Kitchen Remodel: A long overdue update!

In the words of Bon Jovi "Woah, we're half way there, Woah, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand, we'll make it I swear, Woah, livin' on a prayer". 

Yes, we actually are half way through the remodel (and I really hope we actually stay on schedule). Last week Ben and I decided that we are very much over the remodel. It was probably one of the most difficult weeks thus far as the mud/tape guy was at our house every evening until 10pm, and our house was a complete disaster. I don't think there was one part of our floor that was not covered in dust. This remodel is really testing my ability to ignore the mess. 

This remodel is so different from anything we have ever done before because we have hired out a good portion of the work. We did this for 2 reasons, first we work all the time, and we do not have the energy to come home every night and work on the house. Secondly, if we did this remodel on our own it would take us 6 months and while I love my husband dearly I don't know if our marriage would survive a 6 month renovation. This one is already wearing on us both, we are sick of the mess, sick of doing dishes in a bath tub, sick of not having anywhere to hang out in our house except our bedroom and our "den" (a bedroom next to ours with 2 chairs and a TV) and sick of spending most weekends working on the house. All very first world problems, I do recognize this :). 

The best news is we have finally made a major milestone in the renovation....we are putting the kitchen back together. It finally feels like the end is in sight. 

Enough words already, lets cut to the good part. The pictures!!!

The sliding door to the backyard is gone!

Drywall starting to go up!

The fireplace before

The fireplace after 2 coats of primer. We still need to update the stone on the front,
change the doors and finish painting but it is a start!

The great paint color debate. I will never buy a sample color of paint again.
I am just going to pick a color, trust my gut and go for it. This confused me more than it helped! 

My dad and Ben painting the ceiling this past weekend

We picked a color and I love it. Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams

The Kitchen. I didn't paint where the cabinets are going. 

The latest development, the wood floors finished being installed today!
I forgot how nice it is to have actual floors in the house!

This past weekend my dad was an amazing force of energy and helped us paint the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway. Thank goodness for him, or we would not be nearly as far. A huge thanks also to my Mom who came over on Sunday did all kinds of random tasks for us including folding laundry which allowed us to finish the painting project. Parents are awesome! 

The floors now are getting sanded and stained over the next week and a half. Then the next challenge begins, actually assembling our cabinets from Ikea and beginning install. YAY! I am hopeful that we will have the cabinets installed by the end of April and will be able to order the countertops. We have made a ton of progress but we still have a lot to do! 

Cheers,

Ali 

Living Swiss Family Robinson Style

When I envisioned this project my big worry was how to survive without a kitchen for a few months. We are 2.5 weeks into not having a kitchen and I can say I really don't miss my old kitchen. I kind of like my "Swiss Family Robinson" kitchen (It really isn't that bad, we have running water and electricity). What do I miss? Only 2 things, my dishwasher and the kitchen sink.

Ben and I have become pros at washing dishes in the bathtub. I bought 2 deep dish tubs from Target and dish drainer and our guest bathroom upstairs has become the "Dish Room". Besides the first night, it has been no problem. The first night of dishes a pyrex container slipped out of my hands and shattered in the tub. I was more concerned for our freshly refinished tub than about the glass everywhere. We got lucky and the tub was fine, and Ben and I spent 10 minutes picking up glass from all over the bathroom. I really do miss the luxury of a dishwasher, but we only had one for our last year in Mound so we are used to washing dishes.

My cooking has changed in my mini kitchen. First, because we come home and work on the house and spending an hour on dinner is not really an option and also because I am now limited to one "burner". I have made pita pizzas, spaghetti, a few frozen skillet meals from Trader Joes but I haven't been too adventurous. Ben and I are fortunate enough to have wonderful family that have dropped off frozen meals for us as well that we can just heat in the microwave. We are very lucky!!

If you ever have to live without a kitchen, here are the key products you need to survive besides a refrigerator, microwave and toaster:

1. A hot plate,  here is the one I ordered. It works great! It would be nice to have 2 or 3 but that seems excessive for a temporary kitchen. :)

2. A toaster oven, I have an awesome one that is a convection oven. I have made brownies and scones in it and they turned out great!!

I also use my crock-pot a decent amount and I use the crock-pot liners from Reynolds and this saves a ton of clean up!!

Here are some pics of my temporary kitchen:

Toaster oven, scones baking!!

Our counter / table :) 

The new appliances on half the room. YAY for getting to use the new fridge!

I use my new oven to store pyrex and baking sheets, etc right now!

The kitchen looks mostly the same as the last time I posted, except there is no drywall or ceiling anymore. The good news is the plumber is coming out next week to move the pipe that is in the way of where the cabinets need to go. After that the carpenter needs to come and take out the door, and put in the new window and the electrician needs to work his magic. Then we need to start putting everything back together. In the meantime, Ben and I are going to install a new door to the garage, scrape the ceilings in the living room/dining room and work on picking out lights and tile for the kitchen. I have already adjusted our end date of this project to be June 1. It could be May 15 but I am trying to mentally prepare myself for June 1.

Some days I just stand in the dining room and stare at the empty, torn apart kitchen and try to imagine it. It makes my head spin to think of all of the work to be done, but I am excited for the end result. :)

Cheers!

Ali

A disaster....

If you need a laugh tonight here it is. I was in my temporary kitchen whipping up some tacos for dinner and talking on the phone to my mom. Next thing I know I hear Ben yell an expletive and I hear a sound I can't place. I yell "what is that" and Ben yells water. I look and there is water shooting out of one of the kitchen water pipes flying across the entire kitchen. I quickly tell my mom I have to go and drop my phone. First I try to stop the water with my hands, I know this will come as a shock but that didn't work. My second thought is towels, again water shooting out like a faucet across the room, not helping. Next I grab the huge garbage can in the room and turn it on its side, but the water just kept running out. Finally, I grab a garbage bag and manage to get most of the water to spray into that. After about 5 minutes (which felt like 2 hours) Ben finally found the main water shut off and the water stopped. At this point, I am dripping wet, the tacos are done cooking and the floors are dripping with water (and dripping into the basement since there are holes in the floor).

Ben comes upstairs and we look at each other and start laughing.

Turns out Ben was trying to drill a hole near the water pipe to lift the floor board over the pipe but it didn't really work when he hit the pipe. We moped up what we could with old towels, and turned on 4 fans to dry out the house. Ben is currently working on fixing the pipe so that we can turn the water back on for the house.

I just keep imagining what I must have looked like trying to stop the water and I can't stop giggling. :)

I am sure this wont be the last disaster.

Cheers!

Ali

Kitchen Remodel (Demo Edition)

One thing Ben and I discovered while we were living with my parents is that we are not good at downtime. So it is not surprising that as soon as life returned to 'normal' on Monday, I walked in the door to fine Ben tearing up the laminate flooring in the kitchen. Demolition had begun. We are now 7 days into the demo and we have worked on it everyday except Friday.

There were some fun surprises (that is sarcastic) like finding some beautiful green cobblestone linoleum in our kitchen, and a pipe in one of the soffits that now a plumber needs to re-route. While this project is a little overwhelming at times, we are hiring out parts of the work so that helps to make it a little more manageable. The most exciting thing this week was finally using our new fridge (it has been at our house since December). 

I will let the pictures of the demolition speak for themselves....

First what we started with, painted counters, a sticker back splash, tiny drawers, terrible pantries...

The flooring, only one of about 5 colors of wood in the house

I am hoping to widen this doorway

The wall to the kitchen is coming down, hello open concept!

No. Words.

Stickers!

Now for the demo pics:

The first layer of linoleum

The second (and thankfully last layer!

The first hole in the wall

Our temporary kitchen complete with hot plate, microwave oven, microwave toaster and crockpot.

Bye bye soffits!

Creeper!

After 7 days, looking into the dining room

From the dining room

We have a long way to go......

I am a girl who hates mess, so I am trying to not have a panic attack about the mess. We are close to being done with demo, it will be nice to start putting it back together. I am going to put a finish date of April 1, 2016 (might be a little optimistic!).

Cheers,
Ali