Kitchen Update

So the floors are delayed. Again. Another week. This is 3 weeks late. We were expecting delays, but with everything so close to getting installed, this delay hurt. But it gives us more time to paint. And since we have a week and half until the floors go in (IF they are not delayed again, and honestly I am expecting the floor to be wrong somehow) it gave us time to clean up and organize. I was putting up with it since we were going to take out the rest of the kitchen this weekend. But now we get to do that next weekend, and we can't take another week of the mess.

We have been painting. We painted the bathroom a dark blue, and the kitchen is grey. It is darker than I planned on, but the color is what Kevin wanted. And it is so pretty!

The color looks dark in the back, but the wall close to the picture is most accurate. (We didn't paint where the cabinets and fridge are going to be.)

The bathroom.

Looking from the kitchen into the new mudroom.

From the foyer into the dining room. We both love the new location of the door.

We moved the table out of the living room, and I pulled up the rest of the staples in here this morning.

From the dining room into the kitchen.

The homework box is in the (very small) pantry.

When you ask the kids to help decorate...

...you see this. We are not decorating much, since we still have so much renovation left. But we have the tree (lights only, no ornaments so we can easily move it), stockings, the stairs are wrapped, and a few things outside. Enough to wear it feels like Christmas.

Gwyn helps prime the walls

We have been working on priming and painting this week. The floor are scheduled to be delivered Monday, installed Wednesday, and cabinets are scheduled for the following Monday. Then the counter tops will be templated on Friday. There is a lot scheduled in the next two weeks. (Fingers crossed.)

That means we are working to paint as much as we can before floors are in! And this weekend, Gwyn decided to help out. She did great! She actually painted the lower part of the walls in the laundry room. And she talked the entire time.

She was so committed to painting, she didn't change clothes. And she didn't get paint on them!

The end result. I like seeing her little paint marks. And I secretly like that these walls will be hidden by the washer and dryer. (Is that bad? This way the paint marks will still be there years from now since we are not painting that part!)

The fun part about getting new carpet...

I have been telling the kids they can color the carpet, but it took cousins Emily and Rachel to inspire them. 

Gwyn's outline.

The boys.

Gwyn Words

I will miss the words Gwyn says. I keep hearing her speak and mispronounce several words. It is adorable. If you are around her anytime soon, ask her to say chocolate, yellow, or banana. You will hear shocolate (3 syllables), lellow, and babana.

Kitchen Update - Dust and Garage

Again, it there is not much change. Right now we are waiting on the flooring to arrive. It was supposed to be last week, and then next week, and now we are looking at the week after Thanksgiving. We are looking at the positives of it - we definitely shouldn't have to wait for our cabinets, it gives us time for all the appliances to be delivered (they have to be here for cabinet and counter top installation), but most importantly we get to paint walls and install tile before the wood floors go in! And I still have some staples to pull up. Yea! Never a dull moment around here.

Dust in the family room. The room was tarped off and this all still got in when the walls were sanded after the mud and taping was completed. Honestly, I think most of the duct was from when we cleaned up, but still - dust is everywhere.

Current state of the kitchen. We are taking out the final cabinets sometime in the next 10 days!

What is the point of having a sink when it looks like this?

Dust on the screens from having the fan blow air out. Several screens look like this.

Speaking of painting... we signed up to paint and didn't realize that included the ceiling. Sooooo.... we get to paint a ceiling this weekend! We also are going to attemp to get as much of the following completed as possible- paint the laundry room, kitchen, bathroom, and kitchen; tile the mud/laundry room and bathroom. So easy, right?

This is what our garage currently looks like. It is housing the base boards, our oven, hood, fridge, washer, dryer, tile, old doors, a cook top, new toilet, mirror, vanity and sink, kitchen sink, faucets, lights, china cabinet, microwave, and I am sure some other stuff!

I just like the picture of the ghost child on the fridge.

Our new range came this week. We are so excited to use this.

And for some reason this cook top arrived this week. We didn't order this, or anything like this! So.... free cook top anyone?

I asked Kevin what he wants me to say about the state of our house, and he said "It is crazy dirty and I am tired of it."  I will say we owe a big thanks to our neighbors who let us use their washer and dryer every weekend. We really planned on having a night at the laundromat each week. It helps so much being able to just walk across the street. I can do loads throughout the day like a normal person!

Staples

We have to pull out the staples before we can tile or put down new wood flooring. It sounds simple. It actually is simple to do. But there are so many. I usually work for 30 minutes to an hour after the kids go to bed. I do this a few times a week. (They have gotten used to the loud creak the staples make.) I have gotten almost all of the kitchen, but I need to get the hall, bathroom, closet, mud room, and laundry room finished soon. So the other night I tackled the hall, bathroom, and closet. This time I did it after dinner with some help. (Husband was pulling up carpet staples in the dining room. Much less exciting.)

As usual, Colin was my helper. The kid loves to help out with any type of work around the house, as long as it is not cleaning. He took a few tries, but started getting up staples.

So proud, he wanted me to take a picture of his staple.

All those black dots? Staples. (I think a few are reflecting the flash.) There are a couple hundred in this picture.

Hopefully a better picture.

About 40 minutes later!

Colin said that daddy and I did such a great job that we get stickers. (The kids were playing teacher in the basement while we worked.)

The taping and sanding is being finished today, so we get to start painting this weekend. We also are going to tile the mud room, laundry, and bathroom floors soon. The week after Thanksgiving the floor should* go in!

* better

Kitchen Update - We have walls!

This week dry wall went up! The mud and tape will be started Thursday, and hopefully finished by this weekend so we can start to paint. When we signed up to do painting to save money, we didn't realize that included the ceiling. Soooooo....... we got that going for us.

I have some ideas for the colors. We need to paint the kitchen, dining room, mud room, and bathroom. And ceiling, but only in the kitchen and mud room. We also need to tile the mud room and bathroom. Good thing we have 2.5 weeks until the flooring goes in. And then cabinets!

As for what we have been doing, we have spent the last 10 days getting -  the bathroom - vanity, toilet, lights, tile, mirror; the mud room tile; kitchen - lights, oven, microwave, stove, hood, back splash, and finally chose the counter top. I think that is it.

Here are the pictures of walls!

Bathroom.

Amazingly, we were able to keep the stove, sink, and dishwasher through this phase. So we are still able to cook!

Pantry is on the left. Door to mud room in the back.

Looking toward the family room.

This is not what we originally planned. We were going to have this area open with a flat ceiling, but it was too open for Kevin. So we have the sides built, but took out the soffit between them.

There is also a wall in the mud room!

Looking from the kitchen, through the mud room, into the dining room.

This is the new view from the garage into the mud/laundry room. Saturday night Kevin decided he wanted to have doors to block the view of the washer and dryer. We needed to OK from our contractor, so Sunday night he built this! It had to be done by Monday morning to get drywall.

Dining room. No change.

Kevin's Birthday

On Sunday Kevin turned 36! It was a busy day as K3 had a soccer game, we had shopping we needed to do for the remodel, and Gwyn, Colin and I had a birthday parry for my cousin. But it turned about to be fun.

We started with a miracle breakfast. I call is that because Kevin was able to make biscuits and eggs in this kitchen.

And the food was not covered in dust!

 Then he was given one of his gifts from the kids. They worked on it while he was at a conference last week. The kids really had fun with it, and wrote great answers.

I love that he said daddy's favorite show is "our show."

Worth noting: Gwyn said "Daddy and I are different because... I am smarter than him and he is bigger than me."

 Then off to soccer, parties, shopping, and dinner at Kevin's parents. He wanted meat loaf and mashed potatoes for dinner!

Kitchen Update - Is this week 3 or 4?

It is too soon for me to be this lost.

I am so happy with the progress. It hasn't been completely smooth. Our plumber said this is a difficult job, and I can see why with the leaks and plumbing that we already knew about before the walls came down. I don't think the electrician has had the same difficulty, but this were wired pretty strangely, maybe more weird and time-zapping than difficult. The dry wall is scheduled to go up on Monday of this week, so I am sure more pictures will come soon.

Floors and cabinets are both being delivered the week of Thanksgiving (fingers crossed). As for us, we are spending a good chunk of time buying all the things we have picked out over the last few months. Our microwave, hood, and faucet (it is AWESOME) are sitting in the garage. The oven is being delivered this week. We still have one more oven to buy. And the fridge and washer and dryer are also in the garage, but they are our old ones. Who cares about those right now? I am most excited about the back splash. You'll see.

Anyway, here are the pictures!

The bathroom. Is is smaller to make room for the pantry. And the toilet an sink are switching sides.

The can lights are in!

The pantry is framed and partially walled. You can see the new doorway to the mud room. In the background is the doorway to the dining room.

From kitchen, through mud room, into dining room.

Looking from the garage into the house. Our laundry will now be where the hallway was from the kitchen to the dining room.

Dining room. The door way has moved. You can see the drywall covering the old location. And the shadow of some creeper.