We're Home!

Wow, what an amazing week! We got back yesterday evening to three very needy kitties that didn't let us sleep much last night.

Here are a few pics just to tide you over until I write some reviews!!

Bad Blogger

Despite the many complaints about changes to Google's Blogger, I am actually referring to myself and not to my blogging tool. This week has been hectic and we've done absolutely nothing to the kitchen. Why?? I'll give you a hint...

....

....

....



That's right, we're going to PARIS!!!! We actually leave tomorrow, arrive in Paris on Sunday and we're there for a whole week. I plan on taking LOTS of inspiration pictures to share with you all when I return.

Until then, Au Revoir!!

What a week...

It's been a long and crazy week. It started Monday when this beautiful, sweet, loving, docile girl:

Turned into some sort of evil demon



She decided that her best buddy Moshe was no longer someone she wanted to be friends with and turned into a growling hissing mess...so it's been a week of trying to figure out what happened, working on getting them in the same room together without killing each other, and sending kitties to their appropriate corner if necessary.

If THAT wasn't enough to deal with a big storm came through on Thursday and knocked out our power. So not only did we have grumpy kitties, we had grumpy kitties in a hot dark house. Awesome. Power was out for about 36 hours - darn you Pepco!!

Both of these issues have definitely impeded our kitchen process but now that we've got power, and the Indi is slowly returning to her normal sweet self we're back on the job!

AND we've gotten a few things DONE!

Finish door and windows

• Metal trim

• Mud (In progress!)

• Sand (Next!)

Cabinets

• Decide on and buy cabinet handles - Hallelujah!

Long ones for the drawers Shorter ones for the doors
(Sorry the pictures kinda stink, I never found my camera charger so I'm operating with our old 3.2 MP backup.)

Back to work!

Kitchen Goals

So like I said yesterday, our little kitchen makeover has taken a turn for the more serious renovation. About halfway through we came to the mutual realization that with all the other things that need to be done in the house it's unlikely that we'll revisit the kitchen once we're done. So the list has definitely grown - here's what we have left. It's quite a list!!

1. Finish door and windows
   
   
   • Metal trim
     
   • Mud
     
   • Sand
2. Walls
   
   
   • Finish priming gray
     
   • Paint orange
3. Cabinets
   
   
   • Paint
     
   • Buy and install handles
     
   • Buy and install hinges
     
   • Put new bottom in under sink cabinet
     
   • Install side panel beside dishwasher
     
   • Put in cork shelf liner
4. Electrical
   
   
   • Replace all old outlets and switches
     
   • Turn this junction box into the attic and patch ceiling
     
   • Maybe replace ugly light
     
   • Move outlet for microwave
     
   • Install microwave
5. Trim
   
   
   • Finish sanding window trim
     
   • Prime and paint window trim
     
   • Finish sanding pantry trim
     
   • Prime and paint pantry trim
     
   • Sand floor trim
     
   • Paint floor trim
6. Ceiling
   
   • Sand
     
   • Remove hooks
     
   • Paint
7. Counters
   
   • Remove old counters
     
   • Cut new counters
     
   • Install new counters
8. Backsplash
   
   
   • Decide on and purchase backsplash tiles
     
   • Remove old vent and patch hole
     
   • Install & grout tiles
9. Buy and install new sink
   
10. Clean grout in floor
    
11. New pantry door

Longer term projects

1. Install counters in breakfast nook
   
2. Buy/make kitchen cart for old refrigerator corner
   
3. Buy cabinet storage systems
   
4. Redo pantry shelving

WWL and A New Goal Strategy

Last night I was dreading writing this blog entry. I generally love blogging and use it as an escape from stress or a way to delay other work that I really don't want to do. So when blogging about my lovely house became a chore I needed to figure out why.

It turns out, I felt like I was letting you all down. (All like 40 of you) :) We were setting goals and then not meeting them. In truth, our plans keep changing so the goals keep changing so the whole idea of setting goals the week before (on my own I might add) was not working for us as a "team." So I'm changing it up and now we're going to make a large master goal list and I'll post as we cross an item off. The list is likely going to be daunting since our kitchen "makeover" has officially turned into an all out kitchen renovation. I'm not shocked but it has made the process exponentially more difficult, slower and it's taking much longer than expected. But I think (HOPE) it'll all be worth it in the end!

So I'll leave you with WWL and work on my master list with the hubs tonight.

We went to see Kings of Leon in concern on Saturday and actually did NO renovations that day! It was crazy! But we had so much fun. A lot of WWL definitely came from going to my first big concert in over probably...9 years?

Concert Stuff

1. Opening bands really do suck, we got there way too early.
   
2. For an outdoor venue, bring your own food and drinks and tailgate in the parking lot until the main act. 11 bucks for a beer, 14 bucks for a margarita!?
   
3. No matter how cute you want to look, don't wear a skirt to a concert. You're going to be sitting for a while and your sitting positions are much more limited in a skirt.
   
4. We will absolutely be putting a lo-jack on our teenagers when we have them.
   
5. If you sit in the front row you dictate whether your section sits or stands to watch the concert.
   Home Stuff
   
6. Communication and compromise are key to any successful renovation.
   
7. Micheal and I can do "small redo" - it just keeps getting more complicated (and expensive!)
   
8. We can agree on expensive style choices it's the inexpensive ones that we have trouble finding a middle ground on.
   
9. Lowe's has a crappy glass tile selection.

Cabinet Storage Solutions?

Talk to me about your cabinet/drawer storage solutions? When we moved in we just threw everything into the cabinets so it had a place to go. But now I want to be a little more organized so I don't have the "random crap" cabinet and have some way to keep things like chips, rice, and tupperware in order.

I'm considering investing in some of the storage solutions from IKEA to tackle those difficult to store items mentioned above.

Like this for chips:

Something like this for cereal:



But what about that pesky tupperware - how do you store it?

Send me pictures, give me ideas, what works for you? What do you need help with?

Some Changes

So we got the handles in the mail that we ordered off ebay and they weren't exactly what we were picturing. :( So we're sending them back and considering some new options.

What do you guys think of these?



A bit retro right? We're thinking of doing them both on the drawers and the cabinets. Although I might want to put them horizontally on the cabinets and Micheal wants to put them vertically.

Also...


The countertops are IN!!! I've been checking every day! We're going to pick them up tomorrow, woo hoo! It's going to make such a HUGE different to get rid of those laminate nasties, and all for the low low IKEA price of $120!

I'm getting excited...

Weekend Update & WWL 8/2/10

Seriously?! It's August?! Where did the summer go...

It's been an up and down week both personally and with home renovations. I'm a little sad looking at our goals for last week because we didn't get a single.one.done. {sigh}

• Finish painting all cabinets (it's taking 3 coats.) - Got another coat on.
  
• Finish priming kitchen walls. - Bought the extra primer needed.
  
• Buy hinges. - Nope
  
• Finish the window pass throughs with sheetrock. - Framed and rewired, not sheetrocked.

I honestly don't remember what we did on Friday (Micheal?) and Saturday we helped Micheal's friend Jeff install two new fancy bath fans. I think the job was a bit more than Micheal expected, after about 3 hours either on the roof or in the attic Micheal got a bit...silly. This endeavor took a lot of the day so we came home and knocked out a few things but nothing major. Sunday we did get a few things done:

• Rewire and move all outlets that were misplaced by the new window. Because the wiring in our house is a MESS this always takes for-eva.
  

  
  

• Almost done trimming out the windows
  
• Demo'd the old door frame to the kitchen entrance
  
• One coat of paint on the cabinet bases still in the kitchen

I'm trying to think, did we learn anything interesting?

1. Jeff's dog likes to eat paper.
   
2. Dimmer switches disperse the additional energy from the light in the form of heat that warms up the metal plates surrounding the switch.
   
3. Red wine is stronger than white wine!
   
4. Whatever life throws our way we'll take in stride and figure it out.