What I've been up to Today

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been beat up by drunk chicks at a bar (which is slightly less severe being hit by a bus, but one step up from being stepped on by a donkey.) I attribute this to the fact that I tossed and turned all night long looking for that comfortable spot to fall asleep, only never to find it. Yeah well, six more weeks to go. I might as well get used to not sleeping.

Regardless of how I slept last night, I knew I had a lot to accomplish today. I currently have two projects going and my time is divided between two very complex things that aren't quite finished, so I dare not post any pictures of them in this unfinished state. In the meantime, I'll let you in on a little secret- we are going to do some major work on the house this weekend, which includes the kitchen!! (Someone read my blog last week about trim!)

Even though I don't have a lot to show you today, I will share with you some pictures of my kitchen before we renovated it. Some of you might remember how in need of an update this kitchen was. For some of you this might be your first introduction.

First of all you must understand that this part of our house was built in 1900. That's 40 years after the main part of the house was built and it kind-of shows. It seemed like a complete after-thought where the shape and layout were concerned, leaving a kitchen not conducive to what we would consider functional space.

After it was built,  it was updated again in the 1970s or 80s (at least I think, judging from the color scheme, umm brown and orange. What a combo!)

That being said, there were many challenges when it came time to rip out the old kitchen. First of all, there was the small matter of what do we replace it with. We were short on cash and most of the original kitchen pieces were not reusable.

Fortunately my Mother-in-law had a friend who was renovating her own kitchen and had oak cabinets that would have ended up in the dumpster. Problem solved! Free cabinets that were well-made and only needed to be painted.

However, when they got here, we had to fit the cabinet pieces together like a puzzle to make them fit into the room. That was difficult, but with a little finesse and a little bit of beer , we figured out how they would fit and I can say I'm quite pleased with the final setup. (Beer is the thinking man and woman's beverage of choice, it helps loosen up the synapses in the brain for deep thinking!) You'll see pictures of this later... not beer, the kitchen.

The next challenge we had to overcome was plumbing. No one was really sure how to move the sink to the new location. Chris took it upon himself to learn how to do simple plumbing. The man is truly amazing! He taught himself how to complete the plumbing job in the kitchen and in a weekend had the laundry room and sink hooked up to our existing plumbing. What a man!

After all that, the rest of our time was spent building, dry-walling, crying, spackling and painting. Our final step, which we have yet to accomplish, is the finishing touches of trim...beautiful trim!


That folks is were you find us this weekend. I can't wait to post real pictures of my kitchen the way it looks today. So enjoy these pictures of my kitchen the way it was. Please take note of the lovely yellow brick road floor and retro wall paper. I nearly had a seizure every time I went in there. Now go to your own kitchen and thank the Lord it doesn't look like this!

Oh, one more thing. I said that I would thank Chrissy (my little sister) in this post for being a wonderful person. Thank you Chrissy for being a wonderful person. You are the most wonderful person.