Remember back last year?

Remember back last year when I blogged about starting our kitchen/floor renovation here, then I said I'd be updating along the way.  Well, instead of updating about the kitchen I got mono and then had a baby, and unfortunately I didn't follow through with updating along the way. 

I am very happy to announce that today, almost (but not quite) one year later I finished painting the caulk and it is FINISHED! 

This post is long because its about a one year summary!

Let me start by reminding you of our beautiful before kitchen :-).  The white linoleum, teal countertops, cabinets that were falling apart, and all that wasted space (that we used as storage) above the cabinets because we need every inch we can get!

Here's a close up of our linoleum, why anyone chooses white floors I don't understand.  There was no keeping them looking good.

We (and by we I mean Joel and Jay) started by adding can lights to the kitchen during Jay and Judy's annual summer trip!

Finished!

Then the floors were delivered!  They needed to acclimate inside, so here they went before we (and by we I mean Joel and my Dad) put in the new cabinets.

 Papa came and stayed with us for about 4 days and helped me during the day (I was on the end of mono) and put cabinets together and helped Joel tear out the old kitchen and put in the new cabinets.  I'd like to state for the record the outfit Ruthie has on in this picture Lainie fits in now (Ruthie was 15 months old in this picture, Lainie is 8 months old.  Crazy) and they both look super cute in it.

Ruthie was a big helper

Tear out the old junk!

Starting to put in the new cabinets!

Oh Yeah (I love this one)

In go the lower cabinets

A reality shot of what our house looked like for about 2 months.  This really didn't bother us too much. The hardest part was not having a kitchen sink/dishwasher for almost 2 months.  My Dad had a genius idea to use paper plates and cups for our meals and that was a sanity saver.  The bathroom sink just doesn't work like a kitchen sink!

At this point we moved the wood into the guest bedroom.

Another shot keeping it real, this is the guest bedroom (the other side of the wood) where all the other stuff was stored.

Next came the countertop fiasco

Which after the third installation, we absolutely love

Next, Ruthie and I took a road trip to Gigi's while Papa came back and helped Joel put in the new floors after work (thank you!).  This is the only picture I have of the process that Papa took (which I'm impressed they took a picture)

Here's a cutie on the floors (notice the door behind her, it was just replaced too and waiting on trim)

Then, this sweet girl came a long

and we decided to enjoy the kitchen (and our kids), and the finishing details could wait

Fast forward to July and we finally decided on a backsplash from Costco and got to work.

I love love love it.  We debated between doing white grout or silver.  We did a sample board of white and totally despised it.  All we could see was the grout, and when we did the silver, the grout just blended in .

So without further ado, here is our completed kitchen!!


The floors, before and after

And the kitchen before.

And After! I absolutely love it!

A huge thank you to everyone who helped us with this project.  Mainly, Jay for all his help with the lights, Judy for all her help with Ruthie while I was sick. Papa, for the cabinets and floors, we couldn't have done it without you, Gigi for taking us in while Papa and Joel worked on the floors and Joel for doing all of it! 

This project has completely changed our house.  We have so much more cabinet space and expanded the kitchen 13 inches. It has made a huge difference.

I hope you enjoyed the walk through the kitchen renovation!

House update

I know these have been very few and far between and a lot has gone on in our house in the past month or so! I'll start with the kitchen.

As I blogged before My Dad and Joel assembled and installed the kitchen cabinets and we absolutely love them. We added about 15 inches to our kitchen and it has made it feel so much bigger without feeling like we've lost space anywhere else.

After looking at countertops (a lot), we decided to bite the bullet and get granite from Lowes. They were running a deal (which I'm sure is on a constant rotation), and it made the countertops really pretty comparable in price to formica, which made the decision much easier. I was thinking it would be double or triple the price and it wasn't, so that was a nice surprise.

They arrived to put in the countertops and I fell in love. I had no idea I loved (or cared about) granite and apparently I really like the shiny-ness.

The installers did a great jobRuthie and I stayed away for the last 30 minutes or so while they used the chemicals. Because of this, I didn't get a real close look at them.

See where this is going?

So fast forward and Joel gets home, we both talk about how much we love them and on and on.

Then he sees it.

They have a completely broken off corner (about 6 inches) that has been repaired. To their credit, they did a really nice job fixing it. The problems are, they've installed a broken countertop that is in a very vulnerable spot and will most likely break again, and two: we're only doing this once and we really want it done right.

I call the company that Lowes outsources to and they tell me they'll get the piece replaced.

Okay.

So they (a different set of installers) come back (this is about 2 weeks later, which is one week longer than they told me it would take) with the new piece to install it. I see them break the backsplash and think well maybe this is part of it and I'm not going to freak out...yet.

When they finish installing it, there was an immediate problem. They new piece was not even close to the rest of the countertops and the broken area was poorly put back together. I asked about the broken backsplash and he tells me it was already like that. I had a pretty big problem being lied to when I saw it happen with my own eyes. Let me also add that at this stage in the baby game, I've kind of lost my filter so I kind of need to think before I speak more than usual (which doesn't always happen). I knew the installers weren't the people to get into with, so I made several calls and yesterday the manager came out.

She was very nice and told me that the entire thing will have to be replaced (which is what we originally thought). I (as nice as I could) explained that it really has to be completed now and that if we have more problems the next time, I was in no uncertain terms going to completely flip out and take a different route in getting this taken care of(again, no filter). According to the countertop company, the new (third) countertops will be in by the middle of next week, so hopefully by the end of next week I'll have pictures of it finished!

I believe we're going to be very happy with it and if I weren't really, really pregnant I wouldn't be as concerned with it, but let me tell you, things here need to be done NOW. I've hit the nesting full on and I don't want a new, nursing baby, Ruthie and me around these chemicals and dust and installers in our house. I'll update on the countertops next week! Hopefully its a good update and I don't go pregnancy crazy on anyone ;-).

I'm in love

I had no idea it was possible to love a sink so much. The countertops too, but part are having to be replaced, so thats another blog.

Let me just tell you, I can stick an entire pan on the left side FLAT! Absolutely incredible. I'm so glad we went with the one big side (which I learned is called a banjo sink, who knew?). Love love love it.

Re-Diagnosis

So, I got a call from my doctor and while he told me I had pneumonia, they had to do the blood test to confirm (since I can't hop under the x-ray pregnant). When the results came in, they were wacky and he wanted to do more bloodwork to rule out some other things (what that meant I didn't know). I went to the ob today for my regular appointment, explained to them whats going on, they did the bloodwork to send over to the other doctor (to save me a trip) and its conclusive.....mono!

Shesh. I had mono in college and I didn't know you could get it two times. I do have to say, while this was rough, this time was not near as severe as when I had it in college. From what I've read it seems that it stays in your system for life and can flare up? Maybe I'm wrong, I've mainly been searching mono while pregnant to make sure our baby is okay. The doctor said since I'm feeling better thats the main thing and there isn't anything to worry about with the baby, so I hope she's right.

I'm so happy to be feeling better it really doesn't matter to me what it was. My energy still isn't what it was, but I think part of that is also being pregnant.

Things are going well around here, we're in full fledge renovation land and Joel and my Dad are knocking it out. We'll all be really excited to get everything put back together but so far it looks great.

We're also keeping a very close eye on the hurricane since its looking like its going to be a very close hit to where we live. We had planned to go on a family vacation (as three for the last time) but now we're not so sure what the right thing to do is. Watch and wait I believe!

Thats the update from here, here is a cute picture to make this blog worth it!

Making Progress!

Thanks for all your sweet comments for me. I am starting to feel like a new person and man is it nice! I can't believe I pretty much missed an entire month of everything and I'm glad to see the light at the end of this sickness!

Our reno is fully underway and I thought I'd give an update. My Dad was a lifesaver and came down last Monday and stayed with us until Thursday, helping me during the day and Joel at night. Thanks so much Papa, I can't tell you how much we appreciate it and loved having you here!!

We ordered our cabinets from a place called The RTA cabinet store (ready to assemble). It was completely online and a big risk. The fact that we could get solid wood, painted cabinets for thousands less than anywhere else we priced, made it worth the risk to us. I can't say enough good things about this company thusfar. They worked with us for weeks with a layout that fit best for our kitchen, drawings, etc. We had a few things come in dinged up and they've got replacement pieces on the way with no hassle to us. I'm really glad we went with these and this company!

They arrived on Monday. We went with a Pearl White Shaker cabinet. There were 18 boxes and that night Dad and Joel got to work assembling the cabinets. They got almost all of them assembled and finished up Tuesday night. Of course they had help :-)

They also ripped our upper cabinets out on Tuesday.

Wednesday started the installation and I LOVE IT!

They got all but two of the upper cabinets in and I can't wait to get hardware and start filling up all the shelves!! We've still got a long way to go but I'm really excited about the start (and the new can lights!!)

Our New Closet

I am in love. I can't believe how much more space we have and how much I love it! We got some new shelving from lowes and also some that our neighbors (have I mentioned how much we love our neighbors, what a blessing!) were getting rid of.

The Before


The After

I love it. Now I just need to keep it looking like that :-)! Thank you Joel once again for finding more space where we didn't think there was any. I love it!

What we woke up to at 3am

Last night, at 3:11am there was a loud crash in our bedroom closet. Since Joel and I are so alert at that time, I looked at the clock, saw it was 3:11am, asked Joel what that was, he said he didn't know and we were both promptly back asleep. Genius, right? We didn't even check. I think mainly because we knew it was in our closet, not any other room (IE-the baby's room) and whatever it was would still be there after several more hours of sleep!

Let me back up a little and tell you about our house. We have zero storage. No attic, no garage, no hall closet, no coat closet, just closets in the bedrooms (which we're thankful for). Its been a challenge to try and find a place for everything, and we seriously purged when we moved in here which was great. Since these homes were built more for vacation homes, they don't have storage. That's part of living here and its worth it to us.

Back to this morning.... we open the closet doors and we both just laughed. You don't think its overloaded do you?

I think we know what our weekend project is going to be, purge clothes and put up new shelves!!And for good measure, a picture of my girl and her twin! Happy Friday!