The DIY is getting done

I come from a long line of "we can just do that ourselves." My husband comes from the school of thought I recall Charlie from Two and A Half Men calling, "why'd you do that yourself? Why didn't you just call the guy?" So-in the process of this house crisis (And if you haven't heard about it yet, we are talking pipe burst, major insurance claim, lots of damage crisis here.), we have tried to meet in the middle. 

Water damage: Day 1

So, we called some people and they ripped my house apart! 

See?

 And then it became time for "we can handle this next phase". So, we laid flooring: 

 We did some additional demolition:

We did baseboards and quarter round: 

And this, my friends, is where the story gets interesting. You see, up until this point, we all worked really well together on all of the projects. But, baseboard day was just mom, dad, and me and we discovered major flaw number one: Melanie cannot read a tape measure. Literally, the measurements were going to the saw as such: fourteen inches and three lines, thirty six inches minus a line. What?!? Lol! Fractions are not her forte. So, we adjusted and that's how I got to be the measured and nailer. This is impressive as my biggest job to that moment was to break down the cardboard boxes. (I said I came from a long line of DIY. What I failed to mention was that my gift in the DIY situation has and always will be management, supervision, and maybe-on good days-calculating. Not really craftiness.)

So, on to today. Today was what I would like to call my least favorite day. Ironically, it is also known as Mom's favorite day: paint day! 

We had to paint this kitchen. Mind you, it's an "easy" task because the cabinets aren't in and I was suckered into buying "premium" paint that goes on with one coat and the primer is in the paint. Yeah-right. We quickly discover that as bad as mom is with the tape measure, I triple her badness with a paint roller. Cutting in is way too much to ask. I am MESSY. 

Exhibits A and B:

My once red sweatpants. 

My hands. After washing. 

Exhibit C is the best, though. See, mom had a drop cloth for me (she KNOWS) to use and I was staying on it nicely. Then, I needed more paint. So, I poured it in my tray and asked mom to get the paint off of the edge of the can before it dripped. While I waited on her, I tilted the can away from the "dripping" side. Then, all of a sudden---

Yep-my foot is orange. I had tilted the can so far that the overflow had poured onto my foot, onto the drop cloth, on my pants, etc. Oops. Don't worry, though, we had enough for mom to finish the walls while I moved on to another project!! 

We are less than two weeks from final product. I am so excited to be back in my own home and show you around all that we "did ourselves!"