New Kitchen

I know this has been a long time coming, but we really didn't "finish" the kitchen until maybe 2-3 weeks ago.  We had family over for a birthday which was the motivation to finish painting the trim and hang things on walls.  Of course like anything, it is still evolving and will continue to change.  I have many ideas for things on walls and corners, but I'm kinda burnt out on all of it.  Besides  we have now stepped outside to see what a mess this addition has created.  We have dirt everywhere and are fixing sprinklers that were dug up.

We love the new space and wonder how we ever lived in the little kitchen.  For those of you that click on the picture to see it bigger may notice that there are fingerprints on the appliances, because we do use our fingers to open them up.  You may notice feet and shoe prints on the floors, because we quite often walk on the floors.  I guess what I am saying is that I didn't clean before I took the picture and am constantly reminding myself that we live in the space. (ok, I did put away a laundry basket so you didn't have to see our socks and undies)

 
This was such a ride.  We were under construction during Christmas which was hard and I wouldn't recommend it.  We used a small bedroom as a family room. We were able to fit our TV and a 2 seater love seat in it.  We are a family of 6 so we fought over who got to sit on the soft couch.  We had a tiny tree that we put in the corner so it would kinda feel like Christmas.  When Santa came we ended up spilling out into the hallway and down the stairs. 


This was my old kitchen.  As you can see we had already started demo when I took this picture.  The white spot on the wall was a cabinet.  A wall was put up to make a mud room off of the garage.  Where my kitchen table sat is now a music area, which frees up space in my living room now.

At this stage, cooking became hard.  You can't just plug your oven into any old outlet.  We did a lot of crock-pot cooking and microwave cooking.  The microwave was sitting on the floor by the front door.  (It was the best place for it at the time.)  Believe it or not, but we only ate out once during this time.  Every dime was needed to complete this the way we wanted to.

This was our family room.  We loved this room.  It was a good size.  We decided to make it our kitchen and then add on another family room.

A few pictures along the way.  I remember this.  I still can't believe we lived here at the same time this was all going on.

This is the room I stuffed EVERYTHING in.  The 3 totes carried basic things like plates, cups, silverware, mixing bowls.  It was so fun to hunt for everything.

 We were starting all the mill work.  When it got to this stage I could visualize the end results.

We were ready for flooring and Porter liked the idea of it being an indoor basketball court.

The cabinets started going in.  My Dad made the cabinets and I love them. 

All done!!  I have so many more pictures, but I think you get the idea.  It was a crazy winter and we survived it.  There are so many stories to tell.

- I wish I had learned Spanish in my youth.  It would have been very helpful during the sheet rock stage.
-So glad I had a neighbor that understood phone lines.  My electrician was stumped and was convinced that the whole neighborhood must be out of service. 
-Who knew Shane and I could carry a piano out of the house by ourselves without a dolly?  I wonder sometimes.
-I loved the words " That may cost a little bit more to fix, but not much"  (your much and my much are 2 different things)
-Dinner was brought in by a neighbor one day while we were right in the middle of painting.  The dinner had nothing to do with us remodeling, but had to do with me doing her a favor.  The timing could not have been more perfect.  We devoured it as if we hadn't eaten in weeks.
-Loved it when they decided to grind my concrete floor without giving me notice.  The furnace was on and it pumped concrete dust all over the house.  I still find evidence of it.