Yet Another Kitchen Update

I've realized that all home improvement projects take a long time to finish. When James told me, "Oh yeah, we'll just install new cabinets, throw in some laminate countertops, and then throw in the sink", I had visions of it all taking about 4 hours. We'll probably be done in about 4 weeks. That's okay - not having a sink is a great excuse for not cooking a great dinner!

This is what the cabinets look like so far. We still have another one to throw up on the left but we're having stud issues right now. And by stud, I am not talking about James.

We said from the start that we were going to use the in-stock laminate at Lowe's or Home Depot. Why? Because it's cheap. To give a cost comparison, we estimated that granite would be about $3,000 - that does include installation though. Our in-stock laminate was a whopping $160 for all of the countertops! Not too shabby! On display, we didn't really like this pattern - but after matching it up with our cabinets, we decided that we do like it. We change our minds a lot.

I have to give James some serious credit with this sink business. Even though the plumbing isn't attached yet and it's 10 pm on Monday, he's done really well so far! He cut the hole for the sink and it was perfect. Literally. No sanding, no trimming needed. After he used his jigsaw to cut the massive hole needed for the sink, the sink just plopped right in and it looks beautiful! We went with a double bowl sink so I can let all the dirty dishes pile up during the day and James can wash them when he gets home from work! HA HA HA HA HA!

James back in action! Get to work!

Glitches and Cabinets!

We hit some glitches today when we were installing cabinets. Our minor plumbing problem turned into a 6 hour fix so we had a late start on the cabinets. We tried to replace the pipes with new copper pipes, but the angles were too much and soddering them together was tedious. So we went with Hex tubing.

This is James acting all manly like Paul Bunyon.

We started to install the cabinets!

Ben and Tom wanted to help but we told them that they were both too small. It's good to know that they can fit in the wall cabinets though - maybe that's where I'll put them when they misbehave!

Measuring something or other.

Many thanks to Pappy Gary, Sue and Paul for helping us for over 12 hours today. We are on the right track for having a kitchen again. The plan of attack for tomorrow is buying a sink and countertop to get our sink up and running.

Like Little Elves!

We're staying up and building supports for the cabinets - which, if all goes smoothly, installation will start in about 10 hours. We hit a minor plumbing glitch (we need to move the drain pipe and supply pipes about 8 inches), but Pappy Gary seems to think it's nothing he can't help fix when he gets up.

Getting Busy In The Kitchen

We are actually getting there with the kitchen. Tonight we got rid of the dishwasher and sink. The only thing left is the refridgerator and misc. stuff.

This has been my kitchen for the past 2 1/2 months. I actually like it. The smaller the kitchen, the easier to clean!

Cleaning up before the demo!

James disguising himself as a dishwasher.

James ripping stuff apart!

What our kitchen looks like tonight. Hopefully more will get done tomorrow night and cabinets will come on Saturday!

In Our Free Time...

When we're not busy parenting our kids or knocking down walls and stuff, we like to keep busy. So here's introducing our 84th project we've started - a potential patio! The goal is to have this done by Tom's birthday. We'll relax when we're dead.

James Should Be So Proud - He Built A Staircase!

James finished up the staircase about 2 months ago. It was around the time my camera broke so I didn't capture pictures of it. I don't think I took any pictures of what it was like before hand, but it's much better now!

He built the supports and made it extremely strong!

The stairs - we'll finish them off some day but that's not a priority right now!

Where the yellow wire in the top left hand corner was where the door going down once was. Now it is where the front closet use to be.

These are the main stairs. We just happened to remove the pink carpet from them around the same time as James built the stairs. They aren't in too bad of shape. We just need to sand them and finish them off.

The Revitalization of the Front Porch

I tried to do something with the front of the house to make it look better. It's hard to tell what color our house is. It's either gray or blue. Some sort of chalky Mylanta color. We had this dark blue porch. I did not like it. Most porches are painted with a gray floor. I thought this would make our house look even more bland than it currently did. So I took a chance and painted the floor of the porch a light brown with some orangey/reddish tints. I also had James paint the house numbers and mailbox with some spray paint he "borrowed" from work. I found a flag and pole the old owners left in the basement. I bought a "primitive" star at the Christmas Tree Shop for $6.50. I took some old plant stands we put in storage when Ben started crawling and put them out there. I found some plants on Freecycle. I purchased paint brushes and painting tape at the Dollar Tree. I got two gallons of paint - both $18.50 with a $5 mail-in-rebate. I also purchased 3 bags of Red Mulch for $3.99 each. So I spent a grand total of $47.47 to spruce up the place. Here is proof:

House before my fancy work (notice you cannot even see the house numbers because they are the same color as the house!):

New and Improved (or so I think!):

Other angles of porch:

Also note, that I did everything here. I scraped the paint, I repaired some of the broken pieces of the porch, I painted, I found the free plants. James did spray paint the mailbox and numbers but I think he just did that so I couldn't say that I did everything myself. I told him not to do anything because I'm already making him remodel our kitchen and about 96 other things.