Kitchen Renovation - Volume 6, Issue 52

The kitchen is coming along ...SL....O....O....W....LY. But it is coming along. Here are some of the latest pictures. My fantastic Aunt and Uncle from Memphis came to town to help us tile the backsplash over the Christmas weekend. It's so great to have family that likes to help (they actually did, I know!) and is really talented at this stuff. While my aunt and I went through about 30 possible tile designs, and then I even changed my mind again the next day before we started, my uncle was the TILE SAW KING. This was a true team project with all four of us working on it. A week or so after they left, Nick and I grouted and I love the way it turned out. Once our new windows come in, the walls will have a more finished look, but I love the way it looks already.
As you can see, the floor is still in progress. We decided that instead of doing a single pattern all the way across the floor, that it would be more interesting to create a focal point and change up the pattern.
The undercabinet lights create this amazing warm mood lighting that is so welcoming. I know that when we finally finish, our party guests will love hanging out in here, and we will actually encourage everyone to spend all their time in the kitchen.

White dresses galore!

My parents arrived last Wednesday for an intense 4 days of wedding stuff. Florists, wedding coordinator and my favorite, dresses! We got so much done, well more like thinking about all the possibilities and narrowing down the immense options to what will work best for our October 2008 wedding.

I think I may have scared a few of the bridal shop owners when I said I wanted something completely non-traditional. I'm not a strapless, poofy dress kinda girl, so it was kind of a challenge to find other options. But after three bridal shops, Bridals by Lori, La Raine's and Kelly's Closet, I had found 2 dresses that I absolutely love. Either one will be gorgeous and totally comfortable, which was number two on my list of must-have's. I am still trying to decide...

I met two fantastic florists who came highly recommended - John at Twelve, and Susan at Little Sparrow. They both had amazing ideas for flowers and decor and I am so excited with all the options. Suddenly I have all these ideas for the way I want guests to feel when they enter the ceremony and reception and I know that both florists would be able to do an unbelievable job.

The other exciting thing that happened this week was some more major advances in the kitchen remodel. We now have countertops and they are amazing! It's unreal how much the kitchen changed once they were installed. It actually looks like a functioning kitchen now and with the newly installed cooktop it is completely functioning. Yay! Our first dinner on the cooktop was ravioli. Tonight, popcorn is on the menu for a late night snack. With the countertops came the sink and fancy extension faucet which we love. Nick actually loves the faucet so much, he posted on his new blog about it. I'll post some more pics soon of the latest additions.

Countertops and the 'rents

Today is a big day. The kitchen countertops arrive! The countertops are a seriously welcomed addition to the kitchen remodel. Since mid-June we've been under construction and I am so excited to have counters to prep food on and even just pour a drink on. Once the countertops are in, I get my cooktop so hello to spaghetti and eggs! Not together, that would be gross.

In this pictures, the bare wood at the front is our new breakfast bar. As soon as the countertops are in, I plan to slide a bar stool up and start demanding a drink from bartender Nick. I hope he'll oblige.

Plus, this evening my parents arrive for a long weekend to do some wedding stuff. Florists, wedding coordinator and DRESSES! So excited to try on dresses! After being engaged for 9 months, you'd think I'd already been, but I really did hold off on any planning until about a month ago. This I think will be the most fun part of planning the wedding. It will be a girls-day-out on Saturday when my mom and Nick's mom come with me to some shops and we grab lunch in between. I just read in a bridal rag that wedding gowns sizes fit smaller than normal clothes. How does that make sense?! Why would dress designers want to upset their customers by making a size 6 wear a size 8? Ok, ok, I won't look at tags, but seriously!

Cabinets, Oh Cabinets...

Super excited about the cabinets! We worked through the weekend, got all the Sheetrock hung and then 6 wall cabinets. It's coming along great and I'm getting really anxious to get everything done. Once we got the two cabinets up on the right wall, we noticed how slanted the old ceiling is. We thought that maybe our level was off, but no, it's the ceiling. It's an old house so we can't be too mean to it.


The green on the walls is the Sheetrock, not paint. Haven't yet decided on the wall color but definitely something bright.


This week we'll continue with the base cabinets including a huge lazy susan corner cabinet and a breakfast bar.

Rock it, Sheetrock!

The remodel continues... On Wednesday, we went to Lowe's to get the insulation and Sheetrock. Sheetrock is heavy! Especially when the two pieces are still joined. I managed to help Nick load up 7 sheets and as we finished up, an employee came over to offer help. Funny that she showed up as we were loading the last piece. Anyway, she says to me, "You're strong! I can see that you're a do-it-all-your-own kind of girl! Even your hair looks nice." HA! So sweet and a total boost when I was feeling exhausted. :)

Ahhhh, beautiful Sheetrock...

Here are some pictures of the kitchen in its raw look. (The new look this Fall) Nick is still running all the electrical and phone lines, but since this picture, we managed to finish the far wall and put up some insulation on the long one.



Yesterday all the cabinets arrived! Wooohoo! And they look beautiful. Never thought I'd love a cabinet so much. I'll post some more pictures after this weekend of hanging cabinets. After all the DIY shows, now I finally get to see them installed in person and actually help too.

And the demo continues...

The kitchen has been coming along S-L-O-W-L-Y. We feared that we had asbestos in the walls which set us back quite a bit. We had to have it tested to be sure and then an estimate on the cost of removing it if the test came back positive. After finding out that to have a team come in and remove it would cost $2400, we were absolutely thrilled to learn that the test was negative. Talk about an added expense we didn't expect. You're seeing four levels of the wall in that picture. The first is the green, white and beige painted wall, then ugly paneling, then the yellow stuff (not quite sure what that is about), and the lathe board behind it. Our house is 60 years old and I guess that lathe is the way that walls were made back then. Must have taken so long to nail all those little boards to the studs. What's so weird is that previous owners kept adding to the walls instead of removing what was there and starting fresh. The same goes for the floor. Nick found 6 layers of floor below the tile including two different linoleum floors. Crazy!

Now I'm thinking of all the things I can do with the $2400 since it isn't going to the kitchen. New lenses, a trip to Hawaii.... Just kidding. It's not so much like found money, rather money we we didn't want to part with that we now don't have to.

I'll keep posting as changes are happening. It will be so great when we're in CONstruction instead of destruction. Those will be much more fun photos. :)

Sniffle, sniffle, cough, sneeze...

Back on the road to being healthy again. I've been sick for like... forever it seems. I got sick with a nasty cold about four weeks ago. It lasted a week and then I got better for two and then I got the same thing again. I am finally on anti-biotics as a last resort and am feeling a lot better. Nick is always pretty resilient to everything I catch, but this time he couldn't avoid it. During band practice last week, he actually lost his voice. (It's weird, but I always wanted to lose my voice when I was young. I thought it was so cool, but now, not so much.) He had a gig on Saturday so not having his voice was not an option. We took a fun trip to the doctor on Friday and he fixed us both up. While the doc talked to Nick about his music and his CD, he mentioned that Usher is a patient there. Pretty cool.

It's been an exciting week aside from all the coughs and sniffles. We finalized our plans to renovate our kitchen. It's going to be beautiful. Dark wood cabinets, stainless door handles, quartz countertops.... I have to admit though, that I am really nervous about the actual construction. I remember when my parents' kitchen was renovated back in the late 80's I think. It seemed like it took forever and cooking everything in the microwave got old really quick. Since I do a lot of cooking, working from home and all, I am not looking forward to cooking on whatever appliances we can plug into the dining room. I know it will be worth it so I am just hoping that my patience lasts longer than I anticipate, or even better, that the kitchen is completed super-fast! I'll be sure to post some before, during and after pictures.