Getting Organized

I have been busy attempting to organize things so I have been remiss in posting. We also had a little thing called a flood around here; we were not directly affected but our commute time tripled for a week or so. More on that later.

I need to get back into the swing of things. I have actually been planning meals and cooking again, so this is a good thing. Tonight we had beef kabobs, marinated in Greek dressing from my favorite spice source (Penzey's) with an assortment of vegetables. We learned Madeleine doesn't like asparagus :)

Good news: Our entryway has been painted a nice sunny yellow. We are waiting for the trim to come in so it can get painted and put up in the hallway. All the wood has come in for our stairs so The Stair Guy (aka Jeff) was back this week.

Bad news: The people who did our counter top, who isn't going to earn any glowing recommendations from me, apparently did not seal the sink in properly. It is leaking into the cabinet under the sink. David has called them twice and someone has yet to come down and take a look at it.

Madeleine's birthday party was a success. As always, I made too much food, but that was OK since it meant I didn't have to cook for the rest of the week! My dad and Dave's parents were here for the long weekend.

We bought Madeleine a Radio Flyer tricycle for her birthday. It has a push handle in the back so I can push her around the neighborhood since she doesn't have the hang of pedaling yet. Kathy (aka Nana) bought her an Elmo helmet and elbow/knee pads, which made her happy (if you didn't know, Elmo is King around here). In theory it was a great birthday present. In reality, we get to walk 100 feet or so, she decided she wants to push the tricycle and about 10 minutes later our walk is over. So much for my nightly exercise - I think I'll need to find something else to do!

Finally home!

David came home from the hospital tonight - yeah! He'll be home from work until the staples come out and a cast gets put on his leg. Sophie was so excited to have him home she climbed up on his lap as only a 70 lb dog can. I told him that's what he gets for giving her treats all the time!

I came home hopeful that all my appliances would be in there new homes. I hit the button and watched as the garage door opened ... to reveal my dishwasher. I came through the laundry room, peeked around the corner into the office ... and there sat my refrigerator. Sigh. The cooktop is still in the box in the kitchen.

Here are some pictures with counter tops installed. I don't think the pictures do it justice as you can't see the flecks. The pictures have some spots on them - reflection of the sun maybe?

Excitement is building ...

The counter tops are being installed tomorrow - yeah!! I can't wait. I am so looking forward to being able to put everything that is stored in the office back into the kitchen where it belongs. Space is getting pretty tight in there especially since my little helper has been pulling stuff out of bags and boxes and off the bookshelves - Holp you! Holp you! It amazes me that someone so small can manage to tear through a room and cause so much destruction!

I'll give her credit where credit is due - she did find a banana in there that I knew I bought for her and then lost. Those that know me know I hate them (blech) so I am happy she found it before it was too far gone.

Back to the kitchen! Here are some shots of what it looks like now:

View from the hearth room


Replaced the big white cabinet with one that is smaller to open the area up more

While we were having the floors refinished, we decided to go ahead and get rid of the carpeting on the stairs. We had already replaced the carpeting in the hallway upstairs with hardwood floors, and Madeleine's room and one of the spare rooms also have wood floors.

Before:

A whole other story, but we are still waiting for the guys to come back and finish the stairs!

I want my kitchen back!!!!!

As some of you know, we started a kitchen remodel the first week of February. We had to repair the water damage to our hardwood floors in the kitchen from the pipes that broke last February while we were out in Denver.

Now, when we first bought the house, I am pretty sure that I made my dislike of the counter tops well known. I liked the layout of the kitchen, I loved having 2 wall ovens and I liked having a cook top. I did NOT like the tile counter tops. Here are a few of the before pictures:

The tall cabinet is going away along with the soffit


View from the hearth room


Removing the wet bar and putting in a pantry


Looks like fun to keep clean, doesn't it?


The one thing I knew that I really wanted was black granite - galaxy to be exact. Black with flecks of gold, silver and copper. Next thing I knew we were looking at new cabinets and of course new appliances, black, to replace the white. That made me happy as I would finally have a refrigerator that was useful. The refrigerator we had was a cabinet depth model and it really didn't hold anything.

Fast forward 10 weeks. My new refrigerator is in the office with the old microwave. We are still eating off of paper plates. The stash of already made meals I had in the freezer is pretty much gone. Soon it should be ready ... although I keep telling myself that! The counter tops are supposed to be installed on Tuesday, so fingers crossed!!

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

Totally gutted


With wet bar removed


All the walls are patched up