SO>>>?????

For those of you wondering, we've decided to take the weeknights off - so nothing new until Friday!

Almost excited to go back to work

okay, so the weekend was a little long. The kids are tired of us working.... YIKES! Finding jobs for them to do has been a bit daunting, but they are becoming more handy each day - by the end of this, they will both be pros!

We are starting to see progress. The pocket door into the laundry room is done (save some trim, but who needs that anyway!) - and new drywall is up. The plumbing went exceptionally smoothly - a first in this house. John was able to move the pipes over a few inches to clear the door - and this actually leaves us a way to get to them should we ever need to - they will be behind the filler piece for the cabinets. Since they feed the master bath (another project with a timeline yet to be determined), access may be handy.

The foyer tile is laid and set. Just a few end pieces missing - these need to be cut and we only want to rent the saw for one weekend. The running bond pattern is awesome! Jessica actually helped with the thin set and set the tiles (by sitting on them) as Mom went along - and she set all the spacers cleaning out extra thin set as we went (she is up for contract if anyone needs help).

So our plans for the next week include designing the lighting plan, tearing out the kitchen ceiling (and the God awful fluorescent light!!) in order to put in the recessed lights. With as much patching as we would have to do with tearing out the bulkheads, the light fixture and putting in the recessed lights, we think it will be easier to simply tear the whole thing down and start clean. Thank goodness we know a few builders who have drywall guys....

Oh - and for those of you who know us and keep score - no injuries (yet!)

21 February 2009

Hello everybody.

Well today involved tearing out the doorway and wall between the kitchen and the laundy room. Here's my helper lending a hand.

The wall itself came down with little resistence, but the water supply pipes feeding the master bedroom were inside the wall!!!

You can see the pipes in the picture above. Fortunately, this house is plumbed with CPVC pipes which will make moving these pipes so much easier. Plus, I get to go to Lowe's again (YAY).

The tile starting going down too. After a few hours of (heated) debate, we finally settled on a running bond pattern for the tiles. A couple rows are down, just enough to let us know that the pattern we chose was the right one. What do you think?

Not as much progress as I'd hoped for today. More work to do tomorrow.

Starting Point

Okay, so here's where we are starting. The kitchen is relatively small, with dark wood cabinets and laminate countertops. There is a desk beside the fridge - really, why would anyone put one of these in- with a terrible hutch thing above it. Cute little drawers, but definately a catch all. Our last house had lots of 42" cabinets and a huge island, so as you can see, space is a little tight. A lot of our kitchen stuff is still in boxes - we just unpack it when we need it and then put it back in the box. The soffit is about 12" - I say about, because it's not quite 12 in some spots, and more than 12 in others - go figure! It's coming down just as soon as possible.

The floor in the kitchen and laundry room (beyond the door) is a gray "marbly" ceramic tile - very slick when wet! The foyer floor is a dark gray - almost black - slate which crumbles when you walk on it (or chase the dogs thru).

So, to date, we have the slate up - most of which came up in whole tiles so if you know anyone who may be interested let us know. And the walkway between the foyer and kitchen is up - those ceramic tiles are truly a pain in the rear! Thanks to a friend who lent us an air chisel, it's been going much better, but it has still taken the better part of a week.

Tonight we're ripping down the pantry wall - look for those photos soon.

Welcome

Hello friends and readers alike! Welcome to our first attempt at blogging. We decided to memorialize our kitchen remodel, step by step, to document what we did, how we did it, and maybe, just maybe, why we did it. Hopefully, we'll stick with the project and hopefully you'll stick around to see us through it.

We recently bought our "dream house". I put "dream house" in quotes since it's more of a nightmare from the mid-eighties. But like they say on the TV shows, it's got good bones -- and 3 1/2 acres to play on!! Plus with the housing market in the crapper we got a pretty good deal and managed to sell our old house to boot.

When the house was built in 1991, I suppose the current trend of big kitchens and open spaces must've have either not started yet, or simply skipped right over this house. The kitchen and breakfast nook are small and the rest of the house is a mix of closed off rooms and tied together but not quite open spaces.

Either way, the kitchen has to go but along with the kitchen -- the breakfast nook, walkway and foyer have to go too. There is just no way to do just one part without touching the others. And besides, while the hammers are out might just as well.

That's about enough for now. The first step is going to be the foyer, walkway and breakfast nook. Please come back and visit us soon and feel free to leave comments along the way. It'll be therapeutic to know that folks are out there watching.

14 Feb 2009
J&J.