Week #3  Geez I feel like this is week 8.  Last week we took a hiatus due to the cold weather and then snowmageddon hit and we fell under a blanket of 22 inches.  

Scott is coming tomorrow to move the heaters.  We have hot water baseboard natural gas heat which is super warm but the heaters string along every wall!

Dig the wall paper?  :-)

So if you want to move anything you have to move a heater.  Bummer.  Scott can do pretty much anything tho so he's gonna tackle that.  Kids have gone to their dads so no heat wont bother them tomorrow on their 3rd day off of school and 5th day of snow!

Kraft maid cabinetry called today.  Delivery date is February 24!  Im beginning to feel like this will never end!  I just want to snuggle on my couch near the fire and have my house put together.  Some day...some day...

Week 2

Last week ended with a very stressed homeowner exasperated with the cost of the kitchen cabinets.  They are a bit pricey.  Decided over the weekend to go ahead and order them.  They are worth it and will definitely make the kitchen and beautiful and functional place.
I must say Greg at Lowes is wonderful to work with and we got as many discounts as possible!  Great time to get cabinets there by the way!
Today we met again and finalized the design, tweaking it just a little.   White cabinets with an unfinished stove vent hood that we will stain to match the wood top island.  3 glass front upper cabinets (the glass is antiquity which is old bubbly looking glass <3 ) and a white apron sink !

Next at the house is turning off the heat to move the baseboards.  Scott granted my wish of not wanting to do it when its freezing cold outside!  We may get this done tomorrow.

Im looking forward to getting the hardwood floors put in.  Floors make such a difference in the look of the space!  Im opting for wide plank dark walnut.  They're gonna be awesome!

Kitchen cabinets will take 4 weeks to come in.  I have til Monday to pick my counter tops.  Granite?  Quartz?  Anyone have opinions out there?  I still like the granite I picked earlier.  Thats a good sign!

Day 4 and 5

I came home last night to some amazing things taking place! 

We had an odd shaped step up in to the dining area/kitchen area. Greg from Lowes suggested cutting half of it off making it straight across the room, giving more room to the family room.  I loved it!  We even had the top cabinets to make a wall out of! and it was perfect! 

 Oh, Scott wants credit for thinking of this.   He says I always poopoo his ideas. ;-)

Didn't know he was gonna do this but he cut that area yesterday!  It really opens up the space and I can't wait to start using it!  Notice the carpet gone in this area and the black iron railing is now in the backyard.  It might be pretty cool on the patio!

Scott also closed off one of the doors we are getting rid of and closed off the outside door today.  There is another door to the backyard and the one from the kitchen was in an odd space and it wasn't going to be used.  Good place for more cabinet storage!  The inside door went into the formal dining room. I wont be using that space for that purpose.  It was very 60s.  No door again equals more kitchen wall cabinet space.

Im pretty excited how its all coming along!  Scott tore down part of the ceiling downstairs today so he can be ready to move the hot water heaters Monday.  Its only supposed to be 24 degrees that day.  Who needs heat?  Again, thankful for the wood stove!  The ceiling downstairs is growing stalactites and thats a different reno story!  Our basement is so big ( approx 900 sq feet) its gonna need a lot of ceiling and flooring.  That might take a couple years to save enough money to do!

Guess who also made a trip to Lowes today and got this!

And the blueprints.

Plus he gave us a temporary sink!  Our cooking quarters for a while.

Im meeting with Greg again tomorrow about the cabinets.  Ill keep ya updated!

Day #3

Obstacles.  Thats what I think of when I walk into my house and see a layer of sawdust on EVERYTHING!  Hmmmm I guess those rolls of plastic sheeting I bought didn't get used! :-(
Well they did tonight!

Sawdust on my table with my food on it and the plasticware dishes that I have to use (since we don't have a sink) down the hallway to my bedroom (and thats a loooong hall), all over my computer….grrrrrr.

On a more positive note I met with Greg at Lowes today and we picked a cabinet that I think I like the best.  That was a hard decision and I didn't take a picture! Derrr.  I did find a granite that I fell in love with!  Its the one!  It even has a great name:  Delicatus Ice.  Its important to have a good name.

I was sold on quartz and then this one popped up!  Do you see the sticker?  Its on sale too!  What do you think?  Dove white cabinets with these counter tops!  My island top is thick red oak stained a black walnut.  I think this counter top will be perfect!  WOOT!  So excited!

And this is what my kids did at Lowes while I was actively pursuing the perfect cabinet and countertop.

nice...

Now you must excuse me.  I need to wash the dust off my fingers :-/

Day #2

Today the "cabinet man" came from Lowes to assess the kitchen situation.  Greg is awesome!  He and I saw eye to eye and he came up with a brilliant idea to lengthen the family room and get rid of the awkward 1970s (albeit cool) railing around the step!  Im so excited about this!

Tomorrow is cabinet picking day which is pretty excited considering thats the pretty part of the kitchen!  Im still at a loss for what I want!

I like the open cabinets next to the window.  Think they would look good here?  

Those doors are both being walled over!  They will be MIA! And no one will miss them!

The island is coming together well!  We were able to salvage the bottom cabinets and my awesome carpenter, Scott put them all together!  He is putting outlets in each side of them.  See pics below.

We thought about one of those cool pop ups
 but decided against it thinking the kids would destroy it.

  They look really cool tho so if anyone has any experience with these it would be fun to hear from ya!

Note the butcher block which is my counter space as I attempt to cook each evening!  First I have to clean all the dust from everything, vacuum out the burners and find some cookware!  Im thinking of putting something over the old stove so it wont get so dirty each day!

The bad news today was hearing that the cabinets take 4 weeks to come in and the counter tops wont even be measured until they are all installed.  Counter tops take at least 2 weeks to come in.  So we are looking at almost 2 months of living sans kitchen.  I was all smiles after day one.  Day two less so.

We can do this!!!

 Just concentrate on this view 

because from the other side it looks like this :-/

It has started!

In the beginning...

I woke up this morning from a fitful sleep. We just moved into our >4000 sq foot fixer upper in November and today was demo day for the kitchen! I think Im crazy for doing all this sometimes! Last night I cleared out the rest of the cabinets I had just moved our dishes into, thinking the more you do this the better at it you are! At least the house is big enough to accommodate us elsewhere while we do our renovating! Microwave and convection oven set up in the formal dining room with our table and chair, my computer, and A LOT of boxes! Homey! Here are the photos from todays demo! I have to say I got pretty excited after the huge wall of cabinets came down and our lone contractor survived them falling from the ceiling!

 Scott, my contractor, removing the wiring before he saws the one piece humongo cabinet in half!

And it has fallen! Right on the counter!

Now he's contemplating the rest of the demo!

We wanted to salvage as much cabinet from the humongo bar to create an island an open up the space.

I took the tile and moulding off of this wall! :-)

End of day one!  Cabinets for the island all ready in the middle.  

Tomorrow they will be cut to fit each other and the two doors in the kitchen will be removed!