What a Weekend

What a weekend it has been!

We had a paint explosion on this end, and we got some serious business done.  I walked down my freshly painted passage earlier and felt like I was truly in my own house for the first time since March 1st, when we moved in.

In between painting and DIY'ing some stuff we also saw friends and family and celebrated Kai's second birthday.

Friday, thank goodness for a public holiday, we got off to a slow start.  We dropped Kai off with the momma, and went to do some paint shopping! Choosing paint is HARD!

We ended up choosing three colours, grey for the passage, soft stone for the main and spare bedroom, and a something taupe for the kitchen.

We had to put a undercoat on the passage as it was previously RED! and we now chose to go for the grey.

 We took all the pictures off the gallery wall in the passage.  We never positioned them when we moved in, I just hooked it all up to the existing nails which were in the passage from the previous owners, as I knew we would be painting soon.

Then we got down to the painting, soon as we started some friends arrived, and bless them, SK, got straight into helping Klaus, and they got the passage done with a good layer of undercoat in 3.5  hours. SK did the cutting in while Klaus went all over with the paint roller.

We left after that to go spend the night at Mom's as I did not want Kai gagging on paint fumes.  It was around this time, that my chest started to hurt, my throat started to burn and my nose got totally blocked up. Yah for being a super allergic sinus sufferer. I feel so horrible.  Totally blocked and sore.

On Saturday, we rushed home at about 9, with Phumlani in tow (Phumlani is our little hero, he works for a friend of ours installing cupboards during the week, but on weekends, he often helps us and my sister in the garden, and around the house with all sorts of tasks).  Phumlani got started on painting the passage in the Steel grey colour we chose.  We barely got our first cup of coffee down, when friends arrived with their twins to drop off a pressie for Kai.  They were disappointed that they did not get to see Kai, but I sure am glad he was not around.  The Twins are hectic!  (They are 10 days older than Kai, and I feel so blessed to have my kid).  It will be a while before I sigh at a "tantrum", or feel like running for the hills again.

We kept an eye on the weather report and saw that Sunday was going to be a miserable day, so decided to take Kai out for a birthday brunch and a little visit back to Stodels to feed the animals on Saturday. CP and VP and the twins left, and so did we.  We had a great time at Stodels with the kid, and had a yummy lunch too boot.  We totally lost track of time, and only got home at around 2 again!  I roped my sister into helping us paint (and can I just say that I have the MOST AWESOME SISTER IN THE WORLD!)  We painted our spare room,

while Klaus got started on the raw cement in the laundry ( a small addition we did a little while ago).

I decided to start on the mid section between the pantry and Laundry

and got the Taupe colour out.   As I did the first little patch in the kitchen I realized that it has a purple shine to it, and it just wont work for me.  I am a first time "wrong paint buyer" offender, so Hubster was not too mad, and when he saw the purple shine, he totally agreed this will not work for us.

I did a test patch on the rest of the kitchen as we have a crete stone bottom section and the top section needed to fit in with it. We ended up going with the soft stone for the kitchen too.  The colour will go on to the dining room, and lounge as well.

I am always so scared that my house ends up looking like a rubix cube, so for now, we have only the soft stone and grey going.  Kai's room is bright, but he is a kid, and it is therefore excusable.

It was too late to go buy more paint, so we finished up in the spare room, and my sis and I left to get back to Mom, while Klaus finished up the raw cement patch and locked up the house.

So by the end of Saturday the passage was done.  The spare room was done and the undercoat / primer was sorted in the laundry!

I was so hoping to be done on Saturday but it was just too much that had to be done.

Phumlani agreed to come back on Sunday to help us finish up.  We headed back to the house early Sunday Morning and Klaus had to make a run to the paint shop to go buy more Soft Stone for the kitchen and pantry and laundry section.  Phumlani got started on the kitchen, while Klaus and I set up the gallery wall again

At 2 we head to Mom's for Sunday lunch and as we were about to leave the house, my Aunt phoned to come say hi to Kai.  She decided to come over to Mom's as Kai was still there, and she wanted to see Mom too.  We had a nice visit and lunch.  We came home at about 4.

At the end of Sunday the kitchen, laundry and mid section between pantry and kitchen was done!
Klaus went to drop Phumlani off at the station, and I tried to get some clean up going of the kitchen and to put the laundry back together but just ran out of time, as Klaus's mom and sister came round to wish Kai.

We ended up tag teaming Kai and cleaning and visiting with SIL and MIL, till my Mom came to our place.  Things went a bit quicker then.  Mom is staying over this week, for the whole week.  Kai gets a little holiday from the day mom and Mom gets quality time with him.

Its now 21:28 and it feels like the first time I am really sitting down for the weekend! Poor Klaus is still putting on the new light switches we bought ....

I am going to "save" this post, and publish it tomorrow, after adding some pics .... :) for now though, Its good night!

Pics added and post is ready to go .... Have a good week all