P Thank God I have a husband and a sister who can tolerate me.

While arranging the documents, Joshua was doing a wedding video right next to me. I like it that we can work side by side, I can see what he's doing and give my suggestions to the video flow etc. :)

Trust me, my suggestions to his video editing is very important... hahahaha... there's a reason why God made me so anal about things.. :P :P

Friday, looking at our old pouffe in living room, and seeing the dull roman curtains we put over the brown sofa.... I felt I need to do something about it. First the roman curtain is not suitable to use as sofa cover. It is rough and the colour is just not rich enough. I have been reading up www.bowerpowerblog.com and www.younghouselove.com for DIY inspirations.. and their home colours are really to die for... I had an idea.. to make new covers for the pouffes to cover up the ugly outlook. We need pouffes in the living room as foot rest.. and buying new ones from Ikea is at least RM75.. so I am determined to keep these old ones. As for fabric.... I think the roman curtain's fabric is very suitable! No need to buy! :D

So... in my head I'm already sewing the curtain as covers for the pouffe.. but my only limitation is that I dont know how to use a sewing machine. :( Anyway, I went ahead to unpick the thread on the curtain.. and went to sleep hoping I know how to use sewing machine............

Saturday, woke up with an idea! Sewing the pouffe covers by hand! :) I can sew them and when my mum teach me how to use the sewing machine, I just sew on it accordingly! :D So I immediately started!

Draw lines on fabric for the sides of the pouffe, according to its height; and circle for the top piece. Then cut. I may soon need to buy a proper fabric scissors to speed things up...

Fabric ready!

Then pin the fabric together from the inside, according to the pouffe's shape. Trim the extra fabric when needed.

And then just sew on it! The hem at the bottom was already sealed (when it was a curtain) so I didn't have to do anything to it. :D

Here's the 1st one! Yeay!! I emailed this picture to my mum immediately. :)

While I was doing all that, Ah Hoong came. :) He came to instal our cooker and also to help shift the wrong cabinet down, and shift the steel one up, together with Joshua.
He also took a look at our hood, gave some idea on how it would be installed.

The red steel cabinet is already in the masterbedroom... :) The red steel cabinet fits in just nice, we're amazed that our towel rack and clothes rack can fit into the space perfectly. :) :)

The water filter man also came to instal the outdoor filter.

Nesh water fitler system without the ozone filter. RM3636.

Afternoon we went out for SALT, when we return, without hesitation, I worked on the other 2 pouffes, while Joshua attempts to cook for the first time in this kitchen.

Same steps, measurement, cut, pin, sew, over-turn and fit in. :)

The 3rd one is harder, because the sealed hem were used up. I had to iron it inwards and seal it up by hand stitches. It will save me a lot of time if I do it by machine and not by hand. More determined to master the machine sewing skills! :)

After I finished all 3 covers, I used scotch tape to reinforced the bottom of all the pouffes. They were broken and the inner fillings were coming out in powder form, very untidy and disgusting....

I noticed stitches here.... it must belongs to my grandma. :) She reinforced this pouffes before too. :) It's heart warming to know what I was doing and what grandma did are somewhat along the same line...just happened in different era... :) I love my grandma.... :)

So so, I just simply tape across hoping it will help the base stay in place.. and keep the fillings in.. and then we officially have 3 new pouffes. :D Terima kasih tuhan...!