It's Done!

Wow!!! My floor is finished!! I am beyond ecstatic! It looks really great and so far, seems easy to clean. Heck, why clean it, you can't tell it's dirty! (I am kidding, ya know!)

The guys came today and finished the baseboards and transition pieces and it looks fabulous! I am sitting here waiting for them to come back and put my laundry room door back on, but then it is done. Well, we have to get the baseboards painted and touch up the walls and cupboards that have gotten dinged up. But it is pretty finished! We put in a vinyl tile and I think that it is perfect for us. It is durable, easy to clean, "softer" than ceramic tile and the color will hide dirt perfectly!

Andy worked on Gavin's room a bit this morning and they are off working on a pinewood derby car. I am hoping that we can work some more when they get back, but I am having a lazy day. Yeah, you read that right, LAZY! I have hardly done anything and I am trying to enjoy it.

I was having trouble falling asleep and Andy got me some night time Tylenol. Unfortunately, I react badly to anything that MIGHT make you sleepy. Don't get me wrong, I got a great night's sleep, but I didn't wake until 9 and have been in a fog since. In fact, after breakfast and some workbook activity time with Ella, she and I curled up together on my bed and took a nap! We ate a picnic lunch on our front lawn and I opened the mail. After the guys return to put my door on, I do have an errand to run, but after that it's dinner and game night with the family. That's it, my entire day...doing nothing. I hope that my "day off" will give me lots of energy to get things done tomorrow!

Here are pictures of the kitchen with the new floor! Coming next...the low down on Gavin's birthday celebrations!

The Kitchen...at last!

note the "country" hardware from the "before" photo

I know that you have been waiting, on the edge of your seat for this post....well, mabe only my husband has.... The kitchen is finished! O.K., finished is not really the word, because if it was FINISHED I would have NEW cabinets, a wall would have been moved, there would be new countertops, flooring and appliances. We are doing our house in a basic 77 phase plan (ha ha) and much of what we will do in the next few years is just "sprucing up" what we have. Nothing too major (read, "expensive") or disruptive.

The original plan to "spruce up" the kitchen was to paint the cabinets, replace all of the old (ugly) hardware, refinish the bar, and replace the (horrid) yellow linoleum. Andy has finished the cabinets, the bar will wait until we have time to devote to it and the floor will have to wait until after summer, when I will resume my regular hours and my regular paycheck.

The cabinets were pine and I honestly love the look of wood cabinets over painted, but the finish was very old and had yellowed badly. Not to mention the fact that the wood was a completely different color under the hardware, making it impossible to replace unless the cabinets were refinished. The yellowish cabinetry, combined with the mustard yellow walls and yellow floor were really too much and made the space look small and dingy (no matter how many 100 watt bulbs I put in there!) The hardware was just plain ugly to me, although I have since seen it used in a way that I like, it just didn't "do it" for me in our kitchen. So we plowed ahead without any real "plan" and Andy began to dissasemble the entire kitchen. The job took longer than expected and the final touches were done while I was away at my scrapbooking weekend. I think that Andy did a great job and the white cabinets (after getting used to them) look spectacular...the room is much brighter and even looks a little bigger! I might add some details to them, but for now...I am pleased! I also LOVE the hardware that we chose and plan on removing it and putting it onto our new cabinets...maybe in 5 years we will get that "dream" kitchen going on?

Here are the before...and after photos.....please ignore how much crap is plastered to the front of my refrigerator...in my "dream home" I have a playroom with a giant bulletin board for the children's art work...in my "real home" it is all on the fridge!

I forgot to take "before" shots, before Andy started to take it all apart!

Here it is! All sparkly and new!

A close up of the new hardware...I love the cool design!

The bar is next and we have an exciting plan for it... the top will be extra super cool and involves broken stained glass and the cabinets will be the same as the kitchen...part of the bar is in the family room and we don't know if we should paint it white, or the wall color of the family room. The main problem there is that the family room has not been painted yet, as you can see in the picture, it is yellowish, outdated paneling... a project for "later"! Stay tuned.....

The Kitchen

The kitchen... ah... the kitchen....

Andy has been working ALL week and it is not done! It was a big job and he did not do it in the most organized way. That is not a criticizm...hey... I am so grateful that he has been working so hard on it! I am just tired of not knowing where my forks are! Besides, I am really scared that it is going to drag on forever now that he is going back to work!

Poor guy did not get a single day off during his Spring Break to play! He got to go out to dinner and coach a baseball game today, but other than that, he has been in the kitchen! The doors need one more coat of paint each and then they all need to be hung and the handles put on. The bar did not even get started, but we hope to work on that a little bit each night next week.

Of course, it is like "When you give a mouse a cookie..." Now that we have painted the cabinets, we don't like the wall color and we are thinking that we need new cushions for the benches at the table and of course new curtains. If we do that we will need new curtains and pillows in the family room, and we want to take out the panneling and paint and of course the cushions on the window seat would need to be re-apholstered.... oh, and I really want a new desk and we found a great new couch that would look better with the room layout!

Whew... we took a step back from all of that and decided to go forward with re-doing the floor into the kitchen, laundry room and our bathroom (all connected) and then... we will see what we can do next....

I wrote that last night and today, after church Andy put another coat of paint on the cupboard doors...some need one more coat. Next we started hanging cupboard doors, only to discover that the hinges added 1/16th of an inch to each side of the door and they would not close. Andy has spent most of the day cutting out a groove in the side of the cabinet so that the doors will hang right. Unexpected problems with house projects...I sure do wish that we could pay someone to do this stuff for us, but then we would miss all of this "adventure"... yes, you do note a hint of sarcasm there.

Andy just told me that I have to take everything out of the spice cabinet that I spent 2 hours cleaning out and re-arranging last night. I told him to hang plastic and be careful not to get dust in there... that seems to be working. We did get the handles on the drawers, well, not before putting one very off center, but really - nobody will notice.... He is working away and I have been trying to pay bills and entertain our poor neglected children.

Ella is so tired that she put on her pajamas on at around 3:00 and announced that she was going to bed...I wanted to join her...she didn't of course, but I guess she cut out one job for me tonight! We are going to my in-laws house for dinner...thank goodness, because I can't cook in the mess! Maybe tomorrow I will be able to post that the kitchen is all done and put back together! I will hope.....

I apologize too, if this a massive wall of text, but I have fixed it 5 times and blogger just keeps leaving out my spaces... ugh....