Before and After

Here is the dining room before we began and the kitchen now in its place. It turned out beautiful. We love it!

Jan 2012

Happy New Year!

We had our first Christmas in the newly remodeled kitchen/living room area. Throughout the holidays we continued to complete finishing work. Lots of items, Bill built the fireplace cabinets and the audio equipment cabinet. They turned out really nice and functional. The speakers, lights, and ceiling fan are in. We still have baseboard and window trim to complete. Bill also needs to tackle the skin for the fridge so it looks like the surrounding cabinets. We are pleased with the granite and butcher block counters. The floors are wonderful and we really like the 2-toned cabinets we chose. We actually began in May and can live in it now. Not too bad for doing 70% of the work ourselves. Our next project will be tearing out the old kitchen to make the dining room/office areas. We really like this small house for the 2 of us.

The kitchen is getting closer to completion.

We have been using the coffee maker every day. The fridge is making ice and drinking water and has frozen items in the freezer. The microwave is on but I haven't used it yet. The knobs are due to arrive tomorrow. Bill will skin the fridge to make it look like a cabinet. He still needs to install the range hood. The island has plywood on it so we can order the granite.

The color changes with the amount of light.

We have wall color!

Wow - the paint turned out great. We can see the end of the tunnel on all the major stuff. Now it's onto the finishing things like plug and switch plates, track lights, range hood vent, install fan and hanging lights, sconces above fireplace, TV. We are going to look at granite slabs tomorrow. I will take photos of the paint in the daylight. Too dark at night.

So close

The drywall is installed. We painted the primer last Friday night. It was exhausting and neck aching work. So we have decide to hire a painter to do the actual finish painting. Try as we might there are some things we can do and some we can't. We would rather put our time and effort into cabinets, trim and finish work.

We are hosting a Molly "going away" party on Sat. Oct. 1st. She leaves for AmeriCorps on Thurs the 6th. She'll be away until August 1012. Our guests will get to see how far we've come on the remodel and eat all of Molly's favorite foods. Sean turns 25 (quarter century) on Oct. 7th. I must of had him when I was 12, right?

The Next steps

The wiring is all finished. New back porch lights installed. Spray foam insulation for the ceiling is scheduled for Wed morning. Bats of insulation delivered on Thurs for Bill and I to install ourselves over the weekend - then the drywall. We can do the walls ourselves. Changing our mind on the ceiling. No drywall - but fir bead board slats that we can install ourselves. The more we can do and not sub out the more we save. Thank god I have a husband who takes pride in DIY, researches all the materials, and can install almost everything himself.