Forward Motion and Tangible Progress

What a difference a day makes! On Friday, our kitchen looked something like this only with a better floor:

By the end of the day on Saturday, it looked like this:

Thanks to the tremendous help of Russ and the errand-running of Dad A., the kitchen really came together in quick order. We are so pleased with the cabinets! The cushion close glides are wonderful and the finish is beautiful. (For some reason, the corner cabinet has some discoloration in these photos, but in real life, it is flawless.)

Of course, it wouldn't be a home improvement project if something didn't go wrong--that seems to be our theme for this project. This time, the snag came when we realized that the sink cabinet would not be centered over the window opening. Apparently, someone's measurements were off by about 6 inches. Yikes! What to do? Just about the time we were ready to mount the off-set kitchen sink cabinet, Bill realized that we could switch out one of the narrower drawer cabinets intended for the island with a wider cabinet next to the oven cabinet. The end result: a slightly larger island, and a sink that is now centered over the window. The added bonus is that there is now a six-inch gap next to the sink cabinet--perfect for a wine rack, which I wanted in the first place but didn't have room for. (The short version: We has a slight snafu. Yada, yada, yada. Now we have a larger island and a wine rack.)

Then, on Sunday, Bill finished the living room floor, so now, not only do we have a kitchen that almost looks like a kitchen, we also have a functional living room. While I'll certainly miss the huge blue plastic tarp that covered our living room furniture and the lovely glow it cast across the room when the sun hit it just right, it is nice to have a room where I can sit and read to Andrew every night.

Of course, there is still a lot to do to finish this project: add the crown molding, trim the floor and the doorways, hook up the dishwasher, order and install a countertop. Now, some of you may be wondering how we've survived this long without a kitchen sink. That's easy. In the interest of saving our precious natural resources like water, we've improvised. Thanks, Andrew, for doing the dishes!

From Destruction to Construction

About a week ago, Bill decided to tear out the soffits, because, when it comes right down to it, there's nothing he enjoys more than being sweaty and covered in insulation. I made myself scarce by taking E, A, and the puppy to a Cross Country meet, so we missed out on the "colorful" language during the tearing-down of the soffits, but Bill did send me some lovely photos through text messaging. Pics like this:

Yep. It was a good day to be away from the house. Of course, no job goes exactly as planned, and this one was no exception. As he was swatting chunks of insultation away from his face, Bill discovered that the electrical work and the plumbing pipe went through--you guessed it--the soffits. So after a few trips to Menards, the wiring and plumbing were moved, and Bill was relieved to have one more nasty job behind him.

With the soffits removed, Bill finished moving all the electrical stuff, and then it was time to hang the drywall. Following a fun-filled day of attaching drywall to the ceiling, we moved onto the walls. Fortunately, we had lots of help. Beau always says, measure twice; cut once:

With the drywall hung, it was time to call someone to finish the drywall. We found the name of a drywaller who--get this--actually came on time, when he said he would, and finished the job by Saturday. Who knew?

While the drywaller was finishing the drywall, Bill worked on installing the can lights. You know him: he never wants to miss an opportunity to crawl into the attic and roll around in the insulation. The can lights look great, and all seven actually light up. (I try not to mention that there are still two lights left to be installed: one over the table, and one over the island. I think I'll wait to remind Bill of those two lights until after he's forgotten about how much he hates insulation.)

So, after a quick paint job, the kitchen is starting to take shape. The walls have color, the lights work, and we've started installing the floor. All this progress was made, mind you, during the Birthday Extravaganza Week with two delightful family gatherings and a lovely neighborhood party thrown in to boot. So, here's where we've been and where we are now:

The kitchen re-model is becoming more fun because each day the kitchen looks a little better than it did the day before. For a while there the room looked worse by the minute; now it looks better by the day. Of course, when I said to Bill, "This is starting to get exciting, isn't it?" he just stared at me and grabbed another beer. Hmmm. Wonder what that means.