Up-date!

Time for an up-date on the re-do

Well, I have totally lost count of the days!  After Danny went back to work, I also had 3 weddings to design so things came to a VERY slow crawl.  Basically, just bringing up pots and pans, finding where the food had been stashed, discovering hidden tools around the house--things like that were our 'progress.'

Slowly but surely, things have come together.  It's not finished, but it doesn't feel like camping any more.  Now it's time for some before and after photos!

Remember all this wasted space in a high cabinet?

 Now it is all nice and compact in a low, easy to access drawer

 Then there was this chaotic mess of pots and pans

 Now in organized drawers

This was my spice/cooking cabinet  where it was so hard to find anything

Now my spiffy spice drawer!!  Yes, I am in love...Danny understands!

And a tidy cabinet with everything that is left and all the essential stuff that used to just be out on the counter

 All the baking supplies are in one drawer

 And all the baking pans are in the next drawer.  Is this spiffy or what!?

This cabinet was a mess with all kinds of stuff stuffed.

Now it is two drawers with everything very easy to find, reach, use and return.  It is amazing how easy it is to live in my kitchen now!  (Mom, you are going to love this!)

And some NOT before and after. 

 This is my little cookbook/sitting area.  My hope is to do my menu planning here with the cookbooks easy to reach, the little step stool to sit on, and my coupons up on the shelves also.  Sitting here I have a nice view of the back yard too.

(Thanks to my new daughter for putting on all these handles!!)

You can't see the whole thing, but this tall cabinet now houses all the counter top appliances and the china is up on the top shelf.  It is all fitting very nicely.

This is what used to be in that space.  I know, it's a before and after, but I didn't want to re-write this whole thing because of one out-of-sinc photo.  You can handle that right? My smart readers?  Right?

This is what I decide (for now) for the kitchen window.  It's just a shower curtain rod with lots of ribbon tied on.  It keeps the setting sun from shining in our eyes, but still lets in plenty of light.  Plus it adds some movement and novelty to all the flat, straight lines of the kitchen.

And here is a change we decided on today.  We had planned to use this tall drawer as a garbage area, but we needed a place for our tall platters that we use ALL THE TIME.  We didn't want them stowed away or on top of the fridge where they used to be.  So, we put them in the clean garbage can and shazam!  Perfect.  And, if you can see it, there is a little drawer for dish washing supplies which helps so keep the sink area tidy looking.

Now, it's back to work! 

Danny cut a bunch of  trim at Rick and Kate's this morning.  We had planned to work all day, but Danny is on-called and got called-on.  So, a 3 hour break in the work, but time to up-date this blog.  

Pretty soon now and there will be no up-dates!  I am looking forward to that! :)  But for now, enjoy!

Day 11

Mother's Day

Didn't do that much.  Eric and Elizabeth helped cutting the counter top.  Pretty much it.

Day 12

Danny back to work

Danny gets up early and works on the kitchen.  He goes to HomeDepot at lunch.  Does a little work in the evening.  Things are much slower.  I am able to sand and oil the counter top.  Also, I am putting stuff back in their cabinets.  I can only do the upper cabinets right now and most of that is done.

Day 13

Danny gets up early and works on the kitchen.  He comes home at lunch and moves the counter top back into the house because of rain.  Laundry day for me.  Oil and sand again.  Work on biz stuff.  More cleaning.

Some thoughts and things I've learned in no particular order

#1 It does matter which way the shop vac is pointed.  I was trying to vacuum up saw dust while blowing it all over the place.  Guess I've never used a shop vac before.

#2  Remodeling  makes a pessimist feel good and makes an optimist feel bad.  I am happy because things are going much better than I ever imagined.  Danny thought it would be easier.  Kinda funny!

#3 I like my butcher block counter top as much as I thought I would.

#4 Chores go un-done during a remodel.  I'm trying to catch up on weed pulling and house cleaning...and we are out of apples.

#5  We are tired of frozen food even though we have been thankful to have it.

#6 I miss my kitchen sink more than I ever imagined.

#7 I'm still nervous about power tools and it's still best that I leave the area.  But, I did use a drill and battery powered screw driver.  I know, I'm a whimp, but I stretched my self.

#8 Our plumber (Intergrity Plumbing) is a great guy.

#9 Taking my mom's advice and having a date night.

Day 10 

This is part of what Jamie did today.  She now has a baking center.  Supplies in one deep drawer and pans in another.  She got the baskets from the Dollar Tree and that makes everything so easy to locate.

Like I said...lots of leveling.  Danny got all the boxes in so it is starting to look like a real kitchen again.

Three person job...cutting the counter top that is solid wood.  It is lovely.  I like it so much.  Abby did more than hold that piece of wood.  She did a bunch of yard work that has been neglected due to the remodel. Kaz did more than hold that wood too.

Besides helping Danny with all the heavy stuff and measuring and calculating, he helped me with my little cookbook area.  I really like having a special place for my cook books.  We made these little shelves that fit this nook nicely.  It's one of the touches that I really wanted.

Now you can see the thick wood counter top.  It made me so happy to see it in place.  (Note Kaz making calculations in the background.)  It is not complete, but you can really get a feel for the whole kitchen now that the counter top is in.

Here's another view of the counter top.  I really like it!--Can you tell?

The sunsets on another long day of dedicated labor.  I had hoped it would all be done today.  We didn't make it.  Still have the sink and dishwasher to put in and many little details.  I was hoping we could take tomorrow off, but I'm not sure now.  We can live without the dishwasher but it would be nice to have the sink.  Guess we'll just see what tomorrow brings.  It IS good to take a day off, but it would be good to have it closer to done before Danny goes back to work next week.

Well, I'll keep you posted on what we decide.

Day 9 (written on day 10)

Abby was home to help today.  Thank you Abby!  We built drawers...a room full of them!

The she started to fill up cabinets!  Yahoo!  I was not looking forward to climbing those stairs.  

And note the little black handles and under cabinet lights!  Oh the luxury of light!

 She put some white dishes in the frosted glass cabinet and it looks really nice.

 After the lighting we got in some bottom cabinets.  This really took a long time.  Leveling and cutting out pieces of the floor and leveling again and again.  Good thing Danny is doing it.  If I was left to it, we would have un-level cabinets.

So these few pictures represent almost 12 hours of work.  We did stop to eat, clean, etc.  It is just amazing sometimes how long a little thing can take.  But, like leveling, it is the foundation for so much more.  We have to get that right first or everything else we be skewed.  So, you get 4 photos for 12 hours of work.  And that is how it goes in remodeling and in life.

Back to work!

Days 6 and 7 (written on day 8)

This first picture is just to show you what I see every morning.  First thing. Ugh. 

Day 6 was not very fun.  I had to do laundry and Danny had to work half a day, so we didn't see much progress.  I did build all the top cabinet boxes but nothing go hung so it didn't feel like much.

When we did start working to put the microwave back in, we found that whoever put it in the first time made many mistakes.  It was too late to work on it that night so we had to wait until the next day.

 (just showing you  this because I love the reflection in the glass.  I never planned on this nice reflection and it  kinda feels like there is another window in the room!)

 (This will hold all my big, heavy, bulky appliances!!)

Then, day 7...and yippeeeee!!  We can actually SEE the fruits of our labor! :)

 These are the boxes that I had built.  Now they are up and with doors and shelves.

 You can't see it in the photo, but we also got the microwave in which was a HUGE success!  

Danny and I also met with the kids we are mentoring so we had to stop early.  This was a good thing because we were SO tired.  Danny's mentee helped him put in a door.  I took my mentee to Home Depot and she helped me pick up so shelf brackets.  So it was fun to have them be part of this process!

Here is a shot of the boxes I made yesterday.  They will be for the lower cabinets.  All the cabinets are made.  Now to install them, the sink, the dishwasher, the counter top, the tile backsplash, toe-kick, etc., etc.,  etc....We have lots of work yet to do, but seeing the upper cabinets done was a nice lift to our spirits!

Today (Day 8) Danny has to go in to work.  I have to buy groceries, go to IKEA for back ordered supplies and do other chores that won't go away just because we are re-doing the kitchen.  I doubt if much gets done today.  At least nothing you can take a photo of...unless you want to see me shopping at Costco!

For you thinking of remodeling some day...Jamie said last night, "it's tiring living here and I'm not even doing that much!" This is true.  It's the topsy-turvy nature of the whole thing...trying to find your keys, the phone, the level, the stamps...this is what is tiring.  When finding a place to eat is a challenge, you know it is tiring to live here!  

However, we are thankful that the LORD has kept harmony in our home thru it all!  And that is a HUGE blessing right there!!! So it is possible, by God's grace, to do a kitchen re-model without marriage counseling!

Thanks for reading. Stayed tuned!

Days 4 and 5

Very early Sunday morning Danny tore out all the moldy fiberglass and put in fresh new fiberglass insulation. This made it possible for Beth to come over and see the kitchen!

After church, after lunch, and before the softball game, Will and Kaz helped Danny measure and cut the concrete board which is replacing everything that was moldy.

Then we all went to the softball game where it was MUCH colder than we expected but was just as fun as it always has been! There were no injuries so that made it a wonderful game!!!

Monday morning I took the camera around the house so you could see...

 Dishes in my bathroom sink!

 Dishes in my shower...

 Dishes in the other bathtub.  

We keep saying that living with remodeling is like camping.  We keep telling each other that...and reminding ourselves how much we like camping! (heavy sigh)

Then today,  Danny worked on electrical--with only two 'explosions' (Many thanks to Bill Santee for helping via phone and Ian Serff for still more tools!)

 I spent the day making cabinets and

  I had my first glimpse of COLOR!

This is the first cabinet I made...

 And here are some more...

 And as you can tell the room is starting to clear out!

Everyone has been very helpful and had great attitudes!  It is all going much better than I had hoped!  But I must tell you one funny conversation that I over heard.

Upon opening a package it was discovered that the instructions were on the bottom of all the pieces.  Kaz jokingly said to Jamie, "You opened it from the wrong side" to which Jamie quickly replied, "No, they put the directions in on the wrong side!"

Plus, you must know that we listen to jazz music while we work and that The French Press (on the corner of Iliff and Chambers) is fueling this project! :)

Thanks for following along!

Day 3 (written on day 3)

While these handy men were working away on the kitchen

 These crazy kids were running the Spartan Race!

 Reading directions

Making lots of trash

Building cabinets!

Today we were blessed by William, William and Jonathon Hutchings, as well as faithful Kaz (who just stayed  over after the late night stargazing trip.)  This crew got so much done!  It has given me hope that we may really finish this project by Mother's day!  

Kudos to Jamie Lee for many of the photos and for suggesting a trip to get bagels!

Stopping early tonight because we have meetings to attend.  It's a good thing.  We need the rest.  Still haven't decided how much (if at all) we will work on Sunday.  Church and ballgame are already in the plans. We'll see--and so will you!