DONE!

You know how it is when you're expecting a group of people to visit your house and you all-of-a-sudden look around and say, "Oh, crud! My house looks awful! I can't let people see it like this!"? Well, I do that all the time (even if you don't). Then I scramble about in a panicked state trying to clean up, touch up paint, hide junk in the bathroom closet (now you know where I stash my clutter), and light a candle hoping the lovely fragence will distract anyone from noticing that I haven't dusted for weeks, maybe longer.

Anyway, a group of our friends has been having appetizer parties where everyone brings an appetizer or other type of dish to share. It's kind of a potluck only with less stress and preparation. Well, it was our turn to host the next appetizer gathering. I committed to hosting this event a good four weeks ago, so I knew that "Oh-crud-my-house-looks-awful" moment was fast approaching. To my delight, Bill knew it, too, and he also knew that there was only one project left to do to complete the kitchen: the crown molding. Kudos to him for knowing that my stress level would peg at dangerously high levels if the construction part of the kitchen was left undone for the appetizer party.

So, while I was in Florida with the boys visiting Mom and Dad, he set to work. He bought some cheap molding at Menards to use as practice pieces and started cutting different angles to make sure he could get just the right cut for the crown molding on the cabinets. Then, he went about finishing, as in applying a finish, to the crown molding. Bill opened a can of finish and set it on top of a piece of newspaper on a kitchen chair where he began painting the molding. Kudos #2 to Bill for putting the can of finish on a piece of newspaper instead of directly on the chair.

Unfortunately, Bill decided to start finishing the molding during the NCAA basketball play-offs, so he took a little break to check on the scores of the games. Enter our delightful puppy, Beauregard. Sure, he looks all cute and innocent, but believe me, that's just an act. And yes, he's only ten months old.

Now, Beau just loves to grab little things that he's not supposed to have (we blame Angus for teaching him that little trick), and lo' and behold, he strolled by the chair at just the moment Bill left to check basketball scores and decided that the time was right for swiping a piece of newspaper. Yep. I bet you can guess what happened.

It's a good thing The Incident of the Puppy and the Wood Finish happened while the boys were out of the house because I doubt that the auditory atmosphere would have been appropriate for them if you know what I mean. The good news is that the floor cleaned up well, and for the life of me, I can't even tell where the finish was spilled. Oh, and Beau lived on to see his next sunrise, and Bill was off to buy another can of finish.

By the time we got back from Florida, Bill had one piece of molding in place--the piece above the cabinet next to the sink. I think he wanted my opinion on how it looked before he installed all of it. Of course, once we got home from FL, it took me a few minutes to notice that he had started installing the crown molding, but I'll chalk that up to the fact that our flight got in around midnight, and after traveling all day and hanging out at Atlanta International Airport for four hours with two boys, I was not at my best.

Over the next week and a half, in between shuffling the kids off to guitar, piano, Tai Kwon Do, swimming, friends' houses, and sleepovers, not to mention working full time, Bill managed to finish off the crown molding, piece by piece. The finished product turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself, and it was finished two full days before the appetizer party. Check out the before/after photos and the slideshow below:

So, I think we are ready to call the kitchen project officially DONE! I smile every day that I walk into my kitchen, and the best thing is that we can now have people over and not gather in small cramped spaces. The island is the perfect place for folks to stand around, visit, and munch on some tasty food. So don't hesitate to stop by and check out the kitchen for yourself. We'll be happy to give you the grand tour. Now, about our master bedroom. . .

Countertops

I know, I know. I haven't posted anything on the blog recently, but here's what I have done: washed loads and loads of laundry, driven Elijah to swim practice countless times, taught six evening classes, helped Andrew with homework nightly, taken Beau to the Dog Park twelve times, cleaned the house (kinda), cooked too few meals, picked up take-out too many times, gone to class at ISU three times, and otherwise tried to keep things running around the house. (In other words, don't gripe about the sparse blog postings--we've all been busy!)

Anyway, we now have countertops! Wow! What a difference the countertops make. No longer are we trying to prepare decent meals on partial pieces of particle board precariously set atop our cabinets. It was no easy feat getting the countertops installed, though. Trying to fit the cooktop into the lower cabinet proved much more involved than we had hoped because it set lower into the cabinet than we had planned for, and it was wider than any other cooktop ever manufactured. At one point, I suggested we use butter to see if it would help us wrangle the cooktop into the cabinet and countertop, but we finally did get it in without the food additives--just barely. The good news is that we didn't have to worry about the island countertop moving around before it was secured in place; the cooktop was holding it tight.

Next, we had to connect the two pieces of the countertop that run along the wall. Fortunately, Andrew had a friend over to play as Bill was trying to attach the two pieces, so Bill wasn't able verbally articulate his feelings about the countertop installation process for fear of offending Andrew's friend. (Notice that I'm not too concerned about our children being offended--it's been a long, long project with lots of verbal articulation of frustrations, and they're used to it.) I'll have to keep that handy little strategy in mind, and next time there's a nasty job to be done, I'll have Andrew invite his friend over again. Anyway, after an afternoon of gluing, attaching, connecting, and shoving, the countertops are fully installed. Here's how they look:

Not too shabby, huh? Of course, we have to attach the under-cabinet lighting wires, and we still have a lot of finishing touches left to do, but we're getting there. The countertops were a huge step forward. Hopefully this weekend, we'll get the microwave installed--which means more cutting into the oven cabinet. Hey, Andrew. Give your friend a call and see if he can come over, will you?

Oh, and Beau continues to grow. The last time we had him weighed a few weeks ago, he tipped the scales at 65 pounds. No telling how much he weighs now, but he's already a few inches taller than Dooley at the shoulders. Sadly, the beast still thinks he's small enough to fit into his puppy bed. Soon, his puppy bed will be his pillow--he just doesn't know it yet.

Lights, Wine, and Oven

We've made a bit more progress--some nice finishing touches that are really making the kitchen look more put-together. The light fixture above the island is in, and after much debate as to where it should be placed (and even more exciting trips to the attic for Bill) we're pretty pleased. Here's what it looks like:

We also have the measuring mix-up turned wine rack in place. Now I have a great reason to buy wine--because I have to fill the wine rack! Hey, I also have a great reason to drink wine--because we have some on hand! It's a win-win situation:

But perhaps the most exciting accomplishment is that we now have a functioning oven and cooktop. We had to cut into the oven cabinet to make the oven fit into the opening, so I think Bill and I were finding all kinds of other things to do so we could avoid that stress-inducing project. However, once we measured, measured again, measured again, and again, and again, we went ahead and fired up the saw. In the end, the opening for the oven was perfect! Whew! It's good to have that project behind us. Of course, the wiring of the oven was, well, a bit exciting shall we say? Let's just leave it at, the oven works great, and a few black scorches inside the cabinet will never be seen by anyone when the microwave is in place.

Now, all we have left is the countertop, which will be ready in about two weeks, and some cosmetic things like crown moulding and trim for around the doors and floor. Yes, the kitchen is finally taking shape, and tomorrow, I plan to bake some brownies in spite of the projected high temperature of 90. Oh, and the boys are excited because Bill's going to make them his world-famous pancakes for breakfast, too. Yep, having a functioning kitchen is quite a luxury, one that I appreciate now much more than I did before this project began.

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.

Until There Was Nothing. . .Except a Groovy Floor

Well, we've been served our last meal. No, we're not awaiting a tragic fate--we've just removed all kitchen-y things from the kitchen and the room is officially empty. The last meal cooked in the kitchen, by the way, was Dad's delicious chocolate chip pancakes, a special request from both boys this morning.

After breakfast, Bill cleaned up, ran the water for the last time, and began to destroy the remains of the kitchen. I attempted to take the boys to church, (there was a church picnic at an alternate location this morning about which I totally forgot and then ended up missing church) while Bill dug in with a crow bar, hammer, safety goggles, and a whole lot of toil. By the time I got home with the boys, all the lower cabinets were gone, the stove was out front, and the dishwasher was almost out the door. Bill finished tearing out the drywall and then rewired a few outlets. Then, after moving a couple of switches, it was time to tackle the floor.

Ah, the floor. There were three layers of linoleum, each one uglier than the next. Now, I don't care what kinds of illicit things people were doing back in the 70's; there is no excuse for a floor that looks like this (see photo below). Plus, there was a subfloor that was 3/8 inches thick. The worst part: there were about ten three-inch nails per foot of subfloor--no lie! See the photographic evidence below. Bill worked all day and managed to get half of the floor out and to the dumpster. It looks like the rest of the floor will be coming out later this week. For now, we have a wide open kitchen with only the soffit and floor left to remove. Unfortunately, the soffit was built off of the rafters, so as soon as we take the soffit out, all the insulation will fall down, too. Anyone know any magic tricks to keep this from happening?

In the meantime, we're using the Mud Room as a kitchen. In case you're wondering what people eat when they don't have a kitchen, tonight's fare included grilled meats (sirlion), microwave mashed potatoes (no gravy), and grapes all served on the finest paper plates money can buy. Stay tuned for more culinary delights from the newest in fine dining, the Mud Room.

And the Walls. . . Come Tumbling Down

First of all, we're pleased to say that the mud room is functional and looks good to boot. We'll move the refrigerator into the room soon, but for now, the room has already come in handy. The pocket door allows us to feed Angus her breakfast and dinner without one lively little puppy harrassing her. Plus the shelves hold a lot of food which will come in handy when we get rid of the kitchen cabinets.

But the most exciting news is that the kitchen wall is almost gone! (Slideshow below.) From the beginning when Bill was explaining the ways of science to Elijah (ala Monte Python) to only the studs remaining, it took just about an hour or so--and almost no swearing! There is already a lot more light in the kitchen and the space feels huge! The next step is to work on the wiring which Bill will probably do today. Then, it's time to tear out the cabinets. It's starting to feel like we're really making some progress.