The cats are not amused

[Winchester]

Well, everybody seems to be taking things in stride, except for Mollipop. She is not happy at all.

The house is in complete chaos. I just finished cleaning the wall in the living room/kitchen and will begin taping shortly. When Rick gets home from church, he'll do the first coat of paint. So everything that was up against that wall in the living room/kitchen has been stripped of all the items and they've all been moved to the center of the room. The computer room holds everything that the entertainment center had stored and most of what was on the piano. The kitchen counters are full of stuff that was in the hutch. I boxed up all the knick-knacks and took down all the pictures. That's the wall that the new tv will be mounted on and we figured that since we're moving things around anyway, we might as well go ahead and paint that wall now while things are all awry.

I think, that of all the creatures on earth, cats hate change the worst. Even the tiniest little change in their routines can make them spastic. The other kids are used to us doing things and they're sleeping in the bay window in the sun. Even Tabby is napping. Not Molli....she's watching every move and followed me every time I took something to store in the computer room. She is not amused at what's going on in her world.

BooBoo, on the other hand, can't wait for me to get the ladder out....he loves to sit on the step-ladder with me while I'm cleaning the wall. I'm just using a mixture of water and white vinegar, so he'll be fine. He just loves the step-ladder.

We need to get that wall painted as the tv will be delivered on Friday (they were willing to deliver it on tomorrow morning, but we need some extra time). Still need to find some kind of media center for the stereo equipment and I have to find a bookcase or something for my books, although that may have to wait a few weeks.

But Mollipop thinks that the sooner we get this all finished, the better! (Shhhh, she doesn't know that we're going to finish painting the living room and the hallway sometime in June!)

Oh, and we planted two trees yesterday.....we got a flowering chestnut tree and a flowering plum tree yesterday morning at a local nursery. We love trees and they were having a nice sale; yesterday was the last day of the tree sale, so it all worked out. We'd like to buy three more flowering plum trees, but they can wait until next spring. Rick has been wanting a flowering chestnut tree for quite a while now, so he was pleased.

 

[jcat]

It's a good idea to paint and rearrange before the TV is delivered. I love flowering plum trees, but for some reason they don't do too well in our yard. We've planted and lost two of them, though other trees thrive.

Jamie's the exact opposite of Mollipop. He loves it when things are torn apart and tries to "help" by rummaging and examining every little thing. When we had new windows and doors installed five or six years ago, and then repainted right afterwards, I was really worried about his reaction and even considered moving him to my in-laws' for the week. He thought it was great! He was locked up in one room while the men were working, and as soon as he was let out he'd start inspecting whatever had been done that day and any tools that were left there. A new piece of furniture is exciting, too, and is immediately "his".

 

[tarasgirl06]

Wow, what a lot of work!  Sounds like your place is going to be beautiful when it's all done.  I love trees of any kind, and flowering plums are gorgeous.  As for cats, you sure are right -- they love pattern and serenity, and they aren't fans of change unless it's maybe a change from old toys to new 

 

[ldg]

Ooooo, love the flowering Chestnut!

And I'm just tired THINKING about all that work! :lol3:

 

[yayi]

Cool! When my husband was alive, we redid our bedroom by ourselves, painting, carpeting, repairs when we moved to our new (but old) home. It was fun but we decided to hire people to do the rest of the house 

Today, my cats love it when I put things in boxes when doing some spring cleaning. Some of them hide inside for the duration of the cleanup. 

 

[AbbysMom]

Awwww. Poor Mollipop. She sounds just like Abby. :heart2: Abby doesn't like any change in her surroundings. She gets so nervous and starts pulling out her fur in clumps.

We did the same thing as you. Our regularTv was on its way out. We bought a new one, a sharp, during the Black Friday sales four years ago. Like you, we were going to a wall mount and wanted to paint the living room wall before it got done. So it was a rush of picking colors, painting, etc. before it got delivered. The rest of the room didn't get painted until the following April. :lol3: I would point to the painted wall and tell people to picture the whole room that color. :lol3:

 

[libby74]

My kitchen cabinets need a fresh coat of paint

, so when you're finished..........

I know, remodeling is quite a job.  We had new carpet laid in the living room last fall, and I couldn't believe how much stuff was in that room!  And not furniture wise, all the junk in the drawers and cabinets and shelves---ugh!

Hope everything goes smoothly---I'm sure it will look fabulous when you're finished.

 

[Winchester]

Thanks, guys! The wall is finished and we are pleased....it's the exact same color it was (Cranberry) because we just love that color. The rest of the living room is a very pale grey and it looks nice, although we may go with a darker grey when we repaint the rest of the room. But I'm taking vacation days on Thursday and Friday to try to get things back in order. The tv and stand will be delivered Thursday morning....still don't have a bookcase for my books, but that can wait awhile.....as long as I stay out of the computer room, that is (the mess back there is unbelievable). We put the wall mounting unit up last night. When we went into the store, to pay for the media stand, they asked me if Thursday would be OK instead of Friday.....and Thursday is fine.

Thought I'd show you how Tabby acts when things happen in her world. Unlike, Mollipop, Miss Tabby takes everything completely in stride. As soon as I brought the ladder up into the living room on Saturday to start taping the wall, she decided to check things out. Here, she's watching me tape at the floor; this was before we started to paint. Rick took this with his cell phone. Hard to believe this 10-pound girl is that same little kitten who found us almost a year ago! (Tabby weighs almost ten pounds already, more than Mollipop, who is over twice Tabby's age! And whereas Miss Pop is all fluff, Tabby is very compact and sturdy. When you pick her up, you know you're holding some weight.)



So things are progressing. They're going to mount the tv on Thursday morning and then on Saturday morning, my BIL is coming over to help Rick put all the wires and cables inside the wall.....I've promised him and my sister brunch in exchange for his help. French toast anybody???

Meanwhile the entertainment center is in its spot in the basement and I was able to store my crock pots, roasting pans, large baking pans, waffle iron, large coffee pot, and other items from the kitchen that I only use a few times a year. That has helped my storage problem in the kitchen a lot!

You know, I wish there was a way I could paint my kitchen cabinets. The front of the cabinets is a veneer-type finish (they're really cheap cabinets and are almost 30 years old) and I don't think you can paint over veneer, but boy, I'd love to try it. My sister, who is a home improvement expert (and I mean that with all honesty, she is that good and has lots of wonderful ideas), and I were talking the other night and she said that once things calm down....the family is expecting a little girl sometime within the next three weeks!.....we're going to start pulling my kitchen apart and looking at some things we can do to update it a bit. I've given up on the idea of a completely new kitchen.....I just can't do it right now.

So far the trees are doing well. I hope they grow. Tricia, we had heard that flowering plums are picky; they like very rich, fertile soil and we simply don't have that here. Our soil is very clayey and heavy. But we added peat moss and some rich soil to the mix when we planted, so hopefully, it will do well. It was so root-bound that we had to prune some roots and cut the container apart, just to get the root ball separated from the container. It wasn't pretty. Once it gets more established, we'll try to fertilize it bit, too.

 

[feralvr]

:lol3: Look at Tabby!!!!! What a brave little girl... and how she has grown too :love: Perla is just like Mollipop... heads for the safety of under the bed when anything is going on in the house. :dash: LOVE the cranberry, my favorite color. Just painted our front door cranberry. Looks so pretty You did a great job! I actually love to paint, very relaxing to me :lol3:

 

[jcat]

Cranberry is one of my favorite colors. Tabby looks right at home on the ladder and will probably be disappointed once you put it away. We have a crawlspace above our garage, with an aluminium ladder for access, and it's surprising how the cats will climb right up there. Some won't climb back down again, though, so we have to keep an eye out for "marooned" pussycats.

Could you just replace the doors to your kitchen cabinets, or wouldn't that be worthwhile?

 

[tarasgirl06]

It all sounds very exciting, positive, and fun!  Love the pic of your little girl "supervising" (aren't they the best overseers?) 

 

[Winchester]

I just love this color.....it looks so nice on the wall. And at Christmas time, it's very festive.

No, it wouldn't pay to just exchange the doors to the cabinets....the doors are smaller than the overall cabinet frames so the dark frames would still show. And so would the sides at the end of the kitchen. I've been tempted to try to paint them, just to see how it would look, but with the veneer, I'm leery. There is a restoration kit I can buy that supposed to even work on veneer and I've been tempted to try that, too....the kit specifically states that it will work on veneer. My sister said she'd help me, if I decided to try it. That would be something to do when Rick is in Oregon....and can't have a heart attack when I ruin everything!

But I think that's the interesting thing about having a kitchen that is so old and out-dated. I could try almost anything at this point and if I wreck the cabinets, who's going to know??? Well, as long as I didn't try anything really weird, that is.

__________________________

Interestingly, for all of Mollipop's nervousness when all this was going on, guess who the first cat was to investigate the new tv and cabinet? Molli! As soon as the guys left on Thursday morning, I opened the bedroom door and left the clan back out into the house. Mollipop immediately walked over to the stand and hopped up. Gave the tv a good sniff, walked around it a few times, looked straight at me, and said, "So that's what the fuss was about, eh? I'm not impressed." Walked off and that was that.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Well, the best thing is that each of us can do as we like, we don't have to follow the leader and do the same as everyone else.  We live in a 1937 "Art Deco" house ("silver screen" film idol era) which has had the kitchen redone in 1971.  Mid-20th Century Modern (retro) is very popular now, but even if it wasn't, I happen to love my kitchen! It has natural wood, cathedral-style cabinets, beautiful gold-and-white "oatmeal" ceramic tile, new laminate flooring, and a beautiful bay window, and I had it painted a pale gold, which I've always loved.  It's not about being a "lemming", it's about what pleases YOU.  Enjoy!

 

[jaspers mummy]

the boys love it when mummy goes nuts and starts moving furniture

they get very exited and run around sniffing and climing all over everything better than a play ground so I'm told