Almost there....

We have the cabinet guys coming back tomorrow to install the panels on the refrigerator and the dishwasher, the cabinet hardware and hopefully put up the other bookcase that's been sitting in the middle of my dining room for a couple of weeks now. We are still waiting on the refrigerator hardware to come in and I need to get up to the tile store this week to pick out what I want for my back splash.

I actually cooked my first meal in the new oven, Stuffed Chicken Parmesan!! It was YUMMY! Desert was chocolate cake that Nate and the kids made on Saturday. It felt so good to sit down at our table and eat as a family, not out at a restaurant somewhere.


So I bought these bar stools at a bare wood store this weekend (2 more are on there way from another store) that are a replica of THIS chair from Pottery Barn but WAY cheaper, and I can't decide if I want to paint them black or another color. What do you think?



I think I'm going to get a little bench to put under the desk area with a matching cushion from the fabrics that I will use on the window seats. A chair just seems out of place there, don't you think?





Here is a picture of my newly configured living room. Next summer, our plan is to push this room out about 10 feet, add a pool, a playroom for the kids and a master bathroom (as our master bath is the size of a hall closet right now!) We'll see where the economy is before taking the plunge, as we will have to do a lot of reconfiguring with the roof line, which is very costly.

Cabinets, Bookcases and Appliances Oh My!

Things have been really busy at our house this week!! The cabinets arrived last Friday. I wasn't home when they were delivered, so I was shocked when I saw how many there actually were! They took up practically the whole room!



They started installing/laying everything out on Saturday, and after they left yesterday, this is what we have so far!







This is my favorite spot, a little mud room for the kids to put all their stuff when they walk in the door from school.





Also while I was gone yesterday, all the appliances (with the exception of the cook top that is back ordered until SEPTEMBER, grrrr....) arrived!! I have NO idea how they got the refrigerator through the front door and how it didn't leave a mark on the ceiling!!



We are getting so close to being able to have a kitchen, I can hardly stand it!! The granite company is supposed to come out tomorrow to template and then it's another 7 days until they will install it. Who would have thought a granite company would be so busy with the way the economy is right now?

I will update with more pictures soon!!

Butterfly and Kitchen update!!

Our caterpillars arrive on June 17th and 3 days later (on Mallory's birthday), we had this!



All five of them had made their christhylists and now the waiting game was on! They said it would take between 7-10 days for the butterflies to emerge, but ours came a little sooner! Mallory wanted to keep them in their little net cage, but I didn't like that idea, as it was so small. On Sunday morning after a donut breakfast, we decided to let them go!







All in all, I think it was a great experience for the kids to see. Once the kitchen is complete and all the dust has settled, I think we are going to get the ladybug set!

Speaking of the kitchen, we are making great strides this week!! All the A/C vents are in their proper places, the electrical wiring is pretty much done until the cabinets and appliances get here, the plumbing is complete (after they dug a HUGE trench through the kitchen concrete and terrazzo for the new drain in the island) and we have a new wall and the drywall is going up!! Nathan and I are going to pick out the paint color tomorrow as well as the hardware for the cabinets and drawers! He has the day off and the kids will be in camp! Woo-hoo!

Here are some pictures from this afternoon.



See the diagonal line running across this picture? That's from the new plumbing line!

Day 6 of Kitchen Remodel

It's only been six days since I was able to use anything in my kitchen and I've cried two of those days!! The combination of Nate cutting his hand, my car having to go back to the dealership AGAIN for the same problem it was there for LAST WEEK, our washing machine breaking AGAIN after someone was out to fix it LAST WEEK, Mallory having an ear infection, and just having to get used to walking out the front door and opening the garage door 45 times a day just to get something out of the refrigerator has put me over the edge a few times!! The good news is, the kitchen will be making a lot of progress this week. The walls from the old kitchen will be coming down tomorrow and the new wall will be going up. The electrician is coming on Monday to start all the new wiring and moving some of the switches. The air conditioning company will be creating a new vent for the hood and a new air return.

This is our new wall, to keep all the dust on the other side with the construction. Yes, that's Jack passed out on the couch after a long morning at the beach!



Here is the wall without the mirror. That built-in shelf is connected to my sewing room, so I will have to relocate a few things when they take that out.



No more cabinets!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall....

Remember that mirrored wall photo from my last post? Well, guess what it did to my husband today while he was trying to tear it down during the big "Demo" day today?

I was given strict instructions to have the kids out of the house all day today. So, that gave us a great reason to head to the 9:15 church service this morning. Vacation Bible School starts this week and I volunteered to help with the decorations, so we didn't get out of church until 1:30. I took the kids to my parents house afterward and then came to check on the progress. Nate and "Bird" (one of his carpenters from work) were just finishing putting up the partition walls and would be starting to tear down the walls (pictures of this to come tomorrow!). I grabbed a couple things for the kids to play with, along with my sewing machine to finish up my orders and headed back to my parents to spend the afternoon.

The phone rang about 2:30, it was my dad, he said Bird just dropped Nate off at the Emergency room, as he had sliced his hand opened. My mom and I were wondering what in the world was he doing to slice his hand open?? I left the kids there to play and headed down to the hospital. Apparently, the mirrored wall was not-so-easily removed, one of the pieces shattered, cut right through Nate's leather glove and sliced his hand. The doctor said if it had been 2 mm deeper, he would have lost the movement in his pinky finger. 3 hours and 5 stitches later, we were eating delicious lasagna at my parents house with my grandparents!

Goodbye 1962

When we bought our house 5 years ago, we set aside some money from the sale of our previous home to remodel this kitchen. After many different designs and battles with my dear husband about it, we are FINALLY starting the remodel (demo) TOMORROW!!! This is going to be a 6-8 week project with us living through the whole thing. It will be very interesting with 2 smalls kids and our "guard" dog. My sewing room shares a wall with the remodel, so I will not be sewing for the rest of the summer.

I thought I would share a few before pictures, well sort of before pictures. I had already starting packing/removing things from the walls and book shelves.

I am so excited about my new kitchen, with all the new appliances and more storage. I am going for a Seaside feel to my entire house. Nathan is not to keen on this idea, but I think once he sees the completed kitchen, he'll love it as much as I do.

This is our little breakfast area, that will become a little sitting area with bookshelves and a window seat.



Don't you just love this itty bitty microwave that we've been using for 5 years, and that brown tile!





The 80's mirrored wall is such a nightmare with little kids!!! In our new kitchen, this will be where our refrigerator and stove will be. There will be an island coming out from there, about where the couch is.



I'm also trying to sell Nate on the idea that we need new wood floors. The yellow oak will not go with the look that I'm trying to create, but he's not budging on this one...yet!! I want what is called Black Vintage Mahogany. It's wide planked and a darker wood.

Hopefully, in 6-8 weeks, my new kitchen will look like this!!