We have walls! and INSULATION

Lots going on this week. We have insulation and walls and a new window! It's been fun to watch the progress.




aahhhhh...insulation! Who knew I would ever be excited to see this kind of stuff! Times have changed from my Esprit clothes and Saab...onto warmer and better gas bill types of things! Oh my gosh...I am talking like an adult...eew!

No lights to Bright lights

The electrician, Joe, came in on Monday to start the process of roughing in the lighting. We actually decided to {well had to} update the whole electrical box if we were going to update the kitchen. There was only one 3-prong plug in our old kitchen and that was on the controls for the stove. I had to use my big mixer while balancing it on the coiled burners. A great feat in itself.
I was a little nervous watching Joe scope out the kitchen for where things are going to go...thinking the whole time that he was going to find something that wasn't right and it was going to cost us a lot more money. He worked hard all day and had it laid out and wires strung up throughout the kitchen by sundown. The can lights had looptie loops in the cieling and the outlets were waiting for a box to be put in place.


And today, Voila, we have lighting!


We did run into a little snag. Our upstairs tub started to leak through the kitchen ceiling, through the cabinets, through the light fixture, onto the floor to make a GIANT mess about a year ago. Yes, 1 year ago. We knew we would have to cut into the ceiling and if we were going to re-do the kitchen, why do that twice? We waited. Well, on Monday, the plumbing needed some fixing. New pipes. Re-routing. A big ol'price tag. BUT we can now use the upstairs shower and have 2 bathrooms that work! Yeah!

Day 3

I was at work when Brian called to tell me he was sending me a photo of the days progress...he told me to be sure I was sitting down.

The whole back wall of the house was missing!!!


But when I came home from work...this is what I saw.

Day 2

The next day they removed the stove, sink, countertop, and the rest of the cabinets.

Day 1 {Tuesday Sept. 28, 2009}

They arrived at 8:00am, coffee in hand, and smiles on their faces. Rick, Dan, and John. Ready for the tear down/out of our kitchen. It was puring rain and every time they went out to put something in the dumpster, they came back in soaking wet! {I felt really bad about this so I made more coffee. It's not like I could bake cookies}

Mission Day 1: Take out as much of the cabinetry and walls as they can.



I have been in love with the idea of a bungalow kitchen nook and the booths that go with them. They are sweet, charming, and so classic to the bungalow style house. What can't you love about them. While trying to design this new kitchen, we have talked and talked about having some built-in seating made to keep with the bunglaow style. Well, look what they found when they took off some of the wall...Why, I wonder, did they take those out?

Our Kitchen Renovation Begins!

We started our kitchen reno last week...I have been without a 3-prong adapter for my computer because we needed it for the microwave and coffee pot. :)
Let me take a walk through the old kitchen and help you understand why we decided to update! This is our backdoor. We use{d} this door for our main in/out door.

This is the "back hall" which is only a small entry way which goes into the kitchen. There were two large cabinets that went up to the ceiling which I could never reach because I am kind of short. We had a counter here too which caught everything! and was always a mess! Shoes, purses, junk, junk, and more junk!

Heading into the kitchen there was a small peninsula that held the drop-in style stove from 1960 {we even found the brochure for this stove and it was actually dated with 1960!} above the stove there was a hood...a hood which took at least 1o minutes to "warm-up" before the jet engine sounding wind tunnel began to blow whatever you were cooking back in your face! And a lovely shelving unit which was so obtrusive that even I had to duck to talk to someone standing on the other side.


As you walked past the peninsula the refrigerator was on your right and the "nook" was off to the left. Let's talk about the nook...that we never used because it was too small for us to sit in there. You could get in but you could not get out if anyone else was with you. It had 9 foot ceilings with cabinets built right up to the ceiling. Again, storage option, nice. Could I ever get in there? No. So, we turned it into the "cats den" and fed the cats in there, with their own table too!



Our sink was under a window on the wall with most of our cabinets. It was a great sink but the window was something to complain about. It never opened and it was really old. It was always dirty because it was so high up that we couldn't really get to it to clean in...excuses excuses. When you really don't like something, it's easy to ignore it and pretend you don't see it. :)

And just a few more things around our kitchen that will surely not be missed!





Ahhh...change will be good!

A NEW KITCHEN!!! say it with me...A NEW KITCHEN!!!

We bought our house in 2003 two months before we got married. We were on a serious hunt to find a house that we would love and grow in. One Sunday morning our real estate agent called us and told us he knew of a house going up for sale that day and we could go see if before they listed it, so off we went. We drove up to 3307 Dellwood and fell in love. I loved the tree lined street, the kids were out playing, the sun was out, and it wasn't baby blue {not that it isn't a nice color it just isn't for me}. We went through the house looking at things {like a blue leather couch}, talking to the current owner {while she showed me her kids school schedule}. Not noticing the lovely colors of paint they had used {crayola red} or tons of wall paper on the walls or the black bathroom...and who needs to look at the appliances {from 1960} or faux butcher block counter tops??? I LOVED it. I loved the layout and the bones, everything else was cosmetic, right???

Fast forward 6 years...and we have decided to FINALLY realize the kitchen we use on a daily basis and that we cook Thanksgiving and Easter dinner in for 8+ people every year-- HAS TO GO! It is not cosmetic. It is red plaid wall paper with yellowing edges that peel. It is gross flourescent under cabinet lighting, and faux butcher block counter tops. It is a 1960's stove that has the controls built into the wall {???} and Boy is it going to GO! In about 2 weeks...it is going down to the studs! Only to be rebuilt with pretty new cabinets and updated electrical and new appliances! A WALL to be forever removed! I cannot wait!! I am scared about the whole thing since we will be without out kitchen for 6-8 weeks {yikes} but when it's done, I have a beautiful picture in my mind's eye.

I will {definitely} be keeping up to date with photos and the struggles that go with such a huge renovation project. Yahoo!! A new kitchen!